Partials

Marcus jogged forward to walk by Kira’s side. “How’s your leg?”

“Hardly worth mentioning, all things considered.” In truth it itched like mad, the aftereffects of the regen box, and it was all she could do not to roll up her pants and start gouging it with a stick. She couldn’t help but worry whether she’d overdone the treatments and ruined the tissue, but she forced herself not to think about it; there was nothing she could do out here anyway. “How are you?”

“Out on a moonlight stroll with the girl of my dreams,” he said, then added, “and Xochi, and Jayden, and an armed Partial. So pretty much my secret fantasy come true.”

“Tell us more about the—” Xochi started, but then a horse whinnied, and the group stopped abruptly.

“Now I’ve made the horses jealous,” said Marcus, but Jayden shushed him with a gesture.

“It came from over there,” he whispered, pointing to the north side of the road. “One of the farms I told you about.”

“So we’re close?”

“Not nearly, but we’re on the right track. We follow this road west until … until we smell seawater, I guess. If you’d told me we were coming out here tonight, I’d have brought a map.”

“West, then,” said Kira, “and quietly.”

They followed the winding road until it reached a new stretch of buildings, though even here the road was still heavily forested, and the buildings removed from the road. They rose empty and ominous from the trees, too far from arable land to be useful as farms, yet too close to the North Shore to be useful as anything else. Even bandits stayed away from here.

They continued in silence. A mile or so later the road crossed a major street, and the old world had commemorated the occasion with a strip mall, now cracked and crumbling. They debated heading north, but Jayden insisted they stay west for another mile at least.

“If we go north too soon we could get trapped in the middle of the farms, away from the water,” he said. “What was your plan, just go north until you ran out of land?”

“Pretty much,” said Kira. “There are boats everywhere.”

They heard a low rumble from behind them; an engine.

“They’re closer than I thought,” said Jayden, “and that engine sound means they’re using the jeeps. They must really be serious.” He paused, sucking in a breath. “They have maps and we don’t, they have the advantage. I admit that. But I promise you: If we go north now, we’ll get trapped between the soldiers and the farms. Someone is bound to find us.”

“This looks like it used to be a housing development behind the strip mall,” said Marcus. “We can weave through there and avoid most of their patrols.”

“Are you sure they’re not tracking us?” asked Samm. “They should be going slower than this if they’re stopping to search.”

“They don’t have to search for us, they know where we’re going,” said Xochi, echoing Kira’s thoughts from earlier. “They’re trying to reach the water first.”

“Then we go north,” said Samm. “We need to stay ahead of them.”

“You’re the boss,” said Jayden, but she could tell he didn’t like it. They stuck to the main road now, practically jogging to keep the right pace. The wide street was relatively clear, and they could move quickly even in the dim light. Xochi and Marcus were breathing heavily, struggling to keep up, and Kira was wincing with every other step, feeling lances of pain through her burned leg every time it hit the ground. Soon they heard more engines behind them, getting closer each minute, and the next time Kira turned, she saw lights behind them like glowing eyes.

“Get off the road,” she grunted, and the group dove into the greenery, burying themselves behind tree trunks and kudzu. Three small jeeps roared past, engines snarling like wild animals. Kira counted four or five soldiers in each one.

“They’re not even looking for us,” said Kira.

Marcus leaned out to peer back down the road. “Nothing behind them. You think it’s a coincidence?”

“They’re trying to cut us off,” said Samm. “The only good news is that them being here means we’re probably on the right path.”

“Doesn’t do us any good now,” said Jayden. “We have to go west.”

“We don’t know what’s west of here,” said Kira. “For all we know we’d be running straight into the Grid army. These could just be outriders.”

“It’s smarter to stay on the path northward,” Samm agreed. “At least this way we know what we’re getting into.”

“Okay,” said Marcus, “but we stay in the trees. Now that they’re ahead of us, they could be waiting somewhere and watching the road.”

The trees slowed them down, and they moved almost by feel through the thick woods. Several times they had to cross side streets, and every time Kira held her breath, certain they would hear a cry of alarm, or worse yet a gunshot. Nothing came. When they reached a long stretch of ruins—old shops and offices—they crossed the main road to the far side, sticking to the cover of the woods.