by Angel Lawson
“Going back to The Fort and getting Chloe. From there, the main idea was to run like hell into the mountains and ride it out.”
“What about now?”
I want to say the same thing, but too many variables have already shifted in our very fragile plan. “Well, Chloe is a Hybrid. Wyatt is MIA, and I’m here with you. That area you picked us up from is what we call the Death Fields, a no-man’s land, and it’s worse than I thought. I’d been lulled into complacency living in Jane’s ever-growing territory. As of now, I don’t really have a Plan B set up.” I take a deep, uneasy breath. “I thought maybe I could just run from it all—from Jane and the areas populated with the infected, but I realize that I can’t.”
“So you’re willing to help stop her.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Do you have something in mind?”
“I do. And with you and your team I think we can take her down.”
“Why do you think my team of ’misfits’ can do it and your soldiers can’t? Or is that your plan? We’re expendable?”
Erwin’s forehead creases and a strange glint appears in his eyes. “When a country becomes a warzone and factions develop, inevitably a group of rebels or radicals forms to work against the existing government. Your sister has already created a massive resistance with not only her Fighters but the Hybrids as well.”
“So where do we come in?”
“If your friend Faraday was here I wouldn’t have to explain this, but I can see that for a lifelong rule follower like yourself it’s complicated. We need someone to break into their system to bring them down. Someone to infiltrate. A group that is fully funded, armed, and sanctioned.”
I feel sick to my stomach. “You want us to strap bombs to our bodies and become terrorists?”
“No. That’s not it. You’ll be liberators. The true resistance. Free the people and we’ll give them the real vaccine and safety.”
I know I can’t trust this man. I know it, but at this point, with Wyatt gone, I have little choice. “Can you do that? Do you have the vaccine?”
“I will once you bring it to me.”
“And then you’ll use it the right way? To help people. To end all of this? Because I’m not like my sister. What she’s doing is wrong on so many levels and I can’t be a part of it.”
“I’m a believer in the system. Everything your sister stands for is an abomination. I need strong, healthy, immune people to take down Jane and her armies.” He gives me a grim smile. “Additionally, I assume that if I betray you a second time, you’ll kill me.”
Chapter 2
Forty-eight hours later, we’re climbing out of the back of a cargo truck near the Tennessee-Georgia border. Two miles away is a rest area turned Vaccine Clinic just like the one we were stationed at, and recently escaped from, across the state. I look at my team, dressed in ragged, worn clothing. Cole has a lump of dirt on his cheek and I lick my thumb before smearing it down the side of his face to look more realistic.
“Thanks,” he says.
“No problem.”
I turn to the others and say, “Remember, we go in as survivors. We’re starving and exhausted. Do not forget your false identity. We’ve got to get in there, grab as much of the vaccine as possible, and get out.”
“They keep the vaccine locked up,” Jude reminds me.
“Well someone is going to have to charm their way into getting the key.” I look directly at Jude and Parker when I say this.
“I don’t feel comfortable not being part of the infiltration team,” Davis says. Everyone has agreed, except him, that he should wait at the vehicle.
“There’s too much of a risk you’ll be recognized,” I tell him for the fifth time. The dude is built like a tank. Like a non-green Hulk. He’s not the kind of guy you forget.
“And you won’t?” he challenges.
I rub a little more dirt on my cheeks and tuck my hair into the wool stocking cap I found in the lost and found on the base. I scratch my neck because it itches from the scratchy fabric already.
“Look,” I whisper. “You’ve got to hang back just in case something goes wrong. You and Paul. I can’t worry about keeping an eye on him in there.”
Paul must hear his name because he walks over. Everything about him seems steady. “I don’t mind waiting. Honestly, the idea of going through quarantine gives me anxiety.”
“We’ll be in and out—fast,” I say, trying to reassure everyone.
“How fast?” Parker asks.
I sigh, rubbing behind my ears. “Okay, I have no idea how fast. No more than twenty-four hours, but I’m hoping to be out by the shift change, which cuts it to twelve.”
No one likes the sound of that but we head off toward the highway, leaving Davis and Paul hidden in the woods just off the road. It’s a warm morning, the hot Georgia sun beating on our faces. There’s absolutely nothing around; no buildings, no cars, abandoned or running. Just the quiet that surrounds a dead stretch of the highway, so isolated that it encouraged the government to build the rest area out here in the first place. From the map, it looks like we’ve got three miles to walk before we reach the center.
There’s nothing but the sounds of cawing crows in the distance and our boots on the pavement as we walk down the deserted highway. Cole and Jude carry a handful of pebbles, tossing them down the road one at a time, trying to see who can get closest to the center line. The apocalypse version of Bocce ball. Jude’s rock bangs into Cole’s, knocking him out of the lead.
“Nailed it,” he says.
“Yep,” Cole says. “Best two out of three?”
Jude nods and suddenly turns to Parker and asks, “So you decided to cut all your hair off, huh?”
Parker and I both skip a step and glance over at Jude.
“What?” he says. “I noticed. I mean, it was really long in those neat little braids and now it’s like—gone.”
She touches the top of her head and I know she’s focusing on the small bald spot she earned the other night fighting the horde. She came to me with a pair of scissors right before we left Fort Arnold, asking me to cut off as much as I could. The result is a mess of short, curly hair that covers the bald spot, and a softer look to her face. I’m not surprised Jude noticed.
Neither of us acknowledge him. He finally mumbles, “Well, I like it.”
We round a gentle curve in the hilly roads and spot two figures down the barren road. I grab Jude by his rock-throwing arm.
“You think they’re from the rest area?” Cole asks.
I shrug. “Maybe. Stick to your roles.”
The two people are walking in the same direction we are and do not seem to be in a hurry. Unfortunately, we’ve got a time limit, so it’s not long before we catch up and our ultimate goal is to get in the Center. There’s no reason to hide. Plus, there are four of us. We should be able to handle it, although, as we get closer, it’s clear they are not soldiers, but a man and a woman who look like they haven’t had a shower or good meal in days.
A slight wind picks up as we approach an overpass bridge, blowing their stench in our direction. Parker tugs a handkerchief she has wrapped around her neck over her nose. It’s that bad.
They seem totally unaware that we’re so close by, and I’m trying to figure out how to carefully approach them when I hear the tell-tale sound of a shotgun registering from overhead. We freeze, but a quick look up reveals five other people, all armed, crouching in the small space just underneath the bridge. All just as filthy as the two we followed. The barrels of their guns are pointed right at us.
“Weapons down.” This comes from the man we followed. He’s wearing a dirty yellow trucker hat and his voice echoes off the concrete. He’s got a ratty beard separated into tiny braids, and I’m not sure if oral hygiene was important to him even before the Crisis.
“Easy,” Jude says. “We’re just passing through.”
The guy holds his gun steady. “I said, weapons. Down.”
I place my gun and hatchet on the gr
ound. Jude and Parker quickly do the same. Cole hesitates for a brief moment but reluctantly sets the new compound bow Erwin gave him on the ground.
“Thought you could sneak up on us?” the woman we’d followed says. She scurries around us, collecting our weapons from the ground. Her hair slips away from her face and I see jagged scars down her gaunt face and neck.
“No,” Cole replies. “We’re just in a hurry to reach our destination.”
“And exactly where were you headed?” Trucker hat asks.
There’s no reason not to tell the truth and they may have information we need so I tell them, “We heard there’s a medical clinic down the road—they’re handing out vaccines.”
Trucker hat looks at us, then over at his friends, and all at once they start laughing. Hysterical, bounce off the cement walls laughter that makes me feel like I’m trapped in a mad house, until they stop and the world turns eerily silent again.
“We’ve seen that so-called clinic. You really think they’re handing out vaccines?”
Cole answers for the group again. “Yes.”
Trucker Hat nods at the girl. “Josie, show them.”
She walks in front of us and tugs up her tattered sleeve. Her arm is skinny and pale. It’s also covered in festering scabs and scars. I lean forward and make out something else. A reddish-puckered scar in the shape of a half moon.
It’s a bite.
“You’re infected?” I ask.
“Those doctors, or whatever you call them, shot me up with their miracle cure and then locked me in a room with one of those monsters to see what would happen. They left me for dead, but God didn’t show me that much mercy.”
Parker steps forward and every gun barrel pointed at us follows her. “So the vaccine worked?”
The girl lifts her eyes up and it’s clear something inside her is very wrong. Her pupils are dark black and her skin pale and sallow. I nervously glace around at the others and see that they have a similar appearance.
“We may be alive,” Trucker Hat says, “But that doesn’t mean we’re okay.”
I can’t determine if they’re Hybrids or something else, but I do see that the other men have started closing in and we’re quickly surrounded.
“What do you want?” Cole asks.
“You.” The girl looks up at us with those dark, pained eyes. “We’re hungry.”
Chapter 3
The first thing I think is that they want to eat us. It’s a well-known fact that when the end of the world comes people will quickly turn to cannibalism, right? They bind us and we’re pushed up the steep incline of the underpass until we reach the dark, cave-like area at the top. The ground under the road has been hacked away, making a deeper crevice, a nice-sized room, camouflaged with cement blocks. We’re navigated down short dirt steps into an area lit with lanterns, scavenged pillows, and even a soiled mattress is against the back dirt wall. There’s an odd collection of pre-crisis things on the table. A deck of cards. A dusty Teddy bear. A glass filled with shiny marbles that glint in the candlelight. Things I doubt will ever be made again.
As I mentally attempt to plot our escape, Trucker Hat directs us to sit on the hay-covered floor and says, “The damn Fighters working in that ’clinic’ have cleared out every available food resource in this area. It’s not like there was a lot in the first place. If you hadn’t noticed, we’re in a pretty desolate part of the mountains. We need your help to break into the clinic and bring us everything you can.”
“Wait, you’re not going to eat us?” I blurt. Everyone gives me a weird look. I stare back. “What? It could happen?” I glance at Jude and whisper, “You didn’t think that would happen?”
He wisely ignores me.
“How do you think we can get in and out with supplies?” Cole asks. “We’re on foot and we’ll definitely be outmanned. I doubt we can just walk in and out of there carrying bundles of food. Why don’t you just leave? Other areas aren’t so scavenged.”
“Other areas are also over run with Eaters, too. Plus, it’s not so easy. Once you’re in the zone it’s hard to leave, especially if they’re looking for you. The soldiers from the camp are watching all the roads. Probably getting ready to come looking for you right now.” A dark look comes into Josie’s eyes when she adds, “They’ll kill us if they find us. They’ll kill you, too. We’re not supposed to exist.”
He’s right. They’ll come for them like they came for Paul. My sister doesn’t want her mistakes out there for the world to see. That’s when I decide to come clean and tell them the truth about our mission. Well, most of the truth.
“Look, you’re not the only survivors of the camps. We have a friend going through the same thing, although he lucked out and didn’t have to fight an Eater,” I say, but it’s not for lack of trying on Jane’s part.
“Where is this ’friend’?” Trucker asks, using air quotes around the word.
“In hiding,” Jude replies.
“Then what are you doing here?” he asks.
I reluctantly explain our plan. We need to get in and out with a sample of the vaccine. We’re hoping to replicate the real one to actually help survivors. I don’t tell them that I am Jane’s sister. I don’t tell them about The Fort. They’re too angry and I’m afraid they’ll do something stupid. One day, I’ll take my sister down, but not until Erwin has built an army big enough to destroy hers.
“If you let us be on our way we’ll see what we can do to help you. Find some food. We’ll gather everything we can.”
Trucker Hat and Josie look at one another, sharing silent communication. He strokes his creepy beard and I decide I really, really don’t want to fight these people. She whispers something in his ear and waves over one of the other men holding a shotgun too close to Parker’s head. A muscle ticks in the back of his jaw and once again, I start plotting my escape. I’m better fed and stronger, but they have way more weapons.
I really wish Wyatt was here.
“Okay,” Trucker says once they part and get back into position. “We’ll let you pass and then we’ll help you escape, if you manage to get the vaccine and food.”
“We want something else, too,” Josie says, chin jutting into the air.
“What’s that?” I ask, willing to agree to anything just to get out of this damp, dark cave.
“Take us with you when you leave.”
*
We agree to their terms, of course. I have no idea if we’ll be able to fulfill our end of the deal since our original plan was risky enough, but they release us back on the highway with the understanding that they’re watching.
“There are eyes all over this road,” Trucker says, his twangy Tennessee accent thick and slow. “Make one bad move, and we’ll get you.”
I’m so glad he didn’t try to eat me; it would have been the worst possible way to die.
He gives us some final advice. Make yourself known. No sneaking up on the base. About two miles out we’d be approached by a team who would escort us in to the compound and filter us through quarantine. We knew most of this already, but Trucker’s group was able to give us a little more information than Erwin had gathered through his spies. Like the fact once we got inside we’d mostly deal with medical staff and not soldiers. They tended to stick to the perimeter of the property.
“The soldiers,” he says, scratching his beard. “There’s something off about them. They seem itchin’ to fight.”
Our team fights a collective reaction. I really hope they’re just enthusiastic Fighters and not Hybrids.
We’re losing daylight and Davis will get antsy if we go past our meet-up time. “You ready?” I ask everyone. Things seem a lot more complicated than they did an hour ago.
“Yeah, I’d feel better if there wasn’t a bullet aimed at the back of my head right now,” Jude says.
Parker rolls her eyes. “There’s always a bullet. This time you just know about it.”
Truth.
Trucker told us to look out for a large oak in t
he median as a marker for the two mile limit. Sure enough, within minutes we hit a barricade of lined up trucks stretching across both sides of the road.
I’m caught with a sense of déjà vu when the solider walks toward us. We were in a similar situation less than a month ago when we escaped the vaccine clinic with Paul. That time didn’t end so well.
“I’ll talk,” Jude says. We’ve agreed he’s the least conspicuous.
“Afternoon,” the soldier says, her voice firm. My eyes are glued to the purple stripes on her shoulder. Two other soldiers are back near the barricade.
“Hi,” Jude says, breaking into a wary smile.
She looks us up and down, face hard, revealing no emotion. Cole and I are leaning into one another. I play up a hurt ankle. Parker wraps her arms around her stomach. We look pathetic.
“You traveling somewhere?” the Hybrid asks.
“Looking for somewhere to rest. Heard there may be an evacuation center still open this way.”
She nods and looks at me. “You feeling okay?”
“Just a sprain,” I reply. “We’re healthy. Just need some food and sleep, you know?”
“You’ll have to go through security and quarantine, but if everything goes fine you’ll have a bed in a few hours and a belly full of food.”
Parker and I smile wide. My teammate adds, “Thank you, it’s been a long couple of weeks.”
We cross through the gates, where they remove our weapons. We left our better things with Trucker—not because we wanted to, but he demanded a collateral of sorts, to ensure we’d come back.
“These will be returned once you’re processed.”
I keep my eyes away from their faces, which are unnaturally calm. No sign of the rage boiling underneath, but they have no reason to be on alert. We’re just four pathetic survivors looking for help.
We’re ushered into a Jeep and, fake-injury or not, I’m glad to get off my feet for the rest of the trip. Night falls, and as we approach it’s clear we aren’t headed toward a rest area. Instead we veer off the highway and into a small town. Store fronts and offices line the streets of the old commercial area. This isn’t where we were told to go and I start to get nervous and from the twitchy looks of the others, they do, too. If we say something, they’ll know we knew about the Center. If we don’t?