Your One & Only(81)

Nyla rolled her eyes. “I’m taking you to her, okay? It’s too risky for her to come back over the wall. The Binding is tomorrow morning. That’s why we have to leave now.”

“We?”

“What, you don’t want me to come?”

The bark and leaves crunched under their feet.

“Nyla, I—”

“Nyla-313,” she corrected.

Jack stammered. “Okay. It’s not . . . I mean, if you want . . .” He stopped, realizing she was laughing at him. He sighed. “You can do what you want.”

“I know.”

A sound came from behind a fallen log up ahead, and they paused, still hidden by the evening light and the darkness of the grove. Moonlight mottled the path in lacy patterns.

“It’s nothing,” Jack said. “An animal. Let’s go.”

“Wait.” Nyla took his hand again, stilling his movement forward.

The sounds of the jungle surrounded them—chirping frogs, monkeys, the electric hum of a million insects. Jack didn’t pull away again, but looked down at their fingers wrapped together. She followed his gaze and then let go.

“You’re very strange,” she said.

“Okay.”

He and Nyla climbed the wall. From the top, Jack looked back at the town. It was mostly covered in darkness, though lights still twinkled throughout the leaves of the kapok tree in the Commons, and a few windows in the far-off dorms were lit. He thought perhaps this was the last time he’d be within the walls of Vispera and the last time he’d see the town spread before him or Blue River coursing past the iron gate.

He heard Althea call his name before he saw her. They’d walked only a few more minutes to reach the cottage when Althea was in his arms, her feet lifted of the ground, her face pressed into his neck. For the first time since he’d escaped the clinic, he exhaled a long, slow breath.

Althea leaned away and held his face in her hands, inspecting him, making sure he’d made it out of the clinic with no new injuries. When she was satisfied, she rose onto her toes, her hands flat against his chest. She leaned close, and they kissed. He smiled against her lips, drifting into her nearness.

Nyla cleared her throat. Jack pulled away, but Althea stopped him from getting too far.

“Let’s go, Althea,” Nyla said. “We don’t have much time before they figure out what’s happening.”

“I know,” Althea answered. “We’ll be right there.”

Nyla nodded to Jack with a grin.

Jack gave a short nod in reply. Once the Nyla had disappeared into the trees, he turned to Althea.

“I was afraid the Samuels wouldn’t go through with it,” she said.

“Why did they? The Samuels have never liked me.”

Althea led him into the trees, following Nyla. She talked while the last glimpse of the white cottage was covered by dense jungle.

“Samuel-299 communed in the Tunnels. Somehow he did it with everyone at once, but his brothers felt it most strongly. I’ve never experienced anything like it. So they know how he felt about you.” Althea stopped, and her eyes met his. He wanted to look down but couldn’t. “Jack, Sam loved you.”

“I know,” Jack said. And he did know, even if he hadn’t always believed it.

Althea watched him from the corner of her eye. She watched him in that way she had, like she was trying and failing to read his mind. She missed communing, and he would never be able to give that to her. Once they left Vispera, they’d be gone forever. Would he be enough for her?

“What happens when we leave, Althea? It won’t be easy.”

“It’ll be okay,” Althea said, squeezing his hand. “We won’t be alone.”

They’d come upon a clearing. In the middle of it were a couple of wagons filled with supplies, and four mules to pull them. A group of clones clustered together nearby. They all looked up as Althea and Jack arrived. Jack took them in, too stunned to grasp what it meant.

“They’re coming with us too? How did this happen?”

“I told you, Samuel communed with everyone. When he said you should go, leave Vispera, he wasn’t just saying it to you.” She gestured to the small group. “They’re the ones who listened.”



They walked through the night, getting as much distance between themselves and Vispera as possible. The clones in town would be confused and disorganized for a little while yet, but once they realized that Jack and so many others were gone, they’d come after them.

While they traveled, the clones seemed to keep their distance from Jack. It was a bigger group than Jack could have imagined. It’d never occurred to him that others would want to leave. Everyone was so happy in Vispera. They belonged. They had what he used to always want, why would they give that up?

There were almost fifty of them, divided among the generations and models. Three Gen-290 Samuels had come. They avoided meeting his eyes as much as possible, remaining wary and watchful. Even knowing Sam’s feeling, it’d be a while before they had any idea how to act around Jack, and there was nothing he could do to help. The loss of Sam was too recent, and their faces too familiar.

There were Meis, Ingas, some of the older Hassans, four of the Gen-310 Nylas, some Kates, even Viktors.

After walking all night and a day, they stopped to set up camp and cook food. Jack wanted to go farther, but the clones were scared now that they were miles from the safe walls of Vispera, and anyway, they couldn’t keep pace with him. He tried not to get frustrated.