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the Monk!”
    “No, wait! Stop!” I shriek, continuing to fight and claw at their faces. I hear David scream as one of the boys stomps on his damaged foot. The boys surround and overwhelm us, chattering and raving. Their rough hands grasp me tight as they begin to propel me through the trees.
    Then a voice cuts through the hubbub like a sharp blade, and everyone stops what they’re doing. This new voice is loud, female, and angry:
    “Let go of them right now, you ugly bastards!”
    A girl is standing on top of a nearby hill in the forest, staring down at us through the trees. She looks fierce, with streaks of blue dye in her hair, and metal piercings in her nose, ears, and lip. A sleeve of homemade tattoos runs down her left arm. She’s wearing jeans and a tank top made out of tanned animal hide.
    In her hand is a weapon. It looks like an old-fashioned shotgun, but I’m not certain. All guns are banned in the UNA, except for the AK-47 assault rifles carried by the police.
    “If you let ’em go right now, there won’t be any consequences,” the girl calls down to the masked boy.
    He looks up at her hungrily. “Maybe we can make a trade.”
    “No trades.” The girl carefully steps a few paces down the hillside. She’s tall and athletic, with a feral look in her brown eyes. She’s maybe a year or more older than me. She keeps her gun pointed straight at the boy’s chest. “You know the rules. New arrivals belong to us. You can’t take them if they turn up in the blue sector.”
    “They weren’t in the blue sector. They were over by the stairs—”
    “Well, they’re in the blue sector now. And this sector is ours .”
    The boy just sneers at her through his mask. To my horror, I see that his teeth have been chiseled into sharp points. “The rules are changing, Gadya. Every day the Monk grows stronger—”
    “You wish,” she interrupts. “But these two are mine.”
    I realize they’re bartering over us like we’re pieces of property. “Hey!” I yell. “I’m right here! I don’t belong to either of you.”
    “Neither do I,” David adds, shoving one of the robed figures away from him.
    “Shut up!” Gadya snaps at us. She turns back to the masked boy. “I’m taking them to our village, whether you like it or not.”
    The boy looks around at his companions. All of them are silent, but I sense their bristling hostility.
    “Soon your village will be meaningless,” he growls. “The Monk will control this entire island. North and south. East and west. Then where will you go? Into the ocean?” He raises his right hand, showing off a short, curved blade.
    Gadya ignores his jibes. “Get your asses up here,” she hisses at me and David.
    We exchange glances. It’s not much of a choice. Neither of us knows what’s going on, but we’re not about to question our good fortune.
    We head up the hill toward Gadya. None of the boys stop us, although I can feel their eyes heating my back.
    “I’m gonna tell the Monk about this!” the masked boy threatens Gadya. “You’ve got no idea how powerful he is now!”
    I glance back and see that the boy’s hands are shaking with anger and frustration. Or maybe just from crazed devotion to the Monk— whoever that is. The boy’s cohorts draw closer, like they’re preparing to gang up and fight us.
    Gadya looks down at us from the hill. “Hurry!” she snaps.
    I scramble up the rest of the hillside, with David limping behind me. We finally reach Gadya and look back at the boys. They stand there clutching knives, hatchets, and other primitive weapons.
    The masked boy turns and mutters something inaudible to his companions. I hear angry murmurs of agreement as they brandish their knives. I don’t think these boys are going to back down. Apparently neither does Gadya.
    She raises the gun to her shoulder, taking aim again. “You and your friend better be fast runners,” she whispers to me, sounding worried for the first time. “Or you’re gonna get us