by Garr, Amber
“Who is it?” The generic lump in the blanket didn’t help identify the person underneath.
Hunter grabbed a hold of a pair of shoulders and shook them back and forth. “Wake up. Someone’s here to see you.”
Tossing the blanket down to her chest, I instantly recognized the flaming red hair. “Sasha?”
She smiled at me, a genuine smile that spoke a thousand words, and pushed up to her elbows. “Vivienne. I’m very happy to see you and Hunter here alive.”
I leaned forward and hugged my friend. She squeezed me so tight I could barely breathe, but I was pretty sure I inflicted the same amount of pain. Tears filled my eyes once again when I realized what this all meant.
I pushed her away and held her at arm’s length, my voice catching in my throat. “Why are you here? Did they collect all of you? Is there anyone left?”
Hunter sat down on the floor and let Sasha rub her hand over his head. She grabbed my wrist and smiled. “He’s alive, Vivienne. They all are.”
This time I almost lost my dinner with the way my stomach trembled. She seemed so calm and reassuring. There had to be more to the story. “Where are they?”
The deserter in the bunk above her rotated in the bed in a way that made me suspect he was trying to tell us to shut up. We all stared up at him, waiting for him to cause a commotion, but thankfully, it didn’t happen.
“Maybe we should talk in the morning,” Sasha suggested.
And as much as I didn’t want to wait a few hours to learn what happened to everyone, I knew she was right. “Okay. Find us at breakfast before Hunter has to go to school.”
“School?” she asked.
“Yeah, school,” Hunter groaned. “No trips to the roof for me.”
I gave him a look at the same time Sasha turned to face me. “The roof?”
“Long story. I’ll fill you in once you tell me why you’re here.”
She smiled and squeezed my hand. “Deal. Now you two go back to your beds before we get caught.”
Hunter gave Sasha a quick hug and darted out around the bunks, heading back toward our beds. I tried to stand, but Sasha pulled me back down by my hand.
“Have you seen him anywhere?” Her voice quivered with the emotion I knew she didn’t like to show.
I shook my head. “Not since we got here. But he was alive and they were taking care of him.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know,” I sighed, then remembered my time on the roof. “But I might be able to find out.”
She looked at me with fresh tears glistening in her eyes. “Really?”
“Yes, and I can explain at breakfast. Just like you can tell me why you’re in here.” I looked out past the hundreds of beds wondering if Zach was in one of them. A sharp pain stabbed at my heart and I had to swallow that hope down. I couldn’t bear it to be disappointed that much.
“He’s here, Vivienne.”
“Zach?” I couldn’t breathe.
“Yes. But not in this building.”
The man above Sasha groaned loud enough to attract the attention of the guards. I thought about punching him but didn’t want to get in trouble and risk losing my time with Sasha at breakfast.
“Find me in the morning,” I said then stood to leave.
“Okay.”
The guards had just started another round, heading directly to where Sasha and the annoying man slept. I had enough time to skirt the edges of the bunks and hop between shadows to avoid detection. Hunter already lay on the top bunk in a deep sleep, or at least pretending to be in one.
As I sat down on my hard mattress, I knew the next few hours would drag on forever. Zach was here. Sasha was here, and I guessed that meant Trevor and Jackson might be too. But why weren’t they in here with us?
I’d counted the slats in Hunter’s bed above me fifty times and had a plan in place to talk to Riley well before the first rays of daylight pierced through the tiny windows at the top of the walls. As soon as the doors opened, Hunter and I grabbed a table in the cafeteria-like room and waited anxiously for Sasha to arrive.
“There she is. Oh, it’s Trevor!” Hunter spotted the two of them looking around like a deer in headlights trying to make sense of the government facility. The sight of Trevor brought a sense of comfort I didn’t know I could feel. Two of the four stood here in front of me. Now I just had to find Zach.
Hunter hugged Trevor hard enough he nearly knocked him over. I think the boy had grown another inch in the few days since our capture, and he towered over Trevor’s stocky frame. Sasha spotted me and pulled the three of them back to our little corner of the room where we could have a private conversation. Or at least the illusion of one.
I stood to greet Trevor and relished in the warm embrace we gave each other. Even if he was an annoying troll, he was still a part of our little family. And we’d lost too many to continue holding grudges.
“Okay, spill. Why are you here?” I asked before everyone had a chance to sit down.
“We were collected,” Sasha said with a sarcastic tone. I caught the glimmer in her eye.
“Something else is going on,” I stated.
Hunter dropped a tray filled with breakfast foods in front of us. Fruit, eggs, pancakes…plates overflowing with calories and hope. Trevor dug right in, allowing Sasha to do the explaining.
She leaned forward to speak directly to me. “We ran into another group while we were trying to track you down.”
“Another group?”
“Yes.” She lifted her head and looked around the room. “Two of them should be here somewhere…” Her voice trailed off and her gaze never settled on anyone familiar. “Anyway, we all decided to take the offensive.”
“I’m not following,” I said. Hunter and Trevor watched us but their mouths were too full to speak.
“We came here on purpose. To rescue you guys.”
I had to chuckle. “But you’re a prisoner just like me.”
“True. But the others aren’t.”
“You mean Zach and Jackson?” My racing heart almost galloped out of my chest.
“And Annie and Lew.” When I looked at her in confusion, she continued. “Two from the other group.”
“Well, how did you get in here? It can’t possibly be that easy.”
“It wasn’t.” She rubbed the back of her head and winced. “We all had to play our parts but I think they’ve had enough troubles with the deserters to take what they can get. And we handed them four of us.”
“But why?” I heard myself ask. It’s not like I wasn’t grateful for them to come after us, but it seemed like a lot for them to risk. “Why take the chance that you won’t get out of here?”
She grabbed both of my hands and squeezed. “Because they’re harvesting blood!”
“What?” Hunter and I asked at the same time.
“It’s true,” Trevor added between bites. “Rachael confirmed it.”
“Who’s Rachael?” I asked.
“The mercenary we caught,” Trevor said, then shoved a piece or orange in his mouth. The juice dribbled down his chin and he used his sleeve to wipe it away.
“That’s why no one comes back, Vivienne,” Sasha continued. “They’re using deserter blood to make water for the rich.”
“Is that even possible?” I asked, looking at Trevor who was our resident medical expert.
He nodded and bile rose to the back of my throat, the smell of eggs suddenly making me sick. “It’s very possible. As long as they can keep them alive…our bodies will keep producing new blood.”
A thousand thoughts swarmed through my mind. “But why not use the river water and purify that?”
“I’m sure they are, but since the war, uncontaminated water is hard to come by. Water extracted from human blood would be its purest form. If they could continuously isolate it, they could charge a premium.”
I thought about the city off in the distance. A city where thousands of people would have to have water in order to survive. A city w
here its citizens didn’t know what was happening outside the gates.
Or they didn’t care.
“But Riley said—”
“Who’s Riley?” Sasha asked.
“The mercenary guy who likes Vee,” Hunter cut in and I rolled my eyes.
“No. The mercenary who seems to think life is good here and he wants me to be one of his soldiers.” Trevor and Sasha stared at me with blank faces, so I continued. “Riley told me that people choose to stay here. They join the mercenaries or work in the factories on their own free will and live in the city.”
“And you believe that?” Trevor asked. Sasha said as much with the look in her eyes.
“No. I mean, not really.” I shook my head and rested my arms on the table. “But he believes it. I can tell.”
“Well how would he know? He’s a mercenary.”
“More like military royalty. His stepdad runs the place.”
Hunter choked on his food and Trevor stopped chewing. Sasha was the first to speak. “Sounds like someone we need on our side.”
I thought about her words. That was my plan—to see if Riley could help me find Max. But now that we knew about the blood…
“Yes, maybe. But I’ll have to tread lightly.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” Sasha said with a smirk. “Just distract him with your womanly charms.”
Trevor laughed. “Oh yeah, you’re good at that.”
I kicked him under the table and Sasha grinned. “Where’s Zach?” I asked her.
“Wherever the mercenaries go when they come here. Ask your Riley about that.”
“I will.” And right on cue, the doors grated open with the signal for our day to begin.
“What’s this?” Trevor asked.
“School time for me. Bottle washing time for you,” Hunter said, and got up to join the handful of other kids. He greeted Iris with a smile and a slight blush in his cheeks. My heart ached for Zach. And knowing he was so close, just grated at me even more. I needed to figure out a way to get some alone time with Riley again today.
“Just follow along and don’t fight back.” I looked pointedly at Sasha as the corner of her mouth curled up in a defiant smile. “I mean it, Sasha. Be invisible and give me the time I need to see if I can find out how we can all get out of here alive.”
“I need to find Max,” she said.
“I know. But give me some time to see if I can learn more without you causing a scene on the first day, okay?” She didn’t say anything. “Okay?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you,” I said. Sasha had always been the strength of our little family. And now I was asking her to have the same amount of trust in me.
We didn’t have time to say anything else before we were forced to march out of the room to our respective jobs. Sasha, Trevor, and I went in three different directions. I had a quick second to give Trevor a reassuring smile before his elevator door closed. I really did hope he’d be okay. As long as he kept his mouth shut, no one should want to kill him.
I twisted my fingers together in a tight ball as my elevator plunged to the correct floor, wishing that for once, things would go my way today.
I had to find Riley and we had to get to Zach.
SEVENTEEN
Zach
I woke feeling guilty for sleeping through the night like a rock. Too many years on the run had caught up to me and the moment I found a real bed to lie in, my body remembered the comfort.
Having a fresh shower with hot water only added to my satiated mental state. For the first time in years, I was clean and wide awake. My stomach growled, reminding me that it wanted more food. Real food like we ate last night in the shiny mess hall.
“Ready?” Jackson asked, slipping his arm into the new button-up shirt we’d received.
Clean clothes - another novelty I never thought I’d see again. I’d already dressed and had a quick conversation with Lew and Annie. Today they’d try to learn more about where the prisoners were kept and slipped away before the rest of the room woke up.
“Yeah,” I answered. “We need to get ourselves in the factory.”
Jackson raised his eyebrows. “And what? March in there and ask for our friends?”
“No, ask to be on babysitting duty so we have more time to figure things out.” I stood and walked past my friend who loved to antagonize me. “I have a plan.”
Jackson laughed this time. “I’m sure you do, Zach.”
Ignoring the jab, I led the way to breakfast where we looked forward to filling ourselves once again. I’d briefly wondered where the variety of food came from, but was too enthralled to put more thought into it. With plates overflowing with a sample of every item, we sat down between two groups of mercenaries close in age to us and laughing about a recent collection.
“Are you serious? She offered you sex?” A guy almost choked on his muffin when he asked the question. His wide mouth giving way to an obnoxious voice.
“Yep. And I almost took her up on the offer,” another guy bragged, swiping his hair out of his face. “She was hot, but a little too rough for my liking.”
“Please. You’ll do anything that moves, Todd. Since when did you get standards?” A slightly older female with short blonde hair laughed at her own joke.
“I have standards, Lisa. You just haven’t lived up to them.”
Lisa reached across the table and slapped Todd in the side of the head. The group erupted in laughter and cat calls.
“She showed you.”
“Burned.”
“When are you two gonna do it and get it over with?”
That last comment brought a pain to my gut with such intensity I almost cried out. All through high school, our friends would ask me and Vee that same question. All though high school we ignored them. And for what? If we’d just admitted how we felt, we would have had so much more time together…
“Right, bro?” Someone punched me in the shoulder.
I turned to see Todd waiting for an answer to a question I hadn’t heard. “Huh?”
He laughed. “I said why fuck around in the slums when you can have steak at the Plaza?”
“Huh?” I asked again.
Lisa sighed. “Todd, you’re never going to be one of them. They won’t ever pick you because they don’t see you.” She turned to look at Jackson sitting by her side. Her eyes traveled over him like a lioness eyeing her prey. “Now you, on the other hand, you might have a chance of being noticed.”
I swear Jackson blushed. “Noticed by whom exactly?” he asked, flashing his charismatic smile at Lisa.
“Those rich Plaza bitches.” She pulled her attention away from Jackson and glared at Todd. “You see, Todd has this fantasy that he’ll be swept away from the barracks to be married to one of the heiresses. Like Cinderella or some shit. I keep telling him it’s never going to happen and he should be thankful for the females that give him two minutes of their time now.”
“Two minutes, Lisa? You insult me,” Todd smiled and she rolled her eyes.
“Hey, it happened to Federico,” the guy with the muffin said.
“That’s because he was Italian.” Lisa faced Jackson again with a hunger making even me uncomfortable. “They like exotic.”
I think I heard her purr. Jackson didn’t budge. “And what about you, Lisa? Are you waiting for your Prince Charming?”
She huffed. “Hardly. They only want the beautiful to breed.”
“You’re not so bad,” Jackson said, ignoring that odd statement, and Lisa blushed three shades of red. Todd fidgeted in his seat beside me.
“You guys new?”
I looked across the table to see another girl around my age, but much more harsh than Lisa. With dark hair and sharp features, she had an aura about her that dared me to challenge. So I smiled and turned on the charm.
“Yes,” I said. “We had our first collection yesterday.” Jackson and I shared a look. Better to minimize the lies.
“I thought you looked ne
w,” the girl said. “Where are you from?”
“Where are you from?” I countered before I could panic. She stared at me for a full thirty seconds until Todd jumped in.
“Carolina’s from Region 10. And she thinks she’s high and mighty and better than us all because of it.”
“I am better than you,” she snapped back.
“Not good enough to make it to the Plaza though,” Todd countered.
“At least I’m not a babysitter,” Carolina said, eyes boring a hole through Todd.
“You’re a babysitter?” I asked, catching Jackson’s expression out of the corner of my eye.
Todd sighed and shook his head. “It’s just temporary.” Everyone quieted down to a hush, as though he’d been shunned. “It is! I only have two more weeks of dud duty.” He looked around the table at all of his friends who would no longer joke with him.
“What did you do?” Jackson asked.
“Nothing,” he mumbled.
“Todd thought he’d go out collecting on his own. He came back with a limp and a bruised ego,” muffin guy filled in.
“Control punished you?” I guessed.
“Yeah. I lost a vehicle and two guns.” He shoved a bite of food into his mouth and swallowed before continuing. “But I found a group of deserters and told Control where to find them.” He pleaded with his friends more than explained the situation. “I heard they got them a few days ago.”
“Is that the typical punishment?” Jackson asked, while I wondered which group of deserters he meant.
Lisa finally spoke again. “Sometimes. I think Todd got lucky due to his unnatural ability to dig himself out of a shit storm.”
A few from the group chuckled, and Todd smiled. “Told you my good looks would pay off.”
A bell chimed in the cafeteria before I could ask any more questions. The mercenaries jumped up, leaving a ridiculous amount of uneaten food on their plates. I couldn’t help but drool over their waste. Jackson and I had nothing left to throw away.
As we stacked our trays in a pile by the trash cans, Jackson slid up next to me. “We need to find Control and get punished.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
I looked around the room at the hundreds of misguided mercenaries itching at a chance to collect deserters. It made me sick, and angry, and ready to find our friends.