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  "I'm not," I say. "Maybe they wanted me because I killed a Megapede." Can he see the sweat on my forehead? The way my hands shake?

  Note to self: do not tell anyone that Garrett is my stepfather, ever.

  "I'm Ned," the guy says. "I've been here since the beginning. Me and my older brother, Steven Wompitt, founded this place. We've lasted twenty years now and it's my job to make sure it stays that way." He faces Jaden and Weslie. Almost everyone else has left. "Show her the spare cabin where she can sleep. In the morning, she works like the rest of us."

  "But—" I stop myself before I can ask for help getting Talia and Shawn and Travis out of the mines. I can't just waltz in here and ask for a favor after he's decided to let me live. He didn't kick me back out into the night. That's a plus and I don't want to ruin it. "Thank you."

  Ned turns and vanishes, walking around the fire and back towards a cabin in the middle of the town. This isn't a huge town by any means, but it's completely surrounded with a wall that must be ten feet high and a huge cliff at the back.

  "You have to leave your stuff in the storage cave," Jaden explains, walking towards me.

  "Storage cave?"

  "Yes," he tells me. "Everyone shares here. We have to. Come on. Then I'll show you where you can sleep." Something about the way he says that makes me tense.

  He leads the way. We walk around the bonfire, which gives off welcome light. The ground here is all dirt. Only a few brave blades of grass manage to poke out. All of these buildings are made of logs and packed with dried mud. These people have managed to make thatch roofing as well. It's all very rustic, like I've stepped back into some forgotten age. My backpack bounces on my back. I hate having to give it up. It's become like a second friend, right behind Pit. What will it end up doing? Who will get it?

  Jaden leads me through a few rows of small cabins and towards the towering cliff that walls in Wompitt in the back. There's a cave that leads right in. I want to turn and head the other way, but Jaden walks towards it, fearless. Even Weslie does, and she strikes me as the timid type.

  "In here,” Jaden says, stopping by the mouth of the cave.

  "It's safe," Weslie tells me. "The torch has just burned out. The cave doesn't go in very far, but it makes a good place to store stuff.”

  I look up at the cliff. It towers overhead about three hundred feet, maybe more. It's a wall of black against the canopy of stars. Something could drop right off it and into Wompitt, but it wouldn't survive. I hope there aren't rock slides or something here. The cave waits. For a second I wonder if this is some kind of trap and if these two people are going to stab me or something once I step inside. But I take a breath and grab my backpack. I walk into the darkness and my foot brushes a bag of something. I have to take the risk if I'm ever going to get help for Shawn. I should ask for it now.

  Wait until morning, babe, he says.

  He's still here with me in a way. At least Melissa seems to have shut up.

  "Set it down," Jaden says. "Nobody's going to steal it."

  "Are you sure?" I ask.

  "Sure. We don't steal or waste anything here. Everything's useful. It's great when we get stuff from Earth. I've never been there, by the way, since my parents had me here. I think this is the first...what kind of pack is that?...that I've ever seen.”

  “A backpack,” I tell him, setting it down.

  “What kind of material is it made out of?”

  “I'm not sure.” I wonder what kind of life this kid has had, knowing nothing other than Selwyn. He must be used to this place.

  “How did they get it so orange?”

  I feel bad for him and exit the cave. “Some kind of dye. I think. Backpacks aren't as cool as they seem. Mostly we use them to carry homework. Did your parents tell you about homework?” If his parents were escaped workers, they came from Earth. They might have even come from high schools.

  “My mother did.” Jaden looks over my shoulder and towards the cliff. “She said it wasn't fun. Did you bring any books with you?” His eyes light as he changes the subject.

  “No,” I say. “Sorry.”

  His face falls. Weslie mouths something.

  He can't read.

  My heart sinks. Jaden may not have ever seen a book, or printed words, before. Not if he was born here. How could his parents have ever taught him? They sure didn't take any books out of the Dweller mines, even if they came through a gateway with some.

  “I have some paper,” I tell Jaden. “And some pens. You can check that out tomorrow.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  Next to him, Weslie smiles. I'm the appointed tutor now. I imagine sitting there with Jaden, having him print and pronounce words in front of that bonfire. The thought is so strange. But Jaden's mood has improved tenfold ever since I mentioned the notebook.

  But I don't have time to tutor people out here.

  I need to get back to Shawn and Talia and Travis and get them out of there before some monster in the mines finds them. They could be dead already for all I know, especially after what I did to Garrett.

  I might have sealed their fates.

  I told you, Shawn says. Go to bed. You need to rest. You won't be any good to us if you're falling apart.

  “Let's show you where to go,” Weslie says.

  Jaden walks off between a pair of cabins and past something that might be a bale of hay. He doesn't even say goodbye. What's with him?

  I follow Weslie. Thankfully, Ned is gone. There are two men by the gate now, up on a log catwalk that I hadn't noticed before. They look out into the darkness, watching for any Dwellers that might return. One of them faces Weslie and waves her over. They're telling her to hurry up and get back to her post. Weslie frowns and licks her lips. She doesn't want to go. Not after what happened.

  “Thanks for opening that gate,” I say. “It must have been scary.”

  Weslie walks slower as we approach a cabin that's up against the wall of the town. The wall's made of hacked tree trunks and packed with the same mud that fills the holes of the cabins. I feel much safer looking at it.

  “It was,” Weslie says at last. “But the bonfire is another defense we have. The Dwellers hate light and they probably wouldn't have run in here after you. All of the underground creatures hate light, but some do more than others. By the way, I think the Megapede's really gone. Normally we would have heard it by now." Her voice breaks. Something's weighing her down on the inside. I don't know her well enough to ask her about it.

  "It's gone," I assure her. Maybe I'm making a good impression after all. I still hold the jaw in my hand. "You want me to go put this in the cave too?" In a way, I'll be glad to get rid of it. At least until I can find a way to wash Garrett's blood off.

  "Keep that," Weslie says. "It's a trophy and you deserve to show it off. Don't let Ned make you donate it to the community. That's what he'll want you to do.”

  Weslie believes that I killed the Megapede, even if Ned doesn't.

  I like her, I decide.

  "Okay," I say, checking for Ned. Clear. I only see Pit bounding up to us. He looks happy and his eyes are bright. He turns towards the cabin we stand next to and sniffs at the fur curtain that hangs in the doorway. It's a brown fur with beautiful tan and red squiggly lines. It's from some animal I haven't seen yet. “Is this mine?”

  “Yes. Unless Ned wants to move you later.” Weslie nods at the doorway. “There's a bed in there with the blankets still on it. It hasn't been used in about a year. Enjoy sleeping and not worrying about being eaten or dragged off.”

  “Thanks.” I will. It'll be the best sleep I've ever had. “Who was in here before?”

  “A hunter,” she says. Weslie pauses. “A hunter who went out one day and didn't come back. It was awful. She was an awesome hunter, by the way. I don't know if she's alive or dead.”

  I open my mouth to say something, but Weslie holds up her hand.

  “No, no,” she says. “It's fine if you sleep here. Really.�
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  My eyelids droop. My body's starved for energy. I need to sleep. I need to rest before I can go back for my friends with reinforcements. These people might know ways to rescue the miners if they're made up of folks who have gotten out of the mines. They'll know how to get back down there. Where to go. Jaden's lived in this world all his life.

  Or they might be too scared to try.

  "Get some sleep," Weslie says. "Jaden and I have to get guarding the gate again. Ned's going to have our heads if we don't."

  "I hope that's not literal," I say.

  "Not literal, but close," she says. "Just remember this one thing. Do not make Ned angry.”

  “I kind of figured that.”

  I haven't truly slept since I left my bed back home, a very long time ago, it seems. Was it only three or four days I've been here? I can't believe it. It feels like years.

  Pit enters the cabin, pushing the curtain out of the way. I follow. The cabin is dark except for a bit of firelight coming in through the cracks in the wood. It smells like forest and earth in here. The floor's a bunch of crude planks that might be half logs. They creak. I let my eyes adjust and the rectangular form of a bed—an actual bed—comes into view. It looks like a giant cradle made of logs and it must be full of hay. It's covered in a bed sheet made of fur, but I don't care. My last three nights consisted of dirt. Of rock and of bark and stone. And giant centipedes.

  I can sleep here without my axe next to me.

  It's lying out in the dark, anyway.

  I set the Megapede jaw on the floor as I can't see if there's a stand or anything in here. Even if it's just a bed in here and nothing else, I'm fine with it.

  I collapse on it. Pit lies on the floor like he's guarding me.

  I'm right. It's hay under the blanket but it's the best thing I've lied on in a long time. I close my eyes and pull the fur blanket over me. I wonder how this settlement has lasted out here so long. How the Dwellers haven't swarmed the place and taken all these people away. How the Flamestone Society hasn't shut this down if they have access to guns. Why tonight was the first time they got all the way out here.

  Maybe until I showed up, Wompitt was hidden from those creepy little gnome things. Maybe I led them here and that's why Ned wants to keep a close eye on me.

  There's a lot of maybes.

  I might have changed everything.

  It all swirls through my mind as I let myself fall into the oblivion of sleep.

  Chapter Two

  Wompitt

  People talk.

  I open my eyes. My body's warm and I'm more comfortable than I've been in days. A blanket's over me. I'm in a bed. An actual, glorious bed. It might be a stone age bed, but it's awesome.

  And I'm alive.

  There's daylight. I can see through between the cabin walls and the fur curtain that's covering the door. Do I get to keep this place?

  No. I can't stay here long. Just long enough to get someone to help me, and that's all. Then I have to go for Shawn and Talia and Travis. It's what I came out here for. I can't just live here forever. I need to start setting a plan today.

  Voices float in from outside. It's a man and a woman.

  "...hunting. We need something for tonight." I don't recognize this guy.

  "...I'll get the cows milked." That's Weslie. She yawns. Did she have to stand out there and guard all night?

  "...Sounds good."

  They're talking about work. These people probably don't get any days off. If they don't work, they don't eat.

  My body's heavy and I just want to rest some more. But Ned is already suspicious of me, even though I don't have the flame tattoo on my arm. He still thinks I might linked to the Flamestone Society.

  I had better pull my weight around here, even if he doesn't suspect me. It's best to get these people to like me. Besides, they saved my life. I owe them.

  I get up off the bed. Stretch. Pit's standing up, too, and he's walking in circles and looking up at me. He glances at the floor and back up to me, over and over and over again. The floorboards creak under my feet. Pit whimpers.

  “Sorry,” I say. “I don't have any Dwellers for you to eat. There might be some dead ones out in the hills.” I point in that direction. I did kill a few of them last night. I kicked them and sent them flying, so their bodies must still be there. Dwellers don't collect their dead.

  Pit whimpers again. He tries to block my way out of the door, but I don't let him. I hope these people have something to feed him. What if he runs off?

  The fire's still going, but it's much lower now and giving off more smoke than anything. There's a fresh pile of sticks next to it that I might not have noticed last night. Someone must have the job of keeping it going at all times. I scan the fire for any Flamestone that might be inside. No. It's all tinder. These people might not have access to Flamestone very often, and have to keep the fire going all the time. I don't spot any orange ore pockets in these cliffs. Either they've already mined it all, or there simply isn't much here.

  I'm glad I brought a whole bunch of it, then.

  And there are people. Lots of people. Everyone's sitting down on those half-logs. There are two circles of them around the flames. This is the town meeting place. I'm the only one in jeans, except for a young man on the other side of the ring. He's got really faded, holey jeans on along with a leather tunic that's tied in the front with twine. There must be about three or four dozen here. The little boy and a girl who might be ten are the only children I see.

  I spot Weslie and Jaden sitting over on the other side of the fire. Jaden waves me over.

  I sit on the log with them. The seat's not comfortable, but it beats the ground.

  "Morning," Jaden says. He has bags under his eyes. He's been up all night.

  I wonder if we're here for some meeting and my heart flutters. Ned's not out here. It seems like everyone in this town is here except for him. There's smoke coming out of the large cabin nearby, the one with the mud chimney. "What's this?" I ask.

  "Oh, don't worry. This is normal in Wompitt," Jaden says. Next to him, Weslie puts her chin on her hand like she's struggling to stay awake. "Every morning, we meet for breakfast and then Ned bosses us around.”

  "Sounds like the military,” I say, even though I've never been in the military. I'm relieved. This isn't about me after all.

  "Well, it is," Weslie says. "It sucks when you have guard duty the night before. Ned doesn't give you the day off if you happen to guard the place the night before."

  Jaden pats her on the back. She's still wearing the fur with blue spots on it. They shine in the sun. They're much prettier than furs that our ancestors must have worn back in the regular world. These are cool. I wonder how much longer my clothes will last and whether or not Ned will want me to surrender them in exchange for some furs. Cloth must be like gold out here.

  I have to ask. "Is Ned always so mean to new people?"

  Weslie nods. "He wasn't that bad to me, but ever since a Flamestone Society member tried to get in here, he changed."

  My heart leaps. "What happened?"

  "It was last year," Weslie says. "Right after me, in fact. She came in, saying she escaped from the mines. She went to brush her hair back from her face, and her sleeve fell down from her forearm, and it was there. The flame tattoo." Weslie looks away like she's trying to delay talking about the rest. I have a feeling I know how the story ends.

  "He killed her," Jaden finishes. "Ned speared her right there in front of everyone. I've never seen so much blood. But as far as I know, no one else from the Flamestone Society has tried to get in. That was the first time. She must have been a spy. That means the Society has been looking for our settlement for quite a while. And I think it's why Ned's so suspicious of you. Maybe he thinks the Flamestone Society learned from its mistake and sent another spy who isn't marked. One who could survive getting in here.”

  “We're lucky she never got the chance to report us to them,” Weslie says.

  “But I
'm not their spy,” I say. I look at the ground where I landed when I came through the gates. A girl bled to death there. I might have knelt in the dirt that soaked up her blood. On the other side of the smoldering fire, Pit stands in the doorway of my new cabin like he doesn't want to cross it. “I hate the Flamestone Society. They've got my best friend and my boyfriend down there. They could both be dead by now.” I'm clenching my fists. “I don't know what to do. I can't leave them."

  “Wompitt's far from the actual mines,” Weslie says. “Last night really was the first time a whole crowd of Dwellers got out here. The Flamestone Society might have followed you because they saw that the Harehound was leading you. They thought it might lead them to all us escaped miners. That's what I think.”

  “That might be true.” Well, partly true.

  "Don't worry," Jaden tells me. "If Ned thought you were a spy, you would have been dead by now. He might be tough, but he's fair."

  "Killing someone is fair?" I ask.

  Jaden brings his finger to his mouth to quiet me.

  “Morning!” Ned's voice booms through the air.

  He's walking towards us, but he doesn't sit. Instead, he stands before the bonfire and circles it. He's even scarier in the dull morning light. Even more like a deranged drill sergeant.

  I grab onto the log and wait. Even Pit stands in the doorway of the cabin like he's afraid to come out.

  "I would like all of you to welcome the newest citizen of Wompitt.” He faces me. “What is your name?”

  “Elaine.”

  “Elaine.” He speaks like it's no big deal, like I'm some kind of shipment that needs to be unpacked and taken care of. All eyes fall on me. Tough eyes. Tired eyes. I try not to shrink back on the log. At least I have Jaden and Weslie to sit next to and I'm not by myself. At least I know two people here by name.

  "After breakfast, she will be helping with some of the farming activities today," he announces. It's more directed to me than anyone else. Then he faces me as if daring me to protest. I don't. I just nod and wait for whatever's coming. "You will be paired up with Weslie today. She will show you what to do. Jaden, you are going to go with the hunters today. Take the Harehound with you. He will help you hunt. I think you need to start getting out of town more." He looks to the side, to where Pit still stands. "I think he's one of ours. I haven't seen him in a long time." Ned faces me. "Where did you find him?”