If only I’d known the last time we did that that it was the last time we ever would.
My stomach rumbles, uncomfortably empty. I slept all day and now it’s evening. Pax kept watch just outside the cave’s entrance, since his enhanced hearing would alert him to anyone approaching before they could see him.
He said he only came into the cave once, when there were people walking nearby. They never got close to the cave entrance.
I stand and stretch, then pick up my canteen.
“I’m going to pee and get water,” I announce.
“Want me to come?” Amira asks.
“I’ll be okay. I won’t go far.”
Theron doesn’t have aromium, but the six Tiders with him do. I suspect he’s part of some other experiment that gives him superhuman strength.
We have the switch, and we’re hiding it in the cave before we leave. We debated back and forth about a plan, but decidedTheron and the Tiders will be a good test for me. I’m going to try directing my plants at certain people.
With their enhanced abilities, I’m concerned they’ll be a bigger challenge than Ingrid’s men, but Pax said they won’t. If I can channel my anger like I did yesterday, and he adds his snakes, it can be done in less than thirty seconds.
Even though the sun is past its peak for the day, it feels good to step out into the light. I breathe the fresh air in deeply.
Dried blood from the megamantis’s slash is crusted into the lower leg of my pants. I can’t take a bath, but I look forward to splashing cool water on my face.
The small waterfall around the corner is the perfect spot. I creep to it slowly, my knife in hand. Once there, I pee behind the cover of bushes and then return to the pool the waterfall pours into.
I stand there for several minutes, unmoving. I only hear the chorus of bugs, the caws of birds, and the chatter of monkeys. I don’t detect any footsteps on the ground nearby.
It’s safe. I get on my knees and bend down to the water, splashing my face. I pull my canteen strap over my head, filling it and drinking nearly the entire thing, then filling it again.
Once I’m back on my feet, I screw the cap back on the canteen and put the strap back over my shoulder. I’m about to go back toward the cave when a hand claps over my mouth and an arm bands around my waist from behind. I try to resist, but the arm is like steel—I can’t get it to move even a fraction of an inch.
I’m dragged backward into the cover of trees. I’m frantically inhaling through my nose, my adrenaline spiking.
“Don’t scream,” a deep voice rumbles into my ear. “It’s me. I call you B and you make me so insane I crack the ground open.”
My eyes widen, my heart thrashing against my rib cage. The hold of the arm around my waist loosens. When I turn, the handslides away from my mouth, but I immediately replace it with my own to keep from crying out.
It’s Marcus. My Marcus. I know not just from what he said, but from the dark, knowing gleam in his eyes.
I burst into tears, my heart singing with joy and relief. He’s himself again. He broke free and found me.
I reach up to his stubbled face, cupping it as I whisper, “How did you get away?”
His gaze darkens. “That wasn’t me back at our camp. It’s a clone.”
I struggle to draw air into my lungs as his words set in. “Aclone?”
“Yeah. They cloned some of the original twenty-six on Island Three.”
I pinch my brows together, confused. “But he’s ... your age. How?”
“They’re fucking around with accelerated and decelerated aging.”
I close my eyes, thinking of my mom. Have they violated her the same way they violated Marcus?
“They found out about the ILF guy who helped me on Island Three. They knew I wasn’t coming back here when I left.”
It’s so much to process all at once.
