Trey seemed reluctant, looking between his mother and Craig but he eventually nodded.
“Okay, I’ll stay,” Trey agreed and Kim hugged him, glancing over his shoulder at Craig and nodding her silent thanks.
“Come help me fill up some water bottles to take with us,” Kim said and the two of them walked off, leaving Janet and Craig with the Wakefields.
“Jenny, I didn’t mean--” Alan began to say but she held up a hand to stop him.
“Shut up, Alan,” she said and walked away from them, heading back to where the children were still seated, colouring in their books.
Janet gave Alan one last glowering look and followed Jenny. Matthew looked up from his drawing when Janet came over and frowned.
“Why was everybody yelling?” he asked.
Janet sat down beside him, sighing as she tried to formulate the least terrifying explanation.
“Everybody is just upset and so they were yelling.”
“Because Mr. Wakefield left Uncle Malcolm behind?” Mark asked.
These boys were way too smart for their own good. Or she was too deep in denial that they were growing up.
“Don’t you worry about your Uncle Malcolm,” she said, putting her arms around both boys. “Miss Kim, Miss Veronica and Miss Lorraine are going to help him.”
“But what if the monsters get them?” Matthew asked.
“They won’t,” Hannah said before Janet could answer. The little girl kept her eyes on her drawing as she continued. “Jackson knows how to fight monsters. He caught the Boogeyman once.”
The innocent confidence in her guardian made Janet smile.
And maybe that was what she needed to have in Malcolm.
Her brother was capable, she knew that. Against all odds, he had found her and the kids and led them to safety. He had come back from every attack they had faced safe and sound. He would come back from this one too. She just needed to have faith.
“Hannah is right,” Janet said. “The monsters won’t get them. They’ll be back soon.”
God, please, don’t make me a liar to my children, she prayed.
Subject File # 750
Administrator: You identify strongly with the girls, Audrey especially.
Subject: I do. It’s hard not to see a piece of myself in her. You’d think that would make me better able to understand her instead of fucking up and hurting her.
Veronica ran through the ammo magazines again, triple checking that she had everything she needed. The thought of Quinton and Claudia out there had her muscles twitching, wanting to get out there and get them back.
Knowing that they were out there in trouble took her back to when they had been separated in Marysville. Not knowing what was happening to them, not knowing if she would ever see them again. She had never wanted to experience it again.
And it wasn’t just them that she was worried about. Jackson was out there too. She didn’t know if the girls would be able to handle losing him so soon after losing their parents. He was their protector and one of their last links to their home.
If she was being honest, it wasn’t just the girls that couldn’t lose him. He had come to mean something to her. She couldn’t put a name to what he was to her exactly but, just like the girls, she didn’t know if she could handle anything happening to him. He had saved her when most people would have left her. She had shoved a gun in his face and he had offered to help her. He was a good man, better than most.
They couldn’t lose him because some asshole acted like...well, an asshole.
She glared in Alan’s direction, the urge to hit him again rising up and she slammed the van door shut with more force than necessary.
The only thing that saved him from another beating the fact that she knew if she hit him too much, her fingers would swell up, making it difficult for her to fire a gun. She also didn’t relish the idea of his pregnant wife witnessing him getting his ass beat.
She stalked back to where the children were gathered, nervous energy having her stomping up tiny puffs of dust with her boots. She needed to see Audrey and Hannah before she left.
She found Hannah sitting with the other children but Audrey was no longer with them. Veronica had left her reading one of her books when Alan had arrived but the spot she had occupied in the shade of the building was empty. A brief moment of panic set in before she remembered that the place was surrounded by a tall fence which kept not only the bad things out but the rest of them in.
“Do you know where Audrey went?”
“She went to see why everybody was yelling then she went back there,” Hannah replied, pointing towards the towers of stacked paving stones behind the building. “I told her Jax said it was off limits but she said ‘Shut up!’ and I said that was a bad word but she didn’t listen.”
Shit.
They had banned the kids from going back among the towers of paving stones, worried about the six foot plus towers’ potential to cause some sort of mini avalanche. So not only had Audrey broken the rule of not telling an adult where she was going, she had also ventured into forbidden territory.
“I’ll be back,” Veronica said to Janet and headed back into the forest of stone towers.
Not only were there the paving stone towers, there were also flats of interlocking bricks piled high and covered in tarps and freestanding piles of unpolished rocks and gravel. She snaked her way between the various obstacles, searching for any sign of Audrey.
It didn’t take long before she spotted the girl digging through a pile of rocks. She had a sullen expression on her face as she studied a rock before tossing it back into the pile and picking up another to examine.
“What are you doing out here?” Veronica asked but the girl didn’t look up from the rock pile. “You know you aren’t supposed to be back here. It’s dangerous.”
The girl mumbled something as she kicked at the smaller rocks that were by her feet but Veronica couldn’t hear it. Though it was likely she wouldn’t want to hear what the girl said, she couldn’t help but fall for the bait.
“I didn’t quite catch that,” Veronica said, her annoyance clear in her voice.
The girl rounded on her, eyes flashing with anger as she crossed her arms over her chest defiantly.
“I said ‘What do you care if it’s dangerous?’”
“Of course I care,” Veronica replied. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Audrey made a skeptical sound and gave the rocks a final kick before she turned and walked away from her.
“What do you think you’re doing?“ Veronica demanded, her voice louder and shriller than she had planned.
“Just taking a walk,” Audrey replied without turning around.
She didn’t need to be fighting a battle of wills with a preteen when her siblings were out there in danger
“Damn it, Audrey, you can’t just wander off! Now stop and get back here!”
The girl spun around and nailed Veronica with an angry glare. “Why? Why do I have to listen to you? You aren’t my mom! You’re just some stupid liar!”
“Audrey!” Veronica was shocked at the vitriol that she was hurling at her. It was clear the girl was upset and she hadn’t made the best move by rising to the bait but she hadn’t expected this kind of response.
“You are! You and Jackson promised that you wouldn’t leave us alone and now you’re leaving!”
Double shit.
Audrey must have overheard their plan to go and rescue the others.
Veronica had to admit that her accusations were right. She and Jackson had made a promise to the girl that one of them would always be with her and Hannah but first chance to do right by that promise and she broke it.
But their people were in trouble and sometimes reality meant they couldn’t keep their promises.
“Honey, they need my help. Jackson and the others are in danger.”
“Fine, whatever. Just go. I don’t need you here anyway.”
“Audrey, that’s not fair, I--”
“I
don’t care! I’ll take care of Hannah all by myself. I don’t need any of you. You can go off and die and I won’t care. I hate you!”
Audrey’s bottom lip trembled, her fists clenched on her narrow hips, tendrils of hair that had fallen out her braid teasing her red cheeks. She looked every bit the scared little girl she was and that was something Veronica had forgotten.
This girl had watched her parents die in front of her before she was taken away from everything she knew by virtual strangers. She had no control over anything that was happening to her. The only people who had given her any stability kept wanting to run off and leave her.
God, she had failed the girls. She really was an idiot. She’d put herself in their lives, gave them someone to rely on, and now she was leaving them. She had always prided herself on her loyalty to her family. It was a knee jerk reaction to go to Quinton and Claudia’s rescue, one made without thinking about the girls.
This time her voice was gentle when she spoke to Audrey. “Sweetie--”
“Don’t,” Audrey whispered, all the anger that was in her a moment before was gone. She was deflated and defeated. “Don’t explain it. Just go.”
The heartbreak in the girl’s eyes was like a punch in the gut. It made her realize that the relationship between her and the girls was deeper than she had thought.
Looking at Audrey, doing her best to fight back tears at the thought of being left alone, Veronica realized that this girl was hers and so was Hannah. She’d been thinking of herself as a temporary guardian to them but that had changed. This wasn’t temporary.
She had adopted those girls, whether it was written on paper or not. When they had met up with the group in Shenandoah, she had chosen to keep close to the girls, sharing their tent, keeping an eye over them. She could have left them in Jackson’s care but she had chosen, consciously or not, to continue the role of caretaker for the girls.
These two girls were her family and she needed to start acting like it. They needed her, especially if the worst happened and Jackson didn’t come back.
“Audrey, I won’t go. I’ll stay right here with you and Hannah.”
She looked up in disbelief. “Really? But what about Jackson and your brother and sister?”
She wanted to lie to the girl since she’d already lost so much but this was part of the world they lived in now. She couldn’t shield Audrey from reality. The only way the girl would learn to survive in this world was to face the truth of it head on.
“The others are going to go and help them,” Veronica said. “That’s all we can do for them now.”
Audrey nodded, rubbing a hand under her nose. “I don’t want them to get hurt. I just don’t want to be alone.”
“I know,” Veronica said and wrapped an arm around the girl’s shoulders, pulling her in for a hug. She understood the fear of being alone better than most. When she had thought she had lost her siblings, she had been destroyed.
“Come on, let’s go back,” Veronica said, leading the girl out of the stone towers and heading back to join the group.
Janet was still seated with the kids and Kim was with her, grabbing water bottles out of the cooler to stuff in her pack. When Veronica approached her, Kim held out a bottle of water to her.
“We got the ammo loaded up and we’re ready to go,” she said. “Plan is I drive us in there while you and Lorraine pick off as many of them as you can. The noise might draw down more freaks on us but it will definitely draw out Malcolm and the others. We’ll just have to get them out of there before more freaks show up.”
Veronica ran a hand over her forehead as she tried to think of a way to tell her she was bailing.
Kim could obviously see her struggle and she reached out to touch her arm. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s Audrey. She freaked out at the idea of me going with you guys. See, Jackson and I promised her that one of us would always be with her, that we’d never leave her alone.”
“And now you’re leaving her alone,” she finished for her. “You can’t come with us.”
“I’m sorry.”
Kim smiled. “It’s okay, you don’t have to apologize. I get it.”
“Thanks,” she replied, though she couldn’t manage her own smile.
“You alright?” Kim asked, her face concerned.
“Yeah. It’s just that this isn’t as easy as I thought it would be.”
Kim’s brow furrowed as she looked at her. “You know, I never thought to ask you…how are you dealing with all of this? I mean, you pretty much became a parent overnight. For all intents and purposes, you adopted those girls. I don’t think any of us realized how difficult that might be for you.”
“I didn’t either. I guess I thought because I’m a teacher, it would be easy. I can get a group of kids to pay attention and learn but this...this is a whole different ballgame.”
“Being a parent is an experience all its own,” Kim said. “Nothing really prepares you for it and you’re dealing with one hell of a learning curve. Most parents get the chance to learn the ins and outs when they are little, before they reach the dreaded teen years. You’re doing all this on the fly.”
“To be honest, I’ve never really thought about it. Looking out for kids, that just seems like a natural thing to do, the right thing to do. I’d do the same for any of the children here but with the girls…”
“It’s different.”
“It is,” Veronica agreed, “And that’s why I can’t go with you guys.”
“I understand,” Kim said. “Lorraine and I can make it work. We’ll get them and bring them back, don’t worry.”
“I have a feeling that my days of not worrying are pretty far off,” Veronica said, looking back at the children.
“You’re right,” Kim said, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder. “Welcome to being a parent.”
And that’s what she was, wasn’t she? A parent. The girls would always have to come first now. If anything happened to Jackson, she had to be here for the girls because she was all they had.
Subject File # 742
Subject: You know, I should still be pissed for the river of shit Alan left us in but now I look back on it and I want to laugh.
Administrator: Why is that?
Subject: Because if he hadn’t ditched us, I don’t think I would have realized how capable Claudia is.
Malcolm could feel the muscles in his lower back starting to seize up and he shifted as much as he could in the narrow confines of the backseat. He was crouched down on the floor, his legs pulled up to his chest and his chin resting on his knees.
It also didn’t help that it was stifling hot inside the confines of the car. Sweat had already soaked through his shirt but there wasn’t anything to be done. They couldn’t open any of the windows or doors.
The freaks that had been chasing him were a tenacious bunch and he could hear their grunts and growls as they prowled around the cars. They knew their prey was somewhere nearby and they weren’t going to leave until they found it.
Claudia had a much easier time with her petite frame tucked up on the floor facing him but he could see the sweat falling in rivulets down her face.
“I can’t believe they are still out there looking,” she whispered.
He looked up, wondering if it was worth the risk to take a peek out the window but then the sound of footsteps near the back of the SUV had him forgetting it. He waited, listening as the freak moved off farther down the lot and he let out a breath.
“Good thing is it means the others are still alive,” he whispered back. “If they caught them, the freaks would be feasting on them right now.”
She nodded and leaned her head back to look at the window above her. “Something has to come along and distract them, right?”
“It will and when we’ve got a path clear, we’ll make our move. Might as well use the time in here to work out a plan.”
She nodded. “We’ve got to look around the place, find where the boys are holed up. They could
be anywhere.”
“They could be gone.”
She looked at him, a wry grin on her face. “If Janet was here, would you leave?”
He thought about it for a moment.
“Right, so Quinton’s definitely still here. Alright, when we can move, we’ll take this car and do a circuit of the lot. Maybe they’ll spot us, hit us up on the radio. Either way, we’ll draw out any more freaks that might be left.”
Shadows passed over them and they slipped into silence as they waited for the freaks to continue on their way.
“You know, you kicked ass out there before,” he whispered when they were gone. “I feel bad about not thinking much of you when we first met.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t blame you. I was pretty messed up.”
“Are you okay now?” he asked and she nodded.
“At least I think I am.” She shifted around in her seat. “Everything that had happened with my parents...it was too much so I just shut everything out. Then that night in the cabin, when Jose killed Ana and was coming after the kids, things snapped back into focus. I knew I couldn’t stay like that anymore.”
He remembered Kim telling him about that night. Unknown to everyone, Jose had become infected and succumbed to it while sharing a bed with his wife Ana in the cabin where the children had slept with Claudia. He had turned on Ana first and then the children. Only Claudia’s quick thinking had stopped the man before he had harmed them.
“I never thanked you for saving them. If it wasn’t for you the kids would have--”
“Don’t thank me,” she said. “I should thank all of you for bringing me there. Saving those kids saved me.”
They lapsed back into silence, but he knew that even though she didn’t want it, he would always be thankful for what she did. He owed her for saving his family and he was determined to do the same for her. They were going to get her brother and Jackson out of this and they were all going to go back to the camp together.
A series of grunts sounded up at the front of the car and they both tensed. He held his breath as he listened to what he had come to recognize as the telltale sounds of freaks. The grunting turned into a screech and the car shook when something was thrown against the hood. They both winced as the screeching continued along with the thumping against the car as the freaks turned on each other.
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