by Leyton, Bisi
“Hey, Bach, what are you doing here?” Hailey appeared from the trees while underneath a yellow umbrella.
He was so preoccupied about his Terran and the obsidian coral he didn’t even realize it was raining. “Go, get out of here,” he said to Felip. “I will meet you back at the apartment.”
Felip took the two bags of obsidian coral and disappeared into the night.
* * * * *
Bach was long gone, probably off to hook up with Hailey, Wisteria decided, as she and Steven walked home in the rain that night. Just stop thinking about him, because there’s nothing you can do. She wanted to cry, but she was too mad. Bach was just like Steven; she glared at the blond-haired man walking beside her.
“Are you okay? You’re not getting wet?” He stretched his umbrella over her. “I know your people don’t like to get their hair wet.”
The umbrella was too small for two people to share and they both got soaked.
“My mother didn’t ask you to walk me home, did she, Steven?” Wisteria commented.
“No.”
“Why did you lie?”
“Because I knew you wanted to come with me.” He smirked. “You just needed to give yourself permission.”
Looking at Steven, she noticed that his blue eyes didn’t light up the way they used to. “Listen, I can get home alone. Thanks.” Leaving with him was only to get away from Bach while still possessing some degree of dignity.
“Wisteria, how else was I supposed to get you alone? Your bodyguard didn’t look like he was happy to see me.”
“My bodyguard? You mean Bach? You don’t like him, do you?”
The boy muttered something unintelligible.
“Why?” Then it clicked in her mind. “This is about Hailey? You want her back.”
He’d have to be pretty desperate to try and use her.
“No way, Wisteria. I’m not a child.” He chuckled. “I don’t care what Bach’s doing with Hailey.”
“Sure.” She didn’t want to think about Bach and Hailey together.
“Bach, and even Garfield, they don’t get how things are here. They’re coming in here and trying to upset things.”
“By standing up to Coles or by dating your ex-girlfriend?” she heard herself snap with frustration. “Yeah, we need to be careful or the biters are going to overrun the Isle of Smythe because Bach is doing your girlfriend.”
“We’ll be on this island for a long time. Mess with things and it becomes a prison. Do you get it?” He really thought he was making sense.
Was this how petty she sounded when she complained to David about Hailey and her friends? “Listen, if you want Hailey back—”
“Honestly, Wisteria, I’m not going to talk about the bitch. Let’s talk about you instead. You’ve been avoiding me. After that time in class when we held each other, you disappeared.”
“You mean when you grabbed me and stopped me from helping Garfield?” That seemed like ages ago and she realized Steven hadn’t even been on her mind for a while.
“I prevented Blair or Coles from beating the crap out of you. You didn’t even thank me.”
She couldn’t figure out what game he was playing this time, perhaps he missed the attention. “Seriously, Steven, is this a joke? Gareth’s going to jump out and throw rotten meat or something in my face. Where is he?”
“Come on, Wisteria, you’re being dramatic.”
“You’ve done stuff like that before, more than once.”
“Yeah…that. Okay, but I’m not doing that now.” He ran his finger down the side of her face.
“What are you doing?”
“Isn’t it obvious? You’re special to me.”
Once upon a time, she would’ve been so happy to hear those words, but not now. “Stop. I’m going home—alone.” Pushing past him, she marched in the direction of her house.
“Come on.” Blocking her path, he placed his hands on her shoulders. “Don’t tell me you’re not interested or a little tempted. I can see it in your eyes. I could be the best you ever had.”
Wisteria rolled her eyes. Technically, he’d be the first she ever had.
“Hailey and Bach would go insane once they find out we’re shagging.”
“Good night, Steven.” She forced his hands away and kept going.
“Wisteria, wait. Why are you acting like a baby?” he yelled after her.
“Ugh…”
She froze when she heard it.
“That’s impossible,” he gasped.
“You’re so full of it Steven,” she seethed.
He and Gareth had played this trick too many times for her to even flinch. His plan tonight was to humiliate her in some way. What was she thinking, walking home with him?
“No, look!” He twirled her around to face four biters ambling toward them.
“Mrs. Reynolds?” Wisteria backed into Steven.
Her English teacher shuffled forward among the infected. The woman’s eyes were blood red and her mouth was smeared with blood, a sign she’d just fed.
“We’re going to die. We’re going to die,” Steven chanted. “What are we going to do?”
“Steven, we need to go, but you have to keep quiet.”
“I…I…” Frozen, he gaped at the biters.
Mrs. Reynolds groaned.
“Run!” Wisteria raced toward the library and then noticed Steven wasn’t with her.
Paralyzed with fear, he was still standing there, watching the biters.
If she kept going, she would make it to the library’s bunker. If she went back to him, she might get bitten. “Steven,” she whispered to him.
He didn’t respond.
Sprinting back, she called to him again. “Steven, let’s go.”
“We’re going to die,” he muttered.
“No, we’ll make it. We’ll make it.” Tugging his arm, she got the boy to move.
They barreled toward the library, cutting through the town square. Three more biters appeared in front of them, blocking their path. One of them was Tim, Gareth’s brother and the boy from the ration center.
“Tim!” exclaimed Steven as he reached out to Tim’s flesher.
“He’s gone, Steven!” She seized his arm, but the boy refused to move.
“We’ve got to help him, Wisteria. We can’t leave him.”
“Shh!” Cupping his face, she pleaded. “If you stay, you’ll be infected or killed. Please, Steven.” She released him and they darted to the nearest building on the square, the abandoned courthouse. They tried the doors, but they were locked.
“Is there anything we can use to break the window?” She looked around but saw nothing.
“I’ll use my fist,” he offered.
“No, if you’re bleeding and they smell it, they’ll really go crazy. We’ve got to get back to the library.”
“But the library’s that way.” He pointed in the direction of Mrs. Reynolds’s flesher, now a few feet away. “We won’t make it.”
“They’ve just fed and aren’t as desperate to feed, so we could outrun them.”
“Are you sure?”
She wasn’t, but it was the best idea she had. “Yeah, but we’ve got to be quiet. Run.”
Steven hesitated when he saw Tim. The biter was less than six feet away.
“Please, Steven. You don’t need to die like this.” Taking his arm again she implored him to move, but the boy stood firm. “I’m sorry, Steven.” Abandoning him, she bolted down the courthouse steps and into an alleyway. Checking on Steven, he was still watching as Tim’s flesher approached him. He was trying to talk to it.
Taking out a flip knife, she ran back .
“Steven, please I’m scared!” She tried to appeal to his sense of honor or something. “I need you to protect me.”
“We can help him,” Steven maintained.
“Come with me…” She poked the tip of the knife into his neck. “Or—I’ll cut you and the biters will eat you and that will give me more time to get away. Your choice.”<
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Still in shock, Steven nodded and they started to move. Running through the alleyway, they circled back to the library. Six biters were on their trail by the time they reached the library’s entrance. She searched through her backpack for the key.
“Hurry, hurry,” Steven begged her.
“Ugh…”
There were seven or eight biters now.
“Wisteria!” Steven shouted in panic.
When she found the keys, Steven grabbed them from her and started to unlock the door.
“Faster,” she said nervously.
She could smell the creature’s foul breath.
“It’s Scott!” Steven gasped as he got the door open. “But Scott died years ago.”
Shoving the bewildered boy inside, she slammed the door shut. “Hear me, Steven,” she ordered as she started turning all the locks “Finish fastening all these locks, put up the steel cage over this door, and then get to the bunker.”
“Where are you going?”
“I need to sound the alarm.”
“No. You can’t leave.”
The biters were scratching on the door.
“We’ve got to warn the town. Do you want to do it?”
He didn’t answer.
“This way, everyone has a chance at getting to safety.” She placed the keys in his hands. “Lock the security cage and we’ll be fine. The windows have iron bars so there’s no other way in.” She left him.
‘‘Ugh…” The biters thumped against the door.
“Get to the bunker and lock yourself in. Don’t open the door for anyone except for me!” she called as she ran to the stairs.
“What if you don’t make it?”
“Wait down there for two weeks and pray.” Ascending the stairs two at a time, she headed to the library’s alarm system on the second floor. When she got there, she sped through the stacks until she reached the offices. Forcing the office door open, she leapt over the counter into the back offices where the alarm was located.
Using a large book, she smashed the glass window of the inner office and climbed through. “Ahh.” She winced as glass from the window cut her shin. Limping across the room, she found the large red box mounted on the wall. Inside the box was a smaller rusty box, a switch, and a lever. Hitting the lever to set off the siren, she was taken aback when nothing happened.
“No!” She banged her fist against the smaller box and hit the button again. Still nothing happened. “Okay, think about what to do, Wisteria!” The battery was most likely dead. She pumped the lever to recharge the battery until her arm hurt. Then, closing her eyes, she flipped the switch. The loud booming siren went off.
Clambering back through the window, she raced down the rear stairs, toward the underground floor to the bunker. When she got to the basement, she hurried into the old staffroom to the steel door of the bunker. Letting out a deep sigh of relief, she pulled the door, but it was locked. “Steven,” she whispered.
Then she heard movement from behind her.
“Steven, it’s Wisteria.” She tapped on the bunker door.
“I can’t let you in,” he replied. “You might be infected.”
“There’s no way I could be infected because you locked the main doors.” She pulled on the door. “You locked the cage, right?”
“No, there was no time. I’m sorry.”
Her heart sank. “Okay, there’s a rifle in there. If I’m infected you can shoot me.” Wisteria could smell the stench of the biters.
They had broken into the library.
“Please, Steven?” She closed her eyes. The idiot would be dead if not for her, and now he was too scared to do the one thing to save her.
“I’m sorry, Wisteria.”
“Please, Steven, I’m scared and I don’t want to die. If you let me in, you’ll save my life. Please, I’m begging you let me in,” Wisteria heard herself crying. “Steven Hindle, open this door!”
No response.
Scanning the room for another option, she spotted drops of her blood trailing out the room like bread crumbs. Tim’s silhouette appeared at the end of the dimly lit corridor and she sped to shut the door.
She pushed a table against the door as a barricade, and then another one. Struggling, she placed the second table on top of the first. This probably wouldn’t save her, but it was something. The sofa was heavier and more awkward to move. At first, it refused to budge, but she kept trying. “Oh,” she cried out, slipping on her own blood along the floor.
Getting up, she furiously kicked the couch and started pushing at it again. It didn’t move. Looking around for something she could move, she bumped into someone.
“Ah!” she jumped back. “Steven?”
He’d opened the bunker door. “Hurry!” He took her hand.
She didn’t need to be asked twice and she ran in. They shut it, then bolted and locked the bunker’s three metal doors. Once secure, Wisteria sank to the ground while her body shook.
CHAPTER NINTEEN
Bach watched Hailey approach as he stood by Barton Lake. He hadn’t planned to see her that evening. Allowing Wisteria to believe that he was interested in this girl was only his way of distancing himself from her until he knew what he was going to do. He still didn’t know though, but he knew he did not like this Terran at all.
Even though he had no plans with Hailey, he wasn’t surprised to see her here. She had tracked him down at the Lake before. Bach liked coming to the water, and he’d come three times a day since Hailey first brought him. She’d always track him down and insist on keeping him company. Her version of keeping him company was talking about herself and how being the daughter of the head of the leadership council was the worst thing in the world.
Thankfully, a siren went off. He assumed it was one of the safety drills that Garfield had told him about.
“What day is it today?” Hailey frowned.
“In Smythe, it is Thursday.”
“We weren’t supposed to have a drill until Saturday. I guess someone was too eager. My dad’s going to kill Coles in the morning.”
“Are drills not supposed to be a surprise?”
“Yeah to everyone else, but my father’s the head of the …” she started to say.
Is the head of the leadership council, he thought. He was tired of Hailey’s reframe and irritated with being around her so much.
“—is the head of the leadership council,” she continued to brag. “We know about things like this. There’s never been a breach on the Isle of Smythe—ever.”
“Well, just in case, you should go home.” He was going to return to Barton Lake the moment she looked away as he wasn’t ready to leave the water.
“I can go to your house? It’s closer, so technically safer.” She grinned at him.
“Ugh…”
Her smile vanished at the sight of two infected, moving toward them. “What is wrong with them?” She clutched Bach’s shirt.
“They have got your Nero disease.” Although he’d sensed the infected, he hadn’t sensed these specific infected in the town before now. He could tell that there were several other infected people in Smythe. About thirty, and not all were newly sick. “We should go.”
Hailey fainted.
The temptation to leave her was immense; she was truly annoying and might do better as a biter. After thinking for a moment, he gathered her up and ran past the infected toward his home. Taking the Terran girl to his apartment, he laid her on the new sofa Felip had acquired a few nights ago from the furniture shop.
“What’s going on? That’s Hailey, right?” Garfield approached the girl. “What happened to her?”
“There are infected on the island. Why are you not in the bunker?”
“I thought it was another drill. Besides, I’m with you and you’re…” Garfield paused. “Like immune to biters, and can fly or something, right?”
“Take her downstairs,” Bach instructed.
“I can’t carry her. Like you say, I’m only Terran, reme
mber?”
“I will do it.” Felip came into the room. Seeing the girl on the sofa, he looked back at Bach and picked her up with one arm. “But you will have to stay with her,” he informed Garfield.
With the humans locked down below, Felip returned.
“I did not sense the infected were here—this close?” Bach asked him. “Did you?”
“No, I think the strangle weed on the island is making it hard to use our senses.”
Bach sat on the new sofa. It wasn’t as soft as the one he had in the Hunter Tower and in no way as luxurious as the furnishings back home, but it was ten times better than what they were using the day before. Yawning, he relaxed.
The infected groaned from outside.
“Maybe this is a good thing,” Bach commented. “The infected would cut down the number of Terrans and possibly infect the ones who stole our obsidian coral which would make their plans useless.”
“I guess.”
“If the Terrans who stole the obsidian coral are infected, we will not know what they were planning or how they got it. I know that, but the empirics will have to deal with that,” Bach concluded.
“Then you should renew your Terran tonight or she might get infected too. Then she would be useless as a Thayn. Unless you have settled on the prettier one downstairs?”
Getting to his feet, Bach started feeling dizzy, but the spell soon passed. “You are right. We should not let the infection spread any further. I will draw the swarm together, can you find—?”
“Your Terran? I will bring her back here and you can renew—”
“No.” Bach couldn’t bring himself to admit that he felt anything more for her than ownership. Thayns were interchangeable, so sending a Famila to rescue one would be admitting that was not the case. “Just make sure her friend Garfield is safe.” He could find her on his own.
Returning to the town square, he sensed the infected spreading through the island. There were over forty now and he secretly hoped Coles was among the freshly infected. Come, he whispered into the wind. He closed his eyes. “Come, now.”
After ten minutes, some of the infected began shuffling into the square. Then one of the flesh eaters dropped and blood poured from its head.