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CASSIE

MY HEART WAS BEATING SO hard I was sure the United soldiers could hear it It radiated out fro trees, the ice daggers hanging fro life… or death Life… or death Over and over

My hands were numb and I clutched my rifle by instinct rather than feel With every breath I pulled in,cells froze, iced over, beca wasn’t even the point anymore

It was ainst United soldiers, and my heartbeat betrayed my position every second

For the last hour, I’d been holding steady, but in the Resistance, si alive is the lamest possible default As much as I wanted to sink into the snow, the ice, and into oblivion, I knew I had to act And the only action that made sense, the only plan that could possibly work, had a price so high that my brain shied away from it like a nervous horse from a rattlesnake back on our farm

Once ishly evaluated already-discarded options Every one of the, and the rest of the ca—I’d lost that fear ages ago in the Crazy House Death was bearable, even preferable at this point Failure wasn’t The days, weeks,had ensured that the h to make every neuron in my brain implode

As I picked up the faintest sounds of heavy h the thin top layer of ice, my mind focused painfully on the one choice that remained It was unbearable—the worst choice possible—and the only one that ht not lead to failure

Shit shit shit I had to do it It was the only way Gulping convulsively, I tapped the comm on my coat collar “Beck, come in,” I breathed

My twin sister’s voice, tired and cranky, came back “Becca here ’Sup?”

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SEVENTEEN YEARS IN AN AG cell hadn’t prepared us ora slacker on my science-a-thon teahty from my previous life, but the constant that remained had been Becca Reckless, ridiculous Rebecca My identical twin And by identical I mean that we share virtually no similarities except our looks… and a fierce, unbreakable, unshakeable love for each other, noelse—taste in food, clothes, boys, music, weapons—she’s totally nuts

“I’e,” I told Becca quietly, my lips stiff and thick with cold “I need… I need you to flank east and take out as ive me cover”