The Meeting (Emerge)

by Sunseri, Heather

  Contents

  Copyright

  The Meeting

  Dylan

  Nina

  Dylan

  Nina

  Dylan

  Nina

  Dylan

  Nina

  EMERGE

  Cricket

  West

  Cricket

  Also From Heather

  About the Author

  The Meeting

  An Emerge Story

  Heather Sunseri

  http://heathersunseri.com

  Copyright © 2015 Heather Sunseri

  eBook Edition

  Sun Publishing

  This work is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the author, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review or article.

  Cover by Mike Sunseri

  The Meeting

  Dylan

  I spied on the two girls from the platform in a tree, an old deer-hunting stand that was less-than-safe. Clothed in decent clothes and clean, they had to be from the nearby settlement—the same settlement Dax and I had avoided since making our way east.

  It had been four years since the deadly Samhain Strain virus, nicknamed Bad Sam, swept our nation, leaving Americans scrambling for any way possible to survive. Dax and I survived by staying away from the heavily populated areas, living mostly on our own, and getting very lucky.

  We should have known that our luck would eventually run out.

  The blond, skinny chick below me turned to her companion—a Snow White beauty—and whispered something as she squatted and appeared to search through her backpack. Why were they whispering?

  I didn’t have to wonder long, because the skinny one whipped around and aimed a gun straight up into the tree at my head.

  My arms flew up above my shoulders, my fingers spread wide. I obviously didn’t have a future as an undercover secret agent. “I’m unarmed. I don’t mean you any harm,” I said like I was the one pointing a deadly weapon at them.

  Her dark-hired friend stepped to the side. “Then you won’t mind climbing down from your hiding spot.”

  I tossed my backpack so that it landed at their feet and then turned and climbed down the rickety ladder. When I faced them, the one with the black hair was standing closer. She was taller than the blond, but she still barely came to my chin. I bit back a grin at the sight of her, dressed in a hot pink sweater that matched her lips and green-as-grass-in-the-summer pants, rotating her shoulders back and standing close like she might intimidate me. “I thought they outlawed preppy with Mad Sam,” I said, glancing the length of her body, from the curves of her breasts all the way to the rugged hiking boots on her feet. At least she was practical.

  She smiled, but I didn’t think it was because she thought I was funny. She stepped even closer. I smelled something fruity on her breath. “And I thought all slimeballs were sent to New Caelum to live.” She cocked a single brow. “You like what you see?” She was obviously irritated by my once-over.

  I realized as I stared into her aquamarine eyes that for the first time in longer than I could remember, I did like what I saw. But this was not the time. I stepped away from her as my good conscious kicked in. “I’m sorry.”

  “You’re sorry? Why? You don’t like what you see?”

  “No. Yes. I mean.” What was happening? I was actually stammering. This was a no-win.

  She held up a hand to cut me off from further embarrassment while the blond chuckled under her breath. “Who are you? What are you doing sneaking around in the woods?” she asked as if she owned these woods.

  “Why is that any of your business?”

  Blondie cocked the gun while simultaneously placing a gentle hand on her friend’s arm, guiding her to back away from me. “It’s our business because we have the gun.”

  I stuck my hands out to my side, reminding them that I was unarmed. This wasn’t going at all like I had planned. “Look, I’m sorry that we got off on the wrong foot. My name is Dylan, and my brother Dax needs a doctor. We’ve been watching your settlement, wondering if you might help a couple of strangers.”

  They traded an uneasy look, before Blondie asked, “Why? Is he sick?” Getting a closer look, I realize that her face was scarred on one side. From a fire, maybe?

  I sighed. “Not sick like you mean, but he does have a fever.”

  Both girls took a step away from me.

  I shook my head, realizing my mistake. “It’s not that kind of fever. He fell. A week ago. And now, I’m afraid his leg is infected.”

  “What makes you think we can help you?” Miss Preppy asked. “How can we trust that you’re telling us the truth. The fever could be from anything. We can’t put our settlement at risk.”

  Blondie lowered her gun. “Where is this… Dax?” She let her hair fall forward in an attempt to hide the scarring on her face.

  Preppy snapped her head toward her friend. “Cricket,” she urged. “We can’t take in another stray?”

  Cricket was certainly a strange name. I watched while the two had a mostly silent argument. They were an interesting couple of girls. Under different circumstances I’d have invited them to camp with Dax and me, get to know them a little better. Maybe pretend that we lived the way teens lived years ago before a deadly virus changed our country forever. “Please,” I pleaded. “We won’t stay. If there’s just someone who can help him…” I stared at Preppy. Her ice blue eyes pierced into mine, and I found myself drawn to the spark there.

  “Dylan,” Cricket said. “You’ll have to excuse my friend. Nina’s very protective of our settlement, but we’ll try to help you the best we can.”

  “We will?” Nina asked.

  Cricket continued. “Just know that the people of our settlement have a zero tolerance when it comes to the safety of the members of our community. Don’t cause us any trouble.”

  Nina

  We walked in silence as Dylan led us to the back of an abandoned house, a ten-minute walk from where he had very creepily been spying on us from a decrepit tree platform. I had no idea why Cricket was so quick to trust this tall boy from the West. She wasn’t exactly one to let others get very close.

  As we approached the back door of this old farmhouse, I imagined it was probably a very loved family home once upon a time. Weeds grew around a wooden swing set in the backyard. A rusted wagon and some plastic riding toys sat in one corner of the back porch. White paint chipped from the clapboards. The back screen hung askew off its hinges.

  Dylan started to pull open the door.

  “Wait,” I said, stopping him. “Did you do a sweep of the house?” Whenever Cricket and I went for supplies or exploring, we always wore masks and did sweeps of any houses or buildings we decided to enter to verify that there were no infected human remains left behind by Bad Sam. Once we deemed the building safe, we marked the property with a spray painted flower. This house had no such graffiti.

  He turned. “How do you think Dax and I made it this far?”

  “Interesting question, Dylan.” Even I heard the snarkiness in my voice as I practically spit his name. “One I’d love to know the answer to. But since I’m assuming your brother needs help sooner, rather than later…”

  “We swept the house. It’s safe.”


  Cricket threw open the screen door. “Are you sure you two don’t already know each other? You fight like best friends.”

  I rolled my eyes and followed Cricket and Dylan into the house. It smelled musty, like it had been closed up for a long time, because it probably had. “Twins?” I asked when we reached Dylan’s brother, Dax. I glanced back and forth from their sandy blond hair, both in need of a good haircut. They both had thick eyebrows, slightly darker than their hair, and long eyelashes that framed chocolate eyes.

  Dylan nodded. “Identical.” He knelt beside his brother. “We ran out of the bandages and supplies a few days ago.” Dax shook with chills, and barely reacted to our entrance. “Hey, bro! I brought help.” Dylan’s voice was much more gentle when he spoke to Dax than it had been when he spoke to us.

  Dax’s eyes sprung open. “I told you—no help.” He refocused from his brother, to me, and finally to Cricket, who he sized up pretty quickly. “I especially don’t need help from a couple of princesses.” He said “princesses” like we were a couple of toddlers.

  I glanced at Cricket. She cocked her head, studying the length of Dax’s body. Her eyes roamed from his face to his leg, where blood had soaked through his pants leg. “He’s going to die.”

  I widened my eyes. “Cricket! Way to scare the poor boys half-to-death.”

  “What?” She shrugged. “In case all of you have forgotten, we live in a tougher time than the generation before us. We don’t have co-pays so that parents can take their children to a doctor anytime they have the sniffles.” She squared her shoulders, and after a few steps, she bent down and slowly eased up Dax’s pant leg to reveal a large gash that started at his calf, just below his knee, and continued around to the middle of his shin. She drew back slightly, wincing at the sight. The wound was a rainbow of colors: bright red around the cut, scabbed over in part, and partially covered in a greenish-yellow pus. “You’ve let the infection go too far. We might not even be able to help you.”

  “Or he could very easily be looking at losing his leg.”

  “What the hell do a couple of… what…” Dax glanced over Cricket and me again. “…Fifteen-year-olds know?”

  “We’re sixteen, and for your information, we’ve seen plenty to know you need more help than we can probably give you.” But we couldn’t leave them here. They appeared a couple of years older than us, maybe, but they were out here alone, and who knew how long they’d been alone.

  Dylan wrapped a shaky hand around Cricket’s upper arm, not in a threatening way, but with a certain desperation. “You’ll try, though, right? Do you know someone who can help?”

  I sucked in a breath just hearing the fear laced in his words. “We’ll try.” Cricket and Dylan turned to me at the same time. What? Had I come across as heartless before? “How are we going to get him to the settlement?”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Dax slurred.

  “Yes, you are,” Dylan insisted. “Cricket is right. You’ll die without treatment.”

  “What kind of name is Cricket?” He choked out a laugh. Beads of sweat formed along his forehead. His cheeks were flushed. He stared up at his brother with an expression that seemed to wrestle between wanting to be fearless and giving into the idea that others may be able to help him. Finally, he pushed himself to a sitting position.

  Dylan yanked on Dax’s arm, pulling him to his feet. “Can one of you help me.”

  Without hesitation, Cricket rushed to the other side of Dax, and after draping his arm around her shoulders, she slid an arm around his back in support.

  Despite the fact that Dax appeared thinner, probably because of the infection, they were both built like men who worked out regularly, evidenced by the curve of their muscles beneath their T-shirts. I wasn’t lying to Dylan when I said I’d like to know more about his and Dax’s story. Cricket and I were lucky to have survived four years ago, and we’d had my dad and the settlement to take care of us. How had these two done it?

  “Earth to Nina.” Cricket snapped her fingers.

  I gave my head a little shake. Dylan’s lips lifted at the corners, and I realized I’d just been caught surveying his body—not in a checking-out-is-muscles sort of way. Not really. I just wondered how they’d gotten to this point in their life. Okay, and because he was pretty hot. Not much of that around the settlement.

  Cricket raised her brows. “Do you think you can grab my pack?”

  “Yeah. Sorry.” I grabbed Cricket’s pack and a bag Dylan handed me. As I followed the three of them back out the way we came, I still wondered if we were making the right decision bringing two strange boys into our community, one of them sick.

  Dylan

  I stormed out of the hospital and took off in a sprint. It was nearing eight o’clock in the evening. The sun had already disappeared behind the mountains in the west.

  Sweat quickly formed across the back of my neck and dripped down the center of my back as I dodged broken up concrete and potholes in the streets. Nothing was going the way it was supposed to go. It had been two weeks since I discovered Nina and Cricket in the woods. The plan was to find someone who could administer some antibiotics to Dax, nurse his leg wound back to health, and then be on our way again. Dax and I had no intention of settling into a community and following some set of rules set by another settlement. We tried that once. It didn’t work out.

  I continued to run hard, though my muscles were tiring.

  Part of me thought our luck had changed when we discovered that Nina’s dad was a doctor. Dr. Caine Quinton was kind enough to work on Dax’s injury. But Dax’s wound was worse that we’d thought.

  Now, after two surgeries, I fought, and barely won, the second-worst battle of my life. The prize? Dax got to keep his leg. For now.

  I ran out of breath just as I reached a fork in the road. I stopped, bending at the waist with my hands on my knees, and tried like crazy to slow my heart about to burst through my chest. I glanced right at the path that would lead me toward the forest where I could escape the stress that had accompanied watching my brother fight for his life, while I argued for his limb. I also, in some ways, craved the peace and quiet away from the settlement. Early September and still warm in the evenings, I didn’t need any supplies in order to sleep comfortably. Dax and I had learned to sleep under much worse conditions in the past.

  And sleeping in the forest would give me a break from Nina. The gentleness of her blue eyes haunted me in the quiet of the night when I would try to sleep in a room two doors away from where she slept. I didn’t know how she’d done it, but she’d wiggled her way under my skin. Each time she brushed against me at the hospital or when she showed me around the settlement’s cafeteria-style restaurant, she burrowed deeper into my consciousness.

  However, she’d kept her distance from me the last couple of days, and that drove me nuts. From the moment I’d met her, I’d sensed a fire deep inside her. She seemed to toe some arbitrary line defined by… who? The settlement? Her father? Yet, while trying to fly under the radar, I got the feeling she itched to be free from a restricted life—the only life she’d known so far—inside the settlement of Boone Blackston.

  I wasn’t sure why I cared. I didn’t plan on being around for long.

  Staring at the choice in front of me, I decided tonight wasn’t the time to run. I turned and headed back toward the settlement. I had my own line to walk for now. I would do that much for my brother. But as soon as he was well enough, we’d be leaving.

  ~~~~~

  The settlement of Boone Blackston was protected by a brick wall. It wasn’t heavily guarded, but Zara, a strange girl dressed in camouflage, stood at a metal gate like some sort of peacekeeper.

  Her thick, unruly eyebrows furrowed as I approached. “Why did you and your brother come here?”

  I was in no mood to be questioned at this point. If I could leave, I would. Before I could actually answer her, a commotion erupted from somewhere inside the walls. I followed her to the center of town wh
ere a young man stood on top of a stone structure in front of what looked like a lighthouse, or some sort of bell tower. He was dressed in a black T-shirt and jeans, and his brown hair was slightly disheveled.

  He waved his hands and was yelling something to a crowd that had gathered and was growing. “Are we just going to start letting people inside our walls to infect us with new diseases? Infect your children? I thought this town was built on a democracy. I don’t remember being asked to vote.”

  He had to be talking about me. My brother hadn’t even been inside the town walls. The day we carried him toward the town, we stopped short of entering the town while Nina ran ahead and alerted her father to the problem. He directed us to take Dax directly to the hospital several blocks from the settlement. Dr. Quinton didn’t want the townspeople to panic.

  “Funny, Jake. I thought this town was built on the foundation of kindness to mankind.”

  Everyone in the small crowd turned toward the female voice that screamed out. I looked closer. Though it was close to full darkness and the only lights were around the tower, I could just make out the small figure dressed in a bright orange top and pants the color of eggplant. Nina’s colorfulness brought a smile to my lips and an unwelcome disturbance to my stomach. I hung back, hoping no one in the crowd turned to see me listening.

  “Kindness, you say?” the man—Jake—said. He was one of the only guys I had seen so far inside the settlement that would have been close to my age—and therefore close to Nina’s age. “Kindness is not how our community of people survived four years ago. We survived because we learned to vet the people we allowed in.”

  “No!” Nina yelled with the same spark I kept seeing from her. “If that were true, then the people of this town were no better than the people up on that hill.” Nina pointed toward New Caelum, the city believed to have formed by a group of the elite and the wealthy when the outbreak of Bad Sam first appeared in our country.