“Good.” Raina dug deeper into the weaponry. “Looking the part is half the battle. And for lover boy.” She pulled his own Guard belt from the depths of the shelf.
“And here I thought you’d burned it.” Jeremy’s face betrayed no emotion as he fastened his belt around his waist.
“It still fits.” Raina winked.
“I need more ammunition,” Jeremy said, “and some knives wouldn’t go amiss either.”
Raina pulled out two smaller knives in sleek leather sheathes. She tossed one to Jeremy before tucking the other into her boot.
“Do we need packs?” Nola asked. “If we’re going to be hiding during the daylight, Jeremy and I will at least need food and water.”
“Who said anything about hiding?” Kieran came in from the tunnels, two wooden boxes balanced in his arms.
“I’ve seen what happens when vampires go into the sun, Kieran,” Nola said. “None of you can risk that.”
“We’ll be fine.” Kieran yanked the lid off the first, larger box.
“Sun suits?” Jeremy peered down at the wide brimmed hats and neatly folded stacks of tan material. “Those are sun suits from the domes.”
Nola pulled out one of the jumpsuits. She’d never held one before. The coarse material itched her skin and, even with her new strength, weighed twice what she’d expected.
The sun suits were only used by the maintenance workers of the domes when they had to spend hours outside working on the air ducts, cisterns, and other external assets. Normal Domers were never outdoors long enough to need the suits, and Outer Guard uniforms had their own sun protection.
“How did you get these?” Nola asked.
Kieran opened the second smaller box. Ammunition packs of the tiny metal darts needed for the Guard guns filled the crate.
Jeremy whistled.
“You wanted to know what we couldn’t ask the domes for,” Kieran said. “This is what we needed.”
“You broke into the domes for sun suits and ammunition?” Nola dug her fists into her eyes. “How many people died so you could have these?”
“So we could defend ourselves in the daylight?” Raina asked. “Far fewer than the domes would kill if they found us here.”
“We gained a few other assets as well,” Julian said. “Emanuel planned very carefully for the things we would need.”
Raina took the suit from Nola, curling her lip as she shook out the fabric. “Leave it to Domers to make something so horribly unattractive.”
“They’ll keep us alive.” Kieran pulled his suit on over his dark pants and shirt. The baggy tan fabric made him look younger, softening the hard lines the outside world had carved into him.
An old pain tugged at Nola’s chest.
“Are you sure they’ll work?” Jeremy asked.
“Of course.” Julian tucked his brown gloves into his sleeves and took a wide-brimmed hat from the box. A tube of fabric hung from the hat, ready to cover everything but the vampires’ eyes.
“I really hate these things.” Raina fastened her belt on the outside of her suit. The effect was comical, like a child playing in grownups’ clothes.
“So, you really are going?”
Nola spun toward T’s voice. She and Beauford stood in the tunnel, Emanuel right behind them.
“We have to.” Nola reached for T as she crossed into the sparring room.
T stopped to look in both boxes before taking Nola’s hands.
“Why?” T asked.
“We need to know what’s happening,” Nola said. “We’ll be back soon.”
“I want to believe you,” T said.
“If they say they have to go, they have to go.” Beauford laid a hand on T’s shoulder. “Fussing won’t help anything.”
T opened her mouth, then chewed her lips together and shook her head.
“Do you have everything you need?” Emanuel stepped forward to join the group.
“Weapons, sun suits, Domers.” Raina counted them off on her gloved fingers. “We should be set.”
“Go in and come back,” Emanuel said. “If you don’t have to go near anyone, don’t. If you do—”
“Kill them?” Raina said.
Nola gripped the knives on her hips.
“If you have to.” Emanuel took Raina’s hands in his. “You have my trust, old friend. You command with my voice.”
Raina bowed her head.
“Don’t let them take you from me again,” Emanuel said.
“I won’t,” Raina said.
“We should let them leave.” Emanuel turned to T and Beauford. “There’s only a few hours left until morning.”
Tears pooled in the corners of T’s eyes. “Don’t let her die, Jeremy. You have to bring her back here.”
In two quick steps, Nola threw her arms around T’s neck. “I’m coming back. I’m going to be with you when the baby’s born, I promise.”
“Good.” T squeezed Nola, then stepped back, looping her arm through Beauford’s.
“See you soon.” Beauford gave a quick nod and led T back into the tunnel.
“I expect you back by tomorrow morning.” Emanuel gave each of them a long look before walking away.
Nola stood frozen, watching them all disappear from view.
“That bastard,” Nola said.
“We’ll be back soon.” Jeremy wrapped his arms around her.
“Yeah.” Nola swiped the tears from her cheeks. “Using a pregnant girl to make sure we don’t jump ship. That’s a really low blow.”
“Would you have left?” Kieran asked.
Jeremy’s arms tensed around Nola.
Nola dug her fingers into her curls. “I’m a superhero, you’re a vampire, and I’m in borrowed shoes because mine got soaked through with zombie blood. Let’s just go and find out if the boogey man is hiding in the domes.”
“Sounds like a good time.” Raina shoved open the door to the outer tunnel. “We run fast and we run silent. Last one to the city limits is zombie food.” With a grin, she took off down the tunnel.
“I’ll take the rear.” Julian bowed the rest forward, checking the sword he’d fastened over his tan suit.
“You next.” Jeremy pointed to Kieran.
“Then Nola?” Kieran asked.
Jeremy gave a nod so small it looked like a twitch.
Kieran nodded back, his eyes sweeping over Nola before he ran down the tunnel.
She chased after him, exhaling all the air from her lungs, wishing she could squeeze the air from her whole body. That she could freeze in a void with nothing to fear and nothing to care for.
Kieran ran twenty feet ahead of her, slowing and hastening his pace to match hers. Jeremy’s boots thudded steadily behind her.
She had lost her dome clothes and shoes. Everything she wore had been someone else’s, but Jeremy still wore his boots.
Raina dropped from the ledge as it came into view. Kieran leapt out of sight. Nola didn’t hesitate to jump when her turn came.
Hitting the ground didn’t break her stride.
She kept her eyes fixed on Kieran’s back as they ran past the bodies of the zombies they’d ended only a few hours before.
Ended. So simple. So true.
Everything would end.
Her legs moved faster than they had when she and Jeremy had run into the city. The Graylock had finished its work. Her toes barely touched the ground as she sprinted down the mountain. She longed for her lungs to burn or her legs to ache.
End. If the domes had ended, then anything could.
The gleaming beacon of safety. The hope all the world had been told to look to as a future for the human race.
Or Salinger had stayed, ruling the domes with a fist drenched in blood. Destruction or contamination.
Which would leave more survivors?
She left her hands at her sides as she ran through the field of briars, relishing each tear of her flesh. Knowing she would be healed before she could lift her hands to see the cuts.
Death for many, or power for a devil.
Either way, the world is ending.
Raina led them out of the field and into the trees. Fresh footprints marked the dirt, leading north, away from the mountain to somewhere Nola had never seen.
I hope they survived. Wherever they are.
A voice that sounded terribly like Jeremy’s echoed in the back of her mind. If they survive, they’ll live to be our enemies.
Tears touched Nola’s cheek, freezing in the cold night air.
The plants will be dead by now. T will have to live off mushrooms for the winter.
Anger burst into flames in Nola’s chest, pushing her legs to run faster. But the speed didn’t hurt. Running couldn’t burn away her rage.
Rundown houses came into view, like slumping giants sagging from years of sadness.
Someone had built those homes. Lived in them. Children had been raised and deaths mourned within those walls.
None of it matters now. It’s all just rot.
Kieran reached back, wrapping an arm around her waist before Nola could run past him.
He clapped his hand over her mouth before she could speak.
“Look.” His breath whispered over her ear.
A light burned in the window of the house in front of them.
Raina stood in the middle of the road, a knife in each hand. Her head swiveled slowly from side to side as though she were scenting the wind.
Nola nodded and stepped away from Kieran, reaching for her own knives.
Jeremy’s fingers grazed her wrist.
Nola glanced over her shoulder.
Jeremy shook his head.
Julian’s sword rasped as he pulled the long blade from its sheath.
Jeremy let go of Nola, pulling his gun from its holster. He touched the black case on his hip before raising the gun, pointing it toward the house with the light.
Raina stalked slowly toward the house, placing one foot in front of the other as though she were walking on ice.
Like people used to do on the outside. When the world would freeze them for months at a time. When life could disappear with a crack in the ice.
Raina stopped in front of the porch.
Jeremy slunk in front of Nola, pressing his back to the doorjamb, gun raised and pointing toward the closed door.
Kieran leaned against the other side, his daggers poised to strike.
Julian took Nola’s shoulders, pulling her to Jeremy’s side of the door as Raina nodded and leapt forward, kicking through the door with a crack.
Screams echoed from inside the house.
“Don’t move and I don’t slice, got it?” Raina said.
Nola leaned toward the door. Jeremy shot one arm back, pressing her against the wall.
“Please don’t kill us!” a woman shrieked.
“That’s a good start,” Raina said. “Now let’s get to the bit where you all stand against the wall with your arms over your head and we’ll be in great shape.”
“I won’t be told what to do,” a young man shouted.
Be good. Do what she says and be good.
Nola leaned into Jeremy’s arm.
“Just do it, you fool,” a woman said.
“That’s better,” Raina said. “See how easy it is to get along when you all do what I say?”
Kieran nodded toward the door.
Jeremy moved his arm, freeing Nola from the wall. Gun steady, he walked into the house.
Nola stepped forward to follow him.
Kieran shook his head and disappeared through the door.
“We’re not here to hurt anyone.” Kieran’s voice carried from inside the house. “All we want is to ask a few questions and we’ll be on our way.”
Raina’s laugh shook the cracked window panes.
Nola looked behind to Julian. He scanned the street before nodding.
She hadn’t noticed she’d been holding her breath until she stepped through the doorway.
A table with four candles threw a flickering light across the room.
Four people stood pressed up against the wall: the young boy Jeremy had carried from the flames, flanked by the three women from the group that had attacked Jeremy.
Nola pulled her knives from their sheathes. “There should be more.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“What do you mean more?” Raina held the tip of her knife to the boy’s heart.
“When we saw those ladies last time, they had kids and two other men with them,” Nola said.
“He’d been with a group in the city.” Jeremy pointed to the boy. “We told them to run for it. Found him on the ground on our way out and carried him from the smoke.”
“That was you?” the boy cocked his head to the side. “Where’s the rest of my family?”
“We didn’t see any of them,” Nola said. “They left you in the middle of the road. I don’t know where they went from there.”
“You’re lying.” The boy shook his head so violently Raina’s knife pierced his chest. Red blossomed on his filthy shirt. “They would never abandon me.”
“People are shit, kid. Get used to it,” Raina said. “Now where are the others?”
“There’s no one else here,” one of the women said. Her gaze darted through the shield of her dark scraggly hair toward the stairs.
“Liar,” Raina whispered. “Kieran, Jeremy, sweep upstairs. If anyone is hiding up there, kill them.”
“Wait!” the gray-haired woman yelped.
“Something you want to tell me?” Raina raised her other blade to the woman’s neck.
“There’s a little girl up there, but no one else,” the gray-haired woman said. “She’s just a child, please don’t hurt her.”
“Go.” Raina nodded to Kieran and Jeremy.
“Please,” the gray-haired woman murmured. “Don’t kill my baby.”
“I’m a vampire, not a Domer,” Raina said. “I’m not in the habit of murdering children.”
Kieran disappeared one way at the top of the stairs and Jeremy the other.
“What about the two men and the other child?” Nola asked, keeping her ears focused on the sounds of Jeremy’s and Kieran’s footsteps overhead.
“Jeffy died,” the red-haired woman finally spoke. “Got into a fight that first night. Lou took the other kid and bolted. We tried to look a bit, but there were too many people running around out there. We had to stay hidden.”
“Next time you decide to hide, don’t leave a light on,” Raina said.
“We can’t see in the dark,” the scraggly woman said. “We aren’t like you.”
“Pity,” Raina said. “You’d be more likely to survive.”
“It’s okay,” Kieran cooed from the top landing. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Sniffles sounded under his words.
He stepped onto the landing, holding a tiny girl in his arms. “We’re going to take you down to sit with the others, that’s all. We’re making sure you’re nice and safe.”
“The rest is clear.” Jeremy stepped out of the shadows.
“Make sure there’s nothing else of interest,” Raina said.
Jeremy slipped back out of sight.
“Please don’t take our supplies.” The redhead tipped her chin up, as though preparing to be hit. “We barely have anything. If you take our food, you might as well kill us.”
The little girl began to cry.
“Shh.” Kieran rocked the child. “You’re okay.”
The child buried her filthy face in his shoulder.
“We aren’t interested in your food,” Raina said. “We want information. Tell us everything we want to know, and we’ll walk right back out of here, and you can go back to sitting around your candles like a pack of fools.”
“What do you want to know?” the gray-haired woman asked.
“What’s happened since the city burned?” Raina asked.
“We were up the hill by the time most made it out of the city,” the gray-haired woman said. �
��That’s when your friend upstairs killed one of us.”
“Your friend pulled a gun on us when we were trying to help you.” Nola tightened her grip on her knives. “Your friend shot Jeremy. You’re lucky we let the rest of you run away.”
The gray-haired woman glared at Nola.
“What happened after your failed attempt at murdering Jeremy and Nola?” Julian asked from his place in the door. He had his sword drawn as he faced out into the night.
“We went into one of the houses to hide,” the redhead said. “We stayed in there for a couple of hours. Wanted to make sure no one was coming after us. Then we heard people coming up the road in groups.”
“What kind of groups?” Kieran asked.
“Some people alone, a few groups of fifteen or twenty,” the scraggly woman said. “Probably saw about three hundred people pass.”
“Some of them tried to come into the house where we were hiding,” the gray-haired woman said. “Jeffy tried to get them out. That’s when he got killed.”
“We ran,” the redhead said. “Came up here to the end of the houses. Most of the ones closer to the city already had people holed up in them. Some people went into the woods, but I don’t know what they think they’ll find there.”
The floor upstairs groaned. Jeremy stepped back out onto the landing. “Where did you get these?” He held up two dome-issued water bottles. “You were away from the city before the Outer Guard started handing these out.”
“Pulled them off some bodies,” the scraggly woman said. “Found a few that had been killed but still had bottles and a bit of food. It wasn’t stealing. The dead don’t need water.”
“Have you seen any Outer Guard?” Nola asked.
“Not since I was in the city,” the boy said. “I saw the ones who told us to stay put, then I woke up on the old highway. There were some people left around me. Told me the Outer Guard had taken off back across the river.”
“How did you end up with them?” Raina asked.
“Knew his mother and saw him trying to go off into the woods to find her,” the gray-haired woman said. “No one who’s gone into those woods is still alive. People can’t survive out there. It’s just not possible.”
“You’re very clever,” Raina said.
“I’ve heard rumors,” the scraggly woman said. “Met two children headed out to the forest. They said the guards have been lurking around the city. I don’t know what they’re looking for, but no one in their right mind would go back in there. Took nearly a week for the smoke to stop. There’s nothing of worth left in the city. Going in there is as close to suicide as going out into the woods.”
Night of Never Page 18