“No!” I shouted, and ran. Ms. Vaughn fired her Taser and missed. I dashed past her to the truck, which was backing away fast. Iceman spun the wheel, turning the truck around. He stopped for just a moment to change from reverse to drive, and I smashed the shovel into the window, shattering the glass.
Dirt flew from his tires, and the truck tore away from me.
He was down the road and in the trees in an instant.
Becky was gone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
I heard Ms. Vaughn behind me, and I spun, swinging the heavy shovel. But she was too close, almost on top of me, and I hit her with only the handle, not the blade. Even so, it knocked us both off balance, and we each took a step back.
There was still no sign of the other guy from the fort, but I could hear at least one other four-wheeler behind me somewhere.
I held the shovel like an ax, one hand near the blade and one lower on the heavy handle.
She held the Taser in her right hand. She was smiling.
Maybe I should let them take me. Go wherever Becky was going, try to save her there.
No. Even if they didn’t kill us, they’d put the implants in our heads. We’d be back here, trapped like everyone else. I had to find another way.
I jabbed the blade at Ms. Vaughn, and she ducked back and then immediately lunged at me. I was off guard, the long shovel hard to control, but I was able to avoid the Taser.
She lunged again, but I was ready. She was watching the blade, so I brought the back end of the handle forward, right into her teeth.
Ms. Vaughn reeled, blood flowing from her mouth, but she didn’t seem to be in any real pain.
“It’s useless,” she spat. “Turn yourself in.”
I swung the shovel—the blade again—and she blocked it on her arm. The impact shook us both, but she didn’t flinch, despite the bleeding slash in her shirtsleeve.
“I’m getting her back,” I said.
“You’re going to die.”
“I’ve already killed one of your buddies.”
“There are more where he came from.”
“Doesn’t it bother you? That you’re just a duplicate?”
She laughed, cruel and evil. “Are you trying to give me some existential crisis?” The front of her shirt and neck were wet with blood.
“You’re a slave.”
“I enjoy what I do,” she said, and lunged.
I jumped back and swung the shovel at her legs. It wasn’t a great hit, but she tripped and fell down on one knee.
I didn’t wait. I thrust the blunt end of the handle at her, hitting her square in the sternum. She stumbled backward, dropping the Taser and falling.
An engine roared behind me as I brought the shovel down in a killing blow. Startled, I missed her neck and plunged the shovel into her shoulder, almost severing her arm.
I looked back. Another Ms. Vaughn was twenty feet away, climbing off her ATV. She held some kind of police baton, the long metal sticks the Society kids used for security.
I snatched up the fallen Taser, stuffing it into my jacket pocket.
“Remember me?” she said.
I backed up. The shovel was still my best weapon—a much longer reach than what she had.
The wounded Ms. Vaughn also stood, her mechanical arm dangling at her side, held on by a few cables. Even with only one arm and no weapon, she advanced toward me.
“You once held a knife to my neck,” the new one said. “You should have killed me when you got the chance.”
Every muscle in my body seemed to ache. My ribs still burned from the fight in the forest, and I knew I couldn’t hold them off much longer.
“Drop the shovel and we won’t kill you,” she said. It was hard to hear over the purr of the ATV behind her.
I did a quick count as they advanced on me. Two trucks and three four-wheelers. I’d killed one android, and one had left with Becky. Two were in front of me. One was still missing.
Becky got him.
I smiled. She’d kept the Taser with her. He probably opened that hole to the Basement and she’d blasted him in the face.
“What are you so happy about?”
I let the shovel answer for me, swinging it toward the wounded one in a feint, pulling up at the last second and then bringing it down like an ax onto the head of the new one. She dropped like a rock, her metal head split open around the heavy steel blade.
The wounded robot staggered, staring in surprise at her dead clone.
I yanked the shovel out of the destroyed android and turned to the other—the weakened, wounded one.
“You heard her make fun of me for not killing her when I had the chance?”
Four down. Three by me and one by Becky.
I didn’t know how soon backup would come, but I made my presence known. Despite searching every android for keys, I couldn’t find any for the truck, so instead I unscrewed the gas cap, stuffed in a rag soaked in lantern oil, and lit it.
I wanted to do the same to the four-wheelers, but I didn’t know how much time I had. I messed with them for a minute, but eventually decided to leave.
None of the immobilized kids were waking up, which meant more androids were on the way.
I ran.
I wasn’t ready for anything—to defend myself or to escape. I needed food, and I needed the weapons, and I needed a plan.
Just as I was passing the washroom, movement by the barn caught my eye. A deer.
I dropped, pretending to be another paralyzed student.
The deer didn’t look at me. It trotted down the road, coming in my direction, though it was scanning its head to the left and right. I tightened my grip on the handle of the shovel. But before the deer reached me, it turned between two of the dorms and disappeared.
I needed to hide. The Basement was compromised, I didn’t want to lead anyone to the tunnel, and the forest would likely be filled with deer and raccoons soon, all robot spies.
I lifted into a crouch and ran across the road toward the ruins of the commissary. The cinder block and cement had collapsed, and the steel trusses that held up the ceiling were drooping down into the debris pile. I peered between the cracks into the dark spaces. On the far side, very near to where the elevator had been, I found what I was looking for—a cave about the size of a refrigerator. I stashed my shovel in another hole, and then squeezed into the gap. It was tight, the rough cinder block scraping my arms and face as I slid inside, and there was a danger of it collapsing further and killing me. But no one could see me, and I could wait until dark.
I wondered what was happening to Becky, what horrors she was facing. Brain surgery was the best outcome. I had to force myself to stop thinking of what else could be going on.
I didn’t know what was out in the forest. There’d be more androids, certainly. More four-wheelers. Cameras, animals, sensors. I’d have to walk lightly.
No. If I went for help, then who knew what would happen to the others—to Becky. I wasn’t going to go for help. I was the help.
A full-frontal assault. It wouldn’t be subtle, but it’d be surprising.
I was going back to the school.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
I didn’t see anything the rest of the day—the crack in the rubble was too narrow, and it faced away from the road. There had been voices—the kids weren’t paralyzed anymore—mostly hushed and nervous, and all of them too quiet to really understand. When darkness came and it felt late enough, I emerged from the hole and crept across the field to the barn.