Another thud and Zora tumbled onto the dock after them. She pushed herself back to her feet and let a few bullets loose at the surrounding Freaks.

“What’s taking so long?” she demanded.

“The motor,” Dorothy said, as a bullet whizzed past her face. She swore, one hand flying to her cheek.

Zora didn’t look down, didn’t even pause in her shooting, just grabbed the motor’s cord out of Chandra’s hand and gave it a single, hard yank. Chandra yelped as the motor growled to life.

“How did you do that?” she demanded.

Dorothy didn’t wait for Zora to answer. She jumped into the boat, ducking as another bullet whizzed over her head. Zora climbed in behind her.

“Whatever you do, don’t let me fall in!” Zora told her. She crouched at the back of the boat, facing toward the docks so she could aim her gun at the still-approaching Freaks. Dorothy grabbed a handful of leather and held tight, as the boat zoomed forward.

Dorothy heard the sound of gunshots in the distance, the cackle of laughter. But they were fading, growing distant as they sped away. Until, finally, there was nothing.

12

Dorothy peered out over the black water. The Cirkus Freaks were long behind them and, in the darkness, all she could see were the shapes of rooftops jutting out of the waves like icebergs. She reached out to touch the side of one as they floated past and found it hard and grainy beneath her fingers, covered in a layer of moss. Only the ghostly white trees broke up the darkness. Their white branches stretched into a canopy above their heads, and the bark appeared to be glowing.

Dorothy had always thought those dead white trees looked like cobwebs. In fact, the whole of New Seattle had always given her the impression of something alive growing over the bones of a long-dead corpse.

She swallowed and curled her fingers around the edge of the boat, pushing the morbid thought from her mind.

Zora’s voice rumbled behind her. “I think we finally lost them.”

“Good,” huffed Chandra. She glanced behind her, eyes flicking from Dorothy to Zora as though looking for support. “Come on, it’s a good thing, right? We celebrate now?”

“Hardly,” Dorothy murmured, absently touching the locket hanging from her neck. “We might’ve lost them, but they’re going to turn the city upside down looking for us. It’s not like anywhere we go now is actually safe.”

To Chandra, Zora said, “I think that what she meant to say was thank you both so much for saving my ass.” Then, turning back to Dorothy with a smirk, she added, “It was nothing, really.”