by S. J. West
Most breeding camps built their fences at least a quarter of a mile away from the housing complexes. For some reason, they thought building the fences out of sight helped in the illusion they tried to make, for the humans, of living in a normal residential suburb. But every human living within the confines of a breeding camp was well aware of where they were every minute of every day.
Just as we were about to turn away from the fence looming before us, Zoe pulled her hand from mine and walked closer to it.
“Zoe,” I whispered urgently, “we need to leave.”
Zoe acted like she didn’t hear me and kept walking toward the fence. She knelt down and picked something up off the forest floor, cradling it in her hands. She stood straight and turned around showing us what she had found.
It was a black disk with small red light bulbs surrounding the outer edges. It was identical to the one Makena had shown us only the day before. The one remaining red light still lit suddenly went out.
Jace ran to Zoe and snatched the disk out of her hands flinging it as far as he could throw it then lifting a stunned Zoe up into his arms. As soon as they reached me, we all ran back the way we came as swiftly as we could, but it was already too late.
The rumble of the nuclear missile meant to destroy the breeding camp was suddenly audible. We stopped, knowing it was useless to run any farther. There was no way we would make it to a safe distance in time.
Still holding Zoe, Jace pulled me in close next to them, squeezing me hard against him as though the action would keep me out of harm’s way. I looked up at him and saw lines of anguish cover his face. He kissed me on the forehead, his soft lips lingering there as he whispered, “I love you.”
I forced myself to look up at Zoe, feeling helpless to save her. Tears streamed down her little face as she shook her head from side to side repeatedly saying, “No.”
She kept repeating the word as the missile’s high-pitched whine became so loud it was almost deafening. I couldn’t hear her voice over the noise of the incoming bomb, but her eyes were to the sky and her mouth was still moving as she screamed her “no” to the injustice of our looming deaths.
I turned my face into Jace’s chest and began to cry, no longer able to make myself look at Zoe. I clung to him, wondering if my soul would find a peace in death that seemed unattainable in life.
Just as the whine of the missile reached its apex, a million thoughts seemed to run through my mind all at once. The last picture in my mind before the bomb fell was of Ash’s face. I prayed he would live a long free life and be able to forgive me for not making it to the Southern Kingdom.
That was my last thought before total silence enveloped me.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Even though I knew I should be dead, Zoe’s screams of “No, no, no…” kept replaying over and over again in my mind. I wondered if my soul was doomed to hear her cries forever before I realized I wasn’t dead, at least I didn’t think I was.
I lifted my head from Jace’s chest and stared at his blue and black plaid shirt, unable to make myself move any farther for fear of coming face to face with reality. It was only Zoe’s soft sobs and Blue’s desperate whines that snapped me out of my stupor.
“Skye,” Jace said, causing me to involuntarily look up at his face. His eyes were staring straight ahead of him in shock. “Look around us.”
I turned to face what Jace was looking at and felt the air in my lungs rapidly expel at the sight.
Surrounding us was a bubble of incandescent light, much like the one that had protected Zoe when we found her. Only this one was more like a true bubble because it extended all the way around to the bottoms of our feet. Whirling outside the protective barrier was a maelstrom of chaos. Trees, dirt, pieces of unidentifiable matter flew by us at an incredible speed, a plume of ash covered the sky.
I looked over at Zoe and saw she had her eyes tightly clamped shut, squeezing out the tears she still shed. I took one of her hands into mine.
“Zoe, it’s all right. We’re alive,” I said, trying to reassure us both with my words and touch.
Zoe slowly opened her eyes. The depth of knowledge I saw in the blue orbs looking back at me made her appear old for some reason. The seriousness with which she looked at me didn’t match her young face.
“We need to leave. Now,” her voice was no longer that of the playful child I had come to know and love. Her words were an order not a request.
“I think we’ll be ok,” I told her, just as a massive tree trunk crashed into the bubble surrounding us, causing the incandescent light to shimmer from the impact. “Simon must have put the bubble around us to save us. He won’t bring it down until we’re in a safe spot.”
Zoe shook her head emphatically, a look of certainty in her eyes.
“It wasn’t Simon,” she said. “It was me.”
I let out something that sounded like a harsh laugh, but finding no amusement in Zoe’s claim.
“What makes you think that?” I asked, hoping Zoe was just suffering from the trauma of our near death experience.
“I just know,” she answered. “Please, Skye, we need to get as far away from here as we can. I’m not sure how much longer I can keep it up.”
I looked over at Jace. He seemed to be as confused by Zoe’s words as I was.
“But how do you know you did it?” I asked her.
“I can feel it,” she said. I could tell from the confused look on her face that she didn’t understand what was happening any more than we did. “I just know, Skye. Please, you have to trust me. We’ve gotta get out of here. I’m already getting tired.”
I wasn’t sure if Zoe was indeed the one keeping us protected from the aftermath of the bomb or not, but I didn’t see any reason to stick around and find out.
Jace held Zoe as we walked as fast as we could back through the woods with our bubble of protection surrounding us as we moved. With all the debris on the ground, we had to make a lot of stops and backtrack to go around obstructions along the way. I knew we had been heading south, so I took a northwest route, hoping the winds were still blowing to the east. We eventually found a fairly clear road, which made our escape far easier since we were able to run. Jace and I had to stop a few times to catch our breath, but the life and death situation we found ourselves in propelled us with enough adrenaline to overcome our physical aches and pains.
We knew we were out of the physical effects of the bomb a little over half an hour later, but we couldn’t be sure the radiation was low enough to allow Zoe to lower the shield protecting us. It wasn’t until we came to a small town called Mannington an hour later that we decided to try our luck.
I pulled out the Geiger counter Makena had given us and turned to Zoe. Jace lowered her to the ground to stand on her own two feet.
“Do you think you can let the bubble down?” I asked her, still not entirely convinced it was Zoe who had manufactured the shield surrounding us.
“Yes,” Zoe said with a nod of her head.
“Do you think you can pull it back up if there’s too much radiation?”
“I don’t know,” she confessed. “I feel really tired, Skye. I’m not sure I can keep it up much longer anyway.”
I sighed. Not because I was disappointed in Zoe but because I realized we didn’t have many choices left to us.
I turned the Geiger counter on. The needle stayed at zero. I looked at Zoe.
“Whenever you’re ready,” I said.
I kept my eyes on the needle of the Geiger counter, but I could tell when Zoe let the shield down. A waft of fresh air suddenly surrounded us. The little black needle jumped up but didn’t reach the critical red zone Makena had warned us about.
“We should be ok,” I told the others, “as long as the wind doesn’t change direction on us.”
When I looked back at Zoe, I was shocked by how pale and gaunt she looked. It was like keeping the shield up had literally drained away a year from her life.
“I don’t think we should stay
here,” I told them, looking at the quaint little town we were standing in. “I don’t want to take the risk of Harvesters coming this way to investigate the bombing. Maybe we can find a house out in the country so Zoe can rest.”
Night was falling fast. We would need to find a place to camp for the night anyway.
Jace picked Zoe up in his arms. We both knew she was too frail to walk on her own.
We headed south on a narrow country road and came across a house perched on a low hill with a pond beside it. It was a two-story white Cape Cod style home with two dormer windows jutting out from the roof where the attic was. Double cut glass doors in a red painted wooden frame welcomed us as we walked up the stairs of the front porch.
I turned the knob on one of the doors and found it unlocked. Most abandoned homes were never locked. Who takes the time to lock a door when they’re running for their lives?
When I stepped inside the house, I immediately knew it was already occupied. From the front entryway, I could see the kitchen directly down a hallway where a flight of stairs leading to the second floor had been built against the right wall. There was a glow of light coming from somewhere within the kitchen. The smell of roasting meat filled the air. I was just about to tell Jace and Zoe we would need to find somewhere else to spend the night when I heard the distinct click of a gun’s hammer being pulled back come from the living room area to my right.
“Who are you and what do you want?” I heard a woman ask in a low, threatening voice.
I turned my head and found the occupant of the home standing no more than five feet from me with the barrel of the gun pointed directly at my head. In the dim light, I could only faintly make out that she was tall and had long hair pulled back into a ponytail, which was brought over her left shoulder, lying flat against the thick wool cardigan she wore. Her face was cloaked in shadows, hiding her expression, but I didn’t need to see it to know she didn’t welcome our intrusion.
“We were just looking for a place to spend the night,” I told her. “Please, don’t hurt us. We’ll leave.”
“Tell your friends to come inside,” the woman ordered with a wave of her gun.
Having heard the order on his own, Jace walked into the room and turned to face the woman. Blue came in and stood beside me, letting out a low growl in the woman’s direction but making no attempt to attack her and aggravate an already hostile situation.
The woman took a step toward us. In the dim light given off by the glow coming from the kitchen, I could see she was in her late forties with pale white skin and red hair. Her green eyes went wide as her gaze fell on Zoe.
Finally, in a motherly voice she asked, “What’s your name child?”
Zoe looked to me as if silently asking whether or not she should answer. I nodded my head slightly, giving her the okay.
“Zoe,” she told the woman as she looked back at the house’s owner.
The woman repeated the name almost reverently before saying, “My name is Julia, Zoe. Welcome to my home.”
The woman disengaged the hammer of the gun and let her arm come to rest against her side.
“I’m sorry about the gun,” the woman said, looking away from Zoe and back to me. “But you can’t really trust many people nowadays.”
“It’s understandable. We could have been Harvesters for all you knew.”
Julia tucked her gun into the off-white wool cardigan she wore and took a step closer to us.
“Nice to meet you folks,” she said, holding out her hand to me.
I shook it and introduced myself, Jace, and Blue.
“You don’t see many tamed dogs around,” she commented, eyeing Blue warily. “Most people end up eating them. I’ve seen a few running wild out in the woods, but I try to keep my distance from those. Is he your dog?” Julia asked Zoe.
“He’s all of ours,” I replied, not knowing if Zoe understood she was indeed considered a part of the family by me and Blue.
Julia waved her hand in the direction of the hallway. “Why don’t you all come into the kitchen? I’m roasting a chicken for supper. There should be plenty for all of us if you’re hungry.”
“I’m hungry,” Zoe was quick to say, the mention of food seeming to perk her up.
Jace rubbed the top of Zoe’s head, grinning. “You’re always hungry, monkey.”
“Well, growing girls need fuel in their bellies. Isn’t that right, Zoe?”
Julia’s smile seemed a little too friendly considering the way she had first greeted us. Something about it bothered me, but I couldn’t quite place my finger on what was wrong.
Zoe nodded at Julia, causing her pigtails to sway back and forth.
Julia led us down the hallway to the kitchen. The kitchen had white tiled floors and white painted cabinets. A large black marble topped island stood in the middle of the room, dividing the cooking area from the dining area, where a cherry wood dining room table with six chairs stood. A kerosene lantern sat in the middle of the table, providing illumination enough to light the entire room.
Julia instructed us to make ourselves at home and take a seat at the table while she put the finishing touches on dinner. I was surprised to see her open the oven and start basting the small chicken she had roasting within.
“You have electricity?” I asked, convinced there had to be another explanation. I hadn’t seen a house with electricity since Ash and I escaped the breeding camp.
Julia closed the oven door and turned to face us. “I have a small generator,” she explained. “I turn it on to cook or when I want to take a hot shower.”
“You have running water too?” I couldn’t keep the astonishment from my voice. It had been years since I had seen water flow from a faucet.
Julia smiled. “Private well,” she explained. “I didn’t need the water department before the war and didn’t miss them after it.”
“If you have electricity, why don’t you have any lights on?” Jace asked.
“Invites unwanted attention,” Julia replied. “People see a house with all its lights on and they might come investigate. I’d rather not have to shoot anyone if I don’t have to.” Julia turned her attention to me and Zoe. “Would you girls rather eat or take a hot bath first?”
“Eat,” Zoe said.
“Bathe,” I replied.
“Feel free to go up and take a bath, Skye. I’ll set aside some food for you to eat after your soak.”
Julia instructed me to go upstairs and use whichever bathroom I wanted.
Apparently, there were two of them, all fully functional. She pulled out another kerosene lantern from underneath the sink and lit it for me with a match. Blue padded along beside me to the bathroom. I guess he figured Zoe would be safe with Jace and that I needed someone to keep an eye on me.
The bathroom I chose was large with white marble floors and pale peach walls lined with white tongue and groove wainscoting. There was a white porcelain claw-foot tub with silver faucet features sitting near the far wall. With a shaking hand, I turned the knob for the hot water and watched in wonder as clear water came gushing out of the faucet, warming up against the palm of my hand. I made the bath water as hot as I could stand, knowing this might be the last true bath I would be able to take for a long, long time. I shed my clothes and immersed myself in the liquid heat, feeling the water strip away years of grime from my skin.
There was a vast array of soaps and shampoos sitting on a small table beside the tub. I didn’t think Julia would mind me using some of them. She seemed to have a plentiful supply of what I deemed a precious commodity.
After I washed my hair and body, I remained immersed in the warm water until it turned too cold to be comfortable. I almost drained the tub and refilled it for a second bath but didn’t want to take advantage of Julia’s generosity. It wasn’t until I began to dry myself off that I remembered I had left my backpack downstairs in the kitchen. Not wanting to pull my dirty clothes back on, I wrapped the large, fluffy white towel I had used to dry off with around my bo
dy to sneak downstairs and snatch my pack.
I opened the bathroom door, turned left to go down the hallway and ran straight into Jace. He steadied me with his free hand to make sure I didn’t fall. My backpack was clasped in his other hand.
“I’m sorry,” we both said in unison, causing us both to laugh nervously.
“I thought you might want some clean clothes after your bath,” Jace said, handing me my backpack. His eyes never left my face, making me realize he was trying to be a gentleman and not let his eyes wander over my exposed flesh.
“Thanks,” I said, feeling awkward standing half naked in the hallway alone with a man who thought he was in love with me.
I knew Jace truly thought he loved me. Just before the bomb detonated and we were faced with imminent death, Jace used his last words to tell me so. I just wished I understood why he was so certain of his feelings. What about me could he possibly love?
“I’ll be down in a minute,” I told Jace, hugging my backpack to my chest for added coverage.
Jace nodded and turned to go back down the stairs.
After I put on a pair of clean jeans, a white T-shirt, and blue sweatshirt, I carefully packed away my dirty clothes, being careful not to crush the rose bud still in the pocket of my shirt. I went back down to the kitchen to find Zoe and Jace still sitting at the table munching on a freshly made batch of chocolate chip cookies. I couldn’t remember the last time I smelled the sweet aroma of cookies just from the oven. A memory of Christmas with my mother and father flashed in my mind, but I promptly quelled it. I didn’t want to ruin the moment for Zoe by crying over the dead.
Julia was just pulling another batch of cookies out of the oven as I stepped closer to the table.
“Did you have a nice soak?” she asked me, placing the sheet of cookies on the marble counter and grabbing a spatula to pry them off with, setting them on an awaiting plate.
“Yes, I did. Thanks for letting me use your tub.”
Julia smiled. “I saved you some dinner.”
She looked over at Zoe who stuffed a whole cookie in her mouth with no compunction for propriety.