"You'll have fifteen seconds to cross."
The directions pounded as loud as my heart. My hands shook. If it weren't for the adrenaline, I wouldn't have been running, fast. I sprinted across the platforms as my eyes locked on Liam's back. He was four feet taller than me, years older, and my only focus was to keep up with him. Impossible. I tried to ignore my doubt, but it hit me at every turn. How he always beat me in races. How he always knew everything. How he survived when Mom didn't. "Our father is safe," Liam had said that morning. Now it was our turn to escape.
"Welcome to the Topeka Region, address of the State," the speaker blasted overhead, and I glanced up, only for a second, which resulted in me slamming into Liam's back. Instead of yelling at me, he curled his arm around my torso, keeping me back.
He had stopped as the train rushed into the station. Right on time. Immediately, I copied Liam's guidance and shot out my arm. Rinley, my little sister, hit it just in time to stop herself from barreling into the machine. "We will make it," Liam had promised. "Just follow me."
The train came to a halt, wind whooshing around us, my breath stolen.
"Get them!" Only a few yards away, a herd of officers tried to push their way past the locked gates Liam had rigged. "Now!"
Liam leapt onto the train, then spun around to reach for me, but a gunshot split the air. Rinley crouched and covered her head. I only stared. The station smelled like gas. Something was dripping. I felt cold.
"Noah, focus!" Liam's shout sounded far away, underwater almost. Then the police broke through the gates. Sound ricocheted off the train, off the floors, off the walls. Their footsteps, their orders, their guns.
My blood rushed cold through my veins.
When someone grabbed me, I didn't realize it was Liam until my feet left the ground. He picked me up to toss me. I landed inside of the train with a roll, just as another gunshot burst through the air. Rinley screamed, only for the squeal of the train's tires to match her as it prepared to take off. Why were they not coming on board?
I inched forward to the edge of the train's cart, and I blinked, focusing on what was in front of me. Liam stood on the station's floor, clutching his bleeding arm. Before I could fathom he'd been shot, a cop's gun blasted again, and his body sprang up like a hunted deer. He fell to the ground. He spit up a red liquid. But he was still alive. For now. He wouldn't die quickly.
"Noah!" Rinley yelled beside him, but I couldn't say a word, not a thing, not even Run.
The cops closed in our her. If she ran, I didn't know. My vision clouded as the train rumbled beneath me. It took off so rapidly that my head smacked the floor. I clutched the wood, my heated face pressed to it, and my jaw shook as if I were crying, but nothing happened. The train sped out of the station, disappeared through the trees, and my eyes closed to the night.
Liam was dead, Rinley was alone, and I was safe.
...
I gasped as my eyes sprang open to the fluorescent lights on the school's ceiling. My vision blurred through my nightmare's tears. I had to bend over to prevent myself from heaving. When I looked down, I stared at the manicured hand clutching mine. Lily. My knuckles were white.
When I raised my head to look at my best friend, a warning crossed her dark brown eyes. Wake up, she screamed in silence. We were in an assembly with Phelps.
My chest pressed down on my heart, but I took a breath and straightened up. I had barely slept, barely ate, barely breathed really. It had been three days since Phelps arrived at my house. He ordered my father to leave the Topeka Region to collect military enforcement from Boise. He didn't even get a chance to say goodbye. But afterward, Phelps didn't search our house. His men didn't either. Broden stayed upstairs, only coming out after Phelps had been gone for three hours, but Noah refused to leave the forgery. Even I couldn't convince him to leave, not even when I pointed out the fake identity he was obligated to live by.
"Tasia will cover for me," he kept repeating as if he was convincing somebody of it.
I doubted he had an identity at all anymore. He was stuck as Noah Tomery, and I hadn't been able to sleep, knowing he was in my house. Now that I wasn't home, I had fallen asleep only to dream about his life. The dream was so clear that I wondered if that's what tomo users experienced while they were on the drug, but I didn't know. I would never take tomo. Never.
I glanced around the stifling assembly room, avoiding Lily's eyes. It was the first day we were allowed back in our school since Homecoming, but we were shuffled into the gym for a meeting. I had yet to have an opportunity to talk to Lily in private, but I knew she would deliver bad news. Miles was nowhere to be seen, and he wasn't the only one.
Half of the student body was absent. From what the teachers had told us, they were still being questioned. According to rumor, most of them weren't getting in trouble. The police were convinced the kids had taken it unknowingly, that someone had dropped the drug into our drinks, but I knew it was a lie. Everything was.
"I am deeply disturbed by the actions that took place Saturday night," Phelps spoke without a microphone as if to prove how domineering he could be. Even in his older age, he held his shoulders high. His voice took up the room. His entire presence did. In fact, if I wasn't watching him speak myself, I would've thought he sat right beside me. It had always been that way.
I had met him too many times to count. My memories were filled with him. He had even eaten dinner at our house, just once, but once was enough. He was a person who could memorize your soul with just a fleeting glance—and make you memorize his too. When he shook my hand, he shook me. I should've known then that my dad's occupation hadn't come naturally, but I couldn't have ever guessed the truth. Perhaps I was blinded by our history.
As a child, I saw Phelps regularly. At one point, he even bought me gifts. A teddy bear here, a jeweled comb there. In my mind, he loved us because my father was his best employee; that was why he let my father get away with weapon building. But Phelps didn't let my father get away with it. Phelps didn't know. I suppose Phelps only stopped making appearances because he thought he knew Dwayne Gray, believed he understood how to control him, was convinced he manipulated the criminal enough. Phelps was wrong about my father. It was something we had in common. That in itself gave me goosebumps, but today the hair on my neck stood up from listening to him. He was electric.
"Unfortunately," he emphasized every syllable, "many will be punished, some of which already have."
Phelps moved his eyes over Lily and me despite our seat at the top of the bleachers. A squeak escaped Lily's lips, and I squeezed her fingers together as if to order her silence. As far as I knew, she was oblivious just as I had been, but I couldn't let her stick out any more than she already had. She had coordinated the party, after all.
"We know your student body president did not prepare for this," he referred to Lily as he turned away. "But we will be pursuing any student or family that seems to be involved with this silly party drug." Noah. "After all," he continued, "the drug is a hallucinogenic—nothing more." A lie we collectively had been told since the massacre. "The drug is potentially fatal, and we—as the Topeka Region—will see to it that this drug is completely destroyed. It is our responsibility as the home of the State."
Phelps paused, and the entire room buzzed with a weak applause. Everyone in the room knew something—or someone—that would give Wheston Phelps reason enough to end everything. He had already taken lives, but that wasn't his goal this time. He needed to destroy the drug, not us, but he needed us in order to do it.
He turned around in a slow circle. "After careful consideration, we decided to cancel school for one week as we continue our investigation. Those we need to speak to should've gotten notices from their teachers, and we encourage everyone to come forward if they have any information. Anyone who has information that doesn't come forward will be seen as complicit to the crime, and they will be treated as criminals upon discovery. You are all dismissed."
The room shifted, but he had to repeat himself for anyone to stand. Gradually, everyone stood up from their seats and filed toward the exit. A rush of whispers soared over the crowd, and Lily's shaking hand clutched onto my arm. My maroon skirt skimmed over her bare legs as I stood. "Come on," I said as I pulled her to her feet.
"He looked at us," she whispered.
I nodded.
"Do you think—" Lily's high-pitched voice caught in her throat. "Do you think he hurt Miles?"
"Don't think about it right now."
Miles was hurt. It didn't matter that he was a teenager. He had tomo in his blood. He had to know something, and they would do their best to get it out of him. For everyone's sake, I hoped he hadn't said a word.
"Ms. Gray?" a male voice broke through the crowd. "Ms. Sophia Gray?"
I turned around and stared at the sage-uniformed soldier in front of me. My father had taught me where they hid their guns—in the right pocket inside of their jacket—and that was exactly where my eyes landed.
I steadied my feet as everyone passed us. No one glanced my way. No one wanted to be guilty by association.
"Yes?" I asked, my voice shaking more than I hoped.
"Come with me."
I had to pry Lily's hand off of me so I could follow him. I stared at his back until we reached the center of the room. People stepped aside as if we were untouchable gods—or monsters—but I concentrated on my expression, unreadable yet confident. I had to do this. Even though I wasn't sure what was about to happen, I needed to handle it.
Wheston Phelps was less than a foot away from me. The officer spoke to him before he stepped away, and Phelps' gaze was on me.
He had aged significantly since the last time I had seen him up close. The wrinkles around his dark eyes had deepened, and his thick eyebrows had grown wild. If I remembered correctly, he was in his mid-fifties, but he appeared closer to seventy. Even then, his steady gaze was perfected, and his smirk threatened more than his words ever could.
"Ms. Gray." He used to always call me little Gray. "How are we doing today?"
"Worried for the Topeka Region, sir," I responded mechanically. "How are you?"
The figurehead shrugged without a single wrinkle forming on his pearl-white shirt. He adjusted a couple of papers on the podium before he fiddled with the microphone. It didn't buzz, but he unplugged it, and two soldiers stepped around us. Our conversation was going to be private, even in a crowded room.
"Your father tells me he didn't get a chance to say goodbye to you before I sent him away. I apologize for that." He actually sounded like he meant it. "I don't like to mix family matters into business, you see." My heartbeat raced for the Tomery family—Noah's family—and how they had been chased out or killed.
"I understand."
Phelps' eyes danced. "I made the mistake of assuming you were home, since you were not among the children at the dance."
My jaw locked. He was testing me. He knew I was there. My name should've been on the attendance list, but Pierson was at the door. He may not have marked it.
"I was home," I said, hoping he didn't sense my hesitation. "When you stopped by, I was checking the acres behind our house. For traitors."
"You must be very dedicated, just like your father," he said, adding the last part slowly. "The storm did a lot of damage that evening."
"I'm used to it."
"I'm sure," Phelps said, nodding along as if he had spent his teenage days removing damaged brush. In the September heat, it was necessary. In fact, I had spent most of the past few days catching up. My hands were riddled with cuts, and I made sure to hold them in front of me so he could see.
Sure enough, his eyes moved across them. "Well, then, that's all I had to say, Ms. Gray. You should get back to your studies. I hear you're doing quite well this semester."
He was watching me.
I fought the urge to cringe. "Thank you, sir."
"If you'd like," he continued before I could walk away, "I could have my workers check up on you while your father is away." His upper lip twitched. "I'd hate to think something could happen to a young girl such as yourself, living alone like you do."
"Lyn lives with me," I reminded him, "but my family appreciates the offer, sir."
The last thing I wanted was Phelps' men in my house, and he knew it. I could see the challenge in his smile.
"Really," I pressed. "The State's resources should be used elsewhere, where it's needed. That's what'll help Topeka the most."
Phelps' lips pressed together in a thin line. "Very well, Ms. Gray," he said, but his gaze turned into a glare. "Lyn and you should be very careful. The State values responsible citizens as much as it is willing to punish the negligent ones."
My hand shot up to my mother's necklace before I could prevent it. I forced a smile to make up for it. "That's why I feel so safe here," I complimented him. "I am proud to live in Topeka."
Phelps leaned back, and his genuine smile relaxed my nerves. "You have become quite the young lady, little Gray."
I could see him then, showing me portraits in his office, telling fantastic tales of how his family brought all the regions together, gifting me candy.
"Thank you, sir."
I used to call him Wheston.
His eyes softened, but not by much. "What are you reading nowadays?"
"Only textbooks for school," I answered honestly.
Wheston gave me some of my first books I ever read. Right from his office after he caught me trying to steal one. Instead of punishing me, he freely brought them to me whenever he checked on my dad. I still had copies in my room. He left notes in some of them. And he never asked for them back.
He looked away. "You may go now."
Before he could strike up another conversation, I walked away, fleeing out the doors with the echo of my heels behind me. Beyond the doors, kids filed into classrooms for dismissal.
A hand shot out of the crowd to grab the loose fabric of my uniform. I yelped as Lily's white hair caught my attention. "What the hell was that about?" she hissed into my frizzy curls.
This time, I clutched her for comfort. "Nothing," I said, widening my eyes at her to let her know the truth.
I was in trouble. We all were.
...
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