The Replaced
Page 31

We were operating in the dark both figuratively and literally. At least one would end soon.
Even before Thom pointed out, “Sunrise,” I’d felt it, and had to bite my tongue to keep from gasping against the sharp knife of pain.
Within seconds, the stabbing sensation passed, but I realized it was just one more thing that made me different, set me apart from the others.
From the way the deep black sky in the distance was barely transitioning to a murky shade of gray, we probably had less than an hour until the remaining night would no longer be blanketing us. We hadn’t seen many cars on the road, but daylight would bring out more drivers . . . and make us far too visible.
It seemed impossible we’d only just left Silent Creek the day before, and here we were totally cut off from all the other Returned, completely on our own.
On the run.
But I was finally starting to feel better about our circumstances. To process it and file it away and cope with the realities of everything we’d been through.
True, we’d been lured to the Tacoma facility by Agent Truman, only to discover Tyler hadn’t actually been there at all. And also true, we’d nearly lost Willow in the process.
But the more important thing was we’d gotten her back.
Simon tapped his finger on the map as he leaned over to show Willow. “It looks like there’s a town up ahead. Maybe we can find a place to stash the car and get a room where we can lay low for the day.”
Jett caressed his forearm. “Won’t the six of us together draw attention? Especially if the police here have been notified about us?”
“He has a point,” Thom said, looking decisively at Simon. “We need to split up when we get there. Meet again at sundown.”
Simon had been right about the town being small. And Jett had been right about us sticking together—it wasn’t exactly the kind of place six kids could blend and go unnoticed.
But at least it wasn’t Silent Creek–small, which was damn near invisible.
This little town, just east of the Cascade Mountains, was bigger than Silent Creek, but just barely, and our hopes of finding a motel we could check into, someplace we could hide until nightfall, turned out to be wishful thinking.
There wasn’t a hotel, motel, hostel, or inn for miles and miles, and we needed to get off the roads . . . fast.
Our best hope was that we could make ourselves scarce for the next fifteen hours of daylight.
“How are we planning to split up?” Jett asked.
Simon and Thom did that weird looking-at-each-other thing, and then Thom came back with, “How about Team One and Team Two?”
But Willow’s lips pressed into a tight line. “No offense, but that didn’t work out so well for me last time. How ’bout I take Kyra and Jett?”
Okay, so that wasn’t exactly the way I wanted to spend my day either.
At first I’d thought it was cool that Willow was no longer glaring, or even growling, at me. But what had started happening was almost worse, and it was getting stranger by the mile.
Whatever life debt Willow thought she owed me after I’d shot myself in order to save her had morphed into her strange attempts at girl talk. And frankly, Willow sucked at girl talk.
During this last stretch, she’d asked about my favorite music, and who was my first kiss, and whether I’d ever tried putting chocolate frosting on my pancakes. It was seriously weirding me out.
I sent a Help me glance to Natty—a little silent message of my own—thinking I’d rather play third wheel to her and Thom than play another round of Let’s Be Best Friends with Willow.
“Sorry,” Natty jumped in. “I already called dibs on Kyra.”
“Fine. It’s settled, then,” Simon announced. “I’ll take Kyra and Natty. Willow, you can go with Thom and Jett.” He glanced around at everyone like he was the coach and we were his team. I half expected him to make us put our hands in for a cheer. “We all good?”
Thom looked like he might argue, but it was Willow who looked downright dejected. I almost felt bad for her.
Almost.
On the other hand, spending an entire day with Simon, away from the others, sort of defeated my whole not-wanting-to-be-on-Team-Two plan, since he was one-half of the reason I didn’t want to be on that team. Willow might be weirding me out, but not knowing how Simon felt still made me uneasy.
I ignored the frenzy in my stomach as we parked the SUV in a church parking lot. Ours didn’t stand out among the rest, so hopefully no one would give it a second glance. With any luck no one would notice our out-of-state plates or call the police, and when we came back, it would still be here.
Just in case, we gathered our necessities.
I cringed when I realized my jeans were still shredded, and disgustingly bloodied. “Someone will for sure notice if I walk around in these.”
From out of nowhere, Simon produced a box cutter and tossed it to me. “You’ll have to turn them into shorts for now.” He counted out some cash and divided it out. “We’ll try to find a place to get you something else to wear.”
There wasn’t time for modesty as I hid behind the SUV and stripped out of my jeans. I did my best to hack through the denim with the box cutter, but it wasn’t pretty. The legs weren’t even close to even, and there were still spots of blood visible above the hemline. But at least without the gaping hole, it was unlikely anyone would guess what the splatter was. When I came out again, I raised my hands. “So? Can I rock the cutoffs, or what?”