The Phoenix Curse (Book 3): After

by D. R. Johnson

  "Nope." I said without even thinking about it. We’d already been through that conversation before.

  "I'll do it then. I miss hamburgers."

  I chuckled at that. "So do I, but you're not going to find anything big here. Those freaks would have eaten it all by now. Maybe once we get out of the city."

  "How 'bout a little squirrel soup?" He snickered at me. Stephanie actually whimpered at that, pulling my attention to her. Her face had paled.

  I laughed again and turned back to Joss. "Just fix the noodles, you brat."

  "I'll do it." Stephanie stepped up, surprising me. She took the bag from Joss and disappeared into the kitchen.

  As soon as she was out of the room, I whispered as softly as I could, the words barely even making it to my own ears. "Is she better now?"

  Joss nodded. His talent was unbelievable. He glanced a cautious look toward the kitchen before speaking out loud, changing the topic. "We need more water."

  "Did you two get a list of supplies started?"

  "Uh," Joss began to rummage through the many piles that we had created. The café had become quite messy over the last few days. After shuffling a few things around, he pulled the yellow notepad from a table and smiled triumphantly. "Yes!"

  "Good." I said, taking it from him. "I found a truck that looks promising."

  Joss's eyes lit up, and I somehow managed to suppress my grimace. I wasn't confident that I could get the truck running, but I didn't want to spoil it for him. The more likely reality I envisioned was Joss and I strapping ourselves to the golf cart like we were a couple of mules, hauling Stephanie out as she rode inside. At least the situation wasn't entirely hopeless.

  I scoffed at the thought, not realizing how closely Joss was watching me. He frowned. "What?"

  "Nothing." I waved him away. "Was just thinking of our backup plan if the truck doesn't pan out."

  "There's a backup plan?" The confused look on his face made me smile.

  I chuckled softly. "Yes. There's a backup plan." I leaned in close and said flatly. "And it was your idea."

  "What?" He pulled back, his confusion growing. I nodded to the golf cart outside.

  "We didn't have to push her here in that cart, but we might end up pushing her out."

  He groaned, not appreciating how close my joke was to the truth.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  Time slowed to a crawl after lunch. I paced at the front window, watching the sun as it hung in the air, refusing to move. Chewing on my bottom lip nervously, I spun and walked the few steps to the other wall, reversed, and headed the other way.

  "Do you think," Joss started. I paused to look at him. He was lounging in a booth, peering at me over the top of a book. "That you could stop doing that?"

  "Argh!" I growled, stomping my foot in frustration. "Waiting is driving me nuts."

  "I can see that." Joss said, looking back down at his book. "Maybe you should find something to do."

  My lips pursed and my hands balled up into fists at my sides. Did he realize how irritating he was? I glared at him, seeing his eyes on his book, but unmoving. His lips twitched as he tried to hold in a smile.

  "You little twerp!" I yelled, wanting to throw something at him but there wasn't anything in reach. His smile finally broke out over his face, and he busted into laughter. Stephanie poked her head out from the kitchen where she had been washing the dishes, looked at us both, then disappeared again. Her mood had definitely changed, but she was still acting skittish.

  I grumbled and went to take a seat on the other side of Joss's booth. "This is killing me. What does she want?"

  Joss shrugged and closed his book, leaving his finger in between the pages to mark his place. "Hopefully she'll teach you how to bake cookies."

  I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. Some of the strands were uneven, and I pulled at those with irritation. I needed to even them up at some point, but it was difficult to get the right angle. Considering, I looked at Joss, wondering if he was handy with scissors, but the mischievous look on his face made me think better of it. I couldn't let Stephanie do it, either. She'd probably try to stab me.

  "Maybe she'll fix my hair." I mumbled it under my breath, momentarily forgetting that Joss could hear me. His eyebrows shot up in surprise, and I blushed. "I'm kidding."

  I leaned back and tried to relax, but it was impossible. Despite Joss's teasing, I was up again within twenty minutes, back to my pacing. He muttered at me, but didn't comment on it again although he gave up on his reading.

  As soon as the sun began to dip into the lower sky, I tossed Joss a glance over my shoulder and was gone. Jogging across the plaza, I headed for the door. It was too early, but I couldn't stand it anymore. Even if I ended up waiting for Meg in the hotel, at least I wouldn't be disturbing Joss and Stephanie with my relentless pacing.

  I made my way through the twisting hotel hallways, familiar with them now that I had spent more time here. As I came up to the front of the hotel, I stumbled to a stop. Meg was already here.

  "Hello." She said, sounding as nervous as I felt.

  My feet remembered to move and closed the distance between us. I managed a nervous smile in return. "Hi."

  "I wanted to apologize for how I left before." Meg started. She wasn't sitting. Instead she stood behind a chair and picked at the fabric. I hung back a little, not wanting to sit down if she was going to remain standing. "I do want to help, but I can't risk putting her in danger."

  I nodded. I respected her decision, even if that didn't help us. "I do understand that. I don't want to put you or any of yours in danger either."

  "Thank you, Ali." She said, exhaling. Her smile was sincere this time. "I appreciate that. I haven't been able to stop thinking about you guys, and I finally decided to take a chance. I'd like to show you something if you'll let me."

  Curious, I nodded hesitantly. "What's that?"

  "You'll have to come to the Palace with me."

  I swallowed hard, tensing. I had followed her once into the unknown, and she hadn't given me a reason not to trust her. The delay in my response was noticeable. Meg closed her eyes for a moment, as if in consideration, and then she pulled the shotgun off her shoulder and held it out to me.

  "There are no shells. I haven't kept shells for it in ages. Check it yourself."

  Blinking, I gently took the gun from her, spun it around, and popped open the barrel. She wasn't lying. I looked up at her in shock. "Why?"

  "I don't like to kill them. Gordon doesn't have that problem, but it messes with me." Her voice was almost sad, and I handed the nearly useless shotgun back to her. She slung it over her shoulder and stared at me, her eyes sparkling like green gems. I understood her intentions, but this revelation did nothing to bolster my trust. A trap could still be a trap, even if she didn't force me in with a weapon at my back. Was she just trying to disarm me?

  But why?

  Because there was no why. Meg wasn't trying to trap me. Nothing that I'd seen from her since we'd met had even hinted at that. All of her actions had pointed to the one thing she had already told me. She was protecting someone. That was logic I couldn't deny.

  I met her eyes and nodded. "Lead on."

  She smiled, seeming somewhat relieved, but she radiated anxiety. Good, that makes two of us, I thought as she led me out the door.

  Crowds of freaks occupied the plaza on this side of the hotel, but as she led me to the road, I noticed there was a barrier set up around the Palace. It was made of cars, carts, tables, and a mish-mash of other objects intended to keep the freaks from the doors, except some of the tables had collapsed and some areas were low enough to step over.

  Meg was casting glances at me every few steps, and she noticed my eyes on the barrier. "It isn't much. It wouldn't stop them if they really wanted to get past it, but at least it keeps them away from the door. I don't like them in my business if I can help it."

  My eyes cut back to hers sharply, and she actually blushed. I allowed myself a small smile when s
he turned her back to me and was able to relax a little. She didn't seem so bad.

  We crossed the boulevard to the Palace, and Meg led me through the maze of obstacles. The front door and entry way of this hotel was just as grand as the one we'd left, even though it was worn down. I could see that the structure had been beautiful back in its day. I stared up at the building in appreciation, wishing I'd had the chance to see it before the world turned.

  "This way," Meg said as we entered the building. I looked around longingly, hoping I might get the chance to explore the casino in this hotel as I had with the other. She led me to a stairwell and said, "This one has been cleared out. The others might have zombies in them. Just a warning."

  My face twitched at her use of the word zombie again, but she didn’t notice. We began our climb up the stairwell. Dingy windows provided enough light to see by, but they cast eerie shadows on the wall that put me on edge. Meg seemed not to have those issues, and she practically flew up the first flight of stairs, turning to look down at me when I didn't follow as quickly.

  "Sorry. I go up and down these at least twenty times a day." She said. "Running saves time."

  "How many floors?" I asked, catching up.

  "Twenty-six." She grinned impishly. "Don't get dizzy."

  Oh, boy.

  Meg had already turned and was continuing up the stairs only a tad slower than before. I ignored the unsettling feeling and followed her. As we passed floor after floor, the muscles in my legs began to burn, but I never got winded. I never thought to test my limit in this way and was pleased with the new discovery. The burn felt good.

  Stronger, healthier and ya heal faster too now. I smiled as I thought of Walt, and unconsciously reached up to touch the spot on my chest that should have been a massive scar. Guess I had put his words to the test, not to mention the other talents Joss and I had discovered. I glanced up at Meg, wondering if she had anything... enhanced.

  We were a few flights from the top, and I noticed a brighter light coming from the top floor. I figured it was from a window, but as we rounded that last turn, my jaw dropped in shock. It wasn't a window, it was a light! A bright, florescent square shone down brilliantly into the stairwell. I gaped at it in amazement, my steps slowing.

  "How?" I pointed up, turning to see that Meg was smiling at me. She pulled the door open excitedly, as if she couldn't wait to reveal what lay beyond.

  Through the doorway, I could see a set of double doors, lights to either side of them, both lit. I stared at them, stunned. Meg coaxed me into the wide hallway, and there were more double doors, more lights. I turned my wide eyes to her and mouthed again, "How?"

  "Gordon." Meg smiled. "He's an odd man, but he's smart. He doesn't stay up here with us."

  I glanced at her, finally able to tear my eyes away from the lights. "Where does he stay?"

  "He calls it the Spring, God only knows why, but it's the source of electricity. He says it's unstable and needs a lot of care." Meg said. "I can take you down to meet him... if you want."

  "Maybe." I said, continuing to look around. Meg had stopped and hovered by the stairwell doorway. Over my initial awe, I glanced down the hall in both directions, but saw nothing else of interest. Meg didn't lead me up twenty-six flights of stairs just to show me some lights, had she? I turned a curious look to her, and she shifted from one foot to the other, nervously.

  She was stalling!

  "Meg," I said cautiously, suddenly wondering if I'd made a mistake letting her lead me up here. "What did you want to show me?"

  She began to wring her hands together, and worry lined her face. "I couldn’t stop thinking about you guys. I think I made the right decision to trust you." She took a deep breath. "You saved Stephanie, right? Even though you just met her, you brought her with you."

  That gave me pause. I watched her closely, trying to decipher her unexpected reluctance. "Yes. I couldn't leave her out there. She never would have made it on her own."

  "That's why I brought you up here." Meg said, her voice firming. My answer reinforced her decision to share this thing with me, whatever it was, and she leaned in close to grip my hand in hers. The sudden intensity in her eyes captured me, and an unexplained chill ran across my skin. "This is precious to me, beyond words. She's sacred to me, and I could never have made it through this hell without her. Please, please understand how much this means to me."

  Her eyes locked with mine. In a breath, she stole all my preconceived notions and stripped me bare. Her eyes glowed as they pleaded with me to understand, to feel everything that she felt with that same sharp intensity, to love something so fiercely it was more precious than life itself... and I did. I believed her. I believed it all.

  She stepped away, and I staggered. My mouth had gone dry, and I gasped, remembering to breathe again. "What the holy hell."

  "I'm sorry, but I had to." Meg said, her cheeks flushing a bright red. "You'll understand soon."

  I looked down at my hand, feeling it tingle where she had touched me. It was a faint feeling, nothing more than a memory of her skin on mine, but that memory burned. I ran my fingers through my hair and swallowed, my brain trying to figure out what happened.

  Meg was moving toward a set of double doors down the hall, and she pulled one open, standing back to allow me to enter. I stared after her, not wanting to care what was beyond that door anymore - I wanted to know what the hell had just happened - but I realized I did care, and I took a cautious step forward.

  A small shadow darted through the room.

  My breath caught in my throat, and my steps faltered for a moment. Meg stood motionless, waiting, and I slowly walked past her. As I entered the suite, my jaw dropped again. The room was huge, filled completely with stuffed animals and toys. Train sets and doll houses littered the open spaces, along with multiple tents and tunnels. It was everything that I would have loved to have when I was a child.

  And then I saw her. Dark hair hung in ringlets around her small face, and she wore a fluffy, yellow princess costume. Her eyes were bright and clear as she stared at me. They sparkled like amethyst. A brilliant green much lighter than mine, although still unnatural. She was beautiful.

  "She's a child." I stuttered, unaware that I had even spoken out loud until Meg answered me.

  "I named her Hope."

  "How..." My words choked off to stunned silence, and I swallowed, trying to remember everything Meg had told me. "How did she survive the mist? How old is she?"

  "She turned five in February."

  My shock kept me from thinking clearly, and it felt like there was something there I needed to see, something just out of my mind’s grasp. A piece of the puzzle I was missing. I struggled through my muddy thoughts, trying to figure out how a child, an infant at the time, could have survived the mist. And then it hit me.

  "You were pregnant!"

  Meg didn't answer me. She didn't need to. I was right. The other things Meg told me began to fall into place. "She's not like us?"

  Meg shrugged. "The zombies go crazy if they hear or smell her. She's like Stephanie. She's normal."

  Hope slowly inched her way to Meg, never taking her eyes off me. I was awestruck. How had the infection not spread to her? How had a baby survived her mother turning? I looked questioningly to Meg, but could already see in her eyes that she had no answers. "You nursed her?"

  Meg nodded. "For as long as I could. I dried up a couple years ago."

  So she was immune to the infection. I had been thinking about it wrong the whole time. I considered myself immune because I didn't become a freak, even though I could spread the disease. Joss, Meg and I, we weren't immune. Not like Hope.

  Hope was different. Hope was normal.

  I needed to sit down. Somehow, inexplicably, this child had beaten the curse. Despite all the danger that was spread out just a few hundred feet below us, Hope had survived. As the thought hit me, my face broke out into a broad grin that I couldn't hold back.

  "What?" Meg asked.

&
nbsp; "You named her well." I answered, smiling. "She is hope."

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  "Can we talk about what you did back there?" I asked Meg. She had moved deeper into the room, but I stayed by the door.

  "That." She blushed, and reached up to fidget with her ear lobe. "It happened after the bomb went off."

  That much I figured, but it caught me off guard when she said bomb. I didn't remember Walt ever mentioning a bomb. I stayed silent, not wanting to distract her.

  Pushing a huge stuffed cat from a chair, Meg sat down, and Hope snatched the cat to drag it further into the room. Hope kept a wary eye on me as she found a new home for her toy, and Meg continued. "It started with Hope, not long after she turned one, but I didn't notice anything odd right away. She would wake up screaming for no reason. She wasn't sick, so I assumed it was just a bad dream. I'd comfort her and wish I could make her understand it was safe. I've always hated to see her scared. When I held her, she would calm down almost right away. I never thought much of it.

  "Then one day, something else happened. Riley, he's like us, wanted us to leave--"

  "There's someone else here?" I snapped quickly, interrupting her.

  Meg shook her head, "No, he was one of the others that left. One of the last to leave, in fact." She paused, waiting to see if I would interrupt again, but I was done talking. I felt the flush of embarrassment rise to my cheeks.

  "Anyway, Riley wanted Hope and me to leave with him, but I was too scared. He was very persistent. We argued, and I grabbed his hand, wanting him to know how strongly I was against moving her. He felt it right away when I touched him."

  Her voice faded, and she looked down at her hands as she absently rubbed them together. Softly, she said, "None of the others could do something like this. I'm a freak."

  I choked at her words, finally stepping forward. I was very much in doubt about her strange talent, but one thing I did know. "You're not a freak." I said adamantly. "Those things out there, those are the freaks. We are people."