Page 56 of The Infinite Glade
“Surprised they didn’t spark this up, too.” Erros opened and shut cabinets.
“Anything?” Cian asked, doing the same. Erros shook his head.
Isaac didn’t know if he should be happy or disappointed that they’d found the Villa empty. The dread in his gut about the fires and the others grew. He couldn’t help but think that if Sadina were alive, she could be in yet another Villa, somewhere in Alaska, kept hostage and forced to eat terrible flour cakes and get stung by Grievers. He didn’t know which was worse.
“So what do we do now?” he asked Frypan.
“Shhh . . .” Ximena held her finger over her lips. Even on his island it meant the same thing–shut up, Isaac.
He paused and listened for what she may have heard. The fear in his gut grew, and his imagination went wild. “It’s probably just?—”
“Isaac! Shhh!”
A scrape and a clank came from behind. Isaac pivoted to face what he hoped wouldn’t be a Griever. Nothing there. “It’s too dark in here to see anything . . .” His blood pumped faster, making it hard to hear anything but his own heartbeat; he spun around again to pinpoint the noise. He pulled up the small axe, gripped it in both hands. Even if a Griever appeared, he would fight metal with metal. He positioned himself in front of Frypan because the poor man didn’t deserve any more Grievers. The lower cabinet to the left of Cian slowly opened and an arm reached out.
“Whoa!” Cian and Erros backed up, but Jackie ran to the cabinet.
“Oh my gosh!” Jackie practically screamed for all of Alaska to hear. “Miyoko!”
Isaac couldn’t believe his eyes. “Miyoko?” He set his axe down and joined Jackie in hugging his east-side friend. The hopes he’d barricaded somewhere deep inside of him broke through, filling him up. “Where’s everyone else hiding?”
“No . . . just me,” Miyoko said before crying.
Isaac’s heart sank as the others poured out questions.
“How did you get here?”
“Where’s everyone else?”
“What happened?”
Miyoko slowly answered between sobs. “The others are still alive, just not here. We came here with the Godhead and then the Nation—what do they call it—where Minho and Orange are from?”
“The Remnant Nation,” Frypan replied.
“Yeah, those people.” Miyoko’s nose dripped with snot from all the crying. “Minho and Orange shot some of them, but there were so many of those stupid Remnants.” She cried so much while talking, it became harder and harder for Isaac to understand her. “Sadina and Trish screamed, and I panicked and hid . . . and then listened as they took everyone away.” Her whole body shook. Jackie squeezed her tightly and wiped her nose clean.
“It’s okay, you’re okay now,” Jackie whispered to her; Isaac imagined Cowan or Roxy doing the same if they’d been there.
Ximena kicked at a big metal cylindrical piece of equipment in the center of the floor; it started sputtering out pressured air.
“Careful.” Frypan coughed. “There could be something tranquilizing in there.”
Ximena had a real necessity to destroy things that were already doomed. Cian coughed and Erros covered his mouth as he bent over and tried to read the lettering on the tank. “It’s just air. Must be for some of the machines that need pressure to transfer energy.” He rolled the leaking cylinder to the furthest corner of the room. “But be careful, dammit!”
“Oh wow . . .” Miyoko dropped to the floor. “Kletter’s . . .”
“Don’t, there’s glass everywhere!” Jackie warned.
She pulled Miyoko back but not before she’d picked up a small booklet. “It must have dropped from Minho’s pocket when he fought them.” She brushed debris off the notebook and handed it to Isaac.
“What is it?” He flipped through the pages quickly, but the lettering in the notebook looked like some kind of code. He recognized the letters but not the grouping of them. He gave it back to Miyoko.
“It’s Kletter’s. We found it on theMaze Cutteron our way up here.”
“Let me see.” Cian practically ripped the book out of Miyoko’s hand.
She took a step back. “Dominic found it in between the boards of the lower deck, but none of us could read it. Only a few words here and there.”
