Fugitive X by Gregg Rosenblum Page B

It was like the tree had been five feet away, like he could reach out and touch it.
    Jackson whistled. “Guess you really are right-handed, huh?” he said. “Nice shooting there.”
    Jackson handled the rifle to Erica, who was looking at Nick with an eyebrow raised. He smiled and shrugged. “Just a natural, I guess.”
    Erica lay down and quickly took five shots, repeating Nick’s pattern but not quite as tightly.
    “Not bad,” said Nick. “Almost as good as me.”
    “Shut up, Nick,” she said.
    Nick grinned at her. He saw Lexi watching him out of the corner of his eye and he quickly turned to her, feeling guilty even though he had done nothing wrong. He pulled the smile off his face, coughed, then realized that looking so uncomfortable made it seem like he
had
done something wrong, so he smiled again. Lexi was staring at him, expressionless, her hand on her hip, which made him even more uncomfortable. “Let’s see what you’ve got,” he said, trying to sound natural, when Jackson handed her the rifle.
    Lexi took the rifle without changing her flat expression or saying a word. She lay down, carefully aimed, and missed the tree entirely, kicking up dirt to the left. “Rust,” she said. She overcompensated on her next shot, missing to the right. She finally found the tree on her next shots, although they were scattered wildly across the trunk in no particular pattern. She handed the rifle back to Jackson. “Guess I’m not a natural,” she said.
    Nick wasn’t sure if he should say something.
It’s all right
or
Not bad
or
Don’t worry about it
would sound condescending, so he kept his mouth shut.
    Farryn, it turned out, was the worst shot in the group, hitting the tree only once in six tries. He didn’t seem particularly surprised.
    “Looks like you’ll be sticking to the tech for now,” said Jackson. In just one day, Farryn had already proven his value with his tech skills, fixing two vids and a pair of binocs that the rebels were going to scrap.
    Back at the camp, Lexi pulled Nick aside. “I don’t trust that girl Erica,” she said.
    “I think she’s fine,” Nick said. “She already apologized for what happened when we first found you.”
    Lexi stepped closer to him, and he thought she was going to kiss him, but then she roughly grabbed hold of the front of shirt. “Listen to me, you idiot,” she said. “It’s not about that. There’s something off with that girl.” She let go of his shirt and stepped back. “What do you know about her, anyway?”
    Nick shook his head. “Not much. I’ve already told you all this. She lost her family to the bots.”
    “And she’s been roaming the woods, going from Freepost to Freepost,” said Lexi.
    “Yes,” Nick said.
    “And she just stumbled across you in the woods, afteryou had lost Cass and Kevin, and decided to take you to the Freepost,” Lexi continued.
    “Yes.” It really wasn’t as odd, Nick thought, as Lexi was trying to make it seem. A thought struck him, and he had to suppress a smile.
Was Lexi jealous?
    Lexi was about to say more, but she saw Farryn approaching and she cut herself off.
    “Nick, there’s something you need to see,” said Farryn quietly. He was holding a small portable vid under his arm. “But not here. Get your canteen. Meet me at the stream.” He turned and began walking away. Nick ran to grab his canteen, then he and Lexi hurried off after Farryn.
    Farryn was waiting for them by the water. “We only have a minute,” he said. “I have to get back before they notice a vid screen is missing.”
    “What is it?” said Nick.
    “It’s Cass!” Farryn said, in an excited whisper. “She’s alive! But—” Farryn cut himself off.
    Nick hadn’t let himself think about Cass, he had tried to push that back, force himself to believe she was okay, but now . . . “What? But what? What are you talking about?” he said.
    “Broadband broadcast. Wide-spectrum,” Farryn said, talking fast. “Totally unsecure.