“Come on, please,” he begged. “Jane never lets me go anywhere.”
“Not this time buddy,” Seth replied as he hoisted the boy out of the truck. “And I’m personally delivering you to Jane to make sure you stay put.”
“No don’t do that please,” he pleaded all the way back into the building. The doctor and I watched as they ascended the staircase into the lobby of the old factory.
It was the first time I was actually getting a good look at the building I’d called home for over a month. It was like most of the other buildings in the district with a mixture of old school brick and new contemporary features…or what had been contemporary before the war broke out. It had steel and glass on the upper floors. Thankfully, the lower floors didn’t have all the glass. The glass on the lower levels of my old sanctuary had proven not to be as strong as it looked. Apparently not even bullet proof glass could keep out the demons.
I shivered in the truck as I brought my gloved hands to my mouth to keep my nose and lips from freezing. “Sorry,” Dr. Lee apologized as he started up the engine. Initially the air blowing out the heaters only added to my shivering. “This truck was a newer model so it should heat up pretty quickly.” Thankfully, he was right. In only a couple of minutes the cold air slowly began to radiate sweet heat. “I forget that other people don’t have the same temperature gage as me,” Doc apologized. “I could walk around in nothing but a t-shirt and Bermuda shorts in this weather.” At least he had the common sense to wear a little more than that on this trip. He had on a light running jacket over a t-shirt and wore a pair of jeans. Still I was cold just looking at him and I was wearing a thick winter jacket over a track suit.
Seth returned a moment later, minus Matthew. His face lit up when he saw me sitting there in the middle seat. Molly’s words bounced inside my mind. This was going to be an awkward ride. He slid in beside me and suddenly the seat didn’t feel quite big enough for three. I struggled with hugging into Doc or Seth. I didn’t like either option.
“So which way to the nest?” Doc asked.
“I’m not telling you that yet.” Both the doctor and Seth looked at me in confusion. “I need some assurances that you’re going to keep your end of the bargain first. We destroy the hive closest to us and then I help you with your little science experiment.”
“Amber I would have thought we would have earned your trust by now,” Seth said with sadness in his eyes. Again that strange guilty feeling tugged at my heart. I brushed it off. I let my emotions guide me the last time and that hadn’t worked out well. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.
“I trusted my old group completely. We’d lived together for more than a year. And in the end that was the biggest mistake I’d ever made. I barely know you guys. So I’m sorry, but I’m not about to make the same mistake twice.” Seth didn’t answer. He looked like he wanted to say something, anything to change my mind. But one look at me and he knew better than that.
“I hope that in time that will change,” he simply said.
“Me too,” I lied. There wouldn’t be the time for that to happen. My plan was still a go. It was just delayed. Seth didn’t look like he believed me, but he didn’t bother arguing.
“So what are we doing in this truck if we aren’t going to find the hive?” Doc said impatiently with his hands gripping the wheel tightly in frustration.
“We’re going to find explosives and a lot of them,” I replied with an enthusiasm I didn’t even realize I was still capable of.
“And where do you propose we look for those?” Seth asked.
“There’s a vacant construction site down in the North West part of the city over on Elder Street. They had some stuff there. We took some of it but left most behind. We really didn’t see the need to store a massive amount of explosives.” In hindsight we should have grabbed more. We could have had a better defense system if we’d decided to utilize what we’d found. There were so many different ways that Molly could have lived and every time I recognized another one my heart sunk a little more into the never ending pit of depression. All the excitement I’d just felt drained from me and all I wanted was to get this trip over with.
I sat back and stared out the window as Doc pulled out onto the icy road. If it weren’t for the road conditions, we could have been to the construction site in ten minutes tops, but unfortunately the roads were quite treacherous that morning. And we also had to dodge old cars that had been abandoned on the road. We could have avoided them if Doc had taken my advice and just gone down the side roads, but he was being a stubborn man and refusing my directions.
I hadn’t grown up in the city but the past year and half I’d worked hard memorizing this one. It took time, seeing as I was completely incompetent when it came to reading a map. I knew places more by what was around them, than by street names. The only reason I even knew the name of the street we were going to this time was because the name was odd seeing as every other street in that area had a number. Even with my poor map skills I knew every way to go and which were blocked by debris and which were free. I got the feeling that Doc was less knowledgeable about our location. Seth occasionally would make a subtle hint about what streets to avoid and Doc would listen to him.
With the exception of the occasional direction being shouted out there was no real communication going on in the vehicle. Normally I appreciated the silence but not when I was stuck between a man who didn’t care for me and a man who cared too much. Every time I peeked through my periphery I saw Seth looking at me. There was a warm glow to his cheeks and now that the truck had warmed up I knew it wasn’t from the cold. The truck hit a patch of ice and despite my best efforts I slid into Seth. I apologized profusely but Seth simply blushed, saying it was no big deal.
If that only happened once that would have been bad enough, but it happened nearly every time we made a turn. Twenty agonizing minutes later we arrived at the site. “You can just tell us what to get and where it is,” Seth offered as I scooted towards the door. Looking down at the slick sidewalks it was probably the safer bet, but I didn’t feel like being left alone in the truck. I always hated being outside during the day all alone, almost as much as being all alone after sunset. What lurked in the empty sunny streets could be every bit as deadly as the demons that stocked the streets at night.
I shook my head. “No I wouldn’t know how to describe where the stuff is. Besides, the construction company has plans for demolitions that we could use to take down the hive and I need to search the office for that.”
Seth reluctantly went to get me my crutches from the flat bed. “Would you move it along?” Doc called impatiently as I struggled with my crutches to find a firm grip. Seth shot a dirty look towards his friend. Seth was right at my side ready to catch me if I looked like I was about to biff it. “By the time you get here it will already be sunset.” I rolled my eyes at the doctor.
“I’d be much faster with a walking cast,” I replied as we caught up to him. He just shook his head as he pushed open the chain link fence. Thanks to the gravel beyond the fence I was now finding it much easier to maneuver my crutches. I led the guys towards an old shed that had once been surrounded by an electrified fence. Now the fence was busted open and the door to the shed hung on by only one hinge.
Seth and Doc went in first. I crossed my fingers that no one else had raided this place. My old group was the one that had broken it open. We were expecting expensive tools and equipment not explosives. Seth came out a moment later with a box labeled DYNOMITE, in big red letters. I didn’t even realize I was smiling until Seth looked up at me and smiled back. I quickly tried to conceal my giddiness, but it wasn’t easy. This was what I’d been waiting for. And had I been in my right state of mind after I’d lost Molly this would have happened that very night. I would have blown myself up with as many of them as possible.
Doc was standing right behind Seth. “Wow I didn’t even realize you had teeth,” he teased me. I shook my head.
“How
many cases did you find?” I asked with the smile returning despite all my efforts.
Seth chuckled. “Four.”
“So no one else found the stash. Good,” I rambled on excitedly. “Okay now for the office,” I said leading the way as quickly as my crutches would allow me.
The office was a mess. The front door was still smashed in just like my group had left it. There were papers strewn everywhere. We hadn’t been looking for demolition plans then. We were looking for food, clothes, weapons. We hadn’t exactly been the most methodical in our search methods.
“Well good luck finding anything in this mess,” Doc said unenthusiastically. “It looks like someone was in a destructive mood.” I hid the smirk on my face. That day I hadn’t been in the best of moods. I’d had a fight with Alex, so when Molly and Patricia and I had separated to do our searching I’d taken it out on this office.
Seth looked around the room and just sighed. “I guess we should take a divide and conquer approach to this place. Let’s just stay within ear shot of each other.” We all agreed. Seth and I went to down the hall to what looked like an old conference room. I took one side and he took the other. On my side there was a large bookshelf, of course most of the books were lying strewn on the floor. Awkwardly I maneuvered myself down onto the floor and began thumbing through the books. A lot of them had plans for what were to be future projects.
One of the projects happened to be a building I was all too familiar with. The schematic of the structure lay open on my lap as I fought back the memories that were threatening to bubble up to the surface. Keep it together, I told myself. I crumpled the pages up in my fist and tossed them across the room completely forgetting that I wasn’t alone.
“Are you okay?” Seth asked startling me back to my senses.
“Oh yeah fine,” I lied unconvincingly. I thought he’d head back to his side of the room but he just sat down beside me and pulled one of the books up onto his lap and began thumbing through it. “You don’t have to be okay. You’ve been through a lot.”
“Everyone’s been through a lot. We don’t have the luxury of losing it,” I said shortly as I skimmed through another project book. This one I recognized too and unlike the other I had no intention of destroying this one. It was going to be useful but I didn’t want Seth to know that just yet.
“That may be true,” he said responding to my statement. “But we’re still human and if we deny our emotions, then what’s the point of living?” I just stared at him saying nothing in response. What was I supposed to say? He clearly still had hope for life. But as for me every day felt like torture. Today was no exception. Everywhere I turned there were reminders of my friends, my family and most of all my sister. It was like every day and every night I was forced to relive every mistake I’d ever made. I felt like I was drowning in the ‘what ifs.’
Seth eventually gave up on waiting for an answer and went back to his book. Less than a minute later he hopped up off the floor excitedly cheering. I just stared at him like he was a lunatic. “You okay there?” I asked.
“Better than okay,” he said offering me his hand and pulling me up off the floor. “This book here is essentially the Holy Grail of books. It’s basically an idiot’s guide to how to blow stuff up.” He flipped through the pages showing diagrams of how to lay out the explosives and how much was needed for different explosions. “The only thing we really need now would be a schematic of the building we want to demolish.”
“We should be able to find that at city hall,” Doc said as he entered the room. Seth got excited all over again.
“Okay then, that’s our next stop,” he said heading towards the door. When I didn’t follow he stopped. “What’s wrong Amber?”
I looked away. This was my leverage, what I’d been holding onto. If I just gave him this information there was no way I could guarantee that he’d give me what I needed. After a few moments of awkward silence, he came back over towards me. “You can trust us,” he said once again. He was telling me that a lot lately and looking into his eyes I wanted to trust him. But I’d been betrayed by eyes just as convincing before.
“You promise that you’ll blow up the hive close to us?”
“I swear it,” he said looking deep into my eyes. Molly’s voice whispered to me, ‘You can trust him.’ And looking back into his eyes I believed my sister’s voice. Whether it was actually her voice or just an echo in my mind of what I was sure she’d say, it didn’t matter. I believed him.
“City hall is where the other hive is. Not exactly like we can go looking for the schematics we need.”
“Well that’s just great,” Doc huffed as he leaned against the wall. “We can’t just blow up a building without knowing where to place the charges.”
“I agree,” Seth said searching his mind for a solution.
“You promised me,” I said looking back at him. “If you back out then you might as well leave me here, because I’m not going back to your sanctuary just to watch it happen all over again.”
I hobbled away from him towards the broken window of the office. The cold wind was blowing in causing my body to shiver again. Seth slowly walked up behind me. He cautiously placed his hand on my shoulder. Normally I would have pulled away instantly. But if I was being completely honest I actually kind of liked it. “I promised you we’d take care of that hive and we will. I’m just trying to think of the best way to accomplish the task.” I turned back around to face him. The way he was looking at me made my cheeks flush. I hoped he’d attribute it to the cold. I smiled back at him.
“So what do we do then?” I asked. “We can’t go get the schematics and we can’t go and just place the charges randomly.”
“I think we need to head back and have a meeting.” I looked at him curiously. “I think it’s time we brought the experts into this conversation.”
Chapter Twelve
It didn’t take long for me to figure out by experts, he meant the two ex-military personnel they had in their company. Kyle and Wes weren’t the only ones invited to the meeting. Jane was there, as was Nina unfortunately. And then there was me sitting awkwardly in my cold metal chair in the tiny windowless room.
One of the heaters had been moved in to keep us warm while we were apart from the main group. The room we were in was so small that the heater actually made it uncomfortably warm. I pulled at the collar of my hoodie, trying to find relief but all I felt was the heat. The sweat beaded on my forehead. Nina didn’t look like she was any more comfortable. She was sweating from more places than I ever knew it was possible to sweat from. And she kept bringing her hand to her face to fan herself. Judging by the grey in her hair it was possible that she was experiencing a hot flash on top of the already warm temperature of the room. Nina caught me looking at her and glared back in my direction. I quickly looked away. She wasn’t the only one who didn’t think I should be privy to a secret council meeting.
Jane, who’d once been my biggest supporter, had voiced her opinion the moment she spotted me. Wes and Kyle were ambivalent to my presence. Seth had shut down all opposition to my attendance before anyone could really have a chance to argue. Despite the age gap they all took the young twenty-something seriously and he was clearly the leader of the group. He’d always appeared to be in charge but now I was certain of it.
Before Seth told everyone the purpose of the meeting he made them all promise not to interrupt him with comments or questions until he was done speaking. “There will be plenty of time to discuss this after. But I don’t feel like going around in circles in the middle of explaining what’s going on.” Everyone nodded in agreement. Nina was still staring at me. She knew I knew more than her and she clearly didn’t like it. If I’d been less mature, I might have stuck my tongue out at her.
It wasn’t long into Seth’s explanation before people started to react. They all kept their mouths shut but Jane and Nina were both biting their lips, like it was taking every bit of restraint they had within themselves not to interrup
t. In general people were shocked to learn that a hive was so close. When the topic of explosives and demolition came up both Wes and Kyle’s faces lit up with excitement just like mine had. Jane wasn’t so excited and Nina looked downright angry.
When Seth was done talking he sat down in the chair next to me and took a deep cleansing breath as he braced himself for what was coming. Nina was the first to speak up. “What the hell were you two playing at?” she said directing her question both to Seth and Doc. She threw her hands in the air as her face turned red. “You two don’t have the right to make decisions without us and especially not when it comes to our safety.”
Doc came to his own defence and was just as animated. “We didn’t feel that there was any danger and the reason you weren’t consulted was because we knew you’d react irrationally just like you are right now. And just so we’re clear on one thing, Seth was given ultimate decision making authority when it comes to our safety. You agreed to this, as did the rest of you,” he said addressing the rest of the group.
“Well if I’d known I was putting my life in the hands of idiots I never would have agreed to any such thing,” she shouted back.
Doc looked like he’d just been slapped in the face. He was about to go at her again when Jane spoke up. “I agree with Nina. We had the right to know. But what’s done is done. I agree that something needs to be done to ensure our safety, but I don’t think we should go attacking a nest. We need to think about evacuating. We should be scouting out a new location.”
I stared back at her. Maybe she hadn’t been out in the city recently but it wasn’t like there were a whole lot of options. Half the city had been destroyed in the war and the other half was barely holding together after the looters and the demons had their turn with them. The few buildings I’d lived in before, were no where near as luxurious as their current accommodations.
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