I didn’t have time to be afraid.
The boy ahead of Alex lunged into position beneath the Queen.
Thump.
I could hear the stinger uncoil wetly. Then the conveyer belt shuddered under the impact, dust raining over me.
Squelch.
Alex was next.
I was directly beneath her. I could hear her crying above me. A drop slid off the side of the belt, tapping the ground beside me.
A tear.
The next movement of the belt would bring her into position.
Rolling onto my back, I rammed the knife up through the bottom of the belt, wedging it between two of the powerful metal rollers.
The belt went to lurch again.
The machinery groaned above me. It seemed it would just power through the blade.
But then the conveyer snapped somewhere farther back on the line, the belt rippling like a sheet of paper jammed in a printer. Heavy rubber folds fell around me.
A moment of silence as dust swirled in the air.
Then the Drone trotted off to check on the trouble, his legs vanishing from view. The seamless, bootlike feet of the Queen’s suit remained right there by my face. I could have reached out and rapped her toes with my knuckles.
I waited, holding my breath.
Finally one boot pivoted away. Her knee bent slightly.
A moment passed. Another.
Then her feet moved off, heading toward the building.
I didn’t wait long. I couldn’t. I wormed my torso out, slid my aching hips through, and crouched beside Alex.
Her green eyes, wet with tears, turned to me disbelievingly.
“Chance,” she said.
It was just my name, but it was all the payment in the world.
I didn’t answer; I just undid the plier clips from the ridges, the straps springing free. We were mostly alone out here. The other Drones patrolled the floating slabs way across the foundation, and the Hosts and Queen were inside the cannery trying to figure out what had gone wrong. More Hosts scoured the hillside, examining the bulldozer’s path, searching for whoever had loosed it. The metal slabs of the kids who’d just been implanted glided away across the vast foundation to join the others.
The slab designated for Alex hovered right off the end of the assembly line.
“Slide up onto this,” I said.
She scooted herself onto it.
When I crawled beneath the floating slab, I felt an intense energy in my joints and bones that made it hard to breathe. It wasn’t completely unpleasant, but it forced me to fight for focus. When I touched the underside of the slab, it responded easily, sliding like a puck across ice. I scuttled under the slab, using it for cover, guiding us to the edge of the foundation nearest the tree line.
For now Alex looked like another fertilized kid drifting to join the others, but soon it would be evident that we were off course. From my squashed position, I watched the legs and feet in the distance. Hosts and Drones everywhere.
And then the Queen’s slender boots exited the cannery, rounding the corner to head back to her spot.
Alex and I reached the edge of the foundation. When I rolled out from beneath the slab, the heavy pull on my joints lifted away. I grabbed Alex’s arm. “Let’s go,” I whispered, and she slid off next to me.
I tapped the slab, sending it back toward the others. It reentered the stream heading to the far side of the foundation.
I could hear the clamor of the kids inside. One girl’s keening rose above the din. I felt emotion welling up beneath my face. “I have to…” My voice cracked. “I have to go back for them.”
“Those things in armor,” Alex whispered. “There are hundreds of them. We’ve only got our fists.” She looked frail, her face white and bloodless. “I doubt we’d even make it to the kids, but I’m willing to die trying if you are.”
Her legs were trembling, and not from fear. She was spent. I’d never seen her so fragile.
I remembered the unspoken promise I’d made to Patrick. Had I come all this way just to get Alex killed in a pointless charge to the death?
I tried to drown out the chorus of cries from the cannery. Alex was looking at me, doing her best to keep her feet, waiting on an answer.
I shook my head.
No point in killing ourselves today.
We broke for the woods. A bunch of the Hosts were north of us, crawling all over the trail of wreckage from the bulldozer.
Alex moved weakly, though from fear or exhaustion, I couldn’t tell. She seemed to be favoring her left leg. We reached the massive hollow tree where I’d stashed the backpack. The inside was deep and dark, stretching back several yards. We fell to our knees before it.
That’s when I heard the crunch of a pinecone behind me.
I barely had time to turn before Sheriff Blanton lifted me off my feet.
ENTRY 37
Sheriff Blanton had me by the shoulders in a vise lock. It felt as though he might pulverize my bones, turn them to dust. I kicked and twisted uselessly. Then I slammed my head back into his face. I heard his nose break, but his grip didn’t falter.
I’d lost sight of Alex, and for an instant I thought she’d deserted me.
Then I heard a click.
Sheriff Blanton must have heard it, too, because he turned, still holding me up before him.
Alex stood in a shooting stance just outside the tree hollow. She’d crawled in and fished her dad’s revolver from the backpack. One hip was cocked, her bangs sweeping down across an eye. From my perspective it looked like she was aiming the gun right between my eyes. I could find no air to breathe. She flicked her hair from her face and steadied her aim.
“I love you, Daddy,” she said, and pulled the trigger.
I felt the heat of the bullet-it couldn’t have passed more than an inch from my cheek-and then there was a wet smack. Sheriff Blanton’s head snapped back. The lock on my shoulders released, and I tumbled to the earth.
He toppled back and lay still.
Smoke drifted up from the revolver. Alex hadn’t moved, not since pulling the trigger.
I shot a quick glance down the hill. Through the branches the compound was visible below-the tilelike slabs hovering above the foundation, the Hosts repairing the damage, the Queen waiting in position at the assembly line’s end for her duties to resume. A few Drone helmets were raised, scanning the hillside.
“Alex,” I said. “Alex. We have to go. The noise of the gunshot. Alex.”
At last she snapped into motion, sticking the revolver in her waistband. I grabbed my baling hooks. When I pulled the backpack on, she whipped her hockey stick free and twirled it expertly in her hands, the familiar little move bringing me relief I hadn’t expected and didn’t fully understand.
We ran.
I can’t tell you how long or how far, but eventually we heard no footsteps or crackling branches behind us. By the time we slowed, we were miles away, past the fork in the road and heading down the steep terrain of Ponderosa Pass.
Alex leaned against a tree and then slid to the ground, clutching her left leg. “I’m sorry. I need to rest. I was in that cage for two days…”
I went back to her and gave her some water. Breathing hard, she sipped and sipped again. Then she lowered the bottle.
“You came for me,” she said.
“I did.”
I reached into the backpack, pulled out the black cowboy hat, and put it on. It made me feel closer to my brother. I felt like it might give me some of his strength, too.
Alex studied me, the hat. “Patrick,” she said. “Is he…?”
I realized she was taken before we’d returned from the hospital. “He’s okay. We got the oxygen tanks. He’s waiting for you.”
She tilted her head to the tree trunk and pointed her face at the sky, her eyes closed. “Thank God. And thank God for you.” When she opened her eyes, the relief was gone. “Chance, they were gonna implant me. Use my body as a shell.”