In the After (26 page)

As I breathed in the humid air, I noticed how, even in the heat, it felt good to be
outside. I loved the soft prickly sensation of the grass under my feet and the quiet
in the outskirts of the town. I decided to run to the lake, knowing I would have to
push it to get back in an hour. The last time I was late for training, Kay refused
to even look at me and I spent the session on my own, trying to copy what the other
Guardians were doing. Even so, I was relieved to have a focus, to have my days filled
with purpose. I was even sleeping better, exhausted from all the physical exertion.

The ground felt cooler under my feet and I could tell I was nearing the lake. A twig
broke, making me cringe at the sound in the relative quiet. Every day I had to remind
myself that I was safe here. Vivian was right: being safe was worth living in a strange
system. I kept telling myself this too.

When I reached the lake, I paused to take in the view, the serenity. A loud noise
off to the right made me freeze, my heart jumping into my throat. Something was there;
I heard it loping in my direction.

One of Them
.

I almost panicked. It was daylight and I was completely exposed.

“Amy?”

I wheeled around and almost collapsed with relief.

“Rice.” Instantly I was back in New Hope and out of the world of the After. Rice wore
his familiar white coat and jeans and carried a duffel bag.

“What are you doing?” he asked curiously.

My heart was still pounding from the adrenaline. I took a deep breath to calm myself.
“I . . . um . . . was out for a run,” I explained. “I heard you coming this way and
. . .”

He looked at me. “Am I really that loud?” he asked.

“Yeah, you are.” I laughed shakily. “I figured you were either a freight truck or
a Florae.”

“At least I don’t snarl.” He grinned.

“Or, more important, eat human flesh,” I added, suddenly self-conscious of the way
I looked. I was drenched in sweat from my run. I wiped my face with my sleeve.

He looked me up and down. “It’s nice to see you out here. . . . Why aren’t you wearing
shoes?”

I shrugged. “It’s easier for me to run without them. Where are you headed anyway?”
I asked, pointing to his duffel bag.

“I’m going to check on a couple of sonic emitters. I usually do four or five a morning;
that way I can make the rounds in a week. . . .”

“Have they ever broken?”

“Once or twice the solar panels shorted. They’re strategically placed,” he assured
me. “If one isn’t working, then the others will compensate.”

“But what if two stop working?” I asked, unnerved at this new information. No one
else in New Hope seemed to think there was any chance the Floraes could break through
the sonic shield. They didn’t even question it.

“There’s no Floraes around for miles anyway. It’s more of a precaution.” Rice adjusted
the duffel bag, slinging it over his shoulder. “Do you want to come check them out
with me?” I glanced at my watch. I had thirty minutes before I was supposed to meet
Kay, which meant that I had to head back now.

My curiosity got the better of me, though. That and the fact that I really liked being
with Rice, liked how he made me feel understood. Alive. “Sure,” I said.

He took off walking slowly and I followed him. He kept watching me as we walked, making
me even more self-conscious.

“What? Why do you keep looking at me?” I asked finally.

“Nothing. It’s just . . .” He smiled. “You’re . . . um . . . so damned quiet. It’s
amazing.”

I smiled. “You should see Baby sneak around.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, suddenly serious.

“She’s just very stealthy,” I tried to explain as we walked. “She knows how to move
without making any noise at all. . . . You have to if you want to avoid the Floraes.”

“Did you teach her how to be quiet?”

“No, I didn’t have to teach her anything. Even as a toddler, she already understood.
Plus we’ve had years of practice. I can try to make more noise,” I offered, “if that
helps.”

“No, don’t worry about it. We’re here now anyway.” He led me into a clearing. “We
keep all the emitters out in the open so the sun can get to their solar panels,” he
explained. “They all have backup batteries that are good for forty-eight hours, and
a distress beacon in case they are somehow damaged by a storm or an animal.”

I expected it to be more imposing, but the emitter was just a two-foot-high box with
a satellite dish attached.

“The panels move to face the light,” Rice told me as he tinkered with the box panel.
“This little guy can cover a four-mile radius.”

“Impressive,” I said. “I wish I’d had one of these at my house.”

“You seem to have done okay without one.” He stood, wiping his hands.

“It would have been nice to have neighbors.” I was overcome with a great sense of
loss for all the years wasted, when I could have been in New Hope. I turned away and
put my hands over my eyes but a sob still escaped.

Then there were firm arms around me and I was sinking into Rice’s chest. “I’m sorry.”
I sniffled. “I guess I’ve been due for a breakdown since coming here.”

“It’s okay,” he told me kindly.

“How do you deal with it? You lost someone right in front of you.”

He shifted away a little but kept an arm around me. “I work . . . a lot.” He paused.
“Does running help you cope?”

“It does . . .” I lifted my head and looked into his warm eyes. “Except when I hear
you and think a Florae is after me.”

He smiled down at me. We stared at each other, and suddenly he bent his head and kissed
me softly. I was startled at first, then felt myself returning the kiss. It only lasted
a few seconds. And as he pulled away, he looked in my eyes and said, “It’s all going
to be okay, you know.” I stared at him and nodded, my legs feeling weak with nervous
excitement.

“Do you want to help me finish the rounds?” he asked, giving me a last squeeze before
breaking away and adjusting his glasses.

I looked at my watch. “Oh, I should really get back.” I was already going to be late,
but Kay would kill me if I didn’t show up at all. “But I’ll see you later?”

He nodded and I waved good-bye and hurried to the Rumble Room, where Kay was waiting.
I expected to get yelled at, but instead she just smiled coldly. I would have preferred
the yelling.

“Here.” She threw something at me and I caught it between my fingers: a black cloth,
smooth and light. “Go change, quickly. We have a lot to do today.”

I was still thinking of Rice, of his lips on mine. I looked down and held out the
material Kay had thrown at me. My heart surged. My very own synth-suit.

• • •

I lie awake as an orderly rolls a gurney into my room
.

“Ms. Harris, you need to lay down here, please.”

I stare at him, weak and slow-minded from my last shot. I raise my head slowly, trying
to prop myself up. My arms are unresponsive. The man is impatient or thinks I am being
difficult to defy him. He picks me up roughly, hefting me onto the gurney. I let him
fasten me in without complaint
.

As he pushes me out of my room, I wonder why I’m being carted around. “I can walk,”
I tell the orderly. But he doesn’t even glance down at me. I move my hands, testing
the straps at my wrists. I pull harder and Dr. Thorpe appears over my face, walking
next to my gurney
.

“Amy, don’t struggle. You’ll only hurt yourself.” She smiles reassuringly. Her gray-blond
bun has come undone into a ponytail that spills across her shoulder
.

“Why am I tied up?” I ask her, still puzzled. “I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Remember, yesterday we talked about trying out a new procedure?” She glances down
the hall, then back at me. “That’s what we’re doing now.”

I tug at the straps again, this time more forcefully. “I’ll try harder,” I tell her
.

Dr. Thorpe ignores me. “Make sure she’s secure,” she tells the orderly. “I’ll get
Dr. Reynolds and meet you downstairs.”

“Wait . . .” I yell. Dr. Thorpe disappears from view as I am wheeled down the hall
to an elevator, feeling helpless. I close my eyes tight, terrified
.

• • •

“Owwww,” I couldn’t help but yowl, even though I knew it would make Kay come at me
twice as hard.

“Toughen up,” she said. She took another swipe at me with her practice knife. This
time she got me in the ribs and I gasped as a sharp pain shot through my abdomen.

“Jeez, give the kid a break,” Gareth shouted. He was small and wiry, and we often
sparred together. I glanced up and noticed they were all watching us now. Even Rob,
who wouldn’t give me the time of day, since I wasn’t technically one of them yet.

“Like the Floraes will?” Kay called. She was right. If she had been a Florae—if one
got a claw in me—I’d be dead.

I wasn’t used to the synth-suit, the way it clung to my body and muffled my movements.
It was lightweight and skintight, which almost made me feel naked. You had to pull
it over your body like panty hose. There were pockets too, little compartments to
hold things, like a knife or a superthin compass.

Kay lunged at me. In each hand she clutched a knife, trying to simulate hand-to-hand
combat with a Florae. I heard her foot loudly make contact with the mat and I could
tell she was off balance. I parried her blow and pulled her arm forward. She fell
on her side and I placed my practice knife at her throat, tracing the line of her
neck with its rubber tip.

“You’re dead,” I told her.

“Good job, Harris,” Marcus yelled. I looked up and grinned. Marcus was one of the
military badasses; to get a compliment from him was just short of amazing. Suddenly
the world shifted and I was flat on my back, the wind knocked out of me.

“Don’t gloat,” Kay told me from where she sat on my chest. “Now,
you’re
dead.”

She stood up smoothly and offered me her hand, winking as she pulled me up. I was
improving and she had just given me the Kay equivalent of a compliment.

“Pair up,” she yelled. “Half-hour rumble before we hit the shooting range.”

I headed over to Gareth. He’s wasn’t like the Guardians who were former military;
he was more of a smart-ass than a hard-ass.

“You’re looking good out there,” he said as we began to spar. Gareth wasn’t nearly
as aggressive as Kay, though he did get a knife to my shoulder. “That synth-suit accentuates
your . . . talents.”

“You old perv!” I was trying not to blush. He was always acting flirty with me, even
though he’d told me that I wasn’t his type, being a girl and all.

“Old!” he yelled, dropping his guard and allowing me to stab him in the arm. I knew
that would get him. Although Gareth was only twenty-five, his hair was almost entirely
gray. He was living proof that the life of a Guardian is stressful.

“You’re getting really good, Amy.” He smiled, rubbing his arm. “Even Marcus and the
Elite Eight have noticed.”

I looked over to where the intense training was going on. The Elite Eight were the
military personnel who were on the Hutsen-Prime compound when the Floraes showed up.
Kay led the Guardians, but Marcus was her second in command.

“If you care what the Elite Eight think so much, maybe you should put on about twenty
pounds of muscle and try to join them,” I teased.

“Then they’d have to change their name to the Nimble Nine,” he joked. He came up next
to me and surveyed the training area. “That Jenny is as fast as a Florae,” he observed.

She
was
quick, dancing circles around her partner, Rob. She used her knives as an extension
of her arms, lunging, stinging, moving away.

“Floraes are faster,” I said, shaking my head. There was no way to fend off a Florae
without a gun or a bow. All I really knew was that the farther away they were, the
better your chance for survival. “Seriously, Gareth, do you think this will help,
if you’re actually alone with a Florae?” I asked.

“It definitely helps.” I was surprised to hear no doubt in his voice. “It’s mostly
the synth-suit that will protect you, but not panicking, being able to kill without
hesitation, that’s what will keep you alive.”

“Less talking, more fighting,” Kay yelled at us from across the room. I didn’t know
how she saw me roll my eyes, but she called out, “Amy, come here. I want to demonstrate
something.”

I looked at Gareth. “Oh, crap.”

“You’re on your own, honey,” he said, holding up his hands and backing away from me.

I made my way over to Kay, debating whether or not to pull on my synth-suit hood to
protect my face. I decided against it, hoping she would go easy on me. Bad strategy.

In three moves she had me on the floor. I tried to get up but she hit me twice in
the face. I groaned, the metallic taste of blood in my mouth.

“Next time, sunshine,” she told me, “wear your hood.”

“What happened to you?” Vivian asked, her voice heavy with concern when I arrived
twenty minutes late to class.