She didn't tell anyone else she was leaving. Though she spent the rest of the day by her dad, and saw Felicia for most of that time, and talked with the frustratingly few visitors to their tent, she pretended as if everything was normal. As if she wasn't about to return to the home of one of the greatest weapons used against the humans.

She kept her secret all the way until the next morning, when she rose from bed, said her goodbyes to her dad with too many tears and not enough hugging, and crept silently out of the tent and toward where the hoppers were chained up.

The sun had only just risen, bathing her in fingers of orange breaking through the gray. She'd packed a satchel with provisions and the display screen, and tied it securely to the back of her hopper.

Swinging her leg over the seat, Bo walked the hopper out of its parking space and steered it to face the gate. The men on the wall glanced down and she motioned for them to open the gate. They did as she asked, so used to her and Aston leaving at odd hours that they wouldn't question her departure until much later when she didn't return.

Heat began to creep its way into the air, making the back of her neck sweat already, but she still didn't move. She sat on the purring hopper, staring over her shoulder at the camp. She couldn't believe she was about to leave it once again.

As she gazed behind her she saw a figure walking toward her at a determined pace. At first she thought it was Aston, who was practically her shadow at this point, but as they came closer she saw the familiar choppy black hair and disapproving frown.

"What are you doing?" Felicia demanded.

"I'm going," Bo replied.

"Bo, already disobeyed it. It'll kill you if you go back."

Bo shook her head. "He won't kill me."

"Then it will maim you or lock you in a room, or any other of the thousand things it could do. Aliens are heartless, and you should know that best of all. I remember your screams at night after you came back that first time when you were a child," Felicia said, her face pale and her arms crossing nervously. "I don't want you to go through that again, and I don't want to lose you either."

"It's not going to be like last time," Bo said, her voice becoming gentle. She did remember Felicia's fear when faced with Bo's nightmares. Without a mother, her sister had been forced to take on the role. Not that it lasted long, but there had been a few days when Felicia had weathered screaming and tears and stories of horror in order to hold Bo close and mourn their mother.

Felicia shook her head. "You don't know that," she said. "So just stay."

"I can't," Bo said, already reaching back to kick up the hopper's stand. She didn't want to stay too long, because she knew she wouldn't be able to leave if she didn't go soon.

"You have to say goodbye to Aston, at the very least," Felicia said, that old animosity slowly seeping back into her face and posture.

Bo frowned. "No."

"Well, too late." This came from behind her. She spun to see Aston standing in front of her. That brat Felicia must have tipped him off. Bo ground her teeth and cast a glare at her sister.

Aston jerked his chin while looking behind Bo, and she heard the sound of Felicia retreating. They stood alone now, the quiet of the early morning suffocating.

"You'll regret leaving," he said, voice low.

"I have to go. For my mom."

Aston shook his head, looking lost.

"I made a promise to her that I didn't keep, and it killed her. So I have to keep this promise to return, even if it's breaking my heart to leave."

"You're abandoning us." His voice cracked, and Bo looked up to his eyes. They were filled with a sort of panic, his mouth pressed flat and his knuckles going white on the handlebars. She felt a hitch in her throat, looking at him. This was the Aston she remembered, the Aston that had been her brother all these years. So many had left in their lives. His parents, her mother, and countless friends claimed by starvation, disease, and violence. Now, each and every goodbye felt like a nail in a coffin. She felt it herself, but she knew he'd feel it more.

"I'm not abandoning anyone," Bo said. "I'm still alive, and one day I'll come back."

Aston shook his head. "Don't leave me alone," he said, and she realized with a start that he was not so different from the Beast. Except that he did have others that cared about him, whether he realized it or not.

"Aston, marry Felicia," she said. "I know she'd take you, and my father would love nothing more than to have you as an official son. She's a better match for you than me, because in some ways she's fiercer than I could ever be."

He started to shake his head, but Bo couldn't stay any longer. She needed to leave now, before she began to second guess her decision. She flared the engine, and Aston was forced to step out of the way as she pulled out of the camp and raced into the orange dust as it swirled in a dry wind.

She couldn't bring herself to look back over her shoulder and see him as the gates closed on her for perhaps the last time.

--

By midmorning she was in the dead woods, parked by a fallen tree and sheltering from the blazing sun. While she'd made a precautionary fire to keep any wildlife at bay, she was still baking in the heat and need something to keep her mind off of the sweat soaking her hair and shirt. She sipped on some water from her canteen as she pulled the display screen out and rested it on her knees, powering it on.

The screen flickered to life, thankfully on the main screen and not the harrowing videos from before, and Bo pulled up the interface for controlling one of the Service-Matons in the mansion. She asked it to find its Master, and it started upstairs and ended up at the Beast's bedroom door.

Surprisingly, the lights were on inside the room despite it being morning. The screen flickered strangely as she maneuvered the robot across the plush carpet, scanning for any sign of the Beast. He had to be nearby or the robot wouldn't have taken her here, but she couldn't see him.

Across from where her robot stood was a door, but as Bo ordered to go toward it the screen flickered again and broke into lines of static. Puzzled, she tried her order again, but nothing moved. The screen filled with more static, and she realized she was running out of time. Panic filled her as she tried to order the Service-Maton to hurry. When it didn't respond, she quickly spit out the first thing that popped into her mind.

"Tell your master I'm coming. Tell him I'm in the Dead—" Before she could finish, the screen flickered and went dead. She jabbed the black screen, but knew it was useless. Groaning in frustration, she buried her face in her hands. She had no way of knowing if the Service-Maton would follow her last orders or not, which meant she might never be able to find the hidden mansion again. She didn't even know if the Beast still was in the Dead Woods. If he had technology that allowed him to place his mansion wherever he wished, it meant he could be on the other side of the Blast Zone, or in the Terra Preservation Zone.

Not matter where he was, though, it didn't change that Bo was now without her display screena and miles into the Dead Woods. She groaned and stuffed the useless screen into her satchel and leaned back against a fallen tree. She might as well rest while the sun was too hot for her to travel in.

Propping her rifle next to her and gripping a pistol in her hand, Bo settled in to sleep. She was too exhausted to carry on, and the worst of the morning heat baked the land. But even that couldn't keep her eyes from drooping shut.

--

As soon as the first twig snapped, her eyes flew open and her gun swiveled into place on the approaching threat. A smudged shadow flickered behind a tree in the distance. Another shadow joined, and then another, winding in and out of sight. Bo stiffened and climbed to her feet, replacing her pistol in its holster and grabbing her rifle. She waited as the blurs of gray grew closer, until one was near enough that she saw the flash of fur and teeth that made her heart stop.

More wolves. But this time she'd prepared. The fire kept them at bay, and her rifle and pistols were loaded. She wouldn't be in trouble as long as she could keep them at length.

One of the wolves, braver than the rest, crept forward, skirting around the fire and trying to find a way of getting past the fallen tree that guarded her back. Bo raised the rifle and took a shot, but her aim was just slightly off and she hit its flank instead of anything vital. It hollered and limped to the back of the pack, probably soon to be picked off by its own comrades when it became too weak to defend itself.

Somehow, the sound of the rifle going off did nothing to dissuade the rest of the wolves, and instead whipped them into a snarling fury. They dashed out from behind the trees, fanning into a semi-circle that shifted and moved as one. They pressed closer to the fire, braving the heat and light, their eyes set on the meal that Bo would make if they could only get closer.

Bo took a few more shots, hitting a few wolves that limped off into the shadows. But each one she hit was replaced by more, and she soon realized she was up against an entire pack. Any time she tried to climb onto her hopper, wolves would appear from the edges of her perimeter and lunge at her until she was forced to abandon getting on the hopper for taking shots to keep them back.

Eventually Bo was forced to stay put and wait out the wolves, though they showed no signs of tiring. Each time they drew too near, she'd shoot, and a few times she'd catch one and earn a few minutes rest as the wolves tore into their fallen comrades. But they were barely more than bones and not much of a meal, and the rest of the wolves weren't satisfied by the small bites they'd managed to grab off the dead. Bo, in comparison, was a meal that would fill at least a few of them. The pack wasn't about to let her get away.