The Lying Planet Page 24

  I grab the lidded bucket Blake is handing up from the boat. “We have a war planned instead. We’re going to try to kill the aliens while they sleep. We’ll attack at thirteen o’clock midnight, all at once in all three zones.”

  Peyton tilts her head to one side. “Refuge and Fort Hope, too?”

  “Yeah,” Blake says, removing bags of wheat berries and some frozen packages from Peyton’s pack. The frozen ones I assume are hunks of beef. Kenna sniffs the packages, her tail wagging. “Today, Daniel and two guys from Refuge are driving to those zones to spread the word about the aliens and the attack. They’ll coordinate things with their friends once we decide on a date with you and let them know.” He taps his wristcomm.

  “And…we’re dealing with the aliens how?” Peyton asks.

  “Believe it or not, we can kill them with something thick, like shampoo,” I say. “A blob of it poured over the breathing vent on their throats will smother them. If anyone has a doubt whether we’re right about the aliens, they can just think about it as putting shampoo on their parents’ necks. So if we’re wrong and they’re caught, they can say it was a zone-wide prank and only risk getting sentenced to extra chores for joining in.”

  Peyton nods, refilling her pack with sweetener, yeast, and a bunch of small tools and work gloves. “Smart. Everyone has shampoo. It’s a weapon that doesn’t look like a weapon.”

  “Right. Make sure every unit has one assigned fighter. Tell reliable kids fourteen or older. For kids too scared to do it, they can leave a window open for someone else to come in. Or take their pill if they don’t want to be awake. Anyone under fourteen takes a pill and sleeps this battle out.”

  My muscles turn weak despite my sensible words. I know Rachel and Tammi should be safe if they’re asleep, but my nerves aren’t cooperating with what my brain knows.

  “There are over eight hundred adults,” Peyton says. “Will there be enough fighters?”

  “We’ve done the math,” Blake says. “With kids fourteen and up, we’ll have over five hundred fighters in Sanctuary. One fighter can smother both their alien parents at the stroke of thirteen—except for the kids who have a night-duty guard for a parent.”

  “What if the aliens wake up or the kids miss the spot on their parents’ necks?” Peyton asks.

  I don’t like thinking about that. “If they miss, they try again. Fast. The area on the aliens’ throats is small and easy to cover, and the aliens die super fast. The most dangerous part will be if the beasts wake up before the kids have a chance to attack.”

  “The guards are an even worse risk,” Blake says. “They’ll be awake at night. If word of our attack gets sent through their telepathic system, they’ll swarm the dwelling compounds. I think there are about fifty of them.”

  Peyton’s face is grim. “I have those laser pistols from Mr. Redmond. I’ll recruit the toughest kids to help with the guards. If we can tranq or kill some, we can swipe their weapons.”

  I’m sure my nod makes me look more confident than I feel. Last night at Daniel’s we hashed over most of these same points before deciding that this strategy—though dangerous and full of potential holes—is our best bet. There will be human casualties we can’t avoid. I hate that, but the humans in all three safe zones will die if we don’t do something.

  I pick up Peyton’s pack. We return to the clearing while Kenna trots around carefree, unaware of our hazardous plans.

  “So when is this invasion scheduled?” Peyton asks. “Our Machine is supposed to be fixed a week from Saturday. Luckily, Farrow decided to have the girls from your ceremony be a part of that Testing instead of shipping them to Refuge to use their Machine. I almost brought the girls and Aubrie with me today, but it’s gonna be hard to get six of us through that tunnel, and I wanted to see what was going on first.”

  A prickly chill runs down my spine. “No, don’t try escaping. We need the tunnel for the invasion, not tighter security. Let’s aim for Wednesday night of next week, if that gives you and Harrel enough time to prepare.”

  “Ten days…it should be. The news about the aliens is spreading like crazy. Sean and Konrad and a couple of girls skipped their pills and verified our story, and Harrel’s showing your imprintus around so much that it’s really blurry and faded. Most kids at the Nebula know now. It freaks them out, but it makes sense, since you obviously wanted to get banished with the way you were hacking at the Machine. Everyone wants to know what we’re going to do about it. We can start spreading the attack details at dinner tonight… I just hope no one slips up and lets an adult hear something.”

  “We need an emergency retreat plan,” I say. “Leave a mark on that nut tree by the tunnel if something goes wrong, okay?”

  “I’ll use a strip of reflective cloth, tied up high. That way you can see it from the hill without having to go through the tunnel.”

  “Brilliant.” Man, she’s smart. Her mind is as beautiful on the inside as she looks on the outside.

  Blake’s expression turns severe as he frowns. “Tell Konrad to let me deal with our parents. I’m paying back dear old Dad for taking a flamer to me. Konrad can deal with the guards or help someone who wants to sleep instead of fight.”

  “I’ll tell him,” Peyton says.

  I help her with her pack, adjusting the straps. Murderous as they are, it’s too bad we can’t take over the zones without mass killing the aliens. We could round them up and put them in detention cells instead, but there are too many of them. A few might escape. They might even convince their human children that we’re delusional—that the alien bodies have nothing to do with them—and get someone to set them free.

  Peyton gives me a hesitant smile after I finish with her pack, then flings her arms around me in a firm hug. It sends shockwaves down my spine. Before I can get my arms to react and hug her back, she’s gone, dashing over to hug Blake.

  “I’m heading out to ready the troops. Be extra careful, you guys.” Her voice is husky.

  “You, too,” Blake says.

  I mumble an echoed response as she sets off toward the trail. For once, the shirt and pants of her uniform match, probably to blend into the woods better. The last visible signs of her disappear into the shade of the woods. A sinking feeling plunges through me. Kenna trots after Peyton, stops, and looks back at me with her head cocked.

  “Come on, girl,” I call, the words heavy in my mouth. I trudge after Blake to the boat. This is it. Our war plans are set in motion. Peyton is going back to Sanctuary.

  Nothing will stop that now.

  Man, I hope she’ll be okay during this battle.

  Images flood my mind as I cross the dock and step into the boat with Kenna. I see Peyton sitting close to me in the cattle compound’s hay barn. Leaning toward me, her large eyes expectant. I see her brave expression when she announced she wouldn’t take her protection pill…her teary face as she wept for her sister and Nash. Her tipsy glee as she rolled on the ground in the gardens. The trembling shape of her lean body as I held her in the woods after we carried Mr. Redmond’s alien husk there.

  If she dies during this attack—if I die—

  “Hang on,” I tell Blake. “I’ll be right back.”

  I climb onto the dock, ignoring his impatient grunt. I tear across the clearing and sprint down the trail. A bird in the underbrush squawks and takes to the sky. The path curves. I run fast, ignoring my leg wound as the skin pulls and stings. Peyton appears ahead of me, the short tail of her braid bobbing at her neck.

  “Peyton!” I call.

  She spins around, her eyebrows quirking upward. “Forget something?”

  “Yeah.” I run up to her and then stop, breathless even though I haven’t run that far. I study her face like I’m trying to memorize the dark lashes, the stubborn chin, the clever mouth. The not-quite-straight teeth inside that mouth. She’s courageous and smart, one tough girl.

  How could I have ever thought Aubrie was more fitting for me? The thought dazes me, throws me off balance.

/>   “Well?” she says with a small laugh.

  “I just wanted to say—I mean, I couldn’t let you go into this war without telling you—” I pause as she waits for me to spit it out. Scorch it all. I’m messing this up, making it worse.

  A rush of emotion flares across my chest and down my limbs. My arms shoot out on their own power, one arm scooping her waist below her pack, the other sliding around her shoulders. I pull her close. Her arms twine around me in a split instant. Our mouths meet in a tremendous, surging kiss.

  I melt at the core from the inside out. Internal fuses blow. Do I have a body? I’m not sure, but I must, since I’m aware of every muscle and nerve ending and pore—especially the ones pressed up against her slender figure.

  I close my eyes as the kiss ends.

  She gives a lilting laugh. “Is that what you wanted to tell me?”

  I smile and speak into her hair. “Sort of. Uh…I also wanted to say that you were right. I thought Aubrie was the one for me, and I’m sorry I didn’t think about what I was doing to you. You and I were always good friends… It could’ve turned out different after the Harvest Equinox party, but I left you hanging because I thought Xavier was flirting with you. I should’ve asked you to make sure.”

  Peyton presses a light kiss onto my jaw. “Yeah. I never really got over it, wondering if we could’ve been something more. I guess it’s hard for me to let go of things.”

  “Why didn’t you come see me after my ceremony?” I say into the curve of her ear.

  “You didn’t have much time and I wanted to let Aubrie say good-bye. I owed you both that, after nudging her to break up with you.”

  I sigh. “Yeah. Well, we both gotta get going, but I wanted to tell you I chose wrong. You should’ve been my first choice. Not Aubrie.”

  She meets my eyes. “You were always my first choice, Jay.”

  I kiss her again, pull the tranq pistol from my belt, and curl the fingers of her hand around the grip. I pull a box of darts from my pocket and tuck it into her pack’s side pocket. “Take these. We have plenty. You or someone else might need them.”

  “Thanks.” Her voice is damp with emotion.

  “I’ll see you after this war is over,” I say with conviction, as though somehow if I say it firmly enough, it’ll happen.

  “Yes, you will.”

  We clasp and squeeze hands. I share one last gaze with her before I jog back down the trail.

  As I run, my brain feels awesomely disconnected. I know there’s danger in the near future, but I’m not thinking about that right now. There’s something warm and cosmic expanding under my ribs. When I reach the dock, I vault into the boat and give Kenna’s head and ears a vigorous ruffling. She licks my other hand.

  Blake sits near the stern, smirking. “Had to do one last thing?”

  “Uh, right. I ran back to give Peyton my tranq pistol and some darts.”

  With a laugh, Blake reaches to engage the solar cells for the motor. “You look awfully glazed and delirious just for that, Lawton.”

  “Shut it, Zemik. What do you know?” I say, and turn to hide my smile.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  On Wednesday night the following week, the haze of smoke from Marnica’s cigarette floats into the air and swirls as the boat whirs downriver. The lit end glows in her hand, suspended in the darkness. Its tarry smell assaults my nose. My head is tight. Above the four of us, two white slices of moon hang like fingernail clippings in the sky… Waning moons over Sanctuary. Not loads of light, but better than nothing. Luckily, Marnica has traveled this river for a year and can navigate it well.

  My fingertips brush the bottle of shampoo in my sweatshirt pocket, and I try to remember to keep breathing. It’s time for this war, and we’re as ready as we’ll ever be. We’ve left the dogs behind. We have weapons and lud-lights loaded with fresh cells. Our forehead brands are covered with concealing paste. Daniel took the other flamer to join forces with the older kids in Fort Hope, and Jeff and Vic are heading up the Refuge attack.

  Here I am, teamed with Shelly, Blake, and Marnica. I wouldn’t have thought that remotely possible a few weeks ago.

  By this time, Rachel and Tammi have taken their protection pills. They’ll be sleeping in peaceful ignorance when I arrive. I hate to launch this battle, but it’s the right thing. I’ll do it for my sisters, as well as for other kids in Sanctuary. A knot forms inside me. The morning Chad left in Lieutenant Boggs’s UHV six years ago, I was twelve. Rachel was six. I remember the emptiness. The tears. Dad carted Chad’s bed from my room and stashed it in the storage outbuilding. Rachel and I huddled on the couch under a fuzzy blanket, not speaking, but I was glad for her company. The next week, Commander Farrow’s wife came by with a dark-haired baby girl.

  Tammi.

  Her tiny hand clamped around my index finger and bonded her to me for life.

  Hundreds of babies and children and friends my age will lose their parents tonight. It’ll be hard for the younger kids to understand why their mothers and fathers aren’t there anymore. I wish we had a better explanation than telling them their parents were really bloodthirsty aliens.

  Next to Marnica, Blake points to the shore. “There’s the rendezvous tree.”

  “I see it.” Annoyance weighs her words. She slows the boat and angles toward the blurry outline of the dock.

  “Put that nasty cigarette out,” Blake says. “Or they’ll smell us a kilometer away.”

  “Don’t tell me what to do,” Marnica growls. “I still have half of it left.”

  Blake snatches it from her hand and flings it into the water. It lands with a wet sizzle.

  “You heaping pile of—”

  Blake scoots away and secures the boat to the dock. As Marnica’s swear words ravage the air, Shelly cackles and climbs out.

  At least someone is amused. We need to get into Sanctuary and split up before Blake and Marnica shred each other. I check the lud-powered wristcomm Daniel gave me. 11:25. On schedule so far for our 13:00 midnight strike. Blake estimated a half-hour hike through the woods, followed by a bit of time to get through the tunnel, and another twenty to forty minutes to trek to our units, depending on which dwelling compound we live in. To reach my northern unit in stealth, the full forty minutes.

  We switch on our lud-lights as we enter the woods, since the splinters of moonlight don’t do much to penetrate the black mass of leaves and branches above our heads. Marnica leads the way. We stride without talking, stepping lightly on the path. Night creatures rustle in the underbrush. A darkwing warbles. I bring up the rear behind Shelly.

  Both Shelly and Blake will face an extra challenge tonight. It’s been more than three weeks since they graduated, which means new babies are living at their units. The babies will be on four-hour feeding schedules starting at 1:00 a.m., but if their mothers happen to be awake and tending to them an hour earlier at 13:00, it’ll mean an added danger.

  Marnica shouldn’t have a problem. Her replacement is a year old, already drugged and sleeping through the night in a crib.

  When the trail ends, Marnica motions for Blake to lead the way to the tunnel.

  “Lights off,” she says.

  Our lights wink out. In another minute, we reach the massive tangle of redberry briars and sneak along its length. We approach the hill and climb with caution. At the top, we flatten to our bellies and peer toward the perimeter fence. A dim section of it is visible in the distance.

  It’s pretty dark, but I don’t see anything fluttering from the nut tree branches beyond the fence. “No cloth. We’re good to go.”

  “Get ready,” Blake says. “Remember to hide behind the greshfruit tree first.”

  “Wait until it’s clear.” Marnica points at a guard marching along the fence.

  “Duh.” Blake blows out a forceful exhale.

  Minutes drag by. The guard finally disappears from sight.

  “Now!” Blake says, and takes off. I sprint down the hill with Shelly and Marnica. We reach the tr
ee, check our bearings, and race for the fence. Blake fumbles on the ground for a few seconds before finding the trapdoor. He drops into the tunnel and disappears. I hold my breath while Shelly and Marnica enter. At any moment, a laser pulse could sear my spine in half. I scan again for guards. I don’t dare breathe until I’m inside and the trapdoor flops over me.

  The musty space almost smothers me, like dirt shoved into my nostrils. I can’t see a thing. I stretch out my hands to find the tunnel borders and bump Marnica’s boots. Blake and Shelly exit ahead of us. After Marnica climbs out, I lift the trapdoor and squint into the clearance alley, but I can’t make out much in the faint moonlight. It seems to be clear.

  I wriggle out. I’m barely to my feet when a shadowy figure comes striding toward me along the fence edge. The long shadow of a rifle spears the air.

  An inner guard. About fifteen meters away.

  He spots me, but I whisk the flamer from my waist and fire. The gun whines. The guard has no time to cry out as his throat and upper chest flare. A second later his body falls. Fire engulfs his shoulders and head.

  He turns crustacean as his camouflage fails. I dash over and roll his body to extinguish the flames while smoke and the stench of sulfur rise up. Muttering a string of swear words, Marnica runs over to help. Blake and Shelly, already at the street, pause under the shadow of trees to look back at us. Marnica drags the smoldering body across the ground by two of its upper legs.

  “Open the tunnel,” she whispers.

  I lift the hatch, and we tumble him into the hole. Marnica kicks down the last spiny leg. We both flinch as a click penetrates the night. It sounds like a door latch opening. Someone in one of the units bordering the alley must’ve heard us. Marnica and I flee to the cover of a fence, reaching it right as a back yard lud-light snaps into harsh brightness.

  “Is someone there?” a woman’s voice calls.

  Disturbed, even the fiddlewings remain silent. A moth flutters in front of my face. Marnica stands rigid beside me. Foul wisps of sulfurous smoke hang low by the fence, and I hope the smell doesn’t drift over to the woman’s back door.