Hollowtown: The Wonderfall Series, #2

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HOLLOWTOWN

Travis Raish

Stargazer Press

HOLLOWTOWN

Copyright © 2025 by Travis Raish

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permission requests, contact the author through his website at TravisRaish.com.

The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

Published by Stargazer Press

For my family.

Contents

1.Freedom

2.Stalker

3.Clan

4.March

5.Friend

6.Plans

7.Tomorrow

8.Tonight

9.Hollowtown

10.Brothers

11.Burned

12.Missing

13.Carnival

14.Fight

15.Reunion

16.Triggered

17.Heart

18.Awake

19.Cosmic Chaos

20.Betrayed

21.Games

22.Lose Your Brains

23.Midway

24.Gravity

25.Hunter, Hunted

26.Temptation

27.Trouble

28.Bubbles

29.Lost

30.Dance with Daisy

31.Twisty, Turny

32.Different

33.Flames

34.Threat

35.Friend or Foe

36.Challenge

37.Goodbye

Special Request

Special Offer

About Travis

Also By Travis

1

Freedom

I took the steps two at a time. The rusting iron treads groaned under my weight. I expected them to give out at any second and the higher I went, the harder it was to hold back the grisly images my mind was conjuring about what I would look like if I fell from fifty feet. But the treads held and seconds later, I was at the top, stepping through the gap in the stones, standing on the crumbling ledge. The ocean looked just like I remembered. The waves sparkled in the morning sun. I could see the curve of the earth on the horizon. I took a few seconds to steady my vision, and I looked down, my breath catching in my chest at the sight of the lumpy canvas bag resting by my feet.

Why I felt the need to visit the lighthouse, I couldn’t say. Ava was gone. She had been for weeks. She had tears in her eyes the last time I saw her—I think she knew what I would choose even before I did. If she had waited for me at the lighthouse one minute past the spark of the sun rising over the ridge that morning that seemed so long ago, I would have been surprised. The girl didn’t have to wait. Not for me. Not for a coward who had broken her heart. But at the sight of the weathered pack, I couldn’t help but hope the girl left it for me, thinking I might need it if I ever wanted to find her.

I unslung my backpack, setting it next to my feet. I sat, picking up the other bag. I tried not to smile, but my mind and heart were racing. Undoing the tie, I folded back the flap and barely caught the piece of paper at the top as the breeze caught it.

The paper was crisp, like it was made from dried leaves. I slowly pulled it open. The note was written in pencil and it was legible, but barely visible. It was the writing of a girl. And even though the note was not addressed to anyone, and it wasn’t signed, I knew immediately it was for me.

I don’t know why you didn’t come. I guess you have your reasons. I packed this for you. You can have it. It’s too much for me to carry. There’s a scanner inside. You should use it … Calista doesn’t like to lose track of her things.

I flipped Ava’s note over, hoping there might be more to it. The back of it was as empty as the void the note created in my chest. I wasn’t expecting a note stained with her tears, but I guess I was hoping for something—some sign that the girl wanted me to come after her. If she told me to throw myself off the lighthouse, that would have been better than what she wrote. At least then there would have been some emotion behind her words. But there was nothing. There was no hope. No worry. No anger or sadness. The blank parts of the paper seemed to say more than the words.

I tucked the note under my leg to keep it from blowing away and reached in the pack. Feeling around the inside, I pulled out a well-worn pair of pants, a shirt, and a ratty jacket that were all the color of mossy boulders. Below the clothes, I found a pair of dry-rotted boots that looked too big, and a folding knife I was surprised she would have left behind. And at the bottom of the pack, I found two pieces of tech. One was a narrow metal cylinder and a flame burst from the side when I pulled the trigger. I put it back in the pack and then I turned my attention to the other device.

It was a metal box no bigger than the palm of my hand. It was dented and scratched and looked like the metal cover was from a totally different contraption and had been melted over the top. It had holes drilled in strange places and I could see the wiring inside. And as I turned the clunky tech over in my hand, the only seemingly useful part of it was a black switch on one side.

How this thing could be the scanner Ava mentioned in her note was a mystery. It was a piece of junk. But I didn’t see why I would need to use it, anyway. Ava was wrong. I didn’t escape from Wonder. Calista let me leave.

I thought about tossing the box back into the bag, but something stirred inside me. Ava had never lied to me, but I couldn’t be sure if anything Hayley had ever said to me was the truth. Inside Wonder, Calista was always watching. Calista had made my clothes and Hayley had given me the pack I carried. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that tracking me even after I left Wonder was exactly the sort of thing Calista would do. She may have let me leave, but that didn’t mean she was letting me go.

I flipped the switch on the box. Nothing happened. There was no light or hum or sign that it was working at all. After a few seconds of staring at it, I shook it, feeling my heart sink when I heard the buzz. It was a grating, irritating sound, and even though this stupid box had no instructions, I knew exactly what it meant—something I had was bugged.

I ground my teeth as I thought about how simple it might have been for Hayley to let me leave without helping Calista track me. I guess that was too much to hope for. I waived the box around my body, unsure how it worked, but no matter where I put it, the box buzzed.

I swore under my breath and as I shifted my weight, I watched helplessly as the note Ava wrote got caught up with the breeze. It floated out over the cliff like the leaves it seemed to be made of. I lost sight of it long before it got to the water below, feeling like I’d lost the girl all over again in having her note disappear.

I pulled off my boots, careful to scan them, only to hear the telltale buzz again. I shook my head, feeling the burn of frustration at the thought I might have to wear the crappy boots Ava left for me. I set my boots down on the ledge next to me as I scanned myself again. There was more.

Whipping my shirt over my head, my eyes jittered as they locked on my forearm. It only took a second for me to realize what I was seeing. The previous night, alter-Ava had shot me with a zombie drugged bullet. I don’t know how long I was unconscious, but apparently it was enough time for Hayley, or alter-Ava, or Calista to tattoo my arm.

Ava called them birthmarks—the marks of birth. They were the tattoos all clans gave their people if they survived until their first birthday. Birthmarks were how the clans identified where people came from—and who people could marry to keep from sharing DNA that was too similar. Ava had a black rabbit tattooed on her right forearm. My tattoo was of a blackbird. I had no idea what it was supposed to mean. I guessed Hayley didn’t want me to stand out in the world I was escaping into. Maybe the best way to do that was to cover my bare forearm with a clan tattoo. I felt like I was looking at someone else’s arm and I found myself already missing my skin—my clean skin. And only then did I realize how sore my arm was, like I had burned myself hours earlier but hadn’t noticed it until just then.

I stared at the black ink—the blackbird taking flight—for a moment, and then I remembered I needed to keep scanning my clothes. So, with only an occasional glance at my tattoo, I stood and stripped off my pants, scanning them long enough to hear the buzz. And finally, I stepped out of my underwear, only to realize they were bugged too.

I stood at the top of the lighthouse, but it wasn’t the fact I wasn’t wearing any clothes that sent the shiver up my spine. It was the feeling I was being watched. I crouched and turned, looking over the tops of the crumbling ruins, wondering if there were any sentinels close, but I saw no movement anywhere for miles.

Must be ghosts, I mumbled, knowing any signs of human life had vanished with Ava weeks ago.

Figuring I would cut the trackers out of my clothes with the knife Ava left me, I reached for the pack and heard the scanner buzz. I glanced at myself, knowing there was nowhere left that Calista could have hidden a bug. I reached again for the pack. The scanner buzzed again. I looked at my arm, and at the bird tattoo, and even before I realized what was happening, I felt the truth hit me like a punch in the gut. I picked up the scanner, holding it close to my forearm, letting it buzz and vibrate. I noticed the small line in my forearm, just inside one of the bird’s tattooed feathers. I pressed on it with my finger, felt the lump underneath and then felt the pinch of the recently sealed incision pinch back.

The sentinels—Ava called them Daisys—had done the same thing to Ava after she saved my life. She had been caught close to Calista’s cities too many times and rather than let her loose, they implanted a tracker in her leg. I only saw the aftermath—the stain of blood on her pants after she had cut the tracker out of her leg. And as I thought about that moment in the forest, horribly saddened at knowing she had risked so much for me and I had caused her so much pain, I felt a wave of nausea roll over me.

The horizon tilted. The world spun. I sat quickly to keep from falling—the lighthouse may have only been fifty feet tall, but it was another thousand feet to the ocean below.

I steadied my breath. I grabbed the knife and unfolded the blade. Clutching my boot between my knees, I ran the scanner over the sole to find the embedded tracker and I cut it out of the heel. I did the same with the other boot, then cut the tiny metal tracking tabs out of my shirt, my pants, and my underwear. And with nothing else left and no more time to waste, I reached in the bag and pulled out the torch. I flipped the switch and held the knife blade in the flame, watching as the heated metal smoked. I let the blade cool. Then, as I pierced my arm with the tip of the knife and fished around for the bug, I cursed Hayley’s name, wishing for the first time in my short life we had never met.

2

Stalker

Are you going to sleep all day?

I opened my eyes. My pulse raced as I realized something was wrong. I sat up quickly and looked at the girl. She was sitting on a rock not ten feet from me. Her brown hair was pulled back tight from her temples. She had a roundness to her face, and an impish grin, like she knew she had just lit my fuse and was waiting for me to explode. She wore black pants and a brown jacket over a black shirt. And even though she wasn’t filthy, every bit of her from her head to her feet seemed to carry with her the grime of living in the wild—just like me.

The girl didn’t vanish and I knew she, and her voice—her strangely familiar voice—hadn’t been part of my dream. I jerked my head around, trying to keep my balance as I stood, looking through the trees and shrubs for any signs of more people. The seconds passed. I heard nothing.

You should be more careful…

I looked at the girl as she shifted her weight on the rock.

You never know who you’re going to meet in the woods, she added.

My pounding heart slowed, my mind struggling to place the girl. Then it clicked. I never actually met her, but I definitely couldn’t forget her. The first time I saw her was outside The Lists. I could hear the panic in the girl’s voice as she talked to her boyfriend about what she should do. She had fallen so low in the competition her name had turned red on the holoboard. By the way she was acting then, it was obvious she was worried about the same thing we were all worried about—getting exiled to Oblivion, a city trapped in perpetual winter.

The second time I saw her, she was turning blue, dying of atmospheric poisoning. Calista told us she had escaped, then showed everyone in Wonder video footage of the girl and her boyfriend suffocating outside the glass. Of course, now I knew there was no Malium—no gas in the atmosphere that was toxic to humans—but I didn’t know it then. Seeing the girl in front of me, miles from Wonder and as alive as I was, reminded me again that my life in Calista’s cities had been nothing but an endless string of lies.

I thought you were dead, I said.

The girl’s expression changed from smug to stumped.

I knew what I said and how I said it was wrong from the moment the words came out of my mouth. But I was still shaking the cobwebs out of my thoughts. Living in the wild for the past several days had been rough. Every day I walked south, following a river I found just hours outside of Wonder, careful to keep the sun setting to my right. Every night I would collapse under a pine tree when it got dark, and I would wake up the next morning, sticky with sap. I’d rinse my clothes in the river, put them on wet and let them dry as I marched for another day. I couldn’t get the stink of dirt and myself out of my sinuses. Every day felt like a fifty mile march. But the scenery never changed and I wondered if I was making any progress at all.

My belt was loose no matter how tight I cinched it. I had eaten most of the meal replacement bars I had, and I ate some berries I found that I was happy hadn’t made me sick. But I still hadn’t tried to hunt anything, and I knew if I didn’t find somebody else soon, I might starve to death on my way to the city in the south. The only part of the journey that made the days bearable was the frequent thoughts I had about Ava, finding her, and what I might say to convince her I wasn’t as stupid as I had acted. And maybe because I had been alone for days, I realized how happy—desperate—I was to see a familiar face.

My unfriendly greeting still hung in the air between us like the stink of my shirt. The girl cocked her head and slid down the rock, leaning against it with her arms crossed.

And I thought you might not be a moron, but I guess we were both wrong.

I huffed a laugh. It’s Maren, right?

Yeah.

I’m Carter.

I know who you are.

I cocked my head. You do?

"Yeah. From that night outside The Lists when you took the top spot on the holoboard. The director was like, oh, this is Carter and he’s the best and there’s nobody like him and you should all be so impressed, and you were like, yes, I am the chosen one and I am so, so special, the girl said, mocking me as she batted her eyelashes and fanned herself with her hands. My grin faded as she continued. I mean, the director went on forever about it … I’m surprised she didn’t come down from her perch and give you a big, fat, kiss right on the lips."

The girl started turning green, either by what she was saying or thinking as she reimagined that night. I began to wonder if she might actually get sick.

Are you okay?

Maren belched. I think my blood sugar is low. You got anything in there to eat? she asked, nodding at my crud covered pack. I tossed it to her and watched as the girl rummaged through it, pulling out a bar, grimacing as she turned it over in her hand. Really? Banana Dream? Does anyone actually like this flavor?

I couldn’t help but laugh because I still hadn’t met anybody that did. They smelled like banana. They chewed like taffy. They tasted like plastic. But it was the only flavor I had left and as the girl gnawed the sticky, chewy mass, the color returned to her cheeks.

What I meant to say is Calista made us think you were dead.

The girl softened the edge of her stance as she leaned back on her rock. Really? she said, through another mouthful of the bar, covering her mouth with the back of her hand.

She broadcast a video of you and your boyfriend suffocating outside the glass.

The girl stopped chewing and stared at me. I thought she might be choking for a moment, but then she chewed a few more times, swallowed hard, and brushed her hands off on her pants. Why would she do that?

I shrugged, remembering what Hayley told me as I looked at a perfect replica of me, through the glass of Wonder. If you weren’t going to be you, she had to cover up the fact you were missing … faking your death is a pretty good way to do that.

The girl shook her head. What a psycho.

You have no idea, I said, more to myself than to Maren. Then another question struck me as I leaned against a half-buried boulder, finally feeling a little more like myself. How did you escape anyway?

The question seemed to shake the girl out of a funk, obviously still stuck thinking about Calista’s morbid methods for maintaining the status quo. I swam under the glass.

Whatever I thought the girl was going to say, that was the farthest thing from it. How? Where? How?

The girl grinned at my stuttering thoughts.

Out in the ocean. I climbed down the rocks, swam out to the glass, and dove under it. I only had to go down like five feet and I was on the other side.

But, how did you know you wouldn’t die from Malium poisoning?

I didn’t, she said with a shrug. But I knew I didn’t want to go to Oblivion, she added, pointing her finger in my face. I just wanted to be free, even if it was only for a few minutes.

I couldn’t stop shaking my head. I thought I was brave for slipping through a crack in the glass. But I had done that on an impulse and only because I had seen Ava in the woods on the other side. But Maren had left Wonder almost certain she was going to die, and that made her bold and stupid and brave and reckless—maybe even suicidal—in ways that I could hardly comprehend.

"How did you get out?" she asked.

I said nothing for a moment, staring at the girl. Whatever impression I had of her in Wonder—at the bottom of The Lists and panicking—was obviously wrong. Suddenly, my path to freedom seemed a lot less interesting.

I found a crack in the glass.

The girl shook her head. You just … walked through a hole … in the glass?

And you just swam under it?

Maren furrowed her brow. It doesn’t sound like Calista was trying very hard to keep us in.

I had stopped trying to understand Calista and her motivations long ago. But I couldn’t help but be surprised every time I learned something new. And if Maren swam under the glass and I walked through it, I wondered how many other ways there were to escape.

I’m tired of talking about Calista. I pushed away from the rock, whipped off my shirt, and dunked it in the river, knowing that no amount of water would ever wash away the stink. I put the shirt back on, the morning chill making me shiver for a moment. I grabbed my pack and looked at the girl. Are you coming?

The amused look on the girl’s face stretched into a quirked brow and a grin. Where are you headed?

I looked around at the scenery that hadn’t changed for me in days. Does it really matter?

The girl shrugged, pushed off the rock, and threaded her arms through the straps of her pack.

We walked along the river for a few minutes, dodging shrubs and tree branches, and then the space opened up around us, the river widening with only enough water to keep the smallest rocks wet. I listened to the girl walking lightly behind me and then time caught up. You know, that was like two months ago when you left Wonder. Have you just been living out here the whole time?

Maren had moved up to walk next to me. Not really. I figured I would probably be dead within minutes, but when that didn’t happen, I went north. After a while, I ran into a clan … you know, that’s what they call themselves out here?

Yeah … I heard that, I said, not quite ready to derail our conversation by telling her how I knew.

Well, there were hardly any girls in this clan. And the guys were old … and gross.

How old?

The girl shrugged, a look of disgust cresting her face. I don’t know. Thirty?

I winced. Maren was pretty, maybe even more so because she had been living in the wild, and it wouldn’t have surprised me if she had attracted the old men’s attention. I bet they were happy to see you.

Maybe a little too happy, she said, still grimacing at the thought. Then she shook it off. I traveled with them for a while … they treated me alright … gave me food and my own tent. But the old guys kept staring at me and the women were always talking about me behind my back, giving me dirty looks. And everybody kept asking why I didn’t have a tattoo.

I stopped in the creek, gently touching Maren’s shoulder to stop her too. You don’t have a tattoo? I blurted.

Maren pulled up her sleeves to reveal the perfectly pale skin underneath on both of her forearms. No … do you?

Yeah, I said as I pulled up the sleeve on my right arm.

Maren practically ripped my arm off, grabbing me by the wrist and wrenching my forearm over to get a better look.

So, I guess we’re friends now? I said, unsure what to think about the girl I hardly knew who was tracing the edges of my blackbird tattoo with her fingertips.

Where did you get this? Maren said quickly, apparently oblivious to what I’d just said.

From my girlfriend.

The girl cocked her brow, but since I wasn’t exactly sure how to explain what Hayley was or why I had a tattoo and Maren didn’t, I figured I would save that conversation for later. You do need to get one though, I added, remembering what Hayley had said. Maren was just as different as I was, having grown up in Calista’s protected cities. And the fact she didn’t have a clan tattoo made her stand out. I’d only been outside the walls of Wonder for a few days, and even I knew that was a problem.

I know, Maren said, finally letting go of my wrist as we started walking again. I don’t think the people in the clans have ever seen anyone without a tattoo. They wouldn’t leave me alone about it. Even the people who asked me about it would ask me again, like I was speaking a different language and they couldn’t understand. And then there was this one day, I think I slipped up. This girl wouldn’t let up with the questions and I mentioned I grew up in New Fields. By that afternoon, every old guy in the clan was begging me to marry them, which was so … totally … gross, the girl added, unable the contain the shiver that ran up her spine.

I blurted out a laugh as the girl shook out her shoulders and regained her composure.

Anyway … that was it for me. I snuck away that night and didn’t stop moving until I saw the glass around Wonder. I was thinking about sneaking back in.

Calista never would have let that happen.

The girl shrugged. Probably not. But even if she sent me to Oblivion, I figured that would be better than spending the rest of my life living in a tent with an old guy.

Then I was the one to shudder, reminded again that things could go very wrong outside the glass.

It didn’t matter anyway, though, Maren added. I saw you standing at the top of that lighthouse and I decided maybe I shouldn’t give in so easily.

I stopped again and I could feel the blood rushing into my cheeks. I had probably spent an hour up there, cutting trackers out of my clothes and my arm, and most of that time I didn’t have a thread of clothing on.

Maren rolled her eyes, obviously picking up on what I was thinking. Don’t worry, Carter, I didn’t see anything.

My lips curled as we started walking again. Right.

You really could use some more sun though, she added a second later through a smile I could hear in her tone but couldn’t see.

I shook my head, realizing I didn’t really care if she had seen anything, and then it occurred to me I had left Wonder and the lighthouse five days before. So, what? You’ve just been following me this whole time?

Well, yeah. You seemed like you knew where you were going.

And you waited until now to show yourself?

A girl can’t be too careful … and I didn’t even know it was you, the famous Carter Simms. I never got close enough to see your face. Until this morning, I thought I was just following a guy with nice abs who apparently likes to sit in the river in his underwear.