Scarlet

fell silent, leaving Scarlet and Wolf staring at each other.
    Scarlet’s throat constricted.
    A blood test. Crying. A delay.
    “The plague.”
    Wolf said nothing.
    “They’ll put the whole train on lockdown,” she said. “We’ll all be quarantined.”
    Out in the hall, doors were slamming, neighbors yelling questions and speculations at each other, ignoring the conductor’s request to stay in their own rooms. The android must have moved on to the next car.
    Scarlet heard the rushed words: letumosis outbreak, posed as a question, a fear.
    “No.” She spat the word like a bullet. “They can’t keep us here. My grandma—!” Her voice hitched, a tide of panic overwhelming her.
    Someone down the hall pounded erratically on a door. The distant wailing grew louder.
    “Get your things,” said Wolf.
    She and Wolf moved at the same time. She threw her portscreen into her pack while Wolf crossed to the window and flung it open. The ground raced beneath them. Beyond the tracks, a dense forest stretched out, dissolving into shadows.
    Scarlet checked the pistol in her waistband. “Are we jumping?”
    “Yes. But they might be expecting it, so we have to do it before the train slows too much. They’re probably prepping enforcement androids right now to round up runaways.”
    Scarlet nodded. “If it is letumosis, we’ve probably already become a quarantine.”
    Wolf thrust his head out the window, looking both ways down the length of the train. “Now’s our best chance.”
    Pulling inside, he heaved the bag onto one shoulder. Scarlet peered down at the ground fleeing beneath them, dizzied by a moment of vertigo. It was impossible to focus on any one spot as the speckled sun flashed against the trees. “Well. This seems dangerous.”
    “We’ll be fine.”
    She peered up at him, for a moment expecting to meet that crazed madman again, but his expression was stone-cold and clinical. He was focused hard on the landscape that whizzed by them. “They’re braking,” he said. “We’ll start slowing down faster now.” Again, it was a few seconds before Scarlet sensed it too, the subtle shift of speed, the way they were decelerating fast, no longer just coasting to a steady stop.
    Wolf inclined his head. “Climb onto my back.”
    “I can jump myself.”
    “ Scarlet. ”
    She met his eyes. His youthful curiosity from before was gone, replaced with a sternness she hadn’t expected.
    “What? It’ll be just like jumping off the barn into a haystack. I’ve done that a hundred times.”
    “A haystack? Honestly, Scarlet, it’ll be nothing like that.”
    Before she could argue, before she could cement her defiance, he bent over her and scooped her into both arms.
    She gasped and had just enough time to open her mouth, ready to demand he put her down, before Wolf was on the windowsill, the wind whipping Scarlet’s curls against her neck.
    He jumped. Scarlet yelped and grabbed on to him, her stomach somersaulting, and then the shock of landing jogged up her spine.
    She dug her fingers into his shoulders. Every limb trembled.
    Wolf had landed in a clearing eight steps beyond the tracks. He staggered into the tree line and hunkered into the shadows.
    “All right?” he asked.
    “Just like”—she caught her breath—“a haystack.”
    A laugh reverberated through his chest, into her, and before she was ready Wolf settled her feet onto a patch of squishy moss. She scrambled out of his hold, caught her balance, then punched him squarely in the arm. “Never do that again.”
    He looked almost pleased with himself, before he tilted his head toward the forest. “We should move farther in, in case someone saw us.”
    She listened to the train zipping by, her pulse heavy and erratic, and followed Wolf into the trees. They hadn’t gone a dozen steps when the thrumming of the train disappeared, fading away down the tracks.
    Scarlet dug her port out of the bag on Wolf’s shoulder and checked their location.
    “Great. The nearest town is twenty miles east of here. It’s out of our way, but maybe someone can give us a ride to the next maglev station.”
    “Because we seem so trustworthy?”
    Scarlet peered up at him, noting the pale, scattered scars and the faded black eye. “What’s your idea?”
    “We should stay on the tracks. Another train will be by eventually.”
    “And they’ll give us a lift?”
    “Sure.”
    This time, she was sure she caught mischief in his eye as he started back down the rails. But