When they finally returned him to his cell, there was no way for him to sit comfortably, so he knelt and lay forward over his own knees. No matter which one of them came back from a session, no one spoke. Neither asked what had happened or if any information was given up. They all sat together in silence.
Mick was in pain, craved food, needed water. He needed nourishment if he was going to get through the days until his execution. The best idea he could come up with was sleeping, but the moment he closed his eyes there was a rap on the bars of his cell.
“No sleep. They’ll make the torture worse. Wait,” Yuzuki said.
It took every ounce of strength Mick had to nod that he’d heard her.
Chapter IV
The Democratic Empire of West Virginia
John stood at the northwest corner of the roof, watching the sky lighten on the horizon. He hadn’t spoken much to Emma through the course of their shift. On a number of occasions he had wanted to, but he wasn’t sure what to say. He didn’t want her to think he was into her, and he didn’t want Grace to think he was interested in someone else. Plus, he was really terrible at talking to beautiful girls. If he opened his mouth, he would only make an ass of himself. Perhaps by remaining silent he would come off as quiet and mysterious.
“Is guard duty always this dull?” Emma asked, coming up beside him.
“Yeah, for the most part,” John replied, stumbling over his own tongue.
“Do you people ever leave this dormitory?”
“Sometimes. Occasionally. We’re usually working on something. But we explore from time to time. X does a lot. You probably didn’t meet X,” John said.
“Ever make it to Canada?”
In all of John’s life, he had hardly seen anywhere but Houghton. Every once in a while the older classmates would make a Canada run so they could drink or gamble, but he was still a ways from eighteen, so that had never been an option for him.
“Are you Canadian?” John asked.
She raised her eyebrows, and it reminded him of a butterfly’s wings getting ready to fly. “Seriously?”
John wanted to kick himself. Or at least literally put his foot in his mouth so he could stop saying stupid things.
“Sorry, I know you’re English.”
“British.”
“Sorry, I know you’re British. I say stupid things around pretty women.” John couldn’t believe those words had actually come out of his mouth. Like he had on many occasions in his life, he wished his words had a leash so he could pull them back.
She smiled a toothy smile at him and put her hand on his forearm. “Don’t worry. It’s endearing.”
By the time he finished sighing, his lungs felt like a deflated pair of balloons. “How’d you end up here? Long swim?”
“I was a freshman at MIT—”
The door flung open, causing John to jump. He immediately scolded himself for being so easy to startle. Ashton rushed through the opening. Her face was ghostly white, and she looked around more rapidly than a chipmunk with ADHD.
“Did Scott come up here?”
John pointed at his eye, trying to remember which one was Scott, but thought Emma would be upset with him if he said cyclops out loud. Ashton nodded rapidly.
“Haven’t seen him,” John said.
“I’ve checked all the rooms. I can’t find him anywhere,” Ashton said, pushing her hair out of her face.
John went over to the edge of the roof and peered down. He could see the escape ladder swaying from the third-floor window.
Ashton came over. When she saw the ladder she shoved him, almost knocking him off his feet. “How didn’t you notice the ladder going down?”
“That wasn’t my . . .” John stopped himself, hoping he wasn’t too far gone to avoid throwing Emma under the bus. That had been her zone to watch. They always divided the roof in half for guard duty.
Ashton had heard enough and stormed past John to Emma. John stayed close enough to stop Ashton from physically attacking Emma, but worried what would happen to him if he had to do that.
“You haven’t even been here a full day, and you’ve already screwed up.” Ashton pointed a finger in her face.
To John’s surprise, Emma didn’t seem bothered by the outburst or accusation. He might actually get lucky and not have to break up a girl fight.
“I believe the child was your responsibility. And you would do better to stop yelling at me and try to find him,” Emma said.
“Can you track him down, Stray?” Ashton said, then added, “Please.”
“Mind coming along to watch my back?” John replied.
“I’ll finish watch—you can take the new stray. I want to be here when the other kids wake up,” Ashton said.
New stray. John was no longer alone on Stray Island.
“Don’t worry, we’ll find him,” John said.
* * *
X awakened to a full bladder and was glad to see they were already stopped. The sign outside the Hummer read Welcome to Maryland. They had just halted in the middle of the road, since there was no reason to pull over.
“Drew, top off the tank from the reserve can,” Kade said.
X climbed out of the Hummer at the same time as Kade, both of them heading for the tree line.
“I’ll cover you, you cover me?” X asked.
“I’m going first,” Kade said, pulling down his pants the moment they crossed into the trees.
The seconds that passed during Kade’s turn felt like minutes as X’s bladder wanted to explode. He danced back and forth, trying his best to keep his pistol up while watching Kade’s back. Finally, his turn came. He holstered his pistol and undid his fly. The most glorious moan escaped his lips as he finally found relief.
“Kade!” Tiny hollered from back on the road.
X zipped up and had turned to run when Kade grabbed his wrist.
“They’re in trouble, but there hasn’t been a gunshot. Let’s see if we can get the drop on the situation. I’ll go wide to the left, you go to the right,” Kade said.
X nodded and pulled out his revolver. He went through the trees at a quick jog before he swung back to the road. There was nothing to use for cover once he left the trees, so he stayed low to the ground, letting the grade of the road conceal him. He was around twenty yards north of where the Hummer was parked.
There were two men and a boy who looked like they’d walked out of a Mad Max movie. The man in the center had an arm around Drew’s neck and a revolver to his head. The man to the left had a hunting rifle, and the boy had a shotgun that looked like it would knock him on his butt if he fired it.
Zack was on the near side of the Hummer with his hands up and his rifle hanging across his front. Five was still in the back of the Hummer, and Tiny was on the far side with her rifle propped across the hood.
X lined up his sights on the man holding Drew hostage, but he didn’t feel confident attempting the shot at this range with a pistol. The boy’s eyes settled on X.
“Pa, another one,” the boy said.
The man with the hunting rifle glanced toward X. “Why don’t you set that pistol down and come join us.”
Drew’s eyes were panicked. He looked afraid to breathe, and sweat was pouring from his forehead. X wanted to take the shot, but he’d as likely hit Drew as his assailant. Letting out a defeated sigh, he set the revolver down and walked toward the others, trying to devise a plan B.
“Now if you could just tell the nice lady to put her rifle down, we could talk like adults,” the man with the rifle said.
“You apparently haven’t met her yet, or you wouldn’t call her nice, or a lady,” X said.
“Regardless, we are representatives of the Democratic Empire of West Virginia. If you hand over your supplies, we will leave you with your lives,” the rifleman said.
Kade charged in and, with a powerful swing, took the head cleanly off the rifleman’s shoulders. His body stood for a moment before collapsing to the ground.
X ch
arged at the hostage-holder while drawing his knife. The man pulled the trigger, blowing the side out of Drew’s head, then turned the pistol toward X, but it was too late. X threw his body into the man, crashing to the asphalt. The boy aimed his shotgun toward X, but Tiny’s bullet cut through his throat.
The man struggled under X, but X pinned him under his knees and pressed the tip of his knife to the man’s chest.
“He’s dead. Leaving behind three kids. Three kids that he took in as his own. I want you to go to hell, knowing, fearing, that someday I will follow you there. And when I get there, this will be pleasant in comparison.”
X plunged the knife into the man’s chest, then twisted the blade as he pushed it as deep as he could. The man’s blood ran all over the ground, and within moments he stopped twitching. Pulling the blade clear, X cleaned it on the man and crawled over to Drew’s body.
He knew there was no point, but he checked Drew’s throat for a pulse. As he expected, he found none. Drew was gone. Needlessly and senselessly. X closed Drew’s eyes and turned his attention to Tiny, who was crying for the first time he had ever seen.
“He was just a boy,” Tiny said, wiping the silent tears from her eyes.
Zack had his rifle drawn to his shoulder, scanning for other dangers. “He was a threat. Nothing more.”
Kade holstered his sword and walked toward Tiny.
“Jesus Christ, people. Have you ever considered the practicality of your costumes?” Zack said, his glaring eyes cutting like lasers between Kade and X.
“What?” was all X could muster.
“The urban cowboy and the city-slicker samurai. If either of you had a rifle, that situation would have resolved without Drew getting his head blown off. His death is on you two.”
“Zack, you’re out of line,” Tiny snapped.
“No. I’ve been playing nice, blowing smoke up Kade’s ass because you told me he was in charge. But he’s going to get us all killed if he’s leading this mission. You know as well as I do the best thing we could do would be to leave them and finish the mission ourselves,” Zack said.
They were an hour away from DC. X couldn’t imagine being left out now, but at the same time wouldn’t be terribly upset if he was. As much as he had wanted to get away from Houghton for a bit, he was anxious to get back and smooth things over with Ashton.
“Tiny?” Kade said.
“He’s not wrong about our best chance of success,” Tiny said, wiping her eyes.
Kade looked like he had swallowed hot coals. His face contorted in pain and he kept opening his mouth to say something, but nothing came out, until finally, he said, “Let’s bury Drew and see if we can’t find their supplies. Then I will defer to Tiny. I trust you to do what’s best.”
* * *
Alpha stalked two others through the woods. Neither was the interloper he had become accustomed to, and they both carried things that were worse than claws. The others were on their way toward the place where his pack had found easy meat. Alpha had scattered them when he caught the scent of the others, but he wanted to remain close enough to observe these others whom he didn’t recognize.
* * *
John wiped his forehead as he followed Scott’s footprints—or at least the footprints he thought were Scott’s. The area where the ladder reached the ground had been so traveled it was more mud than grass, so he guessed at which footprints were Scott’s based on size.
John guessed Scott had no idea where he was trying to go, and it appeared he was going in circles. This baffled John, since even at night it wasn’t difficult to find the campus.
From time to time John was reminded that Emma was searching with him when she would step on a twig or brush past a branch. She seemed scared out of her mind. She was sweating like they were on the surface of the sun, and her grip was so tight on the rifle he was sure she would snap it in half.
He tried to keep his thoughts off of her and on his task, but when she stopped and backed herself up against a tree, he didn’t have any choice but to wait as she hyperventilated. She slid to the ground as her breathing became faster, and John went to join her. He sat beside her, not sure how to help her calm down. Her chest rose and fell in jerky motions. He attempted not to notice the effect it had on her breasts. John put his arm around her and took deep, slow breaths. She fought her breathing to match his, and breath by breath she was able to regain some control. Her long straw-colored hair was another reminder that she wasn’t used to living in the current state of things. The women of their cohort either had short hair, or never left the door with their hair not tightly under control.
Finally, Emma found her composure, but now her face was turning a deep shade of red. “I’m sorry. I’m not sure where that came from. Please don’t let that taint your impression of me.”
John thought back to his first day with the group. He had been so scared he had frozen when walking. He had topped off his amazingly brave performance by shooting Kade when they’d been swarmed by foamers.
“Don’t worry. You’re off to a better start than my first day,” John said, getting to his feet and offering her a hand.
“I’m just nervous. I’ve never even held a gun before,” she said as John hoisted her to her feet.
John remembered when Kade was on the ground with two bullet holes in him because John hadn’t spoken up about having never fired a gun. John instinctively covered his leg where he had shot Kade and recognized the same could happen to him.
John set his bow on the ground and took Emma’s rifle from her.
He demonstrated to her as he spoke. “If we get in trouble, I want you to push the safety so you see the red dot, then aim at forty-five degrees and fire.”
“How will I hit anything if I’m aiming in the air?” Emma asked, taking her rifle back.
“Exactly.”
John resumed his pursuit of Scott’s footprints and made a mental note to tell Kade that Emma needed some weapons lessons. He wondered if any of the other newcomers would also need training.
His thoughts came to a halt when he saw something lying in the mud ahead. Emma came to a stop beside him, but neither of them spoke as they looked at what they couldn’t deny was a body on the ground.
“Stay here and holler if anything moves,” John said.
As he approached the body, the number of footprints increased to dozens, as well as handprints to match. Scanning the area around him, John made sure there were no foamers lurking before he knelt beside the body. Had it not been for the scarred eye socket, he would have had trouble saying for certain that it was Scott. The body looked like someone had taken a meat tenderizer to it and then ate that meat. His arms and legs had been cleaned to the bone, and his chest and head had lost all structural consistency. John hurried back to Emma.
“Is he dead?” she asked.
“Let’s go find Ashton,” John said grimly, walking past her and making sure she couldn’t see his eyes. He wanted to tell himself that this wasn’t his fault—that Ashton should have been watching him, and Emma had been in charge of that sector. But he knew that even if he wasn’t at fault, he could have prevented Scott’s death.
* * *
Kade drove in silence. X was beside him, but neither of them had the stomach for talking. After they buried Drew, they found their attackers’ camp. They had a gigantic pickup truck that was attached to a horse trailer with two horses inside. Kade didn’t know much about horses, but since they were progressing to a farming society they decided it was a good idea to bring them along. The truck bed was loaded with enough gas for them to make the trip back without having to stop. X and Kade were more than happy to volunteer to drive the truck. Tiny hadn’t dismissed Kade and X yet, but he had a hunch she would cut them the moment the real mission began.
Kade had spent so much time training to be a weapon he hadn’t thought much about using a weapon. His entire thought process had been so intrinsic that he was now questioning everything he had done over the last two months. He had kept n
ot just himself internally focused, but all of Houghton as well. They hadn’t explored beyond X’s forays. He didn’t have any idea what the world was like outside of his own small section of it. If he had been more willing to explore, he might not have been in this predicament in the first place.
Drew was dead. That was the only thing for sure at the moment. And he was dead because Kade didn’t carry a weapon that could kill someone who stood more than a yard away. Zack was right. If he’d had a rifle, he would have been able to drop all three attackers before they even knew he was there. Hell, he had been able to run all the way up to them before they knew he was there. He had cost Drew his life.
“Just so I know, what’s the plan? Should we put up a fight when they tell us we aren’t going?” X asked. His voice was dull and lacked its usual energy.
“We let them make the call,” Kade said.
X slammed the back of his head against the headrest. “I guess I should have listened to Ashton.”
“Sorry for asking you along. I’ve just been used to us being able to handle things,” Kade said.
“Not your fault. But I feel like I was asleep and someone just threw a bucket of ice water on me,” X said.
“Ever think we aren’t good enough for them?” Kade asked.
“Always. Without all other options dead or foaming, how would either of us deserve them?” X said.
Kade laughed. “Apparently Ashton has wanted you since she was in diapers.”
“Really?”
“I thought I was the only one that didn’t know that,” Kade said.
Despite X being seven years older than his sister, Kade didn’t mind the pairing. He couldn’t say for sure if he would have felt the same way in the Old World. X was his oldest friend, and if Ashton was going to date anyone, he’d rather it be someone he could stand.
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