Aiden sucked in a breath like he wanted to speak but remained silent.
She shivered, suddenly aware how cold her wet pantswere.
Aiden finally broke the silence.“Who told you no one can survive in or beyond Zone Seven?”
Elodie shrugged.“School, I guess.But no one actuallyhadto tell me.It’s a fact.”She rolled onto her elbow.Her breath stuck in her throat as she looked down at him.He’d laid downso closeto her.She cleared her throat and attempted to wiggle away.A jagged slat caught her raincoat and held her in place.
He rolled toward her and propped himself up on his elbow, mirroring Elodie’s posture.
She stiffened and again attempted to move away.Her sleeve made a distinctive ripping noise and she stopped.How was Aiden okay with being so close to her?Maybe hewantedto be close to her.She swallowed.Her cheeks were hotagain.
His brow furrowed.“No, I get it.We’re told that Zone Seven and beyond aremonster-filledwastelands, and those notions are reinforced throughout our entire lives.”He scratched his chin.“I guess I asked the wrong question.”
“What’s therightquestion?”
“I’m notsure.”
“I have a friend, actually she’s mybest friend, who would say that you sound like one of those kooks who believes there’s actually something out there,” Elodie motioned toward the distance.“Between the cities.”
Aiden sat up and grabbed the skateboard resting near her head.“Well, what does the myth say?”He spun one of the wheels before setting the board back down and rising to hisfeet.
Elodie’s raincoat ripped a little more as she yanked her arm free.The torn piece of her jacket flapped in the breeze.“The one about NewDawn?”
Aiden nodded and stepped onto the board with one foot and pushed off with the other.Each wooden plank clicked under the skateboard as he cruised toward the pavement.“It’s rumored to be an oasis outside of Zone Seven,” he said, “that was built by some of the founding members of Eos before the Key cemented itself as theall-powerfulcorporation it is now, right?”
Elodie’s insides rattled as Aiden clicked by on his board.“If you believe a rumor Eos started.”She tucked her legs up under her and rose to herfeet.
“Even if you don’t,” Aiden dragged his foot behind him before he hopped off the board.“Isn’t it a little unbelievable that all the land between the four New American cities is some sort of apocalyptic zone?That’s thousands of acres just, what...”He flipped the skateboard up and caught it with one hand, flashing thehand-paintedscript at her.“Inexplicably decimated?”
Elodie leaned against the railing.She’d never really thought about it like that.She’d never had the chance.Astrid would have told her she was being crazy, and Rhett...Elodie chewed the inside of her cheek.Well, she wouldn’t talk about something like this with him.She didn’t need to in order to know what he would say.
TheKey orders its soldiers to torch Zone Seven, to keep a barrier between Westfall and themonster-infestedwasteland that encompasses the space between cities.Safety Precaution 101, El.
Elodie hugged her arms around her middle as Aiden stared at her expectantly.“I believe the Key.”She opened her mouth to say more but decided against it.Something was wonky at the MediCenter, but that didn’t mean the Key waslying.Elodie tightened her grip and bit at the raw spot forming on the inside of hercheek.
“Yeah,” Aiden brushed his hand along the closely cropped edges of his mohawk.“Totally.”He set the board down and pushed it toward Elodie.“Want to try to make it back without any spills?”His cheeks ticked with asmile.
Elodie stepped on the board as it clunked by.“I’m blaming that fall on my teacher.”Holding onto the railing, she maneuvered along the pier and toward the pavement.Her heartbeat picked up as she neared the end of the railing, and Aiden.She braced herself, pushed away from her crutch, and pivoted back onto the deck.Aiden whooped as she cruised by, and her heart leapt in response.She tilted her head back and watched the leaves blur past in vert clumps.She was doing it—by herself, and in thereal.
XXIII
Blair arranged the five pencils resting against the rim of the gray vase, their finely sharpened tips pointed toward the vents in the ceiling blowing out crisp, sanitized air.Each pencil was labeled with a different phrase: Chance Taker, Trend Setter, Fear Slayer, Rule Maker, Patriarchy Smasher.She’d have to find out where Maxine had found these treasures that so completely summed up Blair.
She had been flattered.So much so that she had almost been speechless upon opening thegift.
Almost.
The severe points of the pencils matched the sleek angles of her pristine office.Six months ago, mere moments after her latest promotion, when her cuff had been updated with ownership access to the office space, Blair had sent in a work order to have every piece of drab,cookie-cutterfurniture removed.She wasn’t like any of the other MediCenter employees no matter their titles, and she certainly wouldn’t work from a cloned office.Plus, her office doubled as a living space since she spent more time here than her Zone One downtownhigh-riseapartment.
It had taken Blair less than a day to choose her new furnishings, complete with black velvet chairs and a sleek silver chandelier that hung over the center of the room like the blade of a guillotine.One of her former assistants had compared her decor to a fortress—Blair had overheard him talking about it after she’d let him go.He’d stomped around melodramatically, braying about the peaks and points of the black and gray furniture Blair surrounded herself with as a metaphor for herfortress-likepersonality.But another word forfortresswasstronghold, and Blair was most definitely strong.She’d taken it as a compliment.
The door hissed open.Blair yanked her nub of a fingernail from her mouth and flattened her hands against her lap as Maxine’s kitten heelstap-tappedagainst the sleek tile and quieted when she stepped onto the plush throw rug.“I got your message,” her assistant said, “Did you want to stream the mission live or would you like to start from the beginning?”Maxine blinked expectantly at Blair, her brown eyes glistening in the sharp overhead lighting.Unlike Cath, who seemed to soften in the shadows, Blair bristled with the mere thought of being in the dark.She needed her space to be so brightly lit that it was practically onfire.
“The beginning.”Blair folded her hands across the smooth top of her uncluttered onyx desk, and expertly kicked off her shoes without moving the top half of her body.“I want to see everything as they saw it.It’s ridiculous that you even have to ask me.I should have been here, ready and waiting to stream it live, not in amind-numbingmeeting.”
The tip of Maxine’s pink nose wiggled with a sniff as her fingers fluttered over her holopad.“I agree.”
The Key’s red logo seemed to envelop the wall as it unfurled across the expansive holoscreen that hovered opposite Blair’sdesk.
