The Forsaken

seeing across the lake is an illusion . . . created by a system of cameras, projecting images of the sky and forest onto a gossamer screen. Designed to fool anyone who gets this far. Behind it lies the city . . . and a way off the wheel.”
    “Is he lying?” Gadya asks Markus.
    “Probably.” Markus gazes around. “Only one way to find out, though.”
    “This ice better be thick, or we’re all gonna drown,” Sinxen points out.
    I glance up at the sky. I wonder if it’s going to start snowing; the air has that strange expectant feeling. How is it possible that just a few hours ago, on the other side of the barrier, it was eighty degrees?
    “We’re gonna die if we stop moving,” I say, hoisting my pack with freezing arms.
    “So we’re just gonna walk across the ice?” Rika asks, repressed hysteria in her voice. “What if it does crack? I can’t swim.”
    “Why didn’t Liam say anything about this lake?” Sinxen broods uneasily. “He was here too, right? He gave Veidman info about the gray zone.” His question raises another one that is left unspoken. What if Liam was a spy?
    Gadya stares at him. “Maybe Liam took a different route.”
    “Or maybe there wasn’t any water in this lake when he came through,” I point out. “I mean, if it’s man-made. We don’t know how anything works in this zone.”
    Markus looks at David. “You sure there’s nothing you want to tell us?”
    He shakes his head. “I’m as clueless as you guys.”
    Gadya takes a step closer to the icy surface, so I walk up next to her. “We’ll have to spread out,” she says. “Distribute our weight.”
    I watch as Markus steps onto the ice. It creaks, but it holds.
    “Pretty thick.” He taps his foot. The ice doesn’t splinter. It just groans a little more.
    I start walking forward. If the ice is this thick all the way across, then we’ll be able to make it to the other side without much of a problem. I exhale with relief as I edge my way onto the surface, shivering.
    I know we have to cross this lake quickly. If the temperature is low enough to freeze ice this thick, it must be far below zero out here now. How long will we last in our shabby coats, hats, and boots? I can see that there’s a hole in one of Sinxen’s gloves. He’s probably going to get frostbite on his hand.
    But none of us are in as bad a shape as the Monk. He doesn’t scare me so much anymore. In fact, there’s something pathetic about him, like a broken old man. All his megalomaniacal plans of conquering the wheel and enslaving kids with his lies have brought him to this place—an icy, barren wilderness far from his sectors. Here, he has no one except his drone. Here, in the barren cold, he will soon succumb to the Suffering and the elements.
    The others fan out behind me. I peer over at Markus, who is pointing the way forward, still trying to guard David.
    As a scattered group, we begin to walk and slide across the icy surface of the lake. It’s slippery, but all of us move cautiously, and none of us fall, not even the drone carrying the Monk.
    The ice is thick enough that it feels like I’m walking on solid earth, but I know we can’t risk congregating on it. Our combined weight might shatter the ice and send us all plunging into the water. So we continue to keep our distance from one another.
    The farther we go, the more frigid the air becomes. I can’t feel my toes, and I can barely feel my fingers. My nose and cheeks are numb. I tell myself that everything will feel better when we’re off the ice and back in the forest. Maybe we can risk starting a fire then.
    We’re right in the middle of the lake when I hear the first faint buzzing noise.
    Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
    My heart seizes up in panic. The sound is so soft, and the place is so silent that it almost seems like it’s coming from inside my own ears. But I know it’s not.
    “Gadya!” I whisper. She doesn’t hear me, so I wave my arms. “Do you hear that?”
    Gadya looks over at me, just as Rika stops walking. I can tell she has heard it too.
    I look up. I don’t see anything, but the noise is growing louder. I know exactly what’s headed our way.
    “We’ve been spotted!” I yell. “It’s a feeler!”
    Everyone stops walking instantly.
    “We better run!” Rika yells.
    “There’s no time!” Markus screams back.
    He’s right. We’re in the center of the lake. The feeler is going to get here much faster than we can reach the other side. We all look back and forth