Sneak (Swipe Series)

face.
    “Look here,” Hailey called. “Says this is . . . a village.”
    Logan laughed. “Well, what is it? Invisible, then? There’s nothing here, Hailey.”
    Hailey shrugged, looking very small against the wide field backdrop, the mountains all around them, and the stars in the clear, crisp sky.
    But then something amazing happened. Behind Hailey, in the middle of fifty acres of grass and dirt, the ground popped open, and a man poked his head out as if it weren’t anything out of the ordinary at all.
    “What’s the ruckus?” he barked, and Logan, Hailey, and Dane all jumped what felt like fifteen feet into the air. “It’s nighttime! Don’t you kids have manners?”
    Hailey held up both arms, displaying her empty wrist. “We’re a little lost,” she said. “We didn’t, uh . . . we didn’t quite expect we’d be bothering anyone out here . . .”
    “Well, didn’t you see the sign?” the man asked.
    Dane laughed. “Yeah, but . . . dude . . . there’s no village here . . .”
    “No village? Well, that’s quite a thing to say!” And almost as soon as the man had spoken, all across the field, a dozen other people poked their heads up out of the ground.
    12
    Two hundred miles away, the Dust were developing blisters of their own. They’d been walking east going on sixteen hours, through street after forgotten street and who-knew-how-many ghost towns, and they’d passed now into an area so isolated that even the ruins were far behind them. Since sundown, they’d been hiking along an old, decrepit highway labeled “70” by the pre-Unity signs that had long since fallen to the ground. Every few miles, they’d pass a car by the side of the road, or sometimes right in the middle of it, abandoned, rusted, falling apart . . .
    “We’re gonna die out here,” Eddie said.
    “No we’re not,” Peck told him.
    But two hours and four abandoned cars later, Eddie continued the thought. “I think we are. I think we’re all gonna die out here.”
    “You’re wrong,” Peck said.
    “No, I’m definitely not,” Eddie mused, yet another hour later.
    “Eddie! We are not going to die ,” Peck insisted.
    “But I’m not so sure . . . ,” Eddie said, well into their twentieth hour of walking.
    This time Peck just shrugged. “Fine,” he said. “Then we die free.”
    No one talked after that.

    On their twenty-second hour, the Dust saw it, the mansion in the distance with a light in every window.
    At first, Blake thought he was seeing things. He was sure he’d begun hallucinating.
    But when everyone else saw it too, it became clear: the mansion really was there. It was the biggest they’d ever seen. And the lights really were on.
    Someone was home.
    At the end of a long, winding driveway, there was a post where a mailbox used to be, a relic left over from pre-Unity days, when paper mail still existed.
    The post still had an address number on it, 2103, and it had something else too: a lifesaver drawn below the number, and an anchor drawn below that.
    It was Tyler who pointed it out. The rest just stared, disbelieving their luck.
    “Last one there’s a rotten egg!” Tyler screamed, and immediately the Dust was running as fast as they could along that winding drive, tripping and shoving one another all the way.
    They were elated and hopeful, eager for shelter, company, a meal, direction . . .
    So much so that not one of them saw it when they passed by.
    They didn’t even notice it in the corners of their eyes, scrawled on the picket fence just a little ways toward the house. But it was there. For anyone who knew to look.

SEVEN

HOUSE ARREST
    1
    W ELL, COME ON, THEN,” THE MAN SAID, AND he motioned Logan and Hailey and Dane over.
    When the three of them got to his hatchway, they could see that the man was standing on a staircase made of rock and hardpacked dirt below ground. They couldn’t tell where the stairs led, but it was warm under there, with an inviting, yellow glow.
    “Well?” the man said. “State your purpose. Out with it.”
    Hesitantly, Hailey responded. But it wasn’t anything she said. Instead, Hailey feigned a yawn, and she motioned a big stretch with her hands out. As she did, Hailey made sure to sweep a wide arc with one arm, as if she were outlining a hill.
    The man narrowed his eyes. He frowned for a moment. Then, with his hand, he made another wide arc, outlining a valley instead of a hill. The gestures were feet apart and drawn only in the air, but it was clear to the