"Of course he wants us to!" Palla cried out. "He met you and elevated your instruction! You'll be in classes with boys and girls now. Studying advanced subjects and able to pick a path for your mastery training."

"No, he wants everyone to be good little cows while he's the bull in the pasture," Lily said. "We chew our grain and do what he needs us for, when he needs us. Humanity stays calm and quiet and he gets whatever he wants."

"That's rather harsh," Palla said with an edge to her voice. "You should focus on the part where our race stops fighting and people learn to be nice to one another. We live in peace and prosperity."

Lily bit back the harsh laugh that was trying to burst out of her chest. She could see Palla's point, but was Palla really so blind to think that was all Ondalla wanted? He'd threatened her-to her face-that she was going to be an example. What kind of example depended on whether she wanted to play his game or not. She nodded to herself.

"What are you thinking?" Palla asked.

"I'm thinking that I know what I have to do."

"What? What do you mean?"

"I'm going to play the game. I have to."

"What game? Lily, for a smart girl, you're not making any sense."

Lily ignored the question for the moment and asked one of her own instead, "You're ahead of your age bracket, right, Palla?"

"What? Yes. Lily-"

"Then let's stop fighting with each other. I'm going to need your help jumping two years in my classes. And you're going to need my help to achieve your mastery status. Friends?"

Palla sucked her lips together after a moment and glanced at Lily's outstretched hand. She smiled and shook it, but the smile didn't reach her eyes.

"No more fighting," Lily said. "Or next time we have to hug it out."

"Hug it-oh my. Do people hug where you came from?"

Lily laughed. "They do. We're farmers-we know where babies come from."

Palla shivered. "No thank you! That's barbaric! We have labs for fertilization and the safe growth of fetuses for a reason. Venus is the only planet left in our solar system where natural childbirth is still condoned. Far too risky and such practices lead to population blooms that were the cause of so many problems historically."

Lily rolled her eyes. "It's just a hug, Palla. It's not going to get you pregnant. Especially from another girl!"

Palla shivered and looked away. "I'd better go and see if Kami needs more help with her studies."

Lily watched Palla leave the room and shrugged. She still didn't like her, but she was learning how to deal with her. Liking her didn't matter; she just needed her help. If there's one thing President Ondalla had taught her, it was that the ends justified the means.

Chapter 16.

"Krys! Wake up!"

Krys rolled over and thrust his head up, staring and trying to make sense of what he saw. Mr. Strain was crouched at the front of his lean-to and behind him he saw everyone else scrambling. "What's wrong?"

"Fina spotted the soldiers. They're looking for us."

"Oh," Krys mumbled. He shook his head as the words sunk in. "Oh! Um, crap! Are they coming? Do they know where we are?"

"They're searching, but it's only a matter of time."

"What's the plan?"

Mig frowned. "Grab what we can and run. We'll have to set up a new camp. We'll need that picker more than ever now, even if it's what made them come find us."

Krys nodded. "Mr. Strain, what if-"

"Krys, we don't have time for what-ifs. We've got to go now! I don't know how much time we've got."

Krys nodded and rolled over to start gathering his things. While he worked, he glanced back and asked, "But where are we going? We talked about setting up other camps, but we never did. We were afraid they might find one."

"We'll improvise," he said.

Krys shook his head. "We can't. We have to split up."

"Split up? Why?"

"Eight of us? Too many tracks. We break up and they'll have a harder time following us all."

Mig frowned. "Where'd you learn that?"

"The stories I used to read. Tried it a few times playing hide-and-seek in the woods with my friends too. Especially if we outnumber the soldiers looking for us."

"We don't!"

Krys nodded. "Yeah, probably not. Still, it'll work. Especially if we can distract them in case they get close to one of us."

"You want us all to go separate ways?"

"Not all, but a couple of us."

"Krys, this is insane. We need to stick together or-"

Krys shook his head. "Mr. Strain. I know what you're worried about but if we do and they catch us all? Then they've got us all. If we split up, we make it harder and, if somebody does get caught, the rest of us are still free."

"But where are we going?" Mig asked while staring into the forest. "We haven't even decided what to do about the night yet."

"I've been thinking," Krys said and stood up with the tool satchel in his hands. It bulged with a spare infopad and one of the spare power cells they had. "The Pyrus Mountains to the northeast. They're about two days' hike, right? South of them are the Shatterplates, where the ground's broken up by the magma before the planet was terraformed. Those mountains had tons of lava flows and volcanoes in them before the planet was cooled down. There has to be caves there. Caves we can hide in!"

Mig's brow furrowed. "Caves keep the wind, rain, and snow out."

"And they stay warmer once you get deep enough. Same as the core temperature of Venus, which is fifteen degrees. Warm enough to survive in, with some clothing and staying active."

Mig nodded. "All right, we'll make for it. But together, not apart!"

Krys frowned. "Two groups? You go with one and I'll go with the other?"

"Why two?"

"Same reason I wanted us all to break up."

"Then you're sticking with me!"

Krys shook his head again. "We can't. What if we tell everyone and say Stef gets caught? What if they torture her to find out where we are?"

Mig tilted his head. "They would and she'd break. These are good, solid people, but they're farmers, not soldiers."

"You're a soldier, or you were," Krys said.

Mig nodded. "Why you?"

Krys grinned. "It was my idea. We each take a pad for the map on it and if we don't find each other, we meet up at the southern mountain of the range where they turn into the Shatterplates."

Mig grunted. "I don't like it, but I'll be damned if that's not a better idea than any I've had. Wish I knew how you and Lily and the others got so smart!"

"Just great parents, I guess," Krys said.

"All right, pick your crew."

"Janna, Angelo, and Fina," Krys said without thinking. "Keep Stef and Kerry together and then you get Gary."

"Angelo and Janna?" Mig asked. "She's not too big on him."

"She's not too big on anybody," Krys said. Mig shrugged. "All right, grab what you can and go."

"You too," Krys said.

Mig offered up a salute that made Krys's chest swell with pride before he turned and strode over to tell the others what the plan was. Krys focused on shoving some dried meat in his satchel and finished it by over-packing two coconuts in it. He turned and rose up, and then heard the sound of wood creaking and breaking. His eyes widened. They'd brought the tanks?

"Janna, Angelo! We've got to go," Krys hissed. He'd seen the tanks in the distance one day doing some practice maneuvers. They were fast in open ground. Not quite as fast in a forest, but they had the power to push trees out of their way or blow them up if they couldn't.

"What's going on?" Angelo asked. He turned and glanced at Janna.

"Mr. Strain wants us to get Fina and get out of here. Grab what you can-Angelo, can you get the picker?"

Janna saw the other three talking together and turned back to Angelo and Krys. "We're splitting up? Why?"

"We can move faster this way and if we get caught, they can still get away."

"This is stupid," she growled.

Angelo frowned but didn't offer his opinion. "Where to?"

Krys turned to look at the growing sounds from the west where the tanks were at. "East," he said, glad they couldn't see him. "But we have to get Fina too."

On cue, Fina and Gary burst from the underbrush and rushed up to the camp. Both were gasping for air. "They're getting close!" Gary said while Fina panted and tried to catch her breath.

"Did they find us?" Krys asked.

Fina shook her head while Gary answered. "They're searching the forest. Getting closer to us, though."

"One tank or two?"

"Both."

Krys grimaced and stared to the east. He shook his head and turned back. "Gary, Mr. Strain wants you with him. Fina, we're going to go in a separate group."

"What?" she gasped. "Wh-"

"Gary! Come over here," Mig called.

Gary let his gaze pass over them before he turned and jogged over. Krys nodded at how everyone recognized Mr. Strain as their leader and did what he wanted without asking. He wanted people to look up to him like that when he grew up. If he grew up.

"That way at least one of us can get away," Angelo answered Fina's question. "One group, I mean."

"What, then we come back?"

"We go east for now," Krys said. "Um, that's what Mr. Strain wanted us to do."

Fina's panting had stopped but she turned and stared at the other group before shaking her head. "This is not what I signed up for when I married Roger."

"None of us expected this, sister," Janna growled at her. "But this is what it is, so quit whining. The kid says we go east, we go east."

A loud crack of a tree being knocked over made them all wince. Krys nodded. "We have to go now! Grab whatever you can, Fina. All of you, if you don't have it already."

Angelo pulled up a flap of the vison hide he'd managed to sew into a crude bag. Janna grunted and went over to her lean-to and grabbed a bag she'd made out of weaving layer after layer of grass together. She held it up and turned. Fina stared at them and then at Krys and his satchel. She frowned and turned to her lean-to.

"I don't have anything to carry stuff with," she complained.

"Got your hands," Krys suggested.

She looked down at them and sighed. "Maybe I should just let them take me. I can slow them down while you get away."

"You'd be captured and tortured," Janna said as she returned.

"Or killed," Angelo pointed out. "Like they done everyone else."

"Not the kids," Janna said, looking at Krys.

Krys swallowed and nodded. He'd thought about that already. It wasn't a thought he wanted to spend any time on. "Let's go. Fina, grab some stuff on the way."