by Phil Tucker
"Morning," Selah said at last. McKnight paused and turned to look at her. The bruising was much better, already greatly faded, her eye bloodshot, but now open.
"More like evening. It's almost five."
"Five?" Selah sat up. Her body felt all right. Not great, but not like she'd been run over by a truck either. She turned her head till her neck cracked, and then stared at the window. The sky through the cracks was already growing dark. "Oh, no. I was hoping for... You know, sunshine." She hadn't seen the sun in weeks. The disappointment was crushing.
McKnight gave her a crooked smile. "You can still catch the last of it. Sun's already gone over the mountains though. Sorry."
"No problem. You been up and around already?"
"No. I've been up for an hour, but I ran myself a bath. Haven't had that luxury in over a year."
"How-- I guess it must be the Serum. Us healing like this. You looked half dead last night."
McKnight lowered the brush and looked down at her hands. She frowned. "Lee had no right."
Selah shrugged. "He didn't really have a choice. You weren't going to make it."
McKnight's frown deepened, then smoothed away. "Doesn't mean I have to like it. Having that ... shit. Injected into me."
"It saved your life. And maybe all of ours. I know I wouldn't have made it past the crash without it. Nor Dominique." Selah looked over at where the other woman still slept, noted her color looked better. She swung the covers off and stood. She was wearing a clean shirt and a pair of shorts. Where had they come from? She stretched, joints popping, and then released the stretch with a sigh. Her shoulders slumped. "Part of me wants to head back up there to find Tom. Give him a burial, you know?"
McKnight hesitated, then shook her head. "We have to keep moving. They're going to be looking for you. Us. I'm surprised they haven't swept the town already."
Selah looked around, and saw clothing folded on a chair by the door. She padded over and pulled up a wool sweater. "These people are really nice. It's almost weird."
McKnight set her brush down and walked over. She raised a black turtleneck. "No kidding. Makes me suspicious."
Selah snorted and got dressed. The clothing fit, mostly. A little tight around the hips, but pretty good. She looked at her muddied boots, and reluctantly pulled them on too. After a brief stop in the bathroom, they headed out and downstairs, deciding to leave Dominique to rest a little more. Voices drew them to a large dining room toward the back of the hotel, a long table lit by a fake chandelier and several wall sconces. A score of people were there, including Lee.
"Well, hello there," said Helen from the head of the table. "Just in time. We were about to clear this all away."
Selah pulled out a chair and sat down. "Thanks. I'm starving." Fenton took a plate from a stack, and served her mashed potatoes, a thick wedge of turkey breast meat, and a large spoonful of peas. The plate was passed down the table by Susan and a man she didn't know--might have been one of the sentries from up top--and was set before her.
"Thanks," she said again, and then hesitated. "What are you guys doing here still? Where did everybody go?"
People stared at each other, and then back. Lee went on eating. Helen spoke up. "We're the last. You could call us stubborn, some have called us worse. We just refuse to quit and run."
"Hell," said the bearded man who had been sentry. "I ain't letting nobody force me out of my home."
"Not even vampires?" Selah forced herself to eat a discrete amount of mashed potatoes and not shovel it all in at once. It tasted heavenly.
"Not even from vampires," said Helen with some measure of satisfaction. "Nope. This is our home, and we plan to weather the storm. That, and we've got the base just up the road. Well..." She frowned.
"What?" Selah looked from one face to another.
Lee paused, fork mid-air. "They're on lockdown. Looks like they were nearly swamped after we left."
Selah opened her eyes wide. "For real? But they're still all right?"
"All right?" An old man shook his head. "Hanging in there, more like. Looking ready to bolt. If they leave, hell. I don't know. Guess we'll have to rethink some things."
"What matters," said Helen, "is that you're safe for now. We had some difficulties last night, but we're well armed, and all of us know how to use a shotgun."
"You need to leave," said Lee. "There's still an hour of sunlight. You could be seventy miles from here, eighty by the time the sun sets. Denver, maybe, with a little luck."
"Now, listen here," said Helen. Lee pushed his plate away and something in his expression gave her pause.
"I'm sorry. I don't mean to be rude. But if there are enough vampires, Blood Thralls, out there to almost swarm the base, then you don't have a chance. It's a miracle you're still here. Trust me. We're leaving soon as Gordon and Dominique are ready to go. We're going to find a couple of cars and drive as fast as we can east."
"We are?" Selah looked from Lee to McKnight, who nodded her agreement. McKnight wasn't wasting any time. She was shoveling food down like it might be her last meal. Selah took the hint and got to work.
"Well," said Helen, sitting back, thick hands on the table. "Well, I don't know about that. We've done all right so far."
Lee shrugged. "What did you do for a living, Helen?"
"I was a massage therapist."
"And you, Sam?" The old man huffed and then allowed that he was a retired police officer. Their professions came out one by one. Stay-at-home mother. Yoga instructor. High school teacher. Owner of an art store in town. Jane was last, and she said with some pride that she was a freelance graphic designer.
"Right. I'm military. Been military all my life. So has McKnight here, and Gordon upstairs. We know what we're talking about. When I tell you that you need to leave, you need to leave." He held Helen's gaze, and then stared at the rest of them. "You don't have to. You can stay. But you'll die tonight if you do. You have an hour to get your gear together. I suggest you get to it."
Helen opened and then closed her mouth. She was not used to being argued with, and definitely not so clearly and succinctly. Lee went back to eating, clearly not interested in pushing his point further.
"Helen. Maybe he's right." Susan's voice was hesitant. Fenton nodded. Soon, an argument was in full swing, with Helen and Sam holding out, the others rallying against them. Selah finished her plate, had a second in record time, and then she, McKnight, and Lee stepped aside.
They walked out into the hall. Up close, Lee didn't look too good. His bronze skin was pale and the occasional chill still shook him.
"All right." His voice, however, was firm. "We're out of here in thirty. Selah, get an Omni from Jane. If anybody has one, she does. McKnight, get Dominique ready to go. I'm going to find us transport, then get Gordon down."
"How is he? Gordon?"
"Not good. His clavicle is broken. If he wasn't a Hybrid he wouldn't have made it last night. He's paying for it now. He'll move though. Thirty minutes. Clear?"
Selah nodded. The argument was still going on in the dining room, Helen speaking over several other voices. McKnight moved toward the stairs, as did Lee. Selah hesitated, then edged back into the doorway. She hung back, and when Jane glanced in her direction, she beckoned her over.
A moment later, Jane stepped out into the hallway. "Hey."
"Hey, Jane. I have a favor to ask."
"Sure. You know, you look really familiar."
"I do?" Selah paused. "I don't think so."
"You do. I can't place it." Jane frowned, then shrugged. "Anyways. What you want?"
"An Omni. I need to get in touch with somebody."
"Sure thing. Come on, I'll lend you mine. It's a sweet new model." Jane walked quickly to the steps, light on her feet. "You need Goggles? FingerTips?"
"No, not really." Selah followed after her. "Just a quick call."
"Sure thing." Jane skipped up the stairs, up to the second floor, and then down the hall. Without any prompting, she began to tell
Selah about herself--how she had moved here from Alabama two years ago without knowing a soul, simply because her sister, who had died five years before, had described these mountains as her favorite place in the world. Jane had had an abortion back in Alabama, and when her boyfriend had left her, she'd felt so lost, so alone in the world, that coming up here had felt like re-connecting with her sister, like following in her footsteps. Her sister had been a geologist, not something she was into, but her freelance work had taken off while she had worked at Helen's healing center, so everything had come together like, well, magic. The place, she said, turning to Selah as they entered her room, felt like home, the first she had ever had.
"Uh, wow," said Selah. She had never had somebody tell her so much personal information all at once. "I'm ... sorry. About what happened back in Alabama. But, yeah. I'm happy for you."
"I know." Jane shrugged philosophically. "But that's the past. I'm invested in being here now. Of course, this universe, you know? The minute I start getting settled, it dumps a new vampire war on me. Go figure. Anyway, here's my Omni. Let me log you into a guest account."
Jane's room looked like an explosion had gone off in it. Shirts, socks, dirty plates, pillows, underwear, magazines, blankets, ski gear, all of it was tossed across the floor. She picked her way over to the desk and unplugged the Omni from the screen and its externals and handed it to Selah, who sat tentatively on the edge of the bed and logged in.
She paused, staring at the screen. It was so tempting to just quickly scan the web, see what was going on, what had happened. But no. She went straight to her private Garden and logged in. Immediately the same insanity as before began to flood the screens--over 425,000 friendship requests, 1,345,000 notifications, far too many mentions in other people's Gardens, vBlogs and related media, high-ranked connection requests from media outlets--too much. She panicked and closed down all the feeds. Stared at her blank Garden, and then fled into her Shrine.
It was as blank as before. A handful of messages were beeping there, private access-only messages from friends and family. She saw two from Mama B, one from Cloud, and a score from old friends in Brooklyn. She looked at their frozen faces and they seemed so young to her, almost alien. She glanced up at where Jane was leaning against her desk. "Erm, do you have any earbuds?"
"Oh! Sure. Here." She handed Selah a pair.
After fitting them in, Selah activated her grandma's messages. The first was a response to the one she had sent from Armando's safe house, so many lifetimes ago. Mama B was distraught, fierce, demanding, and Selah didn't even hear what she said. Her eyes burned with tears, and her heart felt like it had tripped on buckled pavement. She simply stared at Mama B's face, heard her voice, and then closed her eyes. The message ended. Something about the Lord and love and forever. She saved it and then opened the second message.
Mama B looked up at her, expression soft, loving, wondering. "Oh, child. Oh, Selah. I love you, I believe in you, and I know that the Lord will protect you. You are alive when I though you lost, you are healed when I thought you fallen, and, oh, you have made me so very proud. I love you with all my heart, Selah, and I will be telling the General that you're going to the military. I know he will work it so that you are set free. We will soon see each other again, Selah. I know this. Until then, child, stay strong, believe in yourself, and trust in the Lord."
The message ended. Selah took a deep shuddering breath, closed her eyes again, and saved the message. She felt warmth spread through her and nodded to herself. She stared at Cloud's message. It blinked blue. She didn't know if she was ready to hear what he had to say. Instead, she opened a call to General Adam's number. Cloud would probably answer that anyway.
Instead, a window opened on the screen showing the General's face. He looked older than she recalled, his face clean-shaven, but his eyes had lost nothing of their mineral mica gleam. "Selah. Are you all right?"
"I am. General. Thank you. For your help. For doing everything you've done." Selah wiped the last of the tears away and sat up a little straighter.
"That was nothing. Where are you? Are you in immediate danger?"
"Immediate, no. In a couple of hours, maybe. We're in McCance. We escaped the base last night. The chopper crashed. We lost... We... I mean. We made it down. We have two men from the Hybrid program with us. And Sergeant McKnight. I think you know her, right? And Dominique, one of the scientists from USAMRIID. She was the one working on the vaccine."
"All right, good. What are your immediate plans?"
"We're leaving McCance now. I think we're going to try for Denver. We heard something about the base being attacked last night?"
"Yes, it was. Nothing like the attack you saw in LA, but it was still close. You got out just in time--the whole base is on lockdown. Get to Denver." He looked offscreen. "That should take you three hours. Two if you go fast. We have people there who can protect you. Old friends of yours. Call me when you hit the city limits. I'll arrange an escort for you there."
"All right. General, what's the plan? What happens next?"
The general rubbed his face, and Selah saw the exhaustion for the first time behind the iron control. "First, we make sure you're safe. Then we need to speak with this Dominique about what sort of facilities she needs to create the vaccine. Then we publicize it and force the President's hand." He said each phase with calm certainty, such that it sounded almost simple.
"All right." Selah took a deep breath. "Okay. I'm going to get going then."
A voice spoke from offscreen and the General paused. "One moment. Cloud wants a word."
"I--I really have to get going. Maybe later?"
The General raised a hand. "I don't know everything that happened between you, Selah, but Cloud wants to say something brief. It pertains to your safety. I'm asking you to hear him out."
"Oh." Selah wanted nothing more than to kill the connection, but finally she sighed. "All right."
The screen swooped as it was handed over, and then Cloud was looking up at her. His face was so familiar. He hadn't shaved in a few days and his upper lip and chin were covered in stubble; she remembered how he couldn't grow any on his cheeks or jawline.
"Hey, Selah." His voice sounded strange. Like he was trying to play it professional. But his eyes were liquid, with depths to them she didn't want to explore.
"Hi, Cloud. What's up." It wasn't a question. A mere acknowledgement. It was still too much to talk to him. She didn't want to open those doors just yet.
"We need to start talking about your public image."
"My what?" That she had not expected.
"Your public profile. It was pretty huge before LA, but after you posted that public goodbye to your grandmother, it's taken off. You've gone viral."
Selah blinked. 425,000 friend requests. "I, uh. I don't know what you're talking about."
Cloud shifted from side to side, licked his lip, clearly thinking hard about how to convey this to her. "Look. Real quick, because I know you have to run. You started this all with that broadcast back in Miami, remember? In Magnum? Then it snowballed when you saved me from the cage fight on live broadcast. Then Sawiskera died that night. You wouldn't believe the conspiracy theories. Well, maybe you would. The next time you appear is in LA, the night everything went to hell. You posted that public goodbye to Mama B, and you said something about a vaccine. Followed immediately by the start of the second vampire war."
Selah blinked again. Her brain felt stuck in second gear. "Public? I sent it ... to her privately." Her stomach sank. "But I didn't plan any of this."
Cloud grinned and that smile hurt. It was the first unselfconscious smile she'd seen since LA. "I know. That's why it's been so effective. The government ignored you at first, but two weeks ago, they put out an official statement declaring that your vaccine claim was a hoax. That really got people going. Totally backfired. Now, anybody who's anti-Lynnfield is up in arms and you're like their martyr, or Che Guevara or something. Selah, you're huge, and we need to st
art thinking what we're going to do with this."
Selah closed her eyes. She thought of Jojo staring up at her, his eyes mute with pain and depths of alien emotion. Theo striding toward her. Tom. The nightmarish descent to town. That was real. That was what her life had been about. This? 1,345,000 notifications.
"Cloud. I don't-- No, I can't handle this right now. Not now."
"I understand. Just don't post anything public until we've talked this over, all right? Things are getting critical. I don't know how much you've kept up, but the country, shit is getting so real I don't even know. We need to play your next move carefully. It could, if we do it right, spark a revolution."
Selah laughed. "A what? A revolution? Whatever, Cloud. Look, I have to go."
"All right. Just think about it. That's all I ask."
"All right. I will."
Cloud smiled up at her, and then she saw awareness steal back over him, a layer of shadow slip behind his eyes. The moment fell away and so did his smile. "All right, Selah. Take care."
"Yeah. You too." She killed the connection. Stared down at the blank screen, took a deep breath, and looked up.
Jane was staring at her in disbelief. Selah jerked her head back an inch, surprised, having forgotten she was there. Oh shit, she thought. She winced. "You heard all that."
"You're Selah Brown! The Selah Brown. I didn't recognize you without the hair, but that's it. I knew I recognized you from somewhere. I mean, holy shit. It's you."
"Yeah. Erm... Can you not tell anybody? About me being, uh, me?" Selah felt as if she had fallen through a crack into an old episode of the Twilight Zone. Jane pushed away from her desk and crouched before her.
"Did you kill Sawiskera? Was it you? I know most people think it was Plessy, but it was you, right? Nobody knows for sure. And Arachne, was she really your twin sister?"
"What? No. What? Where did you get all this from?"
Jane grinned at her and ran her hands through her hair. "I mean, wow! Look, just tell me one thing. One thing. Did you-- Okay. Your ability to move like... Your vampire power. Is it ... Were you born from a vampire mother? That's my theory. Can you just tell me that? Are you a day-walker?"