“Put her there,” the woman said, pointing to the cot closest to the equipment.

  Lennon gently lowered her onto it.

  “What’s her name?”

  “Maisie—” He cut himself off before he said her last name. He had no idea how much this woman knew, and maybe it was best if they didn’t hear the name Rojas. “And I’m Lennon.”

  “You can just call me Doc.”

  “Sure.” He watched as she grabbed a long white wand that resembled an ultrasound probe. She slowly scanned it over Maisie’s body and eyed the screen next to her, where Lennon could see the faint outline of a skeleton.

  “That’s weird,” she murmured.

  “What?”

  “I don’t see it.”

  “Should you?”

  She nodded, pushing her glasses up her nose. “The device splits once it’s inside a body. There should be at least three….” She peered at him. “Do you know where it hit her?”

  “It was on her left side. Probably her arm or her side?”

  Doc moved the wand up to her left arm. She continued scanning down it. “There’s one.” She grabbed for a metal contraption on the table. It was short and round, like a soda can, but had four scary sharp pieces sticking out the top.

  “What is that?” Lennon asked.

  She pointed to the sharp pieces. “These will go into her skin. It sends out a signal that brings the pieces of the device close so that I can easily extract them.”

  Maisie stirred, her eyes popping open. She took in a sharp breath, her gaze darting around the room.

  “Where—”

  “Hold her down; this is going to hurt,” Doc interrupted.

  Maisie started to sit up, and Lennon hesitated. Doc pushed her back down.

  “Either hold her down now or this thing will start destroying her lungs.”

  Lennon jumped forward, using both hands to press Maisie’s shoulders into the table. She grabbed both his arms. The look on her face suggested he was about to get punched.

  Doc ripped Maisie’s left hand away from him and Maisie yelped in protest. She tried to push him away.

  “What are—”

  “Just trust me for a minute, okay?” Lennon said, his words coming out in a rush as he held tighter to her. “Remember how when we met you kept saying you were trying to help me and I didn’t believe you? Don’t be a dumbass like me.”

  He hadn’t actually expected that to work, but she stilled. Her fingers dug into his arm, her eyes wide as she stared at him.

  Doc jabbed the device into her arm. Blood seeped out around it as the sharp pieces burrowed into her skin. Maisie gasped, her body jerking.

  “Dammit, didn’t get it.” Doc threw him a furious look. “Hold her tighter. I’ll knock her out in a second, but I have to get this one first.”

  He leaned his body into hers, pressing his hands firmly to her shoulders. She screamed, burying her head in his chest.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered into her hair.

  “Almost…” Doc jammed the device into Maisie’s arm. She shook against him. “Got it!”

  Maisie slumped against the table, her eyes half closed.

  Doc blew out a breath. “Okay. Two more.”

  * * *

  —

  Lennon woke with a start.

  “Sorry,” a voice behind him said.

  He blinked, rubbing the back of his neck. He’d fallen asleep in the chair beside Maisie’s cot. He couldn’t have been out long, but he was sore.

  He glanced back at Doc, who had spoken, and then at Maisie. She was still on the table, unconscious. Her chest rose and fell peacefully. Doc had knocked her out after the first extraction, and she hadn’t woken up yet.

  “I was trying to be quiet,” Doc said. She grabbed the bloody instruments from the table and put them in her bucket. “She should be up soon. She’ll be groggy, but should be good to go within an hour of waking.”

  He glanced down at Maisie’s watch. Nearly seven a.m. Twenty-four hours to make it to the gate. And find the shipment.

  He took a breath and tried not to think too hard about it.

  “I saw you on the news,” Doc said.

  He stood, walking to her. “You guys have American news in the north?”

  “Not officially, but a lot of us watch it anyway. More than the south, I think?” She looked at him for confirmation.

  “I don’t really know, I was barely there,” he said, even though he thought she was right. He didn’t want to spill information about the south if he wasn’t supposed to. If there was one thing he’d learned being a politician’s kid, it was to always say as little as possible, as nicely as possible.

  “There’s a truck headed up to Northgate, going through the compound to the gate. The driver will let you on it if you leave…” She looked at her watch. “Within the next half hour.”

  His heart leapt into his throat. “Really?”

  “Goes straight there. You’ll be there by eight a.m.”

  Eight a.m. Nearly twenty-four hours early. Less exposure to the virus inside the Q. He could be back inside a comfortable quarantine room at the CDC by this afternoon.

  But. He glanced back at Maisie.

  He’d promised to help her find the shipment.

  Of course, he’d be gone before she woke up and realized what he’d done.

  His stomach twisted guiltily. He couldn’t do that to her. He’d promised. And he wouldn’t just abandon her—unconscious—in hostile territory.

  “No,” he said. “Thank you, but I have to help her with something first.” He gestured to Maisie.

  “You sure?” Doc paused at the bottom of the stairs, lifting a skeptical eyebrow.

  “Are you sure?” He could see his mom in front of him. And Caroline. They both had this skeptical way of looking at him whenever he did something that wasn’t totally selfish. Like they thought there must have been a catch or that he’d change his mind.

  He tried not to be too insulted about it—for years, he’d been the black sheep of the family, the one rolling his eyes when his dad started lecturing about acts of service. (His dad was insufferable at times, but he also practiced what he preached. It was both annoying and a point of pride for Lennon.)

  But he couldn’t help but think that his family had never expected quite enough of him. Maybe they should have had a little more faith.

  “Yeah,” he said to Doc. “I’m sure.”

  MAISIE

  MAISIE’S EYELIDS WERE glued together. She tried opening them and failed.

  She tried again. Light crept in. Pain shot through her left arm. She moaned.

  “Hey,” a male voice said. “Don’t try to sit up. You’re probably groggy from the sedative.”

  Lennon. She squinted, blinking again until he came into focus. He was sitting in a chair. The room slowly took shape behind him. Some kind of makeshift medical station.

  The Taser. The pain. Lennon pushing her into the table and looking down at her with those intense green eyes. It all came rushing back, and she ignored his advice and tried to sit up.

  The world spun violently, and she collapsed back onto the soft surface. She groaned.

  “Doc said you’ll only be groggy for about an hour,” he said.

  “Doc?”

  “Hadley made a call to her friend, and he directed us here,” Lennon explained. “Those Tasers shoot devices that destroy your artificial organs.”

  “What? That’s sadistic.”

  “I know. But honestly you got really lucky, because two of them got stuck on the metal plate in your hand. And Doc got the other one out before it got past your arm. She thinks it was stuck for a while too, but managed to get free.”

  “Why were they so painful?”

  “It’s a feature, apparently. It’s supposed to be that only the cops can remove them, so people have to immediately turn themselves in or die, but a few people are able to remove them now.” He made a face. “Gotta tell you, not feeling great about the north so far.”

  She rubbed her hand across her eyes. “Same.”

  Something occurred to her suddenly, and she quickly checked her watch. Nine a.m. “Shit. We lost so many hours. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault.” He sat back in his chair, his expression unreadable. “We still have nearly twenty-four hours.”

  “That should be plenty of time,” she said with confidence that she didn’t actually feel.

  “Do you want some water?” He reached for the table behind him and handed her a glass.

  She took it, barely lifting her head to take a few small sips. “Thank you.”

  “There’s some food when you’re ready for it, too.”

  She felt slightly nauseous, so she just nodded, her brain racing through everything she could remember from the last few hours.

  There wasn’t much. A vague memory of being with him on the street. A gunshot. She did a quick scan of his body for injuries. He noticed her gaze and looked down at himself curiously.

  “Did you shoot someone?” she asked.

  “Oh. Yeah. The cop who shot you with the Taser. In the leg, though.”

  Damn. She hadn’t thought he had it in him to even grab a gun in time, much less aim and hit a target who was also shooting at him.

  “And then I hit him over the head,” he said. “With the gun. Which is probably ridiculous, but, you know. Never killed anyone before. I’m not super-eager to start.”

  She just nodded. She didn’t want to look too startled. She didn’t want him to think she was surprised that he’d managed to get them away from the cop.

  Because it wasn’t that, exactly. The image of Lennon running away from their car had been on a constant loop in her head. He was so fast. It was…well, it wasn’t entirely horrible, watching him run.

  But he could have just bolted. He could have left her on the ground and taken off. He had the maps.

  It seemed rude to let him know that she was surprised he hadn’t abandoned her.

  “Thank you,” she said softly.

  “For what? Catching you when you fainted? No problem.” His voice was full of humor.

  She tried for annoyed when she turned to him, but a smile spread across her face. “I did not faint.”

  “Yes, you did. You’re very delicate.”

  She laughed despite her best effort not to. “Shut up.”

  He laughed too, leaning closer to the cot. His ridiculous hair was in his eyes, and she almost reached up to touch it before he shook it back into place.

  “For getting me here,” she said.

  His gaze was a little soft, in a way that she didn’t hate. “Sure,” he said quietly. “Anytime. And by that I mean, please never do that again because I will probably die next time.”

  * * *

  —

  Maisie forced herself to eat some food, and managed to get upright about half an hour later. Doc peered at her disapprovingly as they headed up the basement stairs.

  “You know you’re running around with a broken hand?” she asked.

  “The stabbing pain makes it hard to ignore,” Maisie responded.

  “It hurts?” Lennon asked. “Did Hadley pack any pain meds?”

  “Yeah, there’s some numbing cream. I’ll put some on in a minute.” She smiled at Doc. “Thank you.”

  “No problem. I knew your father.”

  Maisie’s smile faltered, because it was hard to know if people meant that in a good or bad way. She nodded.

  “We were friends, pre-zone,” she said. “He helped me a few times. Figure we’re even now.”

  Maisie thanked her again and followed Lennon out the door. She pulled the numbing cream from the backpack and spread some on her hand. Pain meds would be better, and she had some, but she couldn’t afford to be foggy right now. She still felt a little off balance from the sedative.

  “Doc thinks we’ll have an easier time now that curfew has passed,” Lennon said. “We probably shouldn’t have tried to move at night at all. Patrol is really heavy then, apparently.”

  Her gaze caught on a flashing light coming from the radio in the backpack. She pulled it out. “Hey, Hadley.”

  “Hey! You’re awake!”

  “Yeah, I’m up. We’re just leaving Doc’s.”

  “Oh good, I was—wait, ‘we’? Why is Lennon still with you?”

  Maisie looked at Lennon in confusion. “Why wouldn’t he be with me?”

  “Queso told me that Doc was offering you a spot on a truck to the gate! They didn’t tell you, Lennon?”

  Lennon ran a hand through his hair. “No, they did. I didn’t go.”

  Maisie gaped at him. “Why not?”

  “Because I promised to help you get the shipment first.”

  His eyes met hers, and her stomach flip-flopped.

  “That’s nice, but very dumb, Lennon,” Hadley said.

  “Very dumb,” Maisie echoed softly.

  “I was supposed to just leave you unconscious in some strange woman’s house in the worst territory in the north?” One side of his mouth lifted.

  She was blushing. Shit. She wanted to touch his stupid hair again.

  “I was actually about to figure out just how deeply Maisie was screwed now that she was alone,” Hadley said. “So, I’m glad you’re not, hon.”

  “Me too,” Maisie said faintly. She tore her gaze away from Lennon’s because that half-smile was really distracting. “Uh, we’re fine. We should have an easier time now that it’s daylight, and we’re not far from Val’s Territory. I’ll call you when we get there, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  LENNON

  LIKE DOC HAD said, the walk was much easier in the daylight. They stuck to the edge of town, and were able to veer off into an old, unused back road as they got closer to the edge of East Spencer territory. The narrow two-lane road wasn’t fit for cars anymore—there were huge holes and debris in the road—but it was beautiful. The trees on either side were huge, providing shade as the sun rose higher in the sky.

  Lennon glanced at Maisie. She’d been quieter than usual the last couple hours.

  “You feel okay?” he asked.

  She started at the sound of his voice, almost like she’d forgotten he was there.

  He, on the other hand, was intensely aware of her presence, and every time her hand accidentally brushed against his. He was intentionally staying on her right side, because he couldn’t brush up against her injured left hand.

  “Yeah, fine.” She smiled sheepishly. “Better than you, probably. I actually got to sleep.”

  “I slept for an hour or so, I think.” He didn’t feel tired.

  “I would have understood, you know.”

  “What?”

  “If you’d gone. If you’d taken that truck to Northgate. I wouldn’t have been mad.”

  He laughed. “Come on, you would have been a little mad.”

  She considered for a minute. “Okay, I would have been a little annoyed. At first. But then I would have realized that I’d been unconscious for hours, and you did what you had to do.”

  He watched as she pushed a strand of pink hair behind her shoulder. “I know.”

  She frowned. “You know?”

  “Yeah. You’re obviously a very logical person. I know we just met, but I already got that about you. I didn’t think you’d be mad. Still doesn’t mean it was the right thing to do.”

  She stared at him for so long that he had to look away before his face betrayed his emotions. The way she kept watching him with a new kind of intensity was making it hard to concentrate on anything else. He hadn’t known he wanted someone to look at him that way—like she was both surprised and deeply intrigued by him—but now he never wanted her to stop.

  “You’re not,” she finally said. “A logical person.”

  He laughed. “Not really, no. I mean, sometimes. But I’m more of a ‘go with my gut’ person.”

  She nodded. “I like that about you.”

  He couldn’t hide his surprise. He wasn’t exactly surprised that she liked that about him, but that she would say it so openly.

  She stopped suddenly, putting her arm out to stop him, too.

  Ahead, two cops were in an off-roading vehicle, blundering through the grass.

  Maisie grabbed his hand and pulled him off the pavement and behind a tree. She crouched down, and he followed suit.

  They waited until the cops lumbered over the road and onto the grass on the other side. Maisie stood as they disappeared in the distance.

  “Honestly, of all the stupid things to carry over from the US,” Lennon grumbled as they stepped back onto the road.

  “What?”

  “Cops. Why you would create your own society and then decide, ‘Hey, how about we give a bunch of power-hungry assholes the power to kill you?’ is completely beyond me.”

  She let out a laugh, eyebrows raised. “Are they like that on the other side of the wall too?”

  “Not exactly, but definitely similar.”

  “It sounds terrible over there.”

  “Does it?”

  “Well, yeah. Apparently, you have some of those”—she waved her hand in the general direction of the disappearing cops—“and you’ve had the same family in charge for years, even though you’re supposed to be a democracy, and apparently you get kidnapped if you go to a place called Georgia.”

  “That last one is just me. Georgians would want me to clarify that it’s actually a very nice state where people usually don’t get kidnapped.”