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  I looked over at Nathan. He was resting his head against his hands. The blanket I’d given him was wrapped around his body tightly. He looked like a caterpillar that was waiting to emerge as a butterfly. He looked tired, but his eyes were open. He was looking at me. I blushed under his gaze and I noticed his lips growing tight, as though he was fighting against a smile.

  “I’m sorry that I’ve done this to your life,” I said to him, as I pulled the blanket around my body, which was starting to shiver against the breeze’s icy touch. “I’m sorry that it was your camp that I found.”

  He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter that it’s me. You just need to focus on why you’re doing this. You need to focus on the person who has kept you going through all of these years. You need to think about your dad and about how great it will be to get him back.”

  I nodded. He was right. I couldn’t focus on him. I had to focus on my father. My father was someone I could save. I couldn’t save Nathan. It was already too late for him.

  The guards could have taken notice of us approaching the city by now, as this edge of the jungle was pretty easy to patrol. I wouldn’t be able to explain why I’d turned up empty handed. They’d kill me on the spot for treason and then my father would never have any hope of being a free man again.

  “You know, if it helps, you’ve totally changed my opinion of you,” Nathan said. “When you first turned up to the camp, I thought you were cold and heartless. I thought that was the only way a person would be able to do the job that you did. You proved me wrong, though. You proved to me that sometimes people have to do bad things for good reasons. You’ve proved to me that your heart is bigger than most people I know and that if there is anybody who deserves happiness then it’s you.”

  “Do you mean that?” I asked. His words sounded too good to be true. The idea that someone could see past the horrible things that I’d done was almost too much to comprehend. “Do you really mean that?”

  “I do.”

  The breeze picked up and I found myself spitting out the hair that had flown into my mouth. “We should probably sleep.” I told him. “We’ve both got a big day tomorrow.”

  He nodded. “Can I ask you just one thing first?”

  “You can ask me anything.”

  “If I accept the chip and they free your father. Could we not meet again? Could we not arrange a place, so that we can find each other?”

  I thought about what he was saying. “You want to see me again?”

  “It’s the only reason I’d ever consider getting a chip,” he admitted.

  “Of course I’ll come to meet you.”

  He smiled at me. “Good. I think I need some hope if I’m going to get through tomorrow.” He let his eyes close and I guessed that was the end of the conversation, so I did the same.

  Sleep came too quickly. It brought morning too swiftly. Far too soon, it was time for us to set off and our final part of the journey.

  CHAPTER 8

  Nathan

  The atmosphere was heavy when I woke up. There seemed to be an understanding all around us that the situation was sad, and even the leaves seemed to droop in chagrin.

  I folded the blanket that Sarah had given me and passed it back to her. She hadn’t looked me in the eye since the night before. I wasn’t sure whether it was because it was too painful for her or because she just couldn’t.

  “So, I was thinking about my old camp,” I said as she pulled her bag closed and threw it over her back. “For a place to meet,” I explained when she looked at me curiously.

  “You want us to meet back at your old camp?” she asked. “What if they trace your chip?”

  “It doesn’t matter. Natasha will go back to the camp and I need her to disarm the chip. Everyone from the camp should have moved on. If they trace the chip then they will only find me and if you’re there, then you.” I watched as she nodded.

  I was glad that we had a plan in place. I’d meant what I’d said the night before. It gave me hope, even though it was only the smallest of flickers.

  But I still had heavy doubts over what would happen when I got to the city. Sarah seemed convinced that every old worlder was given a choice, but I’d heard otherwise. Any old worlder who had been taken to the city had never been seen again. There was no proof that they had been killed. There was only their noticeable absence.

  Once we had packed up, which didn't take long, we set off. The conversation between us seemed strained. I could hear the tension in her voice every time she spoke, as though she was trying to hold back tears. I felt guilty for forcing her to speak at all.

  We fell into silence. Our footsteps seemed like a constant reminder of the fact that we were soon to be parted.

  The trees had started to thin out. I could see huge patches of bright blue sky breaking through the constant green that I had grown used to. The air was starting to get fresher. The heavy smell of damp and dirt was starting to lift.

  After a while I noticed thick plumes of smoke rising up into the air. I’d never seen anything like it before, but I knew that it must be coming from The City of Hope.

  “I take it we’re close?” I asked Sarah, when I noticed a wall, which rose high above the tree tops in the distance.

  She nodded. “That’s the great wall. We’re a couple of miles away from the gates, so we’ll be another hour or so.”

  She stopped. She turned and looked at me. Her eyes were full of desperation. I could tell that she was looking for any reason I could offer her for us to turn and run.

  “You could still run,” she whispered, as though she was afraid the city guards might be able to hear her. “You could still get away.”

  “You’d be hurt,” I shook my head. “I can’t do that to you.”

  I took a step towards her and brushed away the stray hair that was falling over her pretty eyes. They were so deep. They invoked so many questions. I’d need years to find out everything that I wanted to know about her. I’d need countless nights and sunny summer afternoons. There would never be enough time. There never could be.

  “You wouldn’t be doing it to me. It would be my choice,” she tried to insist. I silenced her with my lips against hers.

  I could taste the faint linger of jerky on her lips, as I pressed mine firmly against her. Her breath felt hot against my cheek as her breath deepened. Her body pressed against mine. For a moment the jungle around us disappeared. She was what my parents had talked about when I was little. She was the great love that they told me I’d know, as soon, as I felt it.

  I pulled away from her. I couldn’t kiss her any longer, knowing that it would be our last kiss.

  But there was nothing to say or do. “We should go,” I said to her breathlessly, when her eyes looked up at me with confusion brimming within them. She nodded.

  “I need to get this over with,” I explained. Even though I knew I was doing the right thing, knowing it wasn’t making it any easier to do it.

  “I understand,” she said, as she started to walk. “We’re going to be meeting up in a few days anyway,” she said lightly, but I could hear the doubt in her voice.

  “You’re damn right we will be,” I said to, because what else could we do at this point other than hope?

  We continued to walk. After a while we were out of the trees and in grassland. Closer to the wall there was a red bright path. I followed Sarah, who led us along the path to the right until we reached a side path that ended at a set of large brass gates.

  “Declare your business,” a guard said, as he stepped out from an observation shack.

  “I’m Sarah the bounty hunter. I’ve brought an old worlder to face the government.”

  The guard nodded stiffly and pulled open the gate. “Take him away,” he said, as two other guards appeared from seemingly out of nowhere and started towards me.

  I stepped away from Sarah, so that she wouldn’t get shoved aside in the process. I felt something cold and hard wrapping around my wrists and I realized that I�
�d been cuffed.

  I was blinded by the relative darkness as we passed through the wall, and blinded again by the bright day when we emerged on the other side. It took a lot of blinking and squinting before I could see anything at all.

  I looked around. The city was like nothing I’d ever seen before. The buildings stood tall. Their structures were perfect. The windows shone against the sun. I felt a guard push against my back roughly and I started to walk forward. I looked around quickly and saw Sarah walking behind me. She tried to smile supportively, but I could see the fear in her eyes. This was it. This was going to be when I discovered what the government really did to those who disobeyed them.

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  Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

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  ISBN: 9781683680994