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I like us together and I’ that up”
Ja out a hard breath “I’ to leave you, Sloane” He looks out the driver’s sideThe clouds have gathered above us, and I think it’ll be only a ether,” he says definitively, glancing back at me “But there’s only one pill, and I’d never take it without you I’d never take that choice away fro this life with ra us down I lean over, my hands on his chest, and he pulls me closer
Ja to keep the pill in case we change our ht?”
“My thought exactly”
“You’re so smart,” he whispers, and kisses et lost in the feeling of him, the heat of his mouth on mine I murmur that I love hi tires
Jains to funition just as a white van screeches to a stop, bar-ricading our SUV against the concrete wall of the highway behind us
Panic, thick and choking, sweeps over h the only way out is to ram them
But we can’t go back to The Prograear lever, ready to floor it, when the driver’s side door of the van opens and a person juether in confusion, because there’s no white jacket, no comb-smoothed hair of a handler
It’s a girl She’s wearing a Nirvana T-shirt and has long bleached-blond dreads flowing over her shoulders She’s tall, incredibly thin, and when she sap between her two front teeth I reach to put my hand on James’s forearm, but he still looks like he’s about to run her down “Wait,” I say
Jalances over at me as if I’uy stands on the running board to peer over the door at us He has two half-moon bruises under his eyes and a swollen nose The vulnerability of his battered appearance is enough to h, and he restrains hias
The girl holds up her hands “You can relax,” she calls
“We’re not with The Program”
James rolls down his , the car still in drive and ready to launch forward—crushing her—at any second “Then who the hell are you?” he demands
The girl’s smile widens and she tosses a look back at her co to James “I’m Dallas,” she says
“Reale to find you” At the mention of Realm, I tell James to turn off the car, relieved that my friend is okay
Dallas walks in front of the car, her boots echoing off the pavement, before she comes to pause at James’sShe lifts one of her dark eyebrows and looks hiotten to mention how pretty you are,” she says wryly
“Shame on him”
“How’d you find us?” Ja her comment
“We went to the border for Lacey and Kevin, but there were patrols everywhere We barely got through” Dallas nods toward the car “The phone Real device Pretty handy, but you should probably ditch it now” Both James and I look in the center console at the black phone that was already in the car e got in There’s also a duffel bag on the backseat, along with a couple hundred dollars Anna left us for provisions But is this it? Are we part of the rebels now? If sothey don’t look all that pulled together