Autumn in the Dark Meadows (The Autumn Series)

by Kirby Howell

  “Grey?” I asked, when I was ready.

  “Hmm?” he said, dragging his gaze from the window.

  “Will you still take me to LA to get Sarah? Today?”

  He was still for a handful of seconds, then slid off the desk and came to sit next to me. I tried not to react as he settled onto the couch beside me, not touching, but still very close. It wasn’t any different from any other time I’d sat next to him, except he wasn’t wearing a shirt this time. I had a hard time concentrating on his face when that much of him was exposed for me to appreciate.

  “I promised you I would. But, Autumn, how sure are you that this is what you want to do?” he asked carefully.

  “She’s alive, Grey, and I have to get to her. Sarah is my best friend, and I thought she was dead. But she’s not. Do you know how wonderful that is? Do you know what a miracle that is? That I still have someone from my previous life?”

  The thought of seeing her again brought me immeasurable joy. I couldn’t wait to hug her again. See her face. Laugh with her. Introduce her to Grey and take her back to Hoover with me where she would be safe. She could live with Connie and me; share my room if she wanted.

  Grey placed a warm hand on my shoulder, paused, then slid his hand around to the back of my neck, his fingertips tangling in my wet hair. He sighed heavily.

  “All right,” he finally said. “I’ll take you to LA in an hour. I need to check in at the clinic first, though. Meet me there, and after I’ve looked in on Connie and the rest of my patients, we’ll go.”

  I breathed in, ready to squeal with happiness, but he held up a finger in front of me.

  “I have one condition, though,” he said sternly. I nodded, waiting. “If there’s anything suspicious, or if we can’t find her, we’re leaving, got it?”

  I nodded, unwilling to do or say anything that might make him change his mind. I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across my face at the joyous thought of seeing Sarah again. Wonderful, beautiful Sarah. Sarah, someone who knew me. The real me.

  The back of Grey’s fingers gently brushed my cheek. He was so close. His whole body was turned toward me on the couch, and he was leaning in. One hand tangled in the wet hair at the nape of my neck; the other rested on my throat. His lips parted.

  I felt myself leaning in. I had no control over this movement. I was being pulled into him. He was going to kiss me, I thought. Finally...

  The slow-moving sun suddenly reflected in the glass tower of the Flamenco across the street, filling the room with a violent, sharp light, and I stood up quickly, rearranging my robe. The space I just vacated looked small and warm beside Grey, who now shielded his eyes from the sudden brightness.

  “I’ll need to get dressed, and then I’ll meet you at the clinic,” I said. “I want to check in on Rissi and Connie before we go.” I tucked my hair behind my ears awkwardly, trying to cover up my ineptitude. “I’ll see you in an hour?” Before he could respond, I turned and fled the room.

  What had just happened, I wondered? How had I nearly let that happen? When he was probably leaving soon. I couldn’t let myself fall completely in love with him again, no matter how much I wanted to now. I bit my lip as I made my way to room 212.

  I wondered what might have happened if I hadn’t jumped up when I did. A flood of scenarios blazed through my head all at once, and I shook my head to make them go away.

  “Stop it,” I whispered to myself, but couldn’t help the muscles in my cheeks pulling my lips into a smile.

  Blushing, I reached room 212 and inched the door open. All the children were still asleep, minus Rissi, who was at the medical center with Connie. I breathed a quick sigh of relief and snuck into the bathroom to change.

  I was at the medical center in no time. It wasn’t far, and at this time of morning, there was hardly anyone to stop me on the way. I quietly opened the door to Connie’s room and saw Rissi curled up in her arms, fast asleep. When I pushed the door open wide, I wasn’t surprised to find Shad splayed out in a chair across from them, snoring loudly. I noted Ben’s absence and, with an involuntarily grimace, imagined he’d be wherever Sam was.

  I quietly found an empty seat and heard a big yawn come from the bed. I looked up and saw Rissi, her eyes slightly parted and staring in my direction

  “You don’t have to get up yet. I couldn’t sleep,” I whispered. Rissi sleepily stumbled to me and climbed up onto my lap. Though she was a small girl, she was starting to get too big to sit in my lap, I thought, and winced as her knee pressed into my hip.

  “I had a nightmare,” she whispered. I put my arm around her and pulled her closer.

  “What kind of nightmare?”

  “There was an earthquake, and the bad man was there. The one Ben used to make me hide from.” I frowned. She dreamed about Karl.

  “It was just a dream. He’s not here,” I said and instantly thought about his group of infiltrators.

  “I know. But I don’t want to go back to sleep.”

  “Well, if you two aren’t going back to sleep, neither am I,” Connie’s muffled voice purred.

  “Morning, Connie. Sorry we woke you.” I squeezed her hand.

  “I can’t seem to stay asleep. He’s certainly a delicate baby rose, isn’t he?” she asked, as Shad snorted a particularly loud snore. Rissi covered her mouth, giggling, and slid down from my lap to return to her place in Connie’s bed.

  I leaned down to hug Connie. I noticed her arms felt stronger than before as she hugged me back.

  “You seem good,”I said.

  “I feel good,” she replied. “Grey and the other workers here are tireless.”

  I looked around the room, surprised when I noticed the bed beside hers was vacant and the sheets gone.

  “Where’d your roommate go?” I asked.

  “Grey’s been getting a lot of us out of here. Kathy told me only about fifteen are left in the clinic. Most everyone else has been allowed back into their rooms at the Egyptian or were moved into the Palmetto. I knew Grey was an accomplished doctor, but he’s really impressed a lot of folks here. I don’t know what we’d all do without him.”

  I nodded, remembering The University ship calling him home, and that he’d probably be leaving us soon. I tried not to let the melancholy show on my face. Would he still leave after trying to kiss me this morning? Surely that meant he still cared about me. But did the ability to finally go home have more pull for him than I did? I didn’t know. If The Crimson Fever first appeared after he’d been able to go home, would he have stayed to help if he could have escaped immediately? I used to think he stayed for three reasons: because Earth reminded him of Andros, because he started to allow himself to feel emotions again and felt compassion for us, and because of me.

  I wasn’t sure about all those things anymore. He might have just felt that way at the time because he couldn’t go home. Now that he could, those reasons might not seem so important anymore.

  I decided to think more on it later. I was going to rescue Sarah in less than an hour, and I could only allow myself to focus on one worry at a time these days. Sarah was too important to get distracted by anything else.

  I stayed with Connie for the rest of the hour. Rissi woke Shad with her giggling at his snoring, and before long, I nearly forgot we were in a hospital room. It felt like old times. I was surprised when I heard a familiar voice come from the doorway.

  I turned and found Grey, standing there. Radiant was the only way to describe him. He looked so much better after the little rest he allowed himself. He entered and took out his stethoscope to examine Connie. He made small talk with us all as he examined the burns on her legs and changed the bandages.

  “Connie, I’m really happy with the progress here,” he said. “The skin is healing nicely. Some of these pinker areas might not even scar.”

  “I have a good doctor,” she said. He smiled and flipped his stethoscope back around his neck.

  “Autumn, do you have a few minutes? I’d like to talk to you.�
�

  My stomach jumped. It was time to go. I excused myself from the others and followed Grey out into the hall.

  “Are you ready?” he asked. I nodded and tried to calm my nerves. I took a deep breath and clutched my hands behind my back to hide their trembling, but I was sure he could hear my heart thudding in my chest.

  “Have you given any thought to what happened?” he asked very quietly. His eyes stared steadily at me, and I suddenly felt uncomfortable. He wanted to talk about our relationship now?

  Grey’s posture changed suddenly, and he nodded a greeting to someone behind me. I turned around and saw Daniel walking toward us. He held flowers in his hands, and he blushed slightly when he saw us.

  “Hi, guys. I was just going to check on Connie.”

  “She’s already awake and has a crowd, so beware,” Grey said, smiling, and gestured toward Connie’s room.

  “Those are pretty flowers, Daniel. Where’d you find them?” I asked, trying not to smile too widely.

  “The botanical garden at the Plantation House,” he replied. This time I was certain I saw him blush. His secret was out. I couldn’t help but grin as he entered Connie’s room.

  “Has he been to visit her before?” I asked Grey after the door shut again.

  “Yesterday, he came twice,” he said with a knowing face. He took my arm and guided me down the hall to the clinic’s small kitchen. It was empty, and he led me across the linoleum floor to a door, which he opened and gestured inside.

  “It’s a pantry,” I said, not understanding.

  He chuckled. “Yes, it is. And it’s also a good place to be alone,” he said, raising his eyebrows.

  Did he really want to have a serious talk now? Was this his way of putting off going to get Sarah, because he thought it was too dangerous? I couldn’t let him say no again, but as I was opening my mouth to argue, he stepped into the darkness and pulled me after him.

  “I’ve been thinking about what happened. What we discovered last night at Hoover,” he whispered in the darkness. My stomach immediately unclenched. Of course, he was more concerned about the confirmation of traitors among us. I should have known that’s what he was talking about, and not our relationship. I was grateful for the blackness surrounding us, because a fresh blush crept up my cheeks. Then I remembered he could see better in the dark than most humans and, mortified, I turned slightly away from him to hide my face.

  “When we go back for Sarah, I want to see if we can eavesdrop on Karl, or one of his captains. Maybe they’re in contact with their people in Hoover.”

  “That sounds dangerous.”

  “We’re not safe here, unless we can figure out who’s helping The Front. I can go alone if you don’t want to...”

  “No. I’m coming. You’ve only seen a few pictures of Sarah. You might not recognize her. We’ll do this together.”

  “Do you remember the spot where we first met? In the alley?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I said, remembering the dark nook he tucked us into when Sam and her friends were chasing me.

  “It’s close to the warehouse store. We could see what kind of protection they have on the place from there. May I?” he asked, and I felt a warm hand on my waist.

  I nodded, and he wrapped his arms around me. I touched my forehead to his chest, squeezing my eyes shut, not wanting to see the silent storm around me this time. When I opened my eyes again, we were in the alley where we’d first met.

  I stepped back and looked around. It was empty, and much dirtier than I’d remembered. Of course, I’d never seen it in daylight. Grey looked down at a crusty window with an ancient air conditioning unit stuck in it. I suddenly realized we’d been hiding in the nook under the low-hung unit the night when we first met. Now I understood why he wouldn’t let me stand up, why he’d kept me down on the ground with him. Not that I’d minded. The ground was cold, but his body was warm to lean against.

  I could almost see myself one year ago, tucked into the small space under the window and wrapped in the arms of a stranger. I didn’t know anything yet. The Plague only happened a few weeks earlier; I hadn’t met Ben or Rissi yet. I wouldn’t meet Connie, Shad, Daniel and Todd for several months, and I would spend that time wondering about the boy who saved me in the alley. I suddenly wished I could kneel down and whisper in my own ear. Tell myself it would all be okay, that I’d have a new family soon, and people who loved me. I would tell myself I was about to embark on the hardest year I’d ever experienced. It would be sad, terrifying, exhilarating, rewarding and so much more real than my old life was.

  “So this was where we first met,” I whispered.

  “Well, I actually saw you earlier, at the warehouse store, when you were talking with Karl.”

  I stared at him in surprise. “You did?”

  He nodded. “I was inside.”

  “Stealing?” I asked, smiling.

  He shrugged, as if helpless. “You looked terrified,” he said simply. “I could tell Sam unnerved you by your body language, and your mood toward Karl changed the second he turned around to greet you. I kept an eye on you after that...” his voice trailed off, and he looked away, as if embarrassed.

  “I’m glad you stuck around to help me. We might not have met, otherwise,” I said.

  “We would’ve met,” he said, blue eyes glinting. “After seeing you once, I would have made sure to find you again.”

  Tingles broke out all over my body, and a breath caught in my throat.

  “Come on, let’s go find Sarah,” he said, and ushered me forward. We crept to the mouth of the long alley and looked toward the warehouse store. Armed guards still surrounded it as they had a year ago, and The Front’s characteristic white flags fluttered brightly against the blue sky.

  “Should we go closer?” I asked.

  “I have a better idea.” He pointed up. “Looks like the roof is unguarded. How about we try entering from there?”

  I agreed, and Grey wrapped his arms around me, this time not asking my permission, and projected us to the roof. Before I even opened my eyes, the brightness brought tears to my eyes. I held my hands over my face to block the sun beating down on us and reflecting off the white roof.

  We tiptoed to the roof access door, which was unlocked, and entered the dimness inside. After recovering from momentary blindness, we quietly made our way down a metal staircase leading to a walkway that snaked through the rafters of the large warehouse store. The rhythm of my heart quickened, and I recalled the first time I set foot in this place and met Karl face to face. If I hadn’t already known he was a psychopathic killer, I might have found him charming. I shuddered at the thought. I wondered if he smiled warmly at Sarah when she first arrived, or if he promised to take care of her, the way he did with Sam. I was grateful Grey was here the day I met Karl, and I was grateful for him being here again today for Sarah.

  Grey found a ladder shrouded in darkness in a back corner of the warehouse, and we silently slipped down to the ground floor. He motioned for me to follow him.

  We pushed through a heavy swinging door into a back storage room, which held only a meager store of supplies. It looked like The Front’s supplies were stretched thin since we left the city. There were also no guards to be seen.

  “Where is everyone?” I whispered as we hunched down behind a pile of canned goods.

  Grey looked around, his pinched brow casting a dark shadow over his eyes. “I’m not sure,” he said in a low voice. “Even counting all the guards outside, Karl should have more men than this.”

  Grey’s unspoken concerns echoed in my mind, and uneasiness grew inside me. Something was going on.

  “I can’t believe he’s still here on the Westside,” I whispered. Grey shrugged.

  “This was their biggest stronghold six months ago. Odds are, it still is. I used to steal supplies from this place a lot. I often heard Karl in an office not far down that hall. My bet is that Sarah is somewhere down there, too. Come on.”

  We started down the
long hallway he’d indicated. Finally, Grey stopped short. I froze. He pressed his ear against a windowless door marked, “Manager.” After a moment of listening, he turned his head back to me and nodded. My blood went cold. Did that mean Karl was in there right now? Or Sarah?

  I tried to control my breathing to keep from being heard. Grey, on the other hand, was perfectly calm as he listened by the door. I tried to do the same, but I couldn’t hear anything over the rushing in my ears. Suddenly, someone loudly cleared his throat, and I jumped. Grey reached a hand behind him and pulled me against his back. I heard a muffled voice now.

  “... all over now. Paris has begun to unify.” It was Karl.

  Did he mean Paris, France? There was a town named Perris southwest of Los Angeles. That had to be it, I thought. There was no way for him to communicate with anyone in France anymore. Unless he was somehow using the cell phone towers like I was with Sarah.

  Someone else in the room with Karl mumbled something, then Karl spoke again, his voice raised and irritated. “We’re stretched thin enough as is! I’m almost ready to abandon LA and come back when it’s all over. What about Vegas? Has our cardinal checked in?”

  A slew of questions entered my mind but were immediately erased when the worst thing that could happen did. Someone entered the hall and saw us. We stared at each other for a stretched moment, both frozen to the floor.

  The man was tall and broad and looked almost friendly until he slowly pulled a gun from his waistband and aimed it at us.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Grey instinctively reached his hands back, but before he could touch me, the man with the gun said, “Move another inch, and I’ll shoot.”

  My stomach twisted as he moved closer to us. Could Grey project us away fast enough? That only worked if we could get enough contact between us. But the man waved at us with his gun before my thoughts could go further.

  “Now, get against the wall. Put your hands behind your back.”