by Morris, Kate
“Where would you go? And why?”
She shrugged again. “Not sure.”
“Where are you from? Really from?”
Answering that could put him in danger if they found her, found all of them, or if these new friends tried to protect her, hide her from them. So, she did what she was used to doing: lied and evaded his inquiry.
“Same town as Elijah. What about you? Are you sticking around long-term? Seems like you and Jane have a thing.”
She slid in the snow and winced. Then she limped for a few steps. Dixie slowed her pace to accommodate.
“Hey, you okay?”
“Just sore. I’ll be fine. Answer my question.” This was no time to dally, so Wren forced herself to pick up the pace again, even though her thigh was sore, probably contused or just a strained or pulled tendon. It felt like a stiff Charley horse.
His deep blue eyes considered her answer, knew she was blowing him off, and said, “You can tell me some other time. I’m not a threat. But, yeah, Jane and I are…together. Sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“Yeah, things are just kind of a mess right now. She’s been through a lot. Her grandmother died, was murdered. She was attacked by the man that killed her. She’s lost a lot, so it’s imperative that her dad gets better. I don’t want her cracking any further. I just want to keep her and my little brother safe until this is all over.”
“You shouldn’t get too close,” she warned. “People have a tendency to die now, ya’ know.”
“Thanks for the tip, but it’s too late,” he responded and shrugged the deer higher again after it slipped. “We went to school together. I’ve liked her for a long time, just got up the courage to do something about it when this crap ruined everything. Jane needs me, though. She isn’t as independent as you. Her grandmother took care of her, and she’s had a rough life. She tries to act like she doesn’t need help, but she does. She’s…frail, not like you.”
She snorted, the motion causing vapor to puff in front of her face. “I’m not tough. Don’t you remember me barfing back there when you gutted that deer?”
He smiled. “Yeah, I remember. But I’ve seen you in action. Literally. You’ve got a story, a history to back up the shooting and survival instincts, but I’m not going to pressure you to tell me. I know you’re made of sterner stuff. Jane is, too, but only to a degree. I have to protect her, keep her safe. I think Elijah feels the same way, right? About you, I mean.”
That caused her to frown. “Nah, we’re friends. That’s all. From school. I was the new kid, so he was nice to me. We hardly know each other.” That was sort of true, but also kind of a lie, too. She sometimes felt like, other than Jamie, she knew Elijah better than any other person she’d ever known. He definitely knew more about her than she’d revealed to anyone else since her family was murdered.
“But I thought you and some others were living with him and his brother up in the city,” he questioned.
She nodded and swallowed hard. “Yeah, right, we were. But only ‘cuz we knew each other from school and stuff.”
“And your family?”
“Are all dead. Jamie was all I had left.”
“Sorry,” he remarked with sincere empathy. “From the virus?”
He was tall, dark-haired, seemed a little exotic Euro-Asian in his facial features, and had an old Hollywood look about him, but Roman was also made of steel. She could tell he came from money by the clothing he wore and his mannerisms, but he had grit, too. He carried himself with a lot of confidence for being the same age as her. She definitely didn’t have that sort of confidence in anything. Maybe he wasn’t as muscular and imposing as Elijah, but there was something about him that let her know he could take care of himself and probably his group, too. Wren could barely manage keeping herself alive at this point, and she wasn’t answering him about her family’s deaths. He was too inquisitive.
“There’s the lane,” he indicated toward the driveway that was now blown shut with drifted, deep snow. “Careful. Jane’s dad’s lane is steep. Hey, there’s the tracks. Good. That means they made it back.”
After making it down their insane driveway, they left the carcass in the barn with the other one and went inside to warm up by the fire. She didn’t even ask if Dixie could come in, too. She just allowed her to follow her through the front door, where the dog was immediately greeted by Jane’s dog. The electric was off, which made the log home a little dark.
“Another outage?” Roman asked that guy Noah.
“Yes, I think so. Went off right after you left. I checked the breakers like you showed me. Probably the storm.”
“Gee, ya’ think?” Stephanie asked as Elijah rushed forward past her.
“Wren, are you okay? I heard what happened,” he said in a hurry and touched her shoulders, then assessed her arms.
Wren took a step back, “I’m fine. Where’s Spencer?”
“In the bathroom. Jane’s father is up.”
Jane came out of the bedroom, which Wren assumed was the master, and went straight to Roman with a big smile. “He’s awake and up and moving around, Roman.”
“That’s great, Jane,” he said and hugged her.
“Oh, you’re freezing,” she remarked. “Stephanie made some coffee over the fire in a tea kettle. Want some?”
“Sure. Thanks.”
The nasty girl with the cropped, choppy blonde hair with the darker roots narrated herself, “Yes, Stephanie has to do everything around here while you two idiots are out gallivanting around the county.”
Roman cut her down, “You mean, bringing you food?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Gross. I’m not eating that.”
“You will if you’re hungry.”
She just poked her nose in the air. Something was seriously wrong with this chick, but Wren didn’t really care to find out. Everyone had their own problems to deal with now. She didn’t need to be someone’s therapist. Also, she seemed like a bitch, like all the girls who’d ever been nasty to her over the years of endless moves to new schools.
“Wren, would you like coffee?” Jane asked.
“Sure, thanks.”
“My father is helping him with Spencer’s arm,” she explained further and returned with a coffee for her and Roman. She liked hers with cream, but that was probably out of the question.
“Thanks,” Roman said to Jane, bent and kissed her cheek, to which she offered an awkward grin.
“I’m going to go back and see if they need my help,” she told him and left.
“Have a seat,” Roman said, offering up space on a leather sofa.
“I’m soaked through,” she said. “I think we ought to head out.”
“This storm’s pretty bad. I don’t think you guys should leave until Alex and Tristan come for you,” Roman advised.
He was probably right.
“Do you want to borrow some clothes?” he asked next.
She sniffed.
“Oh, come on,” Stephanie said and stepped forward. “You’re my size, or close to it. I’ll get you some dry threads to wait for your ride.”
She had no desire to follow the girl but did so only because she was freezing and wet. Stephanie led her to the basement, which was odd, but then Wren remembered something about her sleeping down there. It was actually a pretty nice space. She had the whole lower floor to herself. It was definitely messy, though.
“Jeans, let me see,” she said, talking to herself as she dug through a piece of expensive, designer luggage.
“Anything is fine,” Wren said.
“Here, size four?” Stephanie asked and handed her a pair of dark denim over her shoulder.
“Yeah, those’ll work,” she replied and took them.
The girl went about rummaging another luggage as Wren stripped. Stephanie obviously wasn’t planning on staying long term. Either that, or she was just lazy and hadn’t unpacked.
“Hell, that’s a whopper,” Stephanie remarked, causing Wren to look up at
her from her position of removing her wet socks. The girl was pointing. Wren looked down and saw the nasty bruise on her thigh, which was what she expected to be there. “Shit, that looks painful. I’d offer you some ice, but…”
Wren laughed once. “Right. Think I’m cold enough.”
Stephanie went back to looking for more clothing as Wren pulled off her wet hoodie and undershirt.
“Nice tat,” the girl said behind her.
“Uh…thanks,” she said, realizing she probably observed her tattoo of the wave on her lower back.
“Surfing, huh?”
“Yeah, used to live in California.”
The girl sighed and tossed her a long-sleeved tee and a dry sweater. It was pink, but it was clean and warm, so she didn’t protest.
“Damn, that’s where I was headed after graduation,” she lamented and lit the half-burned joint that was in the ashtray. “Fucking sucks.”
“What were you going out there for?”
“My mom was giving me money. Basically, I extorted it, but whatever. I found an agent. I was going to get into acting. Figured I’d be good at it since my whole life has been an act, up until now anyways.”
“Seems dangerous,” Wren said as she tugged the hem of the undershirt down. “Thanks.”
“No problem. Yeah, I wasn’t too worried. I can take of myself. Getting away from my mom and step-dad was the end goal.”
“Pretty bad, huh?”
The girl hit the joint again and stamped it out after offering her a chance, to which Wren refused.
“C’mon, Roman will smell it. He’s like a goddamn police dog around here,” she said, looked at Dixie, and amended, “No offense, dog.”
Wren actually smiled. Maybe this girl wasn’t so bad.
“Yeah, we were a thing for a while. Till he dumped my ass and started dating the dork upstairs.”
Or maybe she was. Either way, Wren didn’t want a new friend. This girl, something about the coldness in her eyes or the way she carried herself like she had an invisible forcefield around herself at all times, made Wren figure Stephanie didn’t want friends, either.
When they got upstairs, Jane was back and told them that the guys went outside to process the deer meat with her father.
“Fuck that,” Stephanie said. “I’m eating Doritos for dinner, and you can all fuck off if you don’t like it.”
She took her loot to the basement and didn’t return. Wren was left with Roman’s little brother and Jane, who was quiet and carried a constant worried expression.
“I hope they’re okay.”
“They’re just processing deer meat. I don’t think it’s all that dangerous, and they’re like ten feet from the house,” Wren told her.
“I meant the others, the ones looking for supplies. Alex and Tristan and Avery and her sister. They were supposed to be here by now.”
Wren looked at the grandfather clock tick-tick-ticking away as if time were still a thing. It was after four o’clock already. Jane was right. They were an hour late. Something must’ve gone wrong. Everyone knew to be in their homes by dark. Something was wrong, indeed, and they had no way to communicate to let each other know they were safe. It would be dark in an hour.
Chapter Twenty
Avery
The girl was freshly showered and sitting on Kaia’s bed wearing her sister’s clothing. The t-shirt and pants hung loosely from her shoulders and slim hips, even though Kaia was already a thin girl, too.
“Need help with your hair?” Avery offered after a soft knock on the door. She was just sitting there with the towel on her head, staring off into another world only she could see. “Let me help.”
Avery walked into the room with a wide-toothed comb and some spray detangler. Her hair was long, nearly to her waist and thick. She sat on the bed next to her and removed the towel. The girl shivered, so Avery rose again and got her a heavyweight sweatshirt. She had to put it on her since she was in some sort of non-communicative catatonic state.
Then she began on her hair and spoke softly to her, “You’re safe here. Nobody will hurt you.”
No response.
“Let me tell you a little bit about us so that you feel more comfortable being here,” she said and slowly explained her family, their new allies, and a little about what they’d been through. “What’s your name, honey?”
She finally responded. “Remington, everyone calls me Remmie.”
“That’s lovely.”
She didn’t offer anything else, so Avery sprayed and combed her hair and began rubbing it gently with the towel to dry it.
“Where’s your family?” she asked.
“Dead,” she answered. “’Cept my sister.”
“You have a sister?” she asked and got a nod. “Where is she?”
“They took her. He sold her to someone,” Remmie answered, making Avery’s stomach drop out.
“Who? The man who did this to you?”
Another nod.
“Who’d he sell her to?”
A weak shrug.
“What happened, sweetie? Please, tell me. We want to help.”
She briefly made eye contact before looking at her knees. Then she pulled them up into her chest and hugged her arms around them. A tear plopped onto her pants.
“My family lived close to here, but closer to town. My dad had a company there. My mom was a school teacher. I had a little brother and an older sister.”
When she didn’t say anything else, Avery pushed her for information, “What happened to them?”
“We lived in the Ridgewood Allotment in town, just outside the city.”
“I know that allotment,” she acknowledged. “It was a really nice neighborhood.”
She nodded and sniffed.
“I know this is hard, Remmie.”
“My dad had a generator. Bought it as soon as things starting getting bad. My mom saw it spreading through the school, so they decided to pull us out. I was a cheerleader, played softball, had…a different life.”
“I understand,” Avery said. “We all had normal lives before. Nobody could’ve been ready for this.”
“My dad was ready. Well, a little. He had always stocked up on prepper stuff in the basement. We used to make fun of him, but one time we lost power for almost three weeks in the middle of winter, so he started doing things in case that ever happened again. We still teased him, but whenever we had a bad thunderstorm, and the power went out, we were the only people on our block who still had power or anything.”
“He sounds very smart.”
“He was. We were doing okay, ya’ know?” she asked, looking briefly at Avery before staring straight ahead.
“Until,” Avery led her.
“Until that man and the people that work for him broke in. My dad shot a few, but there were too many. They got my little brother and told my dad to throw down his gun. He did. Then they shot him and my little brother. My mom picked up his gun, so they shot her, too. They took me and Clara.”
“That’s your sister? Clara?” she asked and got the nod again. Remmie swayed slightly. “You say men. How many were with him? The man at the house earlier?”
“No, others.”
“Do you know how many?”
“Ten? Not sure. Fifteen.”
“What happened after that?”
“First for a while, they had us at a building in town. I don’t know what it was because we were blindfolded going in. I just know that it only took a few minutes to get there, maybe just five or ten.”
“And you were kept there for how long?”
“A month? Maybe less,” she answered as if confused.
“Why? What happened there, Remmie?”
She shuddered. “There were other girls. Six. They tied us up. Let men pay to…”
Remmie didn’t finish, so Avery finished for her, “Rape you.”
She nodded and sniffed. “We couldn’t get away. We tried. They had us tied. Two girls did get loose, made it out the window, but the
y found the one. The other, Lillian, she got away. Lillian said she was gonna make it to her house near this area and go find her mom and little brother. They were supposed to go to her uncle’s place about an hour away. She said her neighbors had horses, so if there weren’t any cars, she was going to take one of the horses and go find her uncle to help us. That was about two weeks ago.”
“And the other girl?”
She nodded. “They both got out, but Maddie was caught. They killed her in front of us. I think they did that so that none of us would ever try to get away again.”
“Yes, I would think that would work, too. They wanted to keep you girls afraid. Why did they move you?”
“The monsters were coming every night,” she explained. “Some of the men were scared. They took us to that house. I don’t know how they knew about it, but Dice- that’s what the other ones called the leader sometimes- knew about it. His real name was Jeff. That’s what they mostly called him. I don’t remember ever seeing him in town. You know, it’s a small town. Most people knew each other.”
Avery also wasn’t familiar with anyone having that nickname. She also didn’t know any “Jeff’s.” She needed more information, though, and asked, “And you were there for the last month or so?”
She nodded. “Some of us were moved. He said he wanted the new ones to be brought there and the old ones to be moved to the house where you guys found me. One of the men who came to the place in town wanted my sister, so Jeff sold her to him.”
“Do you know where he took her?”
Remmie shook her head, and more tears fell. Avery reached behind her to Kaia’s nightstand and brought around a box of tissues.
“And the other girls? What happened to them?”
After blotting her eyes, she began. “Two got sick, were infected. The good thing was that the men who used them also got sick and died. So we heard. The other two in the room where they dragged them away?” she asked, wanting Avery to remember that basement of nightmares. Avery nodded not because she remembered but because she knew she’d never forget what she saw. “One got sick. I think she had pneumonia. It wasn’t the virus. She got a really bad fever, coughing terrible, coughing up blood. It was terrible. They’d still drag her upstairs and…”