Kent put his arm around her and kissed her on top of the head as if he owned her.
“Good girl,” he said. “So I guess that means we split up.”
“How do you figure that?” Tori asked.
“Obviously the rookie is going to vote with his girlfriend, so let’s just call it now.”
“All right,” Tori said. “I guess that means we split up.”
“Wait,” I called out.
All eyes went to me.
I chose my words carefully because what I was about to say would set us on a course that would determine our futures and our friendships, for better or worse.
“I don’t want to believe that the United States is in ruins,” I began. “What we’ve seen here is bad enough. But the whole point of escaping from Pemberwick was to learn the truth and tell the world about what happened at home. That hasn’t changed. We’ve come a long way, and we’re still alive because we stuck together. Like it or not, we’re all we’ve got.”
Nobody took their eyes from me. Not even Kent.
“The worst thing we could do is split up.”
“I agree,” Tori interrupted. “Kent, it would be stupid for you and Olivia not to come with us and—”
“I think we should go to Boston,” I declared.
“What?” Tori shouted, snapping a stunned look my way. “You’re giving in to him just to keep us together?”
“No, because I think it would be a mistake to go to Nevada. At least right now. The longer we’re on the road, out in the open, the better chance there is of being seen by one of those planes. I want to go to Boston because it’s closer and I think we’ll find out what we need to know there.”
“What about fighting back?” Tori asked.
“If Boston is normal, we won’t have to go to Nevada. If Boston looks like Portland, we’ll rethink. It’s not like it’s that far out of the way. Let’s hope we won’t have to rethink.”
Tori was angry. She had expected me to side with her.
“So what do you say, lobster girl?” Kent said smugly. “You still going west with Chadwick?”
I took a threatening step toward Kent and said, “Her name is Tori. His name is Jon andmy name is Tucker. Not Rook. Tucker.”
Tori grabbed me by the shoulder and spun me around to face her.
“Don’t fight my battles,” she snapped, livid. She turned on Kent and said, “This isn’t a contest. You didn’t win anything, so stop acting like it.”
Kent held up his hands, pretending to show fear.
“Yes, ma’am. Wouldn’t want to show you up.”
He chuckled and took Olivia’s arm to lead her away.
Olivia gave me an embarrassed smile and a shrug as if to say, “I know, he’s a jerk.”
Tori stuck a finger in my chest.
“This is on you,” she said, barely able to control her anger. “If the people broadcasting that message are the only people left who can help us and we don’t connect with them because we wasted time in the wrong city, Quinn died for nothing. He’s gone, Tucker. So is my father, and I’ll do anything to find out why they’re dead. Can you say the same thing?”
She stormed off without waiting for an answer, leaving me standing there, rocked. Of all the hurtful things she could have said, that was the most devastating. Quinn’s death was never far from my thoughts. I relived the moment again and again. It killed me that Tori would think I had forgotten about him. Though I truly believed it was critical that we stayed together, my decision meant that I was both part of a group… and very alone for I had lost my closest ally.
What I didn’t share with Tori, or anybody else, was that something else was driving me. Yes, I wanted to learn the truth about the war and tell the world about Pemberwick. I desperately held on to the hope that life would eventually return to normal so we could go home. But there was something else I needed. Something even more powerful.
I wanted revenge. Revenge for the destruction of my life, for Quinn’s death, and for my family being torn apart. I wanted someone to suffer. But who? Who was to blame? Granger? He was dead. The enemy no longer had a face, but that didn’t stop me from craving retribution against SYLO and everyone Granger had commanded.
I wanted to tell Tori that she was wrong and that I desperately wanted to know why we had lost our friends and family. I didn’t, though, because I knew that wouldn’t be enough. I needed someone to pay for what had happened. That was a dangerous road to travel, but it was a road I needed to be on. What I didn’t want was for my vendetta to put anybody else at risk, which meant that at some point I would be on my own.
Until that time came, I would stay with the group, and I would do what I could to keep us together and safe, but I also had my own agenda.
I was going to get revenge.
Alone.
FIVE
We were about to step into the unknown.
When we escaped from Pemberwick Island, our destination had been Portland, a town that most of us were familiar with. Now we were faced with the reality of hitting the road to seek out places that would be strange and different even under normal circumstances.
We began with a clear mission but were now flying blind, reacting to events as they happened. I had the disturbing sense of being adrift. It was like our pasts had been erased. I had expected that my future would be spent on Pemberwick Island, working with my dad and one day taking over his landscaping business. That was now somebody else’s life, somebody who no longer existed.
With that solemn thought in mind, we did the only thing that made sense to prepare for such a journey.
We went shopping.
Or maybe it should be called looting because we weren’t going to pay for anything.
Jon knocked the first item off our list by choosing a car from the doctor’s parking garage. Most were expensive and big. More importantly, the keys were in the ignition. There were five of us now, so we needed another row of seating as well as cargo space. Jon picked a big old Ford Explorer.
Once we had wheels, there was no reason to hang around the hospital, so we had to say our good-byes to Luna. Her last medical treatment was to change Tori’s dressing.
“Are you sure you won’t come?” Tori asked.
“Positive,” Luna replied with confidence. “Besides, I’m thinking you’ll eventually be back this way. This is your home.”
I didn’t point out to her that we no longer had a home.
Luna removed the bandage and the cotton packing, then cleaned the wound and replaced it all with fresh bandages.
“It’s healing nicely,” Luna said. “Keep it clean, change the bandages as often as you can, and you’ll be okay before you know it.”
Tori leaned forward and hugged the doctor. For her, that was a dramatic statement. I’d only seen her show that kind of emotion with her father. It reminded me that Tori had now lost both of her parents. Her mother abandoned the family when she was young, and her father was killed by the SYLO attack on the rebel compound on Pemberwick. Tori was now an orphan.
Though my parents were still alive, I felt like an orphan myself. They had betrayed me and the people of Pemberwick by helping the SYLO invaders. I would never wish that they were dead, but in some ways that might have been easier to deal with.
“Keep listening to the broadcasts,” Jon said. “You might get some new info.”
“I will,” Luna assured him. “You’re a good friend, Jon. I’ll miss you.”
Jon wiped his eyes so we wouldn’t see that he was tearing up.
“We gotta go,” Kent said. “Who knows how long it’ll take to get to Boston, and I don’t want to roll in after dark.”
We all shared hugs and hopeful words that we would meet again, then left Dr. Kayamori to man her lonely outpost. Alone.