Hardwired by Trisha Leaver Page B

in front of me?”
    I nodded, a small smile creeping across my face. Even out here, in the midst of an epically screwed-up situation, it was nice to see someone from home. Nice to know that there was a least one person who was actually happy I was still around. “Yep. Why, were you looking for me?”
    â€œWere you on that van?” she asked. “The one I saw go over the cliff and explode?”
    Chris shot me a look, one I immediately recognized. Suspicion. He didn’t trust her, and no amount of history between us was going to change that.
    â€œNope,” he said to her. “We were in the van that hit it. We got the honor of clawing our way out through the windshield and freezing our asses off as we hiked God knows how many miles back.”
    â€œWait—you’re walking back to the testing facility? After everything they did to you, you’re actually heading back there? Willingly?”
    â€œThat was the plan,” Chris snapped.
    â€œTake me with you.” Carly clamped her hand around my wrist, refusing to let go, pleading with me not to leave her alone on the road. “Please, Lucas, take me back there with you.”
    â€œUmm … yeah, no,” Chris answered for me. “Trust me, that’s the last place you want to go.”
    â€œThat’s exactly where I need to go,” she said and started walking that direction, dragging me along beside her.

ten
    â€œStop,” I yelled, yanking back on her hold. Chris and I had hunkered down on the side of the road for a reason—because neither of us had the strength to move at the moment. And Carly showing up hadn’t changed that.
    â€œNot yet,” I added, pointing toward the small clearing we’d taken shelter in earlier. It wasn’t an ideal spot, but the sweeping tree branches at least offered some shelter from the blowing snow. “Chris wasn’t lying. We literally just climbed out of a car wreck. Can you at least give us a few minutes to regroup?”
    Chris mumbled something about letting her find her own way back, but I ignored him and settled onto the frozen ground. Carly took a seat across from me, her eyes softening as she took in Chris’s injuries. I leaned my back against the tree and stretched out my legs. It felt fantastic to stop, just sit and not move. To not think for a few seconds.
    I groaned at the piercing numbness settling into my toes. The trees we were hiding behind did little to muffle the sound of the howling wind. My body had given out, was
aching to the point of agony, and my mind was in a bad place. The soundtrack of the crash replayed itself over and over in my mind. The memory of screeching tires and the smell of blood and vomit were enough to have me swallowing back bile all over again. I could’ve dealt with those images; since Tyler’s death, I’d gotten pretty adept at ignoring my nightmares. But what kept my mind spinning on high gear was the girl sitting across from me and the thousand questions I had for her.
    â€œYou think he’ll be okay?” Carly asked. She’d been staring at a sleeping Chris for the past ten minutes, a look of guilt marring her features.
    These were the first words she’d spoken since we’d sat down, and they caught me off guard. I looked over at Chris and nodded. He was snoring like he always did, loud and full of grunts. Plus, he was the strongest person I knew, had gone through the same series of tests I had, and not once had he shown a single sign of cracking.
    â€œHe’ll be fine,” I said, praying I was right. “You want to tell me why you’re so intent on getting to the testing facility?” The only person she knew in that place was me, and I could all but guarantee everybody from back home had written me off.
    She wavered for a minute, as if debating whether to tell me the truth. “I know what happens to people in there,” she finally said. “And I won’t