Before I could finish, the front door creaked open, and Biggs stepped out. “Hey, where’s the police station? We want to check it for working vehicles and gas.” I caught his attention as I brushed a loose strand of hair from my face, and Biggs straightened. “Sorry, Zoe…I didn’t realize you were…out here.”
“I’ll show you on the map,” Dave offered and stood.
“Dave—” I reached for his arm, but he shrugged me off as he hobbled into the house.
For the first time, I wished I could see his thoughts. And kick his ass. What happens next?
Date: December 19, 10:45 PM
From: Zoe Cartwright
To: Danielle O’Connor
Subject: I told Dave
Hey D,
So my plan to tell Dave backfired. About 30 minutes ago, I told him why I was acting strange and that I didn’t know what was wrong with me or what to do. He didn’t say much and then just walked away. What if he tells everyone? Worst-case scenario: he thinks I’m losing my mind and tells Sanchez. If they think I’m one of the Crazies, they’ll leave me behind. Maybe I AM, and they SHOULD leave me behind. I don’t feel sick, but I also have no plausible explanation for what’s happening to me. Is it because I was sick for a while? But if that’s the case, if it’s because of the virus, it wouldn’t just be me, would it? Other people would be experiencing the same thing too.
So far, it doesn’t seem like Dave’s told anyone. I hope he doesn’t, but honestly, he’s a wild card at this point. He won’t even look at me. Harper, on the other hand, knows something’s wrong. He keeps watching me and asking me if I’m okay. I want to tell him everything. I feel like I can trust him, but I felt that way about Dave too. Now look at the situation I’m in.
BTW, we should be in Fort Knox by nightfall tomorrow. I’ll write to you when I can. Wish me luck. I think I’m going to need it. Take care, my friend.
Hasta la vista,
Zoe
17
DANI
“I think he wants to talk to you about something,” Chris told me quietly, nodding in Jason’s direction. He walked several paces ahead of us on the cracked sidewalk.
I watched his confident movements and shook my head. “So why doesn’t he just do it?” I asked, thinking back on the dozens of times throughout the day that Jason had met my eyes, only to stride away.
Chris pursed her lips and took a deep breath. “I don’t know. He’s acting like a little girl.”
Maybe he likes me, I thought as butterflies whirled erratically in my stomach. Maybe he wants to set things straight, to tell me he’s not interested. The butterflies turned sickly and died.
Seriously, how old am I? Jason wasn’t the only one acting like a little girl.
Lost in thought, I peered around the small-town street we’d been exploring all afternoon. In reality, there hadn’t been much to explore, and what there had been was pretty run-down. The shops had offered little, but the building we currently approached held promise—it was a library, and it stood out in its modernity. Maybe we can find some books on something useful, like foraging or repairing power plants or building time machines…
Jason reached the glass door first and held it open for Chris and me.
“Such a gentleman,” Chris exclaimed as she entered the building. “Who would’ve thought?” Within seconds she had her assault rifle drawn and set out on a sweep of the aisles and alcoves.
My entrance, however, was halted by Jason’s firm grip on my arm. Looking down, I was inappropriately excited to see his gloved hand wrapped around my sleeve. My heart gave an enthusiastic thump, which I tried to ignore.
“Jason, what—”
“Can we talk?” He looked down at me intently, his clenched jaw making the already sharp angles of his face more severe. I briefly wondered what it would be like to have an irate Jason staring me down as he’d done to Cece the previous night. I hoped to never find out.
Beside me, Jack barked, and I turned my attention to him. “It’s okay, Sweet Boy. Go with Chris.”
He whined but trotted off obediently. He might be the smartest dog ever.
Jason led me inside and locked the door behind us. He didn’t let go of my arm until he’d dragged me through the open entryway, beyond several aisles of reference books, and into a secluded nook created by two towering bookshelves and a sky-blue wall.
“Well?” I asked, pressing my back against the wall while he paced. Three steps away. Stop. Turn. Three steps back.
Pausing while facing me, Jason stared at the wall a few inches to the left of my head. “It’s my fault, what happened last night,” he said quietly.
I shrugged my shoulders in an attempt at nonchalance. “Oh? I didn’t know anyone was to blame. We’re both adults—a little cuddling’s no big deal.” It’s not like I’ve been thinking about it all day or anything, I thought sarcastically.
Jason’s eyebrows lowered, and his eyes suddenly locked on mine. “What? That was—” After a moment of tense silence, he shook the scowl off his face. “That’s not what I’m talking about. I meant what happened with Cece.” His pacing resumed.
That was…what? Amazing? A really big mistake? As I watched him, the now familiar tangle of emotions—self-loathing, guilt, and desire—nauseated me.
Taking a deep breath, Jason faced me again. His eyes bored into mine, imploring. “Before she went to your room, she stopped by mine. She thought we could just keep…that things would stay the same. After everything she said to you. After she hit you.” His eyes squeezed shut and his mouth pinched at the corners.
When he finally opened his eyes again, they gleamed. “I could kill that bitch for what she did.”
My breath caught. “I…I don’t understand,” I said and stepped away from the wall. “What’s that have to do with what she did to me last night?” I stopped a foot away from Jason, his size making me feel smaller than usual.
He squeezed his hands into fists at his sides and gritted his teeth. “When she came to my room, I turned her away…said I was done with her, that she disgusted me. I’m pretty sure the next thing she did was sneak into your room.”
“Jason, it’s—”
“I can’t believe I was so fucking stupid. She could’ve killed you.” He reached his gloved hand out but let it drop before he touched me.
“Jason. It’s okay.” In one step, I closed the distance between us and wrapped my arms around his neck. He was so unbelievably solid. “I’m okay,” I said against his thick jacket.
He returned the embrace fiercely, lifting me until I was on tiptoes. With his chin resting on my head, I could feel him swallow, could feel him clear his throat. I pulled back enough to meet his eyes and inhaled to speak, but he beat me to it.
“Well,” Jason said hastily, releasing me and taking a step back, “we should look around. See what trouble Johnson’s gotten into.” He strode out of the alcove with me following a few steps behind.
Um, okay…
Looking over his shoulder at me, Jason wore his familiar, knowing half-grin, hiding whatever shreds of real emotion he’d let escape. “You know, Red, she probably thinks we’ve been playing naughty librarian in a hidden corner. Too bad you don’t wear glasses…”
I stalked after him, berating myself for enjoying the images his words conjured. He was so damn frustrating. Whenever he let a hint of vulnerability show, he would try to fluster me with suggestive comments, attempting to make me forget. But forgetting was impossible.
~~~~~
Shortly after our return to the winery, I found myself flat on my back on the cold, damp grass behind the house. I stared up at the slowly darkening steel-gray sky while I recovered my breath. From having it knocked out of me. Again.
Chris’s smirking face invaded my view of the thick cloud cover, and she held out her hand. She could at least have the courtesy to appear winded!
“Ugh…Chris…I think…I’m done,” I managed to pant out eventually.
She leaned down and grasped me under
the armpits to haul me up. “Hon, you’re nowhere near done.” She strode several paces away and sat on a white bench bordered by bloomless rose bushes. “Come here. We can take a little break before Jason has a hissy fit.” She finished with an eye roll.
I plopped down next to her. “Maybe I’m just not a fighter. What if I never get any better?”
“Then you never get better. But that won’t happen.” Chris watched the two men grappling thirty yards away. Jason had Ky in a particularly uncomfortable position on the lawn.
“What makes you so sure?”
She caught my eye and grinned conspiratorially. “‘Cause I’m training you…and I’m awesome.”
I tried to laugh, I really did, but I couldn’t stop myself from dwelling on the fact that I barely knew anything about Chris. She definitely was awesome, but what else was she? Who had she been before? Why had she left the base?
“Um…I’ve been thinking,” I said, but hesitated.
Chris laughed softly. “You tend to do that. It drives him crazy sometimes, you know.”
“I’m sure.” I joined her soft laughter. “But why are you here? Okay, wow, I didn’t mean that to sound so horrible.” I shook my head in frustration.
Angling my knees toward her, I tried again. “Why’d you leave the base with Jason? Why’d any of you leave? When you guys talk about it you make it sound like you had to escape or something. What…I just don’t understand…”
Still looking straight ahead, Chris’s eyes became distant, and she swallowed. “My boys—twins—got sick. They both passed the last week of November. They were almost five. Would’ve started kindergarten next fall.” She shook her head, her face reminding me of a stone angel in a graveyard.
I clasped her hand and cleared my throat, but my voice was weak when I spoke. “Oh Chris, I’m so sorry. I…I had no idea.”
“Why would you? I didn’t tell anyone. Jason’s the only one who knew anything about my family before…this.” She gestured mildly with one hand. “My ex and I’d been divorced for a year. The boys were staying with him when they got sick. They barely lasted two days, and I blamed him. I wanted to beat him to death for killing them, but the Virus killed him a few days later.”
I squeezed her hand, horrified by what she’d been through.
“Children aren’t supposed to die before their parents. That’s what everyone says. But dammit, I don’t think any of this was supposed to happen,” Chris said desperately.
Of course not, I thought.
“Our base was on lockdown. But this was unlike any lockdown I’d ever seen. Hundreds of soldiers patrolled the perimeter day and night after the first reported flu death.” She squinted in thought. “That was in mid-November. I doubt you heard about it…the military kept it quiet. We heard gunshots all the time. Jason told me…” She shook her head. “He said people were getting shot when they tried to leave base. I didn’t believe it until I saw it myself—we don’t go after our own, not like that.”
After a long pause she continued, “But the real kicker was that some people were allowed to leave—only if they were wearing a special yellow armband on both sleeves of their uniform. Like they were chosen. Like they were ready for this. None of it makes sense.”
Unable to speak, I swallowed repeatedly. I felt like a vacuum had sucked every drop of moisture from my mouth. Her words implied that the military had known about the Virus…had known about it and had just let it kill everyone. My next thought shocked me like a bucket of icy water. Holy crap…did they create the Virus?
Chris started up again, “Jason knew what’d happened to my family, knew that I needed to get away from that place. They’d been dead for over a week when he came to me with his plan. So we gathered our little group, barely managed to steal some of the yellow armbands…that was really weird actually. The guy guarding ‘em was literally about to shoot us until Jason stepped closer to talk him down—it was like the guard got really confused all of a sudden. Anyway, we got the hell out of there a few hours later. It didn’t go the way we’d planned, but we got out.”
Finally looking at me, Chris said, “And now we’re here.”
I sat back heavily against the bench. “Um…okay. Wow.”
“Well, now I need to blow off some steam,” she patted my thigh. “Run through the exercises I taught you. Twice.” Chris stood abruptly and marched straight for Jason and Ky.
Her opening strike at Jason was the last thing I noticed before I lost myself to the yoga-like poses. As I replayed her words and considered the possibility that somebody had orchestrated the end of civilization, images of maniacal scientists danced through my head.
“Bend your knees more, but keep your back straight,” Ky said behind me.
Startled, I fell on my butt. “What is it with you Green Berets? Did you all take advanced classes in ‘how to sneak up on people’ or something?” I complained, picking myself up and brushing off my stretchy black pants.
When I rounded on Ky, he held his hands in the air like he was caught in a stick up, but merriment crinkled the corners of his slanted eyes. “Sorry, D.”
“D.” I smiled sadly and shook my head. “Cam…that’s what he called me.” I resumed my previous pose, appearing to sit on an invisible chair.
Looking down at the slightly overgrown grass, Ky stuck his hands into his pants pockets and said, “Oh, um…sorry. I won’t…”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s also what Zoe calls me…she’s Jason’s sister,” I clarified. “Hearing you call me that makes me feel a little better…reminds me of before.” I lowered myself to the ground for the next position. “You know, being around you guys makes this whole thing easier to deal with. Everybody’s lost someone—lots of someones really. We’re all going through the same thing. Plus, I think Chris is magical or something. It’s like she draws the shitty feelings out and heals me from inside. She makes me feel…okay.”
I laughed breathily, Can he tell I’m serious? He’ll think I’m nutso!
Ky sat down on the bench and watched Chris and Jason spar. I was surprised by how well Chris was holding her own against Jason.
I looked up at Ky. “Sorry, that was probably way more info than you wanted.”
“No worries. It’s good to hear someone talk about what’s going on.” He gestured toward the estate house. “These guys aren’t big on sharing. The military doesn’t exactly draw in the touchy-feely type. So we walk around pretending everything’s cool, but really all this repression just turns us into hair-trigger dickheads.”
Tell me about it, I thought as I stood to stretch my tired muscles.
Ky continued, “I, uh, I’ve noticed that about Chris too. We should all be freaking out way more, but something about her…I don’t know. It’s like she really does something. And—” He paused to take a deep breath. “There’s something else. Have you noticed anything different? About you, I mean.”
About me? Like what? Like Zoe? “Um…no?” I sat down beside him. “Have you?”
Ky closed his eyes for so long I thought he might not answer. He raised one eyelid, watching me through the narrow slit. “I get these feelings. It’s been happening ever since I recovered. From the Virus, I mean.”
When he turned his reticent gaze on me, my heart melted. He’s afraid. Of what?
“I felt it when Cece went into your room last night. It was like I was watching a horror movie, and the suspenseful music was playing and getting louder and louder. I knew something bad was about to happen. And it also happened this morning in town right before I opened the door to a house. Some psycho bitch was waiting for us inside…with a baseball bat. She nearly smashed in Dalton’s head before I shot her. It’s like I can tell when bad stuff is going to happen—before it happens.” He looked away. “I know it sounds insane.”
Yeah, I thought, but my heart wasn’t in it. This wasn’t the first crazy-sounding power I’d heard about. I stared ahead and watched the end of the battle between Chris and Jason. She beckoned for him to st
art again, but he shook his head and headed our way.
“Crazy or not, I have to warn you,” Ky whispered.
Surprised, I turned to face him. “Warn me? About what?”
He leaned in. “Cece. The feeling’s building up around her like it’s gonna explode. And she hates you…sorry. So I’m thinking the explosion isn’t gonna mean anything good for you. Be careful, okay?”
This isn’t real, right? He can’t know that, can he? But…what if he is like Zoe? And what about Chris? My thoughts were frantic. I grasped my left wrist as dread seeped into my body, turning my bones to ice.
Ky straightened and laughed. “Hey man, I saw you get your ass kicked by a girl. Was she too much for you? Is that why you ran away?”
Jason glanced between Ky and me before he responded. “She needed it.” His tone was razor sharp.
Ky stood abruptly and backed toward the house. “Right, well…I just remembered…I’ve got this thing…” He turned and jogged away.
Jason quickly took Ky’s spot on the bench. “What was that all about?”
“Nothing,” I responded instinctively. What the hell is up with this bench today?
“It didn’t look like nothing.”
I rolled my eyes and heaved a sigh. “He was just telling me something…about himself, Jason. It’s got nothing to do with you.”
“Fine, whatever. Show me what you learned today. Johnson!” he called to Chris, who was doing sit-ups on the lawn. “Get your ass over here.”
I groaned, “You can’t be serious. I’m too tired!”
He stared at me with all the sympathy of a stone.
“Ready to go again?” Chris asked him when she reached us.
“No,” Jason said, not looking away from me. “Spar with this little girl. I want to see if anything’s sinking in.”
The Ending Series: The Complete Series Page 13