by Leyton, Bisi
“I heard them talking about it, but I didn’t know they were actually going,” Amanda continued.
“Amanda, you’re Hailey’s friend. How can you not know?” Wisteria pointed out.
“I thought she was joking, but when Garfield was telling me you guys saw biters in Woolmer, I went to tell her, and she was gone.”
“She didn’t tell you the party was tonight?” Wisteria clarified.
“I guess she’s still mad because I brought you the last time. And she might’ve caught Steven flirting with me, so I don’t think she’s talking to me right now,” Amanda added.
Wisteria slipped on the clothes she’d worn that day and grabbed her sword. Climbing out, she joined the pair and padlocked the metal cage from the outside. Slipping through the metal gate, they hurried down the gravel road with their bikes and were soon riding though the town, attempting to avoid the soldiers patrolling.
“This is the way.” Amanda gestured left as they cycled.
“I’m not leaving Smythe,” she informed them as she stopped. “I’m going to get someone who’ll help us.”
“Who?’ Garfield rode back to her.
“Andrew.” Wisteria kept walking.
“No, if he knows, he’ll go to Coles.” Amanda grabbed her. “Once Coles catches them, he will go mad. You’re overreacting.”
“Amanda, there are biters in Woolmer. I know there are biters there. We accidentally found over fifty locked in a school.” She was furious with her brother.
“But we cured the ones in the school,” he pointed out.
“No, we only cured the ones that came out. No one has gone back to Woolmer because it’s too dangerous right now. We don’t know how many more are hidden in that town, bolted away in another part of the school or locked away by loved ones who thought they were doing the right thing. And we’re not going there alone.” She headed in the direction of Andrew’s house.
“Don’t. He’ll tell Coles,” Amanda begged.
“I don’t know what else to do.” She tried to stop herself from screaming. “And if it’s one tenth as windy in Woolmer as it is here, their scent will travel for miles.”
“So, go out and explain that to David,” Amanda suggested.
“Amanda, she’s right,” he replied. “We’re not going out there.”
“You’re going to leave him to die? That’s what you want, Garfield, isn’t it?”
“We’re going to get help,” Wisteria assured her.
They reached Andrew’s home ten minutes later.
When he came to the door, he was red-eyed with his hair ruffled. “Does your mother know you’re here?” he asked Wisteria.
“Andrew, we have a problem.” She explained the situation.
As she did, the man quickly became alert.
“Drew, do you have to go to work or what? Either get out or get back to bed,” Rebecca screamed from inside.
“Rebecca, get up. We’ve got to go get the Major,” Andrew called.
“No, no, no,” Garfield pleaded.
“You said I could come to you,” Wisteria reminded him.
“I’m glad you did.” He rested his hand on her shoulder. “But if they’d just gone back to Norton to party, I’d have gone to get them easily, but since they’re in Woolmer, we need to send a team out there to get them back. Because I’m guessing at least a hundred more biters are in that town.”
“What’s going on?” Rebecca came out, rubbing her eyes.
*****
“Ahh!” Coles threw the conference table against the wall after Andrew told him what had happened.
Wisteria, Garfield, Amanda, Andrew, and her mother sat at the tracker station with him as he was working a nightshift.
Jake Turner, the controller, walked inside. “You keep doing that Major, and I won’t be able to hear what the men are saying.”
“What is there to hear? We don’t have anyone outside,” Coles yelled. “Except for these bloody children. You!” He pointed to Garfield. “Tell your girlfriend to write down all the names. We need to know which families to contact.”
Nodding, Garfield took a pad of paper to compile the list.
“So, what happens now?” Wisteria asked her stepfather, knowing he’d never let her go on the rescue mission. “Who’s going to get them back?”
Coles glanced at Andrew. “No one’s going out there.” He moved past her.
“What?” Amanda cried.
“Why?” Wisteria exclaimed, jumping up.
“Because they might be infected. We can’t let them in until we’re sure and we can’t make an assessment in the dark, in the rain or when there are kids running back, possibly mixed with the infected.”
“You can do it this once,” Wisteria pleaded.
“We never admit people into the community after dark,” her mother said. “It’s just dangerous.”
“Mum, please. We’re not going to leave them there! Major---” Wisteria ran to him, but her mother stopped her.
“Sorry; anyone who tries to sail back will be shot, because they could be bringing back an infection,” Coles said coldly.
“No, no wait,” Garfield said nervously. “There’s thunder and it’s going to rain. Biters hate rain, right?”
“Yeah, if we wait until the rain starts, we’ll be able go out and probably bring them back,” Wisteria agreed.
“I don’t think it’s going to rain in Woolmer because the wind is blowing east, so it’s going to rain over the sea,” her mother said unemotionally. “I don’t know what we can do.”
“Lara, don’t you care about your son?” Amanda pleaded.
Her mother bit her lip and shook her head. “More than you know, but we can’t put everyone at risk because of a handful of kids, not even my son.”
Her mother was unbelievable. How could she sit here, eating dried fish and saying it wasn’t important to try to save David?
“Wisteria.” Amanda turned to her. “This is your fault. You shouldn’t have gone to Andrew.”
“Mum, please.” Looking at her mother, who avoided eye contact, Wisteria realized there was no time to waste trying to convince her. She decided to go and get her brother herself. They wouldn’t be able to come back that night or the soldiers would shoot them. They’d have to stay in one of the safe houses in Woolmer. After she got David, they’d hide in one until the trackers came by to check. First, Amanda had to tell her where they snuck out this time as the Town Hall had the previous hole filled.
“Just go home and let us worry about this,” Coles ordered.
“Wisteria, talk to them,” begged Amanda.
“She’s right,” Wisteria admitted as she headed to the door. “There’s nothing she can do.”
“What?” Both her friends protested.
“I’m going home.” Wisteria stated.
Amanda stomped out, slamming the door in her face.
Wisteria and Garfield moved out to the hallway.
“You know if Bach was here, he could just go and get him and everything would be sorted. What I’d give for a mobile phone,” Garfield remarked.
She knew he was still in Jarthan, trying to determine what was happening with the empirics and he couldn’t help. “Amanda,” Wisteria called as she ran out of the house.
“I can’t believe you. They’re not even going to try and get David back,” Amanda yelled. “I trusted you!”
“Amanda, how did they get out?” she asked calmly.
“Why am I going to tell you? You’re just going to tell the soldiers and they’ll seal the hole. Then no one will have a chance of surviving this.”
“Amanda, I’m going to Woolmer to get David. The only way out is through the hole he used. We don’t have long. Soon, the soldiers will be patrolling the wall with weapons, so you’ve got about ten seconds to tell me, if I have any chance of finding him. Please.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Amanda, come on,” Garfield cajoled.
The girl appeared reluctant, but then
she nodded and took them through the town.
They ended up behind the pharmaceutical factory. Amanda led them to a spot by the wall. Clearing the loose soil, she revealed planks of wood. Lifting the wood, she showed them a deep hole similar to the one Wisteria had gone through, days earlier.
“How come the soldiers missed it?” Garfield asked
“They didn’t,” Amanda said. “This is a new hole. They dug it two days ago.”
Wisteria climbed in, followed by Garfield. “Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked him.
“You’re not going to survive out there on your own,” he said.
“I’m coming too,” Amanda added.
“No, wait here. If you come, there may not be enough space for us all in the pit,” she explained. “And you also need to seal this hole.”
“Okay.” Amanda nodded.
*****
Wisteria and Garfield sailed to Norton and cycled to Woolmer.
As they entered Woolmer, he paused. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
She shook her head. “But I’ve got to. Amanda said they’re at Fox’s Night Club. The nearest shelter would be 63 White Lake Avenue. We’ll take him there.”
“But if it’s overrun?”
“Then it’ll have to be 419 Cashmore Road,” she said. “That's a twenty minute walk, five minutes by bike. Hopefully, we’ll outrun the biters.”
They halted their bikes outside Fox’s. She could hear the music inside the club from across the street. There were a few kids talking, smoking, or making out in front. Jumping off her bike, she headed through the glass doors. Stepping over the poles and ropes once used as barriers to keep out the undesirables, she walked through the dimly lit foyer onto the dance floor and bar. There she saw the group of teens dancing.
Lit mainly by candles and oil lamps, the sultry atmosphere was the ideal place for teenagers to hangout, if not for the biters that were roaming the town. Checking for her brother, she noted there were even more kids than last time. She estimated about sixty on the dance floor or at the bar, but there was no telling how many were in the other rooms. Walking through, she spotted David lip locked with a girl as they sat on the bar.
Behind the bar, Yvette Morel, Bruno’s daughter, was pouring drinks and flirting with Dillon at the same time.
Wisteria headed straight for her brother.
As she approached, Dillon tapped David’s shoulder and pointed at her.
He brother slid off the counter and marched up to her. “Go home. Don’t make a fool of yourself.”
“Davy, looks like big sister has come to get you again,” one of his friends jeered.
“I don’t believe you.” David stormed over to her. “You need to get out now!”
“David, this isn’t going to be an argument.”
“Exactly.” He raised his hand to her face. “You should go before you embarrass yourself.”
“David, I’m not trying to be Mum and I’m not trying to hate on you, but I’m begging you, trust me.” She rested her hand on his cheek. “Please, we are all in trouble and I’m really scared.”
Her brother’s face softened. “Fine.”
“Come on, Dave, I’m getting bored.” Poppy bounced up, putting her arms around him. “Your sister is leaving, right?”
“Poppy,” sighed David. “I—We’re...leaving.”
“What? No,” Poppy moaned. “You said—?”
“I know what I said, but we’ve got to go,” David stated unhappily. “We’ll sort this out on the island. Wisty, you better be right about this or we’re going to talk about your control issues,” David seethed.
They headed out of the club.
“You’re lucky she doesn’t break both your legs,” Garfield muttered.
“What are you saying, rat boy?” David asked.
“I mean, if you weren’t such a selfish idiot, I wouldn’t be locked off the island tonight with the rest of you.”
“I know my way back in.” David shoved past Garfield.
“Yeah, you try sailing across,” Garfield leered.
“The soldiers are going to shoot anyone who tries to sail back tonight because they could be infected. No one’s going back to Smythe tonight,” Wisteria explained.
“Yeah, right,” David scoffed, but his cocky grin faded when he saw her eyes. “Wisty, you told the soldiers? How could you be so vindictive?”
“What are you talking about?” Frustrated, Steven appeared. “Wisteria, what are you doing here? I don’t want to start with you again.”
She thought she saw a flesh eater, but checking closer, she saw it was just a kid. There were no biters in here—yet.
At that moment, she saw a middle-aged man stagger into the party. His eyes were blood red and black, rotten blood poured out from his mouth—A flesher.
“Crud.” She grabbed Garfield and pointed at the flesher. “Get out now!”
“What is that?” Poppy pushed forward, only to stop when she came face to face with Amanda, who was furious.
“I’m going to kill you.” Amanda smacked the younger girl across the face hard, knocking her onto the ground. “If you ever—”
“Amanda!” David and Garfield yelled simultaneously.
“We don’t have time for your jealousy right now.” Wisteria drew her weapon and ran toward the main door, slicing off the biter’s head.
“Ohh, Ria, what the hell is wrong with you?” Hailey shrieked. “Are you mad?”
The music stopped and the partiers stood around staring at Wisteria as she kicked the corpse of the biter. “You don’t even know that was?” Wisteria asked as she looked around at their stunned faces.
Of course they didn’t. Most of the kids who lived on the Isle of Smythe were from the Isle of Smythe and had been sealed away from the real horrors when Nero first broke out and turned eighty percent of the world’s population into flesh eating biters.
She was pretty certain they had seen one or two biters each, but you had to see them by the hundreds, fleshers of children devouring their own mothers, to really appreciate that even one biter was dangerous. Glancing in the foyer, she checked for any more biters. “You should shut this party down, Hailey.” She headed back to her brother.
“That was a biter?” Yvette questioned in disbelief. “Thanks, Ria,”
“Turn off the lights and find somewhere to hide because—”
“Whoa!” a boy yelled jovially from the bar, as he held up a bottle of liquid. “You saved the party. I need to get you a drink.”
“Are you insane?” Garfield gaped at him.
Covering his mouth with her hand, Wisteria whispered, “Shh, we need to leave now.” Looking around, she saw signs that led to the fire escape. “That way.”
“This is really bad,” Steven surmised. “Isn’t it?”
“We found over forty or fifty biters less than a mile from here last week. Andrew McDowell guesses there at least one hundred in the town, but no one’s been in here to check; the soldiers think it’s too dangerous.”
“Right.” The blood drained from Steven’s face.
Turning away, she moved toward the door. “Let’s go,” she told David and Garfield.
“You’re not leaving us here?” Steven grabbed her arm.
“I…” She paused and shook her head. “I came for my brother. You can make your own decisions.”
“And I heard you saying the army’s not going to let us back on the island.”
“No one’s getting back to Smythe tonight. Try and find somewhere to hide.” Forcing past him, she kept on walking toward the door.
Steve swore and yelled, “No.”
“Sixty-three White Lake Avenue. Try to get there. The bunker down there can hold two or three.”
“How can you just go?” Steven demanded.
“Let the bitch go,” Yvette slurred. “We’ve got enough guns to protect us until soldiers get here.”
“Right, you might be lucky and no biters will show up, fire that thing and I promise
, you will have all kinds of visitors in no time.” Garfield stormed past the girl.
Wisteria made it through the fire escape, checking to make sure David and Garfield were with her. When she saw Amanda following, she suddenly felt a surge of anger. The girl should’ve just stayed on the island. Now Wisteria wasn’t certain if the pit could hold them all.
“Our car is in front,” David informed her as they walked out of Fox’s.
“You have a car?” Garfield frowned.
“We stumbled across one on our way here. The keys were in the ignition,” Poppy explained.
“But I don’t think we’ll all fit. There are six of us,” Amanda said.
“How the hell did you get six?” Wisteria counted David, Amanda, Garfield, Steven and Poppy.
“They aren’t coming with us,” Garfield insisted.
“Steven, what are you doing out here?” Hailey came out with Yvette.
“Wisteria thinks there are more biters on the way here,” Steven replied.
“Seriously, Steven?” Hailey jeered. “You’re going to listen to your stalker?”
“Hailey, you need to come with us,” Steven said.
“Shut up, Steven,” Hailey snapped.
“I’m leaving, so either you come with us or you’re going to be left here alone,” Steven retorted.
“We can fit in the car. Which way is it?” Wisteria asked her brother, ignoring the couple entirely.
“Don’t you feel a little guilty for not warning everyone?” Hailey asked. “You should at least give everyone a fighting chance. Unless you’re lying.” She glared at Wisteria.
“I told Steven and it’s his party, right? Do you think any of those kids in there will believe a word I say? If you did, you wouldn’t all be out here again. But if you really want to ensure everyone finally takes it seriously, that there are biters outside of Smythe? Go ahead. We’ll be waiting here until you get back.”
Garfield laughed. “We might be awhile, but just keep waiting and waiting, someone will eventually show up.”
“We believe you now,” Steven insisted.
“I don’t. I still think your stalker’s looking for reasons to bang you,” Hailey retorted. “I’m going back inside.”