The Extinction Trials(69)

Apartment buildings were next. The parking lots were covered in moss and shrubs and trees, except for the areas with abandoned cars. Seeing the buildings reminded Owen of the Oasis Park building and that rescue before the Fall, of Maya’s family. He wondered if she was thinking about them—if she still remembered. Time was running out for her. Would she forget him—and what they had shared on the boat?

As he passed another apartment building, his mind flashed to another memory. In it, he was walking down a hallway where older men and women were sitting outside their bedrooms. A nursing home. He paused in the doorway to one of the rooms and peered in at someone—an older woman he was visiting. But he couldn’t remember who that person was. It was someone important to him, he felt that. But try as he might, Owen couldn’t bring the person’s face into focus. Was it a family member?

He realized then: it was happening to him too. His memories were decaying, just like the city, just like Maya’s memories. He sensed that with each step he took, his past crumbled a little more.

A new kind of fear went through him, of losing his identity, his sense of self, of who he was.

Cara’s voice drew his attention, snapping him out of the mental spiral.

“Over here,” she called out quietly, careful not to draw attention.

She moved to a mound near a cluster of cars in what had been an apartment parking lot.

When Owen reached her, he realized what she had seen: a person, lying on the ground by the car. They were wearing an ARC Technologies environmental suit, just like the one he had worn when he exited Station 17.

The person wasn’t moving.

Cara turned the body over. The glass in the helmet was badly damaged. Through the opening, Owen saw a decayed face, though it wasn’t clear to him exactly how long the person had been dead.

The suit had a torn jagged hole near the chest.

“They were shot with an arrow,” Alister said.

“That fits,” Cara whispered, her eyes still raking back and forth over the corpse.

“How long have they been dead?” Owen asked.

“Impossible to tell,” Cara replied.

“What we can tell,” Alister said, “is that someone in the city was hunting at some point. They could still be out here.”

No one needed to say anything more. The group moved quicker then, knowing whoever had killed that person in the ARC environmental suit might still be out there, hunting.

They passed more apartment buildings and scattered strip malls, and gradually, Owen began to see more tall office buildings and what he assumed had been mixed-use developments with stores on the ground floor and crumbling offices and condos above.

On a wide brick wall, someone had taken strips of metal and screwed them in, forming a message:

THE CHANGE WILL SAVE US

At least someone had been optimistic about The Change. It was the first clue of what happened in the city, besides the fallen Extinction Trials participant.

Will walked at the head of the group, leading them through the city, occasionally glancing at the GPS to chart their course. From what Owen could tell, they were making the most direct route through, hoping they would come out the other side and find The Colony there.

They turned a corner and were starting down another street when Owen saw a wrapper from some prepackaged food cartwheeling in the wind like a tumbleweed blowing through a deserted town. He bent down and picked it up and studied it. It was from an ARC ration pack.

He held it out to the others.

“No telling how old it is,” Alister said.

Cara studied it. “There could be someone alive nearby.”

“Do you hear that?” Will asked, seeming to have ignored the conversation.

“What is it?” Owen asked.

“The wind. It’s growing stronger.”

Nearby, the crumbled remains of what looked like an office building were piled four stories high.

Without a word, Will dashed toward the rubble pile and began climbing up it with almost superhuman speed. Owen watched, almost in disbelief.

Near the top of the heap, Will held his hands over his eyes and gazed into the distance. Next, he drew out the monocular and panned it back and forth. He gave no indication of what he saw, only stowed the monocular and descended the stack of rubble as if he’d been practicing it his entire life. Rock and glass crumbled as he went, and he lost his footing twice, but he recovered quickly, breaking his fall with his hands and taking each stumble in stride.

“There’s a storm coming,” he said as he reached the group. “We need to hurry.”





Chapter Fifty-Five





Maya’s heart was thundering in her chest. It wasn’t just Will’s news that a storm was coming. The ruined city put her on edge. Her every instinct was screaming that they needed to get out, and right now.

Blair squeezed Maya’s hand tight. The girl was scared too.

“We need to find shelter—” Alister began.

“There’s no time,” Will said. “And besides, I’ve found something better.”

He handed Alister the monocular. The older man held it to his eye and panned back and forth.

“How did you know?” he asked as he handed it to Owen.

“Logic,” Will said simply.

Owen held the monocular to his eye and scanned the street, then quickly handed it to Maya.