"Okay." Noah was thinking it through. "So . . . then how did it happen?" His jaw tightened. "Are we dead after all, like Hector said?"
A twinge of fear, but I shoved it aside. Trust your instincts!
"For some reason, Hector just had one of our experiences. Now Tack's body is missing! It's not a stretch to think it happened to him as well."
"Okay . . . so where is he?"
"No idea!" The words tumbled out of me. "He could be hiding in the woods, totally freaked out. He wouldn't walk back into town like Hector did. Not after Ethan stabbed him. He's probably up a tree somewhere, alone and scared out of his mind."
"Then how do we find him?"
I'd been wondering the same. "I don't think he and Hector came back in the same place. They probably would've seen each other. But maybe Tack reset in one of our spots? My clearing isn't far from here. Let's check it. If he's not there, we can circle around to your cave. If both are empty, we'll try to find the place Hector described."
"Right. Sure."
"He's out there, Noah. I can feel it. Trust me, please."
Noah smiled. "I do trust you, Min."
I smashed his mouth with a kiss. Then pushed away.
"Let's go find our boy."
• • •
We reached the meadow where I'd awakened so many times. No sign of Tack. The forest was eerily quiet without birds, a chilling reminder that more was wrong in the valley than just missing townspeople. I took the risk of calling out, but got no response.
So we started hiking over to Noah's cave, skirting the northern edge of town. There we had a stroke of luck. An unlocked car had its keys inside-not unusual in our town-and the tank was full. Opting for speed over stealth, we drove down Quarry Road, then shot south along the water.
We didn't see anyone else. Whatever Ethan and the rest were up to, they didn't seem to be looking for us. Noah drove as close as we could get, then led me the rest of the way on foot, to a hidden fissure in the rocks beside a small pond. The cozy little vale would make an amazing campsite, but it was plain that no one was there.
Noah pointed to a sheet of mud stretching across the entrance to the cave. "No footprints. I don't think he was here."
I ground my teeth. He's alive. Somewhere. We just have to find him.
Noah knelt, drew a circle in the dirt. "Look. This is the lake." Then he made three dots around the circle. "Here's your reset point, in the north. Mine is to the west. And the area Hector described is over here, to the south. What do you notice?"
The answer was obvious. "They look like compass points." My mind made the leap. "The Nemesis docs described four beta subjects, but we know of only three reset points so far."
Noah made a fourth mark in the dirt. "Here. To the east."
I clamped a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. "Brilliant!"
"Ow!" He scuttled sideways with a laugh, then rose to tower over me again. I could tell he was pleased by my praise. We hurried back down to the car.
The trip took thirty minutes. We drove south around the lake, hoping to avoid notice, though anyone watching from the hills would've spotted us. I wondered what Ethan was doing. His reaction to Hector set my teeth on edge. Did he know more than he was letting on? Was he still after Noah and me, or had Hector's return somehow changed the game?
Worries swirled inside my head, forming a ball of tension I couldn't dispel. I wanted to scream at the car to go faster. For a hot second, I missed my mother desperately. Yearned for her soft hands and levelheaded advice. But I pushed those feelings away.
Mom had betrayed me. She'd made me the centerpiece of a conspiracy involving my repeated execution. Anyone who could do that to her own flesh and blood wasn't worthy of trust. I could only count on myself.
And Noah. He's proven that much, now.
We reached the eastern woods. Without a better plan, Noah parked in the same place we'd used the night Sheriff Watson was killed. Everything felt like it was coming full circle, though we were no closer to figuring things out.
Project Nemesis remained a total mystery. Its architects were ghosts.
Noah led me to the edge of the woods. "Where should we look? There's a lot of acreage back here."
I'd been thinking about it on the ride over. "Reset points seem to be empty spaces. Let's find the field where those soldiers trapped us." Where Sheriff Watson was executed, I left unsaid, but I could tell it was on his mind as well. We hopped the fence. The hike took ten minutes. We reached the clearing, but not a soul was present.
My spirits sank into my shoes. I'd been wrong.
Tack wasn't there. Which meant Tack was dead.
I didn't even have the heart to call out.
Bushes rustled. I spun.
A skinny kid emerged with greasy black hair stuck to his forehead. His clothes were filthy, but there was a devilish gleam to his blue eyes.
"What took you guys so long? I was running out of berries."
PART FIVE
THE GUARDIAN
45
NOAH
Tack strolled into the clearing.
He faked a yawn, trying to play it cool. But his relieved eyes betrayed him. I could tell he was extremely glad to see us. Then Min tackled him in a flying bear hug.
"Tack!" Tears streamed from her eyes. He laughed, begging for mercy as they toppled to the ground.
I stood rooted to the spot. He's alive. She was right.
Logically, I knew that finding Tack alive was the object of our trip-what we'd been desperately hoping for-but seeing him in the flesh nearly overwhelmed me.
I watched him die. Saw the light leave his eyes.
Yet here he is, like it never happened.
Min was straddling Tack and punching him in the chest as he lay pinned to the ground. "Tell me everything!" she demanded. "How are you here?"
"Get off me first!" Tack croaked, though I suspected he was perfectly content. Min relented and they both stood up. Tack glanced over at me. Gave a head nod, which I returned. Then he turned back to Min, eyebrows climbing his forehead. "I have no idea how I got here. The last thing I remember is collapsing in the church."
He flinched involuntarily. I understood. I knew what it was like to be murdered.
Min pulled him into another quick hug. "Just tell us what you remember."
Tack seemed to focus inward. "I felt the knife go in. Felt it . . . pierce my heart." His breathing picked up, a sheen of sweat dampening his brow. "I went numb. My brain stopped working, and I hit the floor. Then . . ." His hands rose, accentuating an impossible description. "Nothing. I woke up here. Not even a rip in my clothes."
Tack looked at Min, then me. "Just like you guys described. How is that possible?"
"We don't know, but you're not the only one." Min told him about Hector.
"So, what, no one can die now? We all reset like you guys?"
"No idea," Min admitted, brushing hair from her face. "But it's a possibility."
"Has it always been like this?" Tack wondered aloud. "I've never freaking croaked before, but maybe I would've reset every time, too."
"Kids in Fire Lake have died," I pointed out unhappily. "Remember Mary and Pete? They didn't come back." My thoughts were racing down tunnels, a dark idea taking shape. "I keep circling back to town square. They obviously gassed us for a reason. This might be it."
"But you and I have been resetting for years," Min said, tapping her thigh with an index finger. "We died and came back five times before they rounded anyone else up."
"We're the betas, remember?" The idea gathered steam in my head. "Project Nemesis used four test subjects as guinea pigs in the early trials. Then they gathered our whole class together to activate their final plan. That mist was probably some kind of experimental chemical. Maybe they were . . . infecting everyone, giving our classmates the same thing we've had since we were kids."
Min was slowly nodding. "The shots in kindergarten. They took Noah and me into the woods. We could've been injected with something, then had our responses tested for years. Until the bastards were ready to infect the whole sophomore class."
"But where did they go?" Tack countered. "Noah's theory doesn't explain why everyone vanished while we were unconscious, or . . . or"-he shuddered, then forged ahead-"or dead in the square. And how did the valley repair itself? That part blows my mind, no matter what angle I come at it from. Buildings don't fix themselves."
Min groaned. "You're right. I think Noah's close, but we're still missing something."
I ground my teeth. The answers felt tantalizingly close. I didn't want the moment to slip away. "The damage could've been a mass delusion. Maybe the earthquakes, too." My eyes popped. "Oh man, I suppose it's possible that even the Anvil was invented. All of it-the reports, the natural disasters, everything-faked from the beginning. Our whole last week could've been one giant head game! Part of the Nemesis experiment. We're isolated up here in the valley. They could've manipulated everything."