by Amy Braun
***
The trail was insane. It twisted and weaved in directions that made no sense to me, took us between narrow walls of rock, then flattened out into wide open plains. Earlier on, I was grateful that Simon was looking at his map. I thought it meant he was checking the directions so we wouldn’t get lost. Now I wasn’t so sure.
But we didn’t see a single soul on the hike. No Plagued, no Soulless, no humans. If there was any wildlife out here, they were keeping themselves hidden. When the Plague consumed the world, it hadn’t only corrupted human life. I morphed it so it could be transmitted into animals. I had as much guilt over that as I did with the humans, but my job had been to wipe the earth clean of all life. Still, it didn’t seem fair that the animals wouldn’t even get an ark to float to safety.
Not that anywhere was really safe when we were done.
“We’re almost there,” Simon reported ahead of us. He nudged his torch up. “Once we pass that hill, we’ll be at the cabins. We can take a short break, then head for the campground.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Simon tucked the map into his pocket and started to climb. I gave him enough space, then started to follow. The hill was off the main trail, so the climb was a little more arduous. My footing slipped a couple times and I needed to support myself with one hand to keep from face planting into the sand.
Simon had the same issues as me, but he made it to the top of the hill without falling on his face. When I reached the top, I brought myself up in a single smooth motion. Before Simon could scoff and say something sarcastic to hide his jealousy, I turned and checked on Maddy.
She was making her way just fine, but her steps were slower and heavier. I frowned. Maddy was a survivor, but how long had it been since she’d slept or ate? I couldn’t picture her sleeping in Kade’s suite, which meant Maddy had been awake since the demon attack, and she might not have eaten anything since then. Being held prisoner, running for her life, and wandering through the desert with two men she didn’t trust couldn’t be helping her state. I watched her stumble at the top of the hill, and rushed over to help her.
Maddy flinched when I took her hands and pulled her to her feet. She struggled and tried to pull away, but I didn’t want her to go tumbling down the hill, so I pulled her closer.
Maddy tripped and bumped against my chest, staring at me with wide, confused eyes. I was the bringer of death in her eyes, but here I was, hanging onto her gently and making sure she could stand. For a single, desperate moment, I thought Maddy was going to trust me again. Her expression softened, and she looked at me with the same curiosity as she had before. I thought that she would see that I was trying to be more than the instrument of destruction.
Then she pulled her yanked her hands out of my fingers and stepped back. She held her wrists up and scanned them eagerly.
“What did you do to me?”
I slumped. “Pulled you up so you didn’t fall down a hill.”
Maddy glared. “So what happens now? Am I going to drop dead like those two guards you took down at the Venetian?”
“I didn’t kill them,” I defended. “I paralyzed them.”
She lowered her hands and snorted. “Right.”
I could have given up then, but she was talking to me. This had to mean that she was willing to see reason. Didn’t it? I took a very small, very careful step toward her. Maddy stiffened, but didn’t back away.
“I’ll tell you a secret,” I said.
That made Maddy even tenser. Definitely the wrong approach, but there was no going back.
“The things that let us out put us in human bodies,” I explained. “I feel everything that you do, all the emotions and sensations. It helped us blend in. We were given endless banks of memories so we could understand everything around us, and could complete our mission effectively.”
“Avery.”
I ignored Simon. I was just feet away from Maddy, and she wasn’t trying to run or punch me.
“But when I felt the gravity of what I was doing, when I saw all the lives I was ruining…” I lowered my eyes and shook my head. “I can’t tell you how terrible it was. To know that I was the reason it all started, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I was made to believe there would be another chance for humanity. I tried to tell myself that this was the right thing to do, it had to be done, all that crap. But it was torture.”
“Then why didn’t you stop?”
I sighed. “I couldn’t.”
“Yes, you could have,” she protested. “You have all these incredible powers that I don’t understand, but you never tried to reverse the Plague.”
“I did try!” I shouted. I took a deep breath and lowered my voice. “There’s nothing that can be done about the Soulless since they aren’t under my control, and the Plagued remain dead when I lift the infection from them.” I scrubbed a hand over my face. “There is no cure. I made sure of it.”
I couldn’t bring myself to look at the hatred on Maddy’s face. I was half expecting her to pull out the knife I loaned her and shove it into my skull. I didn’t think I would stop her. The weight in my chest was too heavy. Every time I thought about the fires and smoke, the starving humans lying next to their dead friends, the lifeless creatures walking without a direction or purpose, it was enough to make me scream. Enough to make me want to kill every Plagued I saw just to end their oblivious misery. Enough to find all the surviving humans, drop to my knees, beg forgiveness, and take all the beatings and abuse they would rain down on me. I ignored Simon calling my name again and debated on starting my forgiveness campaign with Maddy, when her voice stopped me.
“You really mean that.”
I looked up, glad it was uncertainty in her eyes and not hatred.
“You risked your life for ours, because you actually want to save us. Not to finish the job you started. Which is what you could have done the moment you saw us.”
She was talking it out to make sense of it all. I wanted to feel good about that, but the tightness in my chest just wouldn’t leave. I don’t know what Maddy saw on my face when I nodded, but her stare was sympathetic. I didn’t want pity. I just wanted her to forgive me.
Her face was cast in shadow, but the torch illuminated her well enough. Thick, honey blonde hair rested against her pale, tired face. The smell of dirt, blood, and stale sweat on her skin didn’t bother me because she was standing so close to me. I could feel the warmth of her breath as it left her perfect, full lips. Every time I looked at Maddy, I saw something new. The light freckles on her nose. A new shade of blue in her eyes. The birthmark hiding under her right ear. Her beauty was hypnotizing, but that wasn’t what made my heart race.
Maddy was the only person I knew who could be two things at once. Fragile and strong, hopeful and practical, selfless and independent. I wanted to do everything in my power to make her life simpler, to keep her safe and see her happy. If I could only save one person, I wanted it to be Maddy.
She read my expression again, and took a careful breath. I don’t know what she saw, and it didn’t matter. Maddy was seeing the real me now. Whatever she did next was up to her.
Slowly, tentatively, she moved toward my face, glancing quickly at my lips–
“Avery!”
Maddy jumped back and I turned on Simon, ready to knock him out.
The impulse disappeared when I saw what was behind him, probably the same thing that was making him so antsy.
Sitting in front of a spiky wall of rough, rust-colored rock was a nightmarish forest. Decaying roots were strewn across the dirt road like stretched out snakes. They grew thicker and draped lazily over one another as they neared the clump of trees. I took a step closer to my brother, and saw that the expansive mess spreading out twenty feet across the road wasn’t a set of trees at all. The source of the twisted growing seemed to be a creosote bush that must have been injected with steroids. The stems of the plant were ten times as thick as they should be, the thinner branches extended in wild di
rections, the far ends drooping under the weight of the sickly grey leaves and shriveled black flowers. Some of the branches coiled around each other in knots, and others looked a little too much like barbed wire. I thought I could see something rectangular behind it, but when I shone my torchlight on the mini Sleepy Hollow, all I did was bleach out the color from the branches and make the wall look creepier.
“The cabin’s supposed to be right there,” Simon said, staring at the map as if it could explain what we were looking at.
“Maybe the cabin’s behind it,” offered Maddy, who had sidled up beside me when I wasn’t looking. I was shocked that she was so close to me, but even more so when she added, “We should check it out.”
Simon forgot about the map and gaped at her. “You see that thing, right? The wall that basically screams ‘Enter and Die’?”
Maddy’s smile was smug and teasing. A look I never thought I would see from her again. “Come on, Simon. This was your idea. Don’t be a chicken.”
He pursed his lips and glared at her. “I’m not being a chicken. I’m being reasonable.”
Maddy’s lips split into a full smile. Her eyes sparkled with challenge.
“Know who says that? Chickens.”
Without any warning, Maddy dashed down the hill toward the unnatural forest. I hurried after the reckless human girl, hearing Simon swear before chasing after me.
I almost expected Maddy to run full tilt into the snarl of branches, but she slowed down where the wall was thickest. I came up behind her, making enough noise so she wouldn’t be startled. I stood by her side, coming to the same conclusion she had.
“Doesn’t look like there’s a way in,” she stated.
I looked at the angry branches in front of me, then put the torchlight on my belt and drew the machete from my back. I glanced at Maddy and grinned.
“Guess we’ll have to make our own.”
Maddy smiled without restraint, making my heart soar. I had no problem clearing a path for her.
She moved to where Simon was standing, both of them giving me space to swing the machete with both hands. The first slash cut through the branches like they were made of tissue. I watched the top of the wall, making sure it wouldn’t cave in on me. Assured it would hold its structure, I continued hacking until I had enough space to slip inside.
The branches for the creosote bush smelled musty and old. Their tips scratched my face and tugged at my hair. Maddy’s frustrated sighs came from behind me, and Simon’s indiscernible cursing beyond that. I focused on cutting my way through, my swings becoming harder and more frequent. I hated feeling trapped.
But I was making progress. Through the tangle, I could make out the edges of a red brick building against the rock wall. And something sitting in front of that building.
I paused for a moment, not sure I believed what I was seeing. It can’t be…
I couldn’t see clearly to make up my mind, so I started chopping faster and harder than ever, no longer caring about the branches scratching my face. Soon I was all but shoving the branches aside, and tumbling out of the knotted wall onto the hard sand floor. I kept my footing, looked up, and froze in place.
I didn’t expect to see the pale grey Horse staring at me with angry black eyes, but I didn’t pay much attention to the animal. I was too busy staring at its master.
It didn’t show on his face, but I knew he was as surprised to see me, as I was to see him. He sat on a squat red boulder, wearing a long black trench coat, black pants, and a plain black shirt. His razor straight, crow black hair brushed his shoulders, and he looked even paler in the darkness. A small goatee circled his lips. A cigarette was clutched in his gloved hand, trails of smoke drifting in front of him. He reclined back and took a long drag from it. He blew out the smoke, murky black eyes staring at me with disinterest.
“Well,” said Logan. “This is unexpected.”
Chapter 17
I was going to respond with something like, ‘You’ve got that right,’ or even ‘No shit,’ but I was still coming out of the shock of seeing my oldest brother. After his confrontation with Kade, I thought I’d never see Logan again. I certainly didn’t think he’d still be kicking around the wasteland of Nevada. But every time I blinked, there he was, sitting and smoking casually. With his Horse.
Orcus was a strong, powerful animal with a smooth, sickly pale coat. Both his mane and tail were thin and ghostly, almost like they were invisible. Seeing Logan’s Horse sent a pang of heartache through me. It had been too long since I’d seen Bacillus, and seeing Orcus reminded me of how much I missed him.
Looking away from the animal, I focused on my brother, who was still waiting for me to say something. I still couldn’t think of anything. My eyes dropped back to the cigarette dangling from his fingertips.
“You’re smoking,” I blurted.
Logan glanced at the cigarette and shrugged. “I collected them while we were turning the world on its head. Kind of like mementos. I had nothing else to do, so I started the habit. It’s not like it’s going to hurt me.”
A laugh sputtered out of my mouth. Logan’s sense of humor was drier than the sand I was standing on. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed it.
Twigs and branches snapped behind me, Maddy and Simon finally stumbling through. Logan studied the human girl with slow motions. She shifted on her feet then looked at me, waiting for someone to tell her what was going on, and why this man had stunned both me and my brother into silence. Logan just stared at us and smoked.
“Holy shit, Logan?” Simon finally said. “What are you doing here?”
“Getting lectured by Avery about my latest bad habit.” Logan stood up slowly, rising and literally towering over us. “If anyone should be asking your question, Simon, it’s me. I was hoping my wall would be a deterrent to everyone, including you two.”
“Wait, you made that?” Maddy asked. Logan looked down at her. “How?”
He blinked, then turned his pitch black eyes on me.
“She knows,” I admitted.
Logan sighed. “I was wondering how long it would take for our secret to get out.”
“Hang on, you’re the fourth brother?” Maddy began to piece it together. “Then that would make you…” Her eyes bulged. “Oh my God.”
Maddy stepped back, wanting to create as much distance between her and Logan as possible.
“You can relax, Madeline Armstrong. It’s not your time.”
“Then how do you know my name?”
“You’re human, and unfortunately that puts you on my list. But you still have time.” Logan’s eyes turned distant. “Others will die before you.”
Obviously not reassured, Maddy slid closer to me. Logan made her so nervous that she actually grabbed my hand. I wasn’t sure why she’d be so scared of Logan when Kade was an actual animal, but then I considered what meeting my oldest brother meant for a human being.
While Kade was a monster, he was predictable. If you got to know him well enough, you would know how far you’d be able to push him. It was a terrible idea, but you would see the signs. Logan couldn’t be anticipated. Only he knew when and where he was supposed to show up, and he never gave any hints. If you were on his list, you stayed there until the circumstances fell into place and he put his bare hand on your shoulder. Even when you were dying slowly and agonizingly, there was no way to predict when Logan would appear. He did things at his own, controlled pace, and nobody but him would ever know his agenda.
“Way to fill us all with confidence, Logan,” I said to ease the tension, though my hand never left Maddy’s.
Logan glowered at me. “You sent millions of dead to me and destroyed my solitude. Forgive me for hurting your feelings.”