“I’m not sure who looks worse,” Lou said from his bed. He wore a weak smile.
I leaned against the door frame. “I haven’t checked myself in a mirror yet, but I’m pretty sure it’s me. Everyone keeps telling me how horrible I look.”
“At least they’re being honest with you,” Lou said. “Everyone’s sugar coating how I look. If I look as bad as I feel, I know it can’t be good.”
“They’re just trying to be nice,” I said with a shrug. “You’re a kind person. I, on the other hand, can be a brat, so they don’t have any problem telling me the truth.”
Lou tried to laugh, but a cough came out instead. He looked a lot worse than when I left. “You speak up for yourself. I think that’s a good thing.” He put his head down. “I wish I was like that.”
“You can be,” I said. He looked up at me, surprise in his eyes. “You just have to demand it.”
“Well, then I demand you tell me the truth about my condition,” Lou said, his face serious. “How much longer do I have?”
I threw up my hands. “Hey, I just got back, so I have no idea. You’ll have to ask Marie.”
I saw Marie down the hall, so I called out to her. “Hey, Marie! Lou needs you.” Giving Lou a wink, I left his room.
“I still need to evaluate you,” Marie said as she passed me in the hall.
“I’ll be in Dee’s room,” I said.
Right when I entered Dee’s room, Marie yelled out from Lou’s room. “Dang it, Emmie!”
I smiled as I sat down in the chair next to Dee’s bed. Dee looked at me, her eyebrows raised. “Well, don’t you look beautiful, my dear Emmie.”
I took her hand in mine. “Oh, I missed you dearly.”
“I get that a lot,” she said, crossing her feet at her ankles. “So, who do I need to eliminate for doing that to you?”
“Do you have to ask?” I smiled at her. “But I’m not letting you take her out. I want the satisfaction of doing it.”
Dee shook her head. “You need to learn to share, Emmie. You can’t have all the glory.”
“I’ll tell you what. When I get the honor of ending her, I’ll throw in a few punches for you.”
“Make them good and hard. A nice sucker punch would be good.”
I raised my eyebrows. “What do you know about sucker punches?”
She smiled. “Rosie Mendes has been visiting me daily. I absolutely adore her. Do you know they fight for fun in Scorpion?”
“So, I’ve heard.”
She squeezed my hand. “We have three major things to talk about. Let’s start with Eric.” She took her hand from mine and ran it through my hair. “You must be in pieces.”
“A billion,” I said, frowning. “It’s killing me being here and not being able to do anything about it. I can’t stomach the thought of never seeing him again.”
Dee gasped. “Where’s your necklace?”
I reached up to where it should’ve been. “I lost it during the fight.”
“Oh, Emmie,” she said, stroking my cheek.
“He’ll just have to make me a new one when I see him again,” I said, forcing a smile.
“Do you have a plan to get him back?”
I sighed. “Not yet. There’s a bigger issue now that is unfortunately going to put rescuing Eric on the back burner.”
“The second major thing to talk about,” Dee said.
I noticed for the first time since entering the room that she looked a little worse than when I left. I pushed the thought from my mind.
“We’re going to be attacked.”
She nodded. “And soon from what I hear.” A small smile came to her face. “You know, that’s one good thing about being in here. Rosie likes to eavesdrop on her dad and President Brown’s conversations. Then she likes to report everything she hears to me when she comes and visits.”
“I need to meet this Rosie,” I said. She sounded a lot like me.
Dee must have read my thoughts like she always does. “She’s a mini Emmie.”
“I just hope we can come up with a good strategy before the soldiers from Juniper get here.”
“When are you going to talk about it?”
I looked at my wristwatch. “In a few minutes. I have to go back to Maya’s room.”
“Seriously, Emmie?” Marie said, storming into the room. “Why did you do that to me? I had to look that boy in the eye and tell him he didn’t have much longer.” She turned my chair so I could face her. She wiped the blood from my nose, not being the slightest bit gentle.
“Ouch,” I said, trying to swat her hand away.
Marie smacked my hand out of her way. “You’re a brat, you know that?”
I tried to nod, but she held onto my chin firmly so I couldn’t move my head. “I know. But he wanted to know the truth.”
“He didn’t need to know the truth,” Marie said.
“Yes, he did,” Dee said. Marie and I both looked over at her. “You don’t know what it’s like being in our position. Everyone tries to avoid being honest with us when that’s all we want. Let us know so we can start processing the information.”
Marie turned my face back toward her and started bandaging my nose. “Well, it sucks to be the one to have to tell you. It’s a horrible feeling.”
“It’s your job,” I said.
Marie looked me in the eye. “A job I was forced to go into because I’m good at it.”
For some reason, I was surprised to hear Marie say that. “You didn’t want to be a nurse?”
“I did and didn’t,” Marie said. “Look, I love being able to help people. I love all the research I’m able to do. Alexander has been so helpful and having Dr. Stacey here is going to be amazing. He’s a smart man. I think the three of us together might solve this.” She finished taping my nose and stood up straight. “But having to look at Dee and Lou day in and day out is draining on a person. It’s the part of the job I hate. But this is the job Infinity Corp gave me, so here I am.”
“I’m going to ignore the fact that you just stated that looking at me daily isn’t having the grand effect it normally has on people,” Dee said, “and let you know that you’re amazing at your job and I’m glad you’re the one helping me out.”
Marie smiled. “Thanks, Dee.” She shook her head. “This part makes it even worse. The two people who are sick are the two sweetest people on the planet. You’re both nice to me, which helps, but then it pisses me off at the same time because this shouldn’t be happening to you.” Her smile twisted a little. “Now, if it was Amber sitting in that bed …”
“We’d being having a party in the next room,” I finished for her. Marie and Dee laughed. I looked at my watch. “Oh, I should probably get back there.”
Dee grabbed my arm. “But major issue number three!”
“Which is?” I asked.
“Um, hello,” Dee said, tilting her head. “My future husband. Did you find him?”
I wiggled my eyebrows. “Actually, I might have.”
Dee’s eyes went wide. “Really? Are you being serious?”
I nodded.
Dee sat up tall in her bed. “Okay, what’s his name? What does he look like? How tall is he? What color is his hair? What’s his smile like? Does he have good hygiene? Do you think he’ll want a big family? I’ve always wanted a lot of kids.” She stroked her chin, deep in thought. “Does he like brunettes? One a scale of one to ten, how cute are our kids going to be? Alright, tell the truth right here and now. How hot is he? I know looks shouldn’t matter, but let’s be honest, they do. How can you be with someone you’re not attracted to?”
Marie and I couldn’t contain our laughter.
Dee folded her arms in protest. “I’m being serious right now! These are important things to know.” She took in a deep breath. “Oh, no, this isn’t good. He can’t see me like this. I look terrible.” She looked at me, her eyes pleading. “Will you let him know that I usually look better? You know, more color in my skin, more meat on my bones.”
I leaned in and kissed Dee on her cheek before I stood. “I love you buckets full. He’s going to like you, no matter what.”
Dee nodded. “I guess if we’re going to be married, he’ll have to accept me looking terrible sometimes. I mean, I know I’m stunning, but a girl can’t look perfect all the time.”
I tugged on one of her curls. “But you always do.” I walked to the door and then turned around. “His name is Will Sanders.”
“Will,” Dee said. “I like that name. Dee Sanders. My heavens, it works.”
I smiled to myself as I walked back to Maya’s room. Marie, Dr. Stacey, and Alexander needed to find a cure, and soon. I needed my daily dose of Dee if I was going to survive myself.
Maya was sitting up tall in her bed, the chair where Bruce sat before now filled by Mack. So, Maya won the argument.
“She smiles,” Dante said when I entered the room.
President Brown, Vice President Mendes, Santiago, and Terrance were all seated. I took my seat between Dante and Maya, giving Dante a little smack on the head as I sat down. It felt good to hit someone. I normally hit my half-brother Derek daily, but I hadn’t seen him in weeks.
“We need to get started,” Mack said. “We don’t know how much time we have until they get here.”
“Tina and Javier are on guard duty right now,” Terrance said. “We’re going to have at least two people up in the tower every day until they come.”
“What kind of weapons will they have?” Dante asked Maya.
“Swords,” Maya said. “That’s the only weapons we had.”
Mack nodded. “That will give us a small advantage. We have guns and bows and arrows which we can use to stop as many as we can from even getting in.”
“I think it’ll be best to push them back.” Terrance rubbed his head. “We need to avoid them getting into the city if we can. The more we can stop them in the canyon, the better.”
“Do you think we’ll have time to construct some more towers to shoot from before they get here?” Santiago asked. “I think that would help. We need to be higher up.”
President Brown nodded in agreement. “Let’s have Archie draw something up and get started on that. We’ll need as many citizens helping him out as we can.”
“We need to focus on training the new arrivals,” Mack said. “Everyone needs to be able to shoot a gun and fire an arrow.”
“Who are we going to have fight?” Stretching my legs out, I crossed my feet at my ankles.
“Anyone over fourteen who are willing and able,” Terrance said.
“What are we going to do with the children?” Maya asked. I wondered the same thing.
“We’ll keep them deep in Headquarters, back in the infirmary,” Vice President Mendes said. “The enemy would have to fight their way all through the city and break into Headquarters before they could get to them. We need to stop them before that happens.”
“How many soldiers are we talking about?” I asked Maya. “Will a lot be coming?”
Maya nodded. “I think so. The vice president had an army put together of about five thousand.”
My heart stopped. “There’s that many?” I shook my head in disbelief. “We only have a little less than five hundred residents, some of whom are children.”
“He’s sending half of them first,” Maya said. That didn’t make it any better. “If that doesn’t completely wipe us out, he’ll send the rest. They were planning on leaving about a week or two after we left, but with our escape, I’m sure the vice president sent them sooner so we wouldn’t have a lot of time to prepare.”
Wipe us out. Hearing that sent a chill through my body. With twenty-five hundred of them and less than five hundred to fight for us, it was highly possible that we’d be wiped out in a matter of minutes.
Santiago whistled. “This is going to be wild, man. You think we can pull this off?”
“We don’t have any other option,” President Brown said with a grave look on his face. “We have to stop them.”
The corner of Mack’s mouth turned up a little, his version of a smile. “I have a few fun surprises for them that will help us out.”
Dante rubbed his hands together. “I love surprises. What kind?”
“Grenades.” Mack sat back in his chair. “A couple of rocket launchers, too. Have a pair of men up in the tower firing those things and you’ll take out multiple soldiers with each hit.”
“Can I please be one of those men?” Santiago asked, sitting on the edge of his chair. “Pretty please?”
Mack nodded. “Of course.”
Santiago clapped his hands together. “Now I’m excited about this.”
“Well, if he gets a rocket launcher, I’m freaking lighting my arrows on fire,” Dante said, his eyes eager.
“That’ll leave me and Maya on the front line.” I looked at Maya. “Do you think you can fight? We’ll need your sword expertise.”
Maya rubbed her leg. “Yes. I have to.”
“Can you help train our members?” Terrance asked Maya.
“Sure. Bruce can help, too. He has excellent swordsmanship.” She smiled, running a finger over the sword charm on her bracelet. “Not as good as me, but he’s decent.” When she caught me staring at all her charms, her smile grew. “Every year on my birthday, my parents would give me a charm of something I mastered that year.” She pointed to the sword. “I got this one when I turned nine.”
Dante elbowed me. “We just need to make sure Emmie has as many magazines on her as she can for her handgun. She can just fire those babies off like breathing air.”
“What about ammo?” I asked, nudging Dante back. “How much do we have? All of our guns won’t do any good if there’s no ammo.”
“We brought a ton of shotgun shells from Scorpion,” Santiago said. “We loaded up about fifty cases into the truck before we left.”
“I retrieved a lot of ammo for our rifles, shotguns, and handguns from River Springs.” Mack gave a small smile as he shook his head. “Everyone thought I was crazy for loading up half a bus with just ammo, but we needed that more than anything.”
“What about the grenades and rocket launchers?” Dante asked.
Mack scratched the back of his head. “We have around a hundred grenades. As for the rockets, they were harder to get my hands on. Plus, we didn’t have much stored in River Springs anyway. I think I ended up with ten.”
Santiago frowned. “I only get to set that baby off five times? That’s going to be the shortest relationship I’ve ever had.” He smirked. “Oh wait, the second shortest.”
Dante's eyes lit up. “I’m going to need to hear that story.”
“Oh, it’s hot,” Santiago said, his smile mischievous.
Mack looked somber as he spoke. “We need to remember this is no laughing matter.” He looked at Dante and Santiago. “We have to take this seriously. We’re going to be outnumbered six to one and we have a limited supply of ammo. Even in our best-case scenario, a lot of people are going to die.”
“Mack’s right,” President Brown said. “The outcome of this battle will be horrendous.” The room went silent for a minute, all of us soaking in the information. After a while, the president cleared his throat. “We can have Archie get to work on making arrows. I’ll have him get as many helpers as he can from Kingsland who know what to do.”
“Alright, President Brown and Vice President Mendes do you mind working up an attack plan for us?” Mack asked.
“Sure,” President Brown said. Vice President Mendes nodded in agreement.
Mack sat forward. “Terrance and I will round up everyone that can fight. We’ll split everyone into groups and have them rotate through different training instructors. Dante, Vivica, and Terrance can teach archery. Santiago, Emmie, and I will teach them how to use a gun. Let’s have Fernando, Javier, and Tina teach self-defense and fighting techniques in case it comes down to bare-knuckle fighting. I’ll have Gideon walk between each group, taking note of who’s good at what s
o we know where to put people when the time comes.” Mack looked at Maya. “How many swords were you able to bring with you?”
“I think we have about twenty in all,” Maya said as she ran her hand over her spiked hair.
Mack nodded. “We’ll have Maya and Bruce teach the residents how to wield a sword. We don’t have much to work with, but we’ll acquire more swords as we kill the enemy.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Terrance said as he stood. “Let’s get to work.”
I put my hand on Dante’s arm, holding him from getting up. Glancing over at Santiago, I waited until he made eye contact with me and then mouthed, “Stay.” Once everyone else was out of the room, I talked with my fellow revolutionaries.
“What’s up, Emmie?” Dante asked.
“I had an interesting chat with Joshua Randall on the way back to New Haven.”
“Who’s that?” Maya asked.
I sat back in my chair, touching my nose. It still ached. “My half-brother and the son of the president of Infinity Corp.”
“Are you sure we can trust this guy?” Santiago asked. “You’ve talked about President Randall like he’s El Diablo himself and now we’re just supposed to trust his son?”
I laughed. “I know, it’s crazy. I’m not even sure yet if we can trust him, but I’m going to for now since Austin vouched for him.” I wasn’t sure if I should bring this up since I hadn’t had a chance to talk to Joshua yet, but the impending battle changed everything. “He brought a lie detector test with him.”
Dante folded his arms. “A lie detector test?”
I nodded as I pulled my legs in, tucking them under the chair. “It’s a machine that can tell if you’re lying or not. I think we need to use it on all of the New Haven residents.”
Maya raised her eyebrows. “All of them?”
“All of them,” I said. “We’re about to go to war. We need to know who we can fully trust. All our lives are on the line and the last thing we need is someone turning on us. We obviously have a leak from River Springs.”
“You think so?” Maya asked.
“They knew we were coming,” I said. The scene replayed in my mind, making me cringe. “That ambush was staged.”
Reckoning (New Haven Book 2) Page 8