by Angel Lawson
*
I barely remember landing, following the soldiers across a wide strip of pavement or being led down the long corridors to the barracks. We’re pointed toward dormitories and file in.
In the dim room, Parker does ask in a quiet shell-shocked voice, “Are you sure this is safe?” and I recall telling her that we’re fine and to go to sleep. What I don’t tell her, as I drift off with my cheek on a scratchy blanket, is that I have no idea what Erwin wants us for. I do have a couple guesses.
I wake with a pounding headache and expectations of finding the door locked but to my surprise it isn’t. There are clean towels on the small metal desk against the wall and clean clothes stacked on the chair. Parker is already awake and other than the missing clump of hair, looking much better than the night before. “I peeked down the hallway. There’s a functional shower and bathroom at the end.”
I look down at my hands coated in blood, dirt and grime. My pants have a tear in the thigh and I don’t have to raise my arm to know how absolutely horrific I smell. “I don’t even care if the water is cold.”
We shower quick and quietly. I can’t be sure we’re not being watched, and my sense of paranoia rises when I step out of the stall to find two sets of boots waiting by the bench by the camouflaged uniforms.
I sigh at the green and gray material.
“What?” Parker asks, buttoning her shirt.
“A lot of things turned out differently than I expected and I’m dealing with it, you know? Like sure, I’m not going to college. I’ll never go to a football game or watch Duke play in the Final Four or you know, get into med school. There’s no way I’ll ever get that Mini Cooper I dreamed about buying. But wearing drab military uniforms and constantly being on one “team” or the other is a whole other level of my life has gone off the rails.”
Parker stares at me like I’ve lost my mind, which is fair as I’ve definitely lost my mind. “At least we have clean clothes.”
“Yeah.” I pull on a white T-shirt and tie my shirt around my waist. Just before we leave the room I glance at my face in the mirror.
“Holy crap, Park! You didn’t tell me it was so bad,” I say, wincing at the sight of myself in the mirror. Both eyes are blackened from hitting the tree root in the fight with the Hybrids. My nose is swollen and puffy.
“I didn’t think you’d really want to know.”
When we exit the room Cole waits for us outside the door fresh and squeaky clean from his own shower. His blue eyes widen when he sees my face but he quickly rearranges it into something more appropriate. Too late.
“I know. It’s awful.”
He touches my cheek, gentle and soft. “How does it feel?”
“Like I landed on a tree stump with my face.”
“Ouch.” He kisses my temple.
I brush the damp blond hair away from his eyes. “How did you sleep?”
“Fair enough. You?”
I nod and say quietly, “Are you okay? You know, with the whole Chloe thing?”
“No, I’m not really okay with it.” His jaw tics. “It’s a lot to take in.”
“We’ll figure it out.”
“With Erwin?” he asks. Neither of us want to get into it with Erwin again, not after last time.
“If we have to. At some point we’re going to have to go bigger to deal with this. We can’t beat my sister and all her resources with six rouge Fighters, none of which have much experience.”
A guard—or soldier—they may be the same thing, waits for us at the end of the hall. The others file out of their rooms and I give Davis a smile. He greets me with a warm smile—we’ve become close over the last couple of months. I don’t know his full story but he’s the best soldier I know after Wyatt. He’s big and burly, sort of like what you’d think a Marine would look like. Rambo or the Hulk, but not green. He has dark hair and watchful eyes that are currently still watching Paul closely even though he seems normal enough today after his display of heroics last night. Maybe it was just one of those bizarre adrenaline spikes last night.
Maybe pigs can fly, right?
I tug Davis on the sleeve and he slows. I ask the question that’s been building for hours. “So what’s the deal with that?” I ask gesturing carefully at Paul.
“So you saw that last night.”
“Uh, yeah. He saved my life. I was one second from being Eater dinner, but let’s be clear, the Paul I knew could not do that.”
Davis nods. “Do you think he’s one of them? A Hybrid?”
“God knows what my sister did to him. I know he was pumped up with a half a dozen vaccine combos over the last couple of months. He may be hybrid of a Hybrid for all I know.”
Davis looks thoughtful at that idea. “I’ll keep an eye on him. If he steps out of line I’ll take him out.”
“You think you can beat him?”
He doesn’t acknowledge that statement. I continue to keep pace with him and he says, “Something else?”
“Where do you think Wyatt went last night? One minute he was there—the next—gone.”
He shakes his head. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
Everyone heads up the stairs. Jude and Parker talk to one another and we follow, passing a blank faced guard. We’re in the echo-y stairwell when I stop Davis. “Can I ask you something else?”
He pauses, a look of concern on his face. “Sure? What is it?”
“Do you trust him?”
His eyebrows furrow together. “Who?”
“Wyatt.”
I expect him to say yes. To reassure me. But instead he thinks for a moment before saying, “Wyatt is very good at his job. He’s a stickler about meeting expectations. He always completes the assignment.”
“What’s his assignment?” Other than protecting me.
He lifts an eyebrow. “That’s a question I can’t answer.”
“Because you know and can’t tell or because you actually don’t know?”
“I don’t know anything, Alex. I promise.” He may not know but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t suspect something.
Great. That makes two of us.
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Acknowledgements
Thank you to everyone that had faith in my little book The Girl Who Shot First. As many of you know it was originally written as the book Zocopalypse and released under a small publisher that no longer exists. Even though that situation didn’t work out I knew I wanted to continue Alexandra’s story and as I started writing the second book I thought it would be a two book series. It took me months and months to focus on this book (I blame the 2016 election, tbh) and as I got to the end of the first draft I knew the story wasn’t over—not by a long shot (Bazinga!) I figured I could try to squeeze in the rest of the story in the second installment or, I could cut it a little short at a natural stopping point and start on book 3. That led to book 4 and now I’m in the middle of book 5 and a 6th book is planned too.
I need to thank a couple people and groups for sticking with me during this. Author Lisa Swallow talked me through so many things getting this book off the ground. I discovered Lisa by reading one of her books Because of Lucy many years ago. Sometimes an author’s work touches you enough that you want to reach out to them. I’m so glad I did. My beta reader April S. has been invaluable for me during this novel. She read it section by section and helped me get my head on straight, keep my continuity and make sure I handled certain relationships for certain characters the right way. Same with my other beta reader Lauren. I think she’s always worried I’m going to get mad at her nitpicking! No! Never! Please nitpick more! My editor Vanessa always does a great job and of course my cover designer Angsty G has given The Girl Who the chance it deserved after all this time. These covers are fantastic and exactly what I wanted.
Finally, in January 2017 I had just finished the first draft of this novel but still feeling a little aimless about how to proceed with my next project.
More Alex or something else? I normally jumped between books but I was unsure. I stumbled upon the most amazing facebook group for authors and WOW, it changed my entire writing life and perspective. I’ve been writing and publishing books for a while now and there were things I knew but there were also things I didn’t know how to implement (marketing, scheduling, support.) The group changed my entire perspective on how to handle my career. Thank you Michael Anderle for starting a group like this. Positive, affirming, supportive and totally kick ass.
Angel 2017
Angel Lawson Books
The Death Fields:
The Girl Who Shot First
The Girl Who Punched Back
The Girl Who Kicked Ass
Creature of Habit Series:
Creature of Habit (Book 1)
Creature of Habit (Book2)
Creature of Habit (Book 3)
The Wraith Series:
Wraith
Shadow Bound
Grave Possession
Urban Fantasy
The Lost Queen
Vigilant
Contemporary Romance:
FanGirl-A Girl Who Shot First Companion Novel
For the Win