The Girl Who Kissed the Sun
Author: Angel Lawson
Date: 2017-04-16 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Romance; Horror; Young Adult; Science Fiction; Paranormal
Description: "Run." That's what Cole said as he crumbled to the ground. Everything changes when Alexandra escapes the coup at PharmaCorp. She must adjust to the fact Jane is no longer the villain. She's just an inept survivor traveling North toward safety with a group of hand-selected Fighters to help her get there. As they push into the unknown Death Fields in the Midwest they must fight Eaters, harsh winter weather and the dregs of humanity. Alex also must deal with the fact she may never see Wyatt again and that she left Cole for dead. One thing that Alex has learned is that in the apocalypse, can she t

Table of Contents

- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 8
- Chapter 9
- Chapter 10
- Chapter 11
- Chapter 12
- Chapter 13
- Chapter 14
- Chapter 15
- Chapter 16
- Chapter 17
- Chapter 18
- Chapter 19
- Chapter 20
- Chapter 21
- Chapter 22
- Chapter 23

The Girl Who Kissed the Sun

The Death Fields

Book 4

By Angel Lawson

Alexandra

Savannah River, Georgia

Late Fall

Run.

That was the last word Cole said to me as he bled out on the sparring ring floor. He’d done the damage himself, pushing the hatchet handle into my hands before slicing his stomach open like a gutted fish.

His command rings in my ears, haunting me as we travel up the cold Savannah River where my sister’s small boat carries us away from the Chloe-led, Hybrid takeover at The Fort. The sharp wind slaps my cheeks, freezing the blood from the Eaters Rowe and I had killed in our attempt to escape.

“He’s dead,” I yell at my sister over the wind and hum of the engine. “Rowe. He died protecting me.”

Cole shot him without remorse, rambling about betrayal and orders from his new Commander—the new Commander of the genetically modified Hybrid Army, his twin sister Chloe.

“Did you hear me?” I shout, waiting for a reaction from my dethroned sister to the fact one of her men died, but she continues to look over the water, unblinking. For a minute, I think she can’t hear me over the noise, but that’s not true. She hears. She just doesn’t care.

*

We take the river as far as it will go, until we enter the wide, smooth waters of Lake Oconee. There, we take our pick of vacation homes, settling on a cedar plank cabin with fewer windows and isolated property.

Jane brought along three loyal Fighters. Rowe would have been the fourth. One of the men—Jackson—is quiet and efficient. A little bit like Davis, although he’s tall and lanky. He’s quick and precise. He keeps his black hair cut close. His brown eyes are alert.

Green is nearly the opposite. Pale white skin to contrast Jackson’s dark. He’s short and thick, more muscle than anything else. At least, that’s my guess from the cut of his shoulders and chest. I’m caught off guard when he pulls off the black stocking cap and reveals a shock of red hair. It’s like a beacon. He catches me eyeing it and rubs his hand over the flaming hair. “Don’t worry,” he says. “I keep it covered. It’s like a target, right?”

I smile. I think I like him—he reminds me of Jude.

The third fighter is familiar and when we get off the boat, we stare at one another uneasily.

“It’s been a long time,” Walker says, the first to break the tension. I’d last seen her months ago when we escaped from the Vaccine Center. So much has happened during that time.

“It has. It’s good to see you.”

She looks me up and down. “How’s the rest of the team?”

That’s a question I don’t want to answer. Or think about. I’ve done all I can to keep them out of mind. Cole the Hybrid. Wyatt the maybe-more-than-friend. I think about leaving him with the kids, Devin, Kori, and Garrett, with the hope he can get them somewhere safe. I left Davis, Parker, and Jude at Erwin’s latest camp without a goodbye. I swallow their memories like a lump in my throat.

“Alive when I left.” I tilt my head. “But that was before I knew about Chloe’s takeover. I’d come to talk some sense into my sister and ran into a coup instead.”

Walker’s lips twitch. “Not sure if that was bad or good timing.”

“Me either,” I agree. “How did you end up with Jane?”

“She brought me in when you guys ran. I thought she was going to execute me for treason. Instead she made me part of her personal guard.”

“Keep your enemies close, or something like that?” That’s twice, though, that Jane has taken in someone who works closely with me under her wing. Three if you count Wyatt, although he’s a man with his own mission so who knows how much influence she had over him.

“She kept me alive just when things were getting dicey. I’ll do the same for her,” she says, summing up the entirety of Walker’s philosophy on life in two short sentences.

She tosses me my backpack, the one I left in the SUV when I surrendered.

“Thanks,” I say, tugging the blanket I found on the boat over my shoulders for warmth before heading inside the house.

The chill of late fall clings to the house and it feels colder inside than out. Dust coats every surface, heaviest on items like the flat screen TV hanging uselessly on the wall. The cabin is comfortable, though. The owners decorated it nicely and despite the musty smell, it’s free from the stench of death. It doesn’t take long to find what we need. Heavy quilts and canned food in the pantry. A pallet of bottled water in the garage.  Jane enters with her nose in the air and a distinct look of distaste on her face. It’s another reminder that she’s never been out in the real post-crisis world and doesn’t know this is as good as it’s going to get.

It’s going to be a long trip.

I corner my sister in a small bedroom. She’s staring at herself in the dusty mirror, looking like a lost child. I sit on the edge of the bed and say, “We’re going to have to talk at some point.”

“I think I’m in shock,” she says, peering into the mirror. “Do I look like I’m in shock?”

“You look like someone whose never stepped foot outside of her fortress during the apocalypse, Jane. Welcome to the world you created. It sucks, and you haven’t even seen the worst of it.”

“Like the infected?” she asks, catching my eye. I recognize curiosity more than fear.

“Yeah, sure. They’re not awesome.” I sigh and run my hand over the cotton patches on the quilt. I’m cold and tired enough that I’d like to curl up underneath it and take a nap. “There are other things, worse things, believe it or not. Like the Hybrids who are so strong that they make a rabid Eater look like a piece of cake. Then there’s the humans—you remember them, right? They’re angry and scared and many lost all ethical sense when society fell. They’re terrifying.”

“Stop being so dramatic. I’m aware of the current situation out here. I track everything. I have data.”

Did I mention this was going to be a long trip?

“Do you even know where we’re going?” I ask. “Do you have a plan at all?”

She turns and gives me an incredulous look. “Of course I have a plan.”

“Great!” I exclaim with false enthusiasm. “Care to share it with the rest of the class?”

“We’re headed north, to a town called Catlettsburg. It’s in Eastern Kentucky, on the Ohio River.”

“And what exactly is up there?” As far as I know, we have zero connections with that part of the country. No family. No memories. Although, it’s not like I’ve really been privy to my sister’s private life over the last couple of years. If so, maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation right now.

“Well if you must know, during my time at PharmaCorp I had a partner—the original lead scientist. We worked very closely together when I first arrived. He taught me everything I know about the inner workings of a lab outside of a university setting. When I was asked to take more of a leadership over the Department of Defense contracts—”

“You mean biological warfare,” I interject.

“Yes. The bio-warfare was the primary contract and Avi Patel was not enthusiastic about the program.”

“Sounds like Avi is pretty smart and maybe you should have listened to him.” She gives me a hard look, not amused by my comments. “Okay, so we’re headed to his house.”

“Not just his house. His town.”  She sits next to me on the bed. The mattress squeaks from our combined weight. “Avi is the one that prepped the building for an eventual crisis. He created the energy and plumbing systems, managed the food and supplies. He designed the armory and R&D departments. He’s a scientist of survival. He knew one day the end would come. He just didn’t predict we—or rather, I—would be the one to start it.”

There’s little regret in her voice—I’m not sure she’s capable of it any longer or if she ever was. But there is a hint of longing on her face and it’s clear this man, Avi, is important.

“So we’re going to his town.”

“Yes. He picked the location specifically based on its survivability.”

“Does he know we’re coming?” I have no idea if she has the means to communicate with the outside world. Honestly, I don’t know much about my sister anymore.

“We have an open invitation.” She glances at me.

“What?”

“He does have one stipulation.”

“Okay. What is that?”

“I can bring in the vaccine—he has inoculated the town already. I sent him the first successful batch months ago, even before we vaccinated ourselves at the Fort. But he will not allow any other genetic alterations or study to be done.”

“Well, good. I certainly don’t have a problem with that.” I frown. “Do you? You don’t have some kind of evil plan lined up?”

I’m only half-joking.

Jane doesn’t think it’s funny. “No, Alexandra, I don’t. But for the sake of transparency, you should know that Avi isn’t aware of the Hybrids or the war building in the south. He has no idea what I’ve done or what we may be forced to do to stop it.”

That’s when she breaks. She cracks right in front of me. Her strong exterior shatters into a sobbing mass of emotion. The sister I knew and grew up with appears before me and I blink, as though she’s not real.

“Jane?” She doesn’t reply and I do the only thing I know how. I wrap my arms around her and pull her into a hug.

“It will be okay,” I tell her, stroking her hair. It’s a lie and I don’t know why I say it. She deserves worse.

“He’ll hate me.”

“Maybe.”

She looks at me accusingly, red-eyed with a runny nose. “That’s not helping.”

I sigh and take both of her hands. “You screwed up, dear sister. And there’s no more hiding behind Fortress walls pretending otherwise. The journey to your little town is going to be hard. Brutally hard. We may not even survive and if we do, I suspect seeing Avi is going to be even more difficult.” Another round of sobs wracks through her. I sigh. “But I’ve got your back and I’ll fight for you every step of the way.”

She nods, and I step into the bathroom, where I find the most fantastic thing ever. A box of tissues. I hand it over and she takes an extravagant number, four at once, and I roll my eyes at her cluelessness.

“Wha?” she asks, nose stuffed and running.

“I have so much to teach you.” I take the box back before she can use them all. “But I guess that’s what sisters are for.”

*

After my talk with Jane, I feel the need for a bath so I head down to the clear, green, lake water. Walker agrees to stand guard and I take tiny baby steps into the freezing cold water slowly, until every part of my body is submerged. I’m still dressed in my prison uniform, not for modesty but because large swaths of the fabric are stuck to my skin, dried there with blood and fluids from my escape. My hands are stained a dark red and I can still feel the hot blood as it oozed out of Cole’s wound.

Even lost to the Hybrid virus, he saved me. I don’t know where to put that information.

The cloth loosens once it gets wet and I strip down and scrub myself clean with a bar of fresh-smelling soap from the bathroom. They have a whole basket of cleaning products the owners must have picked up at hotels around the country. I use three tiny bottles that smell like lavender on my hair alone.

I feel as greedy as my sister with the tissues.

Later, night falls, and we gather around the long wooden table. Jackson’s rabbit, plus two cans of corn and one of peaches in thick, sugary juice make our meal. The owner must have had a thing for candles because there are dozens, and instead of risking a fire we draw the curtains and eat by flickering candlelight.

“What’s the plan?” I ask, licking syrup off my fingers. “Because we can’t stay here long.”

All afternoon I tried to picture the United States map and figure out the best way from here to Eastern Kentucky. All I know is this lake isn’t in the right spot to connect directly to the river, which means we’ll be moving forward on foot. Green says as much as he gnaws on the leg bone of the rabbit.

“So we’re walking?” I ask, looking at the Fighters.

“I brought some additive and a spare battery that may help us get a car moving,” Jackson says.

“Has the gas gone bad?” Jane asks, thinking about this for the first time.

“At the Fort, we fleet-crew-maintained the vehicles, keeping batteries and gasoline clean. Out here, everything’s been sitting for a while. We should be able to get something working. We definitely don’t want to travel over the Appalachians on foot.”

“Does that work for you?” I ask Walker, who’s been uncharacteristically quiet.

“Yes. First thing we’ll search for a vehicle but, I agree, we need to leave as soon as possible after that. We need more distance between us and the Hybrids.” She stands and takes her plate to the sink out of habit. There’s no water other than from the lake. She quickly adds, “I’ll take first watch,” before heading out the front door.

I jerk my chin at Green. “You have a map?”

“In my bag.”

My sister watches our exchange. She’s been silent since we spoke earlier in the day. I don’t have the energy to deal with her right now. “Can I look it over? Or we can look it over together? I like to have my route well planned.”

“Good idea.” He hops up and goes for his bag; it’s as worn and battered as my own.

I feel a sense of gratitude that Jane thought to bring my pack. There’s not much inside but the family things I’d carried this whole time and a couple of spare pairs of clothing. I’d used most of the space for the food I brought for Devin and his family. But the family pictures and our mother’s wedding ring is in that bag, and it’s all I have left.

Green and I spread his map on the coffee table, using a couple of candles for light. We figure out the fastest route, then the safest, then a third in case the first two are blown to hell.

“How much time have you spent in the Death Fields?” I ask him. I know from seeing Erwin’s map at our last meeting that most of the north is not cleared of the Eaters. That’s probably the best thing Jane and her Hybrids did for the south. They cleared out so many of the infected and rounded up the survivors. It made a difference. Unfortunately, their motives weren’t so great for the rest of society.

“I spent six months out there in the beginning—before The Director’s Fighters came through my little town.” His face takes on a familiar pained expression. “It was a hard six months. I thought the people would rally together.”

“They didn’t?”

He shakes his head. “I watched my brother get killed over a bag of sugar.” He touches his chest. “Shot in the heart by the woman that taught my Sunday school class.”

“That’s awful.”

“People just didn’t know what to do. It was like their biggest fears coming true.” He leans back on the couch. “I think it hurt the religious folks the most. They kept waiting for God to come down and save them. When he didn’t, they panicked.”

I never had the luxury of blaming God. I knew the name and face of the person behind this. I knew the virus was the result of science and not a greater force. Humans did this for very human reasons—the one Green just described: fear. I glance across the room where my sister still sits at the kitchen table. Her plate of food is uneaten. We make eye contact and she looks small and uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry about your brother,” I say to Green.

“Yeah, he was an asshole but he was family, you know?”

I nod and sense Jane get up from the table and disappear into the bedroom. The door closes with a soft click. Looking back at the map I mutter, “Trust me, I understand.”

Chapter 1

Finding a suitable car in the apocalypse is harder than you would imagine. Especially near the lakefront. People stuck close to home—near their TVs and internet access—waiting for the end of the world to come. They didn’t, apparently, drive to their lakefront cabins to wait it out. They should have.

We need something big enough for the five of us and our supplies, and we all agree sitting in the back of a pick-up truck during the winter isn’t something any of us want to do. The first two appropriate cars Jackson finds have dead batteries and not enough gas to make it worthwhile. He keeps trying though, and we comb the garages one by one until he finds one that seems like a possibility.

Green and I cover Jackson and Walker as they work on the vehicle. It’s a four door truck with a camper on the back, tucked behind a storage facility. Two full cans of gas sit on a shelf near the back and Jackson pours the additive inside.

Jane stands among us like an odd thumb. Her boots are too shiny and her weapons useless and mishandled. She sits on the step of the cabin and lets the rest of us do the work. I’m not sure how long the others will tolerate this behavior, but I know I’m already annoyed.

When Green and I are a safe distance away I ask, “So really, what do you think about my sister?”

His eyebrow lifts. “The Director.”

“You do know she’s not directing anyone or anything anymore, right? There was a coup.”

“What should I call her then? Ms. Ramsey?”

“You may want to start.” From what Jane told me, her former partner, Avi, isn’t going to be into her title anyway. Plus, it’s a giveaway if we encounter any enemies. “You didn’t answer my question.”

He glances over his shoulder to make sure we’re alone. “Truth? She’s scary.”

I laugh, covering my mouth to muffle the sound. “Scary? She can’t use a weapon. She’s never even faced an Eater before. There’s nothing she can do to you.”

“I guess she’s just intimidating. Like that smart chick from science class in high school that is three steps ahead of the rest of the class and the teacher.” He gives me a look. “You were probably that girl once upon a time, too, so you don’t get it.”

I ignore the semi-compliment. “She’s a genius, like, freaking smart as hell,  who is also incredibly fallible. She needs people to stand up to her more than you realize. Don’t call her the Director anymore. She needs to learn how to be part of a team—not the fake leader of this one.”

A scream pierces the late morning quiet, and Green and I are on the move running through the leaves toward the house. Walker and Jackson meet us at the front steps, guns raised.

Jane is gone.

“Where’d she go?” Walker asks, eyes everywhere but particularly on me.

“She was just here.”

“Well, she’s not now.”

Another cry comes from near the lake and we run down to the shore. Jane stands on a wobbly dock with two Eaters moving toward her on the walkway. A boathouse door is open halfway down the lawn and more Eaters spill out of the narrow opening. They stumble and push their way past one another, focused on one thing: attacking one of us.

“I’ll get Jane!” I shout to the others, but Walker holds up a hand.

“No. You had your chance. I’ll get her,” she says, already halfway down the path. She kills two Eaters coming at her, quick and easy before going after the ones on the dock.

“Okay then,” I say, rolling my eyes. I flip the hatchet in my hand and brace for the closest Eaters. They’re disgusting, skin pale from the lack of sunlight. They reek of mold and decay. I’m not even sure how they’ve survived this long but as I swing my blade across the nearest one’s throat, I see dried blood on their mouths. They’ve been eating something. That’s for sure.

Jackson moves into action. He’s fast with a long, sharp blade he carries strapped to his back. In moments, heads litter the ground, rolling across the leaves like acorns. Green uses the butt of his gun, knocking one to the ground. She falls back but gets her fingers on his jacket, pulling him down. He lands on his knees, face to face with the drooling woman. Her teeth are yellow and rotten. I run over, hold my hatchet over my head and swing down, severing both of her arms. She releases him and screams, both of them falling on their backs. I stab my knife into her skull.

Three Eaters followed Walker onto the dock. Another two are between her and Jane. None of us can fire a shot at such a long distance. We could kill either or both of them. Jane is perilously close to the edge of the dock.  She stands frozen, an unused hunting knife in her hands. She whimpers more than cries.

“Walker!” I shout, charging the dock. She’s busy being cornered. “Help Jane. I’ll take care of these.”

An emotion flickers over her face, but I can’t identify it. I don’t have time. The two Eaters look between us, I guess assessing their good fortune. Two break toward me—the other follows her as she moves in Jane’s direction. Why did I think this was a good idea?

I take a deep breath and run, slashing my blade at the nearest one and pushing him into the shallow water. My hatchet lands in the soft flesh but doesn’t come clean and I leave them both behind. I nearly shout for help, calling Wyatt’s name, but I clamp my lips shut and realize Jackson is only seconds away. I hear the splash as he dives on the Eater in the lake, finishing the job. I keep my eyes on the second one. He hisses low and menacing when he spots me. Dirty, dried blood coats his mouth and chin and he lunges at me. I don’t have much room on the narrow walkway. If I fall in the water those Eaters will turn on Walker and Jane.

I balance myself and wait for the monster to come at me again. I’m counting down in my head, ignoring his foul stench and the cries from my sister to wait for the right moment. The Eater pounces and a voice shouts in my ear, “Duck!”

I obey and hear the sound of a knife stabbing through flesh and bone over my head. Something lukewarm lands on my neck and slides down my collarbone. The body falls and I touch the ooze on my throat, nearly vomiting when I see the sticky dark blood.

I gag twice and then retch into the lake because oh, my God.

“One left,” Green says, plucking his knife out of the dead Eater on the dock. Walker lost her weapon along the way and is fighting the two Eaters hand-to-hand. I throw the last remaining one on the walkway into the water—too exhausted to take care of him. I have a feeling Jackson will do the deed anyway.

Jane has curled into a ball, hunting knife useless on the dock while Walker fights for their lives. The two Eaters are fueled by rage and desire—the need to spread the infection to another body is stronger than anything else. Walker kicks the nearest one in our direction and I stare into his dark, spidery eyes before I reach for the back of its head, grabbing onto his greasy hair. With all my strength, I smash his forehead into the metal loop jutting out to secure a boat. One, two, three times I beat him senseless, blood pooling on the wooden dock. I look up and Walker has killed the final one—Jane’s pristine hunting knife sticking out of the dead Eater’s temple.

I sink to my knees and catch my breath. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in an Eater fight. “I guess we better get used to the fact we’re in the Death Fields again,” I say, looking at my newly tested teammates.

Walker says nothing as she passes the rest of us, heading down the dock and back up the hill.

“What’s her problem?” Jackson asks, pulling himself out of the lake. Water pours off his clothes like rain.

“No idea,” I reply and take the hand he offers me. I wave him off, instead kneeling over the edge of the dock to wash my hands in the water.  Green struggles to his feet and I nod for the two of them to head back up.

I wipe my wet hands on my pants and look at my sister. Her eyes are wide and part of me wants to drop-kick her into the lake and leave her there. Instead I turn to walk away, only stopping when I hear my name. “Alex?”

“Yeah?”

“I had no idea you could do all that.”

I think back over the last ten minutes. It was a total blur of death, pain, and blood.

“Do all what?” I sort of want specifics.

Jane stands and walks over, the floating dock giving her the look of a deer on wobbly legs.

“You’re totally bad ass,” she says, her tone serious. “Like a complete and for real Fighter.”

I stare at her for a second. “What did you think we were doing out there this whole time? Because that was nothing.”

She doesn’t reply. I don’t think she has the words and I’m too tired to get into it with her anyway. At the edge of the dock, just past the two dead bodies that have floated up to the shore, I hear the sputtering of an engine and whoops from up by the house.

“Come on,” I tell her. “I think our ride is ready.”

Chapter 2

The following two weeks may be the hardest in my life. Not because of the apocalypse. Or the lack of healthy food, or a warm shower or even a safe place to sleep at night. I’ve experienced all of those. I know I can do without. I’ve been tested, but not like this. Not by something as all-consuming and annoying as my sister. She’s not just a bother—she’s a liability. It’s hard enough that I have to push aside my feelings about how all of this is her fault. That she’s the one responsible for the death of my mother, even though I pulled the trigger. She tore our family apart. Destroyed millions of lives. She altered the fabric of reality, yet here I am, helping her. I don’t feel like I have a choice when she’s one of two people left in the world that can get us out of this mess.

God help us all.

That’s what I’m thinking at the moment. We’re near Lexington, headed east, searching for winter clothes at a thrift shop. I think Thanksgiving was last week. Or maybe it’s this week? I have no way to keep track.

There’s no calendar but the weather lets us know winter is coming, and thankfully this entire place has been left unbothered. I guess people only want new clothes when hell takes over?  Jane may be one of those people, because nothing on the racks suit her desire.

Green and I didn’t want to come this close to a city the size of Lexington, but there’s a large swath of national park land between here and Catlettsburg, making it risky to go that far away from additional provisions. Oh, and Jackson and Walker were intent on coming to Westchester, the town where they make the guns. At this point on our apocalyptic road trip, nothing surprises me.

The truck only has enough gas to get us another fifteen miles, which means we walk or find some fuel. Walker parked it two buildings down from the thrift store. I agreed that if we got winter clothes, we could hit the gun outlet store—then find the gas. Not that there would be much left at the gun store. It had to have been one of the first places hit during the crisis.

“Pick a coat,” I tell her, gleefully stashing a pair of long underwear in my bag. I also found some wool socks and gloves. We woke up this morning and found hard frost on the lawns. Walker sniffed the air like a squirrel and declared snow was on the way.

Green and Jackson picked out new winter clothes quickly and moved to stand watch by the front windows. The area seemed quiet enough on our way in, but we’ve been fooled before in the uncleared areas, and not just by Eaters. The people we encounter are getting weirder and more volatile as time passes.

There’s a difference now in the way we travel. The first time I left my house for the road, survivors had two options. Hide in their homes or go to the evacuation centers. The few of us that were forced to move independently encountered pretty awful stuff. But in hindsight, the infected seemed more manageable, but maybe that’s because we had better supplies and they seemed…less organized?  Over the last few months they’ve formed massive roaming packs.

“Why don’t they just die?” I ask Jane after one particularly harsh battle. She spent it locked in the back of a VW Jetta we were siphoning gas from, cowering on the floorboards.

“They should,” she said, taking in the carnage. “But it’s a glitch in the virus. It’s why we started testing the Hybrid vaccine in the first place. I wasn’t looking to create a new army. I was trying to fix a mistake.”

“By making a bigger one?” Because, yeah, the Hybrids were worse than the Eaters. They had mental awareness, even if lacking of independent thought. They had control of their bodies and actions with an added bonus of aggression. “That’s insane!”

“I had to replicate science to figure out what went wrong. I followed protocol, but there’s something about the parasitic nature of the virus that overrides death. It makes the Eater’s survival rate much longer than an average person in a similar situation.”

I stared at her for a good minute trying to figure out what to say. In the end I walked. It made me too angry—and I knew she still hadn’t learned. She still wanted to figure out and test the science, using people as her guinea pigs. People like Chloe who would become a bigger problem than the initial one. All the rest of us want is to walk down the street without a deranged cannibal eyeing us like lunch.

“She’s taking too long,” Walker says from the shoe aisle of the thrift store. I walk over and find her picking through the boots, checking sizes. She has enormous feet.

“I know. I told her to hurry.”

“If she doesn’t pick something I’ll do it for her.”

Her tone is hard and snappy and I’ve just about had it with her. I’m at my wit’s end with my sister, who may be a genius but has the life skills of a chimp. She spent her life in science classes and space camps. She never had to deal with people, or frankly, reality. “Good. Do it. I’m tired of micro-managing her every move.”

“You?” Walker rolls her eyes. “You’ve been nothing but trouble since I pulled you from Erwin’s little torture chamber. If I had only known what that mission involved.”

“You’d what?” I turn to stare at her. “You would have left us? No one asked you to save us, Walker. I know I didn’t. I didn’t ask to be a part of this game at all. Unfortunately, I don’t have the luxury of walking away. Trust me. I’ve tried. You’re the one that signed up for this shit-show.”

Walker’s hand hangs by her hip and I see her clench it into a fist. If she hits me she will pummel me to pulp. I take a steadying breath and ask, “What is your problem with me? Something is different.”

I expect her not to answer. It’s the Fighter way. They keep their emotions buried deep under all that armor and muscle. Trust me, I’m used to it. But she narrows her eyes and says, “You left me there. We were a team and you left me there.”

“What?” Her accusation takes me by surprise. I think back. It seems a lifetime ago. “At the Vaccine Center?”

“I hid you in that bunker and you guys ran. No one told me a word. The Hybrids showed up and tore through that camp looking for Paul and then the rest of you.”

“Wyatt said he wasn’t sure who your allegiance was with and,” I clarify when I see her hackles raise, “we didn’t want you to have the burden of knowing anything. It was the smart move to make.”

“Wyatt?” She snorts. “You know better than to trust a word out of his mouth, right?” When I don’t reply she shakes her head. “He’s a mercenary, Alex. He fights for no one but himself. Never forget that.”

There is no way I’m talking to her about Wyatt. I can barely bring myself to think about him these days. “I’m sorry you got left behind, but where we went wasn’t any better. We were on the run, ambushed by the Hybrids and later Chloe herself. We barely made it out of there alive and to do so we had to join up with Erwin. The last six months have been hell.”  I realize I’m close to yelling and lower my voice. “You know better than I do that this is about survival. We’re surviving. Day to day. There’s no room to lay blame.”

Her fist unclenches and I wait for a response but her eyes shift over my shoulder. I turn and find Jane walking up holding two jackets. One has purple puffy fabric. Another long and fur lined. “Which one looks best?”

“It doesn’t matter which one looks the best—you need the one that you can run the fastest in, fight back against an attacker, and will keep you warm.”

She looks between the two as though she can’t figure out which fits that criteria. I glance behind me at Walker but she’s gone.

I roll my eyes and point to the purple coat. “That one.”

“Really?” She wrinkles her nose at the jacket.

“Yes. Put it on. We’re burning daylight.”

As she changes, I notice Jackson tense by the front door. I call it a door but the glass was already broken when we got here although the lock was still in place. He slips into the shadowy space out of view and presses his back against the wall. Green does the same on the opposite side. I search for Walker but can’t find her, then I hear her shoes squeak on the hard, tiled floor.

“Get down,” she says quietly, a couple of rows over. I duck, dragging Jane down with me. “There’s someone outside. The guys went out the front door to check.”

I’m hit with dueling emotions. Fear—humans are worse than the Eaters out here. Everyone is paranoid. It’s best to stay entirely clear and we’ve done an okay job so far. But there’s a nagging kernel of hope that I’ve buried in my chest. Every time we encounter another human the same thought runs through my mind: Wyatt. Will he really just let me go? Can he leave whatever we have together unfinished? I know it’s crazy. Suicidal. He doesn’t even know our destination. But I also know if anyone can find us, it’s him. It just depends on if he wants to.

“Did you get a visual?” I ask Walker.

She looks at me in a way that tells me she knows what I want her to say. There’s pity and annoyance in her eyes. I know the look because she’s been giving it to me since we started working together again. She grits her teeth. “No. But there are at least four of them.”

“What’s the plan? Out the back?”

“Yes, I think so. Those two,” she jerks her thumb at the guys up front, “will go out that door. We’ll run, or at least fight, our way to the Jeep. It doesn’t have much gas left in it but there’s enough to get away from here.”

Jane watches us while she laces her boots. She never has an opinion on these matters. She just wants to be somewhere safe, out of the fray. So far we’ve managed it—but we won’t be able to forever.

“Where’s your weapon?” I ask Jane. Walker took away her gun after a particularly careless situation in Tennessee that nearly robbed Jackson of a thumb. Now she’s allowed to carry a tire iron. She holds it up with both hands.

“Keep it visible. Even if you can’t—or won’t—use it, at least make them think you will.”

“Maybe we should just hide out in here for a while,” she suggests.

“Nope,” Walker says, heading toward the non-working exit sign in the back. I push Jane to follow her. Walker unlatches the back door and eases into the sunlight. It wasn’t warm inside but the wind slaps my face. There’s no one in the back alley. We break for the lot where we left the truck.

To my surprise I spot the flash of Green’s red hair at the front of the truck. They beat us back so maybe Walker was wrong and there wasn’t anyone out front, or if there was, they moved on. Walker skids on the gravel-strewn pavement in a hard stop and looks around. She holds her hand for us to stay still. “Where did they go?” she whispers.

“Who?”

“The men out front.” Her eyes are wild—paranoid--and I think she’s lost her mind.

“Maybe you were wrong?” Jane suggests.

“No.”

The hair prickles on my neck, my sixth sense tells me Walker isn’t wrong. She rarely is and I move into a defensive position with her, back to back. I try to get an eye on the guys but I can no longer see any sign of Green. Maybe I made it up? The alley is quiet other than the wind. Walker speaks quietly. “On the count of three, run to the truck.”

The numbers come out in a whispered rush and we race to the vehicle. I wrench open the passenger door and push Jane into the middle. I sit next to her, slamming my door. Walker’s in the driver’s seat and reaches for the keys under the floor mat.

“Find them?” I ask, trying to settle my nerves, but when I look up I freeze. “Walker.”

“What?” she snaps, keys dangling from her fingers.

“You didn’t make them up.” I nod out the front window where both of our guys have guns to their heads. Green has a busted lip, blood trailing down his neck. Jackson is being held up by the man behind him—clearly suffering from a head injury.  Movement behind the car reveals three more men, weapons out, one pressed against each of our side windows.

“Shit,” Walker mutters, dropping the keys. “I really didn’t need this today.”

*

The men are filthy and I don’t like the way they look at me or the other women. One with bushy sideburns and an ugly scar near his eye touches my neck and my skin crawls. There’s no hesitation as he drags me from the truck and I manage to give him a knee to the balls. He slaps me in return, a sharp crack against my cheek, his breath heavy and reeking of liquor. From there things get even messier until I’m blindfolded and tossed in the back of a bigger truck. I feel the hard, metal gun barrel at the back of my head and the hot breath of my captor as he sits too close for my liking.

I know Jane and Walker are nearby. I hear their breathing and a small squeak from my sister. Walker lets out a string of curses before her words are muffled, then she gags. I can only assume they’ve covered her mouth to shut her up. I have no idea if our men are with us or if they’re dead on the street. We need a way out but before I can even think, the truck stops with a lurch and I’m hauled out by strong, grabby hands. Underfoot the sidewalk gives way to a smoother floor and the air is warmer. We’re inside.

I’m about to risk speaking—to ask where they’ve taken us—when I’m released and shoved forward. I stand and hit my head on something hard.

“Ouch,” I mutter using my now-free hands to reach above and remove the blindfold.

“Shit,” Walker swears as I’m able to see where we are. Any confidence we could get out of this quickly sinks to the depths of my gut.

Walker and I stand two feet apart, silver bars separating us on four sides.

I reach my hands around the bars and shake. We’re in cages, separated from one another. Cages. Like animals.

“Feisty, eh?” Scarface says, eyeing me from a few feet away. “It’ll be a pleasure to break you in.”

Walker and my sister share another cage. I’m not alone. My cage is occupied by two other women, dirty-faced and skinny. The men, our men, are bound, gagged, and tied to beams against the back wall of the building. The room is long and cavernous. There’s a dead or dying body of a man in a similar position nearby. The whole scene is like it’s out of a torture porn movie.

I look at the two women locked up with me. One is asleep, or at least I hope she is. I can’t see her face. The other meets my stare. It’s impossible to tell her age. Under the grime, her hair is blonde and tired, cornflower blue eyes assess me in return. She doesn’t look weak. She just looks pissed.

There are tables around the room and at closer inspection it seems like we’re in some sort of bar. Or at least it has a bar. Row after row of liquor is piled behind the bar and men sit with tumblers of amber liquid on the tables. It looks like they wiped out every stash in the county.  Men plus liquor plus women in cages? This can’t end well.

My cheek still burns from the slap and I have little doubt I’ll get another if I shout out. I sneak a glance at Walker. From the curl on her lip and narrowed eyes, I know she’s holding back, too.

I’m relieved when they walk away, waving for more drinks from the bar. Their distance doesn’t mean they ignore us though. They jeer and make vulgar gestures. One youngish guy with a shaggy, unkempt beard blows me a kiss. My fingers tighten on the bars.

“They call themselves the Winchesters,” the woman behind me whispers once the men are far enough away. I think back to my other life and the famous TV show characters by the same name and glance at them again. I come to my senses.

“Like the town?” I ask.

“Yes, and the guns.”

“What do they want?”

“They’re Traders. Or at least they pretend to be. Liquor, drugs, people.”

“So they’re the type that make the crappy part of the apocalypse even crappier? Perfect.” For a fleeting moment I want to see them face up against a Hybrid. I glance at my sister, who is looking back at me with curious green eyes, and squelch the thought. No. There’s no place, not even here, for Hybrids.

“Pretty much.” She looks me up and down. “You’re pretty clean. You’ll get picked soon.”

“Picked for what?”

“What do you think?” She rolls her eyes at my naiveté. But the worry on my face must be more than even I can manage to hold back and she says, “Honestly, getting it over with may be better than waiting around. It’s the waiting that gets to you, you know?”

“No, not really,” I mutter.

“You think you can stop them?” She snorts. “You can’t. They’ve been terrorizing this area for the last year. None of the other communities have been able to stop them.” She kicks the ground with her boot and looks at the other girl. “I came here to get my sister. They snatched her while she was gathering mushrooms in the forest. I had a plan, too. All it got me was locked up with her and well, you see what happened to my friend.”

I don’t have to follow her gaze to know she’s looking at the other man hanging from the wall.

“How long have you been here?” I ask.

“A week maybe.”

“Is anyone looking for you?”

A flicker of guilt crosses her face. “I live in a community not far from here. We agreed to wait a few more days. Well, they agreed. I didn’t. She’s my sister. I couldn’t let them just take her and do…well, God knows what to her.”

“So you left without them?” Sounds familiar.

“Yeah. It was dumb.”

I look at the girl. “Is she okay?”

“No.” Her chin juts out but the defiance is just to cover up something she doesn’t want to say.

“What’s your name?”

“Miranda.”

“Miranda, I’m Alex.” I point to the other cage. “That’s my sister Jane and our friend. She goes by Walker.”

“Why are you telling me this? I’d rather not put a name to your face. We’re not friends in here.” Her tough façade finally crumbles. “I can’t care about you and sister and myself, too. If anything, you’re the distraction we need to get some of the focus off ourselves.”

“I get it. I do. But I’m not the type to let bastards like this get the upper hand. We’re been through some crazy stuff over the last year, but a group of rednecks playing slave-trader aren’t going to be the ones to take me down. I refuse.” I force my most confident voice. “We’re getting out of here alive and in one piece. You too.”

She stares at me like I’m a lunatic. Maybe I am. It could run in the family. “I don’t think you understand these guys.” She looks over at Green and Jackson hanging from the wall. “They’re ruthless.”

“Yeah well, I’ve seen enough out there that I’m not afraid of a filthy human. I have traveled for so long and we’re almost at the end,” I explain. “So these guys killing or trading or enslaving us—it’s not happening.”

The girl cracks a smile. “You sound like you believe that.”

“I do,” I tell her, staring out the cage at the men. “And you should, too.”

*

Reality strikes when one of the men that captured us drags a girl from a long hallway at the back of the building and tosses her into Walker’s cage. Her hair is long, brown, and uncombed. She wears jeans and no shoes. Her cotton T-shirt hangs off her shoulder. My stomach hurts just seeing her. When he opens the cage I wait to see if Walker will do anything—fight back—but she doesn’t, instead keeping her eyes down. The cage door slams and he mutters something under his breath.

We all avoid looking at the girl, red-faced and distant, except my sister who offers her the purple coat as a cover-up.

I feel like I’ve slipped into an alternate universe.

It’s not that I haven’t heard about places like this. Or thought about the possibility. With the Resistance, we brought in survivors who’d lived through a variety of traumatic post-apocalyptic hellholes. But Walker and I have spent the majority of our time post-virus with the military, surrounded by men that respect us and armed to the teeth. We had firepower on our side, and as Wyatt called himself, “A fucking fairy godmother.”

I realize now how lucky we’ve been.

Another man comes by whistling an eerie, slow tune. He checks our locks before dropping in two bottles of water and a pack of crackers. I watch nervously as he heads over to Green and Jackson. The redhead lifts his chin and mumbles something I can’t quite hear. Whatever it is offends the man and out of the back of his jeans he removes something dark. I grip the bars of the cage and shout, “No! Don’t shoot him!”

The man glances back at me and holds up the weapon. I realize then it’s not a gun but something different and I hear a buzzing sound as he flips a switch.  Blue electricity hums from the weapon and he jabs it into Green’s side. The Fighter’s body jerks on contact, electrocuted by the taser. The Winchester zaps him twice more until Green flops to the side, unmoving.

“Did you kill him?” I shout again, but Miranda drags me away from the bars and covers my mouth.

I fight against her but she whispers, “He’ll punish us all if you don’t shut up.”

I hate it and I hate that man but I know Miranda’s right. It’s not fair to everyone else held prisoner to put them at risk, and I slump against her on the floor. The Winchester gives me one last look before shoving the taser into the back of his pants and exiting out the front door. The sound of bolts turning from the other side echoes through the quiet room.

One look at Walker reveals a green face. Jane fingers her sock and stares at the ground. Did she even see what happened?  I never thought I’d see Walker so rattled but she looks bad. I settle myself, realizing my reactions are disturbing the others.

I hold up the bottle of water. “Is it safe?” I ask, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, they save the drugs for themselves and to trade,” Miranda says then nods to a bucket in the corner covered with a thin piece of wood. “But, just so you know. That’s where you go to the bathroom so you may not want to go crazy.”

The water smells like rust but I drink anyway, gagging at the aftertaste. Miranda and I split the sleeve into three and she wakes her sister, Rebecca. I see now that she’s only a teenager—a couple of years younger than me.

“Do they sleep here?” I ask. The crackers taste like salted cardboard but it helps with the nausea building in my stomach. I know Walker is listening so I face her so that she can hear our conversation better. We need as much information as possible if we’re going to get out of here in one piece. One glance at Green slumped against the wall tells me we’re going to have to act sooner than later.

“No, they have a couple of homes on the main stretch,” Miranda says. “We watched them for two days before we got caught. Butch, the one with the side burns? He’s their leader and not as much of an idiot as he seems. He’s mean as a snake but he’s savvy. They keep business hours, believe it or not, and now we’re part of the business.”

No, I want to tell her, we’re not.

“They’ll be back late morning, when the bar opens. But sometimes they have customers earlier than that.” She wrinkles her nose. “Usually the druggies looking for a fix.”

“What’s the routine,” Walker says from her cage. “What happens when they come in?”

Miranda shrugs. “Traders start coming in. Many are just here for the essentials. Medication, ammunition, or even food. But others like the dirty stuff. They know this is the place to feed their habit. A few buy women for an hour. Some for longer.”

“Where do they trade the girls? Do they just walk in here?” Walker asks.

“See that mirror?” She points to a section over the pool tables. It has a good view of the cages. “I think it’s a two-way. The men pick who they want from there and then Rebecca says there’s a little office down that back hall. They have it set up for entertaining the customers.”

I can’t contain the chill running down my back.

“Our men,” I ask. “Why didn’t they just kill them when we got here? What’s up with the torture routine?”

Miranda’s face softens. “As far as I can tell they had the unfortunate luck of being with you. Butch doesn’t like men who actually respect women. They get strung up as a deterrent for anyone who thinks of going against him.”

Rebecca tugs on her sleeve. Miranda wraps her arm around her sister and asks, “What’s up, babe?”

“The man that came to see me yesterday? He’s nice.” Bile rises in my throat. “He didn’t hurt me. We just talked.”

Miranda gives her a forced smile. “That’s good. Maybe not everyone in this Godforsaken town is a monster.”

“What do you think?” I ask Walker, who has moved as close as possible.

“I’m not sure yet.” Confirming she’s already working out a plan. It’s what she does. It’s probably her superpower, although this is the tightest moment we’ve ever been in. Worse than Eaters or Hybrids. They just want to kill or snack on us. This guy? He wants to destroy our bodies and minds.

“Well let me know,” I say as though it’s that easy. If we only had to worry about one of us I think we could make it happen, but there’s five. I spare a glance at Miranda and her sister, then the other woman still bundled in Jane’s coat. Make that closer to ten.

I catch Jane pressing the back of her hand on the forehead of the woman in the cage with her. She whispers something to her and her gentleness surprises me. Is this what it takes to get my sister to show a little compassion?

I manipulate my jacket into a pillow and lean against the bars. We need sleep to fight back, which is what I plan to do in the morning—one way or the other.

Chapter 3

I wake with a jerk, confused about where I am. My back and neck protest any movement but then I see Miranda next to me. Her face reflects a quiet fear—that’s when I notice Butch’s ugly face leering through the bars.

“Jesus,” I mutter rubbing my eyes. “That’s the last thing I want to see first thing in the morning.”

Miranda and Rebecca both stiffen next to me and before I can react Butch has lunged through the bars, catching me with a meaty hand on my throat. I struggle for air against his strong grip.

“Good morning to you, too, sunshine. I think today is going to be a fantastic start of our business relationship.”

He releases me with a toss and I fall over, gasping for breath. He pushes a plate of scrambled eggs into the cell for Miranda. Mine, he holds over the top of the cage and dumps onto the floor.

“Eat up. You’re going to need your energy,” he says, before walking over to Green and Jackson. He offers them a taste of water and shoves a spoonful of food in their mouths. Both look nearly unconscious and I know the clock is ticking faster for them than us.

I pick up a handful of the runny eggs and hurl them at him. Ten wide eyes watch from the cages as it arcs overhead and lands against Butch’s neck with a wet slap.

He reaches to his neck and touches the goo before spinning in our direction. “Who did it?” he asks, but he stares at me, knowingly. A thin vein pulses on his forehead.

No one in the cage speaks and I just shrug. He gives us one last glance before storming back down the hall.

“You shouldn’t push him,” Miranda whispers. “It’s not worth it.”

I don’t reply but that little moment of defiance sparked something in me—so yeah, it was worth it. That’s what makes me different from the others. Walker and Wyatt boiled deep beneath the surface with well controlled rage. I refuse to allow the rules of this new world to take away my emotions. Sure, I have to bide my time, but I won’t bury it—not like the others. That anger keeps me going.

“Are you going to eat that?” Miranda asks, about the remaining eggs on the floor.

I shake my head and she and Rebecca scoop it up with their fingers. I sigh and look over at Walker, who’s deep in thought. No matter how we go about it, we both know that we need to get out of here—fast.

*

The morning drags. Men come in and out but head straight to the bar, haggling over various items. Most are skinny and ragged looking—none as well fed as those that linger at the bar or work for Butch. A few dare to look our direction but most ignore us. I can’t tell if it’s because we’re not worthy of notice or if the men are scared. I refuse to believe the whole town is behind the kidnapping and enslavement of women.

Lunch is served—but not to us. The smell of a meaty stew makes my empty stomach grumble and roll. Miranda says we only get fed twice a day. That is, unless you go to the back. If you get picked by one of the traders you’ll get a warm meal and a shower.

Unfortunately, it’s not worth the price.

Butch drifts in and out of the bar, cleaned up and never paying us much mind. It seems the sex traders, even now, like to hide their faces behind that two-way mirror. I’ve gone over every escape plan, every grand idea at least a dozen times and none click. The only way to get out of here is to get out of here. We need out of the cage. A weapon would help but so far I haven’t come up with a way to get one.

I’m in the middle of hunger-induced fantasy about breaking both of Butch’s legs when one of his men saunters up to the cage. I search his hands for water but he’s only carrying the key. Fear knots in my belly and I watch helpless as he unlocks the door and nods at Miranda. “Get up.”

Panic flashes in her eyes but she looks down at Rebecca. She juts her chin and pushes her shoulders back. I get it. If her sister can survive, so can she.

“You’re strong,” I remind her quietly but I struggle with the urge to vomit as the door clinks shut and they disappear down the hall.

“Any ideas yet?” I whisper to Walker around the lump in my throat.

“I just need an opportunity,” she replies, but doesn’t get a chance to explain further because the man who took Miranda returns alone. He’s headed back in our direction. Miranda said that in her time here the sex trade moved slow. Maybe one or two a day. People just didn’t have the funds or materials to barter. But the guard is back again, this time stopping at the other cage. My hands clench around the bars as he looks around Walker to Jane.

“New girl, yeah you,” he says, pointing to Jane. “You’ve been picked.”

Jane stands, brushing off her backside. If she’s scared, she doesn’t show it. My sister is a complete and utter enigma. She’s terrified of the smallest thing outside the Fort, but this guy? She looks at him like he’s beneath her. Well, just like she looks at the rest of us.

“That’s not going to happen,” Walker says, moving between the guy and Jane.

He laughs. “No? What are you going to do about it?”

There’s a beat, an infinitesimal pause, and I swear the guy realizes he’s screwed one second before Walker lunges at him. Faster than a blink she chops him across the windpipe with her hand while simultaneously kicking him in the knee. He flails and she grabs his arm, flipping him over her shoulder. He lands with a thud, his head cracking on the cement floor.

“Get the keys,” I shout to my sister, but she’s frozen, watching the scene unfold. I rattle the cage to get her attention. Rebecca stands next to me, eyes wide.

Walker’s got the guy on the ground, her foot crushing his throat, by the time three other men race from the back. The tell-tale sound of electricity buzzes in the air and I follow the noise, seeing the spark of a taser. Walker bolts for the door, racing past tables and toppling chairs but a burly man stands at the entrance, blocking her escape. Two of the men grab her, one getting punched in the nose in the process while the one with the taser tags her on the back of the neck. It takes two zaps, but she falls.

I wait for them to bring her back to the cage. Instead it takes two men, one with a bloody nose, to drag her in the other direction, down the hallway Miranda disappeared down earlier. Just as they turn the corner movement catches my eye and I see Jane walk out of the cage. Walk, not run. She kneels by the man Walker assaulted. She touches his cheek.

“Stop!” The remaining man shouts.  He grabs her by arm, holding the taser as a threat.

“He’s injured,” she says, barely sparing the man or the fired-up taser a second glance. She continues to check his pulse as though the man isn’t a threat. My sister is either more insane than I gave her credit for, or she has way bigger balls than I realized.

“Yeah, your friend beat the shit out of him. Back off. I’m not letting you do the same.”

“I’m a doctor,” she says. “I can help him.”

He pauses, taser still raised. He’s a medium-sized guy, balding and with more gray hair than not. Even now the saggy skin from his belly hangs behind the fabric of his Kentucky Wildcats T-Shirt. The hard lines on his face imply he’s not used to having a woman tell him what to do. At least not recently.

I don’t blame him for not wanting to take a chance after Walker’s assault. They don’t realize Jane’s harmless, although it’s pretty obvious.

“She really is a doctor,” I say. It’s a lie. Well, not the medical kind he’s talking about but she’s a doctor of sorts. “And she’s pretty useless in a fight.” He gives me a wary look. “Seriously, you should let her look at him.”

“I’ll zap you if you try anything.”

“And he’ll die from internal bleeding if you don’t let me help.” Jane sweeps her brown hair over her shoulder and begins her examination. Rebecca and Jennifer, the other girl from Jane’s cage, watch with me. They think they’re watching my sister perform an act of kindness. I know she’s never done such a thing in her life.

So I wait.

The injured man groans and coughs. From the cage I can see the bruises already forming on his neck.

“Help me turn him,” Jane says in an authoritative voice. When he doesn’t react she looks at him with hard gray eyes. “Now.”

He makes a decision and moves into action, kneeling by Jane and using both hands to gain leverage under his friend’s back. I eye the taser sticking out the back of his pants.

“Hold him like that,” she says, and I catch the tiniest movement with her left hand. She slips something out of her sock and in a quick stroke, she stabs the man in the neck. He grabs for the spot, his fingers finding the stick end of a needle, but his eyes roll to the back of his head before he can act.

She picks up the needle, inspects it, and puts it in her pocket.

I blink, shocked silent.

“Hurry!” Rebecca shouts. “Get the keys!”

“Oh right,” Jane says, removing them from the man’s belt. She moves slowly—why is she so slow? But Jennifer has already leapt from her open cage, picking them up. Before Jane has even taken a step, we’re free.

“What is that?” I ask Jane. I’ve already got the taser in my hand.

“A sedative. It should buy us some time.”

“You’ve had that all along? In your sock?”

“You fight with your weapons—I fight with mine.”

“We have to get Miranda,” Rebecca says, tugging my arm. I look at Green and Jackson, knowing they need to be released, but the women are in direct harm. I grab a knife from one of the men on the floor and hand it to Jennifer. “Cut their binds and get them off that wall.  If we make it out alive we’ll come back for them.”

She runs off and I turn to Rebecca. “Can you lead the way?”

“Yes, I know where the rooms are,” the girl says, her voice shaking.

I grab the remaining weapons off the two men on the floor. Two guns, a large hunting knife. I give one to each person, and keep one gun and the knife. Jane gets the taser. I’ve got no clue if they know how to use them or not.

Jennifer cuts the binds and the men fall to the ground in an exhausted, nearly unconscious heap.

“Come on,” I wave to lead with Rebecca.

The hallway is dark, having no windows for light, but Rebecca and Jennifer lead us quickly, their shoeless feet quiet on the hardwood floors. I’m impressed by their bravery but they know better than the rest of us how important it is to get out of here. As we approach the doors on the left side of the hall I hear a crash behind the door. Voices raise—a male and female. I reach for the handle, gun drawn.

“Watch the door and hallway,” I tell the others. Jennifer nods, brushing her hair out of her eyes. I twist the knob and fling the door open, revealing a bed with messy covers. The bed, thank god, is unoccupied. I step into the room and hold up my pistol.

By the footboard are three people. One is Walker. I’m not as surprised as I should be that she’s up, curly red hair wild around her face. I stare at the broken bottle she’s got up against Butch’s neck. Blood drips down the column of his throat and even though he’s trying not to look scared I see the fear in his eyes.

The other man is someone I’ve never seen but unexpectedly, has a long barreled rifle aimed at Butch. As soon as we enter he swings the gun on us.

“Easy,” I say, keeping an eye on the man. He wears thick black-rimmed glasses and has a slight build. Definitely cleaner and less redneck than the Winchesters. “Walker, you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she says, but the sound of heavy footsteps in the hall cuts off any reply and all eyes move to the doorway.

“Watch him,” I tell Walker as though she needs instruction. I push past the other women and see a skinny man coming our way. He’s one of the men that works behind the bar.

He’s carrying a gun with purpose but skids to a stop when he sees the three of us step into the hallway. I stand in the front, holding both the pistol and knife, willing him to force me to use either or both to get out of here alive. Jennifer holds up her knife, Rebecca aims her gun, and Jane flips the switch on the Taser. It buzzes to life.

The man is frozen, his greasy, shaggy hair flopping around his shoulders, and he drops his gun to the floor. “Don’t kill me,” he says, holding up his hands. “I’ll do whatever you want.”

I look over my shoulder at Butch. “Seems like you’ve got a traitor on your hands,” I say, flicking my eyes to the unidentified man who seems to be on our side. “If not two.”

“You know nothing, bitch,” Butch says spitting in my direction. Walker presses the glass to his throat and he swallows nervously.

The man next to him says, “Shut your mouth.”

“Who are you?” I ask, really looking at the man helping us. His skin is dark—a light brown, as well as his hair. He’s from the Middle East, Indian or Pakistani perhaps.  He’s slight but holds his weapon with confidence.

“I came for the girls, Rebecca and Miranda. I was sent by their father.”

Rebecca hears her name and peeks around the corner. Her face brightens for the first time since I’ve known her and she rushes into the room.

“Avi?

Avi.

His face breaks into a smile. “Beck, thank god. I’m sorry it took so long.”

I stare at him and hear a small sound behind me. I turn and face my sister. Her hands tremble and she stares at the man. She’s shaken for the first time since we were captured.

Yep, we’ve found the man we traveled all this way to find. My sister’s partner and the other half of PharmaCorp, Avi Patel.

Wyatt

Near Savannah, Georgia

Late Winter

The morning sunrise glints off the clean blade before I plunge it into the man’s stomach, jerking it upward for optimal damage. The light fades, but doesn’t fully extinguish from his beady eyes. I kick him in the wound and he falls over, knees hitting the pavement with a crack.

“You’ll never stop us,” he grinds out as his last breath.

I swing the blade and take off his head. It drops to the ground with a hollow thud.

“You’re probably right,” I agree to the corpse, wiping the blade on his shoulders, covering the purple bars with thick blood. “But I’ll keep trying anyway.”

*

At first, the sound of the waves is startling. Not because it’s unusual but because it’s familiar. The ocean hasn’t changed. The waves roll in and out. The tides shift.

It’s one of the reminders that we’re trespassers on this magnificent planet and nature will continue its daily rituals despite our destruction.

I sit on the weathered bench, tucked under a creaky gazebo, and stare out at the Atlantic. The sky is a winter gray, the wind cold and bitter. But there’s no smell of the dead out here, which is one reason why I like it so much. The breeze comes off the ocean—it’s fresh, salty, and untainted. Spring is on the horizon.

We followed Erwin’s plan, moving south to the coast. The ultimate goal was to build his army, increasing the size and skills of the recruits in preparation for the battle headed our way. As far as plans go it wasn’t the best one, but I’m a solider at heart and until I figure out my next move, I stay.

This first winter, nine months after civilization came to a screeching halt, was brutal. Even in the moderate south, the temperature and conditions brought complications we weren’t completely prepared for.  Fresh food disappeared, the gardens and farms frosted over or were consumed by efficient animals. We still had access to vehicles but they took constant maintenance and a rotating crew for siphoning gas. The generators we needed to run the base took most the fuel. The lack of central heat was something we’re unaccustomed to. The Army bases aren’t equipped with fireplaces or proper ventilation for fires. Clever members of Erwin’s team come up with solutions.

The apocalypse, quite simply, is an exhausting time to live in.

As the air turned colder, the people did, too. The living separated into two distinct groups. Reality settled into bones, occupied minds. Depending on how you wanted to face the future, some saw it only as a depressing, bleak horizon. Life was getting hard and it was only compounded by the fact that we continued to fight one another as well as the infected.

The other group, presented with the same reality, made the choice to work and build what we could. Nothing permanent, but learning to survive was a necessity. It made people desperate to join our cause even though they’d never seen or heard of a Hybrid in their lives.

Me?

I still had debts to pay.

Erwin doesn’t keep track of me as my official job is ’Scout’. I leave the camp on my own or occasionally with Jude, who has appointed me his mentor. I don’t mind passing along the tricks I’ve learned over the years and he’s got good instincts—I think from hunting at such a young age. Together or alone, I spend my days wandering the southern half of Georgia looking for signs of life—human, Hybrid, or Eater.

I play a game in my head as I comb the countryside—a game similar to the one Alexandra and I used to banter about on patrol. With each living being I track, I identify them into one of three categories; recruit, hide, or kill.

The new recruits train on the Eaters, learning to use the weapons in the armory at Erwin’s most recent base. It’s dirty work and there are casualties, but it’s a necessary evil.

The Hybrids? We keep an eye on them. Kill the ones that travel alone and hide from the ones that don’t. I haven’t seen Chloe herself since the battle at the Vaccine Center. Cole, either—although I assume he’s dead or toiling away in the PharmaCorp labs.

And Alex?

The last time I saw her she was headed into the belly of the beast, looking to stop this whole crazy war with her sister. All I know is that she failed and the Hybrids continue their push south. I haven’t heard word from her since that day and not one of the Hybrids I’ve caught gives me the information I need. I have little choice but to push the dark-haired girl with a big heart and a wise mouth out of my mind.

A chorus of feet beat on the boardwalk of the tiny beach house, racing in my direction. The children’s skin looks dark against the steel gray skies and white beaches, but their smiles are bright with glee. They pass me with barely a glance, kicking off their shoes and heading to the sand with shouts that are muffled by the waves.

I keep vigil while the children play, my gun always in hand. A hunting knife sits on the small ledge. The Eaters are few on this little stretch of the island—evacuated in the early days of the infection. A fire took half of the homes. A bad storm took a dozen more. I killed the remaining roamers before I ever let the children set foot near the place.

The smallest, Garrett, runs back to the boardwalk and my back straightens, looking for danger. There’s nothing but dunes, sea grass, and abandoned houses.

“Wyatt, Wyatt…” he calls, grabbing my coat with sandy hands. I check him for wounds.

“Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

He looks up at me with soulful, brown eyes and holds up his hand. Palm flat. “Look what I found.”

My worry subsides and I pick up the smooth, coiled shell. “Good find. I’ll put it with the others,” I tell him, slipping it into my pocket.

He runs back with the others and as unsure as I am about so many things in life, right now I do know I’ve followed her final request.  She didn’t want me to just take the kids back to become soldiers. She wanted more than that. She wanted them to live.

Chapter 4

“Hey man,” Davis calls, jogging across the airfield’s abandoned and weedy runway. Although he is still hulking, tall and muscular, my partner has slimmed down over the cold winter months like the rest of us.

“Morning.” I eye the fuzzy strip of hair over his lip. “You decide on a new look while I was gone?”

He falls into step and walks toward the mess hall with me. I ran out of food twenty-four hours ago. I just hope they’ve got something to eat in there. He runs a hand over the barely-there mustache. “Parker suggested it.”

I raise an eyebrow but keep moving. “Did she?”

He shrugs. “I thought I’d give it a shot. I mean, what else is there to do?”

He’s got me there. The worst part of the cold months was the ever-pressing boredom. We spent the first six months of the apocalypse in a never-ending battle. First with the Eaters. Then with Jane. Next with Chloe and the Hybrids. In hindsight, I think we may have just needed to be busy. The alternative leads to a variety of pastimes—the least damaging is growing facial hair at an attractive woman’s suggestion.

“How was your mission?” he asks. We approach the Mess Hall door and a solider quickly opens it from the inside. Even behind the walls the doors are locked. I nod at the kid, who can’t be older than sixteen. He’s dressed in a full combat uniform but that’s only because of the massive warehouse of clothing and supplies Erwin has access to. Even Erwin won’t send minors into the Death Fields; at least, not yet.

“They’re looking for us,” I confirm. “I killed three Hybrid scouts over the last twenty-four hours. They don’t know our exact location but they’re close.”

“Jude said the same thing; well, he killed two and lost track of one. He got back an hour ago.”

“In one piece?” It was his first solo scouting mission.

“A couple of scrapes, but yeah, he held his own.”

There’s a massive pot of oatmeal on the counter—no longer hot—but better than nothing. I scoop a bowlful and grab a spoon before heading to the long table in the middle of the room. It’s midmorning and the hall is quiet.

Davis sits across from me with a cup of muddy brown coffee in front of him. The lack of steam makes me think it’s as warm as my oatmeal but it feels better to have something on the stomach. “Erwin wants to start sending out teams to confront the Hybrids. He thinks it’s time to make a move.”

“We can’t hide here forever,” I agree. I stir the oatmeal, mashing out the lumps. Or try. It’s useless. “Although I’m not sure these new recruits are ready for what’s waiting out there.”

“The main problem is that the Hybrids don’t require a training period. They get the shot and transform into a supersolider.” He glances at the kid guarding the door. “We don’t have that luxury.”

“No, no we don’t.”

“But they’re coming anyway. How long do you think we have?”

“They’re just below Macon, heading straight down Highway 16, spread for miles on either side. It’s like they’re reenacting Sherman’s March.”

The reference is heavy with implication. By the time General Sherman torched his way through Georgia and got to the port town of Savannah, the town was prepared to beg for mercy. In the end they let the devil walk through the door, trading their lives for the cause so many--including their own blood--had died for. If we surrender it’s likely they’ll give us the EVI-2 shot, transforming all of us, men, women, and children, into supersoldiers.

Death would be preferable.

“So a couple weeks,” he guesses.

“At most.”

I focus back on my oatmeal. Davis nurses his coffee. Together we sit in silence.

Chapter 5

The firelight makes the soldiers look like demons—when really they’re just genetic abominations. Quiet laugher rolls through the men and women as one tells a joke. I can’t hear the words but it annoys me anyway. I’m cold, tired, and standing in wet boots. An owl hoots overhead, followed by a branch cracking. I stiffen and wait a beat, searching the shadows for movement, but none comes.

Alexandra called this ’apocalypse quiet”’where all the sounds of the mechanical world are gone and we’re left with the echoing booms of nature. It’s a mixture of pure silence plus amplified sound. Nothing makes it more noticeable than when you’re in the middle of the woods spying on a group of genetically enhanced soldiers that would just love to kill you.

“Settle down,” one of the voices says. “Let’s go over tomorrow’s assignment.”

The laughter fades instantly and there’s no sound but the snap and crackle of the campfire. All attention is on the leader. “Smith, Carson, and Miller—there’s a farm to the west. Scouts tell us there’s a large storage facility in the back. Take what you can carry.”

“Yes, sir,” they reply in unison.

There’s a pause and their leader continues, “Johnson—where are you?”

“Here, sir.” a female voice replies. She stands, her form blocking some of the fire from my view.

“There are at least ten survivors living there. Possibly more. Unvaccinated. You’ll need to take your kit and a team. Everyone over ten gets the ETV-2. The rest terminate.”

“Got it,’ she replies and then quickly adds, “Sir.”

I roll my eyes at their false efficiency. It’s easy to follow commands when you have no free will. The news about terminating children doesn’t surprise me. Chloe has no need for them which makes them expendable. She needs soldiers—nothing more, nothing less.

“The rest of us will hold the line. Our next major destination is the small town of Dublin. We’ll wait there for orders.”

This is all the information that I need but I wait a bit longer to move, even though I’d give anything to take a piss. I’m good in a fight, but going up against a whole squad is a death sentence. Something about the firelight and the shadows is playing tricks on me, and an unusual sense of paranoia inches over me.

The chatter amongst the soldiers slowly returns and I take miniscule steps away from the fire, careful not to put my full weight down. I make it to the road without incident but still can’t shake the feeling I’m being watched.

An hour later I meet up with Jude, who went to watch a second group camped in the opposite direction. He waits by an old gas station, leaning against the motorcycle he salvaged from the back of a barn about a month or so ago. While Davis grew his mustache and I cleared an island of Eaters, Jude tinkered and toiled, eventually getting the engine to run and the chrome bumper to shine. Erwin gave him access to the reserve of fuel we have at our disposal at the base. He owes us that much, otherwise our feet would be worn to nubs from walking so much.

“How’d it go?” I ask, taking off my gloves. He’s bouncing on his toes in an attempt to stay warm. Guess he’s been waiting on me for a while.

“What took you so long?”

“They were deep off the road. Took me forever to get out of the forest.”

He nods. “They’re headed south in two days—”

“Dublin. I heard.”

“Anything else?” he asks, pulling the helmet over his head. No one wants to survive the apocalypse and then die in a road crash. I tug a mud-splattered black one over my stocking-covered head.

“They’re giving the EVI-2 vaccine to some people tomorrow a couple miles away. Terminating those under ten.”

That’s all Jude needs to hear. It’s something we’ve decided together, along with other members of our original team. The kids come first even though they’re a pain to take care of. Jude gets on the bike and I sigh, regaled to the back. We’d had a fight about it in the beginning, no self-respecting man willingly rode bitch. I walked fifteen miles back to the base before he came back for me. Bitch, it is.

The engine kicks alive, shattering the apocalypse quiet. I hold on to the seat as Jude steers into the road and we’re shooting down the highway on a starless night.

With the motor buzzing in my ears and my chest vibrating with each mile, I consider how twice tonight Alexandra has been on my mind. If my math is right, it’s five times less than yesterday.

*

Behind the fortified fence line, sharp with barbs, blades, and creative alarms, the farm sprawls over many acres. The buildings are divided into two sections, operational and livestock. The smell of manure and pig present in the air. The house, Jude tells us after he gets back over the fence with only a thin scrape on his cheek, is over a hundred years old. The two-story, white clapboard home sits beneath massive, shade-providing oak trees.

“That’s where they live. My estimate is it’s an extended family, parents, kids, their kids, all living in there together.”

“Guards?” Davis asks. Our team is assembled just outside of the fence line. Jude scouted the property while we prepped by a small stream. I kneel on the dirt, arranging and checking my weapons.

“They’re not-unprotected. There’s a reason they’ve stayed alive this long. I suspect they’re good hunters, but it’s not a formal system. The Hybrids will take them quickly.”

Parker looks up the hill—where the dome of a silo breaks into the sky. “What’s in the other buildings?”

“Pre-crisis, this was a massive farm,” Jude explains. “There are multiple barns—some with livestock. Others with stores and equipment. There’s a large functional greenhouse which is pretty ingenious, if you ask me.”

“So they could have lived here for a long time if the Hybrids weren’t coming.” Parker adjusts her ponytail until it shifts into something like a bun. I glance at Davis and find him staring at her.

Jude rubs his chin. “I think so.”

“That sucks.”

I stand and dust off my knees. “We’re running out of time. I say we get started.”

“For the record,” Parker says, “I still think we should knock.”

“Noted,” I say. “And denied.”

She flips me her middle finger.

We stash our packs beneath a bush and cross over the fence line at what we’ve determined is the weakest point. The stream makes it hard to cover the ground without damming up the flow of water and that gives us a gap to breach. I take the first step into the creek, feeling the cool water soak through my toes, and wade downstream. One by one, we follow the exact same route through the barbed wire.  Wet and muddy, we make it through to the other side.

Paul slips away from the group. He’ll wait near the fence in case the Hybrids get here before we leave. His mixed up chemistry makes him faster than the rest of us, making him the best to leave at a distance.

It’s early morning, just before daybreak, and a light fog hovers over the fields. It’s a peaceful sight, really. Spring is near and the grass is turning green and the trees have little buds growing at the ends of their branches. The metal roof of the barn glints with the sunrise and I take an indulgent, brief second to bask in it.

A rifle cocks behind me and I snap back to reality. Davis stands behind me messing with the gun, not realizing he destroyed my moment. No matter, we have work to do and I take the lead, rushing toward the house.

The clapboard is rough against my hand as I catch my breath. One by one the others follow until we’re a dark speck of a line against the wood. Shrubs buffer the house and Davis tramples a flower garden with his massive boots. I nod, waving him on. He and Parker will go in the front door. Me and Jude, the back. We split into opposite directions, snaking around the house.

Lamplight warms the windows and the shadow of a person flickers across the window, moving with quick efficiency. The scent of bacon, oil, and fried eggs fills the air and my stomach churns with hunger.  We crouch beneath the window, guns raised.

I count down with my fingers. Three. Two. One.

On quiet feet I leap up the steps and storm the door, kicking it at the handle. The door swings in, slamming into the wall, a stack of dishes shatters to the floor. Booby-trapped.

Another crash sounds from the front of the house, like splintering glass. I step on the shards, crunching them under my boot. I turn left, into the kitchen, and find myself face-to-face with a woman with gray hair braided over her shoulder, holding an AK-47. It’s nicer than mine.

Jude crunches in behind me, hands up, another long rifle aimed at his back. Shit.

I don’t lower my gun, not yet, and Davis appears in the doorway behind the woman, hands up. Parker follows, there’s no mistaking the irritation on her face. We’re surrounded.

“Put the gun down, son,” the woman says, her voice gravely with age, and I reluctantly lower my weapon. One of the other women grabs it from my hand. “Thank you.”

“We’re not here to hurt you,” I begin, but whatever leverage I may have had has zapped out of the room. “We’re here with a warning. You’re in danger.”

“Is that so?” Lines crease in her forehead, but she never lowers the gun. I’m waiting for her to shoot us. Feed us to the pigs that made that bacon or maybe just eat us for dinner when she says in an easy tone, “Well if that’s all you wanted to do, you should have just knocked.”

Chapter 6

“Now,” she says, with that strange, friendly tone. “Help clean up this mess and I’ll fix you some breakfast.”

“What?” Jude asks, eyes wide.

“You heard me.” She nods at the broken plates all over the floor. “The broom is in that closet.”

With an incredulous expression, Jude does as he’s told and the woman turns to the wood burning stove under the window as though this is a normal day—a normal moment—at their farm. A bowl of eggs sits on the counter along with greens and a slab of cured meat. Children’s plastic dishes are stacked in the sink and the drawings taped to the refrigerator haven’t escaped my notice.

I know there are others on this farm. Children and some men. Why she hasn’t made to call for them is beyond me. Parker moves to help Jude and it gives me a chance to check out the other women in the room.

They look similar—sisters probably—in their mid-twenties or a little older. Brownish-red hair and hazel eyes. Freckles dot the fair skin on their faces. The more I look, the more I consider that the Crisis must have aged them, like it’s done the rest of us. I’ve spotted more than one gray hair in my own beard lately. They aren’t hardened, though. More like confident, but there’s a quiver in the way one holds the gun, like something isn’t quite right. Although, the blonde behind Davis squares her shoulders and holds her finger on the trigger in a way that gets my attention.

“By the way,” the lady at the stove says. “My name is Dorothy. Those are my daughters. Sabrina,” she points to the one that brought in Jude. “And Tabitha.”

“Listen,” I say, “Dorothy.” I take a step further into the kitchen. Gun barrels follow my every move but I keep my hands in the air—and my distance. “I’m very serious when I say you’re in danger.”

She cracks an egg on the side of an iron skillet and wipes her hands on a dishrag hanging nearby. The egg sizzles from the heat and in the same pan she adds strips of bacon.  She turns to face me. “What’s your name, son?”

“Wyatt. That’s Davis and Jude and Parker. We’re working with a still functioning branch of the military and it’s important we evacuate this area immediately.”

“The military?” She looks over at Sabrina, who shrugs. “We haven’t heard of any military around here.”

“We’ve been further north and then recently south,” Davis chimes in. “There’s a threat coming this way.”

“You mean the infected?” she asks. “Because we’ve handled them before. We don’t need your assistance taking care of those nasty beasts.”

“I’m sure you don’t. You seem more than capable.” But her hands shake when she shakes pepper into the pan. She’s scared of something and it isn’t us.

“Ma’am,” Jude chimes in, his accent fully southern. A full dustpan in his grip. “What we’re talking about is worse than the infected. It would be in your best interest to come with us right away, gather any other residents and evacuate with us to safety.”

The women glance at one another while the room fills with the sound and smell of frying bacon. I think for a minute we’ve convinced them but their solemn expressions shift to one of amusement and then to outright laughter.

“Wyatt,” Dorothy says. “I’m sure you mean well. Or maybe not—I can’t tell from that handsome face of yours what your angle really is—but if you’d like to stay for breakfast before moving on that’s fine. If not? We’ll have to handle this another way.”

There’s a beat, one where there’s not a sound in the room but the crackling frying pan. I touch my hand to my hip and chaos rips through the room as my team attacks as a well-oiled unit. Davis spins and bats the gun away, knocking it to the ground with a clatter. Parker steps on Tabitha’s foot, while Jude fights for the rifle. She hits him once above the eye, and blood drips down his face, but Parker elbows her in the ribs and she bends, crying out in pain.

Davis is double the size of Sabrina and even after he picks the gun up off the floor and holds it to her chest, she juts her chin out, still trying to look strong.

They all look at me, where I’ve got Dorothy against the cabinet, knife from her butcher block to her throat. With my free hand, I take the pan off the stove.

In a low, serious tone, I say, “I need you to get ready to leave. Tell me where the men and children are hiding. We’re running out of time.”

Something clatters on the ceiling above, followed by soft footsteps. I glance up at the same time a child squeals somewhere upstairs. Parker’s eyes meet mine. I nod for her to check it out.

“Don’t,” Dorothy says. “Don’t go up there.”

“I’m not going to hurt children,” Parker says, pausing at the door. “I was a teacher once upon a time, for God’s sake.”

“It’s not that,” the older woman says with a whisper. “There’s someone up there with them.”

“Your men?” Davis asks, thinking like I am that it seems stupid not to send us up there to our fates.

“No, a man.” She swallows. “Not one of ours. He tied them up and locked them in the cellar.”

“There are no bullets in these guns but he told us he’d kill the kids. He’d kill all of us—”

“Sabrina!” Dorothy whisper shouts at her daughter.

“Mother!” she replies, exasperated. The defiance she wears isn’t just for show. “He knew you were coming. You’ve got to help us.”

I nod and take my gun back from Tabitha. She points to the hallway and to the back stairs. Her hand clenches around my upper arm and gives me a warning. “He’s not normal.”

*

There’s little doubt I’m about to walk straight into a trap. I want to kick myself for not following my instincts two nights ago when I felt like I was being watched. The post-apocalyptic world tends to make me a little paranoid, skewing my judgment. Or maybe not.

Jude and Parker clear the women out the kitchen door, promising to come back for the men downstairs. I hear Davis instruct them to burn the barns and storage facilities. We can’t afford to hand this farm over to the Hybrids. Davis follows me, but the stairs leading to the upper floor are narrow and steep, only allowing one of us to head up safely. I pass the framed portraits angling down the wall, identifying Sabrina and Tabitha with their husbands and kids.

With a glance down the stairwell, I spot Davis waiting at the bottom of the stairs, his stupid mustache the last thing I see before I round the corner.

The ceilings are low and I duck down to clear my head. I count four doors, two on either side of the long hallway. Faded wallpaper lines the hall. I pause and wait, hand tight around the grip of my gun. He’s good, whoever’s waiting for me behind one of the doors, but I’m not bad. I’ll just have to be better to get out of here alive.

Sure enough, he gives me what I need, the floor squeaking with a whine down the hall to the left. A shadow moves under the door.  Taking a deep breath I move fast, although I have no doubt whoever’s up here is biding his time, waiting on me.

I push the door open quickly and it swings wide, revealing the room of a child—a boy—stars and rocket ships painted on the walls. My eyes land on the bed to the four children sitting there, mouths gagged with brightly colored handkerchiefs. Their eyes are wide but not at me. They’re focused on the space behind the door and I feel rather than see the barrel of the gun pressed to my temple.

“Hey, now,” I say. “I’m just here to check on the kids.”

Out of the corner of my eye I see the familiar uniform of black and understand with a sinking feeling what Tabitha meant by not normal. The Hybrids beat us to the house—or at the very least knew we would be here before them. I fear for my team’s lives downstairs more than I do for my own.

I catch the eye of one of the kids, a little girl, reddish hair in two pigtails that reminds me of Alex and my heart kicks my brain into gear. I wink at the girl and spin on my heel, pushing the gun out of my face and kicking the Hybrid in the knee. He’s caught by surprise and I punch him in the jaw while reaching for my gun. His head snaps back quickly but before I blink he’s pointing a sharp hunting knife inches from my eye. My gun is aimed at his chest.

Breathing heavy, and trying not to make any sudden moves, my eyes dart from the purple on the Hybrid’s shoulders to the unfamiliar hue of his eyes, wondering what fresh hell I’d stumbled into.

I shake my head, taking too long to find my voice. Cole does it for me, breaking the silent standoff with a lazy southern drawl. “Nice to see you too, Wyatt.”

Chapter 7

I’m pretty unflappable, even before the infection rolled through the human race.  I’ve seen terrible, awful things as a by-product of war and every time I just do my job, never wavering from my mission.

But seeing Cole in a traitor’s uniform, dark eyed and just different, I’m momentarily stunned. Even so, that simple fact makes me hold my weapon firm.

“I can tell you have a lot of questions,” he says, lowering the knife. “I can give them to you, but not today. Today you need to get these children out of here and back to the safety of your base before the others come.”

Make that twice he renders me speechless.

“Wyatt?” he prompts.

I hear the kids shifting on the bed but I keep my eyes on the man—or whatever the hell he is—in front of me. I do finally manage to say, “I’m gonna need a little more explanation than that.”

“And I’ll give it you to, but the Hybrid squad will hit the fence line in fifteen minutes and neither of us want to be here when that happens. We both want the same thing. To get these kids out of here.” He sniffs the air. “Jude and Parker have set the buildings on fire. You may want to make that ten minutes. They’ll smell it too and pick up the pace.”

I jerk my head toward the kids and command, “Get up—go down stairs. There’s a bear of man at the bottom. He’ll take you to your mothers.”

They don’t have to be told twice, jumping off the bed and brushing past me to get out the door. We listen to their feet on the hardwoods and echo down the stairs. I angle my back to the door.

“Go with them and don’t let Davis come up here—things could get nasty.”

He walks toward the window, still facing me. Neither of us let down our guard—not for a second. With one hand he unlatches the window and slides it open. “I’ll answer all your questions. Tomorrow night. On the overpass bridge on route 128. Mile marker 16.”

“What time?”

“Midnight. Bring whoever you want to stand guard but I need to talk to you alone.”

He’s got one leg outside the window already and ducks his head to get all the way though. I hear the backdoor slam and Davis shouts my name from below. I glance away for just a second and when I look back at the window again, he’s gone. Only the moving curtains signal that he was ever here.

Chapter 8

Paul tells us later that we got the family off the property only minutes before the Hybrids arrived. Black smoke billowed in the air, coating us with a thin layer of soot. All in all, we managed to save the occupants on the farm and we brought four men, including teenagers, the three women, and the four children to the base and dropped them at quarantine.

At first I say nothing about Cole being at the house, focusing instead on getting back to the base. But once we’re fed, showered, and prepping for the mission to Dublin, I know it’s time to tell them.

The team sits around a circular table in one of the lounges. Many of the rooms in the building are useless but this one has windows, making it functional during the day. Each location we occupy has fewer modern luxuries. We’re slipping away from the convenience of electricity and fuel. This place isn’t bad but I suspect the next will be worse. But for now, there’s water in the showers, even if it’s cold.

I tell them what happened when I went upstairs, what and who I found. I described his appearance. His tone and the changes I noticed during our brief exchange.

My revelation is met with silence. I understand. I was stunned as well—still am. We all assumed Cole was dead or at the very least slaving away down in the labs beneath the Hybrid-run PharmaCorp.

“Cole is a Hybrid.” Parker makes this a statement more than a question.

“Yes.” I think for a moment. “Well, maybe.”

“There’s no such thing as a maybe Hybrid,” she says back.

“No?” I let my gaze land on Paul who, as usual, listens more than speaks during meetings. “Then what do we call him? Because we all know he’s got a little bit of something unexplainable going on.”

The changes in Paul are noticeable to all of us, but have never been addressed as a group. The increase in muscle mass. His speed. The darker shade in his already brown eyes. Some of that acceptance was out of respect to Alexandra and their friendship, but she’s gone and he’s still here and we need some answers.

“I’m not a Hybrid,” he says.

“No one said you were—exactly,” Davis chimes in. “Your temperament is even and you definitely have independent thought, but I’ve spent the majority of my life in gyms and with weightlifters and I’ve never seen someone’s body composition change so quickly.”

“Right,” I say. “That’s how Cole is, too. He isn’t angry. He was reasonable and there’s no doubt he was disobeying orders. He wanted out of there before the Hybrids got to the farm.”

“Or so he said,” Jude interjects.

“Was he bigger?” Parker asks, giving Paul an apologetic glance. “Physically?”

“It was hard to tell under the clothes, but he was faster for sure. More confident. I’ve fought with Cole dozens of times, as have all of you. He’s capable and a good marksman but I never had a concern he’d gain an upper hand on me.”

Jude raises an eyebrow. “Did he?”

“It was closer than I’d like to admit.”

“Okay,” says Parker. “Say he’s a Hybrid and working for his sister. Maybe she sent him to mess with you. Screw with your head. It could just have been to a trap for later?”

“Chloe is vindictive and whatever Jane gave her made her unhinged, but I can’t see her letting those kids and the others go just to mess with me. Particularly not the farm itself. That place could have housed and fed them for months. He had the upper hand the whole time. He had a gun on me before I even stepped in the room.”

“Wyatt and I both heard the orders the other night—from two different camps. They wanted that family and the children and adolescents were mentioned specifically,” Jude says, tapping his fingers on the table. “Why does he want to meet tonight?”

I shrug. “He said he’d answer my questions. I guess I’ll find out then.”

“So you’re going?” Parker asks.

“Yes, I’m going.”

She and Jude both look wary. Paul and Davis don’t. I nod at the former. “You’ll be my back up.”

Paul nods, understanding that my request conveys a level of trust. He may also be the only one to get me out of trouble if this whole thing is a set up. “Got it.”

“The rest of you stick to the plan. Head to Dublin with the other units, take the higher ground before the Hybrids get there. It may be the only chance to hold them up before they find the base.” They note that I don’t say stop, because I think we all know right now there is no stopping them, but we can buy some time.

Davis scoots his chair away from the table and asks, “Does Erwin know?”

“Not yet. Let me get a better handle on this first and what it means.”

The informal meeting ends and the team disperses to other areas of the base. I bend to tie the lace on my boot. When I look up they’re gone, and it’s just me and Paul. He studies me carefully, leaning his elbows on the table in a way that reveals how large his biceps have become. I can’t determine if he’s trying to intimidate me. It’s effective, if so.

“Is something wrong?” I ask.

“Why are you really meeting him?”

“He asked me for the meeting—not the other way around. I do have questions I need answered. I’m not one to waste an opportunity.”

A small line forms on his forehead. “Then why don’t we ambush him? Take him captive? Use him for information.”

I finish the knot, securing it in place. “Who says I’m not?”

*

The moon is high and bright, making the walk to the bridge feel like I’ve got a spotlight on my back. I leave Paul under the awning at a smashed and looted convenience store a half a mile down the road.  It’s hard not to feel like the last man on earth in moments like this. Deep in the country, no buildings or even abandoned vehicles. Just miles and miles of nothing. A cool wind blows as I approach the overpass, but the hairs on my neck lay flat. The night seems peaceful. I hope I’m right.

Cole’s blond hair reveals his position, leaning casually against the metal guardrails. His wide shoulders are relaxed, I see no weapons in his hand. Mine are safely within reach but tucked away. Once we fought side-by-side and until twenty-four hours ago, I didn’t know any different. Cole and I survived the early days of the apocalypse together, held together by one thing—one person. As I draw near I wonder if her being gone is the reason he wears those stripes on his shoulder. If that’s true then any hope of Alex being alive evaporates.

“Thanks for coming,” he says. “I understand this situation is a little unconventional.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “I’m not going to lie, Cole. I don’t exactly know what angle you’re playing.”

He smiles and points to the bars on his shoulder that signifies he’s part of the Hybrid army. “Because of these?”

“Partially.”

“Would it help if I explained it to you?”

I exhale and move to the railing and sit next to him. “I’m all ears.”

“That night you showed up at the antique store in north Georgia while we were traveling toward the Vaccine Center and told Alex that Chloe was waiting to ambush us, something in me snapped. I was out of my mind with anger and rage toward my sister. I was tired of her hurting people—particularly the ones I cared about. I needed to get away from everyone and deal with her on my own terms.”

“You thought you could take her down alone?” I ask.

“I thought maybe I could get to her first and talk some sense into her. But Erwin’s units had her surrounded and the Hybrids were on high alert. I had to wait until the Resistance broke down the walls before I could sneak in.”

“I was pretty out of it,” I tell him. “Hayes wanted to kill me—but he also wanted to do it in front of an audience. By the time you got there I was only half conscious.”

“You looked like shit. Like, I actually thought you were dead, or at least dying.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Thanks. But yeah, I was close.”

“It fueled my rage, but I was a human and I knew that unless my sister took mercy on me when she escaped, her Hybrids would kill me. Thankfully, some bonds go even deeper than genetic manipulation.” He turns and looks over the bridge. There’s nothing but a deserted train track below, weeds already snaking across in an attempt to reclaim the space to nature. “She didn’t kill me. She saved me just like I hoped, and when I woke up in a medical bed at The Fort, I asked her to do something for me.”

I have a feeling I already know, but I ask anyway. “What was that?”

“I asked her to inject me with the Hybrid vaccine.”

I turn now to look at him. The bright moonlight allows me to take in his darker eyes that used to blaze blue just like his sister’s, and all of the other visible attributes he gained with his transformation. Beyond that I see the compassion on his face and the friendliness that has existed between us for the last year. I feel confident when I ask, “So why aren’t you like the others?”

His eyes light up and a smile breaks on his face. Laughing he says, “So you noticed?”

“I noticed you’re not a robotic, mind-controlled, killing machine like the other Hybrids I’ve run up against.”

“The night Alex’s father met with her to give her the vaccines we brought home a survivor we met on the road. Her name was Josie. You killed her partner, Trucker, in the house.”

I recall a big guy coming after me. He was strong and determined. Unfortunately, I had a mission to complete. “Yeah, I remember him.”

“She and her crew had been victims of Jane’s extensive vaccine tests before they escaped.”

“Like Paul.”

He nods. “Exactly, like Paul. I’d suspected from the beginning that something was going on with him. I mean, obviously, but when Josie came back with us she agreed to let me do some continued research and I had something to compare.” An owl hoots overhead and the wind rustles in the trees. “I discovered layers of the vaccine in their systems, but Paul had something different. He had the markers from EVI-1 in his system as well as EVI-2.”

“They gave him both.”

“They gave everyone in that building both.” Cole wasn’t with us when we rescued Paul from the bombed-out school, but Alex filled him in later. We thought the school was a basic evacuation center from the early days of the original Crisis. It was actually a testing facility for Jane’s vaccination trials. The subjects, like Paul, had been dosed with several varieties of the vaccine before an outbreak occurred and the entire place was overrun by Eaters from inside the facility. Jane’s forces attempted to put down the infected by bombing the hell out of the building. Jane is a brilliant scientist but not the most skilled at warfare. The bomb released a horde of Eaters into the wild where we found and followed their trail back.

Paul and several other survivors were hidden in the back of the school. We brought them back to the Vaccine Center and he recovered but turned into something more. I eye Cole. Something exactly like the man standing before me now.

“You and Paul were given the same doses, which caused a result Jane wasn’t prepared to deal with. Which is why they tried to destroy it,” I say, the pieces clicking together. “Jane accidentally made a scenario with a Hybrid more powerful and independent minded than what she wanted.”

“Yep,” Cole says. “A free-thinking, ethical being with the body composition of a super solider.”

“Holy shit.” I hold his eye. “So you asked for it. You wanted this.”

“At the time I thought I would help me stop Jane. But now that she’s no longer in control of The Fort—”

I grip his arm. “Wait…what?”

“You don’t know?” He frowns and studies my face. “After all this time? I’ve followed you up and down the state. Watching you watch us, but you never realized what happened at The Fort last fall?”

“I have no clue what you’re talking about. The furthest we got was the outer gates before winter. We went to—”

“To what?”

I struggle to find the words, particularly with him. Alexandra’s relationship with Cole was definitely more defined than whatever she and I shared. If anyone had the right to chase her down it was Cole, but that nervous feeling I had earlier spreads.

“You know, track down Alex. Make sure she got inside. But the outer gate was stacked with Hybrids. After a week of looking for way in, we gave up. She’d made her intentions clear when she went up there. As much as it hurt to give up on her, we figured she was either dead or prisoner.”

The worry lines on Cole’s face deepen and I fight the wave of grief I’d suppressed for so long. But talking about this with Cole—her actual boyfriend--my feelings are real even if inappropriate. I grab onto the metal guardrails and stare into the night. God, this was shitty.

“Wyatt,” he says. “Alex isn’t dead.”

His words land like a punch and I take several steps back. “Is Jane—no, you said Jane was no longer in control, which means…” Again the picture comes into a sharper image and I straighten up. “Is Chloe holding her captive?”

“No, she’s not a captive. Not as far as I know.”

“Is she okay? Or did she…did she take the second vaccine like you?” I can see her making the same choice as Cole if she was given the chance. When she left that day she was determined to stop her sister by any means necessary. Cole had finally found the way.

“Wyatt, my sister held a coup on the Fort before winter and won. She’s the one driving the Hybrids deeper and deeper south. She’s the one hunting Erwin’s army.” He looks at me. “Alex and her sister escaped as the regime changed. They escaped.”

“You’re sure?”

“Absolutely. I helped them get away.”

I’m overwhelmed with relief and it takes me a minute to speak again. “Okay good. Good. That’s all I wanted to know. Her whole goal was to stop Jane. It sounds like Chloe inadvertently helped her succeed in her mission. At least one of us got out of this God-forsaken war, right?”

“Right,” he says, his voice hesitant. “Although, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“The God-forsaken war? Yeah, I don’t see much way out of it. I’m committed to stopping your sister.”

“Me too,” he agrees. “That’s my primary goal, which is why I need you to do something—for the greater cause.”

I’m not ready to make any deals with him. Not yet. Not without talking to my team about it and reporting back to Erwin. We knew the Hybrids had a different sort of power lately. What Cole told me explains why. Even though I’m hesitant, my job is to get as much information as possible so I lean back on my heels and say, “What do you need me to do?”

Another owl hoots deep in the trees, the only witness to our conversation. I should be surprised when he asks me, but if I think on it, there’s no other reason for him to drag me out here in the middle of the night.

No other person that warrants both of our concern.

He shoves his hands in his pockets and looks every bit the human I first met on the trail a year ago when he says, “I need you to find Alex.”

Chapter  9

The main intersection of historic Dublin looks every bit like a ghost town when Paul and I enter just before dawn. They’re subtle, but I see the hints that the rest of our team is here, waiting in position. They came early, before nightfall, to avoid any roaming Eaters on the streets. The infected are left for the Hybrids to deal with.

Paul and I take our spots on assigned rooftops lining Main Street. He heads to the old pharmacy, positioned at the edge of the town. I circle around back to the alley and climb the ladder left by the others to the flat roof over the cinema. Erwin’s men and women are up here, crouched and ready. They’re the best shooters according to the skills assessments the General hobbled together from his growing army.

I pass a woman named Margaret and sit with my back against an air conditioning unit. “Everything go okay?” she asks, unaware of the real purpose of my scouting trip.

“They should be here soon—maybe fifteen minutes.” If the intel Cole gave me is accurate. Truth be told, my mind is reeling from everything he told me during our hour together. Not just the Hybrid stuff or his choices, although that’s a tough nut to swallow, but what came after, the request about Alex. I have a difficult decision to make.

I close my eyes to clear my head but just run through his revelations again and again.

“Alexandra is up north, in the small town of Catlettsburg, Kentucky, where Jane had access to a second, small compound on the Ohio River,” Cole said on the bridge.

“Another PharmaCorp?”

“No,” he shook his head. “It’s a little town set aside by her former partner who didn’t have the same ideas about the future of society as Jane did. From the documents Jane left behind it seems like it could be a good place to settle down. Unfortunately, my sister knows where they are and the infection in her brain makes her do crazy things. She’s obsessed with tracking Jane down and finishing what she started at The Fort.”

I frown. “Then why is she down here? Why spend months fighting a bunch of farmers and housewives?”

“Dr. Ramsey and I had finally come up with some solid research on how the E-TR virus takes over a human’s body. After the parasite digs into the hosts brain it spreads, triggering the need to attack others and spread the virus. Chloe’s brain does the same thing but on a different cognitive level. Her mind and body are consumed with the same need to conquer and multiply but she does it with her army.”

I must have looked confused. I felt confused, and when I didn’t react right away he continued. “Chloe will take over every inch of the South. There’s no stopping her. No reasoning—trust me—I’ve tried. I think that part of her brain stem is fried. Once she overpowers Erwin’s Army and every other survivor she collects along the way, she’ll convert them into Hybrids and head north.”

“And she’ll do the same up there.”

“Town by town, city by city. Once the Midwest is taken, she’ll go for the coasts.”

“And the people up there? Do they have the vaccine?”

“From what I understand, the inoculation rate is minimal once you cross the Tennessee state line.”

What Cole was telling me was that Chloe planned on expanding her Hybrid Army across the entire country. “You want me to find Alex so that she can be ready so that—”

“They can be prepared to fight. If not, we’re screwed. I don’t see a way back from a fight like that.”

I rub my eyes, blinking at the sliver of sunrise to the east. Cole and I parted a short time after that and I met up with Paul down the road.

A bird calls somewhere nearby. Once—then twice—and I get to my knees and mimic the sound back.

“They’re here?” Margaret asks. She clutches a rifle in her hands. I think she used to work as a waitress. Now, in her camouflaged uniform, she looks like an eager solider on her first mission.

“Good luck, Margaret,” I tell her. I already know this will be my last battle fought for Erwin, at least for now. I tip the nozzle of my gun over the edge of the building and watch for the first Hybrids to appear in the scope. It may be my last, but I also plan on going out with a bang.

*

In the shower I lean against the cool tile wall and let the water wash the grime off my body. There’s no soap that will clean off the residue of murder.  Even though the Hybrids are dangerous, technically they are still human, and their blood flows red like my own. We had little choice but to slaughter them as they rode into Dublin.

The water is cold but I’m used to it and he helps me stay awake. I’m too distracted to care much anyway. I watch the water--now clean--swirl around the drain, and contemplate the conversation ahead. It’s enough to keep me in here even longer but an impatient cough from outside the stall encourages me to finish up. I step out, towel wrapped around my hips, and pass Davis, who has been waiting.

“Did you save me any hot water?” he asks with a sarcastic grin.

“Steaming.”

I move to the sink and pick through the small case I carry, deciding to clean up my beard before hitting the road. I’ve decided I’m leaving ASAP. I just have to take care of a few things first.

“So how was the meeting?” Davis asks, voice echoing off the cement block walls.

“Informative.”

“Anything you can share?”

I stare at my face in the mirror. God I look like shit. Crow’s feet tug at the corner of my eyes and purple bags prove how little sleep I actually get. “I have a decision to make. Well, I’ve made it. I’ll give you and the rest of the team the same choice.”

“When?”

“Tonight.”

Davis doesn’t reply. He trusts me. I trust him. We’re brothers out here and I know he’ll go if I ask him to. But they need to understand what we’re taking on. We clean up quietly. By the time he’s out of the shower I’m dressed in baggy fatigues and walking out the locker room door. I tell him to meet me in the lounge and to bring the others.

There’s something I must do before I meet with my team, and I walk out of the bunkers and down to the infirmary. I pass two soldiers guarding the door. They scramble to attention when they see me, saluting like I’m their superior. In theory I probably am, but we don’t have official rankings here. At least, I don’t. I nod anyway and the door is unlocked from the inside. One whole section has been cleared for inoculations.

I walk down the hallway, past a few rooms with moderately ill people. Sickness hit the base over the winter. The flu, colds, a few cases of strep. We’re less likely to bring in a person with the ETR infection these days than someone with lice or nutritional deficiencies. If we can help them they come here. If we can’t, the Crisis takes another soul.

At the end of the hall I come to an office door and rap on the glass window twice with my knuckles. I enter the room and find Dr. Ramsey working next to a battery powered lantern, taking notes.

“Ah, Wyatt,” he says looking up at me. “How are you today?”  His glasses reflect the light. They’re new—the old ones were broken in the fight with Chloe. Jude and I found racks and racks of prescription glasses in Walmart outside of Tifton and brought them to the base strapped to the back of his motorcycle. Dr. Ramsey got first pick.

“I’m good, sir. Survived my latest mission.”

“That’s about all we can ask for these days.”  He leans back in his chair and points to the one across the desk for me to take.  “What can I do for you?”

I sit in the cracked leather chair and rub my hands on my knees. “I have some news. About your daughters—they’re alive and together.”

Hope sparks in his eyes and he leans across the desk. “At the Fort?”

“No, they’ve escaped and were headed north—somewhere Jane had connections. She’s no longer Director of the Fort. Seems there was a coup and Chloe has taken over.”

“I suppose that explains what happened at the Vaccine Center and the increase in Hybrids. Jane no longer had control of them.”

“Exactly.”

“And you trust Cole?”

“I think he’s giving me solid information.”

“Any chance it’s a trap?” he asks me.

I exhale and stare at the lantern. “Possibly, but—”

“You’re going after my daughter.” His eyes hold mine. A father knows, I guess.

“Yes, to warn her of the impending battle.”

“To warn her.”

I swallow and nod. I’ve never spoken to a woman’s father like this—even vaguely discussing my intentions. “I made a promise to keep her safe at the beginning of this Crisis and deliver her to you and the Director. Turns out she doesn’t need me to fight her battles. She’s strong as hell, but that doesn’t alter my personal mission. Circumstances may have changed but that basic promise hasn’t wavered over time.”

“You’re a good man, Mr. Faraday, in a day and age where good men are definitely not the norm.” The declaration means more to me than it should. “Tell my daughters hello when you see them. Tell them that I love them and if God is willing, I’ll see them again.”

“Thank you, Sir.” I stand. “And I will. I’ll get to them and I will let them know.”

I leave the room and I hope Erwin can keep Dr. Ramsey keep alive long enough to see his daughters once more.

*

“The Hybrids are coming,” I say to my team—my friends. They’re squeaky clean, with damp hair smelling of shampoo and soap. “And they won’t stop until we’re dead.”

“We kicked their asses today,” Jude says. His eyes are still charged with adrenaline from the fight. “We can take them.”

“No,” I shake my head. “No, we can’t. That’s what I learned from Cole today.”

Jude scoffs. “You trust him? He’s one of them.”

“Chloe has a plan and Cole revealed it to me in its entirety. This whole base, and the soldiers and survivors in it, are just a means to a bigger end. If we don’t get out now, we probably never will.”

“Okay, then what’s her big plan?” Paul says, arms crossed over his chest. I’d already given him the bare facts about his vaccines and why it made him different. He’d quietly absorbed that information and then jumped into the fight in Dublin. I now do my best to explain it to the group.

Davis frowns so hard I think maybe he’s going to break his brain, but he finally says, “If Chloe finds out that the two vaccines combined will results in making a Hybrid-Hybrid—”

“A Mutt,” Jude interjects.

Davis sighs. “If they make a Mutt what will she do?”

“She’ll kill everyone on that has the first vaccine,” Paul replies.

The implications are heavy. People down here will die. Many will. It feels like I’m running. Maybe I am.

“Right now she has no idea what happens when you mix the two vaccines. Cole has managed to keep this from her by acting like the other Hybrids and basically just keeping off her radar,” I clarify. “It’s possible Erwin and those who stay can get the jump on her.”

“Maybe,” Davis says. “But what if she figures it out and just destroys everyone. What if she wins?”

I look around the table. Everyone is listening. “That’s why I’m here to let you know that I’m headed north. If she wins and she secures Erwin’s army as her own, she’s going north. Specifically, Western Kentucky.”

“What’s in Kentucky?” Parker asks.

Paul answers before I can. “Alex.”

I tense my jaw while the others look between us. “Yes,” I admit. “How did you know?”

He shrugs. “Just a guess, but it makes sense. Cole wants you to find her.”

I take a minute to explain everything Cole told me about Jane’s compound in Kentucky and what Chloe’s plans are once she crosses Tennessee. Their expressions turn grim as the reality of how big the battle ahead is going to be.

“So you’re leaving?” Jude asks. He leans back in his seat, arms crossed over his chest. “I guess the only surprise is you telling us.”

“Jude…” Parker warns.

“No,” I hold up my hands. “It’s a fair statement. Usually I come and go. I know that. I haven’t always been a consistent member of this team, but I’ve always had your back. This is my offer to let you know if you want to come with me, I’m happy to have you. Each of you have proved yourself capable in a fight. But don’t feel obligated. Hell, I wouldn’t begrudge you if you packed a bag and made a run for it. Things are about to get rough no matter what decision you make.”

“When are you headed out?” Davis asks.

“In two days. I need to give Erwin a heads up. I’m headed there in the morning.” I have one other stop to make first, but I keep that one to myself. I look around the table, meeting the eyes of my team members and friends. “Meet me at the front gate at 6 a.m. if you’re coming. If not, no hard feelings and good luck.”

Chapter 10

Erwin reacts to my announcement about the Hybrid Army as though he knew it was inevitable all along. He agrees to my final requests and slips me a small, heavy envelope with instructions to open if I’m ever in a jam.

“When Chloe finds out the two vaccines combined cause a uncontrollable variation of super soldier, she’s going to burn this place to the ground,” I tell him. “There’s still time to run.”

The General leans back in his seat. “I’ve never been one to run from a fight.”

“And everyone else?” I brought a lot of the civilians in personally. I’m not sure this is the end they saw coming.

“I’ll give them a choice, but I bet more will end up with me than you think.”

I nod, giving him a final, well-deserved salute.

“Go.” He waves me off. “Prepare the North so they’re ready when I get there.” Those are the crazy bastard’s final words. I guess it’s easier than saying goodbye.

That night, I enter the family barracks and request a meeting with Dorothy and her family. They are barely settled in and the men eye me suspiciously, but the matriarch of the family greets me warmly. We bonded in that kitchen.

“I have an opportunity for you and, well, a favor for me. I know you’re farmers—not fighters—and you seem to have a loving, strong family. I may have a way for you to continue living in peace.”

Sabrina sits next to her husband, Matt, a tall man with thoughtful eyes. She grips his hand and says, “We owe you enough to at least listen.”

“It may be easier if I just showed you.” I suggest they get their belongings. It’s a long ride and if they decide to stay, there’s no reason to come back.

There’s a variety of reactions when they meet me outside by the gate. The only one I care about is Dorothy’s.  I know she’s the key to winning over this family. Her eyes soften when she sees the kids and she gives me a knowing smile.

“This is Devin, Kori, and Garrett.” I squeeze the little one on the head. He looks up with me with those soulful eyes that threaten the tough exterior I’ve spent years building. “Guys, this is the Armstrong family.”

The kids swarm together, excited to see new faces, and I take Dorothy to the side.

“They need a family,” I tell her. “And you need a home. If we work together I can make that happen.”

The woman appraises me, then glances back at her husband, who raises his eyebrow in question. I’m sure she’ll need to discuss it with the others but I have a strong feeling what this woman wants, she gets.

“You’re a very convincing man, Mr. Faraday,” she says.

“It’s just Wyatt, and asking isn’t usually how I get things accomplished.”

She laughs. “No, I suppose not.” She looks again at the kids and says, “Is there a Mrs. Wyatt out there somewhere? Is that what this is about?”

The woman in front of me is smart. She’s tough. That’s why I picked her. With the rest of her family, she can survive in the little beach house I’ve stocked with all the supplies they’ll need for the next year. I’ve spent the last three months collecting necessities, clothing, medicine, and food. I’ve amassed ammo and weapons. There’s space for them to expand, and the island is far enough off the beaten path that Chloe will never find them.

I shake my head. “There’s no Mrs. or anything else. But I did make a promise I’m trying to keep.”

She rests her hands on her hips and says. “You get ready to take us to this house. I’ll have the others on board by the time we get there.”

“Thank you.” She wraps her arms around me and pulls me into a hug. “This is way better than having your gun aimed at my head.”

“Make me another promise,” she says.

“What’s that?”

“When you’re ready to stop fighting, come find us. We’ll save you a bed. I have a feeling those kids are used to you being around.”

She has no idea where I’m going and just how impossible her request is, but I nod, willing to have an opportunity tucked away even if I never get to use it. “I’ll do my best.”

She cocks her head and says, “I have a feeling you always do.”

Chapter 11

The following morning, with the Armstrongs miles away, settling into their new home, I walk through the dark halls of the base. It’s not daylight yet and the air has a chill when I step outside. I suspect that if Davis is waiting for me by the gate, Parker will be by his side. Something is brewing between those two. I see it in their sidelong glances and quiet conversations. I caught them once, red-faced and breathing heavily in an alcove near the gymnasium. I guess I’m just happy they found one another to make this shitty hell on earth a little bit better.

Jude is a wild card. He’s hankering for a fight and he may be willing to go down with Erwin and the Army. He’s young and full of anger. Plus, Erwin still has an arsenal full of toys that we won’t have access to on our journey north. Oh, and that Goddamned motorcycle. He’s not going to want to leave that piece of junk behind, even though I can already tell him it won’t fit into my plan.

I have no assumptions that Paul will do anything but go with us. He and Alexandra are tight and I’ve noticed he’s seemed lonely with her gone, but as I walk up to the gate and see the others dressed with their packs loaded and weapons strapped to every available part of their body, I notice that he’s empty handed.

I nod to the others, more relieved to see them than I expected, and turn to Paul. “What’s going on?”

“Obviously,” he holds up his empty hands, “I’ve decided to stay.”

“What?” Parker exclaims. “No!”

He smiles at her. “I’m going to miss you. Actually, I think I’ll miss all of you. But I have some things to deal with here. I want to stay and help Erwin fight.”

“It’s suicide, man” Jude says, giving us a peek into his own reasons for coming. “Don’t be crazy.”

“I’m not. Cole gave Wyatt some valuable information about why I’m like this. If anyone can outlast the Hybrid invasion, it’s me. I want to stay. Maybe, if anything, I can help you guys get a head start.”

I shake my head, because this guy, this skinny, sick, Asian kid we found dying in an evacuation center closet is probably the bravest of all of us. No wonder Alex loves him so much. I offer him my hand. “Good luck. Come find us if you can.”

He shakes my hand with his superior strength, nearly cracking my fingers. “I will. Thank you for teaching me so much.”

I wait while the others say their goodbyes. Parker wipes her nose and Davis murmurs something in his ear. I’ve done this before; leaving people behind during a war. Sometimes it’s nothing more than getting assigned different missions. Paul has his and we have ours; in the end, it’s all we can do.

We walk up to the horses we took from the Hybrids the day before. It’s a smart method of travel and they’ll help us get to our first destination quickly. Even so, I eye the large, brown animal warily. I remind myself that it’s a new world and to survive, I have to adapt.

“Wait,” Parker says, eyeing me suspiciously. She’s already in the saddle. “You’re afraid of horses.”

“I’m not afraid.” I scowl at her. At the horse. “It’s just, you know, different.”

“You so are,” Jude joins in, stroking the mane of his new friend before giving the animal a kiss on the snout.  All the good feelings I had moments ago have evaporated.

Paul laughs and waves to the guards to open the gate. The metal rattles and I steady myself on the giant beast. The others pass me, laughing and smiling wide. Paul slaps the butt of my horse and offers me a final thumbs up, as my horse starts to trot faster than I’m comfortable with.

More laughter echoes though the breaking daylight.

With a grimace, I follow my team. At least I can provide them with a small dose of humor, because God knows what else I’m leading them into.

*Alexandra*

Catlettsburg, Kentucky
Late Winter

White blankets the streets and rooftops, giving everything a fresh, clean feel. It makes the silence sharper—forcing even the usually chatty winter birds inside. I stare out my bedroom window at the snow-heavy branches and the little town of Catlettsburg just down the block from my house. The overnight snow pushed even the most active members of the community inside.

The room I’ve been given once belonged to a girl. Her name was Veronica—she carved it into the bed post and someone, probably her mother, painted it in bold, pink, block letters on the wall. The rest of her belongings were removed before I got here but these little reminders keep me off balance. It’s hard to get settled in a dead girl’s bed.

Even so, I’ve managed to make this my home.  For the first time in months and months, I rest. It’s nice to sleep on a mattress with a bedframe. It’s even better because I feel safe enough to take my shoes off. It helps my weary mind to have a place to hang my clothes and a room to call my own. But even from my spot by the window I can see my backpack by the door. It’s packed and ready.

Catlettsburg pre-crisis was home to less than two thousand people. Now it’s closer to a thousand. Avi picked the little town where he grew up (and left seeking big city academia) to save, working hard with the local government to protect it since the early days of the Crisis. Barricades and fencing went up on the three sides of town not protected by the river. A preemptive quarantine was set up just outside the gates. The first barricades were simple but quickly turned to sturdy fencing. Now it’s all reinforced with sheet metal walls used along highways. Due to Avi’s diligence, the well-prepared area protected the citizens and allowed in productive neighbors. The town monitored and distributed supplies carefully.

Once she developed the first successful vaccine, Jane sent it up to Avi via Fighters. He inoculated the town and set firm rules about bringing in new people. Once the vaccines were given, no new members were invited into the community. This made our arrival even more jarring. These people hadn’t seen an outsider in nearly a year when we showed up, exhausted and bloody after the fight with Butch and the Winchesters.  Walker, Jackson, Green, and I were only given a pass because Jane was an exception.

Our presence was a culture shock. The citizens were wary and I didn’t blame them. Jackson had to be carried in by three men—all looking terrified of the unconscious man. Avi warned us that they didn’t know about the severity of the Eaters or the war down south. It became clear quickly that they certainly didn’t know about the Hybrids, including Avi.

When the Crisis happened to the citizens of Catlettsburg, life just got smaller. A little colder and harder.

I haven’t decided how I feel about their ignorance, even after all this time. Uneasy is the first word that comes to mind. Jealous is the next.

I head down the stairs, passing the faded, floral-wallpapered walls, stopping just out of view of the kitchen where I hear Jane and Avi in conversation. I’m not eager to interrupt them. Unfortunately, my foot creaks on the hundred-year-old staircase, giving me away.

“Alex?”

I sigh and step into the kitchen, plastering a smile on my face. “Hey guys.”

“Good morning.” Avi’s smile is sincere and it’s hard not to like him. “Hope you were warm enough last night. It got pretty cold.”

“I was fine, thank you.”

I mean, here’s the thing, I do like Avi. He’s smart. He built this amazing community. He is very forward thinking and has provided the people of this town with a safe, stable place to live. He’s the answer to a million prayers.

But there’s a problem. Jane told him the truth about everything that happened down South and his reaction was less than comforting. He’s stubborn as hell and refuses to believe what may come banging down our door one day. And my sister is willing to let him and everyone else that lives here exist in that fantasy.

I can’t forget the things I’ve seen and I refuse to let my guard down.  Jane says I’m paranoid. Walker says realistic. I sort of just think I’m going stir crazy.

“Would you like some breakfast?” Jane asks. A loaf of homemade bread is on the table, along with a cheese spread.

I’ve learned to never decline food, so I grab a slice and slather a thin layer over the top. Through a mouthful I ask, “Have you seen Walker?”

“Michelle went out about thirty minutes ago.” Avi really likes us to use first names. I didn’t even know Walker had a first name until we got here. I mean, I knew, but I guess I didn’t care. Places like Catlettsburg are dangerous like that. Caring is a liability post-Crisis. They haven’t figured that out yet. “Not sure where—everything should be closed. It’s too cold to stay out long.”

He’s right, but I grab my scarf and the heavy winter coat I found in Veronica’s closet. I slip on the fleece-lined, water resistant boots and grab my gloves. The boots are a size too big but I just wear triple socks. “See you later,” I say, escaping out the back door.

Even though I suspect I know where she went, I follow Walker’s footprints in the snow. I walk down the middle of the road, taking careful steps not to bust my ass on the frozen cement. Without cars and man-made movement the snow and ice are slow to melt. I pass the little shops and the antique store, both open two days a week, but not today. I head out of town, noticing the arched, carved church doors are shut—keeping out the cold.

Avi reopened the school once the walls were secure. The school, along with most everything else, moved closer to town. Two hundred children, ages five to sixteen, attend every other day in a massive house off Oak Street. It has the most fireplaces and the biggest porch.  Members of the town built a playground on the lawn out back. As I walk by, I see the school is closed, too. We don’t have the wood and supplies to keep the building heated on a day like this.

Everything is very efficient. I like it. I mean, what’s not to like?

I pass my favorite building—the library. I spend a couple hours there every week, picking through the biographies and history books. Something one of Erwin’s commanders said to me before the battle at the Vaccine Center stuck in my head. He mentioned that today’s wars will be fought like those in the past—the ones before modern society. I needed to learn about those battles. The ancient ones and then others fought on American soil. The Civil and Revolutionary Wars.

Walker’s footprints veer to the right, down toward the waterfront. The wind picks up when I get on the road headed that direction. The crunch of footsteps catches my attention and I turn, spotting a bundled-up body running my way. The short, stocky build tips me off that it’s Green, even covered head to toe—with only a small slit between his scarf and hat for his eyes.

“Hey,” he says, slipping on the ice and scrambling for balance. He manages not to fall and I can’t help but laugh. “Not funny. I could break my neck out here.”

“Then maybe don’t run on the ice, dummy.”

We walk the rest of the way in silence, focusing on getting to the looming building ahead. Jackson found this spot after his recovery in the Catlettsburg infirmary. His nurse told him he should get some fresh air. He combed the streets and found an abandoned gym away from the town. It’s rustic—old school. Nothing but barbells, punching bags and a boxing ring in the middle. It’s perfect.

Two sets of footsteps lead up to the building. With this wind they’ll be gone by the time we leave, covered like we were never here. Green bangs on the metal door and we wait, shaking in our boots until Jackson unbolts it from the inside.

“Morning,” he says with a smile.

“Hey man,” Green says once we’re inside. “Thought you were waiting on me.”

“I didn’t know you planned on taking an hour to get ready.”

“It wasn’t an hour. And you know how long it takes to boil water.”

While they bicker, I start the process of removing all these layers. The men shared an attic apartment a few doors down from our house. From what I’ve gathered, their living situation is very Odd Couple-y.  I hang my coat and scarf. I swap my boots for a pair of sneakers I leave in the gym so they’ll stay dry. I carry them over to where Walker is in the middle of a set of push-ups on a faded red mat on the floor.

“Hey,” I say, sitting next to her.

“Ug.” She grunts.

“I would have been here earlier but I got cornered by Jane and Avi in the kitchen.”

She counts off four more push-ups and takes a break, shifting from her palms to her knees. She pushes her damp red hair off her forehead. “Yeah, I heard them and went out the front door.”

“Smart move.”

She nods at the guys who are still going back and forth by the room. “What’s that about?”

“Same old stuff. They fight more than any two men I’ve ever seen.”

She snorts and shakes her head.

“What do you want to work on today?” she asks.

“Cardio,” I tell her. “With a little jiu-jitsu, don’t you think?”

She nods. “Sounds perfect.”

I’d say Walker and I were lucky getting out of the Fort with Green and Jackson, but there had to be reasons Jane picked them in the first place. She would have surrounded herself with the best, particularly for an escape.

Both men are capable and well-trained. They’re nice and even fun to be around. It took several weeks for them to recover from the dehydration and wounds they suffered at the Winchester compound, but once they were better they were quick to get back to training.

I’d stumbled on them one cold morning. The snow was just slush at that point—the result of a few warmer than normal days. I saw Green and Jackson slip into the warehouse and I followed.

Through a small dusty window I watched them spar, using moves I had no idea existed outside an action movie. Sure, I knew these guys were good fighters. I’d seen them in action, but killing Eaters was more about getting the sharp object in the right place. What I watched that day was physical poetry.

I’d asked Jackson to teach me. He was the expert, having practiced Brazilian jiu-jitsu for the last ten years. Walker found out and joined in. It was tough. Bruising. But during the cold winter months while the rest of the town hibernated, we trained. Hard. I felt the change in my body. I was more agile on my feet, my muscles leaner. Regular food helped—natural food that wasn’t totally processed. Catlettsburg had crops and livestock that Avi encouraged them to preserve from the beginning.

“You ladies ready to stop arguing and ready to fight?” Walker yells at the men, leaning into the stretchy bands surrounding the ring. Jackson turns with an arched eyebrow in her direction. There’s chemistry between those two. More than once, I’ve wondered if something is going on.

“Yeah, we’re coming,” he replies, jogging over to the ring and slipping through the bands. Green follows and the lesson begins.

The next three hours will be spent refining our skills, because the four of us know what the others in this town don’t. This is simply the quiet before the storm. Something bad is on the horizon—there always is and there always will be.

This time, I think, dodging a jab at my face and swiping my foot at Walker, topping her for the first time in weeks, I’ll be prepared.

Chapter 12

In late March the snow melts.

From my window I watch the ice drip from trees and rivers of water rush toward the banks of the Ohio. The streets fill with dirty sludge, the yards turn muddy.

Tiny buds appear on the tips of branches. Green shoots from the dark earth and for once I can step outside without my cheeks cracking from the dry wind blowing off the river.

I’m at a crossroads. I know this. My paranoia has waned over time. I no longer sleep with a gun under my pillow. The fences around the town remain strong and my body grows firm and efficient. The more I prepare, the less I think it’s necessary. Maybe, like Avi has drilled into my head, I really am safe here. The idea leads me to consider beyond the next moment. The next mission.

Before college, I had a laser-like focus on valedictorian and pre-med at Duke. From there I would pick a specialty in science. Maybe epidemiology like my father or sister.

Then all that ended and college evaporated into nothing more than a dream. I became a foot soldier. First in my sister’s army. Then in someone else’s. Sure I had my Resistance, but I was never anything more than a pawn in someone else’s game.

But now, up here in this place of snow and peace, this place where I no longer feel like I have to fight for every breath I take, I feel the urge to declare myself. Find something I want to do. Today will be a test of that future. We’re headed out on a new mission outside the gates of Catlettsburg. I’m eager to see what the future holds.

I pick up my pack from where I keep it by the door and move to my spying spot in the stairwell, although it’s unnecessary. Jane and Avi have been fighting loudly for hours. Weeks, really. Ever since he announced casually over dinner that he’d shared the vaccine with a small community outside the fence line.

“When did you do this?” she asked that night over dinner. Her tone was sharper than it had been in months. “How long ago?”

“Months before you arrived. We had extra and this is a farming community we often trade with. It seemed like a good idea.”

She shook her head. “You shouldn’t have.”

He frowns, his forehead creasing. “You don’t think I should have helped people in need, if I had the opportunity?”

“It was a risk. A stupid one.” Walker and I sat on opposite sides of the table, watching their exchange like a tennis match. It was obvious from my sister’s tone of her voice she was worried about something. “It’s dangerous to tell anyone that there’s a vaccine. In this world it’s more valuable than gold. Second, all inoculations of the EVI-1 vaccine should be monitored.”

Avi pushed his glasses up his nose and stabbed his fork into the cured ham we shared for dinner. He ate a bite and chewed slowly. Jane waited for his response, eyes growing wider with each passing second.

“They’re an outlier community. Fringe even before all of this. It’s why I befriended them. They’re Mennonites and keep to themselves and we last traded with them before Christmas. The weather since then has made it impossible to visit or monitor for any vaccination problems.” He points to the pork on our plate. “You’re eating their food right now.”

Jane placed her silverware on the table and folded her napkin into a square. “I’d like to visit the community as soon as possible. I should check up on them.”

“I thought your days in epidemiology were over.”

“I have an obligation to those people.” She gave him a hard look. “As do you. To this town, as well. It’s been months since you’ve seen or heard from them. Anything could have happened during that time.”

Jane’s behavior seemed paranoid at the time, at least to me, but when I spoke to Walker after dinner she had a theory. Jane was worried other groups would find out about the vaccine and demand it for themselves. Larger groups—even some of the military Erwin said were active up here.

Because of Jane’s arrangement with Avi, there was no more vaccine and the town was completely unprepared for any sort of attack.

“When do we go?” I asked Walker that night.

“When the snow melts a little more. The water will be high in the rivers and I’m not sure how the bridges and other infrastructure will have fared over the last few months. It’s likely there are down trees and I would expect some fires like the one we had at the water plant in January.”  Walker was originally from Michigan and had a better handle on the cold weather than the rest of us southerners. She asks, “So you’re in?”

“Of course.” I tilt my head. “On one condition.”

Her eyes narrow, curious. “What’s that?”

“That Jane trains with us before we go. I can’t go through what we experienced traveling up here. She’s a liability and frankly, just too damn exhausting.”

Walker agreed and met with Jane and told her our conditions. Together, along with Jackson and Green we decided to wait for the melt, praying spring would come early, all of us itchy to get outside. That gave Jane at least a few weeks to train intensively. She cried the first three days, hoping we’d cave and agree to just protect her. By the time the buds in the trees showed a hint of green and flocks of Canadian geese flew overhead signaling the switch in seasons, my sister could finally take a punch. Twice, even.

After all the weeks of preparation, we leave today. Well, that’s the plan, if Avi and Jane can stop fighting about the mission altogether.

“We made a deal when you got here, Jane. You promised you’d stay away from the research.”

“I’ve spent the last three months doing little but sleeping, reading, and cleaning. I even joined the library committee and also learned how to can food. I’m doing my part but there’s unfinished business, that you,” she says, “didn’t tell me about. You violated our agreement when you gave that vaccine to people outside of the community.”

I sigh and step into the kitchen. Jane’s bag is near her feet. She’s dressed in warm clothing and waterproof boots.  She looks relieved to see me.

“Ready?” I ask. “Walker is meeting us at the gate.”

“Yes. I’m ready.”

“Jane,” Avi tries, reaching for her. It’s affectionate. They’re affectionate. Their relationship goes far beyond science. I wonder if he’s seen the bruises on her shoulder and ribs during this last week of training and how she explained it. “Don’t do this.”

“I don’t have a choice. It’s my vaccine. I’m responsible for what happens with it.”

I grip the strap of my pack and say, “I’ll be outside.” The sun feels a little warmer on my face today and I put on a pair of sunglasses I found in the antique shop down the road. I bartered for them with an hour of my time sorting buttons in the back room, which I later traded to the seamstress. I breathe in the fresh air and watch as a pack of kids runs down the road, headed for the school house. They wave, oblivious to the dangers outside the gates. I wave back.

The little world Avi has created works. I hope it survives.

Chapter 13

“Let me see that map,” I say to Green.

He hands it over and I bounce on the hard, wooden seat next to him. Two reddish-brown horses pull the small wagon Avi gave us for the trip. It’s a modernized version some of Avi’s men put together over the winter. The wheels are rubber and better for navigating pot holes and muddy terrain but a wagon is not a car and I miss the leather, heated seats my mother had in her Honda.

“We’re looking to turn at the next intersection.”

“I knew that,” he says.

“I was just double checking.” I fold the map back into a small square and shove it in my pocket. We go over another hole in the pavement and the wagon lurches. I wince, feeling every hard jostle in my aching butt.

Don’t let the quaintness fool you—wagons suck.

“It was nice of Avi to offer us the horses though, right?” Jane asks from the back.  She bit her tongue on a particularly rocky patch of road earlier and has been pretty quiet. Walker and Jackson both sit in the back with her, alert and on guard. Green and I in the front. “Otherwise it would have taken a couple days to get there.”

“Very generous,” I agree. It was generous, especially when he really didn’t want us to go in the first place. It’s just been a long day and I really hope we can get to the little Mennonite town before dark. They live off the beaten path and although we’ve passed more than a few of the triangle signs directing us to be careful of other wagons and buggies, finding their exact location may prove difficult.

“Avi said we need to turn at the red barn but not the first red barn, the second red barn. The one with the brown door.” I remind him. Green gives me a hard look. I return it, but only briefly because he’s been giving me a lot of looks lately and I’m not sure how to handle that. “But you knew that because you were standing there when he said it.”

He leans in, pressing his shoulder to mine. “Are you okay? You seem a little jumpy.”

“I guess it’s just being out here. It’s been a long time since we’ve been out in the open, you know? The last time, I ended up in a cage.”

“True. But we got out of that one didn’t we?” It’s my turn to give him a hard look and he laughs. “Okay, you guys got us out. We were useless.”

Green navigates the turn and a short while later we spot the first barn. In a car, the second one would have come up quick, but in the wagon it takes a full ten minutes for the horses to trot that far. Even then it doesn’t exactly match Avi’s description. A massive tree has fallen across the road we’re supposed to turn down, and crashed through the black-shingled barn roof.

“Yikes,” Green says. “Hope no one was living there.”

The men hop out of the wagon and go check on the building. Walker and I assess the tree. Besides the fact it’s blocking the road, the uprooted base has created a hole that’s impossible for the vehicle to get around.

“We’ll have to leave the wagon here,” Walker says.

“Yeah, I was just thinking that, too,” I say. “But we can take the horses, they can carry the supplies.”

I look back over my shoulder. Jane is sitting in the back of the wagon with the goods Avi packed for the Mennonites. She has her own small black case she carried with her from The Fort.

I’m impressed to see that she’s got her gun out for once and seems alert. Walker stares at her for a minute and says quietly, “She’s changed a lot.”

“Since the training?” I have to admit she did better than I expected, quickly picking up the skills we shared. She’s fast, and her accuracy in shooting and throwing is better than expected.

“Well, yes, but since we left Augusta, too. She and Avi are so…” she grapples for a word.

“In love?”

Walker flashes me a smile. “Yeah, I guess so. It changes people I guess.”

“It does have a way of making you a little less self-absorbed. She definitely needed that. What about you and Jackson. What’s going on with that?” I know she spends the night out sometimes and she’s not on any kind of guard or patrol duty. I know, but I haven’t mentioned it.

She shrugs. “He’s nice to hang around with. It gets lonely out here. As scary as it is to connect with someone, I think it’s necessary.”

Her words ring true and once upon a time I agreed, but my heart can’t take another loss like the one with Cole. I know for certain that my brain can’t handle another complicated man like Wyatt. I gave romance in the apocalypse a shot. It didn’t turn out well.

I tell her, “I’m happy for you. You both deserve a little joy out here.”

She smiles and looks at her shoes, “I’m not sure I’d call it joy but it’s definitely a release.”

I wrinkle my nose. “TMI, dude. TMI.”

Jackson and Green emerge from the vine-covered barn and I feel a sharp jab in my side. Walker nods at them men. “I’ve seen the way he looks at you. Have you thought about it?”

“He’s a cool guy.”

“A cool guy?” She stares at me like I have three heads.

I look at this woman who has become a friend. Her face is innocent but the whole conversation is making my stomach hurt. I’ve spent months pushing the men from my past out of my mind. The odds of seeing either of them again are slim. I don’t want to see Cole, that’s for sure. Even though I have a million questions I can’t handle seeing him like that. Inhuman.

And Wyatt? Just thinking about him makes my body do strange things. My brain screams run while everything else prickles with excitement and extremely complex feelings. Most of all I never want to see him again because I hope he’s safe and happy somewhere. That he took the kids and disappeared into the woods and built a life away from the violence of the Hybrid war I know must be raging down south.

Walker taps me on the arm, eyes flashing toward Green. “You didn’t answer my question.”

As though he senses us talking about him, Green catches my eye and gives me a small smile. He’s genuine and easy. So easy. There’s no dangerous past or lies holding him together.

“Maybe one day,” I tell her.

Understanding and concern flickers in her eyes. “They’re gone, you know. It’s okay to move on. I mean, it’s almost like we have to learn how to do relationships differently now.”

“I know,” I reply, returning Green’s smile. “That’s what makes it harder.”

Chapter 14

We strap the supplies that will fit to the backs of the horses. The rest we cover in the back of the wagon and stash it in the ramshackle barn. Hopefully some members of the community will be able to return with us to collect it before we go back to Catlettsburg.

None of us are that familiar or comfortable with horses, so the entire process takes longer than it should and daylight is waning.

“I really don’t want to sleep outside,” I complain to the others after we’ve walked for about twenty minutes. The temperature has already dropped and a chilly spring breeze blows against our backs. The road is clear of snow but the grass and shady areas still have thick clumps.

“We’ll get somewhere warm and safe for the night,” Green says. “Promise.”

“Avi said to follow this road all the way into town,” Jane says. “We’ll pass farms and other buildings that may or may not be occupied. Many people moved closer in when the crisis started.”

“They don’t have up any fencing,” Jackson notes.

“They live life differently,” she says with a shrug. “They trust their neighbors and God to take care of them.”

I snort and everyone gives me a look. “What? I barely trust you guys.” They act offended. I shrug. “Sorry.”

“Anyway,” Jane continues, “We’re looking for the church and community center.”

The road is long and desolate and we grow quiet. The only sound is the clomp of the horses’ hooves echoing off the road. It’s beautiful country, and the sun begins to set behind the trees, setting them on fire with an orange and pink glow.

“Do you smell smoke?” Walker asks, sniffing the air.

I inhale and look to the sky. A small tendril of smoke wisps into the trees. “Yes. Look, over there.”

We round a corner and find a large, white farmhouse sitting in the curve of the road. A wisp of smoke curls from the chimney and I feel a warm hand wrap around mine.

“Told you,” Green says, squeezing my fingers.

I stop abruptly in the road. “Look, I have no interest in getting locked up in a cage again. We need to go in there with a plan.”

Walker nods. “We’ll cover the outside from a distance.” She points to me and Green. “You two check the house. We’ll stay hidden until you give the all clear. Is that good?”

I agree and check my weapons, carrying the hatchet in my hand. A small gun rests in the small of my back and I have two knives tucked in my boots. I’m not going down again.

Green and I leave the others hidden in the trees surrounding the house. Jackson shimmied up a tree, perched high for visuals. He has no desire to get captured by crazy people again, either.

As we get closer, the house looks a little more run down than from on the street. A weathered wagon is pushed near the house, as well as some rusted farming equipment. That’s the trend now. Even if people are living in a building or home there’s no time, energy, or people left to maintain the structure. And even if they do it’s too risky to stay outside long. One day everything will get swallowed back by nature. Like the barn down the road.

No sound comes from the house but when we reach the porch I do see the flickering of firelight through a space in the dirty windows. Green grabs me by the arm.

“Knock on the door,” he says. “I’ll wait back here. Just, you know, act like a civilized person.”

“Huh,” I say, frowning at him. “Interesting concept.” But he’s right. According to Avi, we’re on friendly terms with these people. We come bearing supplies and medical assistance. We gave them the freaking vaccine. They should welcome us with open arms. “I guess it can’t hurt to behave in a non-threatening manner.”

“I’ve got your back. The others are watching.” He glances down and holds out his hand. “I’ll take that.”

I squeeze the hatchet.

“Alex.” With a heavy sigh, I hand it over. “Thank you. Be careful.”

I walk up the steps and stand before the door. I feel for the gun at my back and glance over my shoulder, spotting the others tucked in their hiding places.

With a fist I knock on the wooden, windowless door. Paint chips fall from the pressure, scattering at my feet. I step back and wait. And wait.

“Hello?” I call. “Is anyone home?”

My greeting is met by silence and I look back at Green, shrugging. I’m about to give up when I hear a sound behind the door. “Hello?” I call again. “Avi, from Catlettsburg, sent us. Do you know him? We risked the travel now that the snow has melted.”

His name must have done the trick because the dull bronze door knob rattles before opening slow and creaky. A pale face appears in the small crack. A boy, a teenager, asks, “Avi sent you?”

I smile. “Yes. We’ve got some food and other items to trade. Our wagon got stuck behind a felled tree but I left my friends and the horses back by the road.”

“The roads are passable?” he asks. “There’s been so much snow.”

“Yes, for the most part.  The paved parts are clear.”

“Finn, let them in,” a female voice says out of sight. The door opens wider and I see a girl of the same age. White-blonde hair and bright blue eyes. “You need to get off the road before nightfall. It’s dangerous out there.”

“It is?” I glance behind me and Green emerges from the trees. He heard her. They see him but don’t react. I comment, “We haven’t seen any people all day.”

“It’s not the people you have to worry about,” Finn says meeting eyes with the girl. “It’s the monsters.”

“Monsters?”

“The infection took the whole town over the winter,” she tells us. “They’ve all turned into monsters.”

Chapter 15

Finn leads Jackson and Green to the barn behind the house to show them where to lock up the horses. The boy twitches with nerves, not so much at our arrival but being out of the house at all. He’s incredibly pale, having not spent much time outdoors all winter. He does give Jackson a double glance, eyes skimming over his dark skin, but doesn’t say anything. Not sure they have much diversity around these parts.

The girl, Mary Ellen, invites us in and I try not to stare at her clothing. I knew the Mennonites dressed conservatively but that seems insane to me. How do you fight in an ankle length dress? I think I know the answer to my question. They don’t fight. And they’re in trouble. It’s why they risked opening the door.

We carry in the load of supplies. Jane has had worry lines on her forehead since she heard about the community succumbing to the infection. They were vaccinated. Or at least that’s what Avi told us.

I watch my sister carefully as we settle into the warm living room of the house.  She looks calm but she can’t be. The vaccine is her creation—along with my father’s. If something went wrong with these people then something could go wrong with our inoculations as well.

The fire crackles in the fireplace, providing us with much-needed warmth and light. Walker digs out some jars of food from Catlettsburg and unscrews the lid. The bitter smell of vinegar fills the air and my stomach rumbles at the sight of the pickled eggs. Jackson unwraps a package of jerky and one by one we take a piece.

“Thank you,” Finn says, chewing a small bite of jerky. “We’ve been living on spare provisions for weeks now.”

“The salt tastes good,” Mary agrees.

“Can you tell us what happened?” Jane asks. She has a pad of paper and a pencil that she removed from her bag on her knee.  “No wait, I have another question first. Did you and the others in your community take the vaccination Avi delivered?”

The two look at one another but Finn nods and Mary is the first to speak. “The community argued over the medicine Mr. Avi brought us. Religiously, many of our faith do not believe in vaccinations. But there was an understanding that if one of us took it—we all had to. We couldn’t risk even one person getting the infection.”

“Why? The rest of you would have still had protection if that person chose not to get the shot.”

She shakes her head. “We already had one incident where one of our members returned from a larger town with the infection. He became rageful and killed a dozen people, mostly children, before he was stopped. A person can survive the bite but not a brutal attack.”

We knew this, of course. Or at least Walker and I did. We’d lost fellow soldiers in this manner since Jane gave us the EVI-1. My sister nods in understanding, but I realize how so much of her research is limited to theory. The more time she spends out in the world, the more she sees it actually tested.

“So it was all or nothing,” Mary Ellen continues. “And after many arguments, the elders decided we would all take the vaccine. That happened on December nineteenth. The day of the first heavy snowfall.”

“When did they get sick?” Green asks. He’s sitting next to me. Close. And as much as I want to move away, to maintain the barrier I’ve built, I’m tired and he’s warm.

“A month passed and we managed well in isolation. It was our first real winter post-Crisis. Even though we were prepared as a community with food and supplies, we too have become reliant on outside sources. A group of our men, our best hunters, decided to go out in search of what we needed. They left in late January only to return a week later, empty-handed and hot with fever.”

“That night while the rest of the town slept, one of the sick men attacked his wife. The following day, members of our church paid a visit and,” Mary Ellen swallows, “the virus spread.”

“It moved slowly—not like the rampage from before,” Finn adds.

“Methodical?” Jane asks. Her pencil had been the only sound other than the fire and Mary’s voice.

Finn nods. “Yes. Methodical.”

“It only took hours for the virus to take the entire town.”

Walker asks, “How did you get out?”

Again the two look at one another. They’re young, but the bond between them is strong. They hold hands, fingers wrapped tight together. “My mother was one of the women from the church that was infected that first morning. She returned home and spread the virus to my older brother and my father,” Finn tells us. His eyes are cast down. The uneasy feeling in my stomach predicts what he’s going to say next. “I had to kill them all.”

“Finn ran to my house—it’s a farm on the outskirts of town. He was covered in blood.” She looks at him. The fire reflects off her eyes. “And shame.”

He nods.

“There is no shame here, Finn. We’ve all been forced to make awful decisions since the Crisis began,” I say, but my voice betrays any control. Green places a hand on my shoulder and squeezes.

“Finn and I are betrothed. Our wedding was set for two years—when we reach eighteen. This house belonged to the next married couple in town. That wasn’t us—but those people, my brother and his wife, no longer needed it. It had been stocked as a wedding gift. Full of food and supplies. Wood for the fire and stove.”

“They never found you?” Green asks.

“The night we left, a massive snowstorm trapped us in—and kept them out.” We all know the storm they’re talking about. We experienced it as well. Finn continues, “Now that the snow has melted, they’ll find us. You did. But we have no idea where to go from here.”

“We’ve spent our whole lives in this town. Just like our parents and grandparents,” Mary Ellen admits.

The room grows quiet and Jackson stands. “I’m going to go check the upstairs windows.”

“I’ll go too,” Walker says.

Their footsteps retreat on the hardwoods, leaving us alone. Jane stares at her notepad, the wheels in her head turning. Suddenly she writes furiously. Green tugs my sleeve and lifts his eyebrow. I jerk my head and we quietly get up and walk to the kitchen.

“So what’s happening here?” he asks quietly.

“We’re waiting for Jane to figure that out.”

“Do you think she will?”

I cross my arms and lean against the counter. “She always does.”

“You have a lot of faith in her.”

I laugh. “Faith isn’t the right word. It’s more like she’s predictable. Jane needs a project. One for her brain. And mistakes are her weakness. She’ll fix it. ”

“What if it’s too late?”

“For the infected out there? Yeah, it’s probably too late. But this vaccine is going to save the world, and when it fails, it gives us something to work toward.” He watches me and I grow uncomfortable under the scrutiny. Finally I ask, “What?”

“The Ramsey women are pretty impressive, did you know that?”

“We have our moments.” I smile. “Of course we also have a history of destroying mankind, starting ill-prepared revolutions and getting captured. It’s sort of a fifty-fifty shot on how things will turn out.”

Green takes a step forward. “You know, I’m willing to be one of those shots.”

Oh boy, I think, trying to escape his intense gaze. “Green—”

“You can call me Benjamin. I have a first name.” He must sense my unease and says, “There’s no pressure, Ramsey. I’ve just learned there’s not enough time to hold feelings in, you know?”

He turns and leaves the kitchen.

“Green—Benjamin—wait,” I start, but I’m interrupted by an excited voice from the living room. It’s Jane, and I rush back into the room. She’s standing alone in the middle of the room, pencil in hand with a triumphant look on her face.

“What is it?” I ask.

“I figured it out. I know why the vaccine didn’t work.” She beams with excitement. “It was this community specifically—or rather, people that had never been exposed to any childhood vaccines. There must be some crossover in inoculations.”

“That’s good,” I say. “That means we should be okay. I can’t imagine many people back in Catlettsburg or from the Fort not having their childhood vaccines.”

“Hopefully,” she says, but for the first time in a while actually looks hopeful. “I need to get Finn and Mary Ellen back to Catlettsburg and do some further testing in Avi’s laboratory.”

“Wait.” I frown. “He has a lab?”

“Avi may not like what I did with the E-TR virus but he’s still a scientist. He knows science and research is an important part of our survival. His lab is top of the line and fully stocked for decades of research.” She lowers her voice. “It’s hidden beneath city hall.”

“I think they’ll come with us,” I say. “They seem pretty close to desperate measures around here.”

Jane sits on the couch and pulls out her notepad and starts with the scribbling again. I know I need to go back and talk to Green—or Benjamin—or God, I don’t want to do this. I stand in the hallway and listen to him speak with Walker and Jackson and wish he’d never made any sort of overture.

I take a deep breath and head for the kitchen, Green and I make eye contact and my cheeks burn, probably matching the red of his hair. I open my mouth to speak but the sound of glass shattering draws us away from one another. I run to the front room, where Jane scrambles for her weapon and wind whips into the room. Bodies press against the broken window, seconds from getting inside.

“What the hell?” Jackson asks pushing me aside, but a low moan cuts through the night.  It’s been months but I’ll never forget that sound.

“Damn, that’s a whole lotta Eaters,” Green says, already reaching for his weapons. Walker dashes past him, rifle in hand, running up to the second floor. He looks at Finn and Mary. “Get upstairs.”

I’m checking my own weapons. Gun, hatchet, knives. I ask, “Where do you want me?”

“We need to keep them out of the house and now that the window has been breached we’ll have to barricade ourselves upstairs.”

The next moments are sheer pandemonium as we gather our packs and weapons, racing up the wooden stairs. I catch sight of the first Eaters spill into the room, screeching with hunger. At the top, Jackson and Green, along with Finn’s help, push furniture down the stairs, blocking the narrow path. Wooden dressers, chairs, and a small bedside table topple down with a crash. The largest chest of drawers wipes out a man in overalls as he is charging forward. Jackson aims his gun at the felled man and shoots him between the eyes.

I turn and come face-to-face with Finn, who looks green with sickness. “That was my neighbor,” he mumbles.

“Don’t. Do not go there,” I tell him. “They’re as good as dead and have been for a long time.” He nods but has a distant look in his eye. I spin him around and push him toward the bedrooms. “Go find Mary Ellen.”

I search the rooms for Walker, following the sound of gunfire. I locate her leaning out a bedroom window, rifle held up to her eye.

“How many?”

“Too effing many,” she replies, firing off two more shots. “At least two dozen, but it’s dark and there could be more in the woods.”

I move to the next window and push open the sash. Sure enough, a rushing mass of Eaters races through the yard. “What are they doing? How did they find us?” I ask, aiming my own gun. I fire and hit a woman in the shoulder. Not good enough. “I’ve never seen them run like this.”

“Me either,” Walker says, firing again. A man drops. “It’s like they’re running from something, right?”

“Move over,” Jane says, carrying her own rifle. She closes one eye and settles her aim—shooting the same woman I just missed in the head. “I’ll take it from here.”

The room is filled with the sound of gunfire and I pace, not knowing what to do. Mary Ellen sits in the corner, squeezed between the closet and bed, eyes closed and whispering. I think she’s praying.

I notice a lull in the gunfire and look up. Walker’s rifle is still in her hands and I walk over. “Are you out of ammo?” I ask, offering her my gun.

“No,” she looks out the window, face contorted in confusion. “Do you see that?”

I lean over and see crowd of Eaters moving erratically in the yard. “They’re not attacking. Just sort of…running?”

The horde reaches the porch, their feet pounding on the wooden steps. The hiss and howls rattle the windows—or at least my head. A loud, shattering crash rocks the house.

“They’ve broken down the door,” Jackson yells, on his way back in the room. The other men follow and they barricade the bedroom door. Mary Ellen continues to pray in the corner and Jane stops her firing and comes over to me and Walker.

“It’s pointless, there are too many,” she says.

I glance back out the window and see the Eaters stream out of the woods. Way more than two dozen. Attacking or not, we’re about to get overrun. Walker thoughtfully looks out the window and says, “I guess the question is, what are they running from?”

“Do you smell that?” Jackson asks, sniffing the air. We all do the same.

“Smoke?” Walker asks. We stare at one another wide-eyed and increasingly nervous. I run back to the window.

“Oh shit,” I say staring in the distance. Just beyond the trees toward town is a fireball. A moving fireball that lops over the top branches and lands in the yard, flaming like the sun. The Eaters in the yard burst into flames, turning them into manic, running torches. Their screams rock me to the core, and the others in the room crowd around and we watch, speechless, as another ball launches toward us.

The yard catches fire and I grab Walker’s arm. “It’s not what they’re running from, but who?”

Chapter  16

There’s no time to worry about what or who the Eaters are running from because the house is moments from bursting into flames. The room falls into various degrees of panic but Walker, like always, is calm.

“Tell me what to do,” I demand. We’re not getting out of here alive without a plan.

“Are there back stairs?” she asks Finn. He shakes his head no.  “Can we jump?”

“Yeah maybe. If we don’t land on the monsters,” he says. Again, he looks seconds from being sick.

Good point.

“Everybody on the roof,” Walker says. She looks me and Jackson in the eye. “We’ll figure it out from there but we can’t go down and we can’t go up. We’re going out.”

With packs on our backs and weapons in our hands, we climb through the window. Finn and Mary have nothing but the clothes they’re wearing. Everything they own will be cinder soon enough. The yard shines bright and gunfire blasts under the crackling fire. The ice and snow that surrounded the yard has melted into puddles, providing a damp barrier to the spreading fire.

The Eaters run with no logic, trying to escape the fire, and they have no regard for the puddles, stepping over them to reach the house.

“Who do you think is out there?” I ask Walker. Even though the fire made it bright, there’s too much smoke to see.

“With that kind of firepower?” she asks. “I’m afraid to ask.”

We both fear the Hybrids may have caught up to us.

“Over here!” Jane calls and we see her near the chimney. “Look.” She points to the backside of the house where it’s still dark and the melting snow has revealed a soggy pile of hay. “If we help one another down, we may be able to land without injury. Then we can run the opposite way—into the woods.”

Finn peers over the edge and says, “There could be anything in or under that pile. Like machinery or tools.”

“The monsters will get us the minute we land,” Mary Ellen adds. Her fingers tug on the silver cross around her neck.

“Would you rather burn?” Green asks. “Because that’s your choice. Burning alive or taking a chance to survive.”

“Mary,” Finn says. “God sent these people to save us. They didn’t bring the Eaters or fire with them. We knew the day would come and we thought we’d die like everyone else. These people can help us. We have to do what they say.”

The girl nods. “Okay.”

“I’ll go first,” I say, ignoring their concerns. “Once I’m down, I’ll stand guard for whoever comes next.”

Green grabs my arm. “I’ll go. Jackson can help me and everyone else down. Then he’ll go last. He’s the tallest and has less distance to fall.” Jackson nods in agreement.

“I want to go.” I bristle at the idea of a man thinking he needs to step in for me.

“He’s right,” Walker says. “He’s a better shot than you anyway.”

I roll my eyes but there’s no time to argue. Green kneels on the edge and Jackson grabs his hands; we all grab hold of him to help with stability. Green drops over the edge, giving me one last nod.

He lands with a grunt and in the shadow of the house I see him wave.  “Walker—go next,” Jackson declares.

She moves quickly, giving her hand to Jackson. Just before she dips below the surface he pulls her back up, kissing her on the mouth. “Be safe.”

My heart breaks right there, cracking under the pressure of this shitty life where we fight for every second. The calm of the last three months means nothing if the instant you walk out the door you have to choose between surviving and being with the one you love.

I’m sick of this war, the Eaters, and the never-ending struggle to live.

I watch Jane follow Walker, caught by Green before hitting the ground. She and Walker jump to a defensive position, waiting for Eaters or whoever else may come around the corner before we’re all down.

“Finn, you’re up,” Jackson says. He looks at me. “You okay, Ramsey?”

I cough and blink. “It’s just the smoke getting to me.” By this point, it billows up the front of the house. The first floor must be fully engulfed. “Get moving.”

Finn shimmies down the house with more bravery than I expected. Mary grits her teeth, closes her eyes and whispers. She leaps and lands in Finn’s arms. God helped her through another day—or at least part of one.

“Ready?” Jackson asks. He’s sweating. It’s getting hot up here, the shingles on the roof growing warm.

“You come right after me,” I say, feeling the sweat trickle down my back. “Don’t hesitate.”

He nods and takes my hands, following the procedure of those before me. His hands are slippery though, it’s too hot up here. “Ben!” he shouts. “She’s coming down fast!”

“I got her,” he calls back up and I make the stupid mistake of looking over my shoulder.

The firelight moves around the corner of the house—not just the flame but an engulfed body. Jackson sees it too, yellow fire reflecting in his dark eyes. He tries to hold on, but his skin is too slippery—it’s too late anyway. The whole house shudders, exhaling a loud moan. I fall, expecting to feel Green’s hands, but there’s nothing but air. Gunfire ricochets through my ears and the howling screams meet me as I land in the flattened, wet hay on my back. The fall is broken by my gun, still wedged in my waistband.

“Oof,” I breathe, sure I’ve broken my back or a dozen other bones.

“Ramsey! Move!”

I look up to see Jackson drop and I roll out of the way, bumping into feet. Green tussles with an Eater and I blink when the decapitated, charred head lands next to my face.

Jackson lands with a loud thud, but on both feet. I reach for a knife in my boot, because rolling proved my bones are fine. I flinch though, when I put weight on my ankle. Okay, fine-ish.

“Get to the barn!” Walker shouts, the second we’re all on solid ground. Dead, still-burning Eaters lay on the ground, the hay too wet to ignite. Smoke fills my lungs and I succumb to a coughing spasm. More Eaters round the corner.

I’m screwed.

Green rushes to me, looping an arm over my shoulder. He’s bleeding badly from a wound on his neck.

“You’re hurt,” I say, not liking the way it looks.

“So are you,” he replies, dragging me away from the house. We follow the muddy tracks of the others, passing smoldering arms and bodies along the way. Walker wants to get to the horses and use them for an escape, I get that, but the barn seems like another death trap.

A howl shatters the night, close behind us, but it’s cut short. A shadow steps from the fire-lit woods, hulking and massive. The figure isn’t on fire and he’s not moving with the speed and erratic gait of an Eater.

If it’s not a bear, there’s only one thing that can survive a battle like this.

A Hybrid.

My insides constrict. They’ve caught up to us at the worst possible moment. We’re injured, bloody, and oxygen deprived. The figure moves out of the woods carrying a blade that glints with blood and fire.

“Green, leave me—just go. The Hybrids won’t kill me. Not at first.” It’s wishful thinking but there’s a chance.

“Not happening,” Green says, tugging me away from the man and pushing his body in a protective stance.

Before he can move me along, two other figures appear, flanking the first. One kicks the recently decapitated head with their boot. I grip my knife and jerk away from Green, gritting my teeth with every move on my hurt ankle.

“Alex!” he whispers.

“I’m tired of running, Benjamin. I won’t do it again. Not now.” His wound looks bad. Very bad.

I step forward, the heat of the fire overwhelming. Sweat drips down my neck. My ankle throbs. The knife grip is slippery in my hand.

The three figures move toward me and I swallow back the fear.

A howl splits my eardrum, sending a chill down my spine. I spin too late, stumbling on my stupid ankle, with only enough time to see the Eater charging at me. It has no face—just melted skin--but greedy hands come after me, teeth snapping an inch from my face.

I get my knife in its shoulder, earning me no more than a second. With both hands, I push the decaying body back with a heave. My feet stick to the mud, my ankle swells. I lost my gun in the hay.

The figures race for me and I don’t know what’s worse, the Hybrids or this Eater, but it’s the sound of a blade slicing through skin and bone that makes the decision for me.

The Eater falls, head and body dropping opposite directions. A man stands before me covered in soot, sweat, and blood. His blade is still in the air. Underneath it all, with the fire roaring behind me, I see the light in his eyes--very alive, and very right here in front of me, eyes.

“Thank fucking God,” Wyatt says, reaching for me.

His hand touches my chin and I crumble in a mess of tears I didn’t know I’d been holding in. Not just tonight but for months and months.

“Save the reunion for later,” a familiar voice quips. I turn and see them all. Davis the bear. Jude and Parker. All in bad, but manageable, shape.

“This way,” Green says, pointing in the direction of the barn. His voice is rough—weak, but he’s still on two feet. With Wyatt’s hand firmly entwined in mine, we escape the inferno.

Chapter 17

I’m not the only emotional wreck in the group. Walker nearly cries when she sees them walk in the barn. Her face scrunches into something unfamiliar and I feel the punch in my own gut. Davis grips her in a sudden, engulfing bear hug and I press my face to Wyatt’s chest to hide my tears.

Even Jane greets each one of her former Fighters with a pleased smile and lays a hand on Wyatt’s cheek. “I never doubted your survival.”

Benjamin is injured, the wound on his neck bleeding badly. Jane patches him up but there’s a crease between her eyes that makes me nervous about what caused the fleshy, torn wound.  I hobble on my weak ankle, Wyatt’s strong arm tight around my waist. The men hoist Benjamin onto the back of a horse and while the house burns behind us, taking the souls and bodies of the dammed, we head back on the road.

After collecting our wagon and supplies, Finn and Mary lead us to a house a few miles away nestled back in the trees. “It belonged to a member of the community. He moved closer to the town during the crisis. I assume he’s one of the dead now,” Finn informs us as Jackson breaks a back window.

Jackson carries Benjamin in and Walker clears the long wooden table in the kitchen with a sweeping, impatient motion. Bowls and silverware clatter to the floor. Jane lights a lantern she found by the fireplace and rests it by his head.

“It’s a bite,” she says, pulling up the blood-soaked cloth. “It’s deep but he’s vaccinated. I’ll stitch it up tomorrow.”

“Will he be okay?” I ask.

“Don’t worry about me,” Benjamin says, giving me a comforting but weak smile.

Wyatt’s hand tightens on my hip.

“He hasn’t lost too much blood. I really think he should be okay. I’ll monitor him for fever.”

I step away from Wyatt, grimacing with pain, and move to the table. I press my hand to Benjamin’s forehead. It’s warm but not too much. The bite is jagged and raw.

“Don’t die on me, okay?”

“Not a chance,” he replies but his eyelids grow heavy from the pain medication Jane gave him.

“Let’s secure this place,” Davis says.

A hand rests on my shoulder and I glace back. Parker gives me a grim smile. She looks different than the last time I saw her. Hair cut short in jagged angles. She seems harder, but not in a bad way. Just stronger. “I wish the circumstances were better, but I’m so glad we found you.”

I squeeze her hand. “Me too. And I can’t wait to hear how you did it.”

“Ninety percent luck. Ten percent bad-assery.” She jerks her head at Wyatt and Davis. “Doesn’t hurt to travel with those two either.”

“I bet.” The rest of the room clears out, even Wyatt, the only reminder that they were here is the dirt from their boots all over the floor.

“You need to sit,” Jane says, walking back in the room.

Parker watches her with narrow eyes. They’re not used to The Director being among civilians. They don’t know how much she’s changed.

“Davis,” Parker calls. He appears seconds later. “Help Alex upstairs. She needs to elevate that foot.”

“I’m fin—” He doesn’t let me finish. I’m in his arms like an invalid and he carries me up the narrow stairwell. The first room is open, furnished with a double bed and a small dresser. A blue and pink quilt covers the mattress and he gently lays my filthy body on it.

“I have a million questions but no idea where to start,” I say, just happy he and the others are here.

“We’ll talk in the morning. You rest.”

“Can I at least ask what you’re doing up here? How you found me? Were you looking?”

“We followed Wyatt. He had a mission—and you know how he is.”

“Determined?”

“Stubborn as hell.”

“What was his mission?” The hesitation at his question tells me enough. The past is catching up to me.

“Wyatt’s not the same man you left down south. None of us are—things have changed fast. This world is evolving. I don’t know what you’ve been doing for the last three months, but for us it’s been one battle after the other.”

I think of my warm bed and full meals. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” His face softens as he rests his hand on the door knob. “We signed on for it. But you need to know we followed him.”

“Tell me, Davis, why is this mission so important to him? Did Erwin send him?”

He shakes his head. “He’ll tell you, but you’ve got to understand, the driving force behind him was you. Always. Keep that in mind, okay?”

I nod and he shuts the door, leaving me alone with an aching body and confused mind. Earlier I’d considered the other choices I had in life—beyond the battles and survival. One fiery night took those options away. Davis can say Wyatt came up here for me, but the others only would have followed for a bigger reason.

They need our help.

Still, I remember the look in Wyatt’s eyes when he found me. The weight of his hand in mine. Yes, something has changed with him—between us—and I’m equally terrified and thrilled to find out what that is.

Chapter 18

Wyatt knocks on my door a short time after Davis leaves. He takes me in, head to toe, eyes lingering on my ankle.

“I fell off the roof.”

“I saw.” Perfect. Of course he did.

“That poor bastard downstairs dropped you and was repaid by getting a hunk taken out of his neck.”

I give him a hard look. “Don’t. He’s my friend and was under attack.”

He steps in the room, closing the door behind him. He needs a bath—his beard and hair a trim. His jaw and cheekbones are lean, the whites of his hazel eyes red from the smoke. Emotions bubble in my chest; fear, anger, shock. I ignore the way my fingers ache—wanting to touch him, to make sure he’s real.

“Alex—”he says. His hands are clenched by his side and I’d bet my life he felt the same.

“No, before anything else, tell me about my dad. Is he okay?”

“He was safe when we left. Erwin will take care of him—he’s too important.”

It’s not enough but what else can he give me? There are no guarantees someone we’ve left in this day and age are alive even moments after you separate. But my father is another blank I need to fill. “I hope so. He’s not made for fighting.”

“No, but he’s resourceful. And so is the General.”

“Tell me why you’re here. Please tell me everything that happened after I left.”

He sighs and grabs the chair from the corner of the room. He moves it closer to the bed and scratches his forehead.

“Start at the beginning,” I prompt.

He does. He tells me in explicit detail about taking the kids back to Erwin and their subsequent journey toward Savannah. About training Jude and scouting for the army. He tells me about killing Hybrids, spying as they made their plans and trying to thwart their ultimate intent to overtake and absorb Erwin’s troops. He tells me little things, like how the sound of the ocean is as peaceful as always, and how the kids smiled as they ran down the sand. He smiles himself when he says that—his eyes softening. But then his voice changes and hardens when he tells me about a mission to save a farm and a surprise waiting for him. What comes next I’m not prepared for.

My back stiffens. “Cole was there?” The last time I’d seen him he’d gutted himself with my hatchet, giving me time to escape. I wasn’t sure if he’d even survived the wound.

“Waiting for me,” he says. “He saved the children in that home, and their parents. We met the following night.”

I’m aware Cole is no longer human and I tell him so. “He saved me when Chloe took over the Fort.”

“I know,” he replies. “He told me.”

A strange knot builds in my stomach. “You’re here—alive—does that mean he’s not?”

“We had a meeting,” Wyatt says, watching me closely. “Not a fight. It was peaceful. Cole isn’t a Hybrid—not exactly. He’s more like Paul. It’s the result of being given the two different vaccines, Jude calls them Mutts. If he told me the truth, then he’s working inside Chloe’s operation.”

“To what end? One person can’t stop her.”

“No, he can’t.” He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “But if we don’t do something she’s going come here next, and if she gains control of the South and Northeast there’ll be no stopping her. Ever.”

“It feels impossible.”

He reaches for my hand and intertwines our fingers. Our skin is dirty, covered in blood and soot and you can barely tell where one ends and the other begins. I’m struck by the gravity of his voice when he says, “I need your help on this.”

I think about the snow-covered village waiting for me a couple of hours away. The pristine white and peaceful nights. The place that allowed me to sleep with my boots off and eat three meals a day. “Do I have a choice?”

“With me?” he replies. “Always.”

“But?”

“But she’s coming and I’d really like you by my side.” He squeezes my hand. “I’m not sure it’s a battle we can avoid.”

His eyes tell a different story—there’s longing—something more. Fate didn’t bring us together. Perseverance did, and this man traveled through hell and back for me to stand by him.

“Can we talk in the morning?” I ask. “I need to think about some things.”

“Of course.” He drops my hand, but brushes his fingers over my forehead. “Get some rest.”

I nod and he moves to the door. “Wyatt?”

He pauses.

“I’m glad you’re here.”

*

I wake when the sun hits the window, my ankle throbbing painfully.

I sit up and touch the hot skin and wince.

“You’ll need to stay off that for a few days.”

“Holy—” I nearly jump out of the bed before my brain registers Wyatt sprawled across the small chair in the corner of the room. “You scared the crap out of me.”

“Sorry.” He stretches on the hard chair, his back cracking. He cleaned up overnight. A pile of dirty clothes sits near the dresser. He managed to scrub most of the ash and grime from his body, which revealed the cuts and bruises near his eye and jaw. Some new, others fading. He changed shirts. From the looks of the blue and black flannel, I guess he took it from one of the closets in the house.

I glance down at my filthy hands and can’t imagine what my hair and face look like at the moment.

He notices and says, “I brought up some soap and water for cleaning. It should still be warm.” He jumps up and shoves his hand into his pocket. “Oh, and Jane gave me some pills for the swelling.”

I see the bowl on the dresser and a stack of washcloths. He drags the chair over and places the bowl on top. I sit up, scooting my back against the headboard, and he drops the pills in one hand and hands me the rag in another. After taking the medicine, I lean over and dip the cloth into the bowl, but the chair is too low and all I do is get the water dirty and make a mess.

“Can I help?” he asks.

I sigh and hold up the cloth. “Please?”

He gestures to the bed and I slide over. He’s careful about my ankle, sitting close to the edge. He soaks the cloth and wrings it out. He looks at my face but takes my hand and starts the tedious process of wiping the dirt and grime from my fingers.

“Your sister is different,” he says. His closeness bothers me and I’m thankful for something to fill the air other than touch.

“Very,” I agree. “You know how the road is. It either kills you or makes you stronger. Jane came out stronger after a couple of tumbles.”

He drops the cloth in the water, wringing it out and turning the contents a murky brown. He isn’t done though, and picks up my left hand. “Tell me about this town you’re living in. What’s it like?”

I watch his hands work, more gentle than I could have expected. He’s calmer than I’ve ever seen him and it makes me nervous. I’m used to the pent-up anger—the lethal stance. It’s confusing.

“Catlettsburg has been nice. I mean, if you’re into that whole quaint, small town thing.” I smile and he lifts an eyebrow. “It’s weird to be somewhere that feels calm and separate from the rest of the world. The snow helped. Obviously it gave us a false sense of security. The danger was out there—just held back by Mother Nature.”

He reaches for my arm and pushes up the sleeve of my T-Shirt, exposing my bicep. “You’ve kept up your training.”

I flex, showing off. His hand is warm. “Jackson spent the winter attempting to teach me ju-jitsu.”

“Is Jackson the one on the table downstairs?” He stands suddenly and picks up the bowl, walking it over to the window. His body is all hard lines. His shoulders are wide, making the plaid of his shirt tight across the back. The hair on his neck and over his ears is little longer than he likes to wears it. It softens him, just a bit. He dumps the dirty water outside and returns to the dresser, where he uses a pitcher to refill the bowl.

“No, that’s Benjamin—Green. We all trained together. Walker and Jane, too.”

“How does your peaceful town feel about that?” He returns, taking a clean cloth, wetting it before reaching for my face. With one hand he cups my chin, and with the other he carefully wipes along my jaw.

“They don’t know.”

That statement hangs between us as he washes my face. He knows me well. Even in a time of peace, I waited for the next battle. Patiently training—gaining skill and muscle.

He knows me, I consider, as he lifts my hair and rubs the dirt off my neck. He knows I’ll come with him, as if there was another option. I’ll fight with him. We both feel the tug of obligation and justice. My skin tingles, cooling as the water meets the air. He’s close enough that I feel his breath and wonder if he can hear my heartbeat thundering in my chest.

He returns the cloth to the bowl but his hand lingers on my neck and he just looks at me.

“What?” I ask, finding it hard to form words.

He licks his lip. “I didn’t know if I would find you. It’s a big fucking world out there, Alexandra. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Cole gave me a destination but what…” he swallows, “what if you weren’t there? What if it was a trap? What if you never made it?”

“I’m here.” I reach out and brush his cheek, then the spot above his heart. “And you made it.”

He pulls my head to his, our foreheads touching. “I’m not the kind of guy that asks. I’m the type that goes for it but this is different.” His mouth is close to mine—his lips a whisper away. “You’re different.”

That’s when it clicks. He’s been waiting on me this whole time. He waited though Cole. He gave me room to trust him. He followed me from the depths of the south, through the snow and a fire storm, to this little farmhouse.

I close the distance and kiss him, shocking him even though I know it’s what he wants. I grab him behind his ears, pulling us closer together. I don’t know what to expect but a shiver races down my spine, into my legs and sets my whole body on fire. I feel his heart pounding, or is it mine? It’s probably mine, but it may be his and I don’t know if it matters.

We kiss and it’s as good as I’d hoped and even dreamed about. I exhale as his feathery soft lips separate from mine and the heat leaves my mouth. His forehead leans against mine and I remark, “You wouldn’t stop talking,” as an excuse for what just happened.

“Are you serious?” His eyes are wild and I know I’ve started something I can’t take back.  A small smile plays on his lips and he plants a hand on either side of my hips. I can’t take my eyes off of his mouth.

A knock at the door interrupts any response.

“What?” he says, not moving.

“Meeting in five minutes,” Davis says. “Downstairs.”

“We’ll be there,” Wyatt replies.

“Five minutes?” I ask, cheeks burning.

He leans forward and kisses me softly. “Five minutes.”

The kiss intensifies and I sink into the moment, feeling the weight of this man and all the emotion we’ve carried for months and over miles. It’s the kind of kiss that clings to a sliver of hope when we’re surrounded by nothing but fear and death. I never dreamed of a kiss like this as a girl. I never knew it existed. Such desperation and so much hunger. Wyatt Faraday makes me feel, which is like fuel to my soul.

Any nagging questions or worries or questions get lost in the way his hands bunch the hem of my shirt and the consuming warmth of his lips. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about this life, it is to bask in the sun while I can. Darkness and all the bad stuff that comes with it is never far away.

Chapter 19

Wyatt carries me down the stairs, stopping once to press my back against the plaster walls and kisses me breathless. Then, like that, we’re in the living room with the others and he deposits me with little fanfare on the couch. I rest my foot on the ottoman. He sits on the fireplace hearth. Game face on.

The shift is understandable. Down here is work. Upstairs, pleasure. I have no doubt whatever exists between us isn’t concrete. What in this world is? I’ve learned that lesson the hard way. There’s a shelf-life to everything including relationships. You have to take what you can, when you can. I’m running the entire scene from upstairs in my head when the cushion next to me sinks as Jane sits down.

“Can you move over a bit?” Jane asks.

“Huh?”

“Move over, Alex, I’m falling off over here.”

Wyatt fights a smile and I gather my wits.

“How’s Green?” I ask after shifting over to give her space.

“Sleeping. We moved him to a bed last night. He still has a fever but it seems manageable. I think he’ll be okay once the vaccine fights off the infection. How about you? How’s the ankle?” She touches my cheek with the back of her hand. I’m sure they’re red, but not with fever.

“I’m fine. Thank you for the medicine.”

She checks my injury, which has already started to bruise. “I really don’t think it’s a break. The swelling already looks better. A couple more days rest would be preferable.”

“Wouldn’t it?” She smiles at my joke. We both know I’m not getting a full two day’s rest.

The rest of our group settles into a circle and blankets are passed around and shared. It’s cold in here and it was decided no one had any interest in messing with a fire right now—not after the inferno last night. Finn and Mary huddle close together in a faded arm chair, looking more worn and shell-shocked than the day before.  Walker stands and brings the group to attention.

“Wyatt, can you tell us what happened yesterday? Were those rocket launchers?” she asks Davis.

“Yeah those were awesome, right?” Jude replies.

“We left Savannah about a month ago,” Davis says. “We captured some horses from the Hybrids and it made the ride up here a lot easier. We didn’t have to worry about gas or getting through the stalled-out traffic jams. Most barns are still full of feed. The mountains and the snow slowed us down a little. By the time we got out of the Appalachians, we were beat.”

“I thought I had hypothermia. Like, I was pretty sure I was going to lose at least three toes,” Parker says from her spot on the floor. “Good thing Erwin gave Wyatt a list of people that could help when we needed it.”

“What kind of list?” Walker asks.

“Military bases. Fall-out shelters. People he knew all over the Northeast before the Crisis hit. Names, addresses, passcodes,” Wyatt explains. “We were in no-man’s land and a few days from starvation when I figured out the coordinates for a bunker just outside of West Virginia. It was disguised as a utility building, but in the basement we found a fully stocked bunker—just like the one at the Vaccine Center in South Carolina.”

“So they’re all over the place?” I ask, wondering how many we passed on our way up here.

“Yes, I guess it’s just a matter of the right person, with the right information, surviving long enough to use them,” Davis says. He’s sitting on a small wooden chair I’m convinced will snap under the pressure of his weight at any moment.

Wyatt says, “We spent a few days recovering—”

Parker snorts and rolls her eyes. “That’s what Wyatt calls defrosting.”

“And,” Wyatt continues, “finding the closest armory. Our ammo was low and we were headed toward civilization. Erwin listed a National Guard post a couple hours from here. It was still manned—mostly with a skeleton crew—but they gave us what we needed, as well as a bit of local information.”

Jude, who has been so quiet I thought he may be asleep, chimes in, “They told us there was a small community to the west that had the vaccine and that they were planning on taking them, once the roads melted.”

That little detail caught all of our attention.

Walker asks first. “What community and how did they hear this?”

“The Mennonites. As for how they heard it? I don’t know. Even now, gossip travels from group to group,” Jude says. “I mean, some of the small communities in the Appalachians had heard about the war down South. It’s all a little mythological sounding, but there’s enough truth.”

I look at Finn and Mary. “Any idea how this would get out?”

“Maybe the hunters that ended up infecting the whole community? They often traded animal meat and skins with other areas,” Finn replies.

Those men had doomed the community in more ways than one.

“So you went to the town and found it overrun.” I cut my eyes to Wyatt. “And decided to clean up the mess with rocket launchers.”

“Yep. They were half-starved and frozen. It was more a mercy killing than anything else.”

“Unfortunately, we didn’t know you guys were in the target zone,” Davis admits. “Sorry about that.”

“So what do we do now?” Finn asks. He and Mary look young and scared bundled together.

“I need to get back to Catlettsburg with my findings about why the vaccine failed as well as the new information Wyatt delivered about mixing vaccines,” Jane says. It’s the first time she’s spoken and I note the wariness in Jude and Parker’s eyes.

“You mean the Mutts,” Jude says.

“Avi won’t like it, but I’m going to have to reopen his lab and start experimenting.”

I look at my sister. “What’s your theory?”

She picks up the notepad on the table. Lines of furious writing cover the page. “I have a few. I’ll let you know when I’ve singled one out.”

Tension rises in the room—no one plans on allowing Jane to work unsupervised, but now isn’t the time to fight about it. I rest my hand on top of her scribbled words and say, “We’ll talk about this more, okay?”

“Yes. That’s fine.”

I glance at the others. “Besides getting Jane back to the lab—any ideas? How long do we have before the Hybrids arrive?”

Wyatt thinks, running his hand over his hair. “I think we can anticipate them arriving at any point. They were close to Savannah when we left, I doubt it took long for them to conquer the base. It just depends on what happened with Erwin and how long it takes for them to capture civilians to add to their army on the way.”

“Then we need to build our own,” I admit. “Be ready when they get here.”

“That’s why Erwin sent us.”

Walker stands and does the pacing thing that means she’s thinking. “We’ll have to split up. Two teams? Maybe three?”

Davis nods. “One takes Jane back to Catlettsburg.”

“And Green.” I interject. “To recover.”

All eyes look at my ankle propped on the table. “Nope. I’m not sitting this one out.”

“You should consider it,” Wyatt says. “You’re not a hundred percent and you could injure yourself further.”

I glare at him and he holds it. “No. I’ll be fine.”

Walker rolls her eyes, familiar with our bickering. “Three teams. One to Catlettsburg, one to round up whatever military is left out there using Erwin’s notes, and one to scout for the Hybrids. We’ll work out the specifics later.” She grabs her coat off the back of a chair. “I’m going out to patrol. Someone make breakfast.”

Jackson follows her, grabbing a shotgun on the way out the door.

“I’ll fix breakfast. I think there’s some stuff still in the pantry,” Parker says, standing from her spot on the floor and taking her blanket with her. Finn and Mary follow her—I think just looking for something to do.

“I should check on Benjamin,” Jane says. She looks at me. “I’ll let you know when he wakes up.”

“Thanks.”

Wyatt and I are left alone in the room. A wide gulf separates us but his eyes are set on me. I shake my head. “You’re not talking me out of it. I’m going.”

“Since when have I talked you out of anything?”

“True.” But he’s tricked me more than once.

He leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees. “I learned a long time ago that it is an effort in futility.”

“Wouldn’t want to waste your time,” I agree.

“No. I wouldn’t want to do that.” He stands and grabs his heavy military grade jacket, along with the gun resting at his feet. “I’m going to take a look around outside. You rest.”

“I will.” The throbbing has started again but I’m hesitant to ask for more medication. Benjamin needs it more than I do.

He starts toward the door, but pauses, gun clutched in his hand. He turns back to me, reaching behind his back. A moment later he’s offering me a small silver gun.

I take it. “Thanks.”

He leans down and kisses my mouth quickly before heading back to the door. Without another look back, he’s gone.

Chapter 20

“Do you see how the wound is clearing? More red than the purple from before?” Jane holds up the bandage and makes me assess Benjamin’s injury. It’s certainly not the worst thing I’ve seen in my life, but the ragged wound still turns my stomach.

“Yeah, that means it’s getting better?” I ask. I’m leaning on a tall stick Davis brought me to use as a crutch.

“Yes. A normal Eater bite leaves the injured area decayed as the infection travels through their system to the brain. It’s still disgusting at the moment but it will keep healing,” she replies, glancing at the wound once more before covering it with a clean bandage.

“I’m right here, you know?” Benjamin says, looking between us. He’s awake and able to sit and even consume a little of the soup Parker made. She found some dried bouillon cubes in the pantry to boil with water.

“You look better.” I give his hand a squeeze. “You were a little pale for a while.”

“Thought I was a goner?”

“I have faith in Jane’s vaccine, but we’ve all lost enough people. I didn’t want you to be on that list,” I admit.

“I’m glad you don’t find me expendable,” he says. The tone of his voice makes me look at his face and crap, he’s staring at me in a way I don’t want. The way he looked at me in the kitchen two days before. I slowly extract my hand from his.

“You’re part of the team,” I clarify. “We need you. I don’t know if you heard but we’ve got some heavy battles coming our way. We’re going to need your skills.”

He nods and I know he absorbed all the ’we’s’ I tossed out there. He shifts a little, adding to the distance. “Jackson gave me a briefing. I haven’t heard the finer details, but yeah, I do know your infamous Wyatt saved our asses the other night. If I’ve learned anything from the legend, conflict follows him like a black cloud.”

I frown. “My Wyatt?”

He laughs. “You talk about him. A lot. I just figured he was gone and you’d eventually move on.”

I glance at Jane, who studies her notebook. She does take the time to look up and say, “You do mention him often.”

“I do?” I’m not even sure I noticed. I thought I’d done a really good job of pushing him out of my mind. The odds of us seeing one another again were slim—or so I thought before yesterday.

“It’s okay, Alex. I’m glad someone from your past returned. Like you said, we’ve all lost too many people.” His eyes turn serious. “What I am worried about is where he wants to lead us.”

“Wyatt isn’t leading us anywhere,” I say. “He’s making sure we survive what’s coming.”

“Are you sure he didn’t just reveal our location to the enemy.”

I shake my head. “You underestimate Chloe, which, frankly, is the worst thing you can do. She’s usually two steps ahead of us anyway.”

“He came up here to find you on the word of your mutant ex-boyfriend. You think that’s on the level? That Wyatt didn’t get played, just because he was so desperate to find you?”

“No. That’s not what happened.” But doubt forms a seed in my head.

“Cole and Chloe probably knew that he’d do anything to get information about where you and Jane were hiding. Like you said, the worst thing you can do is underestimate Chloe.”

“Wyatt is ruthless. And smarter than any Hybrid or other soldier. There’s no way he made a mistake like that.”

“All men have a weakness, Alex.” He gives me a hard but sympathetic look. “Including Wyatt.”

Jane is watching our exchange with deep interest and my head is reeling. This is the paranoia I didn’t miss over the last few months. The feeling of drowning in quicksand. I swallow the lump in my throat and point down at my foot. “I should get off of this.”

Benjamin catches my hand before I can step away from the bed. “I’m not trying to hurt you. I just need you to be clear-headed—to understand what’s coming our way.”

I jerk away. “Don’t worry about me and my capabilities. And I’m more aware of the dangers of Chloe and her Hybrids than anyone else.”

“Alex—” he calls but I’ve already left the room, slamming the door behind me.

Chapter 21

“Hey,” Walker says. “What the hell are you doing?”

I’m staring out the bedroom window. Wyatt and Jude are on guard duty. They’re circling the house and every five minutes or so I see their hat-covered heads pass by.

“Do you think Wyatt has a weakness?” I ask.

“Uh, I’m going to need a little more context.”

The guys disappear around the side of the house and I turn to face Walker, her red hair looking brighter than normal in the dim candlelight. “Do you think Wyatt ever makes the wrong decision about things? Like, does he allow his feelings or personal opinions to get in the way?”

She steps in the room and shuts the door behind her. “You’re not supposed to be on that foot. Sit down and we can talk about it.” I get on the bed and she takes the chair.

“You told me not to trust him and to let that part of my life go. I did, but now he’s back and when I say he’s back…well, things have changed between us.”

Walker shakes her head. “You two have had this undercurrent since the day I saved your ass from Erwin’s underground torture chamber. Pure UST.”

“UST?”

“Unresolved sexual tension. You both have it in spades and you probably would’ve handled it months ago if Cole wasn’t in the picture.”

“No,” I shake my head. “It has nothing to do with Cole. Wyatt hasn’t always been truthful with me. It’s taken a long time for me to trust him.”

She leans back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest. “Is that why you’re asking me about weaknesses? Because you trust him so much?”

I bury my face in my hands and groan. “Stupid Green. He got in my head.”

“What did he say?”

“He thinks Wyatt has led the Hybrid army right to us. That Cole is using him to find us and picked Wyatt in particular because of his feelings for me.” I fidget with a loose thread on the quilt—feeling dumb. Wyatt is nearly unshakeable. Who am I to consider being the one that knocks him loose?

“So you’re his weakness?”

“According to Green.”

“Wyatt’s many things,” she says carefully. “More often a mystery than anything else, but in all the time I’ve known him he’s never thought with any body part other than his brain.”

“Nice image,” I say, cheeks hot.

“Thanks.” She laughs for a quick second before growing serious again. “Green is probably just jealous or even more likely, intimidated.”

“Wyatt is pretty intimidating,” I agree.

“Have you told him about being in Butch’s trading post yet? Because I wouldn’t want to be around when he finds out the guys let us walk right into that one.”

I shake my head. “No. I haven’t told him.” It seems like a terrible secret we share together. The idea of Wyatt finding out that I was caged like an animal doesn’t sit well with me. “It wasn’t entirely their fault, you know.”

Walker smiles. “Oh, I know, but do you think Wyatt would accept that?”

“No. He would have burnt that whole place to the ground first.”

“Exactly.” We share a knowing look.

“I better go. I was on my way to the bathroom to check for any supplies we can take with us.”

“Thanks for talking me off the ledge.”

She stands and squeezes my shoulder. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think love is a weakness anyway.”

I swallow. “Love?”

“A year ago I would have kicked my own ass for saying that.” She shakes her head at herself. “But now? You gotta hold on to what you can to get through the day, you know?”

She leaves and I hear her open the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. She’s right. The days are long. There’s no television or computers or podcasts to get us through the dull moments. There is no break from the fear. It’s all just survival, and in the end, we only have one another to cling to. Wyatt, for whatever his reasons, has clung to me like a lifeboat. Unlike Walker, I’m not sure if it’s really love, but I can try to be what he needs me to be for now, because I know one thing for sure. I’m stronger with him around than without.

*

Half of the team leaves the next morning. Davis, Walker, Jackson, and Parker carry the information given to Wyatt by Erwin with hopes of convincing them to join the upcoming battle.

“Tell them if they join up, we can give them the vaccine,” Jane reminds them as we all stand on the front porch. Well, I sit, keeping pressure off my ankle. Jane has given me one more day of rest.

“You have enough for everyone?” Walker asks.

“I brought the materials with me. They’re in Catlettsburg under lock and key.”

Davis shifts on his feet, eager to get on the road. I don’t blame him. Daylight is burning.  They’re taking horses, as Wyatt’s team has discovered it’s the easier way to travel.

“Our first stop is Fort Knox,” Jackson declares. “I’m trying to not feel intimidated by this mission.”

Jude raises his eyebrows. “Seriously?”

“It’s the closest one. Also the biggest. I’m hoping they were prepared and are still functioning.”

“Good luck guys,” I stand, using my makeshift crutch and hobble over to Davis. “I wish we weren’t saying goodbye already.”

“Hey,” he says, pulling me into a tight hug. “At least this time I get a goodbye, right?”

“Shut it,” I reply, even though I deserve it. “Take care of everybody.” I say it to Davis but I’m looking at Walker. If anyone will get them back in one piece and pull off this whole thing, it’s her.  She nods in reply and I’m glad we’ve patched things up and become friends.

They get on their horses, Walker a little unsure at first. Wyatt strokes the white stripe on the animal’s face before patting it on the flank and sending them on their way.

As soon as they slip from my view I feel the loss of separation.

“You okay?” Wyatt asks, brushing his hands on his pants.

“It just feels like every time we separate, someone doesn’t come back.”

He studies me. “You mean Paul?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“That kid is probably dragging Erwin’s ass out of a fight right now. I have zero doubt we’ll see him again someday.”

I look at his face to see if he’s joking but the lack of smile or crinkled lines near his eyes imply that he’s serious. “You have an unshakable faith sometimes.”

“Faith?” he repeats, scratching his forehead. He trimmed his beard sometime in the last day and I heard him ask Parker for a full haircut before we leave in the morning. “I’ve seen Paul rise from the dead and fight his way out of battles no man should have survived. It’s not faith. It’s acceptance of our bizarre reality.”

The others have gone back to their tasks, leaving me and Wyatt alone on the porch. He rests his hands on my hips. “We’ll see them again, too—hopefully leading an army back here. If not, we’ll go find them.”

“Yeah?”

He tilts his head. “Yeah, but don’t get any ideas. You and I have a different rule—one we broke too many times—and it’s not going to happen again.”

“Rule number one?”

He nods, touching my chin before pressing his lips to mine. “I was an idiot to let you go without me.”

“If I hadn’t, we’d probably both be dead,” I remind him. His arms are tight around my back and it feels so good to be close to someone like this.

“Never again,” he repeats. No matter how foolish the declaration was then and seems now, he means it.

*

“What’s rule number one?”

I pause, holding the needle between my fingers. I’d been sewing up a hole in my favorite jeans when Mary Ellen asks this question. “Excuse me?”

“I heard you on the porch earlier—you and Mr. Wyatt.” Her face flames red, giving me the idea she saw as much as she heard. “Sorry, that was rude of me.”

“Oh. That’s okay. It’s crowded in here. Privacy is hard to come by.”  The girl smiles and I see she’s wearing her braid down her back today and not in the two pigtails I’ve seen her with so far. “I used to wear my hair sort of like that. It’s too long now.”

She touches the braid and I notice some other changes. Like her long dress is gone,replaced by a pair of pants and an oversized shirt. I don’t blame her. That dress is a deathtrap.

“Wyatt and I came up with a rule—well, no, I came up with it—early on. Never separate. It’s too hard to lose one another. Too hard to fight alone. You need a partner and backup out here to survive.”

“But you did leave him?”

I push the needle through the thick fabric, drawing the wool together. Socks aren’t that hard to find. I just like these. They’re soft and keep my feet warm. “I did. It was a risk.”

“A good risk?” Her eyebrows pull together in confusion.

“A necessary one, I guess. Sometimes we have to do things and we don’t want to drag everyone else into it.” I poke my finger and hiss at the pain. A pebble of blood pools at the tip and I pop it in my mouth. “This life is complicated.”

“Did you know I’ve never left my town before all this happened?” she says. “My whole life was set. Go to school, get married, work on a farm, have babies. It was all arranged before I could even think of my own opinion.”

“That’s kind of wild.” She sits at the table across from me and grows quiet. “Hey, are you okay? You’ve been through a lot in the last few days—not to mention the last year.”

She stares at the table and inhales before confessing in a whisper, “Finn is not my betrothed.”

From the way she says it, like revealing a mortal sin, I feel this is huge information. For her. Not for me. “Okay.”

“My to-be husband’s name was Carl. He was eighteen and one of the hunters that infected the village. When he returned home, he acted strange. He and I were never actually that fond of one another but he’d never raised a hand to me. That night he struck me. I thought he had found out—that he knew about Finn. It took a minute to realize he wasn’t normal. Thank heavens Finn arrived in time and killed him before he killed me.”

I put down the sewing and reach for her hand. “I’m so sorry. It’s terrible to lose someone to the infection.” She’s trembling and I can’t tell if it’s from telling the truth after all this time or something more. I take a stab in the dark. “So you and Finn were seeing each other in secret?”

She looks up, horrified. “Yes. Our families would never approve. Our fathers in particular, but when everyone died we were the only ones left. I was so thankful but also worried about God’s judgment. We have broken so many rules.” Her ears burn red. “We’ve shared a bed.”

“Hey,” I say, scooting my chair closer. “All hell broke loose, Mary Ellen. Our lives are not what they were supposed to be. Or maybe they are? I don’t know. I just try to live one day to the next, working to survive and help others along the way. I don’t know how else to live.” I bend and catch her eye. “I do think that if you managed to get out of that infected town alive, with the man you love, God is probably on your side.”

She flings her arms around me, pulling me in a tight, desperate hug. She sobs in my ear and I rub her back. She’d carried that guilt for months. “We make our own rules now,” I tell her, knowing it’s not always a good thing. “Finn loves you very much. I can tell by the way he looks at you.”

She extracts herself. “You can?”

“Oh yeah, I’d give up my favorite hatchet to have a man stare at me like that.” It’s a joke. Please. I wouldn’t give up my hatchet for anything.

Mary Ellen wipes her nose and gives me a funny look. “Mr. Wyatt already looks at you like that, you know that don’t you?”

I think of sweet, innocent Finn and the way he dotes on Mary Ellen’s every need. “We may have a different perspective on that,” I say, grabbing my socks and standing. “You’ll leave in the morning for Catlettsburg. I think you and Finn will like it. It will be a good place for a fresh start.”

“Thanks for being so kind,” she says. “It’s been a long time since I had another female to talk to.”

I snort. “Yeah, tell me about it. Things can get a little testosterone-y in my life, too.”

I leave the room feeling like I’ve accomplished something—even just making another person feel better is a bonus for the day. Tomorrow they’ll head back to town and Wyatt and I will start looking for the Hybrids. Although the rest has been welcomed, it feels good to have a mission planned.

I should have known better, because in the apocalypse, nothing ever goes according to plan.

Chapter 22

Jane and I are together in the living room, tightening the wrap on my ankle when we hear the sound of boots on the porch. I reach for my hatchet and Jane stands, pulling a small pistol from her waistband.

Mary Ellen walks in from the kitchen, holding a can. She looks up and sees the weapons.  “What’s happening?” she whispers.

I nod at the door and wave her out of the room. One of use needs to be hidden and Mary Ellen has two good ankles. That’s more than Green, who is lying behind me on the sofa, and I have combined.

Unless I’m mistaken, I hear several sets of feet. They could just be Wyatt and Jude, but the way the hair on the back of my neck stands on end, I fear the worst.

The door opens slowly and a figure steps inside, hands raised in a position of surrender. My eyes move to his face but Jane has already exclaimed, “Avi!” lowering her gun.

He smiles and exhales. “You mind getting this attack dog to stand down?”

Wyatt appears in the doorway. His grip on Avi is unmistakable. One false move and Wyatt is prepared to snap his neck.

“It’s okay,” Jane says, approaching the men. “This is Avi, my friend from Catlettsburg.”

Wyatt releases him with a shove and I’m about to ask why he’s being such a dick about it but I see the shiner next to his eye. Avi decked him. No wonder he’s pissed.

“Are you alone?” I ask Avi.

“Yes. I came by myself. There’s no one else out there.”

Wyatt doesn’t look convinced.

“He has no reason to lie,” I say. “He’s a friend. Relax. Where’s Jude?”

He glares at me, letting me know that Jude doesn’t trust Avi either. “Outside. I’ll be with him.”

The door slams and Avi looks behind him, then glances back at me. “Nice guy. He’s that friend of yours, right?”

“He’s just cautious.” I point to my face. “Plus it looks like you snuck up on him. Impressive, but not the best foot to start off on.”

“He jumped me from behind—he’s the one that’s sneaky as hell. I managed to get an elbow in before he shot me in the face.”

“Ignore him,” Jane says, reaching for his hand. “What are you doing here? How did you find us?”

“I was on my way to Franklin when I passed Walker and her team on the road. They told me how to find you.” Avi’s voice sounds strained. Worried. The light in the room is dark but when I look at him closer I see that he looks like he hasn’t slept in days.

“What’s going on Avi? Why are you here?” I repeat Jane’s question.

“I went on a short supply run with two other members of the community. You remember Cody and Ian?” Jane and I nod, recalling the brothers that worked as the town peace-keepers. Both had experience in Iraq. “We were specifically checking on how some of the gardens we cultivate herbs and small vegetables from were faring after the cold winter.” He coughs and I shoot Mary Ellen a look. She disappears into the kitchen and returns with a reused bottle of water. He accepts and takes a large gulp. “Thank you. I ran out several hours ago.”

“You went on a supply run. Did you encounter Eaters? Where are the other men?”

“No Eaters. There’s a nursery and greenhouse about five miles out of Catlettsburg. We’d hoped that maybe the greenhouse varieties had some early budding because it’s located in a massive field, allowing for direct sunlight. We were almost there when I stopped to check an area known for fungus growth, telling the others to go ahead. It was dumb separating from them, although I don’t know what I would have done differently.”

“Avi,” Jane says, growing impatient with his rambling. “What happened?”

“When I caught up to them it was nearly dark. I could see what they couldn’t. The specks of fires all through the valley behind the greenhouse. Dozens of campfires out in the open.  I found blood splatters on the road and Cody’s cap on the ground. In the distance, soldiers swarmed the country side. They had no care. No worries. They didn’t fear attracting the infected or alerting anyone to their arrival.”

Jane and I share an uneasy glance.

“What kind of uniform were they wearing?” Green asks.

“Similar to the one you wore when you got to Catlettsburg. All black.”

Erwin’s men wear camouflage. Jane’s Fighters wore black. The Hybrids adopted the same look. “Did they see you?” I ask.

“No.”

“No?” I clarify. “Or you don’t think so. It’s not the same thing.”

He stares at me in annoyance. “It took me two days to find you Alex, do you think they would have left me go that long if they were following me?”

“I think they can’t be underestimated.”

Green speaks up. “They’ll find out from your men about Catlettsburg. They’ll go there next.”

Avi nods. “That was my thought, too. It’s why I came here instead of going back home. I hoped to catch you on the return home.” He looks at my wrapped ankle and Green lying on the couch. “Looks like you guys ran into some trouble yourself.”

“Franklin is lost. The infection spread through the community just before the first snow,” Jane tells him.

He frowns. “How? I vaccinated them myself.”

She explains her theory about the lack of prior vaccinations in their system. When she finishes he simply says, “That’s unfortunate.”

“I’d planned on going back to the lab to figure out a way to stop the Hybrids, but it may be too late.”

He gives her a hard look. “We talked about this. No more biological warfare.”

“I’m not trying to create warfare, Avi!” she shouts, surprising us all. Jane is always calm and collected. “I’m attempting to repair the damage I’ve already done. I need something that will override all of the vaccines, keep the parasite from taking over the body, as well as disable the EVI-2 vaccine that creates the Hybrids.”

“Don’t forget the Mutts,” Green adds.

“What the hell is a Mutt?” Avi asks, but no one answers him.

“All of it.” Jane looks at Avi. “We either fix this or we’re doomed. They’ll kill us or we kill them. There’s no other option.”

“It may be too late,” Parker says. “The Hybrids could already be in Catlettsburg.”

I think for a moment but I already have an idea forming. “Finn, go get Wyatt and Jude.” He nods and moves quickly.

“What are you thinking?” Benjamin asks me. We haven’t spoken directly since our fight the day before.

“Remember when you said Wyatt has a weakness?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“I don’t think it’s true, but Cole and Chloe may buy into the theory.”

Finn walks back inside, the two men trailing her. Wyatt scrapes the soles of his boots on the threshold. Jane brings them up to speed, explaining that the Hybrids are closer than we expected but that Avi has at least given us an advance warning.

“So you need to get back to the town and we,” Wyatt looks at me, “need to divert the Hybrids.” He’s already three steps ahead of the rest of the room.

“Yep.” I nod.

“That’s a crap plan,” Benjamin says, not realizing my role until Wyatt says it.

“You said it yourself. Cole and Chloe used Wyatt to get to me. Let’s give them what they want and buy Jane a little time.”

“It’s a stupid plan. There’s no way it will work,” Benjamin declares.

Jude crosses his arms over his chest, his jaw tense. He shoots Benjamin a glare. “Dude, we’ve had so many dumb ideas I can’t even count them on one hand. But these two,” he points at me and Wyatt. “they’ve made more work than you can imagine. Don’t underestimate them.”

“When do we leave?” Jane asks, before the tide changes.

“In an hour.” Wyatt looks at me. “Will you be ready?”

I gesture to my bag. His is right next to it. He taught me well. “Whenever you are.”

Chapter 23

With bad news hovering over us like a storm cloud, Mary Ellen, in her quite voice, declares that we have a feast—celebrating Avi’s arrival and our last night together. By ’celebration’, she means eating the pack of stale crackers she found in a tin box in the pantry, three cans of tuna and the carrots Finn discovered in the back yard garden.  Avi adds the pack of jerky and two cans of preserved okra he brought to trade with the Mennonites.

“I also found this,” Jude cries, holding up an unmarked bottle. The pinkish liquid swishes around.

Finn takes it from him and screws open the lid. He sniffs and says, “Muscadine Wine.”

We crowd candles on the table and spread out our feast. Jude takes a swig of the wine, two crackers, and some jerky before saying, “I’ll go back out with Wyatt.”

“He won’t come in?” Jane asks.

I shake my head. “Too paranoid.”

“Instinct,” Jane tells me. “Wyatt has a heightened sense. It’s one of the reasons I chose him—” She lets that comment trail into the void. No one wants to discuss her experiments tonight.

“Avi,” I say. “Tell us what’s happening in Catlettsburg. Anything interesting?”

No, he should have said, but didn’t, instead regaling us with not-thrilling stories of canning and a recent bake-off using roots to make flour. You know, instead of flour to make flour. The winner was Mrs. Banks with a delicious pie crust.

Jane and I catch eyes and laugh—sharing an unexpected sister moment. She holds up her glass up in a toast. I return the gesture and swallow.

“Oh god,” I sputter. The wine is sweet, almost syrupy, but the alcohol content is not something I’m used to.

“You okay?” Mary Ellen asks.

“Yeah. That stuff is just…wow.”  My head swims and I head to the kitchen for a little air.

I stand over the sink, trying to decide if everything I just consumed is going to try to come back up again. Laughter rings from the other room and I can’t help but smile. Even in this shitty world, I’ve found my tribe.

After a second, my stomach seems to settle and I turn, leaning my back against the counter.

“Hey.” I look up. Wyatt stands in the back door, shoulder leaning against the wood frame. He’s chewing on a piece of jerky.

“Hi.”

“You okay?”

“Just a little queasy. You know how it is.” Food is a double edged sword these days. We need it but our bodies don’t always like what we put in it. “The wine may have been a little much,” I confess.

He approaches me and rests a hand on my hip. Without asking he gives me a kiss, gentle and smooth. I’ve barely adjusted to it when he pulls away, licking his lips. “Tastes good to me.”

He lifts me up, setting me on the counter so we’re eye to eye. I run my fingers over his jaw, the scruff of his beard. My heart hammers in my chest. Without reason I blurt, “Green thinks Cole, and possibly Chloe, set you up.”

There’s a beat—I’ve ruined this pleasant moment and I desperately want to take the words back. Wyatt runs his hands up my thighs and just says, “I’m aware.”

I want to ask how he knows but at the same time, nope, not going there or fighting about that now. “You think he’s wrong?”

“I think we’ll find out soon enough.”

There’s a sound at the back door and we pause, hands off one another and on our weapons. He’s tense standing between my legs.  My heartbeat quickens from possible danger—from outside and his closeness.

“Probably the horses,” he whispers, when there’s no other sound. He focuses his intense eyes back on me. “Green may be right. Cole may have known I’d come up here at the drop of a hat. That doesn’t change his motivation one way or the other. He’s not with them, at least not willingly. If the Hybrids are coming I’m just going to say a little extra prayer of thanks I got to spend time with you.”

He rests his gun on the counter and with two hands pulls my hips closer to the edge. Out the kitchen window daybreak starts, its early morning ascent providing a glow across Wyatt’s face.

“You’re doing a number on me, aren’t you?”

He cocks his head. “What do you mean?”

“Saying things like that. Touching me like this.” I rest my hand on his chest and look into his eyes. He watches me closely and I lean forward, kissing him. Want rushes through me and I tug gently on his bottom lip. When we part I add, “Kissing me like that.”

“I think you’re the one doing those things.” He loops a piece of hair over my ear. The tension ratchets up a notch.

“What is this, Wyatt?” I ask the question I know he can’t answer because I’m the girl that wants to know everything.

He’s smart. I’ve always known that and it’s confirmed when he cups the back of my neck and kisses me again instead of answering. This time he isn’t gentle. It’s full of energy, something I feel all the way down to my toes. I’m not used to him yet—not the way he handles me or the way he moves. Not the way he makes the earth feel like it’s shuddering under my feet.

Against my mouth, in the quietest of voices, he says, “This is now. It’s real, and you remember that no matter what happens. No matter what Chloe says or does, you understand that?” I nod and he continues. “She’ll try to wedge between us. She’ll use us to hurt one another. Look what she did to her brother. Always know this is real and it has been since the moment I met you.”

“Definitely a number,” I mumble, feeling overheated and woozy with emotion.

We kiss again, hands growing greedy, desperate. His mouth doesn’t leave mine even when I need to catch my breath, and the burn in the pit of my stomach makes my brain evaporate from my head.

I hear a faint scratch at the back door, followed by a low moan. I freeze, squeezing his hand with mine. “That’s not the horses,” I whisper.

Wyatt steps away, checking his gun. I jump off the counter, hatchet already in hand. The laughter and chatter from the front room comes to an abrupt stop, just as Wyatt opens the back door.

He had his gun pointed head level but drops it suddenly, aiming at the ground. Shouts call from the front room—something is wrong in there—but I’m screaming, “Don’t shoot!” realizing it’s Jude’s bloody body on the porch floor.

Boots pound through the house, furniture crashes. I’m on my knees trying to help my friend. Wyatt steps over me, heading into the early morning fog.

“Get up,” he hisses at me but I don’t want to leave him.

“Run!” Mary Ellen screams from the front of the house. I’ve found Jude’s pulse—his face barely recognizable from the beating. “Alex! Run!” she yells again from the front room and I stand, looking back to the living room and out the front door—mind bent and confused.

Gunshots come from the front room, glass shatters and breaks. I can’t help them from inside, so I run through the back door and down the back steps.

“You’re not getting away from me this time,” hear from the kitchen doorway. “Neither of you.”

I spin at the familiar voice. Chloe stands with her hands on her hips. Her hair has completely grown out since her surgery last year. The same pale blonde as her brother’s. She nods and the echoing sound of cocked and ready rifles clicks against the silent yard. A quick glance reveals I’m surrounded.

“Drop your weapon,” a drone says. I throw it at his head. He ducks but the one behind him doesn’t and it clips him across the ear. A string of profanity rolls off his tongue, blood gushing through his fingers as he clutches his head. A dozen guns come within a foot and I consider that this may be it. This is how I’ll go down, when I hear a cry to my right and a Hybrid shoves Jane my direction. She stumbles and I catch her, noticing the blood dripping from her temple.

“Tie the others up. We’ll take them back to headquarters,” Chloe commands and her Hybrid ants scurry to fulfill her wishes. She shifts her focus on me and Jane. “And tie them up.”

We’re jerked and shoved to the ground, a rock jamming into my knee. Jane looks fuzzy-eyed, like the hit to the head messed with her, but we’re hoisted back up on our feet and shoved front and center.

“That was clever,” she says, stepping over Jude to get to the bottom step. She stares at Jane. “The way you escaped last year. I didn’t realize you were even aware of my plans. To be honest, I thought you were too self-absorbed to notice. Too focused on your own goals.”  She shrugs. “Lesson learned. Never take your eyes off the Ramsey girls.”

She turns her attention to me, eyes narrowed. “You on the other hand…not so clever, but you’re nothing more than a traitorous whore. What did you give Rowe to lead you out of the Fort? I found his body mangled and half consumed on the sparring room floor. Did you use him, too? Like the other men that cross you path?”

“You’re delusional, Chloe.” I glance at my sister. “That’s something you need to fix in your next batch of vaccines. The increased likelihood of delusions of grandeur.”

“It’s the infection,” Jane replies, in that know-it-all-voice she can’t help. I shake my head for her to shut up but she keeps talking anyway. “It sparks the aggression and need to conquer. Not by spreading the virus but by forcing those around her into submission. Although it’s basically a mental illness, I do find it fascinating.”

Chloe walks down the steps, quick and feline. She approaches Jane with speed so fast she appears a blur. She grabs Jane by the neck and says, “See? That’s why I can’t kill you. You’re too smart. So smart. I’m going to need that brain.”

She places a sweet kiss on my sister’s forehead and turns to me. Without hesitation, she hauls off and slaps my face with a crack that rattles my teeth and splits my lip. My ears ring and I nearly lose my balance, my weak ankle buckling under the pressure, but Chloe grabs the front of my shirt and jerks me forward. “You on the other hand? Not so smart. I told you not to hurt my brother.”

I spit blood on the ground. “I’ve done a lot of crappy things over the last two years, Chloe, but I’ve never hurt your brother. He left me, you know. Not the other way around.”

She glances to her left, and like they have a hive mind, the Hybrids part and toss Wyatt in our direction. He’s bound already, hands and feet, and lands with a thud on the ground. His knuckles are busted—bloody and scraped from fighting. His eye is bruised again, just below where Avi already popped him once tonight.

“Cole is a fool, but he’s learned the error of his ways. He’s been reformed, or at least he’s in the process.”

“So civilized,” I say.

“At least he’s loyal,” she replies, eyes flicking to Wyatt, who has managed to get on his knees. “This one? He still can’t figure out whose side he’s on, other than his own.” She walks over to him and places a finger under his chin. “So predictable, or at least that’s how he seems. He’s not, though. Every move has a distinct motive. A clear mission.”

“Cole is the one that sold you out,” I tell her.

“But Wyatt is the good boy. The perfect soldier. He follows directions with extreme precision.” She glances at me and smiles before leaning over and placing a slow kiss on Wyatt’s lips. He struggles with his binds, twisting away. Two guns press in his back and she clutches him by the chin, holding him still.

“Thank you for the hard work,” she says to him. “But your services are no longer needed.” She rests her boot in his chest and kicks him over. A Hybrid comes behind her and slams the butt of a gun against the back of his head. The crack is sickening and I can’t stop the cry as he crumbles to the ground in a heap.

“Put them with the rest of the prisoners,” she says, walking off without another look back. “And shoot him.”

I lunge toward Wyatt but I’m picked up from behind and hauled away from his body. Hybrids do the same to Jane although she isn’t resisting. I fight, twisting against the Hybrid, kicking and pulling with all my might. The burly solider wraps his arms around me and I buck against him.

“Don’t do it! Don’t you dare!” I shout at Chloe’s retreating form. “If you hurt him, you’ll pay for it with your life. A slow and painful death, Chloe.”

She disappears into her vehicle without reacting while I’m dragged down the gravel driveway, heels digging in. My ankle throbs, probably actually broken now, but it doesn’t stop me from fighting. I bend and clamp my teeth down on the Hybrid’s wrist, tearing into the flesh.

The Hybrid throws me to the ground and stands over me, gun drawn. He wipes his bloody hand on his pants and narrows his eyes. “Just because she won’t let me kill you doesn’t mean I can’t hurt you, little girl.”

The tone of his voice shakes me to the core and Jane shouts, “Alexandra. Stop. You’re only making it worse.”

I steal a look at my sister and see the fear on her face. I don’t want to give up. I can’t give in but there’s nothing I can do. He yanks me back on my feet.

Not far down the drive we come upon several black vans. They open the back doors of one and toss Jane inside, she lands hard on the metal floor. I expect the same but they shut the doors with a slam and yank me toward a different van.

We’ve just reached the doors when a single shot cracks the night into two.

My heart stops and I stumble, clamping my teeth to keep from screaming. I don’t dare look back and see what she’s done to the man that I love.

Another Hybrid opens the doors and I’m shoved forward. I have no fight left and sprawl into the hard floor. Jude left for dead. Green injured and unable to fight. The others will be transported back to whatever headquarters Chloe has set up. Jane will be a servant toward whatever biological warfare they want to create. God knows where Erwin and Paul are, but if she hasn’t caught them yet, it won’t be long.

And Wyatt. I swallow back the tears and pain.

The Hybrids have won the war without an actual battle.

I feel the chains clamped to my wrists and numbly I go where I’m directed. There are bench seats on each side and I’m tethered to a chain on the floor. Tight manacles are on each wrist.  I settle into one, only realizing I’m not alone as the door slams shut. A tiny sliver of light seeps through the crack under the doors revealing a pair of unfamiliar scuffed, black boots. He’s not one of my friends, which makes me happy and sad at the same time.

On his knees rest dirty hands, knuckles covered in scabs. His pants are torn, shredded at the cuff. Chains bolted to the floor loop around his ankles, and another set bind his wrists to the bench. A dark black cap covers his head, which is all I can see because his face is down.

“You must have done something pretty awful because they gave you extra chains. And Chloe hates me. Like really, really hates me.”  My voice is weird—hysterical. If I don’t joke, I’ll break down. If I break down, there’s no getting back up.

He makes a sound. A laugh. It’s low and creepy, building in his chest. He leans his head back against the van wall and I get a peek of his bloody, ruined face.

“You’re right about that.” He stifles his giggles, turning his hard blue eyes on me. My blood runs cold. “She freaking hates you.”

“Cole?” I ask, because I honestly don’t recognize him. Not a thing. Not the sharp, emaciated angles of his face. Not the matted hair stuck to his forehead. Not the unhinged sound of his voice.

He leans toward me, held back by the chains but able to get closer than I’d like. “You should have kept running, Alexandra. Far, far away. Not simply playing house up here while you waited for your lover to come back.”

The eerie feeling washes over me that they’ve known our location for some time. Maybe they’ve just been waiting out the snow like the rest of us. Waiting for Wyatt to return to take us all out in one final blow.

In the shadowy van I try to make out his features. The face I once held and kissed. There’s nothing. I hear the disbelief in my voice when I ask, “What has she done to you?”

“What she did to me?” Again he offers that maniacal smile. “This is what you did to me. What I sacrificed for you. I’m the example of what happens when you go against her will. She’ll destroy all your friends, Alex. She’ll destroy everything good and kind and human unless you do what she says.”

“Why doesn’t she just kill me?”

“Where’s the fun in that?” he asks, his gaze suddenly coherent.

The van rattles down the road, getting further and further from the farmhouse. My friends and family are splinted—if not gone for good. The weights are heavy, dragging me down. My ankle throbs and I fight the sob that clings to the back of my throat. It’s not just that I’ve been captured. It’s that every battle over the last year was for nothing. Every soldier lost, every Eater killed. The miles trekked were for nothing. The bonds forged were pointless. We should’ve died with the first victims of the virus, because all we’ve done to save humanity has made it worse.

We failed in our mission and now the survivors must accept the bitter pill of a bleak and futile future.

Alexandra’s story continues in thrilling next installment, The Girl Who Broke Free, Book 5 of The Death Fields Series.  Read below for a sneak peek at the first section of The Girl Who Broke Free.

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The Girl Who Broke Free
Book 5
There are no weapons in the room. No zippers or loose strings attached to our clothing. Nothing that can be fashioned into something lethal. It’s hand to hand combat and by the end of the hour I’ll be sore enough that I’m happy to have nothing to do but crawl into bed.

“Good afternoon, Alexandra,” Cole says. The disturbed glint in his eyes hasn’t left since I was tossed in the van with him months ago. I don’t know if it’s the Hybrid juice running through his veins or the fact his sister’s desperate attempts to break him have succeeded.

“Let’s get this over with,” I reply. I learned when we started this ridiculous game that engaging him in conversation was useless.

I step to the line in the middle of the room and although he hesitates for a brief second he does the same. He prefers to start with a little chit-chat, baiting me into a rage so I’ll lose focus. Not today, I ignore his dark eyes and the way they drift toward the rib injury I’m nursing from our last session. I remember when they were blue and a familiar wave of loneliness washes over me. I shake it off because that kind of thinking will only give him the upper hand.

We’re toe to toe and my eyes linger on his massive biceps. Did they get bigger over night?  His muscles aren’t the only advantage he has over me. He’s stronger and faster, everything enhanced by the Hybrid vaccine.

Me?

I’m not that big but I’m not a weakling. My brain isn’t filled with adrenaline induced hate and due to my training last winter with Jackson I’m a smart fighter with quick reflexes. It isn’t a fair fight by any means but day after day I enter the ring with the idea I can win. I just have to figure out his weakness.

Does it hurt to have to fight the man I once cared for every day?

Yes.

Am I letting it break me down like my enemies want?

Hell no.

We stare at one another, waiting for the first move. He’s impatient, shifting on his feet. I move my elbow an inch getting him to swing and take the first punch but I duck and he gets nothing but air.

“Nice,” he grunts, veins showing in his neck. He’s pissed and I use the anger as a distraction, kicking him once in the knee and again in the stomach. He catches my foot in his hands and twists, spinning me through the air. I flail for a second, my side aching from the move, but quickly adjust, landing on my knees and look up at Cole.

He breathes heavily but has a small smirk on his face. We’re synched, primed to fight and on the same beat we rush forward and collide.

*

The next installment of The Death Fields will be available in May. Pre-Order your copy today!

Hi Guys!

Thanks for coming on this epic journey with me. It’s not over yet but this is definitely the most ambitious project I’ve taken on so far. The response has been amazing and I can’t express how much reader support has helped me move so quickly on this novel. Your emails, messages, comments on Facebook and Twitter, along with such thoughtful reviews have made this such an amazing book experience. Authors expend energy in words and we feed on them too. Hearing back from you guys makes it all worthwhile.

So, what’s next? Book 5, The Girl Who Broke Free will release in May. Book 6 (the final in the series) will release in June. After that I have some special projects in mind. I will share those with you all once they’re firmed up.

Currently, for those of you who have read my paranormal romance series, Creature of Habit, I have published one additional novella in the series and plan on releasing a second next month. Definitely check those out on the list below. A Vampire’s Seduction and A Vampire’s Fate.

Again, thank you! Special thanks to April Salter (whose book Wanted: Dead or Alive should be available soon!) and Lauren for amazing beta work. V C Edits for the support. AngstyG who makes the most epic covers (and has some writing tricks up her sleeve! Can’t wait!) and everyone in the 20Books FB group. So much inspiration!

See you soon!
Angel

Angel Lawson Books

The Death Fields:

The Girl Who Shot First

The Girl Who Punched Back

The Girl Who Kicked Ass

The Girl Who Kissed the Sun

The Girl Who Broke Free (Pre-Order)

Creature of Habit Series:

Creature of Habit (Book 1)

Creature of Habit (Book2)

Creature of Habit (Book 3)

A Vampire’s Seduction (Ryan’s Story Book 4)

A Vampire’s Fate (Sebastian’s Story Book 5) Pre-Order

The Wraith Series:

Wraith

Shadow Bound

Grave Possession

Urban Fantasy

The Lost Queen

Vigilant

Contemporary Romance:

FanGirl-A Girl Who Shot First Companion Novel

For the Win