Chapters
-
Amie sat silently by the window, watching traffic in the city pass. She could have fled into that town, but somehow the outlook of such an attempt did not seem promising.“Motherlode” had maybe three large streets in total, with a dozen structures scattered across the cliffside. There would be no way to vanish into the crowd here. Not unless she could change the way she looked.Was stealing a body permanent? The face staring back at her from the glass wasn’t her own, but neither was the stupid bug…-
195.0 K •
-
-
They walked for hours, long enough that the ground became rockier and the trees scarcer. Amie wasn’t sure Tailslide would have been able to keep going, except that they found a road. That made their progress less direct, but the grade much more manageable.He might be an alien horse-thing, but Tailslide soon reminded her of one of her boys—unwilling to admit when he was in too much pain to continue and needed a break.Fortunately for him, she could read his emotions, and knew exactly when to stop. She…
-
195.0 K •
-
-
“I’m sorry you died here.”The words felt alien on her tongue, as strange as the horse she was looking at. Four people had died tonight, all because Albrecht wanted to capture and dissect her brother.She pushed, but the horse was so much heavier than she looked. Amie had to crawl right up next to the corpse, shoving through the mud. Deep red blood splashed up against her body, mixing freely with the chilly water.Something… happened. Amie wasn’t exactly sure what. It felt more exhausting than…
-
195.0 K •
-
-
Amie was not a coward. Indeed, she was willing to stand and fight to give her brother a chance to escape, even when that opportunity was remote and his odds of success seemed slim. There was nothing she wouldn’t do to keep her family safe, even if it meant putting her own life at risk.But it wasn’t her brother being attacked right now. Instead, strangers from the sky descended on the people who were trying to murder her at that very moment.Instead of joining the melee, Amie dropped quietly back down…
-
195.0 K •
-
-
Amie ran.She’d never been a sprinter before the Transit, or had any interest in endurance sports in general. It was the wilderness that had brought her out to Stella Lacus, not any love for running back and forth along a set course. But she spent every day out in the forest, traveling between their traps in search of game. She had months of hiking and climbing and kayaking, repeated for years in this exact camp. She knew the mountains as few others could ever hope to equal.If she were fleeing alone, she…
-
195.0 K •
-
-
“Wesley?” Amie asked, confused. They were alone in his office. Mr. Albrecht still dressed, though he was one of the few staff members to bother wearing so much. Amie herself had modified a rain-coat for the wettest days, but that was all. Within the first few days, “wearing clothes” had solidified as something the “camp” people did. Those who went out into the wild—hiking through mud and dirt and sometimes camping for a few days—wore only practical things. “I know Wes, he wouldn’t cause…
-
195.0 K •
-
-
Mr. Albrecht’s plan to keep the camp together worked for the next two weeks, more or less. Amie soon found herself part of a hunting team with many of her pioneering students, setting off into the wilderness each day in search of game. They used traps and snares mostly, baited with things that none of them were interested in eating. But she carried one of the camp’s shotguns over her shoulder, in case of larger game. But those opportunities never came.On a good day, that meant a rabbit, maybe a few…
-
195.0 K •
-
-
Amie gestured urgently for her brother to keep his head down, watching as the mysterious figures vanished down the road. She kept them hidden in the building until they were far enough away that she couldn’t hear them anymore. Only then did she take her backpack from her shoulders, dumping its snacks onto the floor at their feet. “They looked so strange,” Wes muttered. “Not like you, or like me. You think they were from another camp? Or maybe down the hill?”She ignored the question, selecting the…
-
195.0 K •
-
-
Amie should’ve known that talking to her kids would be the easy part. They were desperate for someone to give them instructions, and explain the insanity they were living in. Amie couldn’t explain what she didn’t know, but at least she could impart a sense of order and legitimacy to an otherwise out-of-control situation.By the time evening came around and she had a chance to check on her brother, she found the tent empty. Most of his stuff was still there—but that meant very little. No amount of…
-
195.0 K •
-
-
It was not a difficult process to retrieve the campers who had wandered.Amie knew the trails around Stella Lacus Adventure Camp of course, better than almost all the older counselors. She knew where frightened people wandering alone would likely flee, without needing to search for hoofprints in the mud. But without all this, she still could have completed her task.The fleeing campers hadn’t just left footprints, but also a different kind of trail, subtler and unseen. It was the same kind she had followed…
-
195.0 K •
-
- Previous 1 … 56 57 58 … 222 Next
