“No time,” I say. “And you know this isn’t just something you can bring up with the elders. They won’t go for it. They care nothing for your granddaughter.”
Paxton doesn’t nod, but I know he hears me. The decision is his and his alone. He stands from his chair and tells us that he’s going for a walk. “You should stay here,” he says. “It wouldn’t be wise to be seen. I’ll be back soon. I need to clear my head.”
Gabe and I say nothing until Paxton leaves, shutting the door behind him. Finally, I look at Gabe. “What’s this about?”
“It’s not an easy decision,” Gabe says.
“I get that, but doesn’t family come first?”
“He’s got to weigh it,” Gabe explains. “Really, if he helps us, there is no going back. Shadowface will know he helped us. There’s no getting around that. If he helps us, the other elders will just take over and try to declare Paxton a lone traitor.”
“You think he’ll just give up his power here?” I ask, but Gabe only answers with a shrug. I suppose I can’t just expect the guy to drop everything and come with us. And the longer we wait, the more I fear that Paxton will only convince himself that he needs to stay here, leaving behind his granddaughter as she was in his mind—nonexistent.
I watch Paxton from the second floor window. I turn my ear toward him to listen, but all I can hear are his footsteps along the sidewalk. He stuffs his hands in his pockets as the cold wind hits him. He walks all the way around one of the buildings, but I’m still able to keep up with his noise.
Eventually, his feet stop moving and it sounds like he rests against a wall. I hear a click and the pressing of a couple of buttons. Then, I can faintly hear the noise of a phone call going through the lines.
“He’s calling someone,” I say to Gabe, keeping my hearing fixed on Paxton.
“What?”
“Shhh!” I hold up a finger for Gabe to wait. He walks next to the window, looking for Paxton.
The phone is still calling. I don’t really know how phones connect now because they went out so long ago. Perhaps it’s just a communication system set up by Shadowface.
Finally, I can hear someone pick up on the other end of the line, but there is no greeting, just dead air.
“Hello?” Paxton says. “Can you hear me?”
“Why are you calling?” The tone is low and sounds like there is a device to mask the speaker’s voice. “It better be important.”
“I’m calling with some very important information, but also with a request,” Paxton says. He waits for a response, but he is met with silence. He takes a deep breath. “I know that your men are attacking the settlement of Elkhorn, but it has come to my attention that my granddaughter lives there. I’ve been searching for my family for the past three years. Is there a way for you to find her, or at least make sure she isn’t harmed?”
“How did you come about this information?” the voice asks.
I can hear Paxton swallow. He doesn’t want to rat us out, but I can’t say I blame him. Bringing this before Shadowface is probably what I would do if I were in his situation. That way he won’t have to commit to us, but his granddaughter will be safe. I curse myself for coming here. I should have known. The plan has backfired.
“There were two people who escaped Elkhorn and have come here to ask for help,” Paxton says. “They want me to go against you. They are using my granddaughter to bait me.”
“Who are they?”
Paxton lets out a sigh. I’m guessing he didn’t want to tell on us outright, but now he has no choice. “Gabe is one of them. The other is a problem we had about a week ago. Remi.”
“I cannot guarantee that your granddaughter is not already dead,” the voice says to him.
“You’ve got to do something,” Paxton says. His voice is starting to quiver almost like he’s getting too cold in the autumn wind, but his urgency shows that he’s nervous. “I’ve done everything you’ve asked. I worked with the raiders that you hired. I banished both Remi and Waverly at your suggestion. All of which have been strongly against my judgment and mostly in secret from the elders. I feel like I’m getting little in return here. All I’m asking right now is if you can make sure nothing happens to my granddaughter.”
There is a long silence on the other end. “What is the girl’s name?”
“Evelyn…or Evie.”
“What does she look like?”
The question stumps Paxton. He hadn’t given us time to provide a proper description. For all he knew, she looked like the girl’s father and not Jessi. “I…I don’t know,” Paxton admits. “I’ve never actually seen her.”
Again, another long silence. “This conversation is finished. We have a job to do here at Elkhorn. My soldiers do not target anyone that isn’t hostile, and I’m assuming your granddaughter is not in the fight.”
“Can you please do something?”
“Get rid of Remi and Gabe,” the voice commands.
“What do you mean?”
“Permanently.”
“You want me to kill them?” Paxton asks.
“Goodbye,” the voice says.
The rest is dead air, and Paxton turns off his phone. I back away from the window when I see him walking back toward Headquarters, his hands back in his pockets.
“What’s going on?” Gabe asks me.
I try to retell the conversation quickly before Paxton comes back, but repeating it doesn’t give us much of a lead as to what Paxton’s decision will be.
“He won’t kill us,” Gabe says, though he doesn’t seem too sure of his own words. We both jump when we hear the jingling bell of the front door of the building. Paxton’s steps are slow but determined as he climbs the stairs.
I look at Gabe and he sets a careful hand on his pistol that’s tucked behind his belt in case Paxton decides to come in shooting. The door creaks inward and the two of us stand rigid, but Paxton only stares at the floor in front of him, carrying no gun in his hands. I let out an involuntary sigh and Gabe eases up on his pistol, letting his hands fall to his side.
I look at Gabe briefly who closes his eyes for just a second, momentarily relieved. “Have you made your decision?” I ask.
“I just spoke with Shadowface,” Paxton says. “He wants me to kill you two. Says he can’t help me with the granddaughter situation.”
At least he’s being honest.
He finally meets our eyes. “This has all gotten a bit too grim for me,” he says. “When I signed up with Shadowface, I never meant to become a puppet. I just wanted to help my people live in peace. But I see that I made the wrong choice.” He breathes in deeply through his nose and lets the breath escape through his mouth. “Give me the night and I will have the soldiers assembled and ready in the morning.”
I couldn’t believe my ears when Paxton said the words, but it seemed that Shadowface’s impatience had finally caught up with him…her.
I sit and wait in Paxton’s office while he and Gabe go around, quietly recruiting soldiers for the task ahead. I’m sure none of them know that they are about to take on Shadowface. Then again, most of them wouldn’t know who Shadowface was even if they were told.
What a turnaround this has been. This whole mystery was born from Gabe’s curiosity and my need to be a part of something. Before Crestwood, and before meeting Gabe, I wasn’t a part of anything for about a year. It has been a lonely year—it feels good to be a part of something again, even if it isn’t as safe as I would like it to be.
But what is safe? Is there really a place that’s safe anymore? I used to think that Crestwood was that place, but now I know it isn’t. Anything having to do with Shadowface is dangerous—just about as dangerous as living with no walls where the greyskins can attack you at any moment.
The world we live in now is more about heartache than anything. I know this all too well. My thoughts drift to the time when I finally decided to leave that closet where I spied on the woman—the person who I’m sure is Shadowface. As I think, c
old chills run up and down my spine. Thoughts of fear, uncertainty, and sadness fill my mind. I try to look back on that time and look for the good, but there was only a little good. It was love. But love was ripped away from me. After that, I never want to love again.
Chapter 16 - Remi
Three Years Ago
I could no longer hear screaming and booming noises in the distance, and it made me feel isolated. I kept a watchful eye all around me as I walked up the steps and out into the open air again. After two days of sitting in that dark closet, it was hard for my eyes to adjust to the sunlight. I was already used to the smell of blood and rot all around me, so the dead bodies on the ground didn’t foul the air as I had expected.
As I walked, I kept expecting to see one of those people—the dead-looking things—jump out at me, trying to gnaw on the side of my neck. I gripped the officer’s pistol that I had taken like it was a lifeline.
My head wasn’t on straight, and I knew it needed to be if I was going to survive. I had to prioritize. First, I needed to get to my bag if it was still there. It had my cell phone in it. Then I’d need to call my parents and sister to make sure they were okay, and if so, see if they could come get me.
As I walked to where my bag was, the images of Andy filled my mind. The fact that I was supposed to have a date with him just gave me the creeps. Was he sick from something? What if I would have caught it? And then, I couldn’t stop thinking about the man and woman downstairs in the science building. Obviously, they knew what was going on, so it wasn’t Andy’s fault. It seemed like they had created something bad and it got out.
To me, it didn’t matter. Hopefully, I would never see those people again, and I would be able to get home and recuperate while someone else sorted out this whole mess. This was someone else’s problem. When I got to my bag, I found out that it was also my problem. I tried not to look at the bodies lying near it—the cop, Andy, others. When I squatted and reached for the bag, I could see that someone had ripped it open. My books were a tattered mess, and all the other pockets were empty. Someone had taken the phone. I let out a curse, thinking how rude it was that someone would think to steal in a situation like this, but then I thought that maybe someone saw it on the ground and used it to call for help. Still. It ticked me off.
I stuffed the books that had fallen out into the bag, zipped it up, and tried my best to dust it off. I was going to need these whenever this mess cleared up and classes resumed.
The backpack was heavy as I walked toward the main road that led out of Elkhorn, but I didn’t know where I was going. The place had turned into a ghost town. I half expected to see tumbleweeds blowing across the road as I walked, like one of those old western movies. But the wind wasn’t blowing. There was no life anywhere. And being the only thing moving or alive made me feel like a target. Who knew what was lurking in the shadows, waiting until the right moment to jump me? All I knew to do was keep walking and have a steady grip on the pistol. I was glad that my father had been kind of a gun enthusiast, so I at least knew how to fire it decently. It had been a long time, however.
I walked for miles. Once I got away from the university and into more of the desolate farm fields outside of the city, hunger started to take over me. It had been too long since I had eaten, not that I had an appetite before. I was tired, too. There had been little sleep happening in the closet. I had been too afraid to try. On the road, I didn’t care, though it was probably more dangerous walking out in the open than hiding in a closet.
It was several hours before I saw it—a convenience store barely half a mile away. I stumbled forward, knowing it had fountain drinks and plenty of junk food to at least jumpstart my energy. Perhaps there would even be a place for me to curl up and sleep. But best of all, it would have a phone, and I would be able to call my dad and have him pick me up.
The closer I got, the more empty it seemed. At the time, I didn’t know if this was a good thing or not. It didn’t help my feeling of isolation, but it did mean that there weren’t any of those people that might try to bite me. I was in a daze by the time I got closer. But the sound of a gunshot jerked me to attention. Another shot and this time dirt kicked up near my feet.
I threw my pistol to the ground and put my hands in the air. “Stop shooting!” I yelled. “I’m not sick! I’m not sick!”
The shooting did stop, but that didn’t make me want to walk forward. Then a man stepped out of the convenience store holding a rifle in his hands.
“You a greyskin?” he called out.
“A what?”
“Guess not,” he said.
“I need food,” I said. “I haven’t eaten in two days.”
The man started walking toward me. He was handsome, probably not much older than me. His black hair was slick, and his skin unusually white. His eyebrows were thick and turned downward with a serious look on his face. “What are you doing out here?” he asked.
“I’ve been hiding out at the university until the sickness stopped,” I said. “But I need food.”
“This thing isn’t stopping anytime soon,” he said.
“You know what’s happening?”
He shook his head. “Nope. Nobody does. Getting pretty messy out here.”
“Do you have a phone I could use?”
The man shook his head again. “Phones have been out since yesterday. Nobody can get through to anyone. I don’t even know if my folks are alive.”
I curse myself, wishing I hadn’t left my cell phone in my bag.
“What’s your name?” he asked me.
“Remi, what’s yours?”
“My name’s Gilbert.”
“I’ve been holding down here since the owners left town yesterday,” Gilbert said, passing me a newly open can of refried beans. “A place like this is a goldmine when the world falls apart.”
“You probably aren’t the only one that thinks that,” I said.
“I’m not looking for trouble. I didn’t earn this place. Whoever wants something can take it, so long as they aren’t a greyskin.”
“Why do you call them that?” I asked.
“What, greyskin?” he pointed up to the television in the corner. “Isn’t that what they’ve been calling them on the news?”
I shrugged.
“It’s appropriate,” he said. “They turn all ashy and their skin starts flaking. Their eyes go black too. Have you seen one up close?”
“Briefly,” I said. “So, you’re telling me the television works, but cell phones don’t?”
“It was working until the news anchors were attacked on air. Now there’s just a message that says to take cover and get into a safe area. Whatever that means. It’s not like the National Guard has set up refugee camps or anything.”
“Have things really gotten that bad?” I asked.
“Are you serious? Have you been hiding under a rock for the past two days or something?”
“In a closet, actually.”
“This virus has spread all over,” he said. “They say if you see a greyskin, or if you see a rat, get away.”
“A rat?”
“Apparently rats are spreading this thing too,” Gilbert said, “I don’t know.”
I took a bite of beans and it felt good to get something in my stomach. I didn’t know what I was going to do to get back home and see my sister and parents. I hoped that they were all right.
“You looking to get some reading done while you travel?” he asks me, nodding at my bag of books.
I shake my head.
“Where are you from?” Gilbert asked.
“Oakridge,” I said. “I’ve got to get there somehow. Do you have a car?”
He shook his head. “You don’t want to go north. Last I saw it was getting bad that way. I’m from around there, too, but I’m not going back. Not until things start to clear up.”
I bit my lip and stared out the window. I wanted to know if my family was safe. I wouldn’t find out their fate for another three years. But that woul
dn’t keep me from trying.
Two Years Ago
Gilbert grabbed my hand and pulled me forward as we crept through the woods. I had never seen him so excited. Both of us had a knife and gun strapped to us, but Gilbert told me that we wouldn’t need them where we were going. He said that we would set them down once we got there. The thought made me nervous but I knew I wouldn’t feel unsafe. For the past year, Gilbert made it a point to help me feel safe.
“Shouldn’t we have a gun on us all the time?” I asked.
“Won’t need it,” Gilbert repeated.
I loved how tightly he held my hand. I didn’t want him to let go. Seeing his excitement, his need to show me whatever it was he wanted to show me, made me feel giddy. I hadn’t really felt giddy about anything since I was a little kid. Somehow Gilbert brought it out of me.
Naturally, precaution took over me as we continued through the woods. “Jerome’s going to be mad that we’re playing around when we should be looking for supplies.”
“Sometimes the best supply we can own is a happy memory,” Gilbert said. “I’m taking you to one of mine.”
I couldn’t guess what he was taking me to until I started to hear it. It was the sound of water, but not like the sound of a small stream, rather a wild rushing sound that engulfed the senses.
When the branches and bushes started to clear, we came up on a small bank next to one of the most spectacular sights I had ever seen. To our left, about fifty feet up, was a waterfall. The gushing water looked like salt pouring over the side of a cliff until it sprinkled into clouds of misty vapor, pooling at the bottom. A stream that was traveling away from the waterfall was as clear as crystal.
Gilbert squeezed my hand tighter and turned to look at me. “I grew up not too far from here. I used to come here by myself all the time to be alone. It’s my favorite place in all the world.”
The sight of the waterfall and the look of happiness on Gilbert’s face brought tears to my eyes. “I bet you brought all your girlfriends here,” I said, wiping the moisture from my face.
The Starborn Ascension: Books 1, 2, and 3 (The Starborn Saga) Page 40