Part 16 (2/2)

I wondered for a second if I'd blown it somehow... but then she said, ”You know how there's all that stuff, between boys and girls, like how you're supposed to act? And what you're supposed to say?”

I thought of my cabin and the Foxes, and of my own meager dating experience. ”Yeah.”

”Well, it's weird, but like, with you, it was like we were already past all that. Like I already knew you, almost as if I always had. Does that sound crazy?”

What sounded crazy was the way my heart was pounding as I listened to Lilly's words. ”No,” I managed to say. ”Not crazy.”

”I mean,” Lilly went on, ”it's not like I understood all that right from the start.”

”I thought you were just taking pity on me,” I said.

Lilly rubbed my head. ”Well, you were all cute and pathetic. But it wasn't pity. I was caring about you.”

”Okay,” I said. ”Even though I don't have, you know, like, killer shoulders and stuff?”

”Oh stop it,” said Lilly. She was smiling. ”Your Owen muscles suit you, and they look good to me.”

”Huh,” I said, smiling too and thinking, Whoa Whoa.

Lilly's grin turned devilish. ”And I heard heard about how all those little Arctic Fox girls are all worked up about the new hot boy.” about how all those little Arctic Fox girls are all worked up about the new hot boy.”

”What?” I said, ”No, come on....”

”Mina.”

”Okay, maybe one.”

”Told you,” said Lilly.

Her lips touched my cheek, pulling away and leaving an echo of heat. She laid her head back down on my shoulder. I thought about what to say next, found nothing, and so I didn't.

Time pa.s.sed, unknowable amounts and I had no sense for it. There was just the blanket and gra.s.s, the cold of rain and the heat of Lilly like a small sun beside me, and we lay there until the clouds left and the SimStars reappeared. Later, the burn-off lightning started to jump from the array high above, its gentle thunder rolling around.

When the first purple lights of dawn turned on, Lilly said, ”We should head back.”

”Okay.” I wanted to say something about what I'd been thinking of again, about us swimming the earth over, finding our own archipelago of clear water, of endless nights of rainstorms and candles, just like this. But I saved it.

I helped her stash the gear. We swam back through the depths, emerging at the empty raft.

We trudged onto sh.o.r.e. The dome was turning pink. The CITs were gone. I wondered what to do-give her a hug, say something-but when I turned, she had already started across the sand in the other direction, our spell broken. ”See you in the Preserve,” she said. ”I'm going to catch you and eat you up.”

”You can try,” I said back. I still had no idea what this predator-prey game was, but now wasn't the time.

”Good night, Owen.”

”Good night, Lilly.”

I headed for my cabin, my steps getting heavy, bare feet swis.h.i.+ng in the dew-soaked gra.s.s. I was so shot from these nights. I needed my three hours of sleep desperately, or more like three days of sleep, but I ended up walking slow, taking my time, through a dawn southeasterly wind that felt like four knots and rising steadily. My mind had put aside thoughts of gills, secret projects, and sirens. All seemed less important, less real than Tiger Lilly and her secret island. The night felt like it had gone by so fast, yet every second of it was bright and burned into my mind, and I felt sure I would never forget any of it, almost like I'd left some part of me back there on that island, a piece carved out that wouldn't travel into whatever came next. It would just stay behind, living that night over and over.

Chapter 13

”THERE ARE THREE GROUPS IN THIS GAME OF predator-prey.” predator-prey.”

Sleep was too short. The sun seemed too bright, the air too humid.

”The following cabins will be the herbivores: Spider Monkeys, Lemurs, Koalas, and Tree Frogs.”

I had stumbled through breakfast, mostly head down. The bug juice, aqua-blue today, tasted like mint and the edges of plastic cups. I forgot to turn it down. There was a light fuzz to all of my movements. My shoulders were finally starting to ache with soreness from the hours of swimming.

”Spotted Hyenas and Arctic Foxes will be the omnivores. In the food web, you are the equivalent of skunks or racc.o.o.ns.”

”You're the skunks!” Paige shouted at us, her face painted with stripes of green and black. The Arctic Foxes cheered.

I glanced back to where the Foxes were sitting, and pairs of eyes immediately sharpened into glares at me. Mina had thought I was going to show up for polar bear swim. After the night with Lilly, it had never even crossed my mind. Now, I had jerk status with the whole Fox cabin. Mina leaned over to another girl, and they whispered and laughed and glared some more. Vaguely, my foggy brain considered that I'd never been at this level before, from unnoticed up to noticed and now to hated, but I was too tired to care.

”The CITs will be the carnivores, top predators. They are already inside the Preserve.”

Everyone buzzed around me. We were gathered on the far side of the boathouse, on a slope of ground with log-bench seats, like a little amphitheater. Behind the small stage where Claudia stood, the steel mesh net rose to the ceiling, enclosing the Preserve, a relic forest from before the Rise, its trees thicker and darker than in the rest of Eden, mysterious.

Inside were species of birds, mammals, and reptiles that existed nowhere else in this area anymore. There were some enclosures inside that were more like a zoo: with cougars, black bears, and coyotes. The large bird I'd seen the other morning had been confirmed as a robot. Apparently, years ago there had been a bald eagle, but it had been too sensitive even to the inside rad levels.

The Preserve was off-limits to the campers except for naturalist walks now and then, and for this: the two-hour game of predator-prey.

”In order to win,” said Claudia, ”you have to survive and increase your population. At the end of the game, the teams in each category with the largest viable populations are the winners. Herbivores, you have your teams of ten.”

The younger cabins all erupted in cheers. All the teams had painted their faces like their cabin animal: little gaggles of whiskered creatures. Even though the youngest cabins, the Pandas and the Ocelots, didn't get to play, these midlevel kids still looked young, like fresh meat.

Our cabin was split into two teams of five. I'd opened my eyes to everyone already up and working silently on face painting, but unlike the little kids', ours didn't look like animal designs so much as camouflage war paint: blotches of greens, smears of black, browns, grays. I hadn't had time to put any on.

”Herbivores,” Claudia continued, ”let's see....” She glanced back at the pad in her hand, flicking through instructions. Apparently Paul would usually do this, but Claudia said he was tied up in another meeting this morning. ”Your goal is to collect the food tokens that are hidden throughout the Preserve, and to avoid being eaten by the omnivores and carnivores. Every twenty food coins you collect equals one new population member. At the end of the game, the herbivore team with the largest population wins. You will be hunted by the omnivores and carnivores. There are three safe zones within the Preserve, but if your team gets caught, you must hand over the appropriate food and armbands, and return to the gate. After ten minutes, you'll then be allowed to reenter to start again. Remember, stay with your counselors at all times. Listen for the horn at the two-hour mark. That ends the game. Ready?”

The younger kids all cheered again, then moved toward the entrance, chattering excitedly in their little herbivore cl.u.s.ters. Their counselors had painted faces, too.

”Enter!” said Claudia.

A counselor pulled open the squeaky metal-framed door, and the teams entered one at a time. As they stepped into the shadows, their cheers quieted, their necks craning to look up at the high trees.

”See you soon, snackies!” Leech called after them. A few girls in the last group looked back with wide, prey-like eyes.

”Okay, omnivores,” said Claudia, turning to us and the Arctic Foxes. ”Your goal is to gather food by collecting food tokens and hunting the herbivores. Each time you catch an herbivore team, you can take thirty food-”

”I thought it was forty?” Leech interrupted.

Claudia looked fl.u.s.tered as she checked her notes. ”Yes, okay, yes, that's right... forty food credits per member of your group. If the herbivores don't have enough food, you take their armbands instead. Armbands are worth twenty. For each hundred credits you collect as a team, that equals a new omnivore. The team with the largest population at game's end wins.”

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