by Angel Lawson
A face comes into view. He’s right above me—or I realize quickly I’m resting on him—his lap my soft pillow. His beard is longer—hair shaggier. His hazel eyes pierce mine and I don’t have the energy to be mad.
“Wyatt? What’s going on?” I groan and close my eyes. Just speaking hurts. “Where are we?”
“Shhh,” he smooths my hair and I flinch when he gets too close to the wound. “Sorry. Erwin’s team got in a tight spot and launched some kind of rocket right at the corner you were holed up in. I pulled you in the back door of the school just before the walls caved in. We’re stuck in a tiny corner of the science wing, but I haven’t found a way to get out without crushing us.”
That’s a lot of information to take in. “We’re trapped?”
“For now.”
I have no doubt that he has a plan but my brain hurts too much to ask about it further. I do have one question, though. “How did you get here?”
“I’ve been stationed here for a couple weeks.”
Weeks? “That’s what you’ve been doing since you tied me up in that house.”
“You didn’t give me much choice. You tried to kick me in the balls. Twice.”
I want to laugh, but my head hurts too much. “If I was stronger I’d kick your ass right now for that shady crap you pulled with my father. You could have just told me. No need for all the games.”
A smile ghosts over his lips. “I know. You can pay me back later, just rest for now.”
My eyes flutter closed in agreement.
*
The next time I wake up, my head is resting on a balled-up shirt. I’m able to get to a sitting position and find Wyatt stripped down to a white tank undershirt, pacing under the window of the tight space. The window is over the door and the faint sunlight streaking through make his dark hair look a shade lighter than it normally does. A thick piece of metal, bent at the top and bottom, seems to be holding the whole room from crashing down. Crumbled brick and pieces of the ceiling pile along the floor. The angle of the light makes me think daylight is fading.
“Hey,” I say, my throat is dry and my voice weak.
He looks back and frowns. “I’ve got some water.”
That’s when I notice his backpack—he doesn’t go anywhere without it--and feel a small sense of relief. He’ll have a small amount of supplies in there to at least get us through the next day or so. He offers me a metal bottle, the cap unscrewed. It’s not as heavy with water as I’d like so I only take a small sip, just to clear the dust from my throat.
He rummages around and holds out his hand. Two small pills are nestled in his calloused, dusty palm. “Take those for your head.”
I swallow the pills with more water and watch him. It’s hard not to get caught up in his physicality. He’s lean but muscular. He has a fiery red scrape arcing over his bicep and another small, clotting cut near his collarbone. The hollow of his cheeks, like the circles under his eyes, give me the impression he hasn’t had a good night’s sleep in days.
“What’s happening here, Wyatt?” I ask.
He looks around the space, still kneeling by the bag. “I’m looking for a way to get out of here without the whole ceiling collapsing on top of us.”
I grab his arm and he looks down at me. “No, why are you here? For real? Whose side are you on?”
I’d be a fool if I expected a straight answer, but to his credit he replies, “I’ve been out here for a couple weeks prepping the team to transition from evacuation center to vaccine distribution. I knew you guys were coming in, but we didn’t anticipate the Eater attack. At all.”
I open one eye and squint. “You knew we were coming?”
He stands and moves to the side of the space that leads back down the hallway. From here it looks entirely impassible.
“Of course I knew.”
“Did Jane know?” He shifts a beam and a wave of ceiling rushes to the ground. We both look up and wait, but nothing else falls. I ask again. “Did she?”
My head is killing me. From the fall. From Wyatt. I drop my forehead into my hands.
“Hey,” he says. He’s in front of me, on his knees, taking my hands in his. “You okay?
“No, Wyatt, I’m not okay.” I jerk away from him and make a very labored, mistaken effort to stand. I fail and sit back down with my arms crossed over my chest. “Jane made the right decision when she chose you for her model, you know that? You’re nothing but a robot. Going from mission to mission, deal to deal, with no consideration for anyone else. There’s no end game. No good or bad guys. It’s just Wyatt versus The World, and God forbid those who get in your way and expect a little honesty.”
“Is that right?”
“You told me yourself this is what you’re made for. War.”
He knees in front of me, jaw tense. “You’ve gotten pretty good at it, too, since we first met. Don’t think I’m not aware of your little resistance. The sabotage and internal destruction. She sent me out here as punishment, for letting you escape last month—for the shit you’ve pulled since then.”
I scoff. “Why does she blame you?”
He stares at me, hard, and I squirm under the glare. “You think you got away on your own? You think you made it here without assistance?” He leans closer and I can see the flecks of green in his hazel eyes. “You think I’m not your fairy fucking Godmother? I may not have wings but let me tell you, I’m the best ally you have out here.”
“Don’t do me any favors.”
He frowns and shakes his head. “You just don’t get it, do you?”
I sigh. “That’s what I’ve been trying to say. I don’t get you, Wyatt. That’s what I don’t understand. I’m not intentionally trying to be dense.”
I sway, my head swimming from pain. He reaches for me and places one hand on the back of my neck and another around my waist. I expect his touch to be rough, like his attitude, but it’s not. His hands are supportive but gentle.
“You sister is punishing me for my connection to you. She has no idea I’m working with Erwin and that I have been for months. She doesn’t know I’m your contact in the PharmaCorp system and that I’ve been feeding your teams intel for weeks. She was pissed after I got back with your father and didn’t have you with me. She may be cold and vindictive and a little out of her fucking mind, but she’s not dumb. She knows I care for you.”
His confession whirls around my brain and I get hung up on various parts. The big one—at least at this very moment, when his hand tense against my back and his mouth is so very close—is the one about feelings.
“I can’t—I can’t be with you at Fort Arnold right now. Not the way things are. I’m better served undercover anyway. Out there,” he gestures beyond the crumbling walls. “We’re not on the same team even if we’re fighting the same battle. I’m the mercenary. You’re the Resistance.”
“But what about in here? Right now?” I ask, as though my brain can’t keep up.
He takes my head into both hands and gives me sweet smile, before his expression turns into something different. Primal. My fingers grip the fabric of his shirt and I lean closer.
I think he may do it, for the briefest moment, but the look vanishes and he gives me a sad smile. I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut as well as in the back of the head, but I shouldn’t expect more.
Can Wyatt even navigate feelings like this? No, I think, as he struggles in front of me. Not with a battle raging on outside these doors.
He looks at his watch, the face glowing green. “Davis should be here in twenty minutes, after that, the war continues.” His jaw tenses. “Out there you belong to someone else. Someone I call a friend.”
Ouch.
Make that a double punch in the gut.
“What about in here?”
“In here you’re injured and you need someone to take care of you.” He shifts and moves so that my back is flush against his chest. I feel his heartbeat pulse in tandem to mine. “Right now, I’m all you’ve got.”
"Rest,” he says. “They’ll be here soon.”
I start to tell him to piss off, that I can take care of myself, but I feel his fingers graze my arms and I grow sleepy again. I look up at his face, tanned from the sun. His broad brow is etched with lines created by wars. I see the man who has risked so much to protect me. I may not exactly know where his heart lies and I may never will, but if I’ve learned anything today it’s that I can trust him—that Wyatt Faraday is on my side, which means we may have a chance to win this thing.
Chapter 13
Davis locates us as predicted but it’s another thirty minutes before they extract us safely. While I’m caught in a web of emotions from Wyatt’s revelations, he makes like a ninja, disappearing the instant we’re free. I’m sure Davis sees him take off, but there’s a dozen soldiers helping me get clear of the shaky structure before it collapses on all of us. Wyatt simply fades into the dark, like he’d never been here at all.
“Alex!” I hear my name and turn to find Cole waiting for me. He’s got a medical kit in his hand and a hard, angry expression on his face.
Add guilt to my web of emotions.
“I’m so sorry. Jude said he left you under that alcove and then the rocket hit and it took us hours to clear the area. You must have been terrified.” He peers around the side of my head, looking at the dried blood of my wound.
Yeah, terrified didn’t make the list. It’s hard to be scared when Wyatt’s around. Well, at least scared of my surroundings.
“I’m okay. Just tired and my head is killing me.”
“Come over here and let me take a look at it.”
We walk through the rubble and Erwin’s men. Two large buses idle in the driveway and a line of survivors waits to fill each one. I see dust-coated children standing along men and women of all ages. Wyatt told me that the Eater attack may have been a surprise blessing. It will keep the size of the assault by the Resistance from Jane for a bit longer. “So despite everything, we actually accomplished our mission?”
Cole gestures for me to sit on the tailgate of a truck. He removes a bottle of rubbing alcohol and cotton balls from inside his kit. I turn and face the wreckage of the building and fight a hiss when he carefully cleans my hair and wound. “Our team made it out safely, but some of Erwin’s unit suffered casualties. Mostly from the beginning of the fight—the sheer number of Eaters was more than they could handle. Others were bitten or had minor scrapes or scratches, but it seems like the vaccine is working. Just like with Parker.”
“Good.”
He finishes up with the back of my head and moves his hand under my chin. He grazes his thumb just under my mouth and says, “Your skin is irritated. It must have happened during the explosion.”
The soft stroke of his finger feels the opposite of the Wyatt’s calloused ones and I turn away. “I blacked out. I don’t remember much at all, other than coming in and out some.”
“You were lucky.”
Like I had a fairy godmother out here or something, I want to say, but I swallow back the words. We watch two Fighters carry a dead soldier’s body in a sheet, the weight forcing it to sway back and forth like a hammock. We’ll bury him back at Arnold. I search the area. “You said everyone else from the team is okay?”
“Yep. Jude and Paul are down with the survivor transport. Davis should be finishing up.” He packs up his supplies and hops off the back of the truck. “Here, let me help you into the truck. You’re looking a little green.”
He wraps his arm around me for support and I lean into him, feeling warmth and safety; like I truly have someone out here in this crazy mess. Sure I know Wyatt has my back, but Cole, despite his grief and guilt, is still with me. In this moment I think maybe it’s possible for us to beat back the challenges that face two people at the end of modern civilization. This world, the one out here that everyone can see, is real. Our feelings and actions are real. They’re not cloaked under darkness and opportunity.
Cole, with his intense brain and kind heart, is still with me.
I ease into my seat and my muscles cry in relief. I smile at Cole. “Thanks for not giving up on me.”
“Never,” he says, squeezing my hand, giving me a glimpse of the man I’ve come to know. “I’m sorry I’ve been moody and distant lately. I’m just having a hard time reconciling the reality of our situation, you know?”
“I definitely know. I won’t give up on you if you won’t give up on me. You come to me when you’re having a problem, deal?”
“Deal.” He presses his lips to mine, sealing the pact. I won’t give up on Cole any more than I’ll stop my fight against Jane and her army. I’ll just have to find a balance between the two, for his sanity and my own.
*
The Fort Arnold medical team puts me on bed rest for the next week. The concussion is severe, along with a significant case of dehydration. The timing isn’t bad since Erwin is in the process of integrating the civilians from the school into his army, but when I get the ‘okay’ from the doctor, I’m ready.
“They gave you the go-ahead?” Parker asks when I get back to the room. She’s making her bed with extreme focus. She’s fully healed from her bite, but Erwin and Davis agreed she’d be better right now with the incoming civilians than in the field.
“They did,” I say and hold up a note. “With orders to go straight to Erwin’s office.”
“They don’t waste any time around here do they.”
“Nope.”
There’s a third bed in our room now, and Josie’s sparse belongings are piled at the end. I nod at the space. “She down in the lab?”
“Probably. You’d think she’d be more like Paul and steer clear, but she seems to prefer it.”
I roll my eyes. “Her and Cole. I’ve barely seen him since we got back from the mission.”
She sits on the now-made bed. “Yeah, so what’s going on with that? With you guys?”
I shrug. “We’re okay. Why?”
“You seem different, or at least he does, I guess. He’s still nice and supportive but there’s a distance or something.” She quickly adds, “Not that it’s any of my business.”
“He’s struggling with his role in this whole mess, I guess. He worked with my father from the beginning. I don’t know if he feels guilty or responsible. Then there’s the whole thing with Chloe.” My sister may be a crazy megalomaniac, but I didn’t share a womb with her. “He probably feels like he lost part of himself.”
“I can’t imagine.”
“No, me either. And he’s not talking about it much either, even though I asked him to talk to me. I think his solution is to throw himself into science.”
She wrinkles her nose. “That sounds like an awful solution.”
When I can’t avoid it any longer, I follow the orders and go to Erwin’s office. He’s standing over his desk, studying a large map spread across the surface. He glances up when I enter and gives me an approving nod. “Glad to see you’re feeling better.”
“Yeah, me too.” I don’t mention the lingering headaches. I point at the color coded map. “What’s this?”
“This is the breakdown of the southern states as far as we know.” He points to a green section—mostly the Appalachians down to Columbia, South Carolina. Another green patch circles the city and suburbs of Atlanta, sliding into Alabama. “The green represents the Death Fields still teeming with Eaters.”
I search for Augusta, and it and the surrounding area all the way to the coast are a shade of light blue. “These areas are clear?”
“Yes, and under your sister’s rule.”
I lean over the desk and search for Tennessee, the part where Fort Arnold is located. There’s a small section of red. “That’s us.”
“Yes, that’s the Resistance.”
The school outside of Columbia is now red, as well as other dots along the way. I recognize the locations for factories
and small towns Erwin has systematically had us target for the last month. “We have a long way to go before we’re even a blip on her radar,” I acknowledge.
He smiles ruefully. “That’s why we’ve decided to up our strategy. Not to get on her radar, but we can’t keep going at this pace forever. We have to have some big gains. We’re in the tactical stages of planning to attack the vaccination center outside of Augusta.”
His words drop like a bomb. “I’m sorry, what?”
“It’s the biggest and most well-run facility, other than The Fort itself. It’s time we cut off Jane’s right arm.”
“But we were based there.” We know those people, I want to add, but bite my tongue. “The entire area is cleared from Eaters. It’s well defended by Fighters and I’m sure now Hybrids.”
“Yes, Hybrids,” he says, leaning over with his hands flat on the surface of the desk. “Do you think your old cohorts are pleased with that situation? That they want to be ruled by a group of monsters?”
I think of Amber, a nurse who worked in quarantine and had a big crush on Wyatt, plus all the other medical staff that manned the clinics and distributed inoculations. I try not to think of Hayes, one of the Fighters we thought was on our side, and the way he betrayed us to Chloe and Jane. “No, I don’t think they’d want that.”
“Then it’s our duty to make the vaccine center our next priority.”
I sigh and lean back in my seat. He’s right. “When do we leave?”
“Five days,” he says. “We’ll have to be well prepared, not only for the travel down there but for every possibility. This will be our first organized attempt at taking down a full unit of Hybrids.” He must sense what my response to this is because he adds, “Expect casualties, Ms. Ramsey. It’s part of being a soldier.”
“I understand.” An idea pops into my head and I toss it out there. “Can I make one request?”
He looks up from the map. “You can make it but I won’t guarantee anything.”
“Can the Resistance make finding and rescuing my father a priority?”
Erwin lifts an eyebrow. “You think he isn’t already?”