Return

Tally slowed her hoverboard as she reached her destination: a campsite where she, David, and the other Cutters had lived since the Extras' story had gone public. They were somewhere in North America, even though none of them really cared about where they were. They were close enough to a city so they could still view the feeds and keep up with the world, but far enought that they wouldn't get caught.

'Find anything good out there Tally-wa?' Shay asked her from beside the camp fire.

'Nope, just more pranks and tricks on the feeds. No one doing anything truly icy that we should worry about. All I found were a few pings from Aya-la wondering when we were coming back for a visit.' Tally replied.

Tally sat down between David and Fausto and leaned her head on David's shoulder.

'Tally, if there's nothing we should worry about, then why is someone coming this way?' David asked, looking up from the contraption in his hand.

Tally shot up straight. How could anyone know where they are? The dot on the tracker was distinctly headed their way. 'Unless it's Andrew, then we've got one major problem heading our way at the speed of a Special Circumstances' hoverboard.' David added.

'A Special Circumstances hoverboard? There's no way anyone could have requisitioned one of those without us knowing. We are Special Circumstances. Someone would have told us.' Shay said.

'Either way we better get moving.' Fausto said pulling the hood of his sneak suit over his face.

He was right. Tally and the others began to pack up camp, rolling up sleeping bags and shoving water purifiers and dehydrated food into their backpacks. Tally twisted her crash bracelets and her hoverboard flew to her, she noticed Shay and the others do the same. They all hopped on their boards and started to move away from their now empty campsite.

Tally was curious. She wanted to see who it was so she motioned the others on and got off her hoverboard and scaled the nearest tree. Over her skintenna she heard Shay whisper, 'Whoever it is Tally-wa, stay icy'. Tally shut of her skintenna then, in case the approaching person was able to hear through it also.

Several minutes later, she heard the board approaching. The rider stopped over the camp and began to descend, their back towards Tally's tree. Whoever it was, they were a male, tall, strong looking, and wearing a sneak-suit in its armored fashion, but Tally knew she could take him in a heartbeat and win if she needed to. Tally watched as he stepped off his board and knelt next to where the fire used to be. Fearlessly, he stuck his hand into the still smoldering ashes, and Tally began to wonder when they'd become in such a hurry that they forgot to dismantle the fire completely. The figure stood, and began to scan the clearing. Whoever it was, the back of their head was beginning to look strangely familiar.

The figure turned towards her side of the clearing, Tally had to hold back a gasp as the person stood there and looked directly at her. She now understood why she recognized him. Tally climbed back down the tree, the person's eyes followed her the entire way down, even though her sneak suit matched the texture of the tree. Once her feet touched the ground, Tally stopped and took a deep breath. Then, slowly, she turned to face the one person she never thought she'd see again.