Page 43

“During transport. They were holding us in Ceniza for a while.” The guard patting me down crouches lower, running his hands up each leg, and the urge to kick him tugs fiercely, but I don’t. “We were to move again, but ...” I glance over at Cali, who stands with her arms outstretched as the officer pats her down. “My friend and I escaped. Jumped the truck and hid in the brush.”

“And where exactly were they headed.”

“North,” I lie.

“Where north?”

“Why would rebels tell their enemy where we were headed, Arty?”

The pat down ends and the Legion soldier grabs some handheld device that’s clipped to his side, keeping a small gap between it and my skin as he runs it over my body.

“What’s this?”

“New technology for detecting Rager bites. It finds clusters of the antibody that sets off an alarm,” Arty taps a fresh cigarette against his palm, before shoving it into his mouth. “Should see some of the shit we’ve got now. It’s all happening faster now that they’ve finished the tech building.”

Shaking my head, I allow the Legion officer to complete his search, and seemingly satisfied, he steps away from me.

“She’s clear,” he says.

“This one, too.” The second Legion officer gives Cali a small push toward me, causing her to stumble when she reaches me.

“How long you staying this time, kid?” Blowing a plume of smoke off, Arty hands me the cigarette, but I decline.

“For a while, I guess.” Telling him differently would result in suspicion I don’t need to rouse. “Life beyond the walls isn’t what it seems.”

He snorts and flicks his ash, taking another drag of his smoke. “I could’ve told you that.”

“What happened to the families camped outside the gates?”

Waving the Legion officers off, he gives a furtive glance around. “What do you want, Wren? The truth? We couldn’t trust anyone after rebels attacked the hospital. Legion is a third of its size.”

“So you killed them all.”

“Mercifully. A single shot to the head.”

There is no mercy in this world, this much I’ve learned. “Children, too?”

“Some were brought in for adoption. Ones that had low levels of antibody.”

“Zahra?”

With a dismissive wave, he shakes his head. “Hell, I don’t know their names. Barely know they’re faces.”

Because he sees them as nothing but savages. Animals, and yet, not even an animal would be slaughtered as ruthlessly.

“She’s young with curly hair and green eyes. Had five brothers.” I wonder if they spared her brothers, at all, or murdered them alongside their parents.

“Might’ve seen her. They’re mostly adopted out, living with new families. Their lives are better, Wren. What their parents would’ve wanted.”

I’ve heard that lie before, too, when I once asked the fate of my baby brother. “Their parents wanted a chance to raise them here themselves.”

“I don’t give the orders, I just follow ‘em.” He tosses his cigarette to the ground, stamping it out beneath his boot, and leans forward to pick up the butt of it. “Legion will stand guard at your Pop’s old house. Don’t make me regret letting you back in.”

I suspected they wouldn’t allow me back in without some monitoring, which will make for a challenging escape, but certainly not impossible. “You won’t regret it.” Patting Artie on the back, I step past him and jerk my head for Cali to follow.

Once out of earshot, I breathe easy, and turn to see Cali scanning the surroundings, a look of awe lighting up her eyes, where the streetlights reflect in them.

“This place … it’s as they described in Calico.” The wonderment in her voice makes me forget how strange Szolen is for those who’ve never been inside its walls.