“Before the Cleansing, I was the one they wanted. Jim J’s golden girl, meant to one day lead his Sacred Army. But now, all they talk about is you.”
“They want to kill me, Holly!” Claire burst out, clearly unable to stop herself. “How can you possibly be jealous of that?”
“Because you get to be part of something bigger!” she shot back. “And that’s all I wanted. That’s what I was, before you fucked it all up.”
“By surviving,” Claire said, and there were tears in her voice for the first time. “By doing what I had to do.”
I’d heard enough. Time for damage control.
“As touching as this has been, sharing time is over,” I said bluntly. “Holly, show me this tracking map.”
I gestured at the terminal in the corner. Holly huffed but eyed the hunting knife I still held.
“Fine,” she said. “Won’t do you any good, but if you all want to commit suicide, be my guest.”
I followed her over to the computer station. She sat down and logged in, then blew through a few different screens. Eventually, she navigated into a file named Claire Ainsley. It opened onto what looked like a bio page. I only saw it for a second, but it seemed to include every detail of Claire’s life at the compound, with insane headings like Early Childhood and Adolescent Years. Shit, they were even creepier than I thought.
Holly clicked on a link that saidTrack target?It loaded up a map with a blinking red dot, showing Claire’s location. She clicked on the dot, and a small menu popped up. The first option readTracking Distance,and then a couple options down,Deactivate Tracking. Holly quickly clicked the first option.
“According to the Cave’s security system,” she read, “Claire can be tracked up to 300 kilometres in any direction. After that, it requires a stronger transmitter to keep tracking, which she doesn’t have. They only gave those to VIPs who needed travel privileges.”
Summerhurst was much farther than that. If we made it, she’d be safe. Relief flooded my chest.
“Yeah, and thankfully, that won’t even be needed once I hit thatDeactivatebutton I saw you try to hide,” I said casually.
Holly made a face.
“It won’t work,” she said in defiance. “The fact is that the tracker can’t be turned off…or if it can, only Cave leadership would know how, and in case you forgot, they’re all dead. It can only be temporarily deactivated. It’ll turn back on within a couple days.”
It wasn’t enough time, but it was our only shot. Holly started to protest again, but Claire slapped her smartly across the face.
“Move,” she ordered, shoving Holly aside. She navigated back to theDeactivatebutton, confirmed the temporary hold, and the red dot disappeared from the map.
Should I have been proud of my girlfriend for bitch slapping someone? Because I was.
Holly’s eyes had gone wide. She seemed way more scared that Claire—who she obviously still saw as the soft, sweet older sister who’d do anything she asked—had hit her. Go figure.
“Okay, time to go,” I said to Claire, who nodded. “Pack the PNCs, we’ll give this place a once-over for anything useful, then head out.”
“Wait,” Asha said as we turned away. “I want out with you guys.”
I exchanged a look with Claire. She frowned, conflicted again. So was I, but only because I knew Claire wouldn’t leave her friend behind…even when her friend had left her. That alone made me not trust Asha, but I didn’t want to sit here arguing about it.
“Fine,” I said. “But if you give us away or do something stupid, I’ll kill you. Understood?”
Asha’s nostrils flared, but she nodded. “Understood.”
I bullied Holly through deactivating Asha’s tracker too, even as Holly complained that nobody cared about Asha anyway. Maybe not, but I had no doubt Holly would be happy to let the masked maniacs know that Asha was with Claire.
“How long do we have until the ‘festivities’ are over?” Claire asked Holly.
“The Gathering usually ends around eight,” she replied uneasily, glancing at a clock on the screen. “You have maybe thirty minutes.”
Time to move. I nodded at Claire, and we did a quick search of the boxes along the walls. Asha guarded Holly. A few minutes later, we came up with a handful of survival supplies—prepackaged food, a couple new blankets that were in way better shape than ours, and packets of hygiene products like soap and shampoo.
“One last thing,” I said, and I grabbed a roll of duct tape from one of the boxes.
Holly screamed as I held her down in her chair, and Claire and Asha used the tape to tie her up.
