He seemed unconvinced as he grabbed the jacket and pulled it on, gesturing for her to do the same. After she zipped up her jacket, he took the backpack and motioned for her to exit the vehicle. Her first step out of the ship and onto a boulder was a slippery one. The carpet of moss was squishy beneath her boots and slick. She adjusted her weight and managed not to slide off the boulder. Carefully, she picked her way to the ground, moving from the boulder to the wing of the ship and then hopping down next to Terror.
Like an overly anxious parent, he reached over to finish zipping up the last few inches of her jacket. “It’s cold,” he said when she shot him a really look. “You’ll get sick.”
“Like you?” she asked pointedly.
He frowned. “It’s a mild fever.”
“For now.”
He leaned down to kiss her. “When we’re done here and somewhere safe, we can play doctor and patient all you want. Okay?”
She held up her pinky. “Deal.”
With a snort, he hooked his pinky around hers. “Deal. Come on. We need to get moving.”
They moved through the thicket of trees, sidestepping muddy bogs and using large rocks and higher ground to escape the frigid water pooled in the lower areas of the terrain. At the edge of the trees, Terror gestured for her to wait. He scanned their surroundings and then crept out from the shelter of the trees toward the crashed ship. He carefully inspected it and motioned for her to join him.
As she jogged toward the ship, she noticed the red stripes that identified the craft as part of the Splinter fleet. A familiar painted badge was barely visible beneath the dried mud and moss covering the metal nose of the aircraft. She peeled away the mud to reveal the next four letters and numbers. She glanced toward Terror who watched her with interest. “This ship was at the mine.”
Terror’s jaw visibly tightened. He looked from the crashed ship to the three buildings looming in the distance. “Devious?”
She shrugged. “Maybe? It would make sense, right? If he escaped that cell, he would have taken a ship. Maybe he came here because he knew it’s abandoned?”
“Then where is he?” Terror looked around the ship for any sign of tracks and scowled. “It’s been too long. Any tracks would have washed away by now.”
She stepped up onto a crimped wing to get a better look into the cockpit. She had flown in similar ships many times so she was familiar with the layout. She leaned over the seat and dug around in search of a first aid kit and emergency rations. When she came up empty, she told Terror, “It’s been picked clean of supplies. If he crashed, he walked away with food and first aid.”
Terror huffed with frustration. “He could be anywhere.”
“And hurt,” she added, thinking of how much damage the ship had taken. Her gaze drifted back to the ship, and she spotted something metallic on the floorboard near the passenger seat. She slipped into the ship to reach it. As soon as her fingers tugged it free from the mat and brought it into the sunlight, she recognized the shape. It was the scalene triangle that the Splinters used on their gear and their personal arms.
Noticing the blood smudged on that triangular tag, she turned it over and rubbed away the maroon smear to reveal the stamped details on the back. Her heart thudded in her chest. “This is my stepbrother’s.”
“Kris?” Terror clarified.
She nodded. “He must have been the one who got Devious out of the mine.”
“And left you behind?” Terror asked unkindly.
“I’m sure he didn’t want to,” she replied defensively. “It’s war, Terror. He probably had to make a split-second decision. It was the right one.”
Terror grumbled something she couldn’t understand. Before she could ask him to look at her and repeat himself, he gestured toward the buildings and faced her. “We’ll have to split up, Maisie. You search the two buildings for Devious and Kris. I’ll go up to the roof and try to get the communication equipment working.”
She appreciated that he didn’t lecture her on what to do or how to do it. Even though he cared deeply for and worried about her, he was learning not to micromanage. That seemed like a healthy step in their relationship. Knowing he trusted her to do a good job meant a lot coming from him.
They left the crash site and made their way toward the