by Tracey Ward
“I don’t. But you do.”
“Again, why do you care?”
I smile like I don’t care about anything. Ever. “Maybe I like you, Laura.”
“You don’t know me.”
“We could change that real easy.”
“No thanks,” she answers curtly. She looks me up and down, her eyes completely uninterested. “I’m not a fan of ‘easy’.”
Nats and Kitten are giggling as she walks away, her brown hair shining like satin over her shoulders. The guy she was talking to is quick to follow in tow, glancing back at me like he’s worried I’ll do something. I nod to him with a grin to tell him it’s all good. All part of the process.
“She likes you,” Kitten teases, bumping my shoulder with hers. It’s thin and frail feeling against my muscle, but it’s a lie. A trick she plays on the world. Underneath that soft skin and those thin bird bones of hers, she’s solid steel.
“Not yet. But she will,” I promise.
“Are you going to sleep with her too?”
I grin with the left side of my mouth, smirking at her sideways the way she hates. “You jealous?”
Kitten scrunches her pretty face. “No. Gross.”
“Then what do you care who I sleep with?”
“It’s gotta get confusing after a while, right? Keeping them straight?”
“It’s easier than you’d think.”
“You’re not worried you’ll call the wrong girl by the wrong name?”
“Easy solution to that. You don’t use anyone’s real name. Kitten.”
She glares at me for a half a second before her eyes go wide on the doorway. She shifts in her seat excitedly. “There she is. That’s Lexy.”
Coming into the room behind Nats is a girl in her mid-twenties. She’s smaller than even Kitten, her brown hair, hesitant stance, and round eyes so mousy, I worry she’ll turn and run right out that door before we can have the pow wow she demanded. Looking at her, I can’t believe this is who the rebellion chose as their mouthpiece. It strips me of nearly all faith in whatever they think they’ve got going.
Even though we have it confirmed that there is a rebellion, we’re still in the dark about who’s in on it. Lexy didn’t share that info with Joss and the kitchen crew wasn’t exactly open about it either. It makes me wonder how legit it is. Are there ten people pissed off at the Colony and they want me to solve all their problems for them? Or is it bigger? Is it everyone?
Only one way to find out. I gotta take this meeting with Minnie Mouse.
Lexy spots us easily. We’re the last people in the room. We’ll be late for work, a dangerous thing with the way we’re being watched, but this was our only chance for everyone to be together at once, and it had to be all of us. Even though I hate to admit it, I need Natalie’s input on this. I want a second set of cynical ears hearing this chick out.
Lexy’s eyes flicker to mine before quickly darting to Joss’. Her face darkens when she sees her but she comes to sit next to Nats at our table like she’s not afraid. But she is. She is very afraid.
“You’re the Hornet?” she asks like it’s an accusation.
I grin. “That’s what they tell me.”
“I have a proposition for you.”
“I love propositions. Lay it on me.”
She blinks rapidly, unsure of herself.
“Go on, honey,” Nats tells her encouragingly. “He won’t bite.”
“Hard,” I add.
Lexy frowns, scooting her chair closer to the table. The metal legs screech against the floor with a shrill scream. She pauses to collect her thoughts or prepare herself or replay an episode of Friends in her mind. I really don’t know, but she leaves us all hanging in suspense for way too long.
Kitten was right. This chick is annoying.
“I’m acting on behalf of a group of concerned citizens,” she begins formally.
“How many?”
“I—a lot.”
“That many, huh?” I drone.
Lexy frowns, looking to Nats for help with her spine.
Nats nods patiently. “He’s a pain. Ignore it. Go ahead. Tell him what you want him to do.”
“We want him to get the Hive to set us free.”
I stare at her in amazement. “Are you for real?”
“Don’t be a dick,” Joss mutters.
“No, really, I need to know. Is she being serious? Am I insane or am I getting this right? Because she isn’t actually saying what she wants.”
“I’ve made myself very clear,” Lexy snaps angrily.
“Don’t fight fire with fire where Vin is concerned,” Kitten warns her. “You’ll only get burned.” Kitten speaks to me through gritted teeth. “She hasn’t been clear, no, but you get the idea.”
“Say it in plain English or go away,” I tell Lexy.
The girl works her jaw, annoyed. “We want help from The Hive.”
“Help with what?”
“With our release.” She blinks like she’s about to cry and the sheer weakness of it makes my heart harden to her. “You’re not the only prisoners here.”
I chuckle deeply. “Honey, they won’t even help with my release. They don’t care anything about yours.”
“Why not? Your people hate the Colonies. I’d think they’d jump at the chance to take one down.”
She has no idea how right she is, how badly Marlow has always wanted this place, but I snort like she’s an idiot because I genuinely think she is.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
“Not badly enough to risk the lives of everyone in The Hive,” I explain. “If they come here and you don’t succeed, they’ll all be taken prisoner as well. It’s not worth it. Not by a long shot.” I smile that snake-charming smile of mine, leaning over the table toward her. “Now, if you want to free me, I’m all for that. I’ll go ask them to come rushing back here, but don’t be surprised when no one shows.”
“Not even you?” Lexy glances furtively at Nats and Kitten. “Not even for them?”
“Not for anyone.”
She shakes her head. “I can’t believe that.”
“Believe it,” Kitten sighs. “It’s how it is in the wild. It’s how you survive.”
I spread my hands open on the table as if to say, ‘you see?’. “Kitten’s right. You can’t value anyone or anything too much.”
“Which is why you have to offer the Hive more,” Kitten butts in boldly. “Way more than just Vin or a shot at destroying this place.”
I let my hands drop on the table, frowning at Chatty Kathie on my right. “What are you talking about?”
“What could we give them?” Lexy asks Joss warily.
“You’ll give them the one thing they’ll fight for. You’ll give them this Pod. Intact. Undamaged. Taken down from the inside. That’s something they could never have, not without you. There’s hardly any leadership here because they have you all over a barrel with your families. From what I understand, there’s enough unrest to overthrow this place from the inside. So do it. Take control and ask the Hive to help you take down the next Pod in exchange for ownership over this one. If they attacked it from the outside without your help, they’d damage the hell out of it. It’d be almost worthless to them later.”
“There are plans in place to destroy it and escape,” Lexy agrees thoughtfully, “leaving attackers nothing to show for their efforts.”
New protocol, I think grimly. It must have been put in place after Marlow’s attack. If the Colonies can’t have the MOHAI, no one can have the MOHAI…
“Exactly. They’d gain nothing. But if you hand it to them, they could actually use it. They wouldn’t just be a gang anymore, they’d be an outpost. It’s a whole different level of living than what they’ve got right now. With the resources you have, it would set them head and shoulders above the rest of the gangs out there. They’d be the Walmart of the wild. Once you take down the next Pod, you’ll have their numbers, your families, added to your ranks. You wouldn�
�t necessarily need the Hive anymore to take down the third one. But even if you did, you still have a bargaining chip.”
Lexy’s eyes light with excitement. With hope. “The second Pod?”
“No. Knowledge. They have no idea how to take care of this place. They don’t plant crops or tend fields, not on this level, and they don’t have livestock. They fish and go to market to trade for whatever else they need.” She gestures at me dismissively. “Ask Vin if he can milk a cow. I promise you he can’t and I doubt any of his crew can either. But you can. You said it yourself, you didn’t need a lot of leadership ‘cause you’re all veterans here. Use that to your advantage to leverage more help from the Hive.”
Lexy turns to me with an eagerness that makes me angry. “Would they do it? Would they agree to help us if we gave up a Pod?”
“And promised an end to the roundups,” Kitten adds quickly.
“Would that all be worth it to them?”
I stall, thinking. Reeling from the possibilities of what Kitten is saying. I could take the MOHAI. No, not take it. They would give it to me. Hand it over, free and clear, no fight and no mess. Just me with my own Colony. My own gang. And all I have to do is set them free.
But I can’t do that without Marlow. And I can’t keep the MOHAI if Marlow is involved.
I spin the ring on my finger, Lucio’s ring, and I try to find an angle to slip around Marlow. Any way I could take this place without his help. What I’m considering is the exact thing Marlow warned me to avoid when he told me to wear this ring. To him, it means ‘Betray me and die like your father’. To me, it means ‘Be smarter than your dad. Smarter than everyone.’ That’s what I’ll have to do if I want this place for myself.
And I want that more than I’ve ever wanted anything.
“I don’t know for sure,” I answer Lexy quietly. “But it would certainly be worth a shot.”
She looks unsure. She actually turns to Kitten for help. “Is that good enough? Can I trust him?”
“Probably not.”
I pretend to flinch. “Brutal, Kitten.”
“But what choice do you have?” she continues to Lexy, ignoring me. “You can’t sit around waiting for more gang members to show up here and hope they’ll play ball.”
“More of them have shown up. Just last week. But they’re from smaller gangs and wouldn’t be any use.”
Kitten and I both sit up straighter in our seats. Kitten a little more than me, and I know exactly where her mind’s at – the boyfriend.
“Wait, there are more outsiders here?” she presses Lexy. “Since when?”
“Since last week,” Lexy repeats. “They’re on the second schedule. It’s just two of them from some small gang.”
“What do they look like?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen them. I only heard about them.”
“Can you find out their names for me?”
Lexy shrugs. “Sure. I’ll see what I can do if you talk to him about doing this for us.”
I raise my hands in mock surrender. “I already said I’d plead your case to the Hive if you freed me.”
“Yeah, but it didn’t exactly sound like you were planning on selling it,” Nats snaps.
I quiet under her venom. “Are you mad at me right now?”
“We all are. It’s a good deal and you know they’ll consider it. They would kill to get their hands on a piece of the Colonies. You’ll be Marlow’s Golden Boy if you bring this to him so stop playing coy and just agree to it.” I open my mouth to argue but Nats points a stern finger in my face. “And you better come back for me, you son of a bitch. You leave me here to rot in this cage and I’ll die of boredom and haunt you for the rest of your days.”
Whoa, this woman knows me.
I smile at her affectionately, leaning over the table to kiss her on the cheek. “Anything you say, Boss.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Trent
I left the Hyperion. Not forever. Not yet. But maybe. I don’t know what I want yet, and that’s what I have to figure out. That’s why I’m leaving.
I didn’t tell anyone, not even Ryan, and maybe that’s wrong, but it’s who I am and if I’m going to sort myself out properly, I can’t worry what anyone else thinks or needs. This is about me. Not Ryan and the Hyperion or the Colonists and the Risen. Just me; the way it used to be in the beginning before I saved the brothers and started following their star up the coastline.
Gussy’s words rang in my head for an hour after we talked. I couldn’t shake them. Not for days, even weeks after, and finally yesterday I had to act. I packed my backpack with the essentials and slipped right out the front door. I didn’t try to hide the fact that I was leaving, and if someone had seen me, I would have told them the truth. I doubt they would understand, though, so I’m relieved I wasn’t stopped. I was left alone.
I can hear the whole world when I’m alone. There are no distractions. No one else’s breathing, swallowing, talking, walking, sniffling, coughing, laughing. People are walking sound machines, and to someone like me who has trained himself to never filter out anything, it quickly becomes tiresome. That’s why I love the solitude of the Crow’s Nest. The silence of an afternoon strolling through the city by oneself.
My journey is not without purpose. I’m not wandering aimlessly, waiting for the universe to give me all the answers. I’m searching for my own answers to questions that have haunted me for too long. Things I stored in the back of my mind for later evaluation when I had the time, but with the responsibilities laid on me at the Hyperion, especially after Kevin died and Ryan felt like he was fading away, I haven’t had an opportunity.
Today I will make the time. Time for me and my story outside of Ryan and the girl and the Hyperion.
When I left the Hyperion, I was torn between heading south and heading north. To the north is the mystery Colony where I suspect they’re keeping the girl and the pimp. No one seems to have any information on it but it has to be there, and I’m itching to learn everything I can about it. Maybe I could sneak inside. I’ve done it to the Stadiums. It was years ago and I never told anyone, but I broke inside because my curiosity is stronger than their security. It was big and impressive, but nothing I hadn’t already suspected. People seemed generally happy. A stout woman with pretty gray eyes gave me a plum. It was meaty and sweet. The juice ran down my chin, making us both laugh. It was a good day.
On the other hand, to the southeast are the Stadiums and the park. The big one. It used to be called Jefferson Park. A large wood sign still stands at the edge reminding us of its past. Half of it is burned away, the rest scorched black like the earth behind it. There used to be a group of a people living there. Around forty men, women, and children. It was more like a small village than a Colony or gang. They farmed, built huts, ran a small school, and had church services on the days they thought were Sundays. They were quiet but they were large and getting larger, so Marlow put them down. He sent a group of Hornets to kill them, but the entire company died. Story goes, one man made it back before he passed, his clothes gone, bite marks on his body, and the flesh gnawed from his fingers. He said he wasn’t attacked by zombies. It was the villagers. They were cannibals. In retaliation, Marlow sent another batch of men to murder every last one of them, but when they arrived, the park was empty. Not a soul or a body to be found. Not even the bodies of the men they’d already lost.
The Hornets burned the park to the ground and never looked back, but everyone has whispered about it for years. Some say they’ve seen the Cannibals since then, even going so far as to say they’ve caught sight of living kids in the wild, but the reports are sketchy. They’re never spotted in the daylight, only at night, and they’re regarded as ghosts more than humans. Gang members claim the people they’ve spotted can walk through walls, they disappear out of thin air, and they’re covered in blood from bodies no one can find. It all sounds like campfire tales, but ten years ago Risen did too, and look what happened there. I try to proces
s every rumor I hear with an open mind.
When it came down to it, my interest in the Cannibals outweighed my interest in the northern Colony. Would it be nice to know more about it? Could I try to sneak in and find Ryan’s girl? Yes, to both of those questions, but the bigger issue for me when I made my final decision was, did I want to investigate the northern Colony? And when I answered myself honestly, it was clearly a ‘no’.
Maybe it’s selfish, but a person has to be to survive. You can’t bleed for everyone else every single day without dropping dead at their feet eventually.
It’s midday when I make it to Jefferson Park. There are no gangs this far south and the Colonies are locked up tight in the west, making the walk here incredibly quiet. Almost peaceful. Aside from the Risen, I’ve been alone for most of the day. There are more animals out here than humans. It’s a hunter’s dream but when you get this far from your home, the risk increases dramatically. If I get hurt, I won’t have help from anyone. I’ll have to help myself, something that’s fine for someone like me who’s been taught since birth how to handle an emergency, but even the most diehard gang members would be Kibble for the Risen if they sprained an ankle out here. Most don’t leave the one-mile radius around Denny Park where the Market is held, meaning I am far, far outside the average man’s comfort zone. It’s a legitimate concern. Almost as troubling as the thin spiral of black smoke rising in the distance.
It could be Colonists. It could be Cannibals. It could be a gang I’ve never seen or heard of hiding in the south where the rest of us won’t bother them. There is a world out there beyond Seattle. One we never visit or think about, but it doesn’t make it go away. Ignorance doesn’t make that plume of smoke any less intriguing.
I slink through the slanting light of the falling sun, my body encased in black clothing to hide me inside the shadows the buildings throw for me. The smoke is so close I can smell it. It’s not a natural smell. The cloud is growing, the body of it turning oily and ugly, and I think it must be a car on fire. A big car. Maybe a train car.