by Ryan Casey
She lifted her arm. Revealed a nasty burn scar right down its length.
“I didn’t know what was happening with the world. Just that I had to get home. But when I did… it was already too late. My Gina. She was gone.”
Mike saw the sadness in Sonia’s eyes, and he wanted to tell her the truth. He wanted to tell her Gina was still alive. He wanted to restore that hope inside her.
But again. Something just didn’t sit comfortably. Something just didn’t seem right.
The way Sonia was talking about Gina.
And this whole environment…
Mike wasn’t comfortable with it one bit.
“I fought my way to this point. I had to live in groups. But they always fell. I had—I had to steal. I had to kill. But I’m still here. I’m the survivor. I’m the survivor of my family. Just like you.”
She looked at Mike then, and he started to feel like he owed her the truth. Because she was just lost. She was lost and broken by this world. Like anyone in her position would be.
But she could be changed.
She could be fixed.
“Your daughter,” Mike said. “Your Gina. She—”
“She’s dead,” Sonia said.
Mike frowned. “No. She isn’t. She’s—”
“She’s dead. She wouldn’t make it. Not strong enough. Not my Gina. Not my sweet Gina.”
“You’re wrong,” Mike said. “She’s alive. I… I can take you to her. I know where she is.”
Sonia frowned. And instead of curiosity about what he’d just said, he saw suspicion. “Why would you say that to me?”
“Because it’s the truth. She’s—she was travelling with my daughter for a while. Then with me and my people. We got separated once. But we’re back together now. She’s back. I know where she is. I can take you to her.”
Mike could see a light returning to Sonia’s eyes. He could see her considering what he’d said, tears building up. He could see her really pondering it, really considering it.
“My Gina?” she said.
“Yes,” Mike said. “Your Gina. I can take you to her. You just have to let me out of this mess. You just have to let me free. Please.”
Sonia shook her head. Tears streamed down her face. “It can’t be true. It can’t be.”
“It is true,” Mike said. “We’re travelling together. Travelling to… to a safe place. A safe place somewhere near here. An extraction point. An extraction point a… a friend of ours is leading us to.”
Sonia shook her head some more. And then a frown covered her face. “Extraction point?”
“Yes,” Mike said. “There’s a way out. A way out of all this mess—”
“No!” Sonia screeched.
It shocked Mike. Made him jump. Sonia was growing hysterical. Rubbing her arms. Scratching her body. Mumbling things under her breath; things he couldn’t make out, couldn’t understand.
“Sonia?” Mike asked.
“No extraction point.”
“Sonia, what—”
“No extraction point!” she shouted.
It was then that Mike realised what she was saying.
She wasn’t saying no to an extraction point.
She was saying there was no extraction point.
“It was an extraction point,” Sonia said. “But not now. Not anymore.”
Mike swallowed a lump in his throat just seeing her looking so fearful, so traumatised.
“If it’s not an extraction point… what is it?”
Sonia told him.
And when she told him, everything changed.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Gina wasn’t sure how long she’d been holed up in the cabin with Calvin, Kelsie, and Arya.
Only the longer she was cooped up here, the more she wanted to get out. The more she wanted to stretch her legs.
The more she wanted to break free.
It was early afternoon. Another warm one at that. The sun was bursting through the clouds. The air was humid, making this confined cabin seem warm and stuffy. It was hard to believe the storm had hit so recently. Outside, she heard the breeze brushing against the trees. She heard the birds singing in the distance. She heard all kinds of signs of life.
Well. All the signs of life except the ones she really needed.
She looked over at Kelsie. She was playing with Arya. Arya loved her, and she loved Arya, that much was clear. It was good for a kid to have that kind of company. Especially in a world like this.
Gina walked over to Kelsie. Squeezed her shoulder. “You okay, Kels?”
Kelsie smiled and nodded, looking up at Gina. “I’m okay.”
But Gina noticed something. Something that got the alarm bells ringing. Something that made her concerned. Something she’d been told to look out for. That made her worry.
Her voice. It sounded croaky. And her eyes. They looked… tired.
“You sure?” Gina asked. She was sure it was probably just a natural tiredness. After all, they’d been in unfamiliar territory lately. They’d been through a lot. The storm, everything they’d run into… yeah. It had proven challenging.
But Kelsie just looked up and smiled at her. Smiled, like there was nothing wrong. Nothing wrong at all. “I’ll be okay. I…”
Then she started to go all wobbly, and Gina’s worries intensified.
“Whoa,” she said. “You need… I think you need to lie down.”
“But I don’t want to lie down,” Kelsie said.
“Seriously. I’ve… I’ve already given you some meds today. I can’t give you any more.” Not only that, but Gina was growing cautious. Cautious that they were going to run out of Kelsie’s already limited medication.
“I’m fine. I promise.”
But she wasn’t fine. Gina knew she wasn’t fine. She didn’t want to say it again, out loud. Didn’t want to frighten the kid, after all.
But there was clearly something wrong.
And Gina couldn’t help fearing the worse.
She saw an option pop through her mind. Saw it, tried to push it away from the off.
But it was there.
Like a seed planted in her mind, it was there.
And it was something she wasn’t going to be able to push away easily.
“Just… just give me a moment,” Gina said.
She stood up. Then she walked out of the lounge area.
Into the kitchen.
Into the room where Calvin was being kept.
She saw him sitting there. Surprisingly, his eyes were wide open. He didn’t look too bothered. Didn’t look too concerned. And he didn’t look too surprised when Gina walked in, either.
“Kid troubles?” he asked.
Gina didn’t want to be soft on him. But at the same time, she didn’t want to be overtly forceful, either. She just wanted information. “Kelsie,” she said. “She… she has diabetes. Type 1. She’s showing symptoms. And I guess I just…”
“It’s probably not safe to give her any more meds,” Calvin said. “I had a little niece who had it, too. Too much of a good thing can do havoc to a system. You want to be careful. Really, she should see a doctor. Just a shame there aren’t any around anymore, hmm?”
Just talking with Calvin like this made her feel sick, right to the pit of her stomach. It felt like something forbidden. Something wrong. “I just… I’m worried about her.”
Calvin shrugged. “I’m not going to beg you to let me out of these ties.”
“Good. Because it’s not happening.”
But Gina sensed it. She sensed that Calvin detected a weakness in her. And in a way… she couldn’t deny it, but she was pleased he’d seen it.
She wanted him to see it.
She wanted him to know.
“It would be naive of you to do that. It would be foolish. It would be going against everything your people have told you. And yet…”
He didn’t carry on speaking. Didn’t say another word. He just looked at Gina and waited for her to say the next words. H
e just waited for her to break the silence.
“This place. This… this extraction point. I know you can’t tell me how far away it is. I know you can’t tell me where it is. Not exactly. But…”
“You want to know if we’re close,” Calvin said.
Gina nodded. Again, she felt bad. Bad for even interacting with this guy. She felt bad for making any kind of connection.
But then there was Kelsie. Kelsie’s health was at stake. And surely that was far more important that old grudges and agendas?
But before she could turn around, before she could change her mind, Calvin spoke.
“I can tell you where it is,” Calvin said. “I…” He paused. Hesitated. “I can tell you exactly where it is. For Kelsie. If that’s what you need. If that’s what the pair of you need, I can do that.”
Gina frowned. She wanted to speak, but she couldn’t. She felt taken aback. Stunned. “What?”
“My problem isn’t with you, Gina. It never has been with you. I’ve… I’ve made some bad decisions. Awful decisions. I’ve had some warped views of the world that might’ve tainted our relationship sometime in the past. But I can tell you exactly where this extraction point is. I can tell you. On one condition.”
Gina felt her heart pounding. She sensed this was coming. “What?”
“You let me go,” he said. “You let me out of these ties. And you let me take you through the woods. Then, I’ll tell you where it is from there.”
Gina shook her head. “It’s not happening—”
“I tell you where it is right here and now, and you don’t need me anymore. You could kill me. Finish me off. But if you let me free… I’ll take you through the woods and to the road that leads to the extraction point.”
“You’re changing your deal already.”
“It is what it is,” Calvin said. “You let me go, and I’ll help you through the woods, then tell you where to go. Or you don’t, and you risk something awful happening to Kelsie. All the while, your people are out there. And, let’s face it. They could well be dead.”
Gina gritted her teeth. She shook her head. “They aren’t dead.”
“If you say so.”
“Why?” Gina asked.
Calvin frowned. “What?”
“Why would you help me?”
Calvin took a deep breath. Then, as he sat there against the kitchen counter, he looked off into the distance. “Everyone deserves a second chance. Don’t you believe that, Gina?”
Gina brushed her hands through her hair. She couldn’t believe she’d been put in this situation. Couldn’t believe she’d been forced into this position.
But she had a decision.
She had a choice.
And she had to make it. Fast.
“Let me go, Gina,” Calvin said. “Let me go, and I’ll lead you to where you need to go. Exactly where you need to go. I’ve no bones to grind with you, remember? I’ve no problem with Kelsie. You seem like good people, the pair of you.”
Gina wanted to fight back. She wanted to resist. She wanted to tell Calvin to stuff it.
But at the same time… her people were out there. Some for a long, long time. She wasn’t sure when they were going to come back. If they were going to come back at all. It’d been a long time already. She had to make a move.
She leaned towards Calvin. Looked him in the eye, heart pounding. Put a hand on the top of his. Felt his warmth. Tried to look into his soul. Tried to see what plans were ticking behind those eyes.
“It’s your choice,” Calvin said. “I mean, I’m perfectly comfortable here. But just think about it. Think about—”
Gina didn’t have to think about it anymore.
She pulled out the knife.
Cut the ties from Calvin’s ankles.
He stood up. Then he held his tied wrists out and smiled.
“The final part of the deal,” he said.
Gina wanted to resist. She wanted to stand her ground. She didn’t want to submit to this man. Not completely.
But then she heard Kelsie coughing from the other room, and she knew she didn’t have a choice.
She took a deep breath.
Then she cut the ties from Calvin’s wrists.
They dropped to the kitchen floor.
Calvin was free.
Chapter Twenty-Six
When Sonia finished telling Mike everything she knew about the “extraction point,” he wasn’t sure what to say. Not for a long, long time.
Thick black clouds swallowed up the blistering sun. It was afternoon now, easily. And he was still stuck to this tree in the middle of the woods. He assumed he was alone with Sonia. He wasn’t sure for certain, only that she’d said on several occasions that she’d drifted in and out of groups in the past; that she’d done what she’d done to survive.
But all of them were the same in that respect.
All of them had done the things they’d had to do to survive.
But this… what she’d told him… it changed things.
“The extraction point you believe in,” Sonia said. She sat opposite Mike a lot more casually now, long ginger hair hanging down beyond her shoulders. Eyes staring into space. So similar to her daughter but lost. Haunted. Like she was a ghost. “I went there, once. I saw the helicopters. I saw them taking people away. But they aren’t taking people to salvation. They aren’t taking them to some safe haven. They aren’t taking them back to the world how it used to be. They’re—they’re taking them to a prison.”
Mike shook his head, a bitter taste in his mouth. He didn’t want to believe. He didn’t want to resign himself to accept.
But what else could he do?
What else was there to go on?
“You can’t know this,” Mike said, still doubting Sonia. She was mad. She was unhinged. She wasn’t completely here. “Nobody who hasn’t been there can’t possibly know that.”
“That’s because I was there. I got there. I heard them. Heard what they were saying. The people running the camp. They were saying about how women under a certain age can’t conceive. So they had to take the younger people there. They had to take them there to experiment. To try and find a way to—to change things. They told me there wasn’t enough space for me. That another copter would come for me. But it never did. Then people I knew, they were going missing. I—I got away before I got the chance to truly go missing, too.”
Mike was stunned. He thought about Calvin’s twisted view of the world a few months ago. He thought about the image he wanted the world to be built in. Could this be a coincidence? Or was he working with these people, somehow? It seemed bold. Unlikely. But if Mike had learned one thing in this world, it was that anything was possible.
People who used to have influence didn’t have any influence anymore.
And the people who didn’t have any influence in the past were finding ways to assert their influence in ways they’d never imagined.
“The thing you told me,” Mike said. “About the women. I… I’ve heard that too.”
Sonia nodded as if it was just common sense by now. But that was an element to her story that made Mike wonder. That made him believe her.
Because if she’d heard this too—from a completely different source—then who was to say the rest of her story wasn’t real, too?
“There are no extraction points,” Sonia said. “At least not the kind we want. Not the kind that bring us any salvation. They only bring pain. Misery. That’s not the kind of future we want. The kind of future we need.”
Mike felt torn. On the one hand, he wanted to believe in this extraction point. He wanted to believe for the sake of his people, for their hope.
But on the other hand, he felt infuriated. He’d trusted Calvin, dammit. He’d trusted the last person in the world he should ever have trusted.
And it had come back to bite him.
Hard.
Unless…
Unless Calvin was telling the truth, too.
Unless he knew where this e
xtraction point was, and he didn’t know about the shit that was going down there.
Could it be?
Could that really be the case?
In the end, Mike found himself caught in a dilemma. Caught between two opposing directions. To believe Sonia or to believe Calvin.
And in the end, he found himself gravitating towards this woman in front of him.
The woman who’d restrained him, tied him to this tree.
Dammit.
“We have a choice,” Mike said. “But in the end… in the end there’s only one outcome, really. We need to go back to the cabin I’m staying at. We need to find Gina. We need to warn her and the others before anything happens. Before they go on to this extraction point.”
Sonia tilted her head. It was like she was zoning back into things, like she was starting to consider what Mike was saying about her daughter all over again.
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not lying,” Mike said.
“My daughter. She wouldn’t be here. She wouldn’t—”
“My back right pocket,” Mike said.
Sonia frowned. “What?”
“There’s a letter. A letter one of Gina’s friends wrote for her. Kumal. I never… I never gave it to her. Because I didn’t want her to suffer with the guilt. I didn’t want her to know what happened. Not truly.”
Sonia looked uncertain. Then she leaned towards Mike with that knife, and he thought she was going to use it; he thought she was going to take him out, once and for all.
But something different happened.
Something he hadn’t expected.
She reached into his pocket and pulled out the letter.
She looked at it. Crumpled. Torn. Splattered with blood and mud. But still with him. Still here, at all times.
And she read it. And as she read it, the cogs started turning in her mind. The tears started flowing down her face. The realisation started to spread, all through her body.
When she’d finished reading, she looked over the letter in her shaking hand and right into Mike’s eyes. “Gina?” she said.
“Yes,” Mike said, nodding. “Yes.”