I roll my eyes at him. “You really think it will be that simple? Don’t you think he would try to win your allegiance just a little?”
He stares at me as he bites the inside of his cheek.
“He’s not going to ransom your men in exchange for allegiance. That would be stupid. He knows you would just turn on him the moment your men were released.”
A deep breath. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“But there is no doubt,” I say, “he’s going to try to get you to join him.”
We both freeze at the sound of the radio in Stephen’s hand. At first there is a bit of static, but the slow, disguised voice calls out again. I lean in more out of baited curiosity than for the need to get a better listen.
“This is Shadowface,” the deep voice calls out. “Are you there?”
I don’t know why, but it sounds so much weirder to hear someone say ‘are you there’ versus ‘do you copy’ when it comes from the other end of the radio.
Stephen presses the button, his eyes fixed on nothing in particular. “I hear you.”
“Thirty miles north of Elkhorn is a small town called Sealy. Do you know it?”
Stephen presses the button again. “Yes, I know it.” I can see nervousness creep into him as his spine stiffens and his eyes widen.
“Within the city, we have erected a wall. I want you to meet my men there. They will escort you into one of the buildings. There we will talk about securing your men’s release.”
“Sounds like a trap,” I say.
“How do I know this isn’t a trap?” he asks. He shrugs at me when I lift an eyebrow.
There is a long silence. Finally, a crackle of static. “Be there at eight in the morning.”
“I repeat,” Stephen asks, his jaws clenched, “how do I know this isn’t a trap?”
We wait at least a minute before he sets the radio on the desk in front of me and then leans back into his chair. I watch him as he starts stroking his thick beard again. Part of me feels sorry for him, but most of me (and especially the knot on the back of my head), remembers that I’m not much more than a prisoner myself.
“You’re going with me,” he says.
My stomach drops at his words. “No,” I say.
“You have to. You’re the only person that knows anything about Shadowface.”
“You now know as much as I do,” I tell him, but he just shakes his head at me.
“You were in my territory, sneaking around my hospital. You’re my prisoner and I’m forcing you to go.”
“And I’m refusing you,” I snap. “So either kill me or leave me here. Take your pick.”
“That seems a little rash, don’t you think? Kill you? Really?” His expression twists as his eyebrows make wrinkles in his forehead.
I shrug and look away. “Isn’t that what people say?”
“I thought I had given the impression that I don’t want to kill you.” He sighs and stands. “You’re right. I don’t really have a good reason to keep you here or to make you go with me.” He walks to the other side of the room and opens the door. “Come on,” he says. “It’s late. I’ll show you where you can sleep for the night.”
I can’t help but show my surprise at Stephen’s turnaround, but I don’t let the look on my face stay for very long. I’m tired and could use the sleep. I follow him down a long hallway and up a flight of stairs before he finally brings me to a small room. In the corner is a cot and window, and that’s about it.
“You should be comfortable for the night,” he says as I walk in. “And you can be on your way in the morning.”
I turn and meet his stare. I’m actually taken aback at how hard it is to look him in the eyes. I feel a strong pang of guilt by the way he stares at me, as if I actually have an obligation to go with him tomorrow.
“What do you want from me?” I ask. “How can I actually be any help to you?”
“You’d be good support,” he says.
“Don’t you have other soldiers you can take with you?”
“I’m going alone,” he says.
He’s insane. “You’re insane,” I say.
“I don’t want word to get around about what’s happening. People will start to panic. I figured since you already know everything that’s going on, you could go with me.”
“You knock me out, drag me here, tie me up, and now you’re trying to guilt me into helping you?”
“You forget that we saved you,” he says. “If it weren’t for me, you’d be greyskin meat inside that hospital.”
I tear my eyes away from him, unable to admit aloud that he’s right. “Forget it,” I say. “You deal with Shadowface on your own. I’m not messing with that.” And I mean it…I think. I do feel guilty, but I think Gabe and I were on to something. I haven’t told Stephen everything. I haven’t told him that I have the ability to hear things that no one else can hear. That includes a certain meeting between a raider and Paxton, the leader of Crestwood. According to the raider, he was working for Shadowface. If that’s the truth, then Shadowface can only have evil intentions. And I don’t want to get involved with that.
Stephen closes the door behind him as I sit on the cot next to the window. I look out into the parking lot below. Several barrel fires are lit with people talking, some of them even laughing. It seems like a dream to live as care-free as these people appear to be. But deep inside, I know they aren’t care-free. Right now they are just surviving. Coping. With each laugh, underneath there are hours of tears. With each sentence spoken in conversation, there have been hundreds of screams of terror and groans of pain.
I turn away from the window and lie down on the cot. It’s comfortable enough, yet I face another night sleeping without a gun next to me. I won’t rest well. Having a gun near me keeps the nightmares away. I try to distract myself with thoughts about life before the greyskins, but it’s impossible. I think about the group I was with over a year ago and how I miss each of them. Especially… Ah, forget it.
I try to think of something else. Gabe comes to my mind. He is the only person that knows about my supernatural hearing. It’s weird. About a year ago, I gained this ability to hear anything I want. If I know a place well enough, I can almost follow a path to a source of noise. I can hear conversations from the other side of this compound. If I knew where he was, I could listen in on Stephen right now.
When I first learned about it, the power was a lot less refined. I couldn’t hear as far away, and I couldn’t direct it as well as I can now. Over the year, however, I’ve been able to practice and it has slowly become stronger. If I desire, I can hear the legs of an insect crawling on the ground. And when I had told Gabe that I overheard Paxton talking with a raider (all the way from my holding cell), there was no room for lying. I told him the truth.
And he tested me.
I haven’t had a lot of time to think about that moment. In fact, this is the first time I’ve actually gotten any time to myself since I was kicked out of Crestwood. But Gabe’s words echo in my mind.
We will meet again, Remi. Paxton may have placed a wedge between us now, but not forever. I have loved getting to know you. I love being around you. I love you.
I thought this kind of sentimental hogwash was beyond Gabe. I guess I was wrong. Sure, I had gotten to know him pretty well for the three months I was in Crestwood, and he was my only friend there. But love? Seems a little much. Besides, I swore off love a year ago—incidentally, it was the same time I gained this ability.
Banished. The word sits sour with me. Paxton and his group of elders completely betrayed me. Sure, I stole a gun and a journal. I could have lived with a prison sentence or months of hard labor, but banishment was crazy. Not to mention they based it on a complete lie. They knew that stealing something wasn’t a good enough reason to banish me, so they claimed that I murdered one of the scouts, Skip, during our supply run in Sturgis. Truth was, Skip was bitten by a greyskin and ended up shooting himself in the head under Paxton’s command. But t
he moment Paxton realized that I was the one that broke in and stole the gun, he figured a way to get rid of me. Which, to me, makes it even more bizarre that he would ask me to keep a look out for his daughter, Jessi, whom he hasn’t seen in four years. He doesn’t even know about his little granddaughter, Evie. He told me that if I found out any information about Jessi, that he would make everything right again. I would be accepted into Crestwood with open arms.
But the more I ponder it, the less I think it would be the way he claims. The people there already have their view of me. The thought of me killing Skip is still fresh in their minds. That’s not something that goes away easily. Even if I did go back, would it be the same? Gabe would be there, that’s comforting. Except now he’s apparently madly in love with me.
I sigh and close my eyes. I think about listening to the people outside the window to hear what they are saying, but I decide not to. Their laughter makes me jealous. I can turn off my super hearing anytime I wish, but I can’t drown out normal noises. Hearing their happiness makes me sad and I wish that I could make myself deaf, if only for the night.
I might have slept two hours. I find myself up and ready to go before sunrise. My thoughts throughout the night wouldn’t leave me alone. It’s so stupid. The guilt running through me is unlike anything I’ve felt before. I know I have no ties to Stephen, but I also know that I can’t just let him go to this meeting by himself. I’m not sure what it was, but something he said to me last night has stuck. I won’t forgive myself if I don’t go.
I make my way out of my room and down a flight of stairs to the building’s entrance. When I walk through, I find myself in an almost empty parking lot in the middle of the compound. The only person out here is Stephen. His head jolts up to me when he sees me open the door and his teeth flash in the early morning sunlight as he smiles.
“Good morning,” he says, lifting a bag into the back seat of an SUV. “On your way out early?”
“I’m going with you,” I say.
He raises an eyebrow and closes the back door softly.
“What changed your mind?”
I shrug. “Well, you know, I like putting myself into potentially dangerous situations. The idea of meeting someone that calls himself Shadowface is just irresistible. I like doing things with people that could put me in the grave by the end of the night.”
“Okay, okay,” he says, raising a palm in the air. “I get it.”
“I want to figure out who this guy is,” I say honestly. “Since the day I heard about him I’ve wanted to know who he is and what he’s up to.”
Stephen nods, opens the front door, and motions for me to get into the seat.
“I want my weapons,” I say.
“Already in the vehicle,” he says with a grin.
“Am I that predictable?” I ask, getting into the SUV.
He closes the door, circles around the front, and finally sits behind the wheel. “You aren’t predictable so much as readable,” he says. “I knew the moment that I asked you to go with me that you wanted to. I knew it would just take some time alone to think about it.”
“Well, you lay the guilt trip on pretty thick.”
He turns on the SUV and we begin to roll forward. He brings the radio to his mouth and orders a guard to open a gate for him. When the guard asks where he’s going, Stephen simply tells him to stay sharp and be aware of any movement in the town. It’s not two minutes later, and about a mile out of town that Stephen gets another call on the radio.
“We’ve got a vehicle sitting a couple of blocks from the gate, boss,” the guard says. “Just came up. Looks like there’s three of them.”
“I swear, they want me to micromanage everything,” he says to me. He presses the radio button. “Deal with it. If they’re friendly, let them in. If you have any doubt, turn them away. Either way, make sure you have back up near you.”
“Ten-four.”
“More guests?” I ask.
“It’s odd,” he says. “Seems like the longer we stay here, the more people forget that we’re at the epicenter of the outbreak. Travelers seem to wander aimlessly until they finally find a place to stay, and they don’t care where it is so long as it looks safe.”
Tell me about it, I think to myself. I look at Stephen, most notably at his ring finger on his left hand. The gold glints in the morning sunlight and he twists it in a circular motion with his thumb, seemingly out of habit. Normally, I don’t care to ask people about their past. It’s always the same story. It’s always about loss. But something comes over me.
“Your wife know you’re out here?” I ask, nodding to his ring.
At first, he gives me a confused look, but his face softens when he can tell that I’m looking at his wedding band. “Oh,” he says. “No. She died.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I say.
“It was tough to deal with,” he says. “Still is.”
I look away from him and study the landscape in front of us. As we leave the city of Elkhorn, we travel through land that is familiar. How many times have I driven on this road with friends from college? How few were the days that I was on this road to go back home to visit my parents and sister?
“You know,” he says, “for being located at the Epicenter, we sure did get a lot of raiders when we started our little group. For a while, they were more dangerous than the greyskins. One night they raided us…”
“Stephen,” I say, reaching out and touching his arm. “You don’t have to tell me.”
He swallows hard. “One night a group of raiders came after us,” he continues, “and we just weren’t ready for it. They kidnapped several in the group, all of them women. One of them was my wife. It soon became clear that there was no intention of ransom. They continually threatened that if we got anywhere near them, they would kill them.” He shakes his head, keeping his eyes fixed on the road. “What could we do, you know? We knew what was going on. We knew what the raiders wanted. We decided not to let them have it. We staged a rescue attempt.” He swallows again, perhaps holding back tears. “It might just be the first time in history that a raider was true to his word. The second they caught wind of us, it was over. The women…my wife…they were all dead.”
I feel sick to my stomach.
“The raiders got away, too,” he says. He looks at me. “Where’s the justice in that, you know?”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” are the only words I can think to say. What does someone say to that? I feel angry for him. As if the world wasn’t hell already…why did people have to turn against each other when the greyskins were the true enemies? It just makes me wonder if those that became raiders after the outbreak were already bad people, or if they were just surviving the only way they knew how. They started by lying, stealing, killing. And the more they did it, the less they saw people as people. Their lusts and desires took over them. Is that evil nature within all of us?
The clock on the dashboard reads 7:52 when I see the first sign for Sealy. Once I realize that it’s only a mile away, my heart begins to beat a little faster. When we reach the city limits, I see an all too familiar sight. Though I’ve never been through Sealy, it is the same as everywhere else. Everything looks about thirty years older than it actually is. Soot and decay clings onto all the buildings, and roads are cracked through the middle. Near the center of the town is a wall made of concrete and various other large objects. It is only a little more secure than Elkhorn’s compound.
This is it? This is all there is to Shadowface’s hideout? “Seems pretty sad for Shadowface,” I say. “I figured it would be a bit more fortified than this.”
“This is probably just a meeting place,” Stephen says. “I doubt he stays here.”
It makes sense. Why would Shadowface direct us to his personal lair? Though, this place is undoubtedly under his control. Apart from a few greyskins that we pass on the way to the wall, the entire town seems empty. Even the little bit I can see beyond the wall is stark with very little life.
“You’re not carrying any weapons on you right now are you?” I ask Stephen.
“No,” he says. Before he opens the door to step out, he looks at me with caution in his eyes. “Stay sharp. Who knows what this could turn into.”
“Exactly why I didn’t want to come with you,” I say as he opens the door. I open mine too, and the sight of us both seems to make the guard nervous. He points his gun at us, and we both throw up our hands in the air.
“My name is Stephen. I’m here under Shadowface’s direction.”
“We were only expecting you,” the guard says to Stephen.
“She is a friend,” he says. “We’re just here to negotiate.”
The guard at the top of the wall picks up his radio. Any normal human being wouldn’t understand what he was saying from this distance. But I turn my head slightly and focus on him.
“The leader of Elkhorn is here,” he says quietly. “He has brought a friend with him. A woman. Do you still want me to let them pass?”
There is a brief pause before someone, a man, answers. “Frisk them. Escort them to the meeting room.”
“Copy that,” the guard says.
“Maybe you coming here wasn’t such a good idea,” Stephen whispers to me.
“It’s all right,” I say, hands still in the air. We watch as the guard leaves the top of the wall to open the front gate. “They aren’t going to stop us from coming in. Remember, Shadowface never told you that you couldn’t bring anyone.”
“That’s right,” he says, nodding.
The front gate creaks open. This time there are more guards—four of them, each with a large gun and muscles that are so big they almost look fake. The man from the top of the wall walks ahead of the rest and instructs Stephen and me to turn around. Hands still in the air, we do what he asks. I watch as he checks Stephen for a weapon. It’s no shock that when he gets to me he takes his time. His hands rub up and down my legs and around my chest two or three times. I bite my lip, fighting the urge to kick him in the face. When I look at Stephen again, I can tell his distaste for Shadowface’s men is already growing.
The Starborn Ascension: Books 1, 2, and 3 (The Starborn Saga) Page 23