Unity by Jeremy Robinson Page A

me. No high school diploma. No college degree. I would have been on course for a life of mediocrity and hardship. It was a course I’d been on since the day my mother popped me out of her womb and decided, ‘I don’t love this child, take her away.’
    Had I known about all this, about the crash, the tsunami, the death, the island, the murders and the responsibility thrust upon me by four total strangers who think I’m something I’m not, would I still be here?
    Yes, I decide, considering the alternative.
    Better to die young, fighting for something. Better than going to the grave an old woman with nothing to show for eighty years of sucking oxygen from the atmosphere. That’s what animals do. Biologists say that people are just animals, too, whose primary functions are to eat, sleep and procreate, but it just sounds like an excuse to not live fully. To not dream of something bigger and better. I know what that feels like—to be dreamless. To lack hope from something beyond existing.
    And right now, for the first time in my life, I feel like I exist. Like I’m more than alive. Like I’m living.
    Before I decide I’m actually enjoying myself here and start worrying about my psyche, I say, “Okay.”
    “Okay what?” Daniel asks.
    “We’ll follow the path. See where it leads. Whatever happens after that will depend on what we find at the end. But our priority is still food, water and shelter. If we find any of those things, the mystery of this path’s terminus will have to wait a few days.”
    “A few days? ” Gizmo exclaims. He lacks Mandi’s edge, but still sounds surprisingly aghast.
    This path is providing our Base members with hope, but far too much of it. Even if we find a way to contact the outside world, if Daniel was right about the size and force of the wave, it might be a very long time before rescue comes. I don’t want to be the one to crush their hope, though, so I redirect it.
    “Transport 37 went down not far from us. If the five of us survived the crash, it’s possible some of them did, too. First thing in the morning, we’re going to find them.”
    “If they landed in the water,” Daniel says. “Like 38...”
    Mandi sits on the side of the concrete landing pad, head lowered into her hands, elbows on knees. “All three transports crashed?”
    She’s only been awake for an hour, I remember. She doesn’t know everything.
    “38 landed in the ocean?” she asks. “ Before the tsunami?”
    Gizmo sits next to her, hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry.” His small voice carries weight, and I’m surprised when a sob hiccups from the tough little girl.
    “Damn,” Daniel says. “Mand, I didn’t think before I—”
    Mandi sniffs, wipes her nose and sits up straight. “Not your fault.”
    I give Gwen a confused look. She leans in close, whispering, “Hutch is her brother.”
    The news is like a sucker punch. A short gasp escapes my lips, but long enough to be heard. Mandi’s red-rimmed, wet eyes snap toward me. “That’s right.” She stands and steps toward me. “He was my brother. And you ... You humiliated him. Made him useless. He was one of the best Supports. Top scores. And they paired him with you. You! The girl whose pity party never ends. The girl whose only friend was the girl who couldn’t talk.”
    “Hey,” Daniel says, placing a calm hand on Mandi’s shoulder. But she shrugs away and steps closer to me, well inside my comfort zone. “We all know who you are, Eff. And we all know that Sig’s potential was the only reason they brought you along.”
    “That’s not true,” I say, but it sounds true, even to me.
    “But she didn’t need you. Just people who understood her.” Mandi puts her hand on my chest, between my breasts, breaching all kinds of personal boundaries, and shoves. I stumble back a step, but hold my ground, my face turning hot.
    “So what to do with you?” she says, closing the fresh gap between us. She raises a finger in the air, like she’s