Halo (Blood and Fire Series (A Young Adult Dystopian Series)) by Frankie Rose

thinking the rest of the world just doesn’t exist?”
    I look up at him, startled. “Yes!”
    “Ha ha! That’s possibly the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. What did they tell you?”
    I frown, trying to process this information. “We’ve always been told there are only small bands of Radicals out here in the forest, maybe ten or fifteen people per group. Certainly no more. I’ve never really thought about it, I guess, but I figured maybe there were a couple of hundred people living beyond the city walls.”
    “Radicals?” Ryka narrows his eyes at me. “That’s what you call us?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Well, that’s ironic.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “Because you’re the radical ones. Your government thinks you can’t be trusted, can’t be civilised enough to handle your own emotions, so they collared the whole population like dogs. Turned you all into walking zombies.” He kicks at a small rock with the toe of his boot, and it rolls to a stop in front of me. I pick it up and turn it over in my hands.
    “It’s not like that. It’s for the greater ― ”
    “Are you about to say it’s for the greater good ?” His voice rises in pitch at the end.
    I go to answer yes, but then I catch myself. I’m just repeating what they’ve told me since I was old enough to understand, what I’ve been brought up to believe was the truth. Except now I know they’ve lied, maybe about everything. That knowledge makes me feel very small. Remarkably lost. I stare at the rock, pressing its sharp edges into my fingertips until the skin underneath my nails turns white. “I don’t know what’s good or what’s bad anymore.”
    “I bet. You said you’ve fought over a hundred matches in Lockdown. That makes you a killer on a pretty grand scale. That can’t feel all that good.”
    I snap my head up at him, biting on my lip. I taste blood before I open my mouth to speak. “I’m not thinking about that.”
    Ryka laughs loud enough that three birds launch themselves out of the tree branches above us. He ignores them but I follow their flight path upwards until they disappear from view. “You think it’s that simple, do you? You think you can just not think about it and it goes away?” He blows out a sharp breath. “I’m telling you now, if you ever do kill someone, you’ll see how absolutely stupid that statement was.”
    I slump forward and scrub my face in my hands. “You still don’t believe me?”
    “No way!”
    “Urgh! Whatever.” The time for wallowing in the dirt, trying to ignore Ryka’s scathing comments is over. I’m shaky as hell when I get to my feet, but at least the apple stays down and I feel minutely better. “We should go,” I say. Jada lopes off into the forest on a pathway I can’t see but she seems to know well. I set off walking, but Ryka catches me by the arm.
    “I really am gonna need that knife back before we reach Freetown.”
    “All you have to do is give me the stick.”
    He gives me a guarded look. “And I will. But you have to tell me what’s on it first.”
    “I don’t know.”
    “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
    I shake my head. “It belonged to a friend of mine. He used to record himself on it apparently. I haven’t had chance to watch it yet.”
    “So you’re telling me you went head to head with a Tamji fighter to get some diary back? One you haven’t even watched yet? Gee.” He rolls his eyes and sets off walking, releasing my arm. “I figured it was something important.”
    “It is important.”
    “Uh-huh. So where’s this important friend of yours right now, huh?”
    I hold my breath in my mouth, feeling the words hovering over the tip of my tongue.   I keep it short. “He’s dead.”
    Ryka’s pace slows. “How?”
    “He lost his match.”
    “Who was he fighting?”
    He’s going to find this laughable, so I try and lend some weight to my voice when I say, “ Me .”
    “Of course.” In his words, I can hear the stupid, annoying smile