by Keary Taylor
“They will pull me apart, limb from limb this time of day.”
“It’s raining heavily,” she said. Her eyes told me she knew this was a poor defense. “They’re less active when it rains. Some of them are too Evolved to go out in the rain without being shorted out. You stand a better chance. And we’ll send a soldier with you.”
I just kept her eyes for a long moment and finally shook my head.
“I want to see West again,” I said. Something in my body sagged, knowing I had no choice but to bend to this woman’s will.
She took a second to answer. “Give us a minute.”
And then she and the doctor left, leaving me with the guards.
I couldn’t help it as my hands rose to my head. At the crown of my head, there was a three inch circle of hair that I found shaven away. It was sticky with blood and my fingers ran over careful stitches.
It was more horrifying than it should have been.
Finding a hair tie still around my wrist, I carefully pulled my hair back into a ponytail, hiding the bald spot.
My hands came out streaked with sticky blood.
“This way,” Margaret said, opening the door again and nodding down the hall with her head.
The guards stepped behind me, pointing their guns at my back as we walked. We snaked through a maze of crumbling passages, passing doors and openings into other rooms. We stopped at a wall with a glass window.
“Don’t let him see you,” Margaret warned again.
“I won’t,” I said as I carefully peered around the window through the dark.
West sat on a grubby, broken-down couch. He looked relaxed, leaning back, his ankle crossed over the other knee. A smile broke out over his face and he laughed. He was talking to Tara. She laughed back, a dimple forming in her right cheek. There were others in the room too, eating small meals, talking quickly and nervously. This must have been some sort of a mess hall.
“He’s fine,” Margaret said, placing a hand on my arm and pulling me away gently.
“I need a shotgun, a handgun and a few grenades if you’ve got them,” I said.
I swore under my breath as I stared up at the metal hatch above my head.
My head was pounding. It must have been really bad if I could actually feel it through my chips pain blockers.
My legs were wobbling and I could tell I’d lost more blood that was safe to go out running about a Bane-infested city.
During the day.
“You ready for this?” I asked. I looked back.
The man behind me nodded his head. In many ways he reminded me of Avian, with his closely shaved hair and lean frame. But he was younger than Avian, probably closer to West’s age. I’d guess twenty.
He carried not one, but three shotguns and one assault rifle. He had probably eight grenades attached to the utility belt around his waist.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Why?” he questioned.
“Because if we die today, I want to know the name of the man I’m going down with.”
This might have rattled a lot of people. Even a lot of soldiers. But there was a darkness behind his eyes that seemed to understand.
“Tristan,” he said.
“Let’s go, Tristan.”
Gripping the lock of the hatch, I twisted it and pushed it open.
My arm was instantly soaked as the rain started falling into the hole. Checking to make sure the road was clear, I climbed out of the hole and onto the sidewalk. Tristan followed me an instant later and closed the hatch again.
“This way,” he said, pointing with his rifle up a street, away from the water.
The roads rose quickly the further we went from the water. The rain ran down the gutters furiously, creating a small river. My hair instantly stuck to my face, washing the blood from my face and neck.
We hugged buildings as we ran up the road. But I cringed every time I looked inside a storefront and saw the Bane, standing there, staring emptily out at us.
“You know they’re not going to stay like that for long, right?” I said as we crouched behind a car. “The Sleepers are going to wake up.”
“That’s what we’ve been theorizing,” he said. “That’s why Margaret’s gotten so crazy. She’s desperate.”
We dashed across the road and hugged the building again as we worked our way up the street.
“You mean she wasn’t always this…hostile?” I said, keeping my voice low.
“She’s always been a little intense, but you have to understand, you being here, TorBane, it’s all personal,” he said as his eyes swept the buildings around us.
“What do you mean?” I asked, scanning the roofline across the street.
“Margaret had two daughters. The oldest one, Bridget, she was fifteen when she was infected last year. There was a breach,” he said. We both saw movement at the same time and ducked behind a car. I peeked through a window and watched a boy cross the street. He still looked human except for his bare, mechanical feet.
“But she also had a three year old who was dying of liver failure before the Evolution,” Tristan whispered. “No organ donors came up, no transplant came available. Margaret sold everything to pay for her to get a TorBane upgrade.”
I’d seen the evidence of everyone who had turned, who had been infected. But it was always so much worse hearing stories about the first generation, who embraced TorBane without knowing what it would shortly do to them and the rest of the world.
“So you understand why Margaret hates you so much,” he said, his eyes meeting mine. They were green.
“I can’t blame her,” I said. “I hate myself too sometimes.”
“Sounds to me like it wasn’t your fault,” he said, his voice more understanding than I deserved.
“Road’s clear again,” I said, looking out the window.
We bolted down the road as the rain continued to fall.
I couldn’t help the instinct to fire when I heard the clatter to my left.
A Bane hurtled itself at a window when it saw us moving. I fired in its direction, shattering the large glass window and took it out. But there were a dozen others standing next to it, staring out at us, their muscles, or whatever they still had flexing and twitching to jump out after us. This group was almost one hundred percent mechanical-looking. Most of them didn’t even have skin anymore.
But they stood frozen just under the cover of the building.
“The rain,” I said in awe. “They won’t come out because of the rain!”
“Let’s move!” Tristan shouted.
We sprinted, turning down another road.
Glass continually shattered as we moved, Bane throwing themselves out at us, only to twitch and short out as the rain crept into their mechanical innards. They could only stand under the cover of buildings and race along after us or die.
“How much further?” I asked. I was heavily weighed down with ammunition, but the amount of bullets I had didn’t equal the number of Bane that were surrounding us.
“Two more blocks,” Tristan called.
With all the adrenaline pumping through my system, I hadn’t realized my head had stopped pounding and the wound was no longer bleeding. TorBane was healing my body.
Tristan turned down another block. As soon as we rounded the corner, he turned, grabbed two of the grenades from his belt, pulled the pins, and tossed them at the hoard that chased after us.
Body parts littered the street. And there was a horrible grinding, crunching sound as the side of the building broke apart and crashed to the street, crushing the bodies, and narrowly missing us.
“Good aim,” I said, my pace slowing slightly, now that the danger level had dropped a bit. My head was no longer pounding, but my legs were wobbly still and I felt slightly woozy.
“You okay?” he asked, turning concerned eyes on me.
“I can understand why that woman hates me, but damn her for making me less than what I should be and throwing me out to the Bane,” I
growled, my step faltering slightly.
“I don’t know what they’re doing to you,” he said as we slowed to a walk. He pulled me behind a car and eased me down to the ground. “But I’m pretty sure there has to be a better method.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to him. I didn’t know how much he knew about me or what they were trying to get from me.
“Desperate times make people act desperate,” he said as his eyes met mine for a moment. “Desperation has a way of bringing out the worst in people.”
“Yeah,” was all I could say. Because I’d seen it too often. I’d seen it in myself on more than one occasion.
“You ready to go again?” he asked.
“Where are we actually headed anyway?” I asked. My head was slowly evening out.
“Our group was getting supplies at a hardware store when something went wrong. We’re not entirely sure what happened,” he said. “But they knew something was coming and they barricaded themselves in the bank across the street. There’s a vault they’re hiding in.”
“Alistar is more than some soldier to Margaret, isn’t he?” I asked, climbing to my feet. We started down the road again.
“He’s her lover,” Tristan said, shaking his head. “I don’t get it. Margaret is… Margaret. How can he stand her?”
“Maybe he enjoys power-hungry women,” I said, disgust rising in my stomach.
To my surprise, Tristan laughed. It was a deep, belly laugh. It was so unexpected, I couldn’t help but smile too.
“That’s it right there,” he said, once again serious. Tristan pointed to a building sandwiched between a dozen others. Its front was stark marble white with gold trim. On the ground level, the entire front was nearly all glass.
“I know you’re supposed to be able to communicate with them or something, but I think our best bet is to just fire as many rounds as we can,” Tristan said.
“Sounds good to me,” I said. “I can do my best to keep them away from us.”
Tristan looked at me, his brows knitting together. “It doesn’t really matter to me what you are,” he said, his eyes trailing over me. “But so far I think you’re pretty impressive.”
“I’m also involved,” I blurted.
A coy grin cracked on his lips. “That wasn’t what I meant, but good to know. I’m just saying you’re one impressive soldier.”
My face turned warm with embarrassment. “Thanks,” I muttered. “Let’s go.”
We jogged toward the building. I slowed as we approached the bank, stopping just out of sight.
There were seven of them inside. Advanced looking. Most of them had no flesh at all anymore.
Five of them stood in a line facing what must have been the vault. They were perfectly still, frozen like they were statues. One of them stood next to the combination, its hand pressed flat against the steel wall. And another had its hand on the dial, slowly rotating it to the right.
“What are they doing?” Tristan barely whispered.
The realization hit me just as the one turning the dial stopped turning it and I barely registered the faint click.
I started firing the same time the Bane yanked the vault open. Screams filled the air and metal scraped against marble as the Bane rushed into the vault.
“NO!” Tristan bellowed as he fired into the bank.
I didn’t stop shooting. But I knew it was too late. The Bane were all over the five people inside.
“We’ve got to get out of here!” I screamed, grabbing the back of Tristan’s soaked jacket and pulling him quickly back toward the doors.
The Bane then registered we were there.
Knowing they had completed their only reason for being—infecting humans—they turned and sprinted after us.
Tristan and I crashed to the road as we backed out of the bank, landing in a puddle. I kept firing, hitting two of the mechanical creatures that sprinted across the bank after us. They dropped in a heap.
But three others barreled right out of the building into the rain.
Hissing filled the air as two of them instantly shorted out and dropped to the ground as Tristan and I scrambled backwards. But the last one with more flesh than the others kept rushing forward.
Slipping in the rain, I lost my footing and was taken down just a moment too long.
The Bane was on top of me, its hands around my throat. My head was forced into a puddle. Water lapped just over my eyes, making my vision wave under the water.
It jerked over and over again as Tristan fired at it, but it didn’t go down.
That familiar red rage flooded my system again and I wanted with everything in my system for this creature trying to kill me to meet a horrible end.
I watched as its hands left my throat and went to its own head. In one movement, it twisted its head violently to the left and up.
The head was ripped clean from its body.
It collapsed to the left of me with a splash that sent currents of electricity through the water to shock me endlessly.
A screamed leapt from my lips and then there were strong hands dragging me out of the puddle. Tristan swore, stumbling under my weight and stopping in the middle of the road.
“You’ve got to do it now,” I faintly heard a voice. My system recovering from the electrocution, I stood and my vision cleared. The two Bane who were left stood just under the cover of the bank’s opening, staring at Tristan and I. They wouldn’t come out after us into the rain.
But next to them stood four people, and I saw Alistar’s body lying on the floor behind them. He’d been mauled to death.
It was strange, seeing the Bane stand next to the four humans. But their only task in life was completed. They had no reason to pay them anymore attention.
“We’re as good as dead,” a woman said. “End us now before we end anyone else.”
There was terror in the other three’s eyes, but they each slowly nodded.
“I can’t,” Tristan said. His voice cracked.
“You have to,” I said quietly, thinking of Tye.
Tristan’s eyes fell to the ground and he wiped the back of his hand across his nose. He shook his head, swearing under his breath again.
“Will you help me?” he said, his eyes rising to meet mine.
It took me a moment to nod.
Tristan took four steps closer to the bank, his shotgun held loosely in his hand.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, his voice rough and scratchy. “You’ve made it this long.”
“No need for speeches,” the woman said, tears streaming down her face. “Just get it over with, please.”
Tristan nodded and waved me forward. I held my shotgun ready.
“You take the two on the right,” he said to me. “I’ll take the two on the left.”
A lump formed in my throat as I raised my shotgun, leveling it on a very terrified looking man who had to be in his sixties. I was glad Tristan hadn’t told me their names.
“Fire!” Tristan shouted.
And for the first time, I shot at a man who was still mostly human.
He dropped to the ground at the same time another woman did. The others screamed.
I couldn’t wait for Tristan’s command. I shot the woman who had spoken for them.
Apparently Tristan couldn’t give the command again, because he fired at the same time I did.
We both stood frozen for a moment, Tristan with his shotgun still leveled. I was fairly sure he wasn’t breathing.
“Let’s go,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat.
The rain continued to fall harder and harder as we made our way back. Plenty of Bane had woken and watched us from the cover of the buildings. But as long as we stayed in the middle of the road, far from their reach, they left us alone.
I froze outside the hatch, unable to make myself go back down into that hole.
“Is she going to kill me?” I asked. “Since we failed?”
“I don’t think so,” Tristan said, clearing his throat. He had been t
rying hard the entire journey home to control his emotions. “You seem to be pretty valuable.”
“Margaret has a short temper,” I said hollowly.
His green eyes met mine. “I won’t let her do anything to you.”
“Somehow I don’t think you can stop her from getting whatever it is she wants from me.”
“That doesn’t mean I can’t try,” he said, his grip tightening on his shotgun.
“Why are you here, Tristan?” I asked, my eyes narrowing at him. “You don’t seem to fit in with this crowd.”
He shrugged. “What else am I supposed to do? It’s safer to stay in groups. I’d never last out there on my own. We’ve got to stick together.”
I looked at him for a long time. Maybe it was all about uncontrollable fate. You had to live with the people you could find these days. West had first been with a harsh military group, and then a group that was only a step above marauders.
But I’d found Eden. A place where people were good, where people did their best to help one another.
Tristan had crazy Margaret.
My fate was better than his.
And even though I had only known him for an hour, I wanted to save him from his fate. But I was powerless to do so.
“Are they really going to help my friend?” I asked.
Tristan broke eye contact and gave a sniff before wiping the rain water from his nose with the back of his hand. “Margaret will keep her word. She’s insane, but she’ll do what she says.”
“Will you make sure?” I asked. “That she helps him? If I can’t do it myself?”
He met my eyes again for a long time and finally nodded.
“Thank you.”
“Ready?”
“No,” I answered honestly.
There was sympathy in his eyes, but what was he supposed to do?
He bent and unlocked the hatch and held it open for me.
FOURTEEN
I didn’t even see Margaret.
As soon as Tristan and I entered the tunnel we were greeted by four guards. Tristan explained what happened and I was instantly bound.
Tristan held my eyes as they started dragging me away.
“I’ll make sure,” he had said. “I promise.”