by Leyton, Bisi
“This is bad,” Wisteria remarked. “The biters chased some of the kids here.”
“David!” Red-faced and out of breath, Amanda called out as she cycled up.
Leaving Poppy, David ran to hug her. “Are you okay?”
The pair kissed, as the rest of the survivors marched toward the outer gate that led to the bridge. Once over the bridge, the kids would go through a second gate into Smythe.
The outer gate opened and five soldiers emerged with their guns trained on the kids. One by one, the children filed in until it was just Bach and Wisteria.
“Wisteria,” he whispered. “I have to leave now.”
“What?”
“Listen, I will be back soon, but I have stayed longer than I planned to. Alba and I have to—”
“Alba? You’re going back to her at a time like this?” she said before she could stop herself.
“This is not about Alba. It is about preparing before the empirics arrive,” he told her. “I will be here in three days; even if it is only for a minute, I will be here.”
*****
Bach returned to the Third Pillar’s den in Hammond Village. He was greeted by several Thayns before descending into the lower apartment to find Alba in the large room that housed the threshold.
Sitting on one of the leather sofas, she was reading something. “Bach, you are back?” Smiling, she put down her book and rose. “You were there longer than I thought.”
“I had to ensure Wisteria and her—people returned to the island.”
“You went back to the island with other Terrans?” Alba sounded concerned. “How many of them saw you two together?”
“Six,” Bach said. “But they just think I found her.”
“It is still risky. If they get renewed, they could tell Didan that they saw you two together.”
“I had to help her find her brother or she would have returned to Woolmer alone to find him,” he explained. “I cannot let her harm herself.”
“I know, but you need to get control over the Mosroc.” Alba moved closer to him. “When I went through it with Donat, I did a lot of things for him without thinking it through. I thought I was protecting him, but I ended up getting him killed.”
“I will be more careful. It was one mistake.”
“Actually, it was not.” Alba paused as if trying to think of what to say.
“What else did I do?”
She sighed heavily.
“Alba.”
“Why was she not in the basement apartment? Would that not have been safer for her?”
“This was the first time I brought her to that den and she does not like feeling trapped. She needs to know there is a way out.”
“You wanted her to feel comfortable, knowing she can escape from you?” Alba asked.
“You make it sound---”
“I am touched you want to give her the appearance of freedom, but you will upset her if she realizes you are manipulating her.”
“I am not manipulating anyone.”
“A Terran living in a Famila den in the middle of Nero would never be free. First, the biters three miles away would devour her the moment she leaves and with the piron net in place, if she goes outside the perimeter, she will never find her way back. Both of you would have been safer in the basement. You would be safe from the Red Phoenix or other Famila.”
“You are right.”
“Explain the full situation to her, she will understand. Unless you are saying she is an imbecile of some kind?”
“Do not talk about her like that.” He scowled.
“I am on your side, but you have got to keep it together. You cannot take that kind of chance with Didan. It is imperative you keep your distance from her until Didan leaves with what he needs.”
“How long will he be there?”
“I do not see how it will take us more than a month to find what we are seeking.” Alba grinned. “They are only Terrans. I trust you will not tell her that we are coming. The less she knows about Didan’s business, the better for her.”
“And that is not being manipulative?”
“Maybe, but you do agree with me about this.”
Nodding, he squeezed his temples. While he wanted to tell Wisteria everything, he worried she’d go to the island’s leaders, and if the humans knew the empirics were coming, they might overreact. They might try to attack the empirics or refuse to grant them entry and either response would trigger greater action from the Family. And that would put her at risk. No, Bach decided, he would explain it to her after the empirics arrived.
CHAPTER TEN
All the survivors of Woolmer had been sent to Smythe’s quarantine center, which at one time was Smythe’s police station. Wisteria’s mother had visited her each day and surprisingly, so had Coles, though he seemed as irritable as ever. For the most part, she was alone, and had time to process what had happened. So many people were gone. Losing Andrew and Garfield hurt the most. She hoped Garfield had driven off in the car that night, but she’d no way of telling.
Today, a week after being locked up in quarantine, she had been released and was met by her mother.
“Baby.” Her mother hugged her. “If you ever leave town again, I’ll make you regret the day you were born.”
“I went after David,” Wisteria replied.
“And that’s why I’m not going to kill you,” her mother said sternly, and then sighed heavily. “You saved your brother. Thank you, baby.” Her mother hugged her. “Only seventeen children made it back from Woolmer and we found out in quarantine that six were infected.”
“And David?”
“He’s fine.” Her mother grimaced. “I wish I knew what was going on in that boy’s head.”
“In a way, we’re lucky he went,” she admitted, as the two walked out of the building. “Ultimately, him going led to Coles preventing the infected from getting to the island.”
Her mother cursed in Yoruba.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing.”
“No, tell me please. For once, tell me; what is it?”
“Well, Sir Charles told Coles he should’ve let all the kids back onto the island.”
“They’re wrong. If he did that, Smythe would’ve been overrun,” she said, defendeding Cole’s necessary actions.
“Clearly, Sir Charles and Bruno know more about surviving outside and handling the infected than all the trackers and the people who actually go out there,” her mother remarked. “And now they’re going to use this to punish him.”
When they got back to the farmhouse, she saw her brother on his way out.
“Wisty, they let you go?” He hugged her and twirled her around. “I can’t believe we made it back. Did you hear Dillon was infected?”
“No, I didn’t know.”
He moved toward the front door. “I’m going to make sure Amanda is okay.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” his mother insisted. “You’ve been running around enough. Right now, you need to stay home until I can decide what I’m going to do about you.”
“I’m not staying.” David seethed. “Maybe if Coles was more like Andrew or Wisteria, we might have a safe town.”
“Don’t you even bring Andrew into this,” Wisteria warned him. “Andrew didn’t die because Coles was a coward. He died because he went looking for a bunch of little kids.”
Her brother stormed off and slammed the door.
“David.” Her mother stormed after him.
When they moved their argument outside, Wisteria headed down the dark hall to the end of the house, which was her room. After a while, she decided to have a bath. Taking a bucket, she fetched water from the well behind the house. Coming back in, she heard more arguing, but this time it was men. She recognized the voices as Sir Charles Davenport, Dr. Tom Hindle, and Captain Bruno Morel. Ignoring the voices, she filled a kettle with water from the well and put it on the stove. This was the only way to get hot water.
“It’s
decided, Elliot. You’re no longer in charge,” Tom said.
Turning off the stove, she crept down the hall until she got to the front room and peered through the crack in the door.
Coles was sitting at the dining room table with his arms crossed. Standing around him were Tom, Charles, and Bruno.
“Everyone, and I mean every single person in town, knows you were wrong to lock the gates and not allow the children back,” Bruno said. “To make things worse, your assassins opened fire on them without consulting me or Charles.”
“I wasn’t wrong.” Coles uncrossed his arms.
“They were children, Coles.” Sir Charles pounded the table. The little man’s face turned red. “You know how lucky you were that even a handful came back?”
“Honestly, I wasn’t expecting any of them to come back,” her stepfather responded. “But I’m glad some had the sense to wait until morning.”
“We lost 43 children. Everyone on this island was affected. And there isn’t one person who won’t try to make you pay personally for what you did.”
“I’m sorry about what happened to them, but there are a thousand people on this island I need to protect. I’ve got to make the hard decisions sometimes,” Coles said.
“Hard decisions. Yet you took extraordinary measures to get David back,” Tom yelled.
“Lieutenant McDowell and Rebecca O’Leary.” Coles sighed and shook his head. “The only reason I’ll even listen to you and not break this table across your face is because that was selfish and I abused my position. Now would I do that again, no, but I’d go myself. Andrew would’ve made sure the soldiers kept the infected from returning.”
“Listen to yourself, Coles. You’re not even helping yourself.”
“You know what? Get out of my house! If you want to take my job, you’re going to have to try harder than this,” the Major yelled.
“I already have your job,” Bruno gloated. “We only came here as a courtesy.”
“This is going to be rich,” Coles mocked.
“Like I said, Elliot, you’re no longer in charge of anything on this island. Tomorrow, we don’t expect you to be at work,” Sir Charles informed him.
“And you plan to stop me?” Coles retorted. “You and what army?”
“Yours, actually,” Bruno stated. “I am a Captain and senior enough to command all your men.”
“I’d like to see you try,” Coles said drily. “Once you’re bored, you can come back and tell me how that went.”
“Your people are loyal, Elliot, because you let them do whatever they want in this town,” Charles said. “That’s the reason they opened fire on teenagers.”
“No, we’ve seen a handful of biters become hundreds in minutes! Soon after, they become thousands and you can’t stop a thousand. The soldiers out there fought through the country to find somewhere safe, and they aren’t prepared to throw it away because you idiots run the town. The soldiers weren’t being loyal. They were being realistic,” Coles explained. “Opposed to delusional, like you boys.”
“Delusional?” Bruno fumed.
“Allow me to break it down for you, Major.” Sir Charles sat down in front of the senior soldier.
“Enlighten me.” Coles shrugged.
“I know your men and women will follow you. Even those who lost children outside still believe in you and they’ll follow whomever you tell them to,” Sir Charles continued. “You’re going to tell them to obey Captain Bruno and that you’re taking a long break.”
Coles scoffed.
“And do you know why you’re going to tell them that? Because if you don’t, I promise your brand new family will be evicted from this town. And how long do you think they’ll survive out there?” the Mayor of the town continued.
Wisteria gasped, but backed away from the crack in case anyone heard her.
“You’ll evict my family like you did the others?” Coles asked.
“No, as far as the town knows, you and your soldiers evicted all those families. They’ll all believe you’ve finally gotten what you deserve,” Bruno jeered. “You know it would’ve been better for them if we had traded them for food that time. At least Lara—”
Coles punched Bruno in the face and the Captain staggered back. “We’re done.”
“No, we’re not. You’re going to come with us. Your soldiers are waiting and you’re going to tell them that this has been too much for you and you’re going to take a long time to reassess your life,” Sir Charles continued.
“And after that you expect me to leave?”
“Elliot, I honestly don’t care what you do. You live on the farm and you can stay here and tend to your chickens or get some pigs from Wicks and try to do something,” Bruno joked. “You might take on soap making. Since Saunders left, there seems to be a gap in the market.”
Coles nodded and got to his feet. Scanning the room, his gaze fixed on the door and it was as if he saw her watching.
Quickly, she backed away. Hiding in the hall, she listened as the men left.
“Go to bed, Wisteria,” her mother said from behind her.
*****
The next morning, Wisteria woke up starving. Clambering out of bed, she went to the kitchen to find something to eat. She found her stepfather leaving the house again, but this time he had a very large case. Her mother was working that morning and she had no idea where David was.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“Go to back bed.” Coles was almost out of the door.
“Are you leaving us?”
“Looks that way,” he said.
She wasn’t sure how she felt about Coles being around or about him leaving. But she was certain her mother wouldn’t want this. “Have you spoken to my mum about this?”
“She,” he paused and shook his head. “Yes. This is what she wants too.”
“And what about me and David?”
Coles scoffed. “Are you serious? This should make you and your brother happy.” That was all he said when he walked out of the door.
Standing in the kitchen, she could only feel rejection. It wasn’t that she loved Coles, because he wasn’t her father. It was that he didn’t love her mother. So why did he marry her mother only to walk out months later? There were plenty of women on Smythe he could’ve moved in on who weren’t looking for a happily-ever-after. Suddenly feeling very alone, she missed Bach.
“The fool’s finally leaving.” David walked in and sneered as Coles left. “You heard what happened?”
“Sir Charles fired him.”
“Yeah, but I also heard they’re kicking him out.” David smirked.
“No, he’s just leaving home.”
“Oh no, Steven told me he got a passage on a pirate’s tanker ship to who knows where. At least the man was smart enough not to walk out of the gates into Norton to die.”
“What? No, they can’t kick him out,” she gasped. With him still on the island, they all had a chance at survival, but if he left, things could go horribly wrong, especially for her family. Running past her brother, she bolted out of the door, just as Coles got into a car driven by a guard.
As the car drove off, she grabbed her bike and rode after him. She guessed they’d be going to the rear gate as it was used for trading with merchants, who were pirates. If Coles was leaving on a ship, this was where he’d go.
Racing through the island, she reached the large black metal gates in time to see the gate’s side door open. Coles walked through with his duffle bag over his shoulder. There were eight or nine people watching him leave, among them the Mayor and Bruno.
“Major!” she yelled as she neared.
“Calm down, girl,” Charles called out. “Bruno, stop that child.”
Yvette’s father reached for her, but she cycled past him. However, another guard seized the bike, bringing it to an abrupt halt and causing her to go flying head first over the handles, hitting the ground with a thud. “Ahh,” she wailed as she landed on the gravel.
“Don’t,” Coles barked.
Seconds later, the guard was lying next to her with a bloody nose while clutching his arm.
“Are you all right?” Coles asked.
Scrambling to her feet, she glanced at the man her stepfather had just dealt with. “I’m better than he is.”
“Why are you here?” Coles demanded. “This area is restricted.”
“David told you me you’re leaving the island?”
“And?” Coles scowled.
“You’re letting them kick you out? You’ll die out there.”
“I’m not letting anyone do anything to me,” Coles replied. “There’s nothing left for me here.”
“What? You’re choosing to leave? The Town Hall’s wrong about firing you. You can make them change their mind.” She grabbed his arm. “If this is about Andrew and—”
“Andrew.” Coles shook his head.
She knew the two men had been close friends.
“Wisteria.” He paused and gently stroked her hair. “Go home.”
Tears did fill her eyes, as he’d never showed her such warmth before. “At least tell my mum you’re leaving. Don’t be a coward. You’re abandoning my mother and you don’t even care?”
Taking her by the arm, he led her aside, until they were out of earshot of the others. “You know what’s out there, so don’t ever call me a coward. And as for your mother, this was her idea. You think she wants me around now that I can’t protect you and your brother?”
“What are you saying?”
“Forget it.”
“No, tell me.”
“Your mother seduced me into returning to protect this town. I brought my men back to Smythe because I thought she loved me. Basically, all that woman wanted was to make sure I kept your family safe. Now she’s said I’ve nothing to offer her. And you know what? She’s right.” Coles moved away.
“She’s not like that.”
“No one knows what your mother is really like,” he scoffed. “You of all people should know that.”
It did sound like something her mother would feel…for strangers, but her mother was different when it came to him. “No, she loves you, she just—”