It’s weird to think that while I was in Crestwood, Remi had just left. Gabe told us that she was kicked out for stealing something important. That didn’t sound like Remi, but what do I know? I haven’t seen her in three years. He then went on to say that it wasn’t what it sounded like. She was trying to learn about someone that calls himself Shadowface—the same person that hired Scarecrow and his men.
Shadowface wants the canister.
I reach into my pocket and pull it out. It’s small and metal. It unscrews in the middle and inside is a glass vial of liquid that looks like blood. I was afraid the guards were going to take it away from me when they searched us at the gate, but they didn’t see it as a threat, nor did they ask what it was. Yet this little object was enough for Paxton to kick us out and let the raiders do what they wanted with us. It was enough for this Shadowface to track us down. I wish Gilbert would have never found it in the first place. At one point, it was meant to be kept as a bargaining chip against the raiders, but now it’s little more than a liability. Just because Scarecrow failed to get the canister, doesn’t mean Shadowface is going to stop looking for it.
The thought makes me shiver. I don’t like the sound of the name Shadowface. Someone that wants to keep his identity a secret and employ people like Scarecrow has to be dangerous. I would be happy to just give him the cylinder in exchange for a promise that I will never hear from him again. I just want to live in peace.
I almost laugh at the thought. No one lives in peace anymore. The closest thing I’ve seen to peaceful were the people at Crestwood, but I’m slowly getting the feeling that it wasn’t real. Paxton is in league with Shadowface and that’s bad enough. The people might be fine now, but with Shadowface lurking in…well…the shadows, there is no way things will remain peaceful for them. I see a future of war and violence with people like Shadowface running things.
But people seem to forget that the real enemy is the greyskin virus. Why can’t we be working to get rid of the greyskins instead?
Because there are bad people who want nothing more than to take advantage of good people.
The thought makes me angry. Despite what the world is like, greyskin virus or no, there will be and have always been people that prey on the innocent. All anyone else is trying to do is survive, but it isn’t enough for some. There are always those that crave more.
For the next couple of hours, I’m lost in my thoughts. I press my palm against the window again and it feels just as cold as it did earlier. When I look out onto the parking lot below, I can see people huddled together around little fires, talking about something. I wonder why they aren’t inside. Their clothes flap in the wind and they bunch up so tightly they look miserable.
I turn my head when I hear footsteps down the hallway coming toward my door. I’m not sure whoever it is will stop, but when they do, my heart leaps. The doorknob twists open and it is the same guard that brought me to the room earlier this morning.
When he opens the door, he looks at me awkwardly for a moment. “I uh…I was just ordered to come and get you,” he says. “You have a visitor.”
I feel numb, but not in a bad way. My stomach has butterflies like the feeling of jumping off a hundred-foot cliff into deep water. I don’t know why I feel nervous to see her. Maybe I’m just afraid of what I will see. Maybe I’m afraid that despite the accurate descriptions of her, this Remi isn’t actually my sister.
The guard leads me through the hallway and down a flight of stairs. We go through another corridor until we reach a door at the end.
“You can go ahead,” the guard says. “She’s in there.”
The lump in my throat won’t go away. What if it isn’t her? What if it is someone else that I don’t know? What would I say?
I reach for the door and open it slowly. The girl stands in front of me, her eyebrows twisted and her forehead crinkled as if she’s about to burst. She brings her hands to her mouth and water forms in her eyes instantly. Of course, I can barely see any of this through the tears in my own. Remi, my sister, stands in front of me.
We don’t speak. The only noise we hear are the quiet sobs that pass by our lips. Remi walks toward me with her arms wide open, ready to embrace me, but I am forced to take a step away from her. She gives me a strange look and kind of cocks her head to the side in confusion.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “Remi, it’s so good to see you, but I can’t hug you right now…I…I can’t explain.”
I can’t tell her that it’s because I’m too scared to see her future. I can’t handle seeing another vision right now. It would ruin the moment. It would take me away from the feeling of happiness.
Remi lowers her arms and shakes her head. “I’m sorry,” she says. “It’s really good to see you.
We sit together at a table, and at first, neither of us know where to begin. We talk about the crazy chances of our ending up here together, but the conversation inevitably comes to our parents. I tell her everything I saw on their last day.
“So, that was it then?” Remi asked. “You heard mom through the door and dad over the phone, and that was it?”
I nod. “It was horrible.”
Remi shakes her head, her eyes fixed on the table in front of us. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“I’m sorry you had to spend the last three years wondering,” I tell her.
She lets out a breath from her nose. It seems like a laugh, but an empty one. “I had plenty of other things to fill my head,” she says. “I’m sad to say that Mom and Dad’s fate didn’t take priority in my mind for very long.”
“I understand,” I say. A few seconds of silence sits between us. It is surreal to see her…unsettling even. I have accepted the fact that my entire family was gone long ago. To see Remi fills me with joy and dread at the same time. Joy, because it is so good to see her. Nothing makes me happier than to know she’s alive. Dread, because now I will live fearing that she could die. I want to ask her about all the things she has gone through. I want to know what kind of person she is now. What I see in front of me looks nothing like the sister I saw three years ago. And I know I’ve changed a lot too.
“I can’t believe you’re seventeen now,” she says to me. “I don’t guess you ever got your license.”
I can’t help but smirk. “No, but I’ve learned to drive a little.”
“Are you with a group?” she asks.
“Just over a week,” I say. I bite my lower lip and look away.
“You’ve lost some, haven’t you?”
I nod.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “I’ve lost a lot of people, too. Before I was at Crestwood.”
“We were at Crestwood,” I say.
She sits up straighter, her eyebrows darting forward. “When?”
“We were kicked out a day ago.”
“You were the ones,” she says.
“Huh?”
She shakes her head. “I was there when you were there. I overheard someone saying something about a raider. Paxton was going to kick you out and let him have you. The raider was after something.”
I reach for my pocket and pull out the small cylinder. “We called him Scarecrow. He was after this.” I unscrew the metal and pull out the glass vial filled with red liquid. “I think it’s blood, but I don’t know why it would be important.”
Remi shakes her head again. “Your Scarecrow worked for someone named Shadowface.”
“Gabe mentioned something about that.”
“I can’t believe you’re with Gabe,” she says.
“There are three of us,” I say. “Gabe, Ethan, and me. There was a fourth when Scarecrow got to us, but he died. His name was Gilbert.”
I see the color from Remi’s face drain.
“What is it?” I ask.
She leans forward and rests her forehead in her hands. “This is getting crazy,” she says.
“What is?”
“Everything. The fact that you were at Crestwood…Gabe is locked away
upstairs…” She looks up at me sharply. “Was Gilbert’s last name Beal?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “I was only with him for about a week. He was a very independent kind of guy.” I leave out that most of the time he was a complete jerk. He did sacrifice himself, after all. “Really dark hair. Tall. He had a sharp attitude,” I say nicely, “but it’s because of him that we’re here. He saved us all.”
Remi looks away from me for a moment, lost in thought. Then finally, she looks up at me, her eyes more watery than before. “I just can’t believe that you’re mixed in with Shadowface like I am.”
“How are you mixed in with him?” I ask.
“I just got back from a meeting with him,” she says. “Or at least a meeting with one of his people. Or her people, I’m not sure which.”
“Her?” I ask.
“It’s possible,” Remi says. “Who knows, really? Either way, I think it’s bad business. I just traveled with three people who have made it their sole mission to kill Shadowface.”
“What?”
“Yeah. They didn’t say much, but the leader here, Stephen, is considering joining with Shadowface. I think there’s going to be a big meeting.”
“I think they are all crazy,” I say.
Remi smiles at me. “You got that right. I just want to find a place to rest my head comfortably. I don’t want to have to think about greyskins, shadow faces—none of it.”
“But we’re forced to,” I say.
Remi sighs. “I suppose you’re right.”
“So, you know Gabe well?”
She looks away from me, her color suddenly returning. “We’ve known each other a few months now. I think he’s one of the few people that is trustworthy.”
“There are plenty of bad ones,” I say, “but more than a few good ones.”
“I don’t share your optimism, little sister.”
“It’s no easy task being optimistic in this world,” I say.
“When you’ve seen all the crap I’ve seen, you’d lose any optimism real quick.”
And there it is. It comes to me just like the last day I saw her. Remi the victim. It’s the same reason I was happy to see her finally go to college. It’s the same reason I rarely enjoyed my weekend when she would come home for brief visits. No matter how bad someone else has it, Remi can top it. I hate the way she dismisses my experiences as if to say that I haven’t been through enough to lose any optimism. It’s what keeps my mouth closed about Lucas. I don’t want to tell her about the one person I loved, dying right in front of me because I know she will go right into a story about someone she cared about that died. The way Remi empathizes is by topping a story.
She automatically assumes that if I am still an optimist, then I must not have seen the things that she has seen. I must not have had to do things that I could only imagine in a nightmare. I must not have seen my boyfriend’s brains splatter all over the front of my shirt. I must not have had to leave his body for the greyskins to eat.
As these thoughts swim through my head, I catch my lips curling and my eyebrows sinking. I try to stop it, but Remi has already noticed. She looks away from me quickly and changes the subject.
“I need to let Stephen know that Gabe and Ethan are trustworthy,” she says.
“Is Stephen trustworthy?” I ask.
She thinks for a moment, and then nods. “I think so. I think he wants what’s best for his people here. I’m just afraid that will mean joining up with Shadowface.”
“But if Shadowface employs raiders…”
“I know,” Remi says. “But when you’re a leader, you can justify a lot of things if it means your people will be well-fed and protected. Think about it. If Shadowface employs the raiders, then raiders aren’t going to attack your settlement, right?”
“I guess. But that doesn’t make it right.”
“I agree.”
“I want to be in on this meeting, too,” I say. “I think I’ve had enough of a run-in with Shadowface’s people to give an account.”
“I’ll talk to Stephen,” she says.
We sit for another long moment. I want to ask her more questions. I want to know what her life has been like for the past three years. I want to know how she came to be here. But these conversations will come later. I’m sure it will take time for her to open up, as it will for me. Maybe she will try to one-up every story I have, and maybe she won’t. Three years of living the way we have can change people.
I don’t know my sister anymore. She doesn’t know me. We now have the rest of our lives to figure it out. I just hope the rest of our lives aren’t cut short.
Chapter 4 - Remi
It’s weird seeing Gabe here. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he told me he loved me in a very vulnerable moment for us both. I had been walking away, banished from the one place I wanted to call home, and he was the one that had to carry out my sentence. I suppose it’s also a little strange for him since he might not be sure that I heard him tell me that he loved me. I told him all about my hearing ability. I told him how I overheard…what had my sister called him? Scarecrow? He didn’t seem overly surprised at the notion that I had this ability, but he was sure curious enough to try it out.
I stand with him in the parking lot, just outside the main office building in Elkhorn. A barrel fire keeps our hands warm as we huddle close. He stands next to me instead of across from me. I can tell he’s trying to block the wind.
I roll my eyes at him. “Don’t try to revive chivalry. It’s as dead as the greyskins.”
“Yet they move and eat,” he says to me with a grin.
“Pretty morbid. Think about it. These things that used to be people still live in their own way, don’t they?”
“No,” he says, staring into the flames. “Just because they eat doesn’t make them alive. They eat, bite, and scratch to keep the virus going.”
“I know,” I say. “I get it. I’m just saying it’s weird that they are still alive. That they move, but they’re dead.”
He smiles at me. “Are you just now thinking this out? It’s been three years, you know.”
“Shut up,” I say.
“What’s really weird is that Waverly is your sister,” he says. “Must be pretty great to find someone from your family.”
“It is great,” I say. “I gave up hope on my family a long time ago. I never thought I would see her again. It’s good, but it brings up strange emotions. I don’t know. It’s gotten me to think about my parents, and I don’t like that one bit. I don’t like that I don’t miss them, you know?”
“No,” he says. “I don’t know. I’d give anything to see my dad again.”
“I wish I had that same feeling,” I say. “Then again, if I did, I suppose it would be harder for me. Except I feel guilty that I don’t care that much.”
“Maybe you should stop feeling guilty about who you miss or don’t miss, and get joy out of finding your sister.”
“I guess. That’s something else, though. Now I feel this overbearing responsibility for her. When she was gone—when I thought she was dead—it was just me. I never really had to care for someone. Now…I can’t let something happen to her.”
“It’s not a bad thing,” he says. “That’s called love.”
His eyes meet mine for a second, but I look away from him and stare into the barrel. I don’t want Gabe to love me, if that’s what he is getting at. What am I saying? He has already gotten to that. I’m not ready for it. Not sure I ever will be.
“How did you end up here anyway?” Gabe asks, changing the subject.
“I was at the hospital, looking for information about Paxton’s daughter.”
“And they caught you?”
“More like rescued me,” I say. I shudder to think about how close I had been to killing myself. If it weren’t for Stephen and his men, I would be dead and eaten by now.
I clear my throat. “But before they got to me, I found my ticket back into Crestwood. I just feel a li
ttle strange using it.”
His eyes widen and he stands a little straighter. “You found his daughter?”
“No, but just about as good. I found his granddaughter. She’s here. Her name is Evie.”
“That’s it then,” he says. “You’re good to come back with me.”
“But I can’t just take her,” I say. “These people have been taking care of her since she was born. It would be horrible to steal her away.”
Gabe looks away from me and back into the fire. I can tell thoughts are racing through his head. “Did you find any documents about his daughter?”
“I did, but nothing that says she’s deceased. Only that she had a baby. There’s no way for me to get into Crestwood without Paxton learning of his granddaughter. Believe me, I’ve thought it through a lot.”
“Wow,” he says. “That’s quite a position you’re in. Do you think Paxton would want to take her?”
“Of course,” I say. “It’s all he has of his own flesh and blood. Wouldn’t you want to take her?”
“I guess. The girl would probably be safer at Crestwood than here.”
“Except that Shadowface runs the show,” I say.
“I suppose this meeting we’re going to is about Shadowface?” Gabe says.
“I would say so.”
“So, did you see him?”
“I’m not sure,” I say. “And it could have been a she.”
“Oh, I never really thought about that.”
“I guess that’s the point. Shadowface doesn’t want you to know if he’s a she or a he.”
“No, I guess not.”
A voice breaks into our conversation. We both turn and see Stephen walking up. “Meeting’s about to start,” he says. “You two will join us, won’t you?”
“Of course,” Gabe says.
“I don’t even really know why you’re having a meeting,” I say to Stephen. “You know you can’t just ally yourself with Shadowface.”
Away From the Sun Page 5