The Intruder

Michael concentrated and shoved it open. "Adam, you have to run. Run as hard as you can. If we get separated, go here." Michael made the co

"Look out!" Cameron cried.

A metal grate slid back in the ceiling above them. A shot rang out. Cameron yelled in pain, and the machine gun fell from her hands. A fraction of a second later a guard swung down and grabbed her.

"Adam, go!" Michael cried. Then he lunged for the guard.

"Move, and I kill her," the guard yelled.

Michael froze. Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of Adam just outside the doorway. What was he doing? Why wasn't he moving?

"Adam, run!" Cameron screamed.

"You have to leave us. Go, go, go!" Michael shouted.

Adam hesitated, staring out into the night. It was too big, too empty. He couldn't go out there and live. It would swallow him up. He'd disappear.

"Now!" Michael yelled.

And Adam's feet were moving, flying across the desert floor. He stared down at them, only at them. It's as if they were moving without his control. Following Michael's order whether he wanted them to or not.

Left, right. Left, right. Taking him away. Away from Michael. Away from home. Away from everything he knew.

His body changed as he ran, his little bird legs lengthening, his feet spreading out, allowing him to run faster. Left, right. Left, right. Something coming up in front of him. Cactus. He'd seen it in a book that Dad had given him.

Not Dad anymore. Swerve. Run. And don't look up. Don't ever look up.

His heart pounded in his chest, in his ears, the beat picking up speed. He pushed himself to run faster, matching his stride to the thuds of his heart.

Adam kept his eyes locked on his feet, allowing his mind to go blank, his world narrowed down to the patch of desert directly in front of him. Rock. Jump. Left, right. Left, right. Don't look up.

Mesquite bush. Swerve. Too late. Adam's left foot tangled in it and he went down hard, sand scratching his cheek and getting in his mouth.

Adam lay there for a moment until he felt his heart slow down a little. Then he sat up. And the sky filled his vision, stretching outward to the horizon and beyond. Endless in every direction. The stars so far away. Farther than his mind could comprehend.

He shivered. He realized the air around him was cold. He'd never experienced cold before. Not like this. He'd washed his face and hands with cold water, yes. But the air at the compound was perfectly controlled. Always the same.

Adam curled his knees up to his chest, hugging himself. He felt a little warmer, a tiny bit better.

But it was still too big, too empty. He squeezed his eyes shut to block out the sky. And he tried to stay very, very still.

Maria snapped open the plastic box of the Treachery and Greed on the Planet of the Apes video, then snapped it shut again and tossed it onto her night table. When she'd seen the movie on the shelf at the video store, she'd thought it was the perfect choice. But now she realized she only wanted to watch it if Michael was there to watch it with her.

Except even if Michael was back home, it's not like he'd necessarily come crawling through her window for a movie marathon. That kind of thing was probably reserved for the buddy Maria, not the Maria who exposed her guts and actually told Michael she loved him.

You don't know that, she told herself.

Do too.

Do not.

Do too. Do not. Do too.

The conflicting thoughts ricocheted through her brain until she wanted to scream. Then she heard something that instantly stopped her debate with herself-the sound of her window sliding up. Michael!

Maria sprang up from her bed and yanked her curtains back. Alex gave her a sheepish grin. "I broke that troll thing next to the back gate," he admitted. He peered up at her, his eyebrows drawing together. "I'm sorry. You really liked it, huh?" he added.

"That thing! No. Ick. It's hideous," she said quickly, trying to get the oh-God-I-really-wanted-you-to-be-someone-else expression off her face so as not to make Alex think she'd been struck by troll grief. She grabbed his hand and helped him through the window. "A guy my mom was going out with gave it to her, but she's about three guys past him now. Maybe you should do one of your lists on how not to impress a woman. Giving her a ceramic troll is up there."

"So, presents, they're pretty important, huh?" Alex asked. He shoved off his sneakers and flopped down on Maria's bed. "Oh, it's okay that I came over, isn't it?"

Maria sat down next to him. "Definitely," she answered.

"So if I didn't give the right present or, actually, any present, that would be-" Alex began.

"No. No, I meant it's definitely okay that you came over," she interrupted. "Not definitely that presents are important. Although they're nice, I guess."

"Isabel gave me a present once," Alex said. "Want to see?"

"Sure." Maria wriggled closer, finding the fact that Isabel had given Alex a present very cool. Maybe she was totally wrong about Isabel getting a thing for Michael.

Alex pulled out his wallet and slid out a strip of pictures from one of those little photo booths. He handed it to Maria. "When she gave that to me, she said she was thinking about me in every picture," he explained.

Who would have guessed Isabel had a squishy, lovey-dovey marshmallow heart? Maria thought, smiling. Apparently she was wrong about Isabel losing interest in Alex because of that dream of Michael's. Maria had been so sure that dream had started Isabel thinking of Michael in a different way. But maybe not.

Except wait. Alex said Isabel gave him a present once.

"Um, when did Isabel give you this?" Maria asked.

Please let it be postdream, she thought. Please, please, please.

"Not that long after Nikolas died," Alex answered.

Predream. Great.

"And today she dumped me. I just don't get it," Alex continued.

"Wait. She dumped you? Why didn't you tell me?" Maria demanded.

"I just did," Alex said.

Guys. They just don't get it, she thought. He'd been in her room for at least three full minutes, and he was just telling her this now?

Maybe she should just be thankful for the scoop. Now she knew for sure that Isabel had dumped Alex because of her feelings for Michael.

Maria studied the little strip of photos. God, Isabel was beautiful. Yeah, they both had blond hair and blue eyes, plus arms and legs and stuff. But on Isabel everything just worked together perfectly. There was no way Maria could compete.

Alex reached over and pulled the photos out of her fingers.

"Talk to me. What happened?" Maria asked.

"You saw how she was at our meeting, right?" Alex scrubbed his face with his fingers. "She was kind of jumping down my throat whenever I said anything. Then afterward I said something like how I knew she was feeling upset about Michael. I mean, girls are supposed to like it when you try and figure out how they're feeling, right?" He glanced at Maria for confirmation.

"Yeah. Of course," she answered.

"Well, not Isabel. She just exploded. She was all, like, 'You don't have any right to know what I think.'"

Poor Alex. He sounded kind of dazed, like a guy who'd been in a car crash and was wandering around the highway, talking about the milk he was supposed to pick up on his way home. No clue where he was or even what had really happened.

"Hey, you want some cedar?" she asked, reaching for her collection of aromatherapy vials. It was the only comforting thing she could think of to say. "It will make you feel better."