Chapter 63
We walked among the twisted trees, listening to the irritating squelch of our boots sinking into the muddy ground.
Here, light couldn't penetrate the branches, and the air was freezing.
Every now and then I spotted a stray mandrocina, but they were scarce, so I prayed I'd find some nearby by nightfall.
I didn't see any animals along the way, though I heard birds singing.
Adele stayed quiet for most of the journey, only opening her mouth to curse and complain whenever she hurt herself.
At times she couldn't keep up with me, and I had to slow my pace to make it easier for her.
In those moments, I found myself staring at her broken nose, figuring it must be bothering her even though it wasn't bleeding.
Strange—broken noses usually bled a lot.
Since she didn't mention it, I didn't say anything either, but sooner or later we'd have to check it.
“By Anabel's virginity!” The Yonserian looked relieved as she ran toward the shore.
“Adele, wait!”
She didn't hear me and kept running, then stopped near the lake and crouched down. When she cupped her hands to drink, I yanked her back, spilling the water onto the ground.
“What the hell! What's your problem, girl?” She wrenched free of my grip.
“The water could be toxic. There are hallucinogenic algae in these lakes—we have to check before drinking.”
She looked at me, frightened, and wiped her hands on her pants, eyeing the water with a mix of longing and fear. I crouched down and didn't even need to taste it to know—the smell of iron was overpowering.
“It's contaminated,” I declared, then stood up and headed back to the path.
“What? Are you sure?” Adele sat at the edge of the lake, looking devastated. For the first time, she showed real concern.
“I am. If you drink it, you'll hallucinate for hours,” I warned, before she got any bright ideas about ignoring me. “How long has it been since you had water?”
“Since I started the test, I haven't found any water or food. I only ate snow early this morning.”
Snow. Just snow. It was incredible she was still standing, but dehydration had made her sluggish and haggard. I reached into my jacket pocket and found the wild berries that, luckily, hadn't been crushed during the fight. I was already hungry, but Adele needed them more.
“Take these. For now, this is all I have, but we'll find water for you. I'll hunt something along the way.”
Adele held out her hands and looked at me suspiciously as I dropped the little fruits into her palm.
A million questions played across her face, but she ate the berries in silence.
We continued on, skirting two small lakes that reeked of iron.
The water was murky, choked with plants, and the smell made my stomach turn.
“Can't you smell the iron?”
“Iron? No, I smell mud and the stench of someone who hasn't bathed in two days.”
I rolled my eyes and kept walking, avoiding places that might contain traps.
“To me, the water reeks of iron. My stomach churns just getting close.”
“That's because you're a savage—you must come pre-programmed for that kind of thing. You know how pigs avoid eating poisonous red berries because their instincts tell them not to?”
My ally laughed and continued along the trail. I shot her a sideways glance, wanting to shove dirt in her mouth.
“At least I have some sense and didn't show up to take the test in high heels. Want to lead the way north, Adele? Since you think you're so superior, you should be the one hunting and leading us out of this test.”
She shot me a cynical little smile.
“And what would be the point of having a pig with heightened survival instincts and not putting her to use?”
A drone flew overhead and recorded the insults.
I had to summon every ounce of self-control not to tell her to go to hell.
I couldn't lose control and start arguing with Adele.
Adrian had already announced on national television that Zion was my partner, and that was far too much exposure—for both of us.
People had to be speculating everywhere.
After all, Jupiter's greatest general, the one who spent his days killing drutes, was partnered with one.
I feared Zion would be affected by the exposure, so I refused to give anyone more reasons for gossip or trouble.
In silence, fists clenched, I continued down the path, taking the lead again.
It must have been around 4 p.m. when we crossed a clearing and I heard an unfamiliar laugh.
I crouched down on pure instinct and signaled for Adele to do the same.
We crawled to an area of tall grass and hid there.
She looked around fearfully, her worried eyes darting back and forth.
From that well-hidden spot, we saw someone moving, and I soon recognized Lorena's delicate face.
She was alone, wearing a strange smile as she ran her hands over the tree trunks and gazed at the clear sky.
The Interian walked slowly but was heading east. She seemed dazed as she hugged a tree trunk.
“She must have drunk the contaminated water,” I whispered to Adele, who watched with a furrowed brow.
Lorena pulled away from the tree and continued on her way with a strange, staggering gait.
“Too bad she doesn't have any vials. We could've made out well if she did.” The Yonserian stood up when Lorena disappeared from view.
“I would never steal a vial from someone incapacitated like that.”
“Oh, how sweet of you! What do you want? A gold star?”
I ignored the jab and climbed over a fallen tree blocking the path. I made it to the other side easily enough. Adele scrambled across the trunk on all fours, talking as she went:
“In case you haven't noticed, we're in the middle of a test. If we don't find the last vial, we'll be stuck another year in that hellhole academy. Worse, we'll be the doctors' doormats at the hospital.”
“In case you haven't noticed, there are 40 vials in this test—plenty for everyone. We've got two already. We're ahead.”
“Yeah, but what about the others? We still need 20 points to hit our minimum! What if we don't find the third one?”
“If you'd shut up and actually look, I'm sure we'll find it,” I snapped, picking up the pace again.
My patience for conversation with Adele was paper-thin.
During my short—and unfortunate—time at her side, I'd discovered she couldn't run and talk at the same time, so that's exactly what I made us do.
We ran at a slow pace for about an hour.
With each step, I heard her breathing grow more labored.
Dehydration had to be setting in hard by now, and neither of us had found a single drop of water.
Judging by how far we'd come, I figured we were already in the field where I'd seen the green glows, and from the sun's position, it had to be close to 5 p.m. I slowed down, my thirst and hunger catching up with me.
After all that running, my mouth was so dry my throat felt raw.
“We should be near the edge of the third area by now. There's got to be a vial around here somewhere,” I said, panting.
Adele collapsed onto the ground and stared up at the sunlight filtering through the leaves.
Her chest heaved frantically, and her lips were dry and pale.
If I was starting to dehydrate, she had to be worse off.
We needed to fix this today, or she wouldn't have the strength to keep going tomorrow—and I sure as hell couldn't carry her the whole way.
“I'll watch for vials. You look for food and water,” she said, her voice hoarse.
“Fine, but let's stick together.”
I held out a hand to help her up. The Yonserian ignored it and got up on her own, even though she looked ready to pass out.
I nocked an arrow and set off hunting. This time, I was focused on bagging a bird.
I could hear them singing, but every one I spotted was too small to be worth the meat—and harder to clean besides.
We circled the area, and with each wasted minute, I grew more nervous and restless.
Was it too much to ask for an owl or a hawk? Hell, I'd take a vulture at this point.
“Don't you miss your nation?” Adele was staring more at the sky than at the forest. The question caught me so off guard I stopped dead in my tracks.
“No…” Thinking about my old life wouldn't do me any good during the test, so I kept it short and blunt: “Drutes treated me like garbage. I don't miss that.”
She kept gazing at the sky, biting her lip as she thought it over.
“I miss Yonser. The cold, ice skating, the theaters, the walks through the frost—especially the serun caterpillars.
I miss everything. I'm like an ugly duckling, out of place in Interion.” A blue butterfly fluttered across our path, and Adele stopped to watch it.
“I wish I were a butterfly so I could fly back home.”
I frowned, glancing between my ally and the forest around us. That was the strangest conversation we'd ever had, and her soft, slurred voice had to be a symptom of dehydration. Worried, I turned my attention back to the hunt and tuned out Adele's rambling so I could focus on fixing our problem.
“No, little butterfly, I can't fly. I can't keep up with you,” I heard her say behind me.
“Be quiet! You'll scare off every animal out here if you keep that up.”
She acted like she was at an amusement park, smiling at everything around us.
“The forest is strange,” she murmured.
My steps were silent as a heron's, while hers were heavy as an elephant's.
“This is a swamp—it's different from the start of the test.” As I hunted, I also scanned the treetops for the blue flower, but I didn't spot any.
“Swamp? Are swamps usually this dark, full of butterflies and talking trees?”