Half Lives by Sara Grant Page B

Terrorists, Finch?’ someone asks.
    Finch assumes Beckett’s place in the centre of the crowd. ‘I think we need to be prepared. I have increased my patrols but I will organize a new rotation of Cheerleaders
to guard the Mountain, beginning tonight.’ Finch finds Cal’s face in the crowd. ‘Cal, you take the rockstars back to Forreal and pick one or two other Cheerleaders to help
you.’
    ‘We are only to protect the Mountain,’ Beckett says.
    Who is this girl he’s protecting?
    ‘It could be other Survivors who are trying to make contact,’ Beckett adds, glancing at Harper.
    Atti’s tugging on her brother’s arm. ‘Maybe it’s Mum.’
    ‘It’s not Mum,’ he says, and elbows her aside.
    ‘She’s Out There,’ Atti shouts, twisting the root of each dread. ‘Maybe she wants to come home.’
    ‘Mum is never coming back,’ Finch blurts, and Atti bursts into tears. The faces around them soften from fierce determination to concern for Atti and a slight fear of
Finch.
    Harper scoops up Atti in her arms, glaring at Finch. ‘I survived Out There,’ Harper tells Atti. ‘Your mum could too.’ Beckett and Harper usher Atti and the
other rockstars down the Mountain. A few other Cheerleaders follow.
    ‘Mum is so coming back,’ Atti calls to Finch. He tries to ignore her and the ache the word ‘mum’ triggers inside him.
    He gathers the Cheerleaders around him. They make a schedule to patrol the Mountain, but he secretly makes a plan to investigate and extinguish that light.

 
     
     
     
Chapter Ten
     
     
     
     
    A s we walked along the highway towards the mountain, I told Marissa everything – about the alleged bio-attack, the bunker and my plans to
hide out there until it was safe to emerge. Saying it out loud made it sound even more outrageous and somehow less possible than when my mum told me. I felt guilty for sharing Mum’s secret
and really, really terrible when I saw the look of pure horror on Marissa’s face.
    ‘Damn, Icie!’ Marissa exclaimed when I’d finished. ‘Are you sure? I mean, that’s crazy.’
    ‘You don’t have to come, but please don’t tell anyone about the bunker, OK?’
    ‘Yeah, yeah. I mean, no, I wouldn’t. I won’t. I’ve got to think about it.’
    The two lanes heading away from Vegas looked like an endless parking lot being drawn slowly forwards on a conveyor belt. The two lanes on our side of the road were vacant. Every once in a while
a car would zoom by at some ungodly speed. The sound and the gust would shove us towards the ditch on the side of the road, but we kept walking. We didn’t seem to be making any progress
towards the mountains.
    Up ahead I saw a biggish lump on the side of the road. I wasn’t used to seeing animals that were my size on the roadside. I hadn’t considered that there would be wildlife when I
jumped out of the taxi. I scanned the landscape. What scary creatures lived out here? Bears? Lions? Tigers? Man-eating gorillas? I didn’t know. I’d napped or sneak-texted through most
of biology and geography. I was starting to think I’d slept through most of my short, insignificant life.
    I kept my distance from the roadkill. I didn’t need some half-dead hyena taking a bite out of me. I’d seen
Aliens
– or was it
Predator
? – where they
thought the thing was dead only to have it rear up and attack. And my dad said I was wasting my time watching all those horror movies! He could never have imagined that they would end up becoming a
handy survival guide.
    The lump on the roadside twitched. Marissa and I screamed and grabbed for each other.
    Wait a minute
. Was that animal wearing a polo shirt?
    The thing groaned. It wasn’t the growl of a bear. It was human but, in this scenario, humans were probably the most deadly creatures of all. I had to get away from whatever it was. I
looked for oncoming traffic. The coast was clear. I started to cross.
    ‘Shouldn’t we try to help?’ Marissa asked, holding me