Within These Walls: Series Box Set

by Tracey Ward

“Athena.”

  “Cren, I hate when you take that tone with me,” I complain.

  “It’s because it’s fatherly,” Vin says.

  I shoot him a warning glance, one reminding him to keep his mouth shut. So far the fact that I’ve lost Ryan has bought him a chance at being forgotten for a moment. He should capitalize on that.

  “Do you know who Trent is?” I ask Crenshaw. “He’s a member of Helios’ family. Tall, thin, blond hair, creepy as balls blue eyes that see right through you into your soul.”

  Crenshaw leans on his staff, nodding sagely. “I have seen the boy, yes. Excellent hunter.”

  “He really is, yeah. He hasn’t been here, has he?”

  “Maybe with about two hundred people running for their lives?” Vin adds.

  Crenshaw eyes Vin with open disdain, then shakes his head. “There has been no such visit. Should I be expecting one?”

  “Maybe,” I reply reluctantly.

  “And who are these people the boy has with him?”

  “Refugees,” Vin says solemnly. “Former prisoners of the Colony to the north. We have released them from the bonds put on them by the Colony. They are now free men and women of the wild, although they will need shelter and guidance in order to survive.”

  I stare at Vin in amazement. He sounds exactly like Ryan when he’s talking to Crenshaw. Did I miss something in my meager childhood? Was there a book I was supposed to have read? The Complete Idiot’s Guide to King Arthur’s Court? It seems like silly me has been reading any survival manual or How To book I could get my hands on while all these Lost Boys were reading Lunacy: A Visitor’s Guide.

  “I see,” Cren replies softly. His eyes are still wary, but they’re not as sharp. He’s not quite ready to crack Vin over the head with his staff anymore, though, and that’s a plus. “You helped to free these people?”

  “He led them to freedom,” I correct in my best imitation of crazy speak.

  Cren’s eyes widen. “For truth?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And he has returned you to me unharmed.”

  “I returned me to you unharmed, but he was there. He didn’t hurt me.”

  “I saved your life, Kitten,” Vin protests, dropping the act.

  “Don’t oversell it. You helped a little, and so did I. We’re even.” I turn back to Crenshaw. “How did—”

  “Saved your life,” Vin mutters under his breath.

  I take a steadying breath. “How did this happen, Cren? How are the Vashons here?”

  The old man beams at me. “Persephone.”

  My heart skips a beat. “Seriously? Ali is here?”

  “Persephone is here.”

  “Yes, yes, Persephone. She’s here? She brought the Vashons here?”

  “Yes. She was moved by your visit. There are those who believe you to be a traitor, but Persephone is not one of them. She convinced a large number of the Vashons to travel with her across the waters. They came here to me to find shelter.” Crenshaw chuckles as he looks around. “I must say, it is lovely to have visitors.”

  “How large of a number?” Vin asks.

  Cren turns to him, his eyes narrowing slightly. “How large of a number of what, Hornet?”

  “How many people came across the water?”

  “Over three hundred.”

  My knees go weak. Three hundred. Three hundred people!

  I want to dance. I want to sing. I want to kiss Vin soundly on the mouth in front of everyone here. I can hardly breathe as my mind does the math.

  I don’t know if we can win this thing, but we have a snowball’s chance in hell now and that’s a lot better than we were doing ten minutes ago.

  “I need to find Ryan,” I say urgently.

  “Yes,” Crenshaw agrees. “Helios is imperative.”

  “Assuming he’s still alive.”

  Crenshaw and I both glare at Vin. He stares back at us unflinching.

  “I’m being realistic,” he tells us.

  “Why would Helios be dead?” Crenshaw asks me.

  I bury my face in my hands for a second, unwilling to look at either of them. Unwilling to let the terror in my heart show.

  When I lower my hands, I look Cren in the eye. “When we ran from the northern Colony we left through the tunnels. Ryan stayed behind to help blow the entrance to make sure none of The Hive could follow us. Vin and I were running in the dark. We couldn’t go back for them and we couldn’t wait. We were lost. So we ran.”

  Crenshaw presses his warm, dry hand to my arm, squeezing it gently. “He is alive. Of this I am sure.”

  “How?” I whisper pathetically. Hopefully.

  He smiles at me like I’m a child—one asking how he knows the sky is blue. “Because I can feel him. Can you not feel him, Athena?”

  I shake my head.

  “Well,” he replies, clucking his tongue and removing his hand from my arm. “You will. When you are ready to admit it, you will.”

  “Admit what?”

  “Incoming!”

  We all turn to look at the perimeter of the forest where Crenshaw’s soldiers have gathered. They’re standing tense and ready, facing off with a herd of people running straight toward us. Past the pounding of their footsteps and the occasional panicked cry, I can hear the low constant moan of another herd.

  “Is this your friend, my dear?” Crenshaw asks me bitingly. “The one leading a horde of wraiths to my front door.”

  I nod stiffly, my eyes easily finding Trent in the crowd. “Yeah, Cren. He’s one of mine.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  The Vashon soldiers are good. They collapse on the weak side of the park in a heartbeat, forming a line of defense so thick I wonder how Trent and the Colonists will get through. Then they split, just before the crowd mows them over, and they let the panicked mass spill into the makeshift village. It fills quickly. I’m bumped from side to side, my shoulders brushing with others, and my body stiffens in annoyance. The old fear begins to build. I can feel the tightness in my gut and in my limbs that warns me to get away. It’s telling me that if one of these people turns, we’ll all be dead.

  I turn to tell Crenshaw we should move out of the crowd, but when I look for him he’s gone. Vanished silently into thin air.

  “Wiley old SOB,” I mutter.

  “Joss.”

  I spin around to find Trent effortlessly jogging through the crowd toward me.

  “Trent, where did you go? What’s happening?”

  Before he can answer me, Trent spots Vin. He holds out his hand to him, surprising both of us. It’s such a human move for my robot.

  “I hereby happily return your people to you,” he tells Vin. “Good luck.”

  Vin smiles as he shakes his hand. “Not a fan of leadership, huh?”

  “People are whiners.”

  “I won’t argue with you there.”

  “Trent,” I nag.

  “What?”

  “Where did you go?!”

  “To the cannibals. I led them through the tunnels to the cannibals’ home, but none of the Colonists wanted to be there and I don’t think the cannibals were very happy about it either. I released the prisoners, then—”

  “You did what?” Vin snaps.

  Trent looks at him with utter calm before repeating, “The Colonist Leaders you had locked up. I let them go.”

  “They’ll go straight back to the Colonies and tell them what’s happening!” I cry.

  “I certainly hope so.”

  “Why would you want that?”

  “Because they don’t know what’s happening.”

  I look to Vin, completely confused. He looks back at me with an expression that clearly says, Fix it before I kill it.

  “All right, all right,” I mutter. “Trent, what’s your plan? Please tell me you have a plan. Please tell me there’s a reason why you just completely screwed us.”

  “The Leaders only know that a Hive member,” he points to Vin, “took over the Colony, held them hostage, a
nd that The Hive came to the Pod to take it over but the people were evacuated. That’s all they know. That’s exactly what they’ll tell the Leaders in the stadiums.”

  “They’ll immediately send an army up there to take back the Pod before The Hive can get too comfortable,” Vin says, understanding much more than I do.

  Trent nods. “Yes.”

  “We’ll have to move fast.”

  “We should already be moving.”

  “What are we talking about?” I demand.

  Vin grins at Trent. “Your creepy friend here is smarter than I gave him credit for. He’s diverted Colony forces away from the stadiums to fight The Hive for the northern Pod. They’ll be weakened because they think the only threat is in the north. They don’t know anything about us down here right outside their door.”

  “What about all these people, though? They have to have seen the Vashons crossing the water to get here.”

  “Not if the Vashons did it right,” Trent disagrees.

  “Judging by the way they’re handling that Risen crowd,” Vin says, glancing over his shoulder to watch the soldiers systematically mow down the advancing horde, “they did it right. They know what they’re doing.”

  “So wait, we have a Vashon army of three hundred people, plus two hundred Colonist refugees?” I ask.

  Trent shakes his head. “More than that. Sixty or so cannibals are here too.”

  “The cannibals came with you?”

  “After we heard the blast they got nervous. They came out of the tunnels.”

  I glance around, noticing some whiter-than-white skin in the huge crowd. “Okay, but they aren’t all fighters.”

  “No, but twenty or so are.”

  “Twenty of them, maybe fifty fighters from my people, three hundred Vashons, and a weakened Colony defensive line,” Vin surmises before whistling happily. “We might be able to pull this off.”

  “Oh, you’re in this now?” I ask him, disbelieving. “Since when?”

  He frowns at me, feigning hurt. “Kitten, it’s for the greater good.”

  “It’s for your good is what it is. You lost your Pod, now you want a shot at another one.”

  “A bigger one,” he amends.

  “You’ll get nothing if we don’t move on this right now,” Trent reminds us.

  “You’re right. Where’s the head of these Vashons? We need to talk to him.”

  “Her,” I correct.

  Vin scowls. “A woman?”

  “Not just any woman,” I tell him with a satisfied smile. “Persephone.”

  It’s not easy to find her. The place is packed with confused, scared people milling around and looking suspiciously at one another. Getting them to fight together is going to be a nightmare—one we’ll need a miracle to make it out of—and I’m wishing for Ryan more than ever even as my stomach fills with dread every second I don’t see him.

  But Cren promised me he’s alive, and even if it’s stupid and superstitious, I’m putting faith in that.

  We finally find her back at Crenshaw’s hut, the wise old wizard standing beside her. She looks different than I remember. Her hair is pulled back fiercely in a tight, dark ponytail and her serious face has devolved into an angry scowl. I know we parted on decent terms, but as I look at her speaking to other Vashons, her hand resting comfortably on the gun at her hip, I’m suddenly worried.

  “Is that your friend?” Vin asks.

  I swallow hard before shaking my head. “Not a friend exactly.”

  “That one is,” Trent says, waving.

  Sam waves back from behind Alissa, his face breaking out into a broad smile when he sees us. He nudges Ali then points in our direction. Her eyes scan the crowd and when they fall on me, they narrow.

  My hands start to sweat.

  “About time you showed up.”

  I look around me, unsure she’s talking to me.

  “Yes, you,” she clarifies. “Where have you been? We show up to fight this war with you and you’re nowhere to be found.”

  “Fight this war with me? You kicked us off the island!”

  “Because we had to fight off the Colonist attack that you brought down on our heads,” she fires back.

  I purse my lips, wanting to fight, but I don’t have a leg to stand on.

  “So, where have you been?” she insists.

  “We were getting more help.”

  She points back the way we came. “You mean the shaking, terrified group of Colonists out there? Perfect. They’ll be a huge help.”

  “There are others,” I insist, getting angry. “Fighters.”

  “Really? Where?”

  “They’re out there, mixed in with the Colonists.”

  “And where did you scrounge them up from?”

  “The sewers,” Trent tells her.

  Her eyes go wide. “Cannibals?”

  “Where else was I supposed to go?!” I shout.

  “You’ve mixed flesh eaters in with our people? Unbelievable. Sam, go tell Alvarez now. We need to separate them immediately.”

  “Wait, where will they go?”

  Sam ignores me, taking off at a sprint.

  “Not here,” Ali says firmly.

  “You can’t kick them out. The outside is swarming with zombies.”

  “Yeah, speaking of, what the hell? Do you people ever kill them?”

  “All the time,” I reply defensively.

  “Yeah, it shows.”

  I don’t think I like her tone.

  “We had them down to nearly nothing before a Colony collapsed and swarmed us again. And this new wave we’re seeing? You can thank Marlow for that mess.”

  Ali grins darkly. “If I see Marlow, I won’t be thanking him. I’ll kill him.”

  “Too late,” Vin deadpans.

  Her eyebrows shoot high. “Really? He’s gone?”

  Vin nods once.

  “Well, one down. One to go.” She looks from Vin to Trent, her expression darkening. “Where’s the other guy?”

  I cringe inwardly, looking away to hide it. “He’s missing.”

  “You should find him. I like him better than this one. This one is trouble.”

  I don’t have to look up to know she’s talking about Vin. Or to know he’s grinning at her.

  “Come with me,” she says briskly.

  She walks away without waiting to see if we follow.

  Turns out Ali isn’t in charge. I don’t know why I’m surprised by that. She’s a nurse or a doctor—I’m not sure which—but she’s not a soldier. Not like most of these guys wandering around the forest are. They’ve contained the swarm of zombies that followed Trent, the Colonists, and the cannibals here. They’re already making piles of the bodies and lighting fires. It’s a method of mass disposal I haven’t seen in years—not since I was a kid and it seemed like the entire world was always on fire. The sky was constantly choked with black and gray smoke, the sun peeking through to find the ground scorched black from the constant pyres. We burned most of the living that way too, partially to be safe and partially because no one had time for burials. As the acrid smoke hits my lungs, I’m reminded of an important fact - while the fires burn the same whether the fuel is human or zombie, the smell is very, very different.

  We pass Crenshaw at a workbench surrounded by bowls, powders, and what looks like wire or twine. Ali asks him if he wants to join us, but he stays behind to ‘work,’ whatever that means. Ali takes us deeper into the forest to a massive tent swarming with people. They’re running in and out of it, disappearing inside or into the trees. I feel anxious just seeing that level of activity. It throws me when Ali walks us casually inside.

  There are tables set up around the room with one massive one in the middle. Guns rest on the outer tables, but on the inside are a bunch of maps and papers and I wonder if that’s what everyone else gathered when the world fell: maps and Old English novels.

  “Alvarez,” Ali calls out.

  An older man with tan skin, wrinkles around his mo
uth and eyes, and dark, graying hair looks up sharply. “Bishop,” he replies, his voice deep and calm.

  “Who is Bishop?” I ask Ali.

  “Me. It’s my last name,” she mumbles quietly. “He calls my husband Bishop too. Confusing as hell.”

  “Only to you,” Alvarez replies with a smirk. “I know exactly who I’m talking to. Who have you brought me?”

  “These are the people who came to our island. The ones who decided to overthrow the Colonies.”

  Alvarez looks us over, his eyes lingering momentarily on Vin and his neck. “A Hive member was on our island? I’ll have words with Taylor about that.”

  “No, he wasn’t with us. It was someone else,” I tell him.

  “And where is he?”

  I sigh, wishing I could just wear a sign that says ‘I lost Ryan. I’m sorry.’

  “He’s missing,” Ali says gently.

  I can feel her looking at me. Feeling sorry for me.

  I hate it.

  “Maybe he’s in the throng of people that just flooded my camp,” Alvarez suggests gruffly.

  “We need to talk about that. There are cannibals mixed in that group.”

  He stands tall, glaring at all of us. Even Ali. “So Sam said.”

  “What do you want to do about them?”

  “Advise them to not to eat anyone.”

  “Seriously.”

  “I am serious. I don’t have time to deal with them and their dalliances. Tell ‘em to keep their hands and mouths to themselves. We have bigger fish to fry. Night will be coming soon.”

  “What happens tonight?” Vin asks the older man.

  He eyes him again, more thoroughly this time, before answering. “Tonight we attack.”

  “The stadiums?” I ask.

  “No, Tokyo.”

  I frown. “Where is Tokyo?”

  “He’s joking,” Ali tells me quietly. “Yes, the stadiums.”

  “You don’t know where Tokyo is?” Trent asks me.

  My cheeks burn with embarrassment. “Shut up! I was eight years old, okay? I didn’t make it through a lot of school.”

  “I’ll teach you.”

  “Wonderful. I can’t wait.”

  “Can anyone you brought us be of any use?” Alvarez asks Trent.

  Trent points to Vin. “He’s your man. I don’t have anything to do with them.”