Extracted

Lawrence

We change cars in the second town we come to, this time Lawrence snakes an old Ford Expedition, another gas guzzler, but there's room for all the guys' long legs. He took it right out of a parking lot, which means someone will be missing it and we'll have to ditch it soon. Wonder who will be on our trail first, highway patrol or the extractors?

While we switched cars, Cecelia ran into an electronics store and used the rest of the cash Mitchell gave her to buy a pre-paid smart phone.

Lily has finally gone quiet, sniffling herself to sleep, but her question repeats steadily in my mind. How does the school keep finding us?

We got rid of our tablets from the school eliminating any GPS trackers that would have been in them. The track suits remain back at the Dixons' home, except for some of our socks and shoes.

"It's in us." I break the somber quiet that fell over us as we drove. "You know, like those chips they embed in dogs in case they get lost."

Cecelia's driving now and nearly runs into the side rail with how fast she looks at me. She quickly rights the SUV, jostling everyone side-to-side with the jerky motion. First time driving. I need to be careful with my outbursts.

"Geez." Benjamin springs up in his seat in the back, rubbing sleep from his eyes. "Watch it, huh?"

"Sorry," Cecelia mutters, then to me, "If that's true, if the school somehow implanted trackers in us, there's nowhere we can go."

"What?" Nicholas leans over the back seat. "What are you two talking about?"

"Kat thinks the school implanted microchips inside us. Like pet owners do."

"Those chips don't have GPS capabilities," Lily says. Thank goodness her crying has stopped and she's back to herself. Nearly back to herself. Since we left Sterling behind, she hasn't been the same, has barely spoken or looked at me. "They just have information like your address and number that a scanner can pick up. It doesn't give off signals. Not the kind that go inside the body."

"But it could," I insist. I wish Mitchell was here. He'd know. "What do you think, Lawrence? Is it possible we've been microchipped?"

He shrugs. "Is it possible to highjack dying kids and shove their souls into a test-tube manufactured body? One way to find out. Pass me the phone."

Digging her phone out of her pocket with one hand on the wheel, Cecelia passes the cell back to Lawrence.

I twist around to watch him. "What are you doing?"

Jeremy glances at me.

"Pull over by that row of stores so I can get a signal," Lawrence says.

Cecelia pulls into the long parking lot and we all wait anxiously for whatever Lawrence is doing.

"What town are we in?"

"Granby," Cecelia answers.

"What? Granby?" Away from Denver. I'd stared at the map on the phone, letting my super large brain memorize the area surrounding Denver. I'd been too caught up in my thoughts, I hadn't noticed when we'd merged onto Highway 40. "We have to go back. We have to meet Mitchell and Fletcher."

"Mitchell and Fletcher aren't in Denver anymore, not if they were going to come back for us. They're probably—"

"Don't say it," I snap. "We're going back."

"We can't." Benjamin uses a placating tone. "The extractors are right behind us and if we have these trackers in us, our only chance is to outdistance them."

"We take care of each other," I insist. "We're not going to just leave them."

"We left Sterling," Lily says.

Jeremy stares at me. "She's right. They left to lead the extractors away from us."

"Then we shouldn't let their awesome sacrifice go to waste," Benjamin points out. "Look, they have a better chance on their own. Have you considered that they dumped us to save themselves? Split our school pursuers in half?"

Tremors roll through me. "No. They'd never do that."

"It's tactically sound. In fact we all have a better chance if we separate. It's not like we're not trained for this."

"Then go." I'm furious. "Get out of here. No one's stopping you."

Benjamin and I stare at each other.

"Um, guys," Lawrence says. "Let's figure out if we're embedded with tracking devices before anyone takes off."

I nod. They can do what they want. I'm not abandoning Mitchell and Fletcher. My gaze sweeps over Jeremy.

"Okay." Lawrence scrolls through the screen. "Kay, there's a rescue shelter not too far."

"Really." Benjamin crosses his arms. "A dog scanner? You think they're just going to let us scan ourselves? I don't think so."

"No." Cecelia grins. "But they'll let us in to look for our poor lost dog long enough for Lawrence to swipe what we need."

Benjamin puckers his lips thoughtfully. "Yeah. That can work."

Thirty minutes later after stellar woe-be-gone performances, we're back on the road with Lawrence running the dog-scanner over Nicholas.

"There's definitely a signal broadcasting, but I can't pinpoint where they might have embedded a chip. It must be deep, not just under the skin. And no information is relaying."

"Which means we can't cut it out," I say.

"Not without knowing where it is." Lawrence moves the scanner across all of us to see if he can find any hint to where the chip might be. As he moves it over Jeremy, he shakes his head. "Nothing."

"We may as well pull over and wait for them," Lily says. "We can't hide from them."

I ignore her. We're not giving up. "What about the signal? Can we disable it?"

We all look expectantly at Lawrence. He grins. "No."

"Then why do you look so pleased?" Cecelia scowls.

"I can't disable it, but once I locate the signal's frequency, I might be able to do something."

"What do you need?" My heart thumps wildly. Maybe we have a chance.

"Um, I just need to work this out with the phone..."

"Wait!" Turned in my seat, I grab his wrist. "Before you disrupt it, can you find Mitchell?"

Lawrence's face snaps up and his smile widens. "Yeah. Yeah, the range casts a pretty wide net. High-tech stuff. I think I should be able to find them."

I sink back into my seat, my muscles suddenly loose.

Tiny lines in Lawrence's forehead pucker as he stares at the phone. "We need to pull over again and find a signal."