“Come on. Do you have my back or not?”
Jim hung his head, and Spex turned his face to Cade once more. Pleading with his eyes.
Cade knew why they’d picked Spex: he had no real friends to protect him. There would be no retaliation, only a small risk of intervention if a teacher came in. Finch was a cold, calculating bastard.
Now that Cade thought about it, it could easily have been him. They’d just spotted Spex first.
“You’re with us, or you’re with him,” Finch said, moving closer and forcing Jim to meet his gaze. Now, Finch’s face was an inch from Jim’s, and Cade saw the boy’s resolve waver.
Again, Cade glanced at the door, only to see another member of Finch’s crew standing outside. A lookout. Cade doubted they would stop him from leaving, but they’d know who’d gone for help. Cade willed himself to move, but he stayed rooted to the spot.
“Come on,” Cade urged himself under his breath. “Do it.”
There was a slap. Cade saw the imprint of Jim’s palm blazing red across Spex’s cheek, and heard glasses clatter to the ground. Then a crunch as Finch stomped down, shattering them. Jim had made his choice. And Cade his.
“Good man,” Finch said, clapping Jim on the back.
Gobbler left Spex to collapse to his knees, and the group filed out of the room, congratulating Jim.
“Oh, and Spex?” Finch called over his shoulder. “If you tell anyone about this, I will hunt you down. Blind you permanent.”
Then they were gone, their laughter receding down the corridor.
Spex cradled the broken pieces of his glasses in his hands, blood bubbling on the corner of his mouth. Cade hurried over, picking up the pieces and placing them in Spex’s hands.
“Cade?” Spex said, looking blearily up at him.
“I’m so sorry, Spex. There was a guy at the door … I couldn’t.”
“Yeah. Whatever,” Spex said, touching the side of his mouth. His lip was swollen. There was no hiding that. Serious punishments were meted out for fighting, and it would only be worse if Spex didn’t tell them who else had been involved.
“You gonna tell?” Cade whispered.
“Nah,” Spex said.
Cade hovered uncertainly. Spex wiped his chin and staggered to the nearest bunk.
“Can I … can I get you anything?”
Spex shook his head, staring at his broken glasses.
“Just leave me alone,” he whispered.
Cade opened his mouth. Closed it.
Then he went back to his bed, staring at the names scratched into the metal slats of the bunk above him. There was nothing he could have done … right?
So why did he feel so guilty?
CHAPTER
7
Place:Unknown
Date:Unknown
Year:Unknown
Heat. It was almost all Cade could think about. The red moon and its smaller pale satellite had sunk below the horizon hours ago. But a sun, white and hot as Earth’s own, had risen to replace them, turning the flat plane of white into a glaring, dry desert, and leaving the horizon shimmering with heat.
They were traveling blind, trudging endlessly in what Cade hoped was the right direction, aided only by the glimmering thing he might have seen, but what could well have been a mirage or his own desperate imagination. Their only bearings were their footprints trailing in a straight line, pointing away from the outcrop of rocks.
Stranger still was the sight of two outcrops, identical in size and shape, beside their own. Cade assumed there could be other people there, facing the exact same situation that they had.
It had been too hot to discuss investigating it. Only to acknowledge it and continue on.
“Is something out there, or am I seeing things?” Eric croaked, pointing with his uninjured arm. “The gleam?”
Cade looked up and squinted at the horizon once more. The view danced and shifted in front of his eyes, and before long, he had to close them and shade his face.
“I don’t see anything,” Cade replied, forcing each word through his parched throat.
“Maybe we should turn back?” Scott rasped. “Get one last drink in before we die. I’d prefer a Coke, but beggars can’t be choosers.”
“No,” Eric said, stumbling past Cade. “It’s there. I know it’s there.”
Cade didn’t look up. He followed Eric’s footsteps, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. It was more than likely a mirage, but there was no turning back. He’d rather die fast in the heat and have had a chance than slowly waste away in the shade.
Left. Right. Over and over, he stumbled forward, refusing to let his gaze stray to where they were headed. Not even when Scott let out a hoarse cry, and Eric turned his walk into a run. If he didn’t look, it still might be real.
But something strange happened. The crystal-white ground had suddenly ended, and now he was walking on soil. Soil and dried grass.
Left.
Right.
Then a shout of surprise from Eric. Cade finally looked up, wincing at the self-inflicted crick in his neck. And gaped.
A corpse sat on the ground, hunched over like a monk in prayer.
It was practically a skeleton, though the skin still clung to its bones. It was a desiccated mummy, preserved by the arid heat of the desert. Scraps of red cloth hung from its body in a shroud, and a metal disk dangled from its neck on a leather braid, twisting in the faint breeze. It barely shone now, for the sun was behind it, but it was the only reflective surface he could see.
Cade had never seen a dead body before, and he choked back a gasp of horror. Bile rose in his throat, but he swallowed it back with some difficulty. He didn’t want the others to see him puke his guts out.
“Who the hell is that?” Scott groaned.
“That’s a good question,” a voice called out.
Cade spun, elated to hear a new voice. The smile died on his lips before it had even begun.
Three new arrivals were toiling across the salt flats behind them, and they were the last people he wanted to see. Finch, Jim, and Gobbler.
Overheated and fatigued, Cade couldn’t think, could only watch as the boys trudged closer. Of the three, only Finch appeared injured, with blood staining his uniform. Had they survived the same trials with the vipers?
“We followed you,” Finch rasped, stopping a few feet away. “If you know what’s going on, you’d better tell us.”
Cade swallowed, trying to moisten his throat, but Finch continued before he could reply.
“Eric, Scott,” Finch said, nodding his head at Eric with a modicum of respect. He ignored Cade and Yoshi and walked over to the corpse.
“Wait—” Cade began, but Finch snatched the metal disk from the fraying leather thong and peered at it.
“Gibberish,” he growled, closing his fingers.
Cade’s curiosity almost outweighed his fear of the boy. Almost.
“Well, now that we’re all here, we’d better make a plan,” Scott said loudly. “Unless we want to end up like our new friend here.”
“We need to keep going,” Yoshi said.
“Great idea,” Finch said, clapping his hands slowly. “Think of that one all by yourself?”
Gobbler sniggered, but Yoshi didn’t seem fazed. He simply stared at them with his dark eyes.