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have to kill me too.”
       Luke spits out his words. He’s so angry. “She’s one of them. Give her the chance and she’ll turn on us.”
       I hear a blaster pistol charge up. At first, I think it’s Luke or Matthew returning with a weapon, but it’s Sierra readying the pistol I gave her. “Don’t,” I say putting myself between her and him. “Don’t.”
       Sierra rubs the red handprints on her neck with her free hand. “His turn,” she says. The intensity of her focus makes me believe she intends to shoot him. I can’t let her do that, I can’t.
       I look from her to Luke, from Luke to her. “I don’t want to be in the middle, but you put me here. Don’t you see? They want us to turn on each other. They want us to be thoughtless, heartless, soulless. It’s why they had Matthew and his go after you instead of going after you themselves.”
       “Go ahead, shoot,” Luke shouts, goading Sierra on. I watch helplessly as Sierra squeezes the trigger. There’s nothing I can do to stop her except to put myself in the place she’s targeting.
     

 
     
     
Chapter 3
    Node: 010
     
     
     
    My body slams into Luke, and then the wall as I jump into the shot. I go down with a groan and lie there moaning. Everything hurts.
       Sierra screams like she herself has been shot, dropping pistol as she gets down beside me. “Cedes, no, no,” she says, “I didn’t mean… Not you... Never you.”
       Luke, on the opposite side, sits, his hand clasping mine. “Cedes, I’m not myself,” he says. “I don’t know who I am anymore.”
       “Get out of here,” I say. “Go after Matthew.” A yelp escapes my lips as I try to sit up. “Your pack.”
       “Cedes, I—” Luke starts to say.
       His streamlined, black backpack is a match to mine. “That,” I say, grabbing a roll of black gauze. I lean forward and turn so my right shoulder is exposed. “Unzip me.”
       Luke complies. I pull down on the fabric and slip my shoulder out of the jumper. Sierra gasps at the sight of blood and the wound. I grab her arm before she pulls away from me.
       “You didn’t do this. I did this,” I say.
       Sierra’s eyes speak volumes. She’s scared, shaking. “I didn’t mean to, I didn’t mean to.”
       “This wasn’t you,” I say more firmly. “This is from before. I opened the wound just now. You didn’t hit me. You missed. You missed.”
       I tear off a section of gauze for Luke. Luke applies it. I can’t see it bind to my flesh, but I feel it. I slip my shoulder back into the jumper. Luke zips and helps me up. Before Luke or Sierra can step back or start again, I wrap my arms around them both.
       “We only have each other. We can’t let them come between us,” I say. “It’s us against them, not us against each other.”
       “I know, I know,” Sierra says. She’s still shaking. Her face pressed against me is wet with tears.
       Luke doesn’t say anything. His eyes are fixed on Sierra, on the angry red marks on her neck.
       “Don’t,” I say, touching a hand to his cheek. “What’s done is done. We can’t change it, can’t go back. We’ve all done things we never thought we were capable of.”
       Luke reaches out to Sierra. She backs away. “Fair enough,” he says. “You didn’t deserve… I’m sorry. I can’t control…”
       The pinch of Sierra’s eyes tells me she feels everything Luke’s feeling. “They’ve made us into something we’re not,” she says, her voice cracking, “We’ve all killed, all of us, and we have to carry that with us forever. I feel so…”
       Luke’s not one to come to tears easily, but I see why he turns away, even if he acts like it is to retrieve his gear.
       “Go after Matthew,” I say to Luke. “Don’t let him escape. We need him.” He hesitates, then rushes away. To Sierra, I say, “I’m sorry. I didn’t think, didn’t know any of this would happen when I