by Angel Lawson
“Yep,” Cole says. “A free-thinking, ethical being with the body composition of a super solider.”
“Holy shit.” I hold his eye. “So you asked for it. You wanted this.”
“At the time I thought I would help me stop Jane. But now that she’s no longer in control of The Fort—”
I grip his arm. “Wait…what?”
“You don’t know?” He frowns and studies my face. “After all this time? I’ve followed you up and down the state. Watching you watch us, but you never realized what happened at The Fort last fall?”
“I have no clue what you’re talking about. The furthest we got was the outer gates before winter. We went to—”
“To what?”
I struggle to find the words, particularly with him. Alexandra’s relationship with Cole was definitely more defined than whatever she and I shared. If anyone had the right to chase her down it was Cole, but that nervous feeling I had earlier spreads.
“You know, track down Alex. Make sure she got inside. But the outer gate was stacked with Hybrids. After a week of looking for way in, we gave up. She’d made her intentions clear when she went up there. As much as it hurt to give up on her, we figured she was either dead or prisoner.”
The worry lines on Cole’s face deepen and I fight the wave of grief I’d suppressed for so long. But talking about this with Cole—her actual boyfriend--my feelings are real even if inappropriate. I grab onto the metal guardrails and stare into the night. God, this was shitty.
“Wyatt,” he says. “Alex isn’t dead.”
His words land like a punch and I take several steps back. “Is Jane—no, you said Jane was no longer in control, which means…” Again the picture comes into a sharper image and I straighten up. “Is Chloe holding her captive?”
“No, she’s not a captive. Not as far as I know.”
“Is she okay? Or did she…did she take the second vaccine like you?” I can see her making the same choice as Cole if she was given the chance. When she left that day she was determined to stop her sister by any means necessary. Cole had finally found the way.
“Wyatt, my sister held a coup on the Fort before winter and won. She’s the one driving the Hybrids deeper and deeper south. She’s the one hunting Erwin’s army.” He looks at me. “Alex and her sister escaped as the regime changed. They escaped.”
“You’re sure?”
“Absolutely. I helped them get away.”
I’m overwhelmed with relief and it takes me a minute to speak again. “Okay good. Good. That’s all I wanted to know. Her whole goal was to stop Jane. It sounds like Chloe inadvertently helped her succeed in her mission. At least one of us got out of this God-forsaken war, right?”
“Right,” he says, his voice hesitant. “Although, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“The God-forsaken war? Yeah, I don’t see much way out of it. I’m committed to stopping your sister.”
“Me too,” he agrees. “That’s my primary goal, which is why I need you to do something—for the greater cause.”
I’m not ready to make any deals with him. Not yet. Not without talking to my team about it and reporting back to Erwin. We knew the Hybrids had a different sort of power lately. What Cole told me explains why. Even though I’m hesitant, my job is to get as much information as possible so I lean back on my heels and say, “What do you need me to do?”
Another owl hoots deep in the trees, the only witness to our conversation. I should be surprised when he asks me, but if I think on it, there’s no other reason for him to drag me out here in the middle of the night.
No other person that warrants both of our concern.
He shoves his hands in his pockets and looks every bit the human I first met on the trail a year ago when he says, “I need you to find Alex.”
9
The main intersection of historic Dublin looks every bit like a ghost town when Paul and I enter just before dawn. They’re subtle, but I see the hints that the rest of our team is here, waiting in position. They came early, before nightfall, to avoid any roaming Eaters on the streets. The infected are left for the Hybrids to deal with.
Paul and I take our spots on assigned rooftops lining Main Street. He heads to the old pharmacy, positioned at the edge of the town. I circle around back to the alley and climb the ladder left by the others to the flat roof over the cinema. Erwin’s men and women are up here, crouched and ready. They’re the best shooters according to the skills assessments the General hobbled together from his growing army.
I pass a woman named Margaret and sit with my back against an air conditioning unit. “Everything go okay?” she asks, unaware of the real purpose of my scouting trip.
“They should be here soon—maybe fifteen minutes.” If the intel Cole gave me is accurate. Truth be told, my mind is reeling from everything he told me during our hour together. Not just the Hybrid stuff or his choices, although that’s a tough nut to swallow, but what came after, the request about Alex. I have a difficult decision to make.
I close my eyes to clear my head but just run through his revelations again and again.
“Alexandra is up north, in the small town of Catlettsburg, Kentucky, where Jane had access to a second, small compound on the Ohio River,” Cole said on the bridge.
“Another PharmaCorp?”
“No,” he shook his head. “It’s a little town set aside by her former partner who didn’t have the same ideas about the future of society as Jane did. From the documents Jane left behind it seems like it could be a good place to settle down. Unfortunately, my sister knows where they are and the infection in her brain makes her do crazy things. She’s obsessed with tracking Jane down and finishing what she started at The Fort.”
I frown. “Then why is she down here? Why spend months fighting a bunch of farmers and housewives?”
“Dr. Ramsey and I had finally come up with some solid research on how the E-TR virus takes over a human’s body. After the parasite digs into the hosts brain it spreads, triggering the need to attack others and spread the virus. Chloe’s brain does the same thing but on a different cognitive level. Her mind and body are consumed with the same need to conquer and multiply but she does it with her army.”
I must have looked confused. I felt confused, and when I didn’t react right away he continued. “Chloe will take over every inch of the South. There’s no stopping her. No reasoning—trust me—I’ve tried. I think that part of her brain stem is fried. Once she overpowers Erwin’s Army and every other survivor she collects along the way, she’ll convert them into Hybrids and head north.”
“And she’ll do the same up there.”
“Town by town, city by city. Once the Midwest is taken, she’ll go for the coasts.”
“And the people up there? Do they have the vaccine?”
“From what I understand, the inoculation rate is minimal once you cross the Tennessee state line.”
What Cole was telling me was that Chloe planned on expanding her Hybrid Army across the entire country. “You want me to find Alex so that she can be ready so that—”
“They can be prepared to fight. If not, we’re screwed. I don’t see a way back from a fight like that.”
I rub my eyes, blinking at the sliver of sunrise to the east. Cole and I parted a short time after that and I met up with Paul down the road.
A bird calls somewhere nearby. Once—then twice—and I get to my knees and mimic the sound back.
“They’re here?” Margaret asks. She clutches a rifle in her hands. I think she used to work as a waitress. Now, in her camouflaged uniform, she looks like an eager solider on her first mission.
“Good luck, Margaret,” I tell her. I already know this will be my last battle fought for Erwin, at least for now. I tip the nozzle of my gun over the edge of the building and watch for the first Hybrids to appear in the scope. It may be my last, but I also plan on going out with a bang.
In the shower I lean against the cool tile wall and let the water wash th
e grime off my body. There’s no soap that will clean off the residue of murder. Even though the Hybrids are dangerous, technically they are still human, and their blood flows red like my own. We had little choice but to slaughter them as they rode into Dublin.
The water is cold but I’m used to it and he helps me stay awake. I’m too distracted to care much anyway. I watch the water--now clean--swirl around the drain, and contemplate the conversation ahead. It’s enough to keep me in here even longer but an impatient cough from outside the stall encourages me to finish up. I step out, towel wrapped around my hips, and pass Davis, who has been waiting.
“Did you save me any hot water?” he asks with a sarcastic grin.
“Steaming.”
I move to the sink and pick through the small case I carry, deciding to clean up my beard before hitting the road. I’ve decided I’m leaving ASAP. I just have to take care of a few things first.
“So how was the meeting?” Davis asks, voice echoing off the cement block walls.
“Informative.”
“Anything you can share?”
I stare at my face in the mirror. God I look like shit. Crow’s feet tug at the corner of my eyes and purple bags prove how little sleep I actually get. “I have a decision to make. Well, I’ve made it. I’ll give you and the rest of the team the same choice.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
Davis doesn’t reply. He trusts me. I trust him. We’re brothers out here and I know he’ll go if I ask him to. But they need to understand what we’re taking on. We clean up quietly. By the time he’s out of the shower I’m dressed in baggy fatigues and walking out the locker room door. I tell him to meet me in the lounge and to bring the others.
There’s something I must do before I meet with my team, and I walk out of the bunkers and down to the infirmary. I pass two soldiers guarding the door. They scramble to attention when they see me, saluting like I’m their superior. In theory I probably am, but we don’t have official rankings here. At least, I don’t. I nod anyway and the door is unlocked from the inside. One whole section has been cleared for inoculations.
I walk down the hallway, past a few rooms with moderately ill people. Sickness hit the base over the winter. The flu, colds, a few cases of strep. We’re less likely to bring in a person with the ETR infection these days than someone with lice or nutritional deficiencies. If we can help them they come here. If we can’t, the Crisis takes another soul.
At the end of the hall I come to an office door and rap on the glass window twice with my knuckles. I enter the room and find Dr. Ramsey working next to a battery powered lantern, taking notes.
“Ah, Wyatt,” he says looking up at me. “How are you today?” His glasses reflect the light. They’re new—the old ones were broken in the fight with Chloe. Jude and I found racks and racks of prescription glasses in Walmart outside of Tifton and brought them to the base strapped to the back of his motorcycle. Dr. Ramsey got first pick.
“I’m good, sir. Survived my latest mission.”
“That’s about all we can ask for these days.” He leans back in his chair and points to the one across the desk for me to take. “What can I do for you?”
I sit in the cracked leather chair and rub my hands on my knees. “I have some news. About your daughters—they’re alive and together.”
Hope sparks in his eyes and he leans across the desk. “At the Fort?”
“No, they’ve escaped and were headed north—somewhere Jane had connections. She’s no longer Director of the Fort. Seems there was a coup and Chloe has taken over.”
“I suppose that explains what happened at the Vaccine Center and the increase in Hybrids. Jane no longer had control of them.”
“Exactly.”
“And you trust Cole?”
“I think he’s giving me solid information.”
“Any chance it’s a trap?” he asks me.
I exhale and stare at the lantern. “Possibly, but—”
“You’re going after my daughter.” His eyes hold mine. A father knows, I guess.
“Yes, to warn her of the impending battle.”
“To warn her.”
I swallow and nod. I’ve never spoken to a woman’s father like this—even vaguely discussing my intentions. “I made a promise to keep her safe at the beginning of this Crisis and deliver her to you and the Director. Turns out she doesn’t need me to fight her battles. She’s strong as hell, but that doesn’t alter my personal mission. Circumstances may have changed but that basic promise hasn’t wavered over time.”
“You’re a good man, Mr. Faraday, in a day and age where good men are definitely not the norm.” The declaration means more to me than it should. “Tell my daughters hello when you see them. Tell them that I love them and if God is willing, I’ll see them again.”
“Thank you, Sir.” I stand. “And I will. I’ll get to them and I will let them know.”
I leave the room and I hope Erwin can keep Dr. Ramsey keep alive long enough to see his daughters once more.
“The Hybrids are coming,” I say to my team—my friends. They’re squeaky clean, with damp hair smelling of shampoo and soap. “And they won’t stop until we’re dead.”
“We kicked their asses today,” Jude says. His eyes are still charged with adrenaline from the fight. “We can take them.”
“No,” I shake my head. “No, we can’t. That’s what I learned from Cole today.”
Jude scoffs. “You trust him? He’s one of them.”
“Chloe has a plan and Cole revealed it to me in its entirety. This whole base, and the soldiers and survivors in it, are just a means to a bigger end. If we don’t get out now, we probably never will.”
“Okay, then what’s her big plan?” Paul says, arms crossed over his chest. I’d already given him the bare facts about his vaccines and why it made him different. He’d quietly absorbed that information and then jumped into the fight in Dublin. I now do my best to explain it to the group.
Davis frowns so hard I think maybe he’s going to break his brain, but he finally says, “If Chloe finds out that the two vaccines combined will results in making a Hybrid-Hybrid—”
“A Mutt,” Jude interjects.
Davis sighs. “If they make a Mutt what will she do?”
“She’ll kill everyone on that has the first vaccine,” Paul replies.
The implications are heavy. People down here will die. Many will. It feels like I’m running. Maybe I am.
“Right now she has no idea what happens when you mix the two vaccines. Cole has managed to keep this from her by acting like the other Hybrids and basically just keeping off her radar,” I clarify. “It’s possible Erwin and those who stay can get the jump on her.”
“Maybe,” Davis says. “But what if she figures it out and just destroys everyone. What if she wins?”
I look around the table. Everyone is listening. “That’s why I’m here to let you know that I’m headed north. If she wins and she secures Erwin’s army as her own, she’s going north. Specifically, Western Kentucky.”
“What’s in Kentucky?” Parker asks.
Paul answers before I can. “Alex.”
I tense my jaw while the others look between us. “Yes,” I admit. “How did you know?”
He shrugs. “Just a guess, but it makes sense. Cole wants you to find her.”
I take a minute to explain everything Cole told me about Jane’s compound in Kentucky and what Chloe’s plans are once she crosses Tennessee. Their expressions turn grim as the reality of how big the battle ahead is going to be.
“So you’re leaving?” Jude asks. He leans back in his seat, arms crossed over his chest. “I guess the only surprise is you telling us.”
“Jude…” Parker warns.
“No,” I hold up my hands. “It’s a fair statement. Usually I come and go. I know that. I haven’t always been a consistent member of this team, but I’ve always had your back. This is my offer to let you know if you want to com
e with me, I’m happy to have you. Each of you have proved yourself capable in a fight. But don’t feel obligated. Hell, I wouldn’t begrudge you if you packed a bag and made a run for it. Things are about to get rough no matter what decision you make.”
“When are you headed out?” Davis asks.
“In two days. I need to give Erwin a heads up. I’m headed there in the morning.” I have one other stop to make first, but I keep that one to myself. I look around the table, meeting the eyes of my team members and friends. “Meet me at the front gate at 6 a.m. if you’re coming. If not, no hard feelings and good luck.”
10
Erwin reacts to my announcement about the Hybrid Army as though he knew it was inevitable all along. He agrees to my final requests and slips me a small, heavy envelope with instructions to open if I’m ever in a jam.
“When Chloe finds out the two vaccines combined cause a uncontrollable variation of super soldier, she’s going to burn this place to the ground,” I tell him. “There’s still time to run.”
The General leans back in his seat. “I’ve never been one to run from a fight.”
“And everyone else?” I brought a lot of the civilians in personally. I’m not sure this is the end they saw coming.
“I’ll give them a choice, but I bet more will end up with me than you think.”
I nod, giving him a final, well-deserved salute.
“Go.” He waves me off. “Prepare the North so they’re ready when I get there.” Those are the crazy bastard’s final words. I guess it’s easier than saying goodbye.
That night, I enter the family barracks and request a meeting with Dorothy and her family. They are barely settled in and the men eye me suspiciously, but the matriarch of the family greets me warmly. We bonded in that kitchen.
“I have an opportunity for you and, well, a favor for me. I know you’re farmers—not fighters—and you seem to have a loving, strong family. I may have a way for you to continue living in peace.”
Sabrina sits next to her husband, Matt, a tall man with thoughtful eyes. She grips his hand and says, “We owe you enough to at least listen.”