I rush to my room and grab my nightwear. Don’t run into Marc. Please don’t run into Marc sings through my head. I’m in the clear all the way to the shower.
Luke and I can’t be the only ones oblivious to the invaders here. There’s no identifier that reveals them, but Cory has built a close enough relationship with Fein and Floyd that they trust him. Or maybe Cory has used the knowledge provided to him by having that list, and he’s recruiting or blackmailing them. What side is Cory working on? Based on what he said the day we were outside, it’s reconstruction.
He is on the side of the ones I met in the burrow that coyote led me to. They’re all wrong. I remember their message, In order to reconstruct, you must first destruct. And the destruction is what we are trying to avoid. Anyone who is for this world’s destruction is against this world’s survival. Though their intentions may be reconstruction, the ruler would establish this world in their view, to their liking. And while this place may need some changes, it doesn’t need any more control.
Chapter Eleven
I sit by myself in the rec hall, watching everyone prepare to leave for their Citizen Management tasks. Correction: I sit by myself in the rec hall, watching Marc prepare to leave. They don’t have a time span for the length of days they will be gone. Jord says they’re to return once the job is done.
Marc and Sean are coming in my direction.
“Hug me, Ky,” Sean says with a smile, mocking Marc’s deep voice, “so we can go.” Marc motions for me to come to him with a slow rise of his left brow.
I hug Marc hard.
“Don’t miss me,” he says, holding me tight.
“No problem,” I whisper as he kisses my cheek and moves from our hug.
I sit back down and watch him leave the rec hall.
This will be perfect. Marc being gone may give my stupid attraction for him a break. He’ll come back, and I’ll be over him, back to the old me, the person I was before I ever laid eyes on him.
I run into Fein when I leave the rec hall. She avoids my eyes though she stops and says, “Thank you, Ky.”
I pinch my lips to the side, quizzically staring at her. I never suspected Fein to be an implant, and I never thought she and Floyd would be so negligent to leave their back open to be followed or found out.
“You are welcome,” I say strongly with a nod, and leave her.
At the training room, all the captains and privates’ groups of Normals are hanging out with my group. There was no specific instruction given for what they need to work on or train in, so I fill their day with battle techniques I’ve discovered are effective against the Zombies.
“Danny,” I call him to help me demonstrate my next technique. He comes over, standing in front of me. “Take my back, and I’ll take yours. This way,” I say loudly to the room. “You have eyes in the front and back. The undead are unpredictable. You never know which way they are going to come from, when they are going to come, or how fast they are going to attack. Implementing this simple maneuver may help keep you and your group members safe. You walk in step with them to limit tripping over each other’s feet. Use their body language; if they halt and they’re stiff, you know something is unexpected. If they are placid and stop instantly, you know a gun may be pointed at them. If they tap you, your first instinct should not be to turn around, but listen, wait, respond low, questioning what it could be. You all are each other’s protection.”
Moving from Danny’s back, I retreat a few steps. “Okay Danny, face me.” He turns. “Now take a few steps back.” He follows orders. “Okay, you have to trust your group members. In an open field at night, your vision is limited. Facing Danny, I acknowledge the surrounding space. If they approach him from behind, what is the first thing you do?” I look out toward the large group.
“Tell him,” someone yells.
“Get him out of the way,” someone else follows.
“No, you shoot the Zombie. Don’t warn him. He’ll get it when you shoot. If you tell him, he may panic and make the wrong move, making himself more vulnerable,” another with a boyish voice relays.
“Right. Who said that?”
A tall boy with shaggy hair that falls around the top of his head stands up. “I did,” he states proudly.
“What’s your name and what are you?”
He looks around at everyone before answering. “Today!” a girl from my group prods. I recognize the sound of Amber’s voice.
“Cool it,” I order. “But it would be nice if you could answer today,” I tell the new face.
“I’m Christian, I’m a…human.” He scratches the back of his head. “If that’s what you’re asking.”
“Whose group are you from?” I ask.
“Seanabe.”
“Okay. You can sit down if you want.” I scratch the end of my eyebrow. “Christian is right.” I turn back to Danny. “If Danny is about to get attacked, I don’t want to panic him. He might make the wrong move, putting himself at jeopardy of getting attacked. I want to handle it, and Danny must have trust in me and believe if I’m pointing a gun in his direction, there is a good reason.
“Already, getting a gun pointed at you is intimidating. For some of you, it may raise panic at this moment, seeing me with it.” I hold up my handgun in my left hand. “So now we will test your trust. Danny and I will go first, only as an example.” Pointing my weapon at Danny, I ask, “Do you trust me, Danny?”
Danny pushes his long hair back, stretches, and then cracks his knuckles. “If I hadn’t known you before this and how good of a shooter you are, I would say no.”
I lower my gun. “You are supposed to just say yes, Danny.” He taps his leg with his fingers. “And don’t seem nervous,” I gesture toward his anxious tell, “you’ll scare them.”
“Okay, Gabriel and Fredrick, can you bring the silicone dummies over here and place them behind Danny with their heads over his shoulders?”
“Sure,” Fredrick responds as they get up.
“Danny, I promise I won’t shoot you.”
He wipes the sweat from his chin with his sleeve. “I believe you, Ky.”
Once the dummies are in place and Danny is facing me, I fire my pistol twice, blasting two holes in the heads of the dummies. After the first shot, Danny jumps to his left where my second shot is headed.
I miss him by an inch only because the bullet is faster than he can move.
“Rule number two,” I shout, gaze angrily pinned on Danny. “Do not dodge a bullet that is not aimed at you. Your trust is with the person who is saving your life. They see what you don’t. So you don’t see what they do. My bullet was an inch away from meeting your skull. You almost killed yourself jumping out of the way of non-danger.”
“A warning would have been nice.”
My trigger finger twitches. As calmly as I can, I say, “When you are out there, in it, there is no warning. There is no time to think. There are only threats and execution. You react off your first instinct. Your first instinct should not be endangering yourself or your team members.” I motion my gun toward the people sitting. “Go sit down,” I say, disappointed.
“Trust exercise!” I shout. “Creations, come forward. Good thing you all are great shooters,” I tease with a smile, proud of my team’s improvements. “Everyone will not do this, there are honestly too many of you.”
“You should see how many brave Normals we have in our sector, Ky,” Jesail says, grinning, a thrill filling her bright eyes with joy.
She’s on to something. And I will probably get in trouble for this later, but…I shrug. “Okay, do we have any brave humans?”
A few stand.
There is a loud shrill outside, followed by three more. A few humans screech in fear and crowd together. Yeah, like that would save them.
I check my holster, hoping I brought my other gun. I didn’t. I could stay here and let someone else handle it, but as I think and the seconds pass, I don’t hear any gunshots.
Using these guns, we’ll have five
seconds or fewer, maybe a little more before the undead rise.
Come on Ky, think of a plan. What can we do?
I look at my group of Creations. “Okay, got it.” I think out loud. “Creations, come with me.” I talk fast. “I can only say this once so listen up. The guns we have will only falter them temporarily. Me and five of you will go after them. The others will race to the general’s office. He has handguns and shotguns by his door that will kill them. Get the weapons and find us quickly. Remember what I’ve taught you. Do not get bitten or scratched. Try to keep them away from you. And look out for each other.”
I run to the door, yelling, “Everyone else stay here! Creations, fall out!”
The heat smacks me hard when I run outside. I stand still, waiting for the shrill or sound of sluggish or fast approaching footsteps, someone yelling…something.
It’s silent, nothing but the sound of the air conditioners running.
“What’s wrong?” Joe asks.
“Shh.” I listen more closely. They don’t make a sound. “Quietly follow me,” I tell them. “You all heard that shrill, right?”
“Yes,” they say.
Okay, I’m not losing my mind.
We walk the dirt road toward Jord’s office, running into Luke and his group of Creations. “You heard that too?” he asks, handing me a gun.
I take it, putting away the one that will do nothing to these Zombies. “Yes.”
“You want to attract them? I don’t get why we don’t hear them anymore. Or why we don’t hear anything.”
“Me either.”
I pull back out my other gun, preparing to hit them together. “My team doesn’t have any of the guns we need.”
Luke checks his mags and puts a bullet in the chamber. “Only some of mine have them. If there are a lot of Zombies, this may get ugly.”
I nod. “For those of you who do not have the heavier guns, you can shoot them, but because they are not affected by our guns, you may need to fight and use what you can to sever their heads from their bodies. Everyone ready?” I ask. “Respond.”
“Yes, we understand,” they all say.
I raise my guns over my head and clap them together twice. “Watch your backs.”
In no time, we are surrounded. Their approach is quiet until they snarl and charge. We fight and shoot until our guns fire empty. It reminds me of being in Chicago when we were outnumbered by the undead.
A few Normals scream in terror as I punch a Zombie back far enough to snatch my knife from my pocket. I plunge it into the Zombie’s neck and sever the head from its body.
I hear a sound from the Normals. Not a good one.
Where is the general?
Their numbers are not reducing. I can’t leave to check on them. We fight the Zombies until our guns are empty. The heat has no impact on the Zombies, but Creations pant. These monsters are strong and stable.
Creations smash the Zombies’ heads with their guns. Brains and blood cover everyone. Fighting these things takes so long. In the time it takes to keep one down, another advances on us.
We aren’t prepared for this. A guy near me screams, and I’m sick. Shortly, we’ll be fighting Creation-made Zombies. Our team members.
“Luke,” I yell, ramming my gun into a Zombie’s head until its skull becomes mush.
“What?” he answers, sounding like he’s throwing a punch.
“We have to get out of here. We are losing, and they are going to start changing.”
“Plan?”
No. No, I don’t have a plan. Run. Get the ones who are left away from here and run to the nearest house, office, or hall.
Trucks screech to a stop, kicking up dust. Shots ring out, and it’s music to my ears. The Zombies drop like pouring rain. While I’m thrilled he’s come to our rescue, I want to ram my blood-smeared gun into the general’s head for just now showing up and for having so few guns available when he knows there may be a chance of a Zombie attack.
It’s quiet, but only for a second. Growling and the sharp sound of cracking bones alert me to something coming from behind us. I slowly turn around, taking in deep breaths of the scorching desert air. I raise my hand to my forehead, distressed and short of breath.
Three from my group are transforming and two from Luke’s. Their twins are standing over them, trying to heal them. Their efforts do nothing.
I clench my fists so tightly my knuckles go white. Looking them over, I know there’s no help. Joe and Anthony are both hurt, and they lie next to each other, holding hands. Neither of them is healing. Megan is kneeling on the ground next to Alex, holding his hand as he growls and his eyes turn red. Robert is the worst off. His lips are darkening, and his eyes are bloodshot. Edward nods, accepting he’s changing. He stands and turns to me.
I look to Jord, hand extended. He places the heavier gun on my palm. “They haven’t figured out any other options, sir?” I ask low.
“No.”
I nod, turning to Edward. He’s in front of me now. Edward surveys me with vibrant green eyes filled with hurt. “I’m sorry,” I tell him, handing him the gun.
He turns on his heels, head hanging low as he walks back to his brother’s side. He kneels beside him and whispers something in his ear. Robert snaps at Edward, and he jumps back, avoiding his bite. Edward’s chest swells as he stands, aims, and fires.
His brother goes limp.
Edward looks away from him and walks to me. His warm, brown skin is flushed red, and his chin is trembling. I open my hand for the gun, but he slams it against my chest. I catch it before it falls to the ground as he continues past me. I hold back the urge to punch him; his anger is with the situation, not with me, and for this moment, I will allow that disrespect. I look away from him when he runs off.
“Megan?” I call.
She shakes her head as she cries, rubbing her brother’s trembling head. He stares up at her, tears streaming from his eyes, the fear of death keeping him from blinking. Megan isn’t ready to do what must be done. I look at Joe and Anthony. Both are growling, and their limbs are jerking and crack as they fight the change. With them both being under, it’s up to me as their leader to end them.
I won’t draw this out. I won’t speak or give an apologetic face. This has always been a possibility since we found out about the Zombies. Approaching Joe and Anthony, I stand over their heads, aiming my gun between Joe’s eyes first. I fire. His head lifts from the ground, and it hits it, followed by his body going lifeless. Anthony’s next, doing the same.
Alex is getting unruly. “Megan,” I start. “If you can’t do this, I’ll do it for you,” I tell her, rubbing her shoulder.
“I can’t do it,” she cries.
“Someone, take her away,” I say, looking down at Alex. He finally closes his eyes.
Foster from Luke’s group picks Megan up from the ground and carries her away as she wails.
I liked Alex. He was nice and tried his best at everything. Aiming my gun at him, I remember his boyish voice saying, “We don’t suck rocks.” I shoot and turn away.
Luke and his group take care of their fallen soldiers too.
“You all can go,” I tell my group. “I know they were your friends and family, I’m sorry about what happened.” They walk off without replying.
“My team is dismissed as well,” Luke says, and they go too.
“Get someone to clean up the bodies,” Jord tells Seits. She leaves, calling the others. Those who came out of the trucks get back in them, and they drive away. “What happened?” Jord asks.
“It was an attack!” I snap. “The Zombies were here, and we all came out to defend our base, outnumbered and with no firearms.”
“Lower your tone, Ky,” Luke warns.
Lower my tone?! I lost three of my group members, and we aren’t even in a war! If we’d had the required firearms and all the Creations had been trained equally, this could have ended better.
“What happened to your units are unfortunate.” Jord looks back and forth
from Luke to me. “It’s about time for you all to wrap up for the lunch break. Get yourselves something to eat and meet me in my office. Tell everyone else the day is done.” He turns his back to us and heads off toward his office.
W-What? All we get is a “that’s it for now” and he walks away? I stifle the emotional imbalance passing through my heart and mind. My heart wants me to scream at the top of my lungs and shoot a round through his back, but my mind knows I must find an appropriate way to express the burn of anger that makes it feel like something is melting in my chest. At the moment, neither can I give in to.
I sulk all the way to the training room with Luke striding tall at my side, unfazed by the event. I must be broken. He’s so good at hiding his emotions, making it seem like nothing is bothering him. I want that. Losing four of my team members and knowing the distress put on the twins who are now, well, no longer twins. It’s kind of hard to fight the way I’m affected by it all. Their lifelines, only family, best friends are gone forever, and they will never be the same. They’re…normal. While Luke over here, even after losing two of his, hasn’t batted an eye.
I pull Luke to a halt, stopping on the dirt road a quarter mile to the training room, between the mess hall of the leaders and the lecture hall. I step in front of him and lift my gaze to his.
Luke squints and arches a brow. “What is it now, Ky?”
“How aren’t you affected by this?” I lift my shaky hand between us. “This is how angry I am.”
“Bury it, Ky. Bury it in a deep place, and when it’s time to see red, that’s when you let it go.” He walks around me and continues to the training room.
I sigh angrily, pursing my lips. If I bring up our parents or the Vojin, he blows a gasket. But this stuff? Nothing. After I revealed Jord possibly being in cahoots with Cory, he didn’t blink twice about that either, which makes me believe I’m being left out of a bigger puzzle.
I turn on my heels to follow him and look to the west, seeing a storm far in the distance over the mountains. The clouds are thick, hovering near the peaks, lightning striking between the two. I can’t hear the roar of the thunder, and the breeze doesn’t make it this far over. But the blur of the storm is clear. Much like what’s going on in my heart. So like Luke said, I bury it, muffling the roar of my thunder and just letting the rain pour inside me.
The Separation Trilogy Box Set: Books 1 -3 Page 40