Frightened Boy

Chapter Eighteen - Development

18. Development

The large wheel of a truck crushed the grass inches from my feet.

I’d overslept. I felt Erika scramble to her feet a moment later, tugging at my collar to get me out of the way. There was a surreal moment in which I thought I might be deaf, wondering why I didn’t hear the roaring engine of such a large vehicle. Then four Strangers passed, pushing the back of the truck while a smaller man sat inside, steering.

A voice pit-a-patted directly on my eardrum. “Where were you two last night?” Whisper asked. She leaned up against a tree, a half-dozen feet away.

I pointed up. “We were up there, watching. Have you ever been to the top of the forest?”

“Many times,” Whisper said.

I couldn’t imagine the stoic Whisper scrambling up a tree. Maybe she flew.

"Why are they pushing the truck?” Erika asked.

“Stealth,” Whisper said, then frowned. "I will be keeping a close eye on you today," she said to Erika.

Erika only muttered and turned away.

“Don’t worry about her,” Sam said, nasal voice coming from behind me. “She’s just in a bad mood.”

“It’s hard not to worry about her,” I replied. “She didn’t expect Lux to come back, did she?”

“We all thought he was gone for good. When Escher arrived in Banlo Bay from the Red Zones, he was alone. He met Whisper and Lux first and recruited them. As they learned more and more about just how he thought and what he had in mind, Whisper believed in him completely. Lux had reservations, not least of all because Escher took his girlfriend away.”

"It's a hard idea to admit, that you aren't a real person. That you are just a figment."

"Tell me about it." Then he looked over his shoulder. "There's another problem, though."

“What?”

“The girl, Erika, she’s not doing you any good. You need to get rid of her,” Sam said.

“I can’t,” I said. “I love her.”

“Some of the Strangers think she is the spy."

"Is Whisper one of those Strangers?"

“She suspects. But Escher doesn’t like her either, and she’s not going to last. It doesn’t help that she keeps acting like you're some kind of god. Can you imagine how much that irritates Escher?”

“I’m not going to let her go,” I repeated. “As long as I’m around, she’s staying.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Sam sighed as he stepped into a crowd of Strangers and disappeared.

I followed after the long caravan of trucks being pushed along by sweating Strangers. The trucks were a mix of jeeps, Humvees, and a half dozen other old military vehicles I couldn’t recognize. At the front of the line was a giant armored vehicle with ten wheels and tiny metal slats for windows. Boxes of ammunition and first-aid kits were carried on the backs of the hundreds of Strangers that’d inhabited Kingwood Forest for the past week. I spotted Escher a few trucks ahead, surrounded by Whisper, Mal, and Lux.

*

“What’s the battle plan?” I panted as I spoke to Escher.

“Today we’re hunting Little Brother,” Escher said, “and we’re going to catch him. You’re going to play a very important role, Frightened Boy—though you don’t know it yet.”