by Tara Brown
He smiles when he sees me. He doesn’t look behind me to make sure I wasn’t followed, or even look around himself. He has a gun to keep him safe from the infected, more though, he has Mitch.
"We're going in when it gets quiet and everyone goes to bed."
Mitch nods, "I'll come with you."
I shake my head, "No. You need to keep him safe."
Jake rolls his eyes, "I'm not tits on a bull, Em. I can help. That’s a lot of dudes, let us help."
I give Mitch a look. He nods. I turn and walk back into the woods.
We wait until the dark of night has settled in, and the camp has completely died down, and then make our way into the woods. I have double blades, handguns, my bow and quiver, and a rifle. She has the same, minus the bow. It's almost the last of the weapons from our camp.
I follow her perfectly through the bomb path. I'm sure Bernie made her run it many times.
We stop at the weapons hold to see if even a few things have been left there. She finds a couple protein bars, some ammo, and a bigger knife.
I eat the protein bar too fast and burp it the whole way along the woods. I hear the guard in the trees shifting as we get closer, and I pull an arrow silently. The only sound that we hear is the release of the arrow as it whips through the wind, and then slices into his head. It took a second for my eyes to adjust, but as he falls from the tree without making much noise, I know I hit the right spot.
Star takes his weapon, staying low. No one comes, even with the little bit of rustling that occurred.
We sneak along the new log house, hearing the people sleeping inside. The door at the side of the house opens without a sound. Star sneaks in and moves to the side, so Leo can get ahead of us. He waits in the hallway as I make my way into the first room on the right. I can hear the sleeping people.
We made an arrangement when we arrived, no one would be spared, regardless of what we found in those rooms.
I don’t think as I slide my blade against the first throat I find.
It's just like the breeder farms; these are the ones who are against us. It's us and them. It always was.
Star takes the left and I take the right. We meet at the end of the hall, both looking haunted and hollow at the same time.
We slip into the kitchen and the shelter but no one is sleeping down there.
Leo takes the stairs. I hear a noise and a crunch, and see his yellow eyes glistening in the dark. We creep upstairs into the first room, the one I always slept in. I know the door has a creak. I open it quickly, the creak is there, but only for a second. Star hurries into the room, making the slicing sound, and the wet noise fills the darkness. Leo makes his crunching sound once. He's not eating them, just tearing the throat out in one fast bite. It isn’t his first time killing without sound.
Sweat coats my face. I wipe it with my shirt and continue to the next room. Star opens it slowly. I creep past her, almost tripping on the person on the ground, sleeping on the floor. I take a knee and feel for their breath. I reach my hand for their throat, wishing everything were different. I'm loosing my edge. Star is done both people on the bed and someone on the floor, and I still haven’t killed the person breathing on my hand. Leo senses my hesitation and finishes the job for me.
The next two rooms are the same. I don’t have the fury and vengeance Star has. The man I love is dying, but his head is not mounted on the gate of this village. She kills without thought or feeling. She has become numb to the pain of others. I almost envy her that; I miss that feeling a little. I miss turning my back on them and being responsible for me and Leo.
I don’t know how to get that back.
We tiptoe to the back room that used to be Bernie's. It is the place that mine and Star's niece or nephew was created. It is the place where my best friend lost her virginity the right way, to the man she loved.
I can only assume Michael is in there.
Star looks at me in the dark; I see her eyes glisten with hatred and pain.
She nods once and creeps into the room. I follow her in, letting Leo take the lead though. We sneak to either side of the bed, moving perfectly, even without speaking. Who knew we would be the perfect assassination team. I suspect Michael did. I suspect he made us to be what we are.
The moon shines in the window slightly, making it easy to see the two women in his bed. He is in the middle of them, sleeping like a baby.
I grimace and glance at Star. She has the same face as me. Star slices the throat of the first girl. I can't. I know that. She doesn't look older than we are.
Star comes to my side and ends the girl for me, giving me a dirty look.
I shake my head and walk to the far side of the wall. I slide down it, Leo comes and sits next to me.
Star sits in the chair against the wall next to me, and we wait for him to wake and realize he's being bathed in the blood of the two girls he, no doubt, just took advantage of. I know what women will do for protection. It makes me sick.
The night is silent. No one in the house stirs or realizes that the whole main house has been murdered.
Michael moans and stirs, sliding his arm across the wetness of the body on the right, He lifts his hand and his face, sitting up abruptly. Star switches on the light next to her.
"Sleep well?"
His jaw drops and then his lips curl into a tight smile. He shakes his head, "The first ones were the best ones. There is no doubt. We used the best DNA from the top scientists and athletes in the world, making a cocktail of excellence. Of course, when they found out why we were doing it, they all backed out. Such a waste of talent that was."
Star lifts a gun from her lap, "We don’t need your 'why I'm so evil and genius' speech. We just wanted you to know it was us who murdered you."
He laughs, as if either buying time or not believing us capable. "All the greatest have died for their beliefs or because they made their creations too amazing. You girls are prime examples of that. Think of the world you can create from the ashes of this one."
Star steadies her hand, "We aren’t you. We don’t want to make anything."
He puts his hands up, "I can give you anything and everything. It'll only be a matter of months before we are rebuilding the next city." His eyes sparkle, "Did you meet your brother, Nicholas? He is my prodigy, in every way. I sent him to see how you were doing."
My insides tighten.
His smile widens, "You have met him. You weren’t foolish enough to let him in, were you?" He shakes his head, "Tsk, tsk, tsk, Emma. I expected more from you. Star here had a privileged life, what with Bernie being my right-hand man and all."
Leo bares his teeth. I almost bare mine.
Star fires the gun, "Not too privileged. I still learned how to shoot a gun, Dad." Michael jerks back from the bullet. I stand up, terrified and angry in a whole new way. If Anna, Jake, or Sarah are hurt because of Nick, I will never find my way back to the good place in my mind.
Michael winces as he coughs and then laughs. The bullet must have missed the important stuff. He looks like he might be able to get up off the bed. I lift my bow and pull an arrow.
He smiles at me, "I made you to be more, Emma. Stop devaluing what I created. Be the leader you naturally are. I've had everyone call you the phoenix, in preparation for you to be the one to take my place."
"So it was you that started the stupid nickname? You arrogant bastard. Granny and Gramps and Lenny were always right about you. Not worth the price of spit was how Granny always said it."
His eyes narrow.
I shake my head, sliding the arrow into the bow, "You didn’t make me, Michael. God did. You donated sperm and tried to create something, but my mother and Lenny, Granny, and Leo made me. I am what I am because of them. You had no hand in that. I don’t have to be the monster you tried to make. Granny and my real dad taught me about right and wrong." I smile peacefully, "And you aren’t God, asshole. You're dead."
He opens his mouth, but I release the first arrow into his shoulder, " stari
ng at the pupil of his eye as the second arrow pierces it.
Star switches off the light and opens the bedroom window. She waves at me, "This way." She opens a panel on the wall and puts her grenade inside, "Give me yours."
I pull it out and pass it to her.
We can hear the footsteps on the stairs of people coming to save Michael. No one is bringing his ass back from this. Bastard. I follow Leo out the window, onto the ledge. Star leaps out the window, "Run!" We sprint in the dark to the back of the house. She drops down onto the roof of the pantry and then onto the ground. Leo and me follow her into the woods. We run as fast as we can. I hear a gun cock behind us. My back tenses, waiting for the bullet to hit, but instead, I hear a whistle and something falling in the woods. I look back, but I can't see what it was.
We get a little further along to see Jake holding a bow and quiver, standing on a stump. We both stop, even Leo looks surprised.
He grins, "Now that was an impressive shot. Dummy used a scope, so easy to see him when the moonlight reflected off of it."
I smile, shocked and impressed. Mitch steps up onto the stump and shakes his head, "Gimme the bow back, you little shit."
Jake laughs quietly, "I totally had you fooled. Even Leo bought that one. You all owe me a coke for falling for that."
We saddle up and look at the house. Star raises the rifle, sighting it in and takes a breath. On the exhale she fires. The whole mansion explodes.
We stand there stunned as the camp erupts into flames and alarm. Secondary explosions start discharging. The entire property becomes a war zone of fire and screams.
Star kicks her horse into a fast run.
Mitch looks stunned, "What the hell was that?"
She looks back, "Bernie was paranoid. He never wanted his work to fall into the hands of the wrong people."
It makes a smile break across my face, but then I remember what he said about Nick. I boot my horse in the flanks shouting back at them, "Nick's a mole—we can't go get the medicine for Will. We have to go back first."
Jake looks at me from his saddle and shouts, "WHAT?"
I point, "NICK IS A MOLE! WE GOTTA GO BACK FIRST!"
He winces and I see his lips form the word shit. It’s our favorite I think.
Chapter Fifteen
We reach the guard platforms, but I don’t see anything. No one is in the tree.
I feel sick as I round the corner and no one is in the yard. Of the nearly fifty people we left there, no one is around.
I leap from the horse, blasting into the house.
"ANNA, WILL!" No one answers.
Jake, Star and Mitch are doing the same. We meet back in the yard but there is no one.
The yard and house are empty. I turn and run down to the bedroom, smacking myself in the forehead; Anna can't yell. I push her door out of the way and stop when I see the bloody mess on the bed of the otherwise empty room. I grip the wooden frame of the door, stunned and disturbed as a thousand possibilities run through my mind.
Jake drops to his knees when he reaches the room. His face is buried in my side.
"EMMA!" Star sounds panicked.
I turn, running hard for the doorway, to where Star is staring across the field, pointing.
I see the group of them, all of them walking across the field. They look solemn and sad. Nick is in the front with Will and Anna.
I break into a run, but I don’t stand a chance against Jake. They see us as we run, but they don’t look excited about seeing us. I see mouths open to speak but we ignore them. Jake takes Nick to the ground, screaming and swinging.
Anna wheezes and screams as Will tries to pull him off of Nick. He has lost his mind. Will and some of the others wrestle him off of Nick, whose face is bleeding and swelling.
Anna grabs me, "I lost the baby. He didn’t hurt me." She knows what we saw in her room.
She points at the back lot and speaks in the high moan of the infected, "We made a graveyard."
My lip creeps out as tears start to fill my eyes. Star starts to cry. It's the last piece of Bernie, gone forever.
I pull her in and let her sob into me. Leo jumps up and wraps his paws around her. I don’t think he understands, but he always surprises me with his ability to sense things.
Sarah joins us, bawling too. Jake looks at me. I shake my head. He grabs Anna, holding her to him. Star finds her way into the embrace; she and Anna share their loss.
Will pulls me into him, "You okay?"
I shake my head, "I didn’t get the medicine yet."
He glances at Nick and offers him a hand, "Nick saved Anna."
I look into Nick's eyes apologetically, "He said you came to trick us."
He wipes blood off on his sleeve and pinches his nose, "Of course he did. He's a maniacal narcissistic asshole." He points back at the house, "Did you end him?"
I glance at Star's shaking body as she, Anna, and Jake hug and cry. I nod, "We did."
He offers me a bloody hand, "Let's start over then. Hi. I'm your half-brother, Nick."
I shake his hand, "I'm sorry I shot you."
He nods, "Yeah, it's been a rough week."
The people of our little village give us a sideways look and whisper amongst themselves.
Nick turns around and smiles, "The man who made the mess of our world has died. Emma and Star murdered him. We owe them a debt of gratitude."
The people look at Star, then me, and then each other. They don’t look ready to thank me for ending the tyranny; I don’t give a shit either way. I just want the whole world to stop fighting to be on top.
I turn away from them all and stagger to my friend. I wrap my arms around her and wish there was a way to change the losses she has suffered. It seems like the best of us have it the hardest. Anna is the best person in the world to me. She is the one who saved me as much as I saved her.
We slowly make our way to the houses and filter off into our different directions. Will wraps his arms around me and whispers, "Did you kill him?"
I nod, "I did."
His burning body next to mine scares me. I look at Nick, "Once, Michael told me that my blood could cure things."
His eyes sparkle for a second, "We need a needle to inject it."
I nod, "I know a place to get one." I give Mitch a smile, "Wanna go for a horse ride?"
He shakes his head, "No, my ass is killing me."
I scoff, "Well, we could walk."
He rolls his eyes, "I do not like you very much right now. I just need to put that out there."
"I don’t care, you coming or not?"
He sighs, " Yeah."
I look up at Will, "Hang on for two days, okay?"
He shakes his head, "I'm fine, I swear. Me and Nick have been working on the lung thing. He doesn’t even think it's contagious."
I give Nick a slight glance. His face tells me a different story.
I hug Anna once more, "I'm so sorry."
She shakes her head, "I should have known. The infection wrecked everything."
I kiss her cheek, "No, the important stuff is still there." I whisper into her ear, "If I don’t come back, you make Nick keep him alive, okay?"
She nods.
I glance at Star, "I'm heading for needles."
She winks, "I know the best place." Jake gives us a look, "I'm coming too."
I glance at Will, who is talking to one of the cook pit ladies, "I need you to stay here and make him listen."
Jake shakes his head, "Anna can do that. Besides, I'll go nuts wondering what trouble you all are in without me."
Star rubs her butt, "How long before we leave?"
I shrug, "An hour."
She winces, "That’s going to be horrid."
Mitch runs his hand over his butt too, "Mine doesn’t hurt so bad. If you need a massage Star, I'm sure I could help you out."
Star cocks an eyebrow at him, "That's okay."
I walk to Will and take his hand in mine, "Come on."
He shakes his head, "I ha
ve a couple things to do in the barn. If the other smithy is gone, we need to fix this one up."
I smile, "Just come with me."
He gets a gleam on his fevered face. I pull him to Anna's room, "We need to clean this up. We can't make her do it."
He stops at the door and sighs, "Is it wrong I'm glad that she's not going to have a baby?"