“What is this gas, and how did you find us?” Jessie demanded.
“We don’t know exactly what this gas is made of,” Anna said. “But it’s a new method they’ve developed to disable victims, making it much easier to pull offtheir plundering excursions. We also know that it’s highly toxic. It rots wood and, given enough time, pretty much everything.”
My stomach clenched tighter as I tried to slow my breathing.
“As for how we found you,” she continued. “We’ve had our eye on this group for a while because they’ve targeted more than a couple of settlements bordering these jungles. About two weeks ago, we discovered they’d finally decided to comeintothe jungle. We were on hurricane relief duty, further up north, when our trackers detected them. They’ve targeted two colonies since that we know about. The second was just a couple of days ago.”
“Zina,” I blurted.
Anna frowned. “I’m sorry?”
“Zina is my daughter,” my uncle cut in from across the clearing. “She lives in the closest colony to our north.”
“Ah.” Anna’s thin lips curved into a sad smile. “Well, we didn’t arrive in time to stop the plundering, I’m afraid, but we did manage to give aid to those we could… I don’t know if Zina was among them. We thought the Falcons had left the area after that second target, until we realized they’d just moved further south?—”
“Where are they—those you managed to help?” my uncle demanded.
“Back at our facility,” Anna replied, folding her arms over her broad chest. “They needed urgent medical assistance and, well, they’d essentially been made homeless. All their food had been plundered, and as I said, this gas does something nasty to the whole environment. I mean, the gas in this area is already spreading out like wildfire?—”
As if on cue, my knees gave way, and I collapsed onto the platform floor. My mask rolled completely off my head and I gasped for air, white spots dancing before my eyes.The nausea was finally taking over, and I didn’t know how much longer I could hold out down here. But what worried me more was my parents, who were still stuck on the branches beneath us—as well as my little sister, and the rest of my family and friends taking shelter in the community hall. If the gas was spreading out as quickly as Anna was reporting, then surely it would have reached them by now…
“My parents,” I managed. “Bea and the others.”
“Will you help us too, then?” I heard my uncle ask desperately, voicing my thoughts much more articulately than I could. “Will you take us to your facility? From what you’ve said, we’ll die if we stay in this stuff!” He sounded much closer than before, and two pairs of firm hands gripped me and pulled me upright. “We have injured people down here, as well as a large building nearby that’s packed with women and children.”
“How many are you?” Anna asked.
“Five-hundred-and-twenty-four, by our last count,” my uncle said.
“Ah. I feared as much,” Anna murmured, exchanging a glance with her two colleagues. “While we do our best to accommodate the needy, we do have limited space back at our base. That said, I speak for all my team when I say we’ll do what we can to squeeze you in. We won’t be able to fit you all in one aircraft, though. We’ll need to send at least two more here as backup, which takes time?—”
“Please, just do whatever you can,” my uncle said. “Call the backup now. Get everyone out of here as quickly as possible. Transport us in short shifts, if you must, please. You could take the weakest to a safe area nearby and leave them there while you fetch the rest of us. Whatever’ll get us out of this gas quickest!”
“Understood,” Anna replied, and then my sense of hearingseemed to give up on me. I could barely make out anything she or anyone else said, except for the odd random string of words.
It occurred to me just as I slipped further into subconsciousness that none of us had thought to ask for any details about where this organization’s base was, or what FI stood for, before we begged them to take us. But I supposed those would’ve been stupid questions. We were suffocating, and wherever they took us had to be better than here.
Arms cradled me against a hard chest and I felt myself being carried. The deep sound of whirring grew louder, closer. A moment later, I felt a warm hand graze my cheek.
“You rest now, hon,” the familiar female voice said soothingly. “We’ll get your parents. We’ll get you all…”
Her last words echoed in my ears as my eyes clouded over and, although I sensed myself being carried into clearer air, my body had been through too much already. I could no longer fight. The darkness swallowed me whole.
SIX
I wokeup to the feel of soft bedding beneath me and something smooth and warm pressed against my cheek. I pried my leaden eyelids open and realized my little sister leaned on me. She had fallen asleep with her head against mine. We lay on some kind of narrow bunk, closed off by a wide, navy-blue curtain.
I shifted on the bed, trying to be gentle so as to not wake Bea. When I sat up, I became aware of the raging ache in my head. I exhaled and lay back down, clutching my forehead and applying pressure to my temples.
I frowned at the low humming that seemed all pervasive. For a long moment, my mind was completely blank as to what had happened and how I was lying here. Then it all came racing back, in one overwhelming stream of chaos.
We had left the jungle, our home, and now we had to be on a hover ship. The thought gave rise to another slew of questions whose answers I desperately needed. I tried to sit up again, and although the headache was still there, this time I steeled myself against it and swung my legsoff the bed.
When my hand parted the curtain and I slowly stood up, I found myself in a narrow aisle with curtained bunks all around me.
Now that I knew my sister was safe, I needed to find my parents.
My first guess was the bunk above mine, but when I drew back the curtain, it contained my uncle. I tried the top bunk opposite me, but it held my aunt, and the one below was occupied by Jessie. I was relieved to see they were all safe, but it didn’t do much to relieve the burning worry for my parents. They had looked so mangled caught up in those branches. I prayed those people had managed to get them to safety in time.
