Strays

by Justin Kassab

  “And if she does, then the doctor is the most likely suspect and should be tried all the same,” Wright said.

  Meredith’s breathing picked up its pace.

  “He should be here for this. I’m going to get him,” Wright said, rushing to Meredith’s bedside and putting a hand on her forehead.

  John looked at the scarred girl. Her face was scrunched up in a terrified contortion, like she was standing in front of the boogeyman. No kid deserved to go through something so terrifying. He just hoped her brain didn’t know the war it was waging. She would either die, submit and become a foamer, or live to see another day.

  “I’ll go with you,” John said.

  Grace put a hand on John’s chest. “John, you know he didn’t do it.”

  “I don’t know Damian,” John replied.

  He wanted to believe Grace, but he had no evidence to support her case. Damian was in fact the man that had invented the Feline Flu vaccine and created the Primal Age. There was nothing to say the man wasn’t capable of experimenting on the cohort.

  “The easiest answer is usually the right one,” Emma said.

  Grace turned away from John and glared at Emma. The two women stood poised like cats ready to pounce on each other.

  “John, I need a friendly person here. I’ll take Emma with me,” Wright said.

  Wright left the room with Emma just behind him, but she didn’t leave without shooting one final glare at Grace.

  “I see Kade has done a splendid job making one big happy family out of you,” Victoria said tightly.

  They had been tight-knit, but all it took was a few outsiders to tear a rift in their foundation. That probably meant they weren’t as strong as he had thought.

  Meredith’s eyes opened wide, then snapped shut, as her body rolled to the side and her breathing stopped. Victoria dropped to her side.

  John couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor girl.

  All of a sudden, Meredith’s chest lurched and she began breathing again. She had a slow but steady breath as her eyes opened to slits.

  “Hey, honey. Can you hear me?” Victoria asked, running a hand mechanically over the girl’s hair.

  “Can’t we give her a chance to wake up first?” John protested, but was silenced by a snakelike look from Victoria.

  “I feel funny,” Meredith replied.

  John was shocked and thrilled. She wasn’t dead or a foamer. The little girl had beat the odds.

  “You were a little sick, but you’re better now. Can you tell me what you remember last?” Victoria asked.

  “It’s a secret.”

  Victoria took the girl’s hand. “Honey, it is important to help you get better.”

  Meredith looked around the room like she was searching for someone, then settled back on Victoria. “The doctor examined me.”

  John clenched his fists so tight he thought he might break his own hands, but he couldn’t imagine what type of monster would give a little girl a secret examination before sending her to her death.

  “He examined you?”

  “A physical. And then he gave me a shot to keep me healthy,” Meredith said, her eyes blinking closed again.

  “This is all the evidence we need. I’m sorry, but this condemns Damian. We can hold him until Kade gets back, but we need to remove him from the lead position,” John said.

  “And if Kade doesn’t come back, are you going to be the executioner? And who would you suggest takes the lead?” Grace said, squaring up to John.

  “If I have to, I will. And I think we should put the leader to a vote, but Dr. Wright has a lot of years and experience to bring to the table.”

  Victoria cleared her throat, getting both of them to stand down.

  “Dear, which doctor gave you a shot?” Victoria said, her voice ringing with fake sincerity.

  A sleepy yawn stretched across Meredith’s face. “Dr. Wright.”

  Chapter XII

  Hitting Bottom

  After the surgery, as much as they had wanted to cleanse the scene of the fight and leave a false trail, they had to get on the road. With only two fully functional people left in the group, they didn’t have the manpower to do anything but run.

  Kade was more awake now, but his head pounded so loudly he had trouble even joining a conversation. From what he had been able to hear, they’d brought the torturer with them—she was sitting behind him, but was taped silent. Yuzuki was in the seat guarding her, and Mick was laid out across the floor.

  Jem had been trying to explain the situation to Kade, but he was only catching about every third word and spent the rest of the time fighting not to puke. Kade put together that Jem wanted to kill Cunningham, but Mick had stopped him. Also, Mick wanted to bring her back to Houghton to try to change her ways.

  If someone asked him his name right now, he wouldn’t have known the answer. The idea of deciding if someone should live or die seemed like something he shouldn’t be contemplating. The best answer he was able to give Jem was if it was keep or kill, it could wait until they got back to decide.

  Which wasn’t far off now. Between his long blinks Kade could see the stadium lights in the distance. They were finally home. By the time he blinked again, they were sitting at the bridge across from campus with just two cars separating him from Tiny.

  * * *

  John couldn’t believe how wrong he had been as he ran across the grass to the science building. After Meredith had spoken, John took off. He was going to get to Wright first. The man had played him for a fool. John hadn’t even felt his strings being pulled.

  He plowed through the front door of the science center and took the stairs two at a time. Besides being manipulated, Wright had molested and attempted to kill Meredith. Though he didn’t have the evidence yet, John could only assume Wright was responsible for Scott as well.

  John reached the third floor and slowed as he went through the door. He didn’t want to give Wright any warning he was coming. John put his shoulder against the solid classroom door, which had once held off an entire pack of foamers, and inched it open.

  The lab looked like a tornado had hit it. The room was covered with papers, broken glass, and strewn microscopes. Emma’s body lay like a rag doll just inside the door, and in the center of the room Wright stood over Damian with a pistol in hand. Judging by the bloodied condition of Damian’s face, Wright had pistol-whipped him more than a few times.

  At the same instant John drew attention to his presence, he realized he had left without his weapon.

  “John, I came to tell him what was going on, and he freaked out. He knocked out Emma, and then attacked me. I was lucky I was able to disarm him. Did she turn? Is she—is she a foamer?” Wright asked.

  John fully understood Wright’s plan now. He had expected her to either turn or die, leaving the evidence to fall on Damian. Wright had cast enough strife to divide the group. This would give him the chance to take control of the campus. John realized how stupid he had been to let the man manipulate him so easily. Maybe he wasn’t as strong a person as Kade believed he was. John cursed himself for being so stupid. But this time, he would pull the strings.

  He put on his best sad face. “She turned.”

  Damian used the diversion to get to his feet, but kept his hands up. John bent down and checked Emma’s pulse and was glad she was still alive. There was a small spot of blood on the back of her head, but she would be okay.

  “They have her contained. We still need to try Damian. We aren’t barbarians.” John moved toward the center of the room.

  The pistol swung away from Damian and focused on John, who stopped with his hands up.

  “You’re a terrible liar,” Wright said.

  John took a deep breath to compose himself. This was not the position in which he wanted to be. Wright was trapped in a corner now, and the only way he could get clear would be to go through everything in his path.

  “Look. We don’t want you dead. There are enough dead. We just want you to lea
ve,” John said.

  “A man without a country is no man at all.” Wright’s finger twitched on the trigger.

  Someone slammed into John, knocking him to the floor. He tripped over his feet and fell to his back. Grace lay on the ground where he had been, her double-barreled shotgun still in hand.

  Wright fired, and the bullet smashed harmlessly into the cinder block wall. Before he could get off another shot, Damian threw himself on the man, trying to wrestle the pistol free.

  Damian’s hand curled around the pistol. Wright pulled the trigger. There was an explosion of blood as the bullet tore through Damian’s finger. He screamed as Wright knocked him away, but Damian refused to let go of the pistol and carried it with him to the floor.

  Grace got to her feet and attempted to bring her shotgun up, but Wright was already upon her. He knocked the shotgun away and slid behind Grace.

  John was on his feet preparing to charge when he froze. Clutched in Wright’s hand was a vaccine. The needle was in Grace’s neck. All he had to do was push.

  Bile burned in John’s throat. This man was threatening the woman he loved. His eyes darted to the shotgun, but there was no way he could get there before Wright finished the job. He was in a place he feared, a place where words were his best chance.

  “Good doctor, please drop the pistol,” Wright said.

  Damian, who was now missing the better part of his left ring finger and bleeding like an exploded ketchup bottle, set the pistol on the ground and focused on tying off his finger.

  “It isn’t too late to stop this,” John said.

  “It is too late. It’s too late for my family who had no choice in the vaccine. How is it fair that this family, this family that caused it, gets to walk away free and clear?” Wright said.

  “Whatever happens, make sure he dies,” Grace said and slammed her heel back into Wright’s groin.

  As her foot struck, he injected the vaccine. Crouched over, he ran for the door. Grace held a hand over her neck where the needle had punctured her skin. Her mouth hung wide open. John rushed over to her side.

  “Are you okay?” was all he could think to ask.

  “Don’t let him get away,” Grace said.

  She picked up her shotgun and handed it to John as she went to help Damian stop his bleeding. Through the hall and down the stairs John sprinted. He burst into the daylight, trying to track his quarry.

  Wright couldn’t be that far ahead of him, and there was nowhere nearby to hide. The man always wore dress shoes, so it wasn’t like he was about to turn into an Olympic sprinter.

  Then John caught sight of him making a direct line down the main road that looped the campus. John took up chase, feeling like he would close the distance before long. The wall of cars came around the bend, and John stepped up his pace, not wanting to take their scramble into foamer territory.

  Then Wright cleared the gap in the cars. John put everything he had left into closing the twenty yards between them. The soles of his shoes hardly touched the pavement as he flew toward Wright. He came through the pass and searched for Wright, but his legs flew out from under him and he skidded down the road, losing his grip on the shotgun.

  Wright had ducked behind the cars to lie in wait, and where he had apparently stashed a go-bag. John scrambled for the shotgun, amazed at how well Wright had laid out his plans. Before John could reach the shotgun, Wright was able to pull a pistol from his bag. His hands were shaking badly and he missed his shot, but it was close enough that John threw himself flat in the road.

  Wright’s attention was drawn for a moment by what sounded like a metal drum. A roar came from on top of the wall of cars as a blue-faced monster launched itself at Wright. Kade, wearing his blue ballistic mask, crashed shoulder-first into Wright, who stumbled across the road before falling into the grass and dropping his pistol. Kade beat his chest and charged Wright.

  By the time John got to his feet and recovered the shotgun, Kade had Wright hauled up by the shoulders and slammed him headfirst off a car door. Wright reached for his pistol, but Kade drew his katana and placed the tip in Wright’s path.

  Kade kicked Wright over, then grabbed him by the collar of his dress shirt and pinned him against the car.

  Wright opened his mouth to speak, but Kade drew a Judge and pushed the barrel into the psychiatrist’s mouth. Wright tried to talk around the barrel. In response, Kade cocked the hammer.

  “You okay?” Kade asked John from behind the mask.

  John shook his head. “He vaccinated Grace.”

  There was a quick flick of the whites of Kade’s eyes before he pulled the gun out of Wright’s mouth. Wright’s body relaxed as he leaned back against the car.

  A smile crossed Wright’s face. “All your chambers are empty.”

  “If you have anything to say, now would be the time,” Kade said.

  John picked up the pistol from the ground and moved in, shoulder to shoulder with Kade. “He doesn’t deserve a trial. Let me put this monster down.”

  Kade holstered his empty Judge and put a hand on John’s chest to keep him back. “You’re not a murderer, kid.”

  “That’s right, John,” Wright said. “You’re just a very malleable young man. I knew that pinning Scott’s death on the foamers would have to shake someone’s foundations, but I didn’t expect you to be the one.”

  “This was all to get control?” Kade asked.

  “Not at all. But all you little warlords are so concerned with your position that you are blinded to everything else. My children were fed on by my wife.” Wright locked his jaw and clenched his eyes shut. “Monsters.”

  “Everyone’s suffered loses,” John said, fighting his urge to put a bullet in the man.

  Wright shook his head. “Not this little happy family here. They haven’t suffered enough. I started with Scott, then Meredith. I was just going to vaccinate them, but I figured why not enjoy them a bit before I killed them? I figured by the time I got through Franklin you’d be tearing each other limb from limb.”

  “We’re stronger than that,” John said.

  “Are you? That animal who created the vaccine in the first place would have been put down if Meredith hadn’t woke up. How much longer would it have taken for the fissures in your faith to break?”

  John raised the gun and took aim, but Kade grabbed the pistol and pulled it from his hand before he knew what was happening. Kade tucked the pistol into his pants and held up a hand for John to wait.

  “Sit, boy,” Wright said. “And you should be thanking me. I’ve given you an easier choice—unless you’re into foamers.”

  John rushed forward and slammed Wright against the car. He smashed an elbow across Wright’s face before Kade wrapped and arm around him and pulled him back. John dug in and kept fighting his way toward Wright, whom he could have beaten to death. Wright dashed forward and grabbed the pistol from Kade’s pants.

  Kade shoved John away, then spun in a circle, bringing the katana around and cleaving clean through Wright’s neck. A spray of blood splattered the cars. Wright’s body dropped to its knees before the head fell away and the two pieces of the man landed on the ground.

  John could hear nothing but his own heart beating. Kade stumbled, then dropped to the ground, his katana settling beside him. John rushed to his side and noticed how badly injured Kade was—most of his body was covered in cuts.

  “I’m all right, kid,” Kade said, putting John at ease.

  John moved over to the body. He had one question that needed answering.

  “Leave him for the foamers. He doesn’t deserve a burial,” Kade said, tipping his mask back.

  Undoing the buttons on Wright’s vest, he found what he was looking for. The internal pockets of the vest were lined with vaccines, which were cool to the touch. Wright had to have more stashed somewhere. John removed the vest, hoping the vaccines would somehow be able to help Damian save Grace.

  * * *

  The damage was almost too much for Kade to fathom. Th
ey had to expand the medbay. Tiny, though still sore, was now up and moving to help Number Five treat the wounded. Scott, Drew, Zack, and Wright were dead. Meredith had barely survived her bout with the vaccine. Grace was going to enter her coma at any point. Mick was still laid up from their makeshift surgery. Jem’s psyche seemed damaged. Ashton had broken her arm, and X wasn’t leaving her side. Damian had lost his left ring finger, but showed his Zerris side by rushing to research the vaccine to try to save Grace the moment they cauterized his finger. Emma had been knocked out cold, but was coming around. Yuzuki was being rested and hydrated to recover from her months in captivity. Cunningham was locked up in one of the rooms, waiting for Kade’s verdict. Kade himself was one big piece of tenderized meat.

  Franklin and John seemed to be the only two to have weathered the latest round of misfortune without a scratch. Had X not been on his way to meet Kade’s Jeep on the bridge when everything went down, Kade doubted John would be counted among the living.

  He hadn’t even gotten a chance to talk to Tiny since she was so busy tending to everyone, and Kade’s road rash was not a top priority. She didn’t even ask him about Zack, which made him believe she already assumed the worst.

  The only people not occupied by the medbay were Jem, Yuzuki, Franklin, and Meredith, who were all playing Monopoly in Jem’s room. Damian and Victoria were buried in research; Grace and John were simply waiting. Kade wanted to get a chance to say goodbye to Grace, in case she didn’t make it through her coma.

  When he came to John’s room he knocked on the door, and Grace’s voice told him to come in. John was sitting against the head of the bed with Grace lying back between his legs, resting her head on his chest.

  Kade tipped his chin in greeting to John, then said, “Grace, I’m sorry for ever bringing them here. You’ve been—”

  “Stop it now,” Grace commanded. “I’m not saying goodbye to anyone. Either Damian is going to pull out a miracle, or I am going to beat this. If a little girl can do it, so can I. I will see you tomorrow, big brother.”