Page 29
And I killed him.
Please come back for me.
I stop walking. “I didn’t...” My voice breaks in the empty forest. “I didn’t mean to.”
Breathe, JaJa.
“I’m trying.”
The last morning in the ward, Onyx was propped against the pillows, his hospital shirt hanging loosely over his shoulders. His hands disappeared beneath the blanket as he pulled it higher. The machines kept counting things I couldn’t change.
His hand barely weighed anything in mine.
We’ve never been apart. Not one morning. Not since our mother left us on the shelter steps.
Out here is the first place I’ve ever been one person.
And Light, it’s hard.
I keep walking, and the day wears down across ridgelines and in rain. The detour costs me the morning. Running through the gully to escape them costs me the afternoon. By the time the river gorge opens below, the second checkpoint beacon is already glowing in the evening.
The camp burns bright beyond the ropes, with fires crackling beneath cooking pots, soup steaming into the cooling air, dry clothes hanging close to the flames, and two hundred people who made it before nightfall.
Rain runs off my hood and down the back of my neck, and my clothes are soaked through by the time I reach the ropes.
Three of us reach the scanner almost together, panting and slipping in the mud as we fight our way toward it.
The Adjudicator looks between us, then smiles. “That’s too bad. I only have one place left.”
“Come on, please,” the woman beside me says. “We’ve been out there all day.”
“We’re soaked,” the man says. “Just let us in.”
The Adjudicator chuckles. “Soaking wet is the least of your concerns.” He looks between them. “But all right. I’m in a generous mood. You two.”
The woman stares at him. “What?”
“Fight for it.”
Neither of them moves.
He draws his pistol. “Winner gets the checkpoint. Loser gets a bullet. If neither of you starts before I count to five, I shoot you both.”
“Please—”
“One.”
The man hits her.
She goes down into the mud, catching his ankle and dragging him with her. They roll beside the scanner, punching and kicking as the Adjudicator watches.
“Two days in, and you’re already tired?” he calls. “Come on. You wanted a place badly enough to run all this way.”
The woman gets on top. The man throws her off, and his elbow catches her mouth hard enough to split it.
The Adjudicator laughs. “Better.”
I can only watch as the man gets his hands around her throat. She reaches blindly through the mud, finds a stone, and brings it against the side of his head.
