The Prey (33 page)

On the other side of the fence, the five LTs and nineteen Sisters looked nervously at each other.

“Then count me in,” Flush said, and he dove into the very hole that minutes earlier had stopped him dead in his tracks. And then Twitch did. And Scylla and Diana and Red and Four Fingers, until gradually all the Less Thans had joined me and a handful of Sisters.

But not Hope.

My heart faltered at the sight of her on the other side of the fence, sitting in the grass, her eyes avoiding mine. But I couldn't blame her. I really couldn't.

There were fourteen of us: seven Less Thans and seven Sisters. We had changed over the course of these weeks. We were covered in grime. Our clothes were more tattered rags than anything resembling actual shirts and pants. The sun had weathered our skin, and we had become stronger, all muscle.

“Now what?” Twitch asked, brushing the dirt from his clothes.

I felt the eyes of the others and looked to Cat. His expression seemed to say,
This was your idea, pal. You're in charge.

“Now we get back to Liberty and free those Less Thans,” I said.

I took a final look at Hope and her eyes met mine one last time.

I turned and began working my way up the slope. The others followed, spreading out without needing to be told—a squad of seasoned warriors. A band of brothers—and Sisters—washed in a slant of moonlight, bows slung over our shoulders, ready to take on whatever came our way.

Whether we would succeed or not was anybody's guess, but we would try. We would give it our best shot. We would do what's right.

Just before we reached the crest of the hill, I heard a voice behind me call out, “Hey, wait up!”

I turned around . . . and smiled.

N
O BOOK IS CREATED
by oneself—a first book especially so—and I am incredibly grateful to all the people who had a hand in the shaping of this manuscript.

To my agents, Victoria Sanders, Bernadette Baker-Baughman, Chris Kepner: thank you for your guidance, your wisdom, and—most importantly—your faith in me, even during those lean years when I didn't earn you a penny.

To my editor Alyson Day, copyeditor Renée Cafiero, designer Joel Tippie, marketing manager Jenna Lisanti, and publicist Gina Rizzo, and all the wonderful folks at HarperCollins who believed in this book and did editing and copyediting and book jackets and designs and marketing plans and on and on and on: please know
that I am more grateful than I have words to say.

An enormous round of thanks to those readers who offered early feedback and got me on track when I went off it: Gracie Anderson, Kendra Carlson, Katie Caskey, Josh Hinke, and most especially Ryan Gallagher, who read more drafts than anyone and has never been shy in sharing his pages and pages of notes—and usually made me laugh in the process.

Thank you to friends Daren Streblow and Jessie Rae Rayle for answering my questions in fields related to their expertise and far removed from mine. Any mistakes that still exist are mine and mine alone.

Thank you to all my UMD students, current and past, for your daily bursts of creativity, talent, and inspiration, which, in turn, inspire me. You've touched me more than I can express.

Thank you to my family for all these many years of love and support—and for sitting through just about every play I've ever been in.

And finally, to Pat, who is my first reader, my best reader, my true companion, who teaches me to laugh, to mourn, to live today and live tomorrow.

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Photo by Blake Johnson

TOM ISBELL
is an actor-author-professor. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, he has acted in theater, film, and TV, working opposite Robert De Niro, Ed Harris, Sarah Jessica Parker, and others. Currently a theater professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth, he has had three of his plays produced by the Theater for Young Audiences at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, including
Teddy Roosevelt and the Treasure of Ursa Major
, which was adapted into a book with then–First Lady Laura Bush penning the foreword. Tom and his wife, Pat, live in Duluth, Minnesota. You can visit him online at
www.tomisbell.com
.

Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at
hc.com
.

Cover photo of mountains © 2015 by Heiko Klug

Cover art and design by Joel Tippie

HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

THE PREY
. Copyright © 2015 by Tom Isbell. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Isbell, Tom, date

The prey / Tom Isbell. — First edition.

pages     cm

Summary: “After the apocalyptic Omega, a group of orphaned teen boys learn of their dark fate and escape, joining forces with twin girls who have been imprisoned for the ‘good of the republic.' In their plight for freedom, these young heroes must find the best in themselves to fight against the worst in their enemies”— Provided by publisher.

ISBN 978-0-06-221601-4 (hardcover)

EPub Edition November 2014 ISBN 9780062216045

[1. Science fiction. 2. Survival—Fiction. 3. Orphans—Fiction. 4. Twins—Fiction. 5. Sisters—Fiction.] I. Title.