Josin L McQuein - Meridian

First published in the USA 2014 by Greenwillow Books,

a division of HarperCollins Publishers

First published in Great Britain 2014 by Electric Monkey,

an imprint of Egmont UK Limited, The Yellow Building,

1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN

Text copyright © 2014 Josin L. McQuein

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

First e-book edition 2014

ISBN 978 1 4052 6395 5

eISBN 978 1 7803 1183 8

www.egmont.co.uk

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Stay safe online. Any website addresses listed in this book are correct at the time of going to print. However, Egmont is not responsible for content hosted by third parties.

Please be aware that online content can be subject to change and websites can contain content that is unsuitable for children. We advise that all children are supervised when using the internet.

EGMONT

Our story began over a century ago, when seventeen-year-old Egmont Harald Petersen found a coin in the street. He was on his way to buy a flyswatter, a small hand-operated printing machine that he then set up in his tiny apartment.

The coin brought him such good luck that today Egmont has offices in over 30 countries around the world. And that lucky coin is still kept at the company’s head offices in Denmark.

Cover

Title Page

Copyright First published in the USA 2014 by Greenwillow Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers First published in Great Britain 2014 by Electric Monkey, an imprint of Egmont UK Limited, The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN Text copyright © 2014 Josin L. McQuein The moral rights of the author have been asserted First e-book edition 2014 ISBN 978 1 4052 6395 5 eISBN 978 1 7803 1183 8 www.egmont.co.uk All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Stay safe online. Any website addresses listed in this book are correct at the time of going to print. However, Egmont is not responsible for content hosted by third parties. Please be aware that online content can be subject to change and websites can contain content that is unsuitable for children. We advise that all children are supervised when using the internet. EGMONT Our story began over a century ago, when seventeen-year-old Egmont Harald Petersen found a coin in the street. He was on his way to buy a flyswatter, a small hand-operated printing machine that he then set up in his tiny apartment. The coin brought him such good luck that today Egmont has offices in over 30 countries around the world. And that lucky coin is still kept at the company’s head offices in Denmark.

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

CHAPTER FORTY

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Egmont Press: Ethical Publishing

We’re at Day 49 AF—days since the Arc fell.

Almost two months ago, a group of kids with rocks took down the security lights that had guarded this compound for generations, and the Fade walked through. No one died. No one was stolen away to the Dark. In fact, it was the opposite. They brought back the people we’d written off as lost.

Everything changed, but you’d never know it the way things have settled.

Walk the perimeter. See nothing. Report nothing.

Test the lights.

Walk the perimeter. See nothing. Report nothing.

Lock step and follow orders.

Training for a security position should involve more action, but that’s all been past tense since the night my friends and I brought the Arc down.

“Twenty-seven?”

Mr. Pace’s voice crackles through my radio, at the same exact second he calls every night.

“Present, Teacher,” I say, using a voice I know he can’t stand.

“That wasn’t even funny the first time.”

“Present, Elias ?”

“Tobin . . .”

“Sorry.”

“And I’m pretty sure I’ve warned you about lying to a superior, too.”

“So write me up for apologizing. I dare you.”

He’s got no one to report me to. With our former leader, Honoria, hiding in the lower parts of the compound, he’s as high up the chain of command as you can go.

“Keep it up, and I’ll do you one better,” he says sourly. “I’ll tell your father.”

Okay, that would be worse than the write-up.

Things have been weird with my dad since he came back from the Dark. I don’t mean to avoid him, but the Fade are in his eyes , all silver and shiny—everyone sees it, and everyone whispers when they think he can’t hear them. It’s worse being in the same house and wondering if the hive sees what he sees. Thinking about it makes my skin crawl, and that reminds me of them , too.

We’re supposedly in a state of neutrality with the shadow crawlers, but I can’t shake the idea that neutral is a code word for something we haven’t anticipated.

“You have to take this seriously,” Mr. Pace says. “It’s not a drill anymore.”

“Assign me something more interesting than watching the sun set and I’ll take it as seriously as you want.”

“Interesting is overrated. And stop staring at the sun; you’ll go blind.”

“Would that get me another assignment?”

“The system’s about to cycle.” Mr. Pace sighs. “Keep your eyes on the perimeter and off the flaming ball of solar gas.”

“Yes, sir.”

I wish the cameras were online. I’d salute, just to piss him off.

The radio goes quiet, matching the rest of my assigned perimeter stretch, only quiet never makes it all the way to silence anymore. I can’t say for sure that my hearing’s sharper since he did his little magic trick and healed the gunshot wound that should have killed me, but I’m definitely more aware of my surroundings. I listen harder and look deeper. I never take for granted that what I see is all that’s out there. And I never forget that the white nightmare drew blood long before Honoria did. If he hadn’t recognized Marina when we went hand-to-hand outside my door, he wouldn’t have stopped with slashing me across the shoulder. He probably would have taken my head off.