Free New World Order by S.M. McEachern Page B

it to her. She gagged and turned away. “You have to eat.”
    “I will as soon as the ground stops moving.In the meantime, can you take that away from me, please?” She motioned toward the food.
    I stood, taking the offending food with me. “Okay, but in an hour I’m going to make you eat.”
    Even though the gray mush was less than appetizing, my stomach growled. I caught Reyes looking at me as I chugged it back.
    “Keep going through your rations at that rate and you’ll be eating radioactive squirrelsoon enough,” he said.
    I ignored the jab, finished my mush, and helped fold the raft until it was small enough to tuck into Reyes’ backpack. It was a lot heavier than it looked, and even with the aid of my suit, I struggled to pick it up singlehandedly. Reyes took it away from me, slid it into his pack, and settled the weight onto his back as if it were feather-light. I found myself wonderinghow much of that strength was him and how much was the suit.
    “We’ll have to hike over that ridge,” Eli said. “And we might as well make camp there tonight since it’ll give us a good vantage point over the valley.”
    As we left the shore and entered the stark forest, the sound of rushing water began to fade. Jin-Sook and Eli led the way. I never tired of watching the ease with which they glidedthrough the forest, leaving barely a trace of their passing. Eli wasn’t quite as graceful as Jin, but then again he hadn’t been born and raised in the Nation like she had. She’d been taught from birth that her first defense against an enemy was not to let him know you were there and had spent a lifetime perfecting the art of being invisible. She had also been taught what to do if that defense failed…and, frankly, I felt sorry for anyone who made the mistake of seeing through her camouflage.
    Looking behind us, I saw that the only footprints left in the mud belonged to Reyes, Summer, and me. I would attempt to move as Jin and Eli did, but I was pretty sure I’d just end up slipping on the patchy ice. The hydraulics in our suits made it easy for us to move faster, and the three of us frequentlyhad to check our speed to allow Eli to maintain the lead. He was, after all, our guide. Summer and I didn’t mind the slower pace, but Reyes huffed a few times.
    When we reached the top of the ridge, we stopped to take in the view. The sight of rolling peaks separated by valleys was quite breathtaking, although the dark clouds gathering in the sky above were not.
    Eli pointed to one of the distantpeaks. “That’s your Dome.”
    Could it be true? Had we really traveled that far from home in just one day? Summer and I looked at each other, silently communicating both our fear and our excitement at straying out into the world.
    She smiled broadly, looking a lot better than she had a few hours ago. “We’re just like Heidi !” she exclaimed. We both fell into a fit of giggles at the mention ofour favorite movie—the one we used to act out in our imaginary childhood world inside the confines of the Pit. She and I always took turns being Heidi and Klara.
    Reyes chuckled. “I remember Heidi ,” he said. “Grade Three every recess, that’s all you two ever played. And you used to bug me and Mica to be the goat and Grandfather.”
    Our giggles turned into hysterical laughter as we remember howridiculous, and yet awesome, Reyes and Mica had been for playing along with us. “But you only ever wanted to be Fraulein Rottenmeier,” I said.
    “She’s the only one I liked,” Reyes said, his smile broad.
    Wiping a tear from the corner of my eye, I got my giggles under control and squeezed Summer’s hand in mine. “We never thought we’d get to see the mountains for real.”
    Behind us, Reyes duckeddown and put his face between ours. “You guys gonna cry or something? Do you need a moment?” Summer playfully shoved him away with her shoulder. He stood up straight and turned to Jin and Eli. “They’ve been like this since they