by Burgy, P. J.
The second guard shook his head. “He's dead.”
Gencho sighed, his head hanging. “Yeah, yeah.”
Kara would not be dissuaded by Gencho's discouraging words. She continued until he forcibly pulled her away, whispering to her, assuring her that she'd tried, that it was over, that he was gone. Gencho stood up, bringing her with him, and nodded to the guards that were gathering there. Lena, eyes filled with tears, fought against the sentry assigned to removing her from Russell's side, and flung herself to the ground. The girl got up again, her hair a tangled mess, and ran off to stand by herself many feet away. She was crying.
The red lights began to glow brightly again on the island and then lit up along the strings on land. The world awash in a sea of red, it seemed to serene to Kara as she swayed back and forth in her brother's strong arms. Her held her close, his cheek against her scalp.
“I'm sorry,” Gencho said.
When he began to lead her away from the shore Kara let him. They passed Lena and Kara stopped Gencho from attempting to escort the girl along with them. “Let her be. Just... let her be.”
Gencho waved the guards away from Lena, who made her way back to where Russell lay to sit down next to him, folding her legs under herself. Kara watched her for a moment, wishing that she could think of something to say.
The sky would be getting lighter soon, dawn was close. Repairs would need done. Bodies would need placed in pyres or thrown into heaps to be burned.
Kara resisted being ushered any further, separating herself from Gencho so she could drag herself over to Renshen's body. Her father's eyes were heavy lidded, distant. Not even twenty feet away, Tengen lay dead as well, and Kara, suddenly feeling her knees buckle, grabbed for Gencho's arm once more. Together they knelt beside Renshen.
A sharp exclamation surprised Kara. She turned and, along with Gencho, saw that the guards had their rifles trained on two figures standing near the water. Gencho and Kara were on their feet again, and she was transfixed on the sight.
One of the forms belonged to Lena, and the other was Meredith. Meredith had Lena trapped in her arm, her pale, ghostly body hunched over the girl. Like a demon in the red lights, Meredith's eyes, white with huge black pupils, spun around in her skull, her lips pulled back into a gargoyle grin. Her hair was wet, clinging to her nearly nude body. Black spit leaked from her mouth as she pulled up on the girl's neck, her elbow hooked around Lena's throat.
Lena grabbed at Meredith's arm, clearly struggling to breathe as she was lifted from the ground.
“My children are all dead,” Meredith said, her voice hollow.
Kara made her way to the shore. “Let her go.”
The guards were moving in and Meredith spun around, dragging Lena as she did so. “I'll break her little neck. Is that what you want?”
“Don't hurt her.” Kara hobbled closer to Meredith. “I'm the one you want, right? Yeah?”
“You?” Meredith asked, and then grinned again. “I know I will die here tonight. But I don't think you will, Kara. No, you'll live for a long, long time. And, I want you to.”
“Do you?” Kara asked.
“Assuredly,” Meredith replied. “Because I want you to live with this memory. I'm going to kill her, Kara. Then, your people are going to kill me. You’ll have to remember it for the rest of your life.”
“No.” Kara shook her head. “Don't do this.”
“Or what? Will you let me go? Will you show me mercy?” Meredith tilted her head. “Like you showed my poor, precious Michael mercy? Like you showed my children mercy?”
“You can kill me,” Kara said.
“I don't want to though.” Meredith loosened her grip on Lena, straightening up as she slid her hands around the girl's throat. Lena stood there frozen as Meredith spoke. “You're something special. The lives you've destroyed. We could have had paradise, Kara. You could have shared that with us.”
Kara locked eyes with Meredith. “That wasn't paradise. You were making hell.”
“Heaven and hell are both filled with angels, Kara.” Meredith squeezed Lena's neck, wavering where she stood, her black eyes glassy. “How could you even tell the difference? No. You can't. I've seen angels fall. Have you?”
Kara kept her gaze on Meredith's face, trying hard not to glance behind her or to break their eye contact. “No, but I've seen them rise.”
Meredith tilted her head again, face screwing at Kara's reply. The sickening, wet noise behind her startled the woman and she might have whirled around to see what had caused it if she'd moved fast enough.
Instead, at the instant her eyes flashed with shock, Meredith's body also shuddered and she released Lena, who toppled to the ground and then hurried over to where Kara stood. The whites of Meredith's eyes began to turn a deep red, hemorrhaging from within. She gagged.
Russell stood, unsteady but maintaining his footing, directly behind Meredith. In his hands he gripped the rebar, and he'd shoved it up hard into the back of Meredith's head, piercing her skull at the base of her neck. She brought her hands back, feebly trying to paw at the piece of rebar before she fell forward onto her knees, vomiting up black bile and blood. Her eyes lost, confused, Meredith toppled over and landed, face first, on the grass. Her body twitched briefly.
Leaning over, Russell looked down at Meredith and then up at Kara. His shoulders were heaving, tendrils of black spit hanging from his jaw. He wiped at his face with the back of his hand, offering Kara a crooked little smile. Then, his eyes rolled back into his skull and he collapsed.
Chapter Twelve
Sunlight streamed in through the windows of Dr. Hassel's shack. Kara sat on the cot closest to the front door, her bound arm aching in the sling as she watched Dr. Hassel pull the shades closed. The ceiling lights were flipped on and they hummed to life, their glow colder and more sterile. Out on the island, on the left most spoke toward the southern shore, the medical office was a two floor structure with a ladder leading upstairs in the right corner. There were rows of cots, ten of them in total, in the building, each separated by hanging drapes on hooked bars attached at the ceiling.
“I want you to wear that for six weeks. Do you understand?” Dr. Hassel asked.
“Yes, Eileen,” Kara said.
“You say 'yes', but I know you, Kara.” Dr. Hassel strolled over to her and lifted an eyebrow. Smiling, Dr. Hassel tilted her head toward the door. “You've been eyeing up the exit the entire time you've been in here.”
“There's just a lot to do out there today, is all,” Kara stated.
“They're on the wall, I assure you,” Dr. Hassel said.
“The pyre burning is in an hour.” Kara said.
Dr. Hassel's smile faded and she nodded. “Indeed, it is. You'll be there. You can go now, Kara.”
“And you?”
“There's the wounded to tend to.” Dr. Hassel eyed the many closed drapes in her office. “Surprisingly fewer than I'd anticipated, for all the wrong reasons.”
Kara rolled her shoulder. “He'll need to eat when he wakes up.”
“I'm afraid I'm all out of raw meat,” Dr. Hassel replied.
“I'll talk to Hoop. I'm sure we can find something for him.” Kara shrugged and then winced at the pain in her arm. “As for me, I need a drink.”
“Normally I'd say something about the time of day, but in this case I will not,” Dr. Hassel told Kara, her smile returning. She turned away, stepping over to her desk and grabbing at a pile of towels. “Why don't you head out then? I won't be at the funeral pyres, but I'll be thinking of you all.”
“Thank you, Eileen,” Kara said, standing up.
“You're proof that the vaccine works, Kara. Calm their fears while you're out there, won't you?” Dr. Hassel said, standing between the rows of covered cots.
“I'll do my best,” Kara said.
Kara left the shack, parting the fabric doorway and going outside into the light of day. It was still morning, a few hours after dawn, and the bridge had been pulled back to the land. T
he citizens of Blue Lagoon were all out, some dressed in their own make-shift protective gear as they crossed over to help with the cleanup around the shoreline. Kara moved through the crowds of fort folk who milled about in the common areas, slipping through and acknowledging them as they greeted her. Their faces lacked the friendliness that she had become accustomed to over the years, though they were not cold toward her. Rather, they looked like ghosts, pale and unsure out in the open, and they spoke among themselves in hushed tones. Still, a few did try to smile at her and Kara nodded in return. Many were being volunteered to assist and were hesitant, fearful of breach in the wall even as others patched it up, welding and hammering at new steel plates.
There were countless Wailer corpses that needed thrown onto wagons to be wheeled outside through the open gate doors. Their own dead, guards and sentries that had fallen during the night, whose bodies were being carefully carried outside to the graveyard and laid out delicately, their helmets removed and their hands placed on their chests. Kara could see the sentries working together in the battlefield surrounding the island and she crossed the bridge herself.
Gencho was down at the breach and Kara made a left on land, walking around the lake toward him. He was gesturing toward the steel plates being brought over from the garage, the guards and citizens dragging them over on hastily constructed wagons bringing them over to where others could take from a pile of materials. Kara knew better than to look at the welding torch and instead drew her gaze to Gencho, who noticed her and turned to greet her. He looked bruised and battered, but his light, something Kara had not seen in a very long time, had returned. He was wearing one of Renshen's flannel shirts, opened to reveal a black sleeveless shirt, his hair tied back tight.
“Big Brother.”
“Little Sister,” he replied.
He pulled her in close, careful not to squeeze her too hard, and the two embraced. Kara wasn't sure how long they stayed like that. Her cheek pressed to his chest, his hand on her back, they hugged until she finally felt him move back and they separated, remaining close together where they stood.
“Managing the breach repairs?” Kara asked, her smile weak. “I thought you'd be working on it yourself. What gives?”
“Hoop said I should be the man in charge. Trust me, I argued.” He shrugged at Kara and then cleared his throat. “How are you feeling?”
“Probably exactly how I look. Which I assume is mutual.”
“Ah yeah.” He nodded. “They've got the pyres set up out front. I went out there earlier, but I had to come back in. I wanted to work on this first. Besides, they'll be plenty to do outside later, with all the Red Brethren rovers left out there. Gotta be like ten wrecks. A few tire tracks heading out into the fields though. Don't think they'll be back.”
“Not even to take another shot at me?” she asked, and then placed her good hand on her hip. She shook her head, pursing her lips. “They risked a night attack for me once. We sure they won't try to come back during the day and try it again?”
“They're on the radio crying about how Blue Lagoon was covered in Wailers, and some of the things talked. I think they're too scared,” he said. “We'll just let your friend Russell say Hello if they do show up. That'll send 'em off.”
“I'm sure he'd enjoy that.” She smirked, and then exhaled. “I don't want to believe that they're gone, Gencho. I keep expecting to see Dad and Tengen out here, helping, complaining, you know. And I don't see them. It doesn't feel right.”
“I know.” He cleared his throat and glanced away. “It's like I'm waiting for him to come out and tell me I'm doing this all wrong.”
“He wouldn't. Because you're doing great.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She looked off toward the island. “Where's Lena?”
“With Brooke.”
“How is she?”
He sniffed. “She seems okay. Kid's been through a lot.”
“And Brooke?”
“I don't know.”
“Then maybe ask her.”
“I will,” he said. “Did you come to offer some help, or just to dispense some advice?”
“I don't know how much I can do with this thing on.” She indicated toward her bound arm in the sling. “But if there is something I can do, I'm on it.”
“With one good arm, you can help pull wagons. How about that?”
“Sure thing, boss,” she said, and walked off toward the garage.
“Don't call me that,” he called after her.
Sweat dried on her scalp, on her forehead, as Kara stood outside of the walls along with most of the fort folk. Of the fifteen pyres built among the older memorials in the recently trimmed graveyard, the two nearest to the front held most of Kara's attention. Though she looked over each pyre and the engraved stones at their head, it was the ones belonging to her father and brother that kept calling her gaze back.
On Renshen's stone, there was his call name, of course. Renshen Bui. Under that, she saw that Gencho must have requested something more, something special. It read, 'Greg Talbot, with his Isabella'. And under Tengen Hai, it read 'Todd Yablonsky, beloved brother, action hero'. There were other familiar names on the flat stone markers above each site. Broderick Tate. Miranda Hays. Luther Hodges. The bodies underneath had been partially buried in the soil and covered in sticks, twigs, and leaves. Kara couldn't see any of them, but she could tell whose pyre belonged to who based on their size and height.
Brooke was there, along with Aiden and Lena. Brooke held Aiden, the boy's eyes wide as he studied the pyres. Kara guessed that he didn't understand what was going on. Not really. Brooke was talking to Aiden, her voice quiet, hard to hear, and Gencho was passing by. Brooke and Gencho exchanged glances and then, to Kara's surprise, Brooke, tears in her eyes, introduced Aiden to him. Lena spoke to Gencho and hugged him. Aiden, observing the interaction, began to stretch his arms out to do the same.
Kara saw that Gencho had no idea what to do, and reached to shake the little boy's hand instead. Brooke lifted her son up, allowing the two to meet face to face. Two sets of jade green eyes met for the first time in a long time. It would have made her laugh, just a little, if not for the fact that her heart hurt so much.
The sound of dogs alerted Kara to Jensen Hooper's return and she saw him, along with his canine troop, rushing back toward the open gate. He had a backpack slung over his left shoulder and waved to Kara, who waved back. He was gone then, headed to the guard shack. More citizens were coming out into the yard outside the walls, taken by the sight of the abandoned Red Brethren rovers that had been left out in the fields. Their conversations were muffled, overlapping one another. She wasn't really listening anyway. Kara swallowed, her back to all of them as she faced the pyres.
Hooper took the lead and silenced the citizens who had been talking, raising a hand first and then beginning the ceremony.
Kara found herself drifting in and out of memories as she watched Gencho pour lighter fluid on each pyre. Renshen Bui finding her under the sink. Tengen watching movies with her, years back, on a small television screen while Gencho cleaned a gun and rolled his eyes at them. The Bella rolling down the roads at dusk while Renshen drove and Kara sat in the co-pilot seat, looking out the front window as her father told her all about their lives as paid guns-for-hire and transporters. Stopping to get gas from an old diesel truck and watching out for any sign of marauders out there in a flat, dusty wasteland while Tengen swung around his swords and called it practice.
Kara could hear Hooper giving the prayer, and she echoed back the call and answer portions with the others standing there. However, she wasn't there with them. She was in the Bella, singing along with Renshen as he played one of his cassettes from the old world. She was climbing in a tree trying to get to the high up branch Tengen was sitting in as he proudly looked down at her and urged her to keep it up. He had been so young then, his boyish smile wide and wild. Kara, still small, was hiding under her cot in the Bella after a nightmare, the same nightmare s
he would have so many, many times afterward, and Renshen was there, crouched down, coaxing her out and telling her it was going to be okay.
One by one, Gencho lit the pyres.
Kara felt the heat hit her, the smoke billowing up into the sky. No one spoke after that. The citizens of Blue Lagoon simply stood there, in the early afternoon on a beautiful, sunny day, watching pyres burn and listened to the crackling of the wood as each memorial site became engulfed in flames. There was nothing to say, perhaps.
The sun moved across the sky.
“Kara.” Hooper stopped her at the gate on her way back in.
“Hoop?”
“I figured your boy would be hungry. Scared out five rabbits with the dogs. I got 'em hanging up if you wanna grab 'em,” Hooper said. He gestured toward the guard shack. “I was cleaning 'em, but, he ain't very picky, I don't think.”
“No, he isn't very picky,” she said. “Thank you, Hoop. I'm sure he'll be appreciative.”
Kara carried the five rabbit carcasses, their feet tied together and the lean, furry bodies hanging from a rope, across the bridge and through the common area and square. She passed Tommy Reed and Sam. Brooke and Aiden were eating together at one of the tables, Gencho joining them. When Lena saw Kara, the girl jumped up and ran, slipping through a group of citizens to get to her.
“Kara!” Lena exclaimed.
“Hey, Lena,” Kara said. “I'll be back out to have dinner with you guys, okay? I'm gonna get these over to Russ.”
“I can come too,” Lena told her.
“No, it's better if I take them alone. He doesn't like when people watch him eat.” Kara shifted the weight of the dead rabbits over her good shoulder.
Lena frowned. “I want to see him.”
“You can visit him tonight,” Kara said. “I'll be back.”
Lena, despite her unhappy expression, nodded and then went back over to rejoin Brooke and Gencho. Kara saw the way the girl sulked the entire way.
Dr. Hassel had Russell upstairs in his own, separate room. It was for the best, as the others in their cots had been nervously asking about the sounds coming from the Infected up there, and were anxious to find out if Russell was indeed safe to have in such close proximity to people with bleeding wounds. Kara found their questions to be annoying as she came in, spoke briefly to Dr. Hassel, and then climbed the ladder to the second floor.