The Girl Who Punched Back: The Death Fields

by Angel Lawson

  She used his DNA to build the vaccine.

  We’re fighting an entire army of Wyatts.

  I grip his arm to steady myself and he moves both hands to my waist.

  “I’m sorry,” he says again. The pain in his voice is too much to bear, but I can’t absolve him of this. No one can.

  “So do you want to tell them or should I?” I gesture to the group waiting outside.

  “Tell them what, exactly?”

  “That we’re screwed.”

  Chapter 21

  Wyatt assures me Davis has no clue about any of this and he’s solid. We can trust him. Same with Jude and Parker, all the new recruits were given EVI-1. Those given the second are being housed elsewhere.

  Davis asks about Walker before I get a chance. Wyatt confesses that he’s not so sure what she knows, which means from here on she’s out of the loop.

  Jude and Parker sit with dumbstruck faces as Wyatt, Cole, and I fill everyone in on the situation. Davis absorbs it all with the same calm façade as he always does. I understand more and more why Wyatt keeps him close.

  “An army?” Jude asks, clearly still processing the information. “An army of guys like you?”

  Wyatt nods.

  “I have no idea what we’re supposed to do with this information,” Parker says after a period of prolonged silence.

  “Run,” Jude says. He’s holding a gun in his lap and runs his finger up and down the smooth, black metal. “We should just run and hide.”

  Parker nods, clearly willing to make a break for it. I look at Cole but he’s staring at Wyatt. He’s not angry. He just looks tired.

  “You guys are welcome to go,” Wyatt says. “Go off the grid. It’s not a bad idea.”

  “But…” I prompt.

  “I can’t go with you. I’ve got to clean up this mess.”

  “How do you think you’re going to do that? There’s seven of us and we’re hiding out in a bunker, for God’s sake,” Cole says, rubbing his hair with his hands, making it shoot out in every direction. “I’m with those two. Let’s get out of here.”

  “Really?” I ask in a low voice. It’s what I wanted all along but he pushed back.

  “Yes.” He takes my hand, fingers lacing with mine. “I have to go back and get Chloe, but she’s mobile now. From there, we go. Hit the woods. Like he said—off the grid.”

  Parker’s face brightens. None of us are soldiers—proven by the fact Jane didn’t enlist us in her real army. The clinic is busy work to keep us away from her real motives.

  “Paul?” I ask Cole.

  “We’ll take him with us. He’s better, too.”

  “You in?” I ask Davis.

  He smiles but shakes his head. He is a real soldier. He’ll stick it out with Wyatt until the end.

  “Okay, then,” I detangle my hand from Cole’s and stand. “We need to figure out a way out of here and back to get Chloe. Any ideas?”

  I’m met with blank, overwhelmed faces until I catch sight of Wyatt, rubbing his freshly shaved chin. “I’ve got an idea.”

  “You’ll help us?” I ask, already feeling relieved.

  “I’ll get you out of here and into The Fort. After that, we split.” He nods at me. “Deal?”

  I grimace in return but say, “Deal.”

  *

  As much as we hated it, there was little choice but to give Paul a couple more days to recover. Wyatt left the bunker and explained to Walker that we were just being safe—keeping the possibility of exposure to a minimum. The story seemed flimsy, at best, but Walker trusted Wyatt.

  The rest of us held tight.

  In the meantime, we gathered whatever supplies we felt like we would need from the bunker’s stocked cabinets.

  “What about the others we brought from the school? Shouldn’t they be down here, too?” Parker asks about the three survivors in quarantine. We’re sorting first aid supplies and cans of food into piles on the counter. We can hear grunts from down the hall where Davis is working with Jude on his hand-to-hand.

  “There’s not enough room—and none had regained consciousness when we came down here. I think they’re better off with actual medical care,” I reply. “Wyatt says there hasn’t been much change, but hopefully if they’re better by the time we leave, we can bring them with us. I don’t think it’s safe for them to be here, you know?”

  “Let’s go over the plan again,” she says. “We’re waiting for a patrol group to head out and we’re going to slip through the gates with them.”

  I nod, stuffing a roll of toilet paper into one of the backpacks.

  “Then, we’ll head to the vehicle Cole has stashed about a mile away. Hop in that and go to The Fort.”

  “Yep, that’s the plan.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then Wyatt and Cole go in, get Chloe and come back out. They aren’t flagged or anything. None of us are. It shouldn’t be a problem other than making sure she can travel.” That’s where I had my doubts. And what came next. Where were we going? How would we get there?

  I’d spent the night before scouring a small book of maps I’d found in a drawer in the kitchen. It was outdated—five or so years old—but it gave me the general idea of the roads and towns surrounding Augusta. We needed to get far away, in as desolate of an area as possible. I’m thinking deep in the Appalachians.

  I hear footsteps down the hall and spot Cole. He waves me over and I zip up the backpack, leaving it on the counter.

  “I’ll be right back,” I tell Parker. I can feel her eyes following me down the hallway.

  “How’s he doing?” I ask, nodding at the back room.

  “Better,” he says. “Actually, I think he’s on the mend. He’s eaten the food I brought him and he just got in the shower.”

  “Oh thank God.” I wrinkle my nose. “It was getting a little intense in there.”

  Cole smiles and his hand settles on my hip. “He should be ready when it’s time to head out. I think he’ll be fine.”

  “You really think so?”

  He shrugs. “All signs of illness are gone, other than being tired and a little dehydrated. Both understandable things for any of us at this point.”

  I lean into the wall and say, “I’m glad you changed your mind about getting out of here. I can’t take my sister’s mind games any longer. She’s crazy—and freaking brilliant, and we’re just no match against her.”

  “The hybrid army is a problem,” he agrees. “I don’t see how we can stop them.”

  “Do you think Wyatt will really try?”

  A worry line slashes across his forehead and a wariness lurks in his eyes. “I think he’ll do what he has to.”

  “He feels responsible.”

  “Yeah, well, he should.”

  “Cole! He didn’t know she was farming his DNA to make replica soldiers! No more than I knew what you and my father were up to in the lab. If only you’d told me you were working on a vaccine I could have made different decisions.”

  “It’s not the same thing.”

  “No?” I ask.

  He drops his hand from my hip and runs this fingers through his hair. “No. You—“

  Heavy footsteps tramp down the stairs and Wyatt’s face appears in the dim light. Davis and Jude walk into the hallway and I feel Parker at my back.

  “We’ve got a problem,” Wyatt says, uncharacteristically out of breath.

  “What now?” Cole snaps.

  “Jane sent soldiers to the compound.”

  “What kind of soldiers?” I ask.

  He ignores me, instead leveling a hard look at me. “They’re looking for Paul.”

  Chapter 22

  A sinking feeling settles in the pit of my stomach. After a moment I ask, “How do they know he’s here?”

  “They’re not dumb. God knows what kind of Intel Jane has set up,” he snaps. It’s the most flustered I’ve seen him. “The simple fact she knows he’s alive means someone reported back.”

  Paul isn’t the only li
ability here. I glance at Cole and worry is etched on his face. My sister will take out anyone that stands in her way, and right now Paul and Cole are both a problem. They know too much. We all do.

  “How long do we have?” Davis asks.

  “They won’t wait long.”

  “They?”

  “I suspect her full army is just beyond view.”

  “Can’t we just wait it out down here?” Parker asks.

  Wyatt shakes his head. “You saw what happened to that school.”

  “You think they’d do that?” Jude asks from the doorway next to Davis. Sweat lines the top of his shirt from his workout. He looks between me and Wyatt for answers.

  I’m the one that replies.

  “Without a doubt. She’ll kill everyone, if that’s what it takes.”

  *

  Everyone packs quietly, gathering our gear and weapons. Cole fills in Paul once he gets out of the shower. I’m in my room, checking my backpack again, when Wyatt enters the room and closes the door behind him.

  “What’s going on?” I ask, trying to make my two extra pairs of socks magically smaller. I refuse to leave without them.

  “I just wanted to tell you one more time that I’m sorry you got dragged into this. I’ve made a lot of bad decisions over the last couple years, but involving you was the one I regret the most.”

  The apology makes me stop my packing and focus on the man in my room. He’s got a weird look in his eye, and I’m not sure where this is headed. “Look, if you hadn’t taken the job of following me around, Jane would have found someone else to do it. I’m glad it was you and not some creeper.”

  I think about the night we met, barrel to barrel in that old farm truck. I’d asked him if he planned on raping me. I can’t imagine what he thought about me in that moment.

  “I do have one question,” I say.

  “Okay.”

  “Are you sleeping with my sister?”

  A pained expression crosses his face. “Uh, no. Definitely not.”

  I look back down at my pack and simply say, “Huh.”

  “What?”

  I shrug. “I was just curious. And I mean, I guess I’m a little thankful, because she’s bat-shit, you know. But for future reference, if you need to use that in your favor, you can. She’s into you.”

  He frowns. “Into me?”

  “Stop being dense.”

  I fight with the zipper, struggling to get it closed. There’s a tiny gap that won’t connect and I freeze when I feel Wyatt’s arms circle around me and firmly finish the job. His breath is hot on my neck and I just don’t move. Not an inch.

  Softly, in my ear he says, “I’m well aware of Jane’s feelings for me. She’s not the Ramsey sister I have a hard time getting a read on.”

  Oh.

  “You’re right. I could have been given a worse assignment than a smart, beautiful, kick-ass fighter like you. Someone who challenges my thoughts and values. Hard-wired values I’d never thought would waver, even at the end of the world.”

  I wrap a shaky hand around the strap of my bag and try to squelch the feeling in my stomach and chest. His words come as a shock. A confusing, mind-bending shock. I feel his fingers on my neck, and he brushes the hair to the side, exposing the skin. I wait and he says, “You’re stronger than you realize, Alex. You can beat Jane and her army. Don’t forget that. You know her better than anyone.”

  I struggle for a reply but his heat is gone and when I turn, he’s left the room, door wide and empty.

  I sit on the bed, sinking into the mattress and mutter, “What the heck was that?”

  Chapter 23

  When I step into Paul’s room he still looks pale, with dark smudges under his eyes, but he’s clean. When I spot the familiar black backpack with the red patch below the zipper, I know he’s ready.

  “How crazy is all this?” I say, eyes lingering on his face. We’d bonded early in the crisis. He knew my mom—the mom she turned into after we went on the road. No one else shared that with me. Just him.

  “What? The bunker? Running away from a hybrid Eater-human army in the middle of the night? All of it?” he asks, folding a shirt into a tight square and shoving it into the depths of his bag.

  “Finding each other again.”

  “Oh, that.” He graces me with a quick grin. “I consider that one a miracle.”

  A miracle? As hard as it was to accept, it had a nice ring to it. “You ready to break out of this joint?”

  “I’ve been ready to get away from these people since I left you in that truck cab.” He runs his hands over his black hair. “Huge mistake. I don’t plan on doing that again.”

  “Let me know if you’re struggling, okay? We want to all get out of here. Everyone.”

  “Do you think that’s possible?” he asks.

  I watch as he slides his arms into his backpack, looking small under the weight. “Didn’t you tell me you knew how to hunt?”

  “Yep, I’m the country-Korean guy,” he says, and I can’t help but smile. It’s one of the first thing he told me and my mom.

  “If everything goes according to plan, we’ll settle up in the mountains and you can hunt for dinner every night. I’ll cook.”

  His forehead furrows. “You can cook?”

  “Okay, you cook. Cole is good with the cross-bow. He can cook.”

  His eyes glint with interest when I say Cole’s name. “So he’ll be coming.”

  I nod. “And his sister.”

  “Anyone else? That guy, Wyatt, maybe?” He says it in a quiet, curious voice.

  “Wyatt has bigger plans than hiding up in the woods for the rest of his life. He’s a soldier before anything else.” I move to the door, unwilling to talk about leaving anyone behind at this point. We just need to get through phase one of this plan in one piece—something my sister definitely plans on hindering.

  Paul grabs my hand and says, “Thanks for saving me, Alex.”

  “There’s one rule in the apocalypse, Paul. You taught me that.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Never separate. It won’t happen again.”

  We walk out of the room, the light blinking off behind us where we meet the rest of the team at the bottom of the stairs.

  “Ready?” Davis asks us, prepared to lead us out the same way he led us down here days ago. The plan is to meet Wyatt just outside the fence.

  Not one of us knows what to expect. We don’t know how we will get out of here or where this day will end, but one by one we follow him up the stairs, each of us apparently deadly enough for my sister to hunt down.

  Chapter 24

  The Vaccine Center is normally a quiet system of daily upkeep, incoming survivors, medical staff moving from building to building and guard patrols, keeping a clear watch over the fence. After the attack by the Eaters, no one wants to chance luring any of the remaining infected toward the base, so things adjusted to an ever lower tone. It’s not like we have the same ambient noise any longer. Vehicles are kept far from the area and the electricity the engineers rigged up is pretty futuristic.

  But when I stick my head out of the dark, hidden stairway, shielding my eyes from the glaring sunlight, the change is palpable. I can’t see anything at first, but even down one sense, it’s clear that the volume level hasn’t changed much. A coiled, increased energy courses through the compound. The Fighters up on the fence are on high alert, fingers on the trigger. The scientists, the few visible, walk with speedy purpose.

  It’s like they’re aware of being observed.

  Like their boss is nearby. Or maybe they sense her army lying in wait just outside the gate.

  My heart kicks into gear as my eyes adjust and I follow Davis quickly through the shrubbery, taking only a moment to glance back to see Jude carefully lowering and covering the shelter door.

  I feel a tug on my pack and see Paul wavering on his feet. “Stick with me,” I tell him, straightening my back. His grip tightens.

  We get to the edge of t
he main building and Davis says, “One at a time, head to that part of the fence.” He holds up a bronze key. “Behind the dumpster is a small gate. Unlock it and head for the woods.”

  “What if we don’t all make it out?” Parker asks.

  “If something happens, run and hide. Wyatt will find you. He’s already out there.”

  Jude volunteers to go first and he snatches the keys from Davis. He darts away from the building, shoulders back with calm confidence. By contrast, I hold my gun with clammy hands. I have no idea what I’ll do if I need to use it. These are humans we’re escaping from. People—civilians—I’ve come to know.

  Jude’s Fighter-issued backpack disappears behind the dumpster. We wait a beat. Then two.

  “Parker—go,” Davis says, in a hard, efficient voice.

  She moves quickly—faster than I thought. Our little team is coming together, and I breathe easier when she slips behind the dumpster to safety.

  “Alex, you go next,” Davis commands. Cole’s face is blank, hiding his worry.

  “What about Paul?” He’s still clinging to my back.

  “Cole will take him. Get ready.”

  I step away from the building but feel a hard, painful jerk against my back. My feet lift off the ground as I’m flung against something hard. It’s Davis’ chest. Damn. With his breath against my neck, I watch two Fighters cross the grounds not ten feet away. I press my back against him, trying to sink into the shadow of the building’s overhang. The men pass us by without notice.

  “Holy crap, that was close,” Cole says with an exhale.

  Davis releases his grip and shoves me in the direction of the dumpster, adding, “Take it slow—no running.”

  With my heart lodged in my throat it’s hard to take his advice, but I step off the sidewalk and into the grass. The dumpster isn’t far away. The camp itself isn’t massive.

  I’m feet away from the dumpster, the gate slightly ajar in view, when I hear my name called. I turn slowly and come face to face with Amber, the nurse. She walks my way carrying a container of garbage in her hands.