Page 7 of Gunslinger Girl

Finn tapped the steering wheel pointedly. “I’ve been working on the Ranger for years. Do you think I was gonna let him tell me no? He even gave me the outer gate code so I could try her out on the plains.”

Pity marveled at the ease with which Finn spun her lies. It was Hale who had provided the code. A calculated risk, but Hale, bless him, had taken one look at her face and given it over. No questions, no comments. She said a silent thanks to him as she kept her gaze straight ahead, certain her expression would give them away. Her heart felt ready to beat right out of her chest.

After an elongated moment of thought, Rawley reached for his radio. “I better check in with—”

“Wait!” cried Pity.

He paused and gave her a quizzical look.

She faltered, mouth still open. Say something! She sat straighter in the passenger seat, letting the fear within rise to her face. “Lester gave Finn permission… but not me. And if he finds out I went with her, then…” She turned her head so the swollen, purple bruise on her cheek was more visible.

Finn caught on. “It’s just a little fun, Rawley. Everyone is allowed that, huh?”

Rawley wrestled with the problem. Her father’s temper was no secret, Pity knew, but gambling on sympathy wasn’t a tactic she liked having to employ. Shame joined her apprehension.

“Fine,” Rawley yielded. “But be back before quittin’ time.” He went over and opened the front gate.

“Of course!” Finn winked at him, then hit the accelerator.

Relief melted Pity back against her seat as fallow brown fields enveloped them. An overnight rain shower had dealt with the worst of the dust, but even so, when Finn turned and drove them off the main road, an earthy cloud followed in their wake. Finn maneuvered a bit, winding over the bumpy, weedy ground, but kept them moving steadily toward the outer fence. If anyone was watching, by all appearances it would look like they were joyriding. And, Pity supposed, Finn actually was. Her expression was pure delight.

Pity, on the other hand, could only focus on watching for commune vehicles. Oily fear filled her stomach, growing stronger as scenarios played out in her thoughts: Rawley could decide to radio Lester after all, or they could cross paths with a crew of field hands. And there were the wall-walkers, too; at any point, they could pass by on their rounds.

Beneath Pity’s coat, the comforting weight of her mother’s guns pressed against her hips like a vow.

I’m not going to die here, too. I’m not.

Finally, Finn returned to the road and Pity spotted the gate, the last barrier between them and the unsettled wilds of the CONA territories. Finn slowed to a stop and jumped out. Pity leaned out the open window of the Ranger, blood pounding in her ears as she took one more look around. In both directions along the fence, she saw no one. With a hiss of hydraulics, the gate began to slide open.

“Sit down,” said Finn, returning. “It’ll close after us.”

For a moment, Pity couldn’t move. Her limbs might as well have been concrete.

No one was watching them.

No alarms had gone off.

No one was going to stop them.

“Pity!”

She slid back into the Ranger. The wind that hit her face as they barreled through the gate was cool and fresh. Cooler and fresher than the air they had just left. At last, she smiled. Then she smiled wider and stuck her head out of the Ranger. “Whooooooooo!” she bellowed.

Finn laughed and added her voice to Pity’s. They howled like wolves as the Ranger picked up speed, tires rolling over the pavement with an invigorating reverberation.

“Good-bye, 87th!” yelled Finn.

Pity twisted in her seat and looked back, unable to hold her elation in. “Good-bye, 87th!” she repeated, screaming at the top of her lungs. “And good riddance!”

CHAPTER 3

Pity scanned the horizon with the rifle’s scope.

“How much longer you gonna do that?” Finn twisted a wrench, tightening something on the Ranger’s frame. “I don’t know what you’re expecting to see. Rawley forgot about us the minute he went off duty. Your brothers will think you’re hiding out with me. And even when everyone realizes we’re gone, how d’you think they’re gonna find us?”

“There’s more to worry about than my father.”

“Sure,” said Finn. “Those deer we saw a few miles back looked like the menacing sort.”