Born to Fight

by Brown, Tara

  My breath is heavy as I assess the situation.

  Only Leo and I can fight them. Everyone else risks exposure. I still don’t believe I'm immune, I can't help but feel like I should run.

  Jake comes out the front with the rifle.

  I walk back slowly, watching them shuffle towards me. One scream fills the air. I shudder.

  Will comes out the front door, snatching the rifle from Jake's hands. He tosses me a gun like I have never seen before. I shake my head, "You use this one." I pass it back and take my rifle. I site the first one in. They're moving quickly across the gravel to us.

  The sound of their crunching feet on the driveway is frightening. I pull the trigger and a body drops. Will does the same.

  "There's too many. You should go inside and lock the doors," I say.

  He shakes his head, "After you."

  I grit my teeth and pull it again. I drop the rifle and pull my bow and quiver again. I can shoot faster with arrows. Leo crouches and attacks to the far flank. He knows if we're shooting he needs to stay to a side.

  I drop two more and see a shape beside me. I glance over as Anna grabs the gun and starts shooting. The three of us have enough distance to kill them, plus the few Leo kills. The ones who weren’t killed properly twitch in the driveway, as the last one falls to the ground.

  Bernie comes out of the house with a mask and gloves and an odd-looking contraption. He walks up to the infected dead and shoots flames at them. Some scream or twitch. I gag when the smell of the cooking flesh hits me.

  "Leo."

  He lifts his head and looks at me. I slap my leg and walk to the side of the house. I pull the garden hose that I gave him water from the other day. He comes and lets me hose him off. Normally, I would find a water source and force him to have a bath, but this works. I spray chunks of skin and bone from him. The dark blood is harder to get off. He lifts his face and lets me clean his muzzle. We've been doing it since we were little, he knows the routine.

  I spray myself off and glance over at Will and Anna talking, "I'm going to shower and then I'm leaving."

  Anna scowls, "We should stay here for a while."

  I shake my head, "You're staying, I'm going."

  Her blue eyes light up with her stubborn fire. Her and Will make the same face. "I'm coming."

  I shake my head, "No. You're not coming. Most likely, I'll end up in a breeder farm. You definitely will. I can lie and say I'm twenty-eight—you can't. Will is older too. They won't breed us if they think we're older. We can look like professionals. Bernie is going to take us in, like he's on a food run." I've come up with the plan while I was sleeping for a whole day.

  Will nods, "That works."

  I give Jake a look too, "You and Anna will be safe here with Star and Bernie."

  Jake crosses his arms and leans against the doorway, "I don’t think this is a good idea for one, and for two, I can pass for twenty-eight far better than you can."

  I shrug, "Yeah, but you have sucky survival skills and you'll be a liability."

  His face tightens, "Whatever." He turns and leaves for the inside of the house.

  I walk after him, but grab the feet of the infected lady. I drag her out into the front yard. I walk back in, grabbing the feet of the guy, and do the same thing. I look under the sink for cleaner.

  "What are you looking for?" Star asks.

  I turn back to her, "Bleach."

  She walks past me and into a doorway. She comes back, seconds later with a huge jug. I pour it onto the stone floor and start cleaning the greenish blood from the floor.

  She grabs rags and starts helping.

  "You should have a mask," I say.

  "I'm immune," she mutters.

  Instantly I feel sick. I look up, "What?"

  She nods, "I can't get it. I'm like you. It's how I knew Marshall was right about you."

  The reality of it all starts to hit, "How old are you?"

  She swallows hard, "same age as you."

  I frown, "What?"

  She nods, "We have the same dad, I guess."

  I don’t want it to, but it changes everything. She is instantly part of my ‘us’. "Your mom?"

  She nods, "Yeah. She wanted a baby and there was a fertility clinic. My dad was older, he couldn’t have kids easily. She went for treatments and got pregnant. The man she was with died and she met Bernie's dad. He became my dad. I thought I was his, but Bernie told me the truth a few years ago. We noticed the differences." She flashes a scar on the underside of her arm, "And I got bit."

  I gasp, "You were bit?"

  She nods, "Yeah. Bernie figured it out. It changed everything for him. He stopped working in the city so much, moved out here where he had the house off the grid anyway."

  I had assumed it was the rape of Star that changed everything.

  Her face lightens, "You know it doesn’t matter who our dad was. Bernie's dad raised me, he was sweet and kind and he loved me. My dad from before Bernie's dad, was a sweet man too. That’s the people that matter. The man in the science lab doesn’t matter."

  I scowl, "Why did Marshall let you stay but kick me out?"

  She grins, "I hide my mutant blood better than you do. He never knew. But when he turned you out, I left, just in case."

  "You heal fast?"

  She nods, "And I run fast. And I'm strong."

  I snicker, "You hit like a girl."

  She sticks her tongue out, "I blend."

  I feel a cold shiver and wipe up more of the dirty bleached goo off the floor.

  Bernie walks in, stinking of cooked, rotten flesh. He grins, "You girls having a chat?"

  I narrow my gaze.

  He grins like a fool, "Small world, huh?"

  I don’t know what that means. I look back at the floor and clean.

  "Emma, I am coming too. You are not leaving me here," Anna comes storming into the kitchen.

  I see something in the corner of my eye and am up fast. I grab her arm and hold it out, "What's this?"

  She looks down at the greenish goo and red blood on her arm.

  "Its their blood? I fought with one in the yard before we made it inside. I'm going to wash it now."

  I close my eyes, "They don’t have red blood, Anna."

  I hear Will's footsteps, "What's going on?"

  "She's got a cut with infected blood all over it," I mutter and pull her to the sink.

  Will crosses the floor fast. He grabs her arm and holds it out, "For fuck's sake, Anna. What is this?"

  Her lip trembles but her eyes stay hard and focused, "I didn…didn't know."

  "Pour the bleach on it," Star nods at the huge jug.

  I look at her and Bernie and wish it were one of them. Bernie nods, "We can wash the cut with bleach but wiping the infected blood might force it into the wound."

  My hands tremble when I hold her arm out. Will's tremble equally as he lifts the huge jug. Anna's eyes glisten, "If I get sick, you kill me, okay? I don’t want to wander around killing things."

  I shake my head, "We'll find a cure."

  Will looks like he might just tear the arm off. He barks at me, "Hold it over the sink!"

  I drag her arm over the metal sink. He looks at her, "This is gonna sting."

  She bites down hard and nods. He pours it and she starts screaming.

  I feel my own body reacting, like it's happening to me too. I'm clenched and scared and shaking with her arm. I hold it out as he wipes with a clean rag. The green goo is gone, and in its place, is a whitened, deep gash. The edges of it start to look like cooked chicken. She writhes in agony.

  He pours once more and wipes again. I turn on the tap and pour cold water over the wound. Bernie passes me soap. I wash my hands first and then the bleached wound. It feels toughened and hard. We've scarred her arm brutally.

  Tears stream down her cheeks, as she sniffles and sucks in her air in jagged breaths. Will washes his hands and wraps his arms around her.

  "Emma, come clean her in the shower now!"
he barks again.

  I follow.

  Jake follows too. He looks sick. I imagine we all look the same.

  Will leaves her in the bathroom with me and a plastic bag, "All clothes in the bag."

  I rip mine off first and then hers. I start the shower and drag her in. She is still crying and holding her arm.

  "I'm gonna get sick and die, Em," she whispers though the tears. I haven't seen her like this since the front door of my cabin.

  I make lather with the soap and clean my whole body. The lye soap stings against my skin. I rinse and make the lather. I scrub her body like I would Leo. I don’t think about the fact, I'm touching another person. I think about saving my family.

  I wash her hair and pick the tangles with the conditioner. It’s the same stuff as at the breeder farms. It's disturbing how much I like the familiar smell.

  We stand under the water in silence. She glances up at me and shakes her head, "You don’t let me infect them. You kill me. You swear to me now."

  I nod, "I swear." The sick part is, I do. I would kill her if I had to. I would kill anyone, except Leo. I know I couldn’t ever kill him.

  Chapter eleven

  The dusty road we take isn’t like the one we came in on. It’s a back road with no broken down cars or burned-out vehicles, that have become giant planters.

  "The city is not like anything you've seen before. People live without engaging each other too much. They don’t really speak to one another on a deep level, it's fake and functional. They're pleasant, overly pleasant. Everyone is afraid of everyone else, like they will be turned in to the officials. If you break one of the five laws, you are either sent to a work farm or sent to the borderlands.

  I frown, "What's wrong with the borderlands?"

  He looks at me in the rearview, "I will bet living in the borderlands was hard, even for you, in the beginning?"

  I nod, "I was ten. Don’t get me wrong, your shower is amazing and having food so easy is too. But wasn’t that, all the stuff that brought us down in the first place? Why aren’t we trying to rebuild and be simple? They should be grateful to go to the borderlands and discover the true meaning of rebuilding the world."

  He shrugs, "Well, imagine it's the beginning for you all over again. These people have lived a cushy life for a while. Most of them never leave the cities, except to work in the breeder farms. They believe that they're trying to make a difference. They believe that the only way to save humanity, is to breed out the sickness and disease, by breeding people of superior quality. They believe they are the best of the best quality people. Most of them see the sickness of greed, disease, and war mongering as the evils that existed."

  I cock an eyebrow, "Why don’t they breed themselves and just stay in their perfect city then, and leave the rest of us alone?"

  He nods, "Oh they will. They are starting to rebuild society. There is controlled breeding within marriages now."

  I shake my head, "I don’t understand why they still keep the breeder farms open then?"

  His eyes dull, "He's obsessed with perfect people. He wants to build an army of perfect people to protect the future from ever becoming the decayed society, we once were. People like you and Star who don’t need a lot to live, who never get sick and need treatments. Me, Jake, Anna, and Will will probably get cancer one day from the fallout. Most people will. The soil, water and air were all polluted. We will get cancer. It's inevitable. We've all made the mistake of eating things people find or grow and drinking water from contaminated wells. The borderlands are worse than anywhere else. There isn’t a lot of healthy food. The retreats and camps are better than the towns. The towns are really bad."

  I nod, "You sound like my dad."

  He raises his eyebrows, "He probably knew a lot about the conspiracies. I guarantee he knew about you and what his brother did. It's all very disturbing. It probably tainted your dad, made him crazy and obsessed. I know I have moments. Some things disturb me. You know why the breeders are killed off? ‘Cause they get sick after three breeder babies. They can only ever have three at a max. The babies are designed to take everything from the mother, like a parasite in a host. It makes a very healthy baby but leaves the mom weak. By the third pregnancy, those women are dying, they just don’t know it."

  I look up at Will. He bites his lip and looks away from me.

  "If we stop the breeder farms and destroy the work camps, what are the odds people will just go back to normal?" I ask after a minute.

  He shakes his dark head, "I don’t know, Emma. There are a lot of believers. They did have a tough time in the very beginning. They did live a rough life in the start."

  "What about the people who don’t believe?"

  Will turns and looks at me, "We lived amongst them at the camps. Those are the non-believers. They don’t believe in the breeder farms or the work camps. Most of the scientists I encountered, hated it. They saw the unnatural selection it all was."

  I don’t get it. I process it and shake my head, "No. The people in the camps didn’t even know how the breeder farms worked, until we discovered the girls were dying."

  Will sighs, "Yeah, but they knew the breeders existed and disagreed. I'm sure Marshall knew all along, you can't tell me, he didn’t."

  I make a face, "The cities must know how it all works. They work the farms."

  Bernie nods, "Most people know how the work camps and farms function. They probably would disagree if it was their family members, but it's dirty borderlanders. They believe— they believe it's for the greater good."

  I cross my arms and lean against Leo. He pants and watches me get further annoyed. I twitch my foot. I still haven’t worked out how Leo can come with me. He refused to stay with Anna, even after I shouted at him. He isn’t even holding a grudge, which normally he would. He hates being shouted at.

  I nuzzle my face into his fur and take in deep breaths. He smells like the forest still, somehow. If I close my eyes, I can feel the trees against me.

  Will grabs my arm, "You have to be civilized."

  I scowl, "I can do that just fine."

  He gives me a look that makes my cheeks blush, "Em."

  I chew my lip and then sigh, "I think I can. I remember when I was a girl and Granny would swat me for saying rude things and being mean. She was always swatting after me. When her friends were there, I was to be seen and not heard. I was to cross my legs nicely and not chew with my mouth open." My brain almost hurts trying to remember the many rules she gave me. "Uhm, she said I had to keep my elbows off the table, not bring animals in the house, always flush when I was done, and always wash my hands." I tap my fingers against my legs and point at him as a smile breaks across my lips, "Not to interrupt people when they were talking, with stupid thoughts that could have waited till they were done."

  He looks at Bernie and both of them burst into laughter.

  I scowl, "What?"

  Will shakes his head, "You were just a little savage weren’t you, even before the world ended."

  I cross my arms and lean back into Leo, "No. I watched Days of Our Lives with Granny and read her books. She liked Dean something and Stephen something and V.C. something. Her favorite was a highlander romance series about a guy named Jamie and a lady named Claire. It was sad." My cheeks heat up as I recall the details of that book. They have stayed with me forever. "Diana Gabaldon. I won't ever forget her name." I can't help but wish Will was more like the Jamie guy. He was perfect.

  Bernie gives me a worried look in the rearview mirror, "You read those books when you were ten?"

  I nod, "And eleven and twelve and thirteen. She left bags of books at the cabin. She read when she was there. Nothing else to do. They never hooked it up to electricity. Dad insisted it stay off the grid, like you."

  He smiles, "You were born for this weren’t you?"

  I shrug and look out the window. I have a feeling they're laughing at me, even if they aren’t laughing out loud.

  "She was born to fight. Look at the scowl on
that face," Will points back at me.

  I laugh and shake my head, "You're a jerk."

  "Emma, seriously though, you need to behave. One slip up will ruin the whole thing."

  I glare at Bernie, "I know that. I'm not an idiot. I know Anna is at risk. I saw the gash this morning." I think about the sweaty feel to her skin and fight the ache in my heart. Her situation is making our trip to the city a two-part excursion.

  My stomach stays a ball of nerves as we approach. I don’t see anything different, until we round a corner and I see the white tips of something rising above the trees. It glistens in the sun.

  "There it is."

  A shiver creeps up my back as I lean forward and point, "Stop here."

  He looks confused but pulls over. I open the door and look at Leo, "You know the drill, okay?"

  He stretches and jumps from the back of the big truck. Leo stands on his back legs and puts his front paws around my neck. I hug him and whisper into his fur, "Stay away from the people, okay? I'll whistle if I need you." I run my fingers through his fur extra. I need to get the extra touches to stock pile them in my memory.

  "I love you, Leo."

  He makes his purring sound and hops down. He looks at Will, then me, and runs off into the woods. I see him darting towards the city. My guts burn. I don’t want him to be here.

  I ignore the feeling and get back inside.

  "He'll be fine," Will puts a hand on my leg. I move away from his grip, "He shoulda stayed behind. He's stubborn as shit."

  My hands start to sweat as we near the city. The clean pants and t-shirt itch. They were fresh from a package. Never washed or worn. I don’t like them. They don’t even fit right, but Bernie says everyone wears free-flowing clothes, too tight stores toxins in the body.

  The linen pants and shirt feel nice in the summer heat though. Only my hands are sweaty and that’s not from the heat. I drag them up and down my pants. I wish I had my bow. Clutching that would make me feel a whole lot better.