The Plague Box Set [Books 1-4]

by Jones, Isla

  “Who was it?” I whispered, almost too afraid to hear the answer.

  Castle lingered his fingers over my wrists. “Dr Wong and a pet soldier.”

  “They’re dead?”

  The only answer he offered me was a single, unapologetic nod. The tight set of his jaw betrayed a whisper of unease. Did he fear I would judge him for it, I wondered?

  I slipped my hands into his. “Ok.”

  Our gazes stayed locked, even with the small temptation that tried pulling my stare to Leo at the door.

  “Please don’t kill her,” I said. “I know you want to, but … I’m asking you to think about what I want. If you kill her—” I shook my head, ignoring the scoff of incredulity by the door. “—I’ll never forgive you. I couldn’t.”

  Castle squeezed my hands once, an answer that settled the stir of anxiety in my chest. He stood, taking me with him. His hands didn’t leave mine—they lingered a moment. I didn’t pull away.

  In those seconds, with Castle in front of me and Leo fuming at the doorway, a rash decision almost slipped from my tongue. I bit down on it and drew away before I could promise something that I wasn’t sure I could stick to.

  As we walked out of the cell, I caught Leo’s harsh look aimed over my head at Castle. The forest storm in his eyes betrayed his thoughts. He wanted my sister dead for what she’d done to him. I understand that. I should have wanted the same thing after what she did to me. But then, could you do it?

  Lives are never easy to take, even when it’s to protect yourself. That’s why I turned the other way whenever one of the deltas pulled the trigger.

  Summer was different.

  When I walked back out into that hall, I managed to overlook the bodies by the entrance. If one of those bodies had been Summer, I would’ve been brought to my knees. That’s the difference.

  In the hall, both Adam and I looked to Castle for our next move. With Leo as banged up as he was, I doubted it was best he come with us to find Summer. Not to mention, the dangerous look in his eyes stirred unease in my tummy—I suspected he meant to kill my sister despite Castle’s silent promise. That couldn’t happen.

  Hesitantly, I gestured to Leo. “Shouldn’t you … rest or something? Maybe sit this one out?”

  I overstepped.

  Eyes blazed all around me. The sneer that warped Leo’s face was so alien that it sent a chill down my spine. Through the cracks in his mask, I saw the side of Leo that he mostly hid from me. The side Castle wore without shame. The delta side.

  I pointed square at Leo with a pruned, shaky finger. “No.”

  It’s all I said. I didn’t need to say more; the swirls of fury in his molten eyes told me he understood. Only, they didn’t tell me he would listen.

  *

  The corridors swept me back to the harsher days above. Days of creeping through the streets of ghost towns, clutching a weapon so close that it became a part of me.

  Our footsteps treaded in unison, so softly that they made the quietest rhythm. A rhythm that thumped alongside my racing heart.

  Those halls had never felt like such a maze before that day. We would turn a corner; my heart would jump expecting to see someone. A soldier, a white coat. Anyone. But each time we veered off into other hallways, there was nobody blocking our way.

  They mustn’t have realised yet that I wasn’t dead, that Leo had escaped, and that blood had already spilled. We marched through the ghost halls until—a door ahead opened. And I knew it in my gut that it was her. A curse or a blessing, it didn’t matter. Because either way, it was time.

  I heard the hum of her low voice before I saw her.

  Time stopped—for me. Not for anyone else.

  I stood, frozen in place, as Summer and Mason came into the hall and spotted us. My limbs wouldn’t obey, they wouldn’t move or flinch, not even as the sound of guns raising clacked all around me.

  It wasn’t until she spoke that my entire world was obliterated alongside my heart.

  “Winter,” she said, horrified. “How did you…” Her gaze cut to Leo before it settled on Castle. A fresh wave of frustration hardened her face. “How unfortunate.”

  I heard a click—the sound of a gun’s safety switching off.

  Eyes wild, I rounded on Leo. “WAIT!”

  He didn’t wait. None of them waited. Leo fired first—then gunfire erupted all around me.

  My cry of horror was drowned out in the blasts.

  Before I could duck, hands grabbed me and threw me down to the floor. Legs barricaded me, a shield against the gunfire.

  Cries and grunts carried over the blasts. I heard a thump.

  Then, just as suddenly as it’d started, it stopped.

  Even with the heavy breathing and muttered words above me, it was silent. Dead silent.

  Slowly, I lifted my gaze to the one who shielded me. Castle, untouched by the blaze of bullets, stood over me. But as he looked down at me, I read the shards of panic in the coldest parts of his eyes. Sorrow—or fear. For me.

  Summer.

  She lay in a pool of blood ahead. Mason’s limbs tangled with hers, both sprawled out like broken demons. But one of those dead demons was my sister.

  †

  I can’t remember which came first.

  The scream from my sandpaper throat or the frantic scramble I made to reach her bullet-ridden corpse.

  I didn’t make it.

  My hands slapped into the crimson pool before I was lifted from the floor.

  I only know it was Castle who carried me out of there—the familiar scent of his deodorant told me as much.

  In his arms, I cried—I screamed the whole way back to my room. I would’ve told him to go to hell …

  But we were already there.

  †

  This is part three.

  The final part of my story.

  29.

  It took weeks for me to leave Vicki’s room.

  Cleo’s stink had grown so pungent that I just couldn’t stand it anymore, not even with Oscar’s daily visits with his bucket and cloth. Adam brought us meals.

  Castle and Leo didn’t visit. I was glad for it.

  Surprisingly, Adam became my outside source in those weeks. At first, I didn’t ask what was going on out there in the halls, he just told me pieces here and there with each meal delivery. He’d said that the soldiers and white coats had been divided into two groups. Those who pledged loyalty to the chain of command—the deltas—and those who didn’t.

  The second group was a larger one. Though, I’m not sure how the deltas got them to admit where their true loyalties were. I just know, deep down in my gut, that those soldiers were killed.

  Somehow, I was ok with that. Maybe I’d spent too much of my compassion and care already, and after Summer … I was simply tapped out. Empty.

  On the day I finally left Vicki’s room, I thought that perhaps the garden or the farm might fill a piece of that hole inside of me. But the sealed door to the Lab Maze didn’t let me test my theory. No matter how many times I punched in Summer’s code, the door only beeped angrily at me. Eventually, I gave up and wandered to the kitchen instead.

  Happy to be out of the room, Cleo trotted and panted at my feet. She stuck so close that her tail was like a miniature whip that whacked against my shins.

  When I dipped through the kitchen door, I wasn’t surprised to find Oscar at the island counter running over some recipe sheets.

  Cleo dashed between my feet and set to sniffing everything.

  “Coffee,” was all I managed to say. I’d meant it as a request, but the way it choked out was rough and rude.

  Oscar’s eyes remained filled with pity, and with pinched lips he brewed me a pot. When he pushed the warm mug into my hands, I muttered a hoarse ‘thanks’ and watched the dark liquid swirl in circles.

  Oscar returned to his recipes.

  Silence ticked by us. At every other second, I could feel his cat-like eyes cut to where I sat, perched on a chopping table.

 
After a while, Oscar asked, “How is my fabulous Victoria today?”

  “Same as every other day.”

  “She didn’t want to join you on your little outing?”

  Join you.

  He made it sound as though I’d done something that showed progress. All I’d done was wander away from Cleo’s stench.

  I shook my head and watched Cleo try to paw out a scrap of lettuce from under a cabinet. It was the most stimulation she’d had in a long time.

  “How many soldiers are left?” I blurted out the question before I could stop it.

  A blink of hesitation passed over him before he sighed. “Twelve,” he said. “Two doctors. One assistant. Then us.”

  A population of twenty-two all up. But the world’s population was unknown. More were out there in other CDCs, just like this one. All waiting to start again.

  That was a problem for another time. A battle to be fought years from now. Decades, even.

  “Have you picked up your badge yet?” Oscar asked lightly.

  I looked up to see that he’d put Cleo on the island bench where she licked the edges of the recipe sheets.

  “My what?”

  “You’re credentials.” Oscar flicked an ID badge that was clipped to his studded belt.

  Where had he found a studded belt, I wondered? All of our clothes had been incinerated on arrival.

  “They’re being reissued,” said Oscar. “All new clearance levels. Castle has them.”

  I sipped the coffee. “He could’ve brought mine to me.”

  Oscar thinned his lips. “That’s a conversation you need to have with him.”

  I wasn’t ready for that. A part of me blamed him for what happened. Castle had made me a promise, Leo had been the one to break it. Was that Castle’s fault? No. Still, I couldn’t stamp out that flicker of blame inside of me.

  Oscar stroked Cleo’s head and fed her a small piece of liquorice. My nose crinkled.

  “You should go see him,” said Oscar. “It might be worth your while.”

  A frown wrinkled my forehead. “What d’you mean?”

  Oscar gave a dainty lift of one shoulder. “That’s all I can say.”

  I studied him with sharp eyes for a moment, then slid off the table. “Thanks for the coffee,” I said, placing the half-empty mug behind me. “But talking to Castle is something I’m not ready to do.”

  The undertones of my stiff voice were plain and clear. It was my business and mine alone.

  Oscar handed me Cleo with a tight smile. I took her and went straight back to Vicki’s room.

  The stink of stale pee and sweat hit me like a punch to the senses. My face pinched in disgust. I kicked the door shut behind me and dropped Cleo on the bed. She dashed to Vicki who was curled up on the armchair, fiddling with her inhaler.

  “Where were you?” she asked lazily.

  “The kitchen.” I flopped down on the bed. “Oscar said everyone’s getting new ID badges.”

  It was the only news I had, and it pulsed between us with a beat of excitement before it slapped to the floor like a wet fish. ID badges weren’t much of a conversation kicker. The truth is, we both found it hard to feel excited about anything anymore. The worst part of grief; the numbness of it all.

  “Do you wanna do something later?” I stretched out like a cat, fighting the onset of stagnancy. “Go to the common room, maybe?”

  Vicki didn’t bother shaking her head or saying no. She just looked away.

  I looked away, too.

  Stagnancy settled back in, undefeated.

  *

  I jerked awake to the sound of a knock.

  Groggily, I glanced from Vicki beside me on the bed to the door where the sliver of light underneath was fractured by feet. I untangled myself from the sheets and plodded out of bed.

  The gentle knock came once more before I pulled the door open.

  Adam’s bulky body stood in the threshold, blocking most of the hall’s light.

  “Got a minute?”

  I rubbed my eye and squinted at him. “What time is it?”

  “Three AM,” he said, tugging me out of the room. “I got off shift a few minutes ago. Castle just took over.”

  I raised my eyebrow at him. “So?”

  Adam gave a huffy sigh. “I don’t want to get involved—”

  “Then don’t.”

  “Listen for once.” Adam paused to glance up and down the empty corridor. “Castle’s in the central command room. He won’t come to you.”

  I threw up my hands in a ‘so what’ gesture.

  Irritability crept into his tone; “It wasn’t him who shot your sister. Christ, the pair of you are too stubborn to admit how miserable you are. Leo is the one who killed her. Leo. Why is Castle the one you’re punishing?”

  “Punishing.” The word spat from my tongue like poison. “I’m not doing anything like that. Castle and I have had these problems for a while now. I’m grieving. This has nothing to do with him.”

  Adam shook his head with little patience. “Whatever lies you want to tell yourself is your business. I only thought you should know that he’s suffering. Castle and Leo are my brothers and they both, for some reason I can’t comprehend, care about you.”

  “If Leo gave a damn about me he wouldn’t have killed my sister.”

  Adam clicked his fingers. “That’s exactly my point. They both care. But only one of them loves you. It’s up to you if you plan on punishing him for the rest of your lives. I’ve said what I came here to say. I’ve done what I can for Castle, god knows I owe him more than I can repay. But it’s on you now. It’s your choice. Make the right one.”

  Adam turned his back on me and strode down the hall. Before he could disappear through the glass door, I ran to catch up to him and grabbed his elbow.

  Adam looked at me with furrowed brows.

  “Why are you telling me this? Because you owe him?”

  “There are other reasons.”

  “Like what?”

  “Leo and his way with words. I don’t want to see you make a choice that will leave Castle in ruins. He’d never tell you this, but he’s afraid that so much time will pass that maybe you’ll forgive Leo one day—and it’ll be too late.”

  “That will never happen. I’ll never forgive him for what he did. Every time I think about him I want to cry and scream, throw up. Sometimes I even want to kill him.”

  Adam shrugged in answer. “Fears aren’t always rational. And down here, the days are long. Life is long. Who knows what will happen in years to come.”

  I ran my gaze over him before I stepped back. “Thanks for letting me know what you think.”

  A worried crease wrinkled his brow, but it was gone the moment he turned and pushed through the door.

  I went back to the room. Crammed in that bed between Vicki, Cleo and the wall, I didn’t sleep a wink. Hours passed before I rolled back out and tugged on a sweater.

  Before I knew it, I was marching through the halls, one destination in mind.

  30.

  I watched him through the glass for a while.

  The panel beside me flashed red, on and off, on and off, like it was trying to glare me away. Not that I could get inside without my own card and code. I’d have to knock, to let the man on the other side know that I was there.

  I wasn’t ready just yet, so I watched him—the way he bowed over the controls embedded into a curved table, how his head tipped up slightly to the massive screen on the wall, the glimmer of the lights dancing over his profile. His eyes were open, aimed at the screen, but a glassy sheen ghosted over them.

  I wondered if he was reading the codes that I didn’t understand or if he was caught in a daydream. Was he reading those jumbled numbers and letters, or was he thinking about me?

  The thought sent a jolt through me, a jolt of excitement and fear.

  Fear isn’t always rational, Adam had told me.

  The churn of panic in my gut, was that rational?

  I couldn’t
be sure, not as I stood there, studying the sawdust hues of his hair and the way his grey t-shirt hugged his slowly returning muscles. It was the first time in two weeks that I’d seen him. It wasn’t easy. The sight of even just his side had my heart and stomach in a dangerous flurry. My body itched to do things that my mind hated myself for; my lips ached to speak words that my heart wanted to lock up safe.

  But not even I have much control over myself.

  Before I could turn around and pretend I’d never come, my fist shot out and rapped against the glass. That was it.

  Castle’s muscles tensed in a ripple. He slowly looked over his shoulder.

  From the flash of shock that blazed his emerald eyes, I suspected that I was the last person he’d expected to see at the door.

  My breath hitched as he turned his back on me. Didn’t he want to see me? Had Adam lied? But then, just as quickly as I’d been robbed of breath, it sucked back into my body—Castle typed a code into the command keyboard.

  The door slid open.

  I slipped inside, tugging the hem of his old sweater down passed my shorts. Warm baseball socks padded my feet against the firm tiled floor beneath me—a piece of clothing ‘borrowed’ from Castle after I’d been drenched the drowning room.

  As I wandered in further, Castle let his gaze drift down to my socks, then slowly dragged back up until our eyes locked.

  We both waited for the other to speak. Neither of us were going to say what was on our minds. When I realised that, I felt some of the tension drift from my shoulders.

  “You have something for me?” I folded my arms and perched on the edge of the keyboard table. Under Castle’s steady unflinching gaze, I added, “The ID card. So I can get into the garden.”

  Castle wiped away any shadow of emotion from his eyes with a single blink. He drew back from the commands table to the desk behind him. I watched as he pulled a beige envelope from the drawer and handed it to me.

  It was bulkier than I’d expected. Stuffed to the brim.

  I made to open it, but Castle dropped into a chair opposite me and said, “The badge and code are both in there … among your sister’s personal belongings. You might prefer to sort through the items alone.”