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  “Means. Wolff. Ortiz.” Eli points at the last three AgraStar guards and gestures at the wrecked Red Hand truck. “Pull out any survivors and place them in custody.”

  “Yes, sir.” They run to the truck, weapons drawn.

  Eli turns to me and holsters his weapon. “You came for him.” He glances at Alder, and then back at me.

  “I did,” I say.

  “He turned you?” His eyes search mine.

  “No one turned me,” I say. “I made up my own mind.”

  Eli looks down. His jaw works as he studies the asphalt. “Backup will be here soon. None of you should be here when they arrive.”

  “What—”

  His face is fierce. “I don’t know why you did what you did, but I’m not going to turn over people who’ve fought by my side.”

  I stare at Eli. What he’s doing? He could be put before the disciplinary committee. At the very least, he’ll be taken out of the running for any future promotions if he loses all of his prisoners on the very first mission he’s charged to lead.

  “What about you?” I ask. “Will you be okay?”

  “Don’t worry about me.” He smiles, and there is the ghost of Ellison again. “I’m too handsome to get in much trouble.”

  My eyes sting, but I smile back. “Liar.”

  “You don’t have to run.” Eli glances at the side of the road, where Alder and the other freed prisoners have righted the overturned jeep and are pushing it up out of the ditch. “I’ll stand for you. Your mom will, too. I know it.”

  I shake my head. It’s too late. He doesn’t know the half of what I’ve done. Or how dangerous it is to know what I do about AgraStar.

  “The boy I knew back at my old compound . . .” I look up at him, struggling to explain. “It wasn’t a coincidence he looked like you.”

  Eli’s smile disappears. “What does that mean?”

  “When I went through my mother’s files . . .” I swallow. Whatever I say now, he’s duty bound to report back to the company. Telling him too much will only put him in more danger. “There are things AgraStar isn’t telling you. Not just about crops. About you.”

  Eli looks doubtful, wary.

  “You don’t have to believe me,” I say. “Only promise me you’ll keep your eyes open.”

  He half smiles. “Make up my own mind, huh?”

  “Right.”

  He nods. “If you say so, Salcedo.”

  I grin. “Thank you.” I hesitate, and then place a gentle kiss on his cheek. “For everything.”

  I back away, even though it’s breaking my heart. Alder is waiting for me at the side of the road, holding an AgraStar rifle at his side.

  He squints as I approach. “You coming with us?”

  “Where are you headed?” I ask.

  “South till we find a crossroad, then west,” he says. “Nina knows of a free settlement near Mount Cheaha. And then . . . I don’t know. I might go north again. See if I can get lost in the Smoky Mountains, like I always talked about with Eden.”

  “You won’t go looking for the Deacon?”

  “It won’t be the same without Eden,” he says. “Nothing will be.”

  I look past him. The others have gotten the jeep’s engine running and are scrubbing at the soot on the windshield. He’s right. Nothing will be the same. Not me. Not him. Not the earth beneath our feet.

  “So, are you coming?” Alder asks.

  I resist the pull to turn around, to look at Eli and everything my life could have been one last time. I made my choice, for good or bad, just like my father did. I know the hurt it will cause, for me, for my mother and Isabel, for Eli, but I can’t undo it. And I wouldn’t.

  “I am.”

  We pile into the jeep and pull out onto the road, heading south. I watch over the backseat as Eli and the caravan slowly shrink on the horizon. I watch and watch until there’s nothing around us but the road and the sky and the riot of unbound life beyond the verges.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I’m constantly amazed looking back at the community of support that contributes to writing a book, at every stage from inspiration to polishing the manuscript.

  In 2011, writers Nathan Ballingrud, Theodora Goss, and I challenged each other to write a novel over the course of one summer. I’m a slow writer and didn’t quite hit that goal, but I did write the first 20,000 words of the book you are currently holding in your hands, thanks in large part to Nathan and Dora’s feedback and encouragement. Without them, Blight would not exist.

  Another crucial component of Blight came from readers Anna-Marie McLemore and Yamile Said Mendez, who discussed the difficult topic of cultural erasure with me and shared their wisdom. Their help took this book to a level I couldn’t have reached on my own. I hope I have done justice to their words and advice.

  Thanks are also due to the Bat Cave writers who read an early draft of Blight and gave so much helpful advice on Tempest’s story. Also to the Asheville writing community, particularly Beth Revis (to whom all the explosions in this book are dedicated), Stephanie Perkins, Meagan Spooner, Megan Shepherd, Amy Reed, and Jaye Robin Brown.

  Another huge thank-you goes to my editor, Virginia Duncan, for all the phone calls, emails, and time spent helping me make this book what I wanted it to be. To Lois Adams and Sylvie Le Floc’h, and all the people at Greenwillow Books and HarperCollins whom I haven’t met but who I know played a role to bring Blight into the world: thank you, thank you, thank you!

  Finally, thank you to my friends and family, who always cheer me on and support my work, and especially to my husband, Jeremy Duncan, who reads my drafts, brews the coffee, and never stops making me laugh. Without you, I would be much further along in my journey to becoming an incurable cat lady.

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ALEXANDRA DUNCAN is the author of the Indies Introduce pick Salvage and its companion, Sound. She lives in the mountains of western North Carolina with her husband and two monstrous, furry cats.

  www.alexandra-duncan.com

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  BOOKS BY ALEXANDRA DUNCAN

  Salvage

  Sound

  Blight

  CREDITS

  Cover art © 2017 by Linus Curci and Brenda Homes / 500px

  Cover design by Sylvie Le Floc’h

  COPYRIGHT

  This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used to advance the fictional narrative. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.

  BLIGHT. Copyright © 2017 by Alexandra Duncan. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  Here, the song quoted in English and Spanish is “His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” written by Civilla Durfee Martin (1869–1948) and included in Methodist hymnals as early as 1881.

  The song quoted here is “The Unquiet Grave,” a very old folk song included in the Child Ballad collection. The version used here can be found at: http://www.contemplator.com/child/unquiet.html

  Library of Congress Catal
oging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Duncan, Alexandra, author.

  Title: Blight / Alexandra Duncan.

  Description: First edition. | New York, NY : Greenwillow Books, an Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2017. | Summary: When an agribusiness facility producing genetically engineered food releases a deadly toxin into the environment, seventeen-year-old Tempest Torres becomes entangled in a war she never knew existed.

  EPub Edition © July 2017 ISBN 9780062397010

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016049147 | ISBN 9780062396990 (hardback)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Virus diseases—Fiction. | Survival—Fiction. | Genetically modified foods—Fiction. | Hispanic Americans—Fiction. | Science fiction.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.D8946 Bl 2017 | DDC [Fic]—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016049147

  17 18 19 20 21 PC/LSCH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  FIRST EDITION

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