|YA featured story|
Welcome to 2325.
The natural world is no longer habitable, the government has been all but privatised and the 15-billion strong population has spent the last 170 years crammed into a single man-made continent.
When her father's...
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The lights in the apartment were already on when Zaphron let us in. I squeezed through the door, barely able to stand side by side with him in the narrow hall.
The whole apartment was small—not even half the size of Mum's flat. I followed Zaphron through the hall, passing two closed doors on the way to a larger room that appeared to serve as both a lounge and kitchen.
"Zaph! You scared the crap out of me!" A skinny guy jumped to his feet from behind a desk in the corner. His sandy-brown curls dangled in front of hazel eyes that had been layered with smudged eyeliner. "Thought I was going to have to tase someone." He sat back down, keeping his eyes glued to a cartoon he was watching on a holo at the desk.
"Well maybe if you'd been watching the camera feeds, we wouldn't have been such a surprise," Zaphron said, his tone playful—verging on patronising.
The guy seemed oblivious to the jibe. He pointed a finger at me without looking away from his show. "I thought Atlanta told you to stop bringing girls back here."
I felt my face heat as Zaphron glanced at me and cleared his throat. "Uh, Jax. This is Astrid—as in Astrid Wyatt.
At the mention of my name, Jax's head snapped up and he frowned. "This wasn't part of the plan."
A door swung open in the hall behind us and an athletic girl with cropped blue hair appeared. Following her was the guy I had seen helping Zaphron the very first time at the station.
"What's going on here?" She surveyed me with a wary expression. "Is that—?"
"Astrid Wyatt." Jax piped up before Zaphron could answer.
Her eyes widened and she looked to Zaphron for confirmation. He nodded, not daring to blink as he held her steely gaze.
"This constitutes more than observation, wouldn't you say?" she asked, her dark eyes narrowing.
Zaphron folded his arms across his chest. "Something's wrong. Someone tried to grab her tonight."
My mind flashed back to the moment Zaphron had kicked that guy's head in, and goosebumps rippled down my arms at his words.
She closed her eyes and let out a breath through flared nostrils. "How many cameras did you pass en route? What if you were seen?"
Zaphron waved a dismissive hand at her. "Get Jax to handle it."
"Already on it," Jax chipped in from behind us, swiping away the cartoons and bringing up a set of camera feeds.
She portioned a glare equally between Zaphron and me. "You've put us all at risk bringing her here—yourself especially—I hope it's worth it Zaph." She turned and stomped away, shoving open a side door in the hall.
"And what if they had taken her?" Zaphron's voice rose as he called after her, but she had already slammed the door shut.
The guy from the station let out a loud exhale. "You know she's regimented Zaph."
