KATIE, Thursday morning, autumn, 62 A. Z.
WE NEVER KNOW what life is going to throw at us. When I was a little girl, I never in my wildest dreams would have thought I’d grow up to be a Zombie. Then I never thought I’d know love, but I did. Then I’d never have imagined I’d have to watch what happened to him. But I did.
My beautiful Elliot, pale and drained, lay on the hard floor of a stinky old bank. I kept his head in my lap as some sort of comfort for him. It was the only thing I could do. I was helpless to do anything else. It was horrible, and I hated everything and everyone, including myself.
But most of all I hated Lukas and the secret threats he had sent to my mind. He had plans to wipe out the entire human race with an army of the Dead. I wished the creepy one-armed Blue was just venting his frustration, but I knew he wasn’t. He would try to do exactly what he said he would do.
Well, he wasn’t going to spook just me. If there was trouble ahead, I’d share it with the others and we’d face it together.
‘Listen, Virgil. I think I’d better tell you the terrible stuff the Blue told me with his crazy telepathy.’
The Gunslinger walked over and sat down, staring at Elliot’s pale face and closed eyes.
‘I’m not understanding you, Katie. But go ahead.’
‘Okay, it makes no sense and you’re probably not going to believe me, but Lukas, the one-armed Blue, can talk without using his mouth. But only the Infected can hear him. And I’ve been hearing him, too. Not as strongly here, away from the City, but I could hear him quite clearly before, and he said he was going to punish us, call his army of Variants to hunt down and destroy all humans.’
Virgil’s eyes went wide and he exhaled slowly. ‘Well then, I guess we have some people to warn when we can get out of here.’
I felt unburdened after telling the Gunslinger what I’d been hearing, and was thankful he had believed me. If he hadn’t, I don’t know if I would have had the energy or the words to try and explain myself. The threat Lukas posed to the colonies was massive and needed to be prepared for, but in the meantime, my heart was too heavy with fear for Elliot to think about anything else. I blamed myself for letting Elliot take a turn guarding us. I shouldn’t have let him. After all, I’m the one who doesn’t actually need to sleep! How could I have been so selfish as to let him get up in the night to stand by himself?
At last, in the early hours of the morning, Elliot stirred. His hands clenched and unclenched, his feet flexed and relaxed, and then he opened his eyes. They were milky white.
He blinked at me and let out a sigh, pulling his arms into his chest. My vision went black for a moment as I felt my world end. Vaguely, I felt the tears begin to run down my cheeks. Elliot wasn’t Dead, but he was more than gone. Mindless, doomed to walk forever, hungry, lonely. It was an unimaginable fate.
Then, without warning, he leapt to his feet and faced me in a low crouch. He turned his head to look questioningly at the group, then looked back at me, waiting.
Virgil ran towards him with his machete, but I screamed, ‘Stop! Wait!’
‘No, Katie, it’s over,’ he thundered, and readied himself to strike.
Elliot pulled himself back to spring.
‘Elliot, stop!’ I screamed. ‘Sit down!’
And then he did. Like a puppy.
Virgil froze on the spot, his arm still ready to strike.
‘Come here, Elliot, and sit beside me.’
Elliot was at my side in one fluid motion, moving like every other Variant. He crouched down and looked at me, waiting.
Wow, I thought. Actually, my mind was so overwhelmed, I couldn’t think of anything else to think. Wow.
Then Rose was screaming again. I think Fee shut her up that time, I’m not sure.
Virgil walked slowly towards us, feeling his way. Elliot didn’t move a muscle. Then Virgil was beside us and looked me directly in the eye.
‘Is this normal?’
‘Nope,’ I answered him honestly.
‘So now what?’
I thought for a moment. ‘I guess we go warn your people about Lukas.’ Then I paused and looked down at Elliot. ‘Obviously, we’ll have to figure some stuff out along the way.’
Virgil stood dazed for a moment, then shook his head. ‘Okay then, let’s go home.’
I stared at the clouded eyes of my Elliot and felt both pain and, strangely, relief. I knew the love I felt for Elliot wouldn’t end, and I wanted to grieve for his loss, and for my own, but I was also grateful he was still with me — even if in the form of a Variant. I didn’t know what lay ahead of us, but experience had taught me to live with the unpredictable and to expect constant change. I didn’t know how we’d fit, but I knew I’d give it a good try.
And I made a decision: there was no way I was going to let Lukas spread his destruction any further. I was just like him and I could learn to fight him at his own game. The Variant at my side was proof of that.
I stood up and told Elliot to follow. ‘Protect us,’ I told him. ‘Let none of the other Corpses touch any one of us.’
We walked out of the suburbs and into the mountains, following an old road but creating a new path. And strangely, despite my loss, despite the obstacles ahead, I was determined to keep living, to keep fighting. There was nothing before me but the unknown. My companions were tired and grieving their own losses, but we all secretly knew our worth. We were survivors.
We were the beginnings of an army.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
THANK YOU TO Candice Zee, Amelia Condell, Jenny Hellen and Marthie Markstein for opening the door.
Thank you to my gifted editor, Jane Parkin, for your amazing way with words.
Thank you to the Random House New Zealand team for being awesome.
And finally, thank you to ‘the Shadow’, Bain, and my friends for your inspiration and encouragement.
About the Author
BRANDY WEHINGER has a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Design from California State University, Chico, and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from UCOL Whanganui. She has worked as a cardiothoracic nurse, but is now working in appearance medicine. Originally from North California, Brandy now lives in Auckland. Blue is her first novel.
Copyright
A RANDOM HOUSE BOOK published by Random House New Zealand
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www.randomhouse.co.nz
A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of New Zealand
Random House New Zealand is part of the Random House Group New York London Sydney Auckland Delhi Johannesburg
First published 2013
© 2013 Brandy Wehinger
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
ISBN 978 1 77553 492 1
eISBN 978 1 77553 493 8
This book is copyright. Except for the purposes of fair reviewing no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Design: Megan van Staden
Cover image: Misery (Tanja Jade Thompson)
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