Part 33 (2/2)

I didn't answer, but turned and lunged at Aaron. He was leaning out over the edge, gazing at the water, his pad clutched tight to his chest.

”Hey, what-?” he started.

I grabbed him by his s.h.i.+rt collar and yanked him to his feet, pus.h.i.+ng him out over the side of the craft. ”Now open the vent!”

”Come on-”

”Open the vent or I throw you out!” I shouted, spit flying in his face.

Aaron looked down at the waves. We were high enough for a painful impact. ”Okay, okay, fine, sheesh.”

I let go and Aaron slumped down and tapped at his pad. ”Here we go... and...” He looked up. ”There.”

I saw the giant triangle sliding open in the roof, far in the distance. I nodded to Aaron. ”Good.”

”So, okay, now what?” he said, panting. ”I helped you guys out just now, you know? Discharging that lightning, opening the vent-that should be payback for everything: So, you're gonna let me go, right?”

I felt my jaw clench. ”Yeah,” I said, and shoved him over the side.

”Whoa,” said Leech. ”Dude.” He sounded maybe impressed.

Aaron screamed as he fell, and I watched to see him righting his body and hitting the water feetfirst. He disappeared, then his head popped up, arms thras.h.i.+ng. Alive. That was good, except in the moment I'd pushed him, I'd felt like I didn't care. If Aaron had died, that still wouldn't have evened the score, but I didn't want to think like that. If he had broken a few bones, though, that would be fine.

”Here come the copters,” said Leech, pointing skyward.

I moved to the back, and Lilly slid out of the way. I looked at her and she nodded. ”He's lucky that's all he got.”

I yanked on the lines and pressed the pedals. We pulled into a steep angle and shot back toward the roof. We rose above the SafeSun, the wind blistering at our velocity, the ceiling of the southwest wall closing in. Brilliant light spilled in through the open vent.

”They're getting closer,” said Lilly. I turned to see her pointing off to starboard. There were little cracks, and bullets splintered the side of the craft. ”Guess they're not worried about our safety anymore!” she added.

I started banking the craft back and forth. Zigzagging. A bullet tore through the port sail. But we were nearing the open vent.

”We're gonna do this!” yelled Leech, squinting his eyes against the bright triangle of sky.

I thrust us into one more sweeping arc then straightened out. More pops of gunfire...

And we burst through into daylight.

”We're out!” I shouted.

The curve of the dome fell away beneath us, the rings of thousands of solar panels reflecting like a crystal forest. And above, a pure, searing white sun burned in a cloudless afternoon sky. The ground below was stepped rock and barren plains. To our right, the bed of Lake Superior was ringed with different shades of dried sediment. The tiny green sliver of its remaining water was visible far off.

I looked back and saw that one of the copters had risen through the dome but was just hovering there, watching us go.

And just like that, EdenWest was already distant, its entire monolithic form in our view, shrinking fast. Soon it was only a little bubble on the world.

Lilly threw her arms around me. ”You just did that,” she said.

”Yeah,” I breathed. A week after sinking to the lake floor, I'd flown out the dome roof, my dragonfly change complete, I was something different now, something more. And not alone, but with Lilly, and with this tiny group of people, knotted together, my my people. ”We did,” I said. people. ”We did,” I said.

The sky was the deep blue of late afternoon. The engine hummed and I used the pedals to keep us high and straight against wind gusts. The air was hot, sweet with the smell of baking rock, the dry that I knew from back home. That humid clinginess was gone; so was the feeling of being enclosed. Suddenly we were out in the vast, vacant world, and who knew what we would face next?

”Cool,” said Leech. He was looking down. We were pa.s.sing over a barren town.

I watched the little model world slide by. The empty, crumbled brick buildings cl.u.s.tered around dirt-covered streets, the sun-bleached cars tossed here and there-it looked like the remains of an ancient civilization. Some mysterious people had once lived here, when the world was different. And we were the G.o.ds from an even more distant past, now come back from the future.

Soon, EdenWest was only a glint of reflected sunlight on the horizon.

We sped on, bearing west across the wasteland.

Chapter 28

NIGHT FELL, COLD AND DAZZLING WITH STARS. I brought the craft down low, a few hundred meters above the ground. The dark was complete, the way it would get outside of Hub, though now and then we did pa.s.s over some little light flickering in a gully or a window. A solitary family, a band of travelers. I wondered if they noticed our ghostly blue light speeding overhead and puzzled over what we were. brought the craft down low, a few hundred meters above the ground. The dark was complete, the way it would get outside of Hub, though now and then we did pa.s.s over some little light flickering in a gully or a window. A solitary family, a band of travelers. I wondered if they noticed our ghostly blue light speeding overhead and puzzled over what we were.

We decided to wait until morning to figure out where we'd go next. Leech needed to draw some maps. I'd suggested we head for Hub, to get supplies, and to see Dad. Lilly wasn't sure yet. So, for the night, we were just flying due west, based on Leech's reading of the stars.

A silence settled over us for a while, the magnitude of what we'd done, and what we'd left behind, sinking in.

Later, I looked over to Lilly, who was lying back, staring up at the stars. She noticed me noticing her.

”You're right,” she said.

”What?” I asked.

”The stars are brighter out here. I can't even find Orion.”

”You actually can't see it in the summer except right before dawn,” said Leech, like he had a star map in his brain. ”Aaron just kept it out all the time 'cause he liked it.”

”Oh,” said Lilly, sounding a touch annoyed or disappointed. But then she added, ”Thanks.” She turned to me. ”Speaking of which...” I felt her hand slip into mine, her fingers rubbing my knuckles. ”Thanks again for saving me.”

I smiled. ”How many times did I drown? I owed you.”

”What we just did was crazy.”

”Yeah, but it worked.”

”Unless we actually hit the water back there and this is just the pleasant journey to nirvana,” said Leech from the front of the craft.

”I think we made it,” I said.

Lilly took my hand and put it to her face, to her cool, smooth cheek. She smiled, but her eyes were serious. ”You should have left me.”

I shook my head. ”No.”

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