We were traveling south on Highway 50, along the east shore of Lake Tahoe, and a faint breeze was making the lake’s surface glitter like an enormous cache of sapphires, diamonds, and blue topaz. The rescue, located on the opposite side of the highway, had one hell of a view. I laughed softly, my lips curving into a closed-mouth smile. Lucky dogs…
“Find some new friends?” Carlos asked, and when I glanced his way, I found his eyes studying the small cluster of buildings.
I shook my head. “They’re gone.”
“Dead?”
“Dunno.” I looked away from the rescue center, focusing on the road ahead and my sense of the animal minds around me. I had dozens of open telepathic connections, and keeping myself from drifting to each and every one of those creatures’ minds took more effort and concentration than it used to take. “I hope not.” I shrugged. “They’re intelligent enough that they could’ve found a way out…I think.”
“Hmmm…” Carlos steered Arrow further away from Wings, scanning the alpine forest on either side of the road.
“Careful, now,” I said to Wings. “I’m going to be a little distracted for a minute or two.”
“Take good care of you,” she said, her mental voice smooth and reassuring.
I ran my hand down the side of her neck, feeling the gentle flexing of her immensely powerful muscles with each step. “Thank you, Pretty Girl.”
She whinnied and raised her head, purposefully becoming more attentive to our surroundings.
Closing my eyes, I extended the radius of my Ability beyond the mile or so I’d been maintaining. Thousands upon thousands of minds flooded my awareness, and I noticed a less dense spot a little over a mile south of us. I assumed that was Zephyr Cove, where, as Gabe had discovered one night while scouting the dreaming minds, Holly, Hunter, and the formerly mind-controlled cultists had relocated.
I narrowed my focus, searching only for the minds with the distinctive canine feel that belonged to the Canidae family of animals. Dogs, formerly domestic creatures forced to fend for themselves once their owners passed away, were the vast majority of what I sensed, but there were also a fair number of coyotes and foxes. I didn’t actually notice the wolves at first because their minds were clustered with those of some of the dogs, forming an unusual pack, both in terms of its mixed-species makeup and its large size. There had to be at least a dozen wolves and even more dogs.
And there was something else…another mind that felt at the same time hauntingly familiar and utterly unique. Like Ralph, I thought. And Scott and the other drifters.
It’s another one of us. The realization sent a thrill of fear-laced excitement racing through me. I wasn’t sure why, but I’d felt a kinship to Ralph that I hadn’t noticed until I was away from him. I’d chalked it up to him being able to understand me unlike any of my survivor companions, even Jason, but now I was starting to wonder if it was something more.
Was it possible that the gene therapy changed our DNA more than Dr. Wesley had intended? Had she unknowingly given rise to dozens of new subspecies? Instead of all of us making up one Homo sapiens sapiens group, had we been broken into Homo sapiens telepathicus, Homo sapiens regenerativus, and Homo sapiens psycho-mind-control-megalomaniacus?
Whatever the cause, I felt drawn to this new mind.
Opening my eyes, I looked around. Carlos appeared to be the only person who’d noticed my momentary lapse of attention. He watched me, curiosity and something else shining in his eyes. When he noticed me looking at him, he smiled uncomfortably, then returned his attention to the pines surrounding us.
At first, I thought his behavior was odd, but then I remembered that while I was excited by the prospect of seeing people I’d once called companions, if not friends, Carlos would be reuniting with people who’d been around him during the worst month of his life.
Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes later, we were guiding the horses off the highway and into the parking lot of an old lake lodge. The long, three-story building had been painted a dark brownish red with forest-green trim, and an enormous stone chimney ran up along the exterior of the north side. And standing in an uneven column on the porch spanning the entire front of the lodge were more people than I’d seen in one place since leaving the Colony. Holly and Hunter stood foremost, waving and grinning like little kids.
Any eagerness I’d been feeling had faded, or possibly had just been overshadowed by my desire to search for the drifter whose mind I’d sensed among the dogs and wolves. As Jason and the others dismounted and crawled down from their perches on the wagon and cart benches, I remained in my saddle. My attention kept returning to the expanse of pines stretching out on the east side of the highway. Somewhere in there…whoever I was sensing was somewhere in there.
“Jason,” I called.
Halfway to the lodge, he stopped and glanced at me over his shoulder.
“I’m going to get the horses situated in that stable up the road,” I said, nodding back the way we’d come. “I’ll meet back up with the rest of you in a bit.”
Jason frowned, glancing at the cart and wagon. “What about the teams?”
“We’ll get them unhooked and bring them up,” Zoe said, looking first at Sam, who was standing next to her, then at Carlos, who was holding his horse’s reins just a yard or two away from Wings and me. “Right, guys?”
When both Carlos and Sam nodded, I smiled at Jason. “See. All taken care of.” I asked Wings to turn and head back up the road, then looped in the rest of the horses and requested that they follow us. I looked back at Jason. “I’ll have the whole herd around me. That’s about as safe as it gets, and I’ll come back in a bit…after all the hubbub has died down.” I made a shooing motion and laughed softly. “Go—talk to Holly and Hunter, see what their plans are. I’ll be fine.”
“Okay…”
With one last reassuring smile, I faced forward, and Wings started clip-clopping back up the highway. We reached the stable without trouble, the herd fanning out behind us.
Thanks to Harper having removed my cast and given my no-longer-broken arm the okay a few days ago, I was finally able to really use both of my hands again. I unsaddled first Wings, then Jason’s unnamed horse. It was when I was sliding Arrow’s saddle off his back that I felt it; the mind was drawing nearer. Whoever it was had sensed me.
Smiling at the fact that now I wouldn’t have to go hunt the person down, I sent out a tentative greeting.
“Friend?” The mental voice that responded was tiny and high-pitched and very clearly belonged to a child.
A kid? It’s a kid? If the mind really belonged to a child, and the little kid was out here all alone with only the animals to help it survive…
“Yes, of course I’m a friend!” I started walking toward the woods beside the stable, where I could feel the young drifter’s mind. “I’m Dani. What’s your name?”
“Annie.” A distinctly childlike giggle came from further in the trees, and I was extremely grateful that the ground had little cover, because I hardly paid any attention to where I was placing my feet as I picked up my pace. “Dani and Annie.” I heard the giggle again, closer this time.
“I’m here,” I called out. Going by her mind’s signature, the little girl—Annie—was just up ahead, and some of the canines who’d been around her when I’d first sensed her were scattered throughout the woods around us both.
Most greeted me warmly in my mind, but it was the pack’s alpha female who showed herself first, slinking between the trees as she approached. She had a snowy white coat, and blue eyes that were so pale they almost appeared silver. Those eyes never left mine.
“I’m honored to meet you,” I told her, making a point not to lower my eyes. She was testing me, and I wasn’t about to fail. Among her kind, this wolf held as much power as was possible.
She stopped a few yards in front of me and, after several more seconds of intense staring, sat. “You take young two-legs?”
“I—I don’t know.”
She half-stood, then settled back down. “You must take young two-legs. Be mother to young two-legs. Cannot survive here. Cold too dangerous in time of longer night. Nearly lost young two-legs.”
Did that mean that the kid had been out here, alone for all intents and purposes, for most of the winter? Had she been out here since the beginning?
“Yes,” I told the wolf without thinking. “Of course, yes.” Remotely, I wondered what the hell I’d just agreed to.
“I am pleased,” the wolf said, then stood, turned, and trotted back through the trees.
As she left, a tiny girl wearing the dirtiest clothing I’d ever seen on a child ran past her, directly toward me. She was laughing as she ran…until an even dirtier person lurched through the woods behind her. It was a woman—a young woman, I thought…maybe—and her adult legs carried her toward me faster than Annie’s could.
I was so stunned that I didn’t register her as a threat until it was too late for me to draw a weapon.
She lunged at me, her dark hair a tangled halo, her face covered in a layer of dirt so thick it almost qualified as a mud mask, and her tattered jeans and sweatshirt barely recognizable for what they were. And she reeked, almost as badly as some of the dead bodies I’d come across, which was really saying something.
“You can’t have her,” she shrieked mid-leap.
She hit me hard, taking us both down to the ground, and proved to be surprisingly strong for a woman who appeared to have spent the past few months living in the woods like an animal. I was just lucky that she was about my size. Had she been any bigger, I’d have been at a severe disadvantage.
“You can’t take her away from me! You can’t have her!” There was no doubt in my mind that she was a Crazy.
Annie was wailing like a banshee, but at least the sound told me she’d halted far enough away that neither of us would accidently kick her while we grappled on the ground.
“Would it hurt you…to brush…your teeth?” I grunted as I wrestled with the Crazy. Her breath was horrendous.
Rolling us both, I managed to get the insane woman beneath me and yank my knife from my boot sheath before she could overpower me. I held the knife to her throat and—
“Dani! No!” Carlos shouted from behind me.
The crazed woman and I both froze, the edge of my knife’s blade just beginning to slice into the Crazy’s flesh. My chest heaved as I sucked in air. “What?”
“Don’t hurt her,” Carlos said. He skidded to his knees beside us, pushing my knife hand away from the woman’s neck.
I stared at him, dumbfounded. “Why the hell not?”
He glanced down at the filthy woman, seeming to be at a loss for words.
She stared up at him, and recognition shone in her unstable gaze. She started cackling maniacally. “Mom! Jesse! Did you see?” She tilted her head back, looking at empty space. “Carlos came back!” She giggled, the sound soon turning into a full-blown laugh, and she flashed the grimiest teeth I’d ever seen.
I had to turn my head away to keep from gagging from the stench of her breath. “Carlos…?”
The young woman’s laugh cut off abruptly. “You can’t have him! He’s my brother! Mine!”
20
ZOE
MAY 7, 1AE
Lake Tahoe, Nevada
When Gabe left me a note to meet him down by the lake at lunchtime, I knew he had either great news or terrible news. Since he’d asked me to meet him in private, I assumed it had something to do with my electrotherapy sessions. Like maybe he wanted to take a break for a while.
Maybe he wants to focus on fixing Vanessa? Helping Carlos’s long-lost sister, who they’d found the previous afternoon—and who was also a definite Crazy—seemed more important than administering more failed attempts to recharge my memories.
As I wandered down the cement path to the lakeshore, I hoped that if Gabe was planning to take a break from our sessions, he wasn’t going to pull the plug completely. They weren’t going well, not in the least. There had been absolutely no advancement on my end, and we’d been trying for almost two weeks. In fact, Carlos’s Ability was improving quickly, growing stronger and more focused, but I was left with nothing more than a headache now and again and a temporarily out-of-service Ability. Regardless, we couldn’t stop now. A break I could handle, but I wanted us to keep trying…I needed us to keep trying.
I spotted Chris a few yards away, sitting on a large rock on the beach, Gabe pacing back and forth in front of her. I quickened my steps, trying not to let their bland expressions worry me.
“What’s wrong? Is everything alright? Is it Carlos?” He was the only one missing from our undercover electrotherapy group. Forcing myself to look away from Gabe’s pinched expression as he continued to pace, I focused on Chris.
She offered me a reassuring smile. “Carlos is fine, Zoe, don’t worry. He’s out with Dani and his sister.”
Gabe looked up at me like he finally realized I’d arrived. To my surprise, his keen eyes widened, and he smiled—not just a polite hi-how-are-ya smile, but an aha!-by-Jove-I-think-I’ve-got-it smile. “Ah, great. You’re here.”
I let out the breath I’d been holding onto like it would’ve made any impending bad news less knifelike. “Wait, what happened? Why are you so…” I tried to pinpoint his emotions. “Excited?” I wasn’t sure that was even the right word.
Gabe lifted his shoulder. “I had an idea…something different. Have a seat, and I’ll explain.” He gestured toward a smaller rock beside Chris’s.
I looked at Chris, and when our gazes met, she shrugged and shook her head. “You know as much as I do.”
With a sigh, I sat on the rock.
“So,” Gabe started. He was pacing again, back and forth in the sand, creating a trail of obscure, overlapping footprints in front of us. “I’ve been an idiot.” He ran his fingers through his long blond hair.
“What?” Chris and I asked in unison.
Gabe let out a soft chuckle. “It’s so obvious, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner.” He was quiet for a minute, deep in thought.
When he looked up at me, prudent and appraising, I could only stare back at him in wonder. I tried to control the increasing hope that he might’ve found a way to help me get my memory back, but it was difficult while he was keeping me in such suspense.
Chris glanced at me in my periphery, and I could feel her hope perking up alongside mine.
“Please tell us, Gabe.” I dropped my head into my hands. “I’m dying here…”
“Sorry. I’m just trying to wrap my mind around all the possibilities.” He exhaled heavily. “We’ve been treating your memory loss like amnesia. Essentially, Carlos has been going in and trying to jumpstart the memory centers of your brain, trying to spark them back to life, right?” A small grin tugged at the corner of Gabe’s mouth. “But what if there’s nothing wrong with your memory centers? What if it wasn’t actually Clara who did this to you…at least, not completely?”
Bewildered, I frowned.
“Hear me out,” he said and crouched between Chris and me. “What if you did this to yourself?” When Chris and I remained quiet, Gabe continued, “Dani’s Ability is mental, like yours and like mine. She can communicate with animal minds. Your Ability is similar. You can’t communicate with other minds, but you can feel them, you can see inside them.”
As much as I appreciated his attempt to help me understand, I was still confused.
“Are you going to spit it out, Gabe, or—” Chris said.
“I’m getting to it.” He flashed us a cocky smile. “When Dani was in the Colony, she was in extreme danger. To save herself, she drifted into Ray, remember?”
I nodded. I’d seen what Dani had been subjected to while she was in the Colony, what Clara and the General had done to her toward the end. Her memories were vivid and frequent, in spite of her attempt to forget her time there.
“What if your mind did something similar? What if you shut parts of your mind down to pr
otect yourself from Clara?” Gabe’s gaze was intense and filled with a spark I hadn’t seen in it for a while.
“Are you thinking that if Zoe did this to herself, she’s the only one who can reverse it?” Chris asked, rising to her feet. She glanced furtively from Gabe to me.
“Maybe. I have an idea of what we can do to help her reverse it, but, yes, a lot of it might be up to Zoe. If we stop thinking of your condition in terms of amnesia and instead think of it more like repressed memories, it makes sense.” He looked at me intently. “Don’t you think?”
I nodded. “I think so…”
“Your body’s natural instinct is to protect itself. In fact, people’s minds do it all the time, blocking traumatic memories and such. And I have no doubt it was traumatizing to have Clara prodding around in your mind, threatening to destroy the very essence of who you are.” Gabe paused, considering something before he continued. “Depending on what she was trying to do to you, it might simply have been too much, and your mind locked your memories away as a defense mechanism.”
A chill raked over my body as I thought about her meddling with my mind. I never really thought about that night, but suddenly I could feel the cool, night air and Clara’s looming presence like I was there again.
“So…how does she un-repress her memories, then?” Chris asked.
“We need to figure out what triggered the reaction in the first place…what caused the repression.”
Brow furrowed, I glanced first at Chris, then at Gabe. “Clara, maybe?” Although I obviously couldn’t remember her from my past, I’d seen her in other people’s memories and knew she was pure poison, and I could only imagine how terrified I must have been while she was cerebrally raping me. But I couldn’t actually remember.
Gabe nodded. “Exactly. How much have you thought about that night?”
I pulled my knees up against my chest and shrugged. “Not much. I try not to, actually.”
Out Of The Ashes (The Ending Series, #3) Page 24