Deadlands by Lily Herne Page A

tipping me over the edge. Before I was even aware of what I was doing, I’d grabbed Zyed by the lapels of his jacket, and shoved him back against the sculpture. He was taller than me, but he was no match for the rage that surged through my veins. ‘You are so going to regret saying that,’ I yelled at him.
    I raised my fist, planning to punch Zyed on the nose, but someone caught hold of my arm, and I felt myself being dragged backwards. ‘You don’t want to do that,’ a voice hissed in my ear. I struggled free and swung around. It was Thabo.
    Zyed was smoothing the front of his jacket, and I felt a surge of triumph at his shocked expression. Summer and Nyameka looked equally traumatised.
    ‘Come on!’ Thabo said, grabbing my arm and pulling me towards the gate.
    ‘Huh?’
    ‘We’re getting out of here.’
    He dropped my arm and strode off. Zyed shot me a hate-filled glance as he and his clan started heading towards the office.
    Thabo paused and turned around. ‘Well?’ he said. ‘You coming or not?’
    This time I didn’t hesitate.

10
    ‘Where are we going?’ I asked Thabo, struggling to keep up with his long strides.
    ‘Away from this place.’
    ‘Won’t we get into trouble?’
    ‘Yeah,’ he said with a grin. ‘By the way, nice moves back there, Ninja Girl. You’re way stronger than you look.’
    ‘What’s a ninja?’ I asked.
    He chuckled. ‘You got anything to eat?’
    ‘Yeah,’ I dug in my bag and handed him a roti.
    ‘Thanks, hey!’ he said, ripping into it. ‘This is good. Your mom make it?’
    ‘My mom’s dead.’
    ‘Snap.’
    He ducked behind a stall selling Resurrectionist amulets and I followed him through a narrow covered alleyway that reeked of drains and stale cooking. It led straight into a partially tarred square, ringed with half-constructed buildings. A couple of workmen glanced at us curiously, but most of them ignored us.
    ‘Down here,’ Thabo said, leading me down another foul-smelling alleyway.
    We emerged into a familiar thoroughfare, one of the busy market streets I’d explored on one of my journeys home. The market was doing a roaring trade, but then the crowd cleared and I caught sight of two robed Resurrectionists handing out pamphlets.
    Thabo grinned at me. ‘Watch this.’
    He raced up behind one of the Resurrectionists and pulled the hood down off his head, revealing long hair and a bright pink face. ‘Hey!’ the Resurrectionist shouted.
    Thabo grabbed his pamphlets, threw them up into the air and, with another cheeky glance at me, set off running. Hardly able to believe what I’d just seen I raced after him.
    He ducked into a narrow street and I hared after him. But I couldn’t see him anywhere. He’d disappeared.
    ‘Lele! Over here!’
    I caught sight of his head poking out from behind a wooden dumpster. He was sitting in the shadowy space behind it.
    I crawled in and sat down next to him. ‘Phew,’ I said. ‘It stinks here.’
    ‘You’ll get used to it. At least it’s out of the rain.’
    He was right; the dumpster’s open lid, which was resting against the wall, formed a makeshift roof.
    ‘Did you see those Resurrectionists’ faces?’ he asked. ‘Dumbasses.’
    ‘But . . . I thought you were a believer?’ I pointed to the amulet around his neck.
    ‘I told you, Lele. Got to play their game.’
    ‘And how much trouble will we be in? At school, I mean.’
    ‘Don’t worry about it.’
    ‘But Zyed –’
    ‘Don’t worry about him. There’s no way he’ll want to rehash that fight.’ He looked at me meaningfully. ‘But you shouldn’t have said that, Lele. Implied that . . .’
    ‘That he liked boys? So what? What’s the big deal?’
    ‘It is a big deal. Don’t you know that the Resurrectionists are against same-sex relationships?’
    ‘But why?’
    ‘Think about it. They need us to breed, right? Keep the Guardians happy.’
    My heart sank. Zyed was a vicious little snipe, no doubt, but I was suddenly overwhelmed with