fault. I put them in the goddamn paper bags. Trying to go plastic-free, the environment, you know.” Then he was gone, too, and Nudge and I hovered beneath the roiling, blackening clouds. She said nothing, didn’t even look at me before going after her friends, her family, the Flock—leaving me up here alone.
Shit. I had nowhere to run, had no idea where we were except, you know, ocean. The only land was beneath me, and I’d set most of it on fire. With no options, I tucked my wings back, angled my head down, and got ready to plummet fast, from this high up, for the first time in my life.
BOOM!
Light flashed so bright it hurt, and I couldn’t tell if my eyes were open or shut anymore. I was plummeting, but not like I’d planned. I was in a free fall, my legs, arms, and wings spinning out of control. There should have been wind rushing in my ears, but I heard nothing. My vision was gone. My hearing was gone. My body wasn’t responding to what I told it to do. I was a rock, falling, falling, falling.
Hitting the water felt like I’d been slammed down onto a brick. It knocked the wind out of me, and panicking, I gulped in a big mouthful of salty water. I’d landed in the ocean, but I was still falling, still going downward when life was the other direction.
Kid, you’re gonna die.
I put my hand over my mouth. I tried to see something, anything. Zigzagging sparkles of light danced through my vision, but everything was going darker and darker green. I couldn’t breathe, and I’d never learned how to swim. The City of the Dead didn’t exactly have any bodies of water clean enough to put your own into.
Crap, crap, crap, Hawk, get it together. Get it together or die.
NOW, RIGHT NOW!
Carefully I spit out the water in my mouth. I knew I was going to puke but tried to hold it down. Pulling my wings in tight, I turned and spun until I saw water that was lighter. Lighter water meant sky. I’d seen turtles swim in the meat market, and I imitated them, moving my arms and legs. I needed air.
Was the water lighter? How long was this gonna take? I didn’t have that much time! My lungs were about to explode. Blue light shimmered inside my head. Another few seconds and I would just… let water in…
When my head popped out the water, I couldn’t believe it. It was still raining, the sky still the color of the worst bruise I’d ever had. I sucked in air, threw up, sucked in more air. When my head cleared, I remembered the endless flight here, the bomb, the prison, the Flock diving down to see if Max was still alive.
They’d left me. I guessed I’d been hit by lightning? My whole right side burned. I’d thought being numb and unable to control my body sucked, but feeling the pain wasn’t much better. Now I was bobbing in the wide expanse of the ocean, alone. The Flock had no idea where I was. Which meant I had to find them.
Turns out, once something has been set on fire, it’s pretty easy to spot again. Spirals of white and gray smoke twisted upward from the prison, and screams reached me across the water.
Once I’d seen an angry Ope push a mangy dog into an open canal. The dog had swum to the other side, climbed out, then given the Ope a look that promised an infectious chomp the next time they met.
I remembered how the dog had swum, head above water, four paws paddling.
I couldn’t survive here on my own—and I didn’t want to.
I wanted to be one of the Flock.
I hoped I hadn’t killed Max.
I started paddling toward the prison.
CHAPTER 71
Max
Rain did not help my hanging-in-a-net situation. I could barely move, and now I was soaking wet. These had been the longest, weirdest couple of days I’d had in a while, and I’m including that time when ill-placed food dye had made us all crap purple for a week.
Rain, of course, did not slow down McCallum. “This person”—he flashed a picture of me on the screen, and I still looked like shit—“has broken every rule our city has! She has assaulted helpless Opes! She has written anti-government graffiti all over our beautiful community! She has assaulted government officials! She has said that all government officials should be put to death!”
Okay, that