Reborn (The Born Trilogy Book 3)

by Tara Brown

  I nod, tears are streaming my face. Star is limping, carrying Sarah. I can't see properly. Anna crawls to us. We are all covered in blood. I grip Meg to me, but I can't talk. I don’t know what to say.

  Meg smiles. “Is Leo okay?”

  I glance and him and nod. “He’ll be okay. It’s a leg wound.”

  She nods. “Good.”

  She has saved him. I peel back her clothes, pressing my hands into the gushing blood coming from her stomach. I know what that is—that is death. Even in the old world, a stomach shot was death.

  She holds me, and her eyes are wild. “The cabin is gone, Em. They burned it to the ground.”

  I close my eyes.

  She sniffles. “They shot Ron too.”

  I cry harder. “I’m sorry, Meg.”

  She shakes her head. “At least he’s waiting for me.” She closes her eyes and grips me tighter, “Mary was one of them.”

  “I figured. I’m sorry I let her stay.”

  She gives me a funny smile. “I least I got to kick the crap outta her before they got there to attack.” Her eyes dart at Sarah.

  I laugh and cry. Sarah sobs over Meg. “Don’t die, Meg.”

  Meg opens her dark eyes. “Hey, kid. I’m not dying, I’m going to be with Ron.” Her eyes twinkle. “He owes me something.” She looks at me. “God’ll forgive you, Em. I’ll tell him how much you done for us all when I get there.” She closes her eyes again and winces. "Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if this wasn’t all his plan, using you to free people. He knows you're good inside. Stop them from killing them babies, Em."

  I hug her tightly. "I love you, Meg. I will."

  She coughs and nods. "Me too, Em. You're as thorny as a rose bush, but like the flowers on them, you're worth the scratches." Her eyes open and she winks at Sarah. "Be good."

  Sarah sobs harder. "Don’t leave me, Meg."

  She shakes her head. "Never."

  I watch as her face goes calm. Anna is bawling with a high-pitched wheeze, holding Sarah. I can't breathe, and Leo has dragged himself over. He’s nudging her and whining.

  He smells and licks, and finally lifts his head and howls the most haunting sound I have ever heard him make. It’s like a song. He does it a few times and then bends his head. He takes a small bite of her stomach where the blood has stopped seeping. He limps away with her blood on his face, holding his leg in the air.

  We lie there helpless. I never got to ask Marshall anything. I know nothing. The sound of the little boy crying over his dead mother doesn’t even touch me.

  Nothing can.

  My friend is dead. One of my ‘us’.

  Chapter Three

  They arrive to the scene the way it was hours before. No one has really moved much. I’m clutching her cold dead body to mine. Nothing can take her from me. I failed her. I let her die. I shot Mary and started it. I did this.

  I didn’t know I had more tears but there they were, falling from my eyes as I continued stroking her hair.

  I hear the whispers and the words around me. I know Star is starting to clean everyone up. I know I should get up, but if I let her go, she’s gone forever and I don’t trust God enough to take her.

  “Hey, Em.”

  I glance over to see Jake. He smiles but I can see the tears in his eyes. He takes my hand. “Come here.”

  I shake my head, gripping her to me, cradling her.

  He pries my fingers from her, lifting me off the ground. I am about to scream and fight, when I see Will lift her so gently and carefully.

  I cry harder.

  Will is stone faced, but I can see it everywhere. Jake holds me to him, and his body is keeping me together.

  I bury my face. “I shot Mary, and he shot Meg. I shouldn’t have shot Mary.”

  I feel little fingers prying and worming their way into the embrace. I wriggle from Jake’s arms and surround the sobbing, blonde face.

  Star sniffles. “She saved Leo. I saw her. Marshall put the gun up and Meg jumped. She knew what she was doing, Em.”

  I give Leo a dirty look and grip Sarah. “Are you hurt?”

  She shakes her head and sniffles. We walk, following behind Meg’s body that Will has wrapped in a sheet. Bernie has dug a hole next to a huge rose bush. Will places her in the hole. I gag a bit. He tosses a handful of dirt into the hole and steps back. Sarah and me cling to each other. I drop to my knees and watch everyone follow Will’s lead.

  Bernie speaks softly. “Four years ago this rose bush grew from nothing. I never planted it or watered it. It’s grown from nothing and become something that makes my day a little bit better. Now, I didn’t know Meg well, but I got the sense that she didn’t come from a lot of love. I get the sense she found it in this group of people. I can't think of a better place to put someone from our little group.”

  Sarah smiles, still sniffling. “She was thorny like that rose bush too, just like Em.”

  We all laugh.

  Leo finally limps over and nuzzles against me. Sarah wraps her arms around him, crying into his fur.

  I see Will staring at me with a look that’s filled with pain and anger.

  I nod at him and feel the defeat and loss to the full extent. I pick up my handful of dirt and get up. I stand at the edge of the hole and look down on the sheet.

  I have nothing and everything to say, but I don’t know how to say it. So I look up. I know she’s there. I never knew anything with as much certainty as I do this. I drop the dirt from my hand and whisper, “Forgive me.”

  I turn and walk away. I can hear the cries and the dirt being shoveled on top of her. No… not her. She’s gone. She’s with Ron.

  Every painful step fills me with something not good. I walk past the house and into the woods. I climb a tree and sit.

  I feel safer off the ground.

  My arms are bleeding and so is my side. Every branch I climb hurts me in a new way, but I can't imagine the pain she was in.

  I sit in the tree and think about all of it.

  I feel the tree sway. Anna climbs to a branch beside me. Her face is swollen from tears and bruises. Her leg is hurt. I can see the tied bandage on it.

  “I screwed up.”

  She nods. She knows it too.

  “If I‘d known they had Meg and Sarah, I would have let Will and Jake come. I would have made them come. I would have done the attack differently.” I lean my face into the bark. “Shows you what I know.”

  She nods. She doesn’t say anything. What can she say?

  “Where’s Andy?”

  She nods at the house. “Star has him. She’s getting him to bed.”

  I nod. I feel sick for what I’ve done to him. What I’ve taken from him. He’s a small kid and I’ve taken the only person in the world that loved him. Mary took everything from me. I owed her, but he didn’t do anything to me. Well, beyond annoy the hell outta me.

  I look across the field and see Jake, Will, and Bernie stacking rocks on the mound of dirt. Sarah is standing there all alone. When the sun goes down, it makes Sarah look a bit like a ghost standing at the edge of the pile. Her blonde hair is a mess.

  I force myself to watch her feel the loss of her closest friend and number one protector. It fills me with a kind of cold hate. The kind that burns but not like fire—like too much frost and no feeling.

  I want nothing like I want my revenge. Forget the world, the flashy crow, and the little kids. I want my revenge. I want to be like Leo and take a taste of her blood so I always remember.

  My head starts to nod as I nearly fall asleep in the tree. I climb down, leaving Anna in the tree. She nods at me as I walk away and cross the field to the house.

  Leo and Sarah are sitting at the grave. I whistle but he doesn’t come.

  I go inside. Bernie is restoring the power supplies and cussing about his house. He sees me and stops. Will turns, and I see it.

  I nod. “Just say it.”

  He folds his arms over his chest. “You fucking killed her.”

 
; I nod again. “I know.” He walks past me and out the door. He calls Leo and Sarah inside.

  Star grabs my arm and drags me to the large room off the kitchen. “We gotta stitch you up.” She pulls my shirt off and sighs. “You didn’t kill her.”

  “I left her with Mary, stupid. I came here without a clue as to what was going on, stupid. I never asked Will for help, stupid. I shot Mary and started the gun fight, stupid.”

  She starts to clean my shoulder and arm. “Mary was a traitorous bitch. I have never enjoyed anything as much as I did watching you shoot her in the face; I know how awful that sounds. I feel sad that her kid was there. He’s never going to be the same. At least he’s sleeping now. Bernie had some old, anti-nausea medicine, so I knocked him out with it.” She laughs, making me laugh. We are bad people.

  “We’re not good with kids, Star. We need to find someone to take him.”

  She smiles. “I know.”

  I look down. “What was I thinking? I shot a woman holding her kid.” I meet her eyes. “This is what’s wrong with us. I can't see right from wrong in the heat of the moment. I never saw that shooting Mary would get Meg killed. I saw the shots the way they would go down, but I never imagined it would end like that.”

  She shrugs. “I don’t see what you did as wrong. It was a split-second decision. I see it like it was: all of us or them. It’s always us or them, Em.” Her words burn into me, making the cold hate worse. She continues, “Meg would have been fine if she’d stayed beside me.”

  My lip quivers. “But Leo…”

  She nods. “Yup. Meg made the same decision you made. She saw something she wanted changed and she did it. That’s the world we live in. We give up our lives to save theirs, or we walk away and save ours.” Her eyes tear up. She presses a needle into my wound. I tense and moan. She speaks softly again, “At least you have always been true to who you are. When I found out I was different, I never told anyone. I could have saved you at the camps, and I didn’t. I let them think you were the only different one.”

  Through clenched teeth, I mutter, “Trust me, we aren’t so different. I would have lied too, if I hadn’t been discovered.”

  Jake walks into the room. He leans against the wall. “You need to go get Leo. He’s hurt and needs to come in. He and Sarah are sitting out there in the dark.” His voice is cold. He turns and leaves after a second. “They’re pissed.”

  I nod. “I would be too.” She finishes and gives me some medicine that she’s sure won't do anything for me because it’s expired.

  I walk out into the yard, past Will and Jake. I drop to my knees when I get to the pile of stones next to the rose bush.

  “We gotta go inside. It’s dangerous outside.”

  Sarah looks at me. Her cheeks are tear-stained and her eyes so puffy they barely open. “She was my best friend.”

  I nod. “I know.”

  She runs her hand through Leo’s fur. “What if that’s how it is now? We just die off one by one?”

  I shake my head. “I don’t know.” I want to lie, but the cold hate is stronger than me, and it doesn’t care if she’s scared.

  “Meg wanted them dead. All them ones who kill the kids.”

  I nod. “I know.”

  She puts a finger out. “You have to pinky swear that you'll kill them for her. Meg always made me pinky swear.” I wrap my finger around hers and she shakes it. “You kill them.”

  I nod. “Yes, ma’am.”

  She wipes her little face and nods. “Okay, me and Leo will come in.” She stands, and sure enough, he stands and follows her inside. I look at the grave. “Night, Meg.” My eyes lift to the stars. I imagine she is one of them. Anyone who would do something so brave as to save Leo with their life is hero enough for a place in the sky.

  I stand and walk behind them to the house. Will wraps an arm around Sarah and carries her upstairs. I slap my leg at Leo. He tries to follow Sarah, but I snap my fingers. He bows his head and walks with me to the kitchen. He’s still limping and holding that leg in the air.

  We get to the room. I pat the table. “Can you jump up?” I know he’s got to be at least as much as I weigh. There is no way I’ll get him on the table.

  Jake walks in. “You need some help?”

  I nod. Leo bares his teeth instantly. Jake gives him a look. “I need to put you on this table, and you can bite me if you want to, but you’re going up there.”

  Leo snarls, but Jake ignores it. He reaches around and grabs him. He places him on the table, getting nips and snorts from the huge timber wolf. I see a bit of blood on Jake’s arm. He doesn’t even flinch.

  Leo lies down on the table, looking uneasy. Star puts her hands up. “This you can handle. I’m not getting bit.”

  I stroke his face. “Hey, it’s me and you now.” He yawns and I nod. “Settle in.” I grab some scissors and cut back the tufts of fur. The bullet made a perfect hole through his leg. It missed the bone completely. I look at Jake. “Wanna pet him?”

  He laughs. “Yeah sure. He’s already done his worst.”

  I start the cleaning and look at Jake. “I’m sorry.”

  He shrugs. “You aren’t ever going to trust me or Will. I get why you don’t trust him, but me? I have never done anything but be your friend.”

  I nod. “I know and I’m sorry. I wish I’d asked for help. I had no idea what we were walking into.”

  He nods. “There used to be a saying. Dad always said it when me and Will were fighting. There is no ‘I’ in team. You either work as a team to win, or you lose as a group of individuals.”

  I sew the wound together. Leo sits, letting Jake pet his face. He doesn’t bite him. He’s as content as he can be. He trusts me again.

  Will walks in. “Sarah is sleeping.”

  I look up at him. “Thanks.”

  He turns and walks out. Jake makes a face. “He might kill you in your sleep.”

  I snort. “God, I hope so.” And I do. Because if he doesn’t, the cold hate is going to consume me, and I’ll kill everyone until I’ve satisfied it.

  I understand why I never let anything in beyond Leo. Things and people end. They don’t take everything with them though; there is always a little bit left over that burns you inside.

  We finish with Leo and force medicine down his throat. Jake helps him down, getting bit again. We follow Jake to the living room and slump into the huge chairs. The house is quiet. Anna and Bernie are snuggled into a chair. Star is sitting on the floor next to the TV that doesn’t serve a purpose anymore. Will is on the couch. Jake sits beside him. I sit on the floor and let Leo come rest his head on my lap. Bernie gets up and passes us some of whatever they’re all drinking. I sniff it, smelling things that make my body shudder.

  I take a big drink and feel the burn. It feels good, warming me against the cold hate.

  I look at the glass and wonder who is going to talk first.

  No one does for a long time, but then Jake smiles. “I want to toast to Meg. The first girl who ever told me that I was what she called ‘a long sip of ice-cold water on a hot day’. I asked her when she’d ever had ice-cold water and she replied, ‘never.’ I just heard Momma say it whenever we saw something as yummy as you roaming the woods. To Meg.”

  We all laughed and drank a huge gulp. My head started to spin.

  Star held up her glass. “To Meg, thank you for showing me how to cook deer properly, since I couldn’t do it even if the damned deer got up and told me how.”

  I laughed harder and took back another big gulp.

  Anna whispered into Bernie’s ear. He held up his glass. “This is from Anna. To Meg, the girl who told me to tell Emma to stick it up her kazoo, when I told her she wouldn’t let me and Bernie date.”

  I laughed and nodded. Kazoo was a weird word I swore she made up. I imagined she made up most of what she said.

  I held up my glass. “To Meg, my sister. Thank you for showing me how to not take things so seriously.” I drank it back, knowing it wasn’t funny but it
was true. She was always chewing a piece of grass and telling me to mind my business about Bernie and Anna. She was always telling me to just love both brothers and let them sort out the details. I drank back the last of my drink.

  “How did you meet her?” Bernie asked.

  I sniffled. “She saved my life. She saved me from something bad.”

  Bernie looks surprised. “She saved you?”

  I nod. “We were with the others, in cages. I was about to be… next thing I knew, he was dead and there was little Meg cussing at me to hurry up and run away. She’d stabbed him in the side of his eye with a nail. She was a savage. She didn’t stop talking for days. Momma this, and momma that, and Auntie Heather, and Leo was sort of useless for a pet. He wasn’t as great as her precious hounds.” My eyes gloss over and I finish the drink. “She was one of my first friends, like a little sister.” I glance at Anna. She smiles and winks at me.

  Bernie smiles. “She was a genuinely good person.”

  Jake laughs. “She was just crazy enough to be fun, but had more sense in one finger than anyone I’ve ever met.”

  I laugh and hold my glass out with the last drink of the liquid. “To Meg.”

  I wake the next morning stiff, achy, and hateful. My whole body is an angry mess. I climb from the bed filled with a snuggly eleven-year old and walk to the bathroom. I pull off my clothes and look at myself naked. I'm a mess. Bruises, cuts, stitches, and dried blood.

  I sigh and climb into the shower. The hot water is amazing. The soap stings everywhere, but every time I think about the pain, my brain chimes in and thinks, aren’t you lucky to be alive and feeling that pain. The cold hate feels lessened by the people in the house.

  I climb out to find Sarah sitting in a corner in the bathroom. I wrap myself with a towel and walk to her. I drop to my knees. “You okay?”

  She shakes her head. “I had a bad dream and then I woke up, and Andy was screaming and crying again.”

  I hold my hand out to her. “Come on. I think I saw some of those packets of that sauce cook used to make you. I’ll see if Bernie can whip you up some home fries and that sauce. Maybe breakfast will help Andy too. Bernie had potatoes last time I was here.”