I drew back. Amory had never yelled at me like this before, and it looked as though he regretted it as soon as the words left his mouth.
“It’s Logan.”
He sighed, running a hand through his hair and sinking down onto the step next to me. “I know.”
I stared off into the darkness, not wanting to look at him.
“I’m sorry I got you involved,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. I was on the verge of tears, but I didn’t want Amory’s sympathy. I didn’t deserve it.
“No. I’m sorry,” he said.
“I know it was stupid bringing her here. But she’s our only chance.”
“I would have done the same thing,” he murmured, his forehead wrinkled in frustration. “Hell, I’m impressed you and Ida got back alive.”
I grinned, but my victory was hollow.
“I was just mad you didn’t tell me about Logan.”
“I know. I’m sorry,” I said, hanging my head in shame.
“How do we get her to talk? She won’t want to help Logan. I don’t think she ever forgave her for getting her kicked out of the PMC. And she hates the rebels after what happened in Sector X.”
Tentatively, I voiced the solution I’d been dreading. “Maybe . . . maybe we promise her a place at camp.”
Amory snapped his head around. “What? No way.”
“What else do we have to bargain with?”
“Why would she agree to that?”
“Jared. He’s her brother. And she can’t go back to the PMC. She can’t join the rebels. Where else is she going to go?”
But Amory was already shaking his head.
“What other option do we have?”
“Mariah only cares about Mariah. She’ll play along just as long as it’s convenient for her.”
“So what?” I cried.
“Do we really want her around? I know I won’t sleep well knowing she could give us up to the PMC any day.”
“We just have to offer something she wants,” I said, lowering my voice so there was no chance of Mariah overhearing. “Survival. In return, she leads us to World Corp International to steal the cure for Logan. After that . . . I don’t care what we do.”
Amory sighed. “I don’t like this. Once we involve Jared, all bets are off. He could run and tell everyone about Logan.”
“Not if he wants to keep his sister alive. He has just as much to lose.”
Amory let his head fall between his fingers, breathing loudly against his palm, and I could tell by his agitation that he was giving in. I didn’t know what we would do about Mariah after we’d found the cure. Amory was right — we couldn’t keep her around. But for now, playing her was the only way to get what we wanted.
We walked over to the mess hall looking for Jared, but he was nowhere to be found. The hall was busy, but there were more empty seats than usual. I spotted Ida from the line talking to Murphy, but judging by Murphy’s easy expression, she hadn’t told him everything about our supply run. She looked visibly relieved to see Amory and me, and I nodded once to indicate everything was fine.
Discreetly swiping two of anything I could stuff in my pockets, Amory and I situated ourselves at one of the long tables nearest the door so we would be able to avoid chitchat with the other defectors and make a quick exit as soon as we found Jared. I kept my eyes fixed on the door of the mess hall, waiting for him.
Finally, the doors swung open and a group of hunters walked in. They were a motley crew. Their boots were caked with mud, their long, wild hair tangled from the wind, cheeks red from the cold. Trailing at the back of the group, her hair plastered to her sweaty face, was Logan. My pulse quickened in alarm to see her out of our cabin socializing with the others, but they didn’t seem to notice anything strange about her. Only the yellowing in her eyes, the feverish glint of her skin, and the slight droop in her shoulders showed she was not herself.
She was chatting animatedly to Jared, looking as happy as I’d ever seen her since Max’s death. Jared looked comically sullen in comparison.
They shuffled through the mess line, and I waved them over. Jared looked stony and then suspicious, but he followed Logan over to our table.
“How was the hunt?” I asked, my voice a little too high to sound casual.
Jared grunted, digging into his meatloaf to avoid speaking.
“It was awesome,” gushed Logan.
“Do you really think you’re . . . up for it?” I asked pointedly.
Her smile didn’t quite meet her eyes, but she waved a hand dismissively as my gaze settled on the blood splattered across her white thermal shirt. “I couldn’t stick around while they were field dressing it, but I’ll work up to it.”
I grinned despite myself. Logan, the least squeamish girl I’d ever met, couldn’t stand the sight of blood. I tried not to think about the fact that she might not ever get to field dress a deer.
She pushed her food around her plate, looking a little pale, but bowed her head to deflect any more of my questions.
“So we could use your guys’ help,” I said, hoping the slight waver in my voice wouldn’t give me away. “I’m supposed to clean out one of the cabins in the back for overflow supplies for Miller, and . . . there’s this bat we can’t get out of there.”
Logan raised an eyebrow. “So leave it in there until tomorrow. That way you’ll have an excuse to ditch her in the morning.”
“I think it will be easier at night.”
She chewed her food, staring at me with that sharp look that told me she didn’t miss a thing. “All right.”
As we finished our meatloaf and got up to leave, I stuffed my roll in my coat pocket with the extra baked potato I’d stolen and led them out into the snow.
Walking back toward the cabin, I felt the anxiety twisting my gut into knots. We really hadn’t thought this through very well, and there was no way to know how they might react.
I stomped up the steps outside the cabin and turned, feeling nervous. Logan looked expectant; Jared looked bored.
“There’s something you should know,” I said, looking to Amory for help.
He didn’t say anything, so I continued. “I lied about the bat.”
Logan looked caught between irritation and intrigue. “What’s going on, Haven?”
“I need your help.” I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, realizing that no matter how I revealed Mariah, it would be cruel and insensitive to Jared. “Something went wrong at the Exchange. The PMC showed up, and two of them followed us to the highway.”
“What?” snapped Jared. “Why didn’t Ida say anything?”
“I’m sure she’ll talk to Murphy. She probably doesn’t want to start a panic.”
“Start a panic? We need to move! If the PMC followed —”
I shook my head. “I shot one of them, but the other one . . .” I looked into Jared’s eyes, trying to gauge his reaction. “I don’t know how it’s possible, but I couldn’t kill her once I saw who she was.”
Watching Jared, I saw his expression go from cold and confused to furious. “Who? You couldn’t kill who?”
“Amory removed her CID in the woods a few miles from camp, but —”
Jared pushed past me roughly, fumbling with the lock on the door. Amory handed him the key, and he bolted inside.
Stepping over the threshold behind him, I watched his gaze snap to Mariah. He stopped in the middle of the room, his shoulders hunched comically, prepared to strike.
Mariah straightened up from her slumped position against the wall, and for the first time since I’d known her, I saw something ignite behind her cold cat eyes. Then it was gone.
“What the hell is this?” Logan spluttered.
“She’s infected,” said Jared.
“No, she’s not.”
Logan gave me a sad look. “That’s impossible.”
“Check her eyes.”
She crossed the room in three strides to where Mariah sat, grabbed Mariah’s chin, and cocked it upward to
catch the dim light of the lantern. She examined her for nearly a whole minute before releasing her — none too gently — finally satisfied.
But it was Mariah who looked smug, even tied to a radiator. Logan yanked down her gag, nearly dislocating Mariah’s jaw in the process.
“Who cured you?”
Mariah sneered. “How does it feel to be dying?”
Logan’s eyes narrowed into slits, yanking the gag back up between Mariah’s teeth and grabbing a fistful of her hair.
“Logan —”
Mariah made a noise like a low growl, and Logan pulled back her head to expose her throat, as if wondering if she could rip out Mariah’s jugular with her bare hands.
I glanced nervously at Jared, expecting a reaction.
Finally he spoke, his voice low and cracking. “Why did you bring her here?”
He turned, and I saw that his eyes looked red, the corners of his mouth uncharacteristically downturned. “Isn’t it enough I had to watch them throw her out to die once?”
“She’s not infected,” I repeated.
“So what?” The way he said it sounded hopeless and broken. “It’s not like she’ll be allowed to live here. They’ll kill her when they find out.”
“We removed her CID,” I said. “It doesn’t have to happen that way.”
“Haven,” said Logan in a quiet voice. “What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that she’s the first person we’ve ever seen who’s cured,” I said, my voice shaking. “We can’t just let her go without knowing where she got it. If there’s a chance we could save you —”
“What?” snapped Jared. He turned to stare at Logan. “Are you telling me she’s infected?” A look of disgust flashed across his face, followed by fear and anger.
“You can’t tell anyone,” I said in a low, deadly voice. “We just need time.”
“Time for what?”
“To find the cure.”
“Are you fucking crazy?” yelled Jared. “You’re putting us all at risk!”
“No,” I said. “Logan’s not even contagious yet.”
“She will be! Then she’ll be ripping us open in our sleep.”
I glanced at Logan, feeling horrible. But her face was calm. She was in problem-solving mode.
“Haven, maybe she just . . . got better?” Logan’s voice was softer now, pacifying. “We don’t know that she found a cure.”
“No! World Corp studied her. They cured her.”
“World Corp International?” Jared looked irate. “Not this again!”
“Ida thinks they’re behind it all — that they own the PMC. And after what Mariah told me . . .”
“Don’t you think she’s just telling you what you want to hear so you’ll let her live?”
“No! We never even said anything about World Corp.”
“What’s your plan?” Jared asked. He hunkered down next to his sister, studying her. “How do we keep her from running off and giving the PMC our location and keep the others from killing her?”
“I was hoping you could help with that.”
Jared didn’t answer. He just sat there for a long time, staring down at his sister as if making a decision that had weighed on him for years.
Finally, he reached over to loosen the gag on Mariah’s mouth again. It fell down around her neck, and her mouth cracked into a smirk.
“Hello, little brother. It’s been a long time.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
We left Jared with Mariah, knowing there was no use worrying that he would set her free or tell the others. From the look on his face, I could tell he was conflicted. He was shocked to see his sister alive but torn by the risk she posed to the rest of the group. Maybe I had expected him to treat her differently, but spending a lifetime in Mariah’s dark shadow must have meant he knew better than anyone how dangerous and manipulative she could be.
Amory left. Tonight he was due on carrier watch with Kinsley, though it seemed silly when the real threat was already in camp.
I knew I had to tell Greyson, but I didn’t have the energy.
Most of the campers had already returned to their cabins for the night, so Logan and I sat down by the dying embers of the fire, waiting for Greyson to make his rounds.
“Haven, I can’t stay here,” Logan said finally.
My stomach clenched with dread, but even as she said the words, I knew she was right.
“It’s only a matter of time before someone finds out. It’s already in my eyes. I can’t hide it much longer.”
“When should we leave?”
“We?”
I looked at her, puzzled, and then the realization dawned on me. She wasn’t talking about leaving camp to find the cure as a group. She was planning on leaving by herself — going off alone to die.
“No!” I stammered. “No. You’re not leaving us.”
“I have to. Haven, I’m going to be contagious soon. I won’t take the chance of infecting any of you.”
“Ida and I think it’s bloodborne. None of the other rebels who fought the carriers and lived became infected.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I was bitten, and I’m not infected.”
“I’m not willing to risk it on a guess.”
“Mariah said the virus mutated. That means that the vaccine doesn’t protect against any carriers with the new strain. Think about it. Most reported cases of infection were transmitted by carriers with the open sores because it passes from person to person through the bloodstream. And Mariah was with us the whole time on the way to Sector X. None of us are infected.”
“How did she get it?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“And what about the thousands of people who were infected before the outbreak? It doesn’t make sense! I think people would have remembered being bitten.”
“Maybe sharing needles . . . blood transfusions . . . I don’t know.”
“Millions of people would have to be heroin addicts or blood donors, Haven.”
She was right. That was the piece that didn’t fit.
“What about your mom? When would she have come in contact with the virus?”
Logan didn’t need to ask. I’d already been racking my brain trying to remember what she had been doing that spring that could have brought her in contact with contaminated blood. I sighed. “It doesn’t matter. If you leave, we’re all leaving. We’re going to World Corp International to get the cure.”
“We need Jared to come with us.”
“Why do you want to bring him?”
“He’s the only way to guarantee she won’t lead us into a trap and drop us right on the PMC’s doorstep.”
I nodded. “When do we leave?”
“As soon as possible. No point waiting until I get worse. I don’t want to be a burden.”
I looked at her. She was staring into the fire, face still flushed from the hunt. If it weren’t for her eyes, I wouldn’t have been able to guess that she was infected.
“We need to tell Greyson about Mariah.”
“I’ll do it,” she said.
“Are you sure?”
Logan nodded, looking tired. “I’ll meet you back at the cabin.”
As she walked off, a horrible image flashed through my mind: Logan as a carrier, sickly and emaciated, her long blond hair gone. Logan gasping for air through infected lungs, not remembering who I was. I wondered if I would fight her like any other carrier — kill her to save Amory or Greyson.
I pushed the image out of my mind. I couldn’t think that way. We still had time, and our shot at finding the cure hung on Mariah.
The wind kicked up, cutting through my jacket and sending a shiver through my entire body. The naked trees caught the breeze, creaking and swaying. Realizing I was all alone in the center of camp, I got up and headed back to the cabin.
It was already dark inside when I pushed open the door, and I could see the lumpy outlines of Maggie, Dolores, and Camille already curled up in the
ir bunks. I sank down on the bed and pulled off my boots, taking care not to disturb the other women.
Lying back onto the sheets that smelled like cedar and pulling the soft quilt over my head, a sudden wave of sadness washed over me. Soon we would have to leave the comfort of the defectors’ camp, and I had a feeling we wouldn’t be coming back. Nothing post-Collapse seemed to stay the same once you left it.
Then I heard a gunshot.
Camille jerked awake with a tiny yelp, and I sat bolt upright. I twisted on the bed to peer out the dusty window, but I couldn’t see anything through the darkness. I heard another shot and then another.
Springing up, I shoved my feet into my boots and ran out into the snow, ears piqued to discern the direction of the shots. Moving through the shadows toward the sound, I almost collided with Greyson and Logan. Greyson was trying to situate his gun and pull on a coat at the same time. Logan looked eerily pale, but her coat was fastened, and she was calmly loading her rifle.
Another shot fired in tandem with a second.
“Carriers,” she muttered.
“Amory,” I choked. “Kinsley.”
“They’ll be fine,” said Greyson. “Get your rifle, and we’ll go help them.”
My mind felt jumbled. Why hadn’t I grabbed my gun?
I tripped back up the cabin steps and whirled around in my room, looking for anything else I might need and ignoring Maggie’s and Dolores’s panicked questions.
I grabbed my rifle and the knife sitting on the window ledge beside my bed, stuffing two boxes of ammunition in my pockets on my way out. When I emerged, Greyson and Logan were already edging along the line of trees, weapons poised. More gunshots punctuated the darkness, and it was easy to follow them. I heard a shout ring through the bare, frosted trees, but it was too low and far away to tell if it could be Amory.
Up ahead, I heard the sound of footfalls. Someone was crashing through the underbrush. I raised my rifle, squinting through the shadows. Finally, I could discern the bulky outline of someone running toward us. He moved too quickly to be a carrier, but I did not lower my weapon.
Enemy Inside (Defectors Trilogy) Page 22