“Ava…Ava…” I bury my face against Aerin’s shoulder as my throat goes raw.
Aerin coughs loudly, winces, and coughs again.
“The air is toxic here,” she says. “We can’t stay.”
“I’m not leaving her!” I reach out, but I still can’t bring myself to touch the smoldering bones.
“She’s gone, Talen. There’s nothing you can do now.”
“We need to bury them!”
“And we will but not now. We need to wait for the air to clear.”
Aerin turns her head to the side, coughing uncontrollably. I take hold of her arm, and we both stand. My knees lock up, and I almost fall, but she steadies me long enough to get my footing. I can barely breathe, and I know Aerin is right about leaving the area, but I hate the idea of leaving their remains lying where they are.
“I can’t…” Tears continue to stream down my cheeks.
“Shh, Talen.” Aerin takes hold of my arms and drags me across bricks and away from the charred ruins of Plastictown. Mindlessly, I follow her along the trail leading to the wall near Hilltop, stumbling over roots and rocks. Aerin sits me down against the trunk of a tree far enough away from the mess to be able to remove the cloths from our faces without choking on the air.
As I stare at the cup in my hands, I can’t stop from shaking.
“Drink this.” Aerin hands me a bottle of water.
I drink it wordlessly. Though the liquid cools my raw throat, it does nothing to ease the pain inside of me.
“I should have been there,” I say again, rubbing a smudge from the clay cup. “They did this. My father probably ordered it. We knew they had something planned for Plastictown. I should have gotten here quicker.”
“We never would have made it in time,” Aerin says. “We didn’t know what they were planning, but even if we knew, we never would have gotten here before the fires. I saw multiple places where fires originated, and they obviously burned the other side of the river, too. This has been planned for some time, and there’s no way we could have prevented it.”
“I never should have left. I never should have followed you into that shaft.”
“You didn’t know, Talen.”
“But I’m supposed to protect them.” I rub my fingers into my eyes. “I’m the one they turned to. I’m the one they counted on.”
Aerin sits beside me and tries to get me to eat something, but I refuse. Anything I put in my stomach is just going to come right back up again. I can’t get the images of Ava burning out of my head, and even as I stare into the distance at the smoking remains of Plastictown, I can’t stop seeing her face.
“We have to go back to the mountain,” I say.
“Hilltop is closer. We can find an empty house to hide out in and figure out what to do next.”
“I don’t give a shit about Hilltop!” I push away from her. “They aren’t the ones who did this! I know who did this! President-Fucking-LaGrange! Viruses just didn’t do the trick, did they? Takes too long. Too many people are resistant. It’s just not reliable enough. Fire though—fire works fucking wonders!”
Aerin takes hold of my arm and brings me back to her side.
“I know how upset you are, but you have to calm down long enough to think reasonably.”
“Fuck reason.” I feel bad about snapping at her, but I can’t seem to help myself.
Aerin sighs loudly and hugs me closer to her. She coaxes me to lay my head down in her lap and runs her fingers through my hair. My eyes and lungs ache. I’m mentally and physically spent, and I have no idea what I should do, so I close my eyes and focus on the sensation.
We stay like that for a while, and I even drift in and out of consciousness a bit. Every time I open my eyes, I can still see trails of smoke coming from the piles of burned plastic, and Aerin is still there, caressing my head with her long, warm fingers.
“We probably shouldn’t stay out here in the woods,” Aerin says, stroking my hair again. “The Thaves may be out here looking for survivors. We need somewhere to hide.”
“Back to the mountain.”
“I’m not sure that’s the safest bet,” she says. “They’ll be looking for us. They might have even tracked us out of the northern shaft by now. I think Hilltop is safer, at least for one night.”