‘Apparently not. Who knows how it happened? Maybe they’re just using one another; both trying to double cross the other. Whatever it is, the government has to be underestimating the Mogs. If they weren’t, they’d be scared out of their freaking minds.’ Nine places the yellow cube in his mouth. A look of satisfaction appears on his face.
‘What is that?’ I ask.
‘Sustenance,’ he says, his voice garbled. ‘It’s a food substitute. You suck on it and it fills you up for a little bit. Take a look. You might have one too.’
I unlock my Chest and poke around for a yellow cube. My hands pass over the white tablet we found in Malcolm Goode’s hidden office in the well, and I take a second to press its buttons. Still dead. I push it aside. I don’t find a yellow cube, but there’s a blue one. I hold it out for him to see. ‘Do you think this does the same thing?’
He shrugs. ‘Dunno. Won’t know till you try. Go for it.’
I hesitate for a few seconds, then place it on my tongue, and my mouth is immediately flooded with ice-cold water. I am only able to drink a little before some goes down the wrong way, causing me to cough the stone onto the floor. Nine spits his yellow stone into his hand and offers it to me, but I pass.
‘You have to eat sometime,’ he says.
Bernie Kosar walks over to Nine and opens his mouth. ‘Sure, BK,’ Nine says obligingly, placing the yellow cube on the dog’s tongue.
‘At least we’re headed west, where Sam and Sarah are. I’m sick of running and hiding, running and hiding. First things first, we find them.’
‘Yeah, well, speak for yourself. I’ve been locked up and tortured for the past year, man. Being in motion, in control of where I am and when I’m going there, is something I do not plan to give up anytime soon. Just relax, Johnny. I have an idea and you need to remember the plan. We’re not wasting time finding your human friends. We contact the others and meet up, and when we’re ready, we face Setrákus Ra. In that order.’
I turn and punch a hole in the side of the train car, and the impact causes the wheels on one side to momentarily lose their grip on the tracks below. I’m angry and I feel like I’m spiraling out of control. ‘How exactly are we going to meet up with them when our only means of communication might be being monitored? I say we head for California, or whatever government facility is out west, and we demand they give up Sarah, or we’ll start blowing stuff up! Or, we threaten to tell the media that the government is working with a bunch of evil aliens. We’ll see how that goes over.’
Nine laughs, shaking his head. ‘Um, no. That’s not going to happen.’
‘Well, shit, then I don’t know what to suggest. What if we go back to Paradise to see if maybe Sarah’s there. If I can just see that she’s safe, I promise I’ll drop it. We have to be close to Ohio by now, don’t we?’
Nine walks over to the hole I’ve created in the wall and peeks out. His voice is quiet when he speaks. ‘It all looks the same to me, man. You know, Earth has nothing on Lorien. Sure, Earth looks pretty nice in some places, but Lorien was beautiful everywhere. It was the most beautiful planet in all the galaxies. You’ve seen how it used to be in your visions, right?’ I’m surprised with how impassioned he’s suddenly become. Talking about Lorien his face is as happy and relaxed as I’ve ever seen it. For the first time I see a homesick kid. But it’s fleeting. He quickly rearranges his face into its usual mask of snark and dismissal.
‘We are not going to Ohio to see if another one of your humans is all cozy and safe. This is not our home, Four. These humans are not our brothers and sisters. Everything we do here on Earth is for our real home, for our real brothers and sisters; for the Elders who sacrificed their lives to put us on that ship.’
Nine steps back, swings, and punches another hole in the wall of the car, right next to mine. Unlike mine, his punch is so hard and so fast that the wheels underneath us don’t shift. Nine sticks his head through the hole and he breathes deeply, his black hair blowing and flapping in the wind, then pulls his head back inside. He clenches his fists and turns to look at me. ‘If you don’t have Lorien in your heart, then you should say so right now. I won’t run around with a traitor. Our only goal is doing everything we can to be at full strength so we can defeat Setrákus Ra and his army. That’s it. Got it?’
I decide to remain silent. My feelings for Sam and Sarah will never subside. I know this. But Nine is right about what comes first. We are of help to no one if we do not increase our strength, and that only happens if we can find the others. I need to concentrate on Lorien. When we defeat Setrákus Ra, Sam and Sarah – along with everyone else on Earth – will be okay. I nod.
Nine sits down and closes his eyes, hands clenching his knees so tightly his knuckles are white. ‘We just passed a sign I recognize. We’re a couple of hundred miles away from the safe house my Cêpan set up. We can go there, order a pizza, maybe watch a little TV. You can sit around and sigh and think sad thoughts about your poor, lost Sarah. I will go out, find some hot chick to make out with for an hour or so, then we’ll figure out how to communicate with the rest in some other way.’
BK drops the yellow cube out of his mouth and looks up at me. He doesn’t even have to ask. I place my blue cube on his tongue and he closes his mouth and sighs happily.
I look over at Nine. He is so sure of himself, so confident. ‘And how are we going to do that? The macrocosms are tapped! We have no other way to communicate with them!’
‘No, this is perfect,’ Nine says, getting excited. ‘Wait until you see my place, Four. It’s totally badass. Whatever we want, we’ll have. Whatever we need, we’ll get. We’ll rest and train, we’ll be in the most amazing shape, ready for whatever comes at us. And we will figure out a way to get in contact with the rest of the Garde.’
13
I lie awake for hours, sitting and watching the fire outside the hut. Inside, Ella sleeps on the hammock; Six and Crayton snore under blankets on the floor. After a while, the fire goes from a raging and crackling blaze to glowing embers. I watch the smoke waft through the air, drifting to hang around beneath the canopy of trees. Eventually, the fire dies out entirely.
I just can’t sleep. For so many years, I was alone with my envy and anger, trapped in that orphanage. Now, finally, I can let it go. Now I believe there’s nothing we can’t do with all of us together. So I don’t know why I still feel this pit in my stomach whenever I get a moment to think. I know what the pit is, too; I feel lonely. But I’m not alone, I keep telling myself.
I look over at Eight, sleeping as close as he can to the fire for warmth. In the early morning light, all curled up, he looks small. He sleeps restlessly, under a thin blanket of twisted vines. I watch him toss and turn, running his hands through his already messy hair. I stoke the coals to create as much heat as possible and the crackle is enough to make him stir. I don’t know why, but I feel protective of him. At the same time, I think about his muscular arms and I want him to protect me. Must be something about opposites attracting. He is playful and I am, well, not.
Crayton’s forehead is creased with worry when he finally gets up and wakes the others. We all try to shake off the sleep cobwebs as quickly as possible. I know Crayton is wondering how he’s going to get us all on a plane.
My thoughts turn to Eight’s vision of Setrákus. He poses the greatest threat of all, even more than a bunch of well-armed Mogs. I know Crayton doesn’t think we’re ready to face Setrákus. We haven’t developed our Legacies, we haven’t had a chance to learn how to fight together, and we must find Four, Five and Nine before we face a threat like Setrákus Ra. When I said as much last night, Eight shook his head, frustrated by all the skepticism. ‘I know we could take him, together,’ he said. ‘I’ve seen him in my dreams and felt his power. I know what he’s capable of; but I also know what we are capable of, and it is far greater than anything he could ever be. I believe in us. But it won’t happen if we aren’t all convinced.’