by Kat Falls
“How do you know?”
“We found guns and gear planted in here. The patrol had sealed off this room and forgotten about the drainage tunnel under the lock. They found the entrance when they were digging up the meadow.”
He opened a locker to reveal an impressive array of supplies and weaponry inside. I moved in for a closer look. “Why do you have guns down here?”
“The strike team uses this tunnel to cross into the zone.”
He snagged a slim flashlight and several glow sticks and pocketed all but two of the sticks, which he cracked. I blinked at the sudden burst of light. These were nothing like the glow sticks I’d waved around as a kid. He tucked one into an elastic loop on my flak jacket, took the other for himself, and then dug back into the locker. He shoved a magazine into the barrel of some kind of big-as-heck gun, which accepted it with a faint electronic sizzle, and then thrust the thing into my arms.
“I don’t know how to use this,” I sputtered.
“I don’t expect you to.” He stuffed more magazines into the pouch pockets on his jacket and sealed them. “Just carry it while I carry her.” Squatting, he tugged Mahari into a sitting position. “Get ready. When I say go, throw open the door.”
Suddenly the massive gears around us engaged, and the walls began to tremble. The needle on the biggest meter swung into the green. “Now!” he ordered while hefting Mahari over his shoulder once more.
With the crank of a wheel, I opened the steel reinforced door onto a dank, dark tunnel and got hit with a foul smell.
Everson grunted as he rose. I braced the door as he splashed into the tunnel. I took a deep breath and followed, slinging his gun over my shoulder. When the heavy door slammed shut behind me, Everson broke into a jog before my eyes even had time to adjust to the dim light of the glow stick. Not that I really wanted to see the puddles of slimy water that smelled like rotted sewage. I hurried after him, hating the way our footsteps echoed off the curved metal walls.
The tunnel was wide enough to jog side by side, though it was far from comfortable between the darkness and the dripping. I traced my fingertips against the wall to stay oriented and felt a tremor in the cold metal. When we passed through a giant valve, that tremor turned into an all-out vibration.
“We’re under the river now,” Everson explained. “I don’t know how Rafe did this, coming from the other side, without the meters telling him when the tunnel was empty.”
“Where does it come out?”
“In the meadow.”
“Inside Gateway Station?”
“Outside the fence.”
“Good,” I said. “The lionesses told me to bring Mahari to the tree line if I found her.”
“If we get Rafe’s location from them, I’ll take you to Captain Hyrax. The strike team will keep you safe when you’re in the zone.”
“What about Rafe?”
“They’ll take a blood sample, that’s all.”
“If he cooperates,” I said skeptically. “If he doesn’t, they’ll kill him.”
By the light of the glow stick, I saw Everson’s expression turn grim. “That’s why you’re going on the mission — to convince Rafe to give up his blood willingly.”
Hopefully, that wouldn’t be too hard, since I was bringing him the cure.
“I saw the video,” Everson said abruptly. “Your video.”
“How? The internet’s blocked.”
“Not in my mother’s RV. I watched it this afternoon after you left. I’m all over it —”
“I never identified you by name,” I said defensively.
“I know.” He remained serious. “And you barely show Rafe. He’s in a couple of the clips with Cosmo, but you cut him out of the rest. Why?”
What was putting the edge in his tone? Everson came off really well in my video. The piles of mail for him should have proved that much. What did he care if Rafe ended up on the proverbial cutting room floor? “Whatever shots I had of him must not have added to the story.”
“Rafe getting infected didn’t add to the story?”
“I put that in,” I protested. I’d cut around Rafe because he was the color that refused to blend in. I’d wanted to show the truth about life in the East, but when Rafe was on camera, everything else just faded into the background. Everson was doing guard face again, which bugged me. “What?”
“At the end, just before he jumps off the carousel, he says, ‘When I said I lied to Omar and the queen — that was the lie.’ What’s he talking about?”
I brushed aside his question with an impatient flick of my hand. “It doesn’t matter what Rafe said then. He’s infected now. These questions you’re asking — Why did I cut Rafe out of the video? What did he say at the end? — they’re pointless. What you want to know is if there’s something between him and me and the answer is yes. A promise. One I’d give anything to break.”
“What promise?”
We’d reached the other end of the tunnel.
“To put him down when he goes feral.” I glanced at Mahari, hanging over Everson’s shoulder, still unconscious. “I still think it was wrong for you test the cure on her without her consent — on all of them — but I do want to save Rafe.”
“So do I,” Everson said softly.
“Oh, I get it.” I arched a brow at him. “You’re in love with Rafe.”
At Everson’s look of surprise, I almost laughed. He relaxed then. “Nah. He’s too cocky for me.”
I gave him a faint smile, glad that we’d somehow made it past a bump I had no name for. Deep down, I was still angry with him for treating the manimals so callously — so cruelly — but I couldn’t deal with it right now. I needed a friend on this side of the wall, even one I didn’t totally trust.
Everson pointed to a ladder bolted into the cement. “Up you go. Let’s finish this mission.”
“I’m not a guard,” I said over my shoulder as I climbed the icy metal rungs.
“Really? Would not have guessed.”
Upon reaching the hatch, I twisted the recessed metal handle and shoved. The heavy metal lifted, and I sucked in a lungful of the cold pine-scented air.
We exited the tunnel through what looked like a storm door in the ground, surrounded by mud and dead prairie grass. Everson carried Mahari across the moonlit meadow to the tree line. Crouching, he laid her by a pine tree where dead needles covered the dirt. “You’re sure this is where we’re supposed to meet them?”
“I think so. The guards wouldn’t have scared them off tonight, would they? Hyrax would’ve told them not to, right?”
“Captain Hyrax wants that vaccine as much as my mother does. Maybe more. He’s itching to dose up the whole patrol. He doesn’t want to lose any more guards to infection.”
Because once they got infected, they were nothing to Hyrax. Last fall, he’d shot an infected guard like he was putting down a rabid dog and showed no remorse as he did it.
Something shifted among the trees. Or someone. Then three figures pushed through the branches — the lionesses. Dangerous even if they weren’t feral. There was no turning back now. Reckless or not, this was happening.
Charmaine bounded for us, a growl in her throat. “What did you do?”
“She’s tranqed, that’s all,” I assured her.
She dropped to a knee next to Mahari. “Why …” she snarled low. “Why … believe you?”
Was she losing her words? Oh, this wasn’t good.
“Don’t,” Everson said with a shrug. “She’ll wake up soon enough, and you’ll see for yourself.”
Charmaine lifted her glittering gaze to him, and I took a step back. She was even wilder than she had seemed two weeks ago. Her every breath hummed as her gaze shifted between us and Mahari, as if she was working to process what we were telling her. Deepnita and Neve crouched beside her. No one would call them well groomed, but their faces weren’t streaked with mud, their clothes weren’t torn, and their hair wasn’t tangled with twigs and dead leaves. However, after one clo
se look at Mahari, they sprang to their feet looking nearly as savage as Charmaine.
“She’s cured,” I said quickly to head off the explosion.
Neve gave a slow blink. “Of what?’
Really? The flu, I wanted to say. Did any other disease matter where they were concerned? “Ferae.”
“We think she’s cured,” Everson corrected. “Her viral load is down to an undetectable level.”
“We don’t speak science,” Deepnita warned in a low rasp.
“It wipes the virus from her system,” he explained.
Neve’s lips parted with surprise. “It’s all gone?”
Swinging her head between us and them, Charmaine growled. Probably more to cover her confusion than as a threat.
Deepnita crossed her arms, lightly furred and roped with muscle, over her chest. “Prove it.”
“How?” Everson, her match in breadth and height, looked perfectly calm as he hooked a thumb through his belt loop. “You want me to get her medical charts and show you?”
“No,” Deepnita snarled. “You’re going to prove it in a way we’ll believe.”
Charmaine rose. “I won’t believe.”
Deepnita’s broad nose wrinkled as she smiled at the other lionesses and then turned that now-evil smile onto Everson. “Kiss her.”
Neve and I gasped in unison, and then I stammered out a “No!” as Neve growled, “She’ll kill you.”
“Touch her …” Charmaine growled, hands curling. Probably meaning “Don’t touch her.”
Deepnita pulled Charmaine to her, away from Mahari, and draped a staying arm around her shoulders. “It’s for science,” she said with a smirk.
Instead of springing away as I expected, Charmaine relaxed and turned into the hug, mewling softly.
“All right,” Everson said without a trace of concern.
“No!” I grabbed a handful of his jacket. “You can’t.”
With his eyes pinned to Deepnita, Everson dropped to one knee beside Mahari. He slipped a hand under her head and lifted it as he lowered his face to hers. He kissed her softly, letting his mouth drift over her lips until her eyes fluttered open. Her golden gaze focused instantly, and with a snarl, she heaved him aside. Her incredible strength sent Everson sprawling. With an earsplitting roar, she threw herself on him, batting aside his hands to grab his throat.
I scrambled over to them. “She told him to!” I shoved against Mahari, but I may as well have thrown my weight against a brick wall. “She told him to kiss you!”
Her left hand hovered over Everson’s eyes, claws extended, while her right tightened on his windpipe. He pulled at her wrist, frantically trying to loosen her hold. Mahari lifted blazing eyes to me. “Who?”
“Deepnita.” I pointed at the lioness.
The biggest lioness shrugged. “I didn’t think he’d be stupid enough to do it.”
Mahari rose, looking even more furious. “You told a human to touch me?”
Everson struggled to sit up, but she shoved him back down with a bare foot pressed to his chest.
“To prove that you’re cured,” I said hurriedly, before she could impale him with her clawed toes.
Mahari’s lush lips parted with surprise, revealing two-inch fangs. “Cured …” With a cat’s yowl, she leapt aside.
“Ticklish?” Everson rose and dusted off his pants.
Mahari glared at him and angled closer, a wild look in her eye. Not how I expected a cured person to act. “Am I cured?”
“The serum neutralizes the virus, that’s all. But you’re not infectious, and if it works the way we intend it to, you shouldn’t mutate any further.”
“So … I’m cured?” she demanded.
“We’re not calling it cured. Not yet. Viruses can hide — sometimes for years — in the lymph nodes, the spleen. There’s a lot we don’t know.” He tensed as Mahari closed in. “I don’t have to kiss you again, do I?”
“Only if you want your lips torn off your face,” she purred, and then cupped his cheeks. “If I find out you’re lying” — her thumbs traced the scars on his cheekbones — “and that I’m still infected, I will hunt you until the day I turn.”
Everson exhaled softly. “Or you could say thank you.”
Thank you for kidnapping her? I thought. And injecting her with an untested drug?
Mahari let go of his face and turned to the other lionesses. “Do I look different?”
They shook their heads.
“The serum can’t remove the lion DNA. It can’t make you human again,” Everson said, sounding steadier with each sentence. “It can’t fix what’s already —”
“Fix?” Mahari snarled. “I’m not broken, human.”
“You have corrupted DNA.”
“You say corrupted. I say enhanced. And now that I know I’ll never go feral, I’d say I’m just about perfect.”
The other three lionesses stared at him, all ferocity gone. “She’ll never go feral?” Deepnita asked softly, as if not daring to hope that it was true.
“Theoretically, there’s no virus left in her to invade her brain,” Everson explained.
“Will I stay fast and strong?” Mahari demanded, sounding excited despite herself. “Keep all this?” She ran her hand against the downy fur that gilded her sinuous arm muscles and then extended her claws.
“Uh … yeah. As far as we know,” Everson confirmed, and then shot me a questioning look. I shrugged and clicked off my dial to conserve the power.
With a squeal, Neve launched herself at Everson. “I want it!” She jammed a hand into his pants pocket. “Give it to me! Give it!” Finding nothing, she patted down the rest of him impatiently like a child searching him for hidden candy. A very strong child whose pats equaled thumps.
Everson put up his hands like he was being mugged, which he kind of was. By a teenage lion, no less. A beautiful one. One with long honey-colored hair. Tangled, yes, and her fingers were disgustingly grubby, but Everson wasn’t complaining as she pushed up his shirt. In fact, he looked as if he was holding back a laugh.
I rolled my eyes. “He doesn’t have it on him. He didn’t know he’d be coming out here with me.”
Neve released him with a put-out chuff. “Go get it,” she ordered, giving him a shove that sent him stumbling back a step.
Whoa. Everson was big — as in well over six feet tall and strapped with muscle, because despite putting in long hours in the lab, he still trained daily with his squad. Pushing him off balance was no easy thing, and Neve had done it without even trying. Forget her savage beauty; I was jealous of her strength.
“No,” I said firmly. “We had a deal. I bring you Mahari, and you tell me where Rafe is.”
“We don’t know where, exactly,” Deepnita admitted. “Just that he sticks close to the place where the two rivers meet.”
“Which two rivers?” Everson demanded. “The Mississippi and what? The Illinois?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know what you guards call them.”
“We call them the big rivers,” Neve said helpfully. “They’re very big.”
“Anyway, your friend is always there — in those woods. We saw him there three weeks ago,” Deepnita said in her lazy rumble of a voice. “Well, Neve didn’t.”
“I was chasing a rabbit,” Neve said dreamily. It must have been a good memory.
“He sticks close to one compound,” Mahari put in. “It’s called Heartland.”
“Rafe lives in a compound?” Everson asked with surprise.
“Are you being funny?” she asked, eyes narrowed. “He’s feral.”
“What? No.” My heart went jackrabbit on me. “You don’t mean … all the way feral?”
Deepnita’s look of sympathy was answer enough.
“No! It’s too soon,” I protested. “He only got infected six months ago.”
Everson’s look was grim. “It’s possible. We don’t know why some of them go insane sooner. Genetics, maybe, the particular strain or location of the bite.”
<
br /> I hugged myself tight, refusing to let the monstrous lie take root inside me. I glared at the lionesses. “You can’t know for sure.”
“Sure we can,” Mahari said coldly. “We get close and he attacks like a rabid dog … or should I say, rabid tiger?”
“Physically, he’s mutated?” Everson asked.
Mahari scowled. “I don’t like that word.” She glanced at Charmaine, who sniffed the air while scanning the dark meadow with a predator’s eyes. Was she going to take off after a rabbit?
As if sharing my concern, Deepnita tucked Charmaine closer into her side. “Not much,” Deepnita said, answering Everson. “But that doesn’t mean anything. Some ferals look almost human.”
“Till they start drooling,” Mahari added, shooting another worried glance at Charmaine.
“Gateway? Cruz,” Everson said into his lapel mic. “Relay is, I got the target’s location.”
The tiny radio crackled to life. “Solid copy. Hold your position.”
“He really is feral,” Neve told me softly, and then turned to the others. “He bit that hunter, remember?”
Mahari flicked a dismissive hand. “A human.”
“What hunter?” I worked to keep my voice steady.
“From the compound,” Deepnita explained. “There were four of them outside the fence. They don’t come out very often. They were bowhunting. We saw Rafe stalking them and stayed back. The human didn’t even know he was there till it was too late.”
My stomach did a flip. “Rafe killed him?”
“No,” she assured me. “Bit him.” She touched the nape of her neck. “Here.”
“You mean, he infected him,” Everson said with disgust.
“The boy’s feral,” Mahari said with a shrug. “It’s what they do. They bite. They’re driven to it.”
“He’s craaaazy. In the bad way,” Neve put in. “That’s why they call him Wraith. He pulled that hunter down and bit him. Just like a ghost.”
“Ghosts don’t bite people,” Deepnita said.
“Yes, they do,” Neve said firmly. “That’s how they eat. They suck out your blood. They live inside their coffins and come out at —”