“Avrell says to tell you to make sure everyone’s on board. He’s finishing securing the cure. As soon as he’s done, we can leave.” Kevin looks like a completely different person. Some of his injuries have already healed thanks to Avrell’s careful doctoring and the microbots. But it’s the shadows in his eyes that are most striking—they’re completely gone, clear.
This world is healing him as much as the people.
For what had seemed like a desolate, miserable place, Mortuus is precisely the opposite. It’s restorative. Rejuvenating. According to information Quinn found in history texts, the name Mortuus was given to this world after the people who founded Earth II destroyed it. Mortuus is Latin for dead. They believed this world was dead.
Without hope.
They couldn’t have been more wrong.
This planet…these people.
We’re survivors.
We will beat them.
We will win.
We will take this planet back for our children, and their children. For their future.
I rub a hand on Kevin’s cheek, but this time he doesn’t flinch at the caress. My heart warms. “Thank you so much, Kevin. I know how hard this must be for you. You’ve been so helpful after everything you’ve been through.”
He lifts a shoulder in a patently teenage gesture. “You don’t have to thank me. I’m gonna go finish helping Avrell.” With that, he scampers back down the ramp and inside the prison.
To Eleanor, I say, “Will you take over here? Make sure everyone loads up safely?”
“Sure. Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine.” Or at least, I hope it is.
I leave them to finish loading their things under Eleanor’s careful watch. They’re slow-moving, still healing from The Rades, but at least they’re healing. After my conversation with Breccan, Avrell didn’t want to waste any time returning to the Facility. Neither did I.
I only hope there will be a Facility to come back to.
Dammit, Julie. Don’t be stupid.
When she said she wanted to stay, I knew she was serious, but part of me didn’t believe she’d actually do it. I don’t blame her for not wanting to go, but even with the cure this planet is dangerous. Does she really think those other aliens—or whatever they were—will be as nice as the morts? I don’t think so.
I start for the cells where we’ve turned them into makeshift rooms. One by one, I check them for stragglers, hoping to find Julie hiding out. Each time I clear one without seeing her, my heart drops a little more.
Leaving her behind isn’t an option.
After clearing all the housing cells, I check the command room, then the cafeteria. All empty. So are the elevators and the guards’ rooms.
“Julie!” I call endlessly as I search the halls. “Julie, where are you?”
The only answers are echoes.
I swear if she left without saying goodbye, I’m going to hunt her down and kick her ass myself. The least she could do was let me know. The not knowing is almost worse.
The last place I check is the tunnels underneath the prison. We spent a couple hours down there when I asked her to help me with my crazy plan the night before, but she had no reason to go down there—unless it was to make a quick exit without being detected. My heart is in my throat the whole way down there.
There’s a ticking sound in my head, which only makes me more frantic. We can’t wait for her forever. If I don’t find her soon…I shake off the thought. I will find her. I have to.
The catacombs smell like rotting flesh and the acidic green blood from the rabbawolves we had to kill capturing one of them. Their corpses dot my progress. My skin turns clammy and saliva builds in the back of my throat.
I’d call out for her, but I’m afraid if I open my mouth, the scent of rotting rabbawolves will make me yak all over my shoes.
At the end of the main tunnel, I find the door wide-ass-open. We’d closed it when we were finished with our task last night. It’s a heavy door, there’s no way it opened by itself. She must have come this way.
I push the door the rest of the way open and step through into the outdoors. The red-orange sun blares down from above, making the dusty ground nearly sparkle. There in the mounds of sand are tire tracks. The windy climate on Mortuus means these must be fresh. Our footsteps from the night before have already been erased. These are fresh.
I squint into the horizon, following the tracks. They go on into the distance as far as I can see. No one else would be crazy enough to venture out alone, not when we’re due to leave any minute.
“Dammit, Julie,” I bite out.
There’s no way in hell Avrell will let me take out another rover to try and track her down. He’d say there’s no time. We have to get these people on the ship. The Facility needs us. Julie knew that. That’s probably why her dumb ass waited until the last minute to check out knowing I’d have no time to go find her and drag her butt back to sensibility.