Rebel (12 page)

“The trip to Austin,” I said, trying to sound casual. “Micah will take a few people with him?”

“Yeah. I’ll go. Probably Jules as well. Why? Do you want to go?” He snorted. “I’m not sure that will go over so well with Micah, but I could ask.”

I hesitated. It would look suspicious if I asked to tag along. Micah would be watching my every move. The best option for warning Tony was probably slipping him a note, since conversation would be difficult with Micah around, but that would be impossible if I couldn’t even get near him.

“Pass,” I said, making a face as an idea occurred to me. “I just came from Austin, and given the state the shuttles are in, you guys are going to get stuck and have to walk a few hundred miles.”

“It’ll be fine,” Riley said. “We’ve fixed shuttles before.”

“You should ask Callum if he’ll come along,” I said. “He is great with machinery. And he could teach you guys how to use the navigation systems.”

Riley cocked his head, studying me. “Callum.”

“Micah seemed impressed with his work on the shuttles.” I shrugged. “Just a suggestion.”

“I could take one of the Reboots who’ve been here for a while. We’ve had several people work on shuttles.” His eyes bore into mine, like he was daring me to tell him the real reason I wanted Callum to go.

“You could.” I didn’t trust Riley with that information. Warning humans about a Reboot attack basically made us traitors, and he might take Micah’s side in that situation.

His lips twitched. “Say ‘please, Riley.’”

I tried to glare at him without smiling. “Please stop being a pain in the ass, Riley.”

He chuckled. “I’ll see what Micah says. You do realize I know you’re up to something, right?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“I feel hurt you don’t trust me.”

I punched his shoulder as I passed him. “Payback’s a bitch.”

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“DUDE, YOU’RE INSANE.”

I grunted as I pushed the round piece of wood into the ground to make the last side of the tent and straightened to face Isaac. I squinted in the setting sun, watching as the Reboots in the distance transported water to the food tent. We were in the corner of the reservation, far enough away so that no one could overhear our conversation, but I still spoke quietly.

“Why am I insane?” I asked. I pushed back a brief moment of panic as the image of the human I killed slid into my vision. Isaac hadn’t meant “insane” in that way.

“They imprisoned you!” Isaac gave me a baffled look, a rope dangling from his fingers. He’d stopped working on the
tent and was just staring at me.

Addie cocked an eyebrow at me as she hammered a post into the ground on the other side of the tent. I’d suggested we start feeling out the reservation Reboots, seeing if they all wanted to kill the humans. My idea to partner with them to fight off Micah didn’t seem to be going over so well with Isaac, my first test subject.

“And they tried to kill you!” he continued, stepping closer to me and lowering his voice. “And they would have killed you for sure when you reached twenty. And you want to go in and save them now?”

“HARC did that. I can’t blame all the humans for what they did.” I cocked my head. “Do you know why HARC does that? Kills Reboots at twenty?”

“It’s supposedly a population-control thing. They don’t need that many Reboots. Also they apparently found that nineteen or twenty was the age they started getting restless in the facilities. Doing crazy things like thinking for themselves.”

“The horror.”

“And yet you want to go back!” Isaac said with a laugh before casting around a furtive glance. “Maybe I shouldn’t say that so loud. You probably don’t want word of that plan getting out.”

“You seriously want to kill all the humans in the cities?” Addie whispered, her hands on her hips as she walked closer to us.

He squished up his face. “Well, not particularly. But I don’t really have a choice. My money’s on Micah in that battle, and I don’t really want to be the one who deserted. Kind of seems like a bad choice, long-term.”

“But if we got together enough Reboots to help the humans—if we saved the Reboots in the facilities and convinced them to join us—Micah wouldn’t stand a chance. He’d be way outnumbered,” I said.

Isaac shook his head, tossing the rope he was holding to Addie. “Listen, I know you guys are new, but that kind of talk is going to get you strung up.”

“Strung up?” Addie repeated, horrified.

“Yeah. I’m lucky I didn’t get to experience that last night.” He took a step back. “I’d can it, if I were you.” He turned to go, almost breaking into a run to get away from us.

“Well, that went well,” Addie said with a sigh.

“What do you think ‘strung up’ means?”

“I think it means Micah’s an asshole.”

I snorted. “Yeah. I already figured that one out. What about the Austin Reboots? Have you talked to any of them?”

“Yeah, Beth and I have been testing the waters. Lots of them still have human families, so they’re not jazzed about Micah’s plan. They’re also not pumped to run back to HARC cities, but a lot of them would at least help us save the Reboots in the facilities. We were talking about maybe swiping the schematics Micah has in his tent at some point before we leave. So that’s
something.”

That
was
something. Not as much as I was hoping for, but at least we weren’t getting outright refusal.

A blond head caught my eye, and I squinted to find Wren walking across the reservation with Riley. She scanned the area around her, splitting off from Riley when she spotted me. She strode straight to me and rose up on her toes like she was going to give me a kiss, which seemed strange, since she’d been a bit awkward around me since last night. I was trying not to show I was still freaked out by her deciding Micah was logical, but it seemed I was failing.

But she didn’t kiss me. She leaned close to my ear, placing a hand on my chest. “If they ask you to go to Austin, say yes. Don’t seem too excited. I think you’ll have the opportunity to slip Tony or Desmond a note.”

She pulled back, giving me a quick smile before turning to walk away. I wanted to grab her hand and tell her thank you, but I got the impression she wanted to keep our interaction brief. Riley was watching us from outside the big tent.

“What was that about?” Addie asked.

I shook my head. “Nothing.”

“Callum!”

I turned at the sound of a voice to see Riley waving me in his direction.

“Come on, we need you!”

I shot a grin at a confused Addie and jogged across the dirt,
coming to a stop in front of Riley. He gave me this look I didn’t understand, like a cross between amusement and annoyance.

“Do whatever you have to do. We’re leaving in half an hour.”

“What? For where?” I figured playing dumb was probably the best option right now. Riley rolled his eyes.

“Austin. We’re getting fuel from the rebels. Micah expects you to show him how to use the navigation system as we travel.”

“Sure.”

“Meet me back here. I’ll get some weapons ready for you.”

I nodded and took off for the tent used as the school. It was empty except for a Reboot who was probably almost in his forties. He was one of the only older Reboots I’d seen here, and I rarely saw him outside of the school tent. I couldn’t really blame him. It must have been annoying to be the only old person around.

“Do you mind if I have some paper and a pencil?” I asked.

He gestured at a cabinet. “Go ahead. Not too much.”

I took one piece and a pencil and shot him a grateful look. “Thank you.” I jogged back to the tent I shared with Wren and found it empty, so I plopped down on the ground and scribbled out a quick note to Tony. I tried to keep it from sounding terrifying, but maybe two “don’t panics” would have the opposite effect.

The tent flap opened as I was folding the note and sliding it into my pocket, and I smiled as Wren peered inside.

“Hey,” I said. “I was just going to look for you. We’re leaving for Austin.”

“Now?” She blinked in surprise as she crawled inside and sat down on the mattress.

“Yeah. Thank you for getting me a spot on the shuttle. That was good thinking.”

A small smile crossed her lips. “You’re welcome.”

“Did you tell Riley why?”

“No. He’s knows something’s up, but it seemed kind of risky. Not that he’s totally on team Micah, but still, what we’re doing wouldn’t sit well with a lot of Reboots.”

I raised my eyebrows. “You don’t think so?”

“We’re sort of taking the humans’ side.”

“We are?” I asked. “Are you okay with going to the cities to help them?”

She pressed her lips together, turning to look at the side of the tent. “If you’re going, I guess I’m going.”

Not exactly the enthusiasm I was hoping for. Annoyance flared in my chest, and I took in a deep breath. “You really don’t want to help them at all?” It came out more judgmental than I’d meant it. Or maybe I did mean it that way.

She brought her knees to her chest with a sigh. “You were right about warning Tony and Desmond. They helped us, so we should return the favor. But no. I don’t have a burning desire to go help people who hate me.”

“They don’t all hate us. You don’t give humans enough
credit.” My anger started to seep through and I clenched my fingers into fists. She was willing to write off humans, but she defended Micah?

“And you give them too much! It hasn’t even been a week since a bunch of them tried to kill us both. And your parents—” She stopped suddenly, swallowing.

“No need to remind me about my parents,” I said tightly. “I remember just fine.”

“I know you do.” Her eyes were on the ground. “So I don’t understand why you’re so eager to rush back and help them.”

“And I don’t understand how you can turn your back when we have the opportunity to help. Not just humans, but Reboots, too. You saved everyone in the Austin facility with one other Reboot.
One,
Wren. Can you imagine what you could do with a hundred?”

She frowned at me and didn’t respond.

“They’re all dying in there and you don’t even care?” It was getting harder to keep my voice steady. “Look at what they did to me. To Ever. We can stop that.”

She looked like I’d slapped her, and I wished I hadn’t mentioned Ever’s name. Maybe I’d done it because she’d brought up my parents.

“It is not my responsibility to save everyone.” She glared at me.

“Whose responsibility is it, then?”

“You’re the one who wants to save everyone so badly! You
do it.” She spoke barely above a whisper, but her words were furious.

“I want you to help me. I want you to
want
to help me.”

She paused, staring at me for so long I began to get uncomfortable. Finally she spoke quietly. “I don’t. I don’t want to help.” She shook her head as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Maybe you need to take a look at who I am, instead of who you wish I were.”

I blinked, taken aback.

“Maybe you don’t like who I actually am.” She shrugged. “I wouldn’t really blame you.”

I reached for her arm but she shook me off, leaning out of my reach. “That’s a terrible thing to say. Of course I like who you are.”

“Why?” She met my eyes. “Why are you distraught about killing one human but you don’t mind that I’ve killed dozens? Why are you okay with my lack of guilt about it? About the fact that I followed orders without question at HARC for five years? I did things I haven’t even told you about, yet you put your foot down within weeks of getting there. Why are those things okay for me but not for you?”

“I . . . I don’t . . .” I fumbled for words, but I didn’t have any.

“Just think about it,” she said softly.

I didn’t want to think about it. I wanted to pull her into my arms and tell her of course I liked her and I didn’t care about any of that.

Did
I care about any of that?

She ducked out of the tent and I didn’t try to stop her from going. I sat on the ground, blinking as I tried to process everything she’d just said to me.

I knew Wren had killed more people than I wanted to count. She’d killed some of them right in front of me, to save me, and I hadn’t faulted her for it. It was self-defense. She never wanted to kill anyone.

And neither did I. Yet I had. And if I started judging her for something she had to do, shouldn’t I start judging myself?

“Everything is not black and white, Callum.”
Her words to me yesterday suddenly made more sense. I didn’t think I saw as much gray as Wren—not even close—but maybe I could see why she’d likened herself to Micah. Why she’d been confused about how the way she killed was different than the way he did.

Or maybe it wasn’t different. Maybe Wren and Micah and I were all the same. We’d all killed. I bet if a human looked at the three of us they wouldn’t see much of a distinction.

I sucked in a breath at that thought as I shakily crawled out of the tent. I tried not to think about how humans saw Reboots, because sometimes I still felt like a human. But I couldn’t help but think, for a moment, that Wren had a point about them not wanting our help.

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I PROBABLY PICKED THE WRONG MOMENT TO ASK CALLUM THOSE
questions. In fact, now, as I sat alone in the tent listening to the sounds of dinner being served, I thought I should have kept those questions to myself forever.

But we would have ended up here eventually, me wondering why he liked me when he seemed to despise so many of the things I’d done. Perhaps it was best for him to consider it now.

I swallowed, terrified of the conclusion he would come to.

The sounds of laughter drifted in from the fire pit, and I reluctantly pulled back the flap of the tent. I wanted to avoid people entirely, but I’d missed lunch and couldn’t ignore the rumbling in my stomach.