Almawt Virus Series (Book 3): Days Since...Jenny [Day 986]

by Wilson, Robert

  …

  They had put some serious distance between them and the Second Alliance. But the entire time, Jenny’s suspicion had grown, gotten the best of her along the way. “Then who was it?” she continued to tear into Xavier, her brow pinched with thought, unsure of who she spoke with—friend or foe. Etched in her mind, relived more times than she dared count, was the moment the Second Alliance swung Xavier’s body from the scaffolding—his legs flailing, his struggling.

  Not until now did she know it wasn’t him, not the one that died hanging in the courtyard of River’s Edge. Here, he walked in enemy’s clothing. Held the enemy’s weapon. Too much unanswered or made little sense. “No one else was missing except you and Sam. The guy they killed instead of you...” She stared at him without speaking for several paces. “Obviously, it wasn’t you, but we all thought… We all thought it was. Who? Who did they kill to hide you? Get rid of you?”

  “It’s complicated,” Xavier mumbled, pulling at the bottom of his black Second Alliance coat. He looked over to her but offered nothing further.

  Jenny rolled her eyes. “I’m sure it is.”

  Xavier’s legs seemed less eager now with Jenny’s questioning. His pace slowed—anxiety and uncertainty worn like a mask. She couldn’t help but wonder what was hidden behind it. Something worse? That damn uniform. “Xavier.” Turning toward him, she continued bluntly, “You need to tell us what the hell’s going on?”

  Xavier’s gaze fell. He stopped walking.

  Jenny stood, her mistrust looming over him. “None of this makes sense.” Her voice bordered on yelling. “The S.A. fakes your death, going through an elaborate scheme to do it by killing someone else. Then—Then, you show up in their uniform like you’ve forgotten everything you “died” for.” Jenny supplied the air quotes along with the sarcasm. “Do you even remember what the hell they did to us? To you? To Grant? To Sam?”

  “I didn’t forget!” Xavier rattled back. “Not at all. If I had, I wouldn’t be here with you on this miserable march to wherever the hell you’re taking us.”

  She bore down on him with her eyes. “What? You don’t trust me?”

  He blinked and shook his head. “What are you talking about? Of course, I trust you guys, I left everything for you. The letter. The journal. I trusted both of you to continue the fight.”

  “At least some of us are still fighting.”

  “What the hell’s wrong with you, Jenny!” Grant interrupted. “Xavier’s back from the dead and you’re actin’ like you want to put him in another grave. We’ve all been through enough. Quit this.”

  From the corner of her eye, Jenny caught Grant’s glare bouncing between her and Xavier. Grant’s right, but still… “We deserve to know the truth.”

  Grant licked his lips. “Let’s worry ‘bout gettin’ home for now. Put this behind us until later. Lot’s happened and emotion’s high. Nobody needin’ to say somethin’ they can’t take back.”

  “No, she’s right, you guys deserve to know.” Xavier exhaled, sending a long waft of breath into the air. “It’s probably better to get this all out now rather than wait.” He gritted his teeth, jaw flaring while he searched for the words. His eyes tore past Jenny to Grant and stayed there. “Dad found my mom. Alive.”

  Grant offered a soft smile. “I knew he’d find her.”

  Xavier nodded. “I appreciate that, but it’s no coincidence that’s when things started to go to shit for us. Took him awhile to find her even though she’d been only, what, six miles away from River’s Edge? It was maybe a week or two before we had our trip with Simon that he found her.”

  Grant’s brow furrowed.

  “He found her with the Second Alliance. My mom started the S.A. Or, I mean, not only her, it’s not like she’s in charge, but,” he stammered, “she’s been there since the beginning. And when my dad finally found her, they sent for me, for us. That’s why we were going to the Capital. But of course, we never made it. It all fell apart with Simon and the letter.”

  “If your mom’s so high up,” Jenny said, “why the hell did Haverty have you locked up like that?”

  “He got his.” Xavier smirked. “Mom saw to that. Haverty said he didn’t know, but he did. He was just pissed off I found his letter and wouldn’t tell him where it was.”

  “Do your parents know about everything that happened there?”

  “They don’t believe me.” Xavier turned to Jenny—her jaw hung by a thread. “No one would if their whole experience is the S.A. Capital. The Capital’s a whole other—”

  “What the hell, Xavier? Are you even trying anymore, or did you give up?”

  “I promise you I haven’t changed. I still hate the S.A. Nothing’s different.” Xavier’s chin dipped into his chest. “It really is complicated… I don’t think my mom really knows what’s going on. Dad certainly doesn’t. He had his doubts about them, but never saw it firsthand. The S.A. keeps them— I don’t know… Out of the loop, I guess.”

  “I’m not buying it.” She stepped closer to Xavier, and her gloved finger pecked at his chest. “There’s no way they don’t know.”

  Xavier swatted her finger away. “My parents would never, never allow any of the bullshit to happen if they knew.”

  The conviction in his statement burned Jenny’s ears. I want to believe you, but I can’t right now. You’re hiding something. I just don’t know what it is yet. Drawing in a deep breath, she told him, “You’ll have to prove yourself.”

  He turned from her and kicked through the snow with his head down. Matt took to his side. Jenny went to follow, but Grant grabbed her by the arm, holding her there so Xavier could escape for the moment.

  “He’s not telling us everything.” Jenny snatched her elbow loose but stayed put.

  “He’s not the only one.” Grant’s forehead wrinkled with the rise in his eyebrows. “You’re not say—”

  “Hard to trust him when he’s one of them.”

  “Hard for him to feel welcome when you treatin’ him like this.”

  Jenny didn’t respond.

  “This is Xavier we’re talkin’ ‘bout. What’s he got to hide from us?”

  “He’s in that uniform.”

  “He found his mom and dad. What wouldn’t you do to get your parents back?”

  “That might be the point…”

  “I can’t believe you’re sayin’ that ‘bout him. I know him, if you don’t, that’s your problem. I know if there’s anything else to tell, he will. Just quit bein’ so hard on him. Let’s focus on gettin’ back to the Depot and sortin’ through this mess later. No sense in fightin’ ourselves. S.A.’s comin’ for us, not Xavier. Can we least agree on that?”

  Jenny nodded but kept her eyes forward. “Sure…” Curling Sherman’s lead within her hand a few more times, she took out the slack, placing him closer to her. “Good, boy.” She petted him along his side. Maybe I’m wrong… No way the S.A. knew I was coming for Matt and Grant. Doesn’t even seem like Xavier knew they had been taken in the first place. They didn’t let him know anything.

  “If this ain’t the time, sorry, but…” Grant waved his hand in front of Jenny’s face. “You here?”

  Her eyes went to his for only a second—“What?”—then returned to her friends’ slow march into the distance.

  “Jenny...” Grant raked his teeth across his bottom lip. “Why you have Sherman? Why the hell Danny send you out by yourself?”

  She thought for a moment, considering the truth as an answer, but couldn’t bring herself to let it go. “You’ll have to ask him. I can’t explain why he does what he does.”

  “That don’t make no sense. Somethin’ bad happen?”

  “Not that I know.” The lie slid down the back of her throat, sickening every inch of her body on the way down. Clenching her teeth, she mustered everything inside her to keep her eyes from welling up, but it surfaced anyway. Damn it. Not now. She stormed off. Grant followed, unknowingly walking through her tears.

  Chapter Ten<
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  Jenny watched the others, one by one, duck through the lower partition of a shattered glass door into the McDonald’s sitting cater-corner to the Depot. Each step through, each crunch of the glass shards beneath their boots gave Jenny pause. She blocked the entrance from Sherman—“Platz!”—then began scraping the fragments away with her foot. After inspecting the floor to ensure the glass wouldn’t find its way into Sherman’s paws, she called him through, “Hier.”

  “He listens really well,” Xavier said, the remark sounding more like a peace offering than an actual statement.

  “Yeah.” Jenny nodded, twitching her lips into a hasty smile. “Just take watch here. Matt, take the far door.”

  Xavier took post with his rifle at the broken door’s entrance, and Matt moved into position on the far side with the pistol Jenny had given him earlier.

  “From in here, we’ll need to make sure the Depot’s still good. If somehow the S.A. got here before us, we’re not gonna want to walk into what’s about to happen.”

  “And what’s that?” Grant eyed her.

  Damn it… Hastily, Jenny unclipped her canine from the lead, and the two of them fled Grant’s suspicion into the back portion of the restaurant.

  They rounded the front counter, Sherman sniffing, pacing around the kitchen, past the abandoned deep fryers, grills, stainless steel counters. Mouse droppings everywhere. Filthy. The back door was locked, and she left it that way. Across from it, an open door—the last thing to check. The manager’s office appeared ransacked. Papers strewn about. A safe broken into. Empty. She backed out, then turning around, stepped right into Grant’s chest.

  “Spill it, girlie.” His jaw tense, eyes blazing. “Now.”

  “What?” Jenny knew damn well what he meant.

  “Two things. What’s the S.A. ‘bout to run into, and why you got Sherman?”

  “Not so loud,” Jenny tried, but Matt had already heard—he stood leaning over the front counter. They both stared at her, unblinking. Her eyes went to the ceiling, deciding how to break the news swirling in her mind, but more than anything, she wished to ignore them and focus on what needed to be done rather than all the hurt. Do I just say it? A lump in her throat began to choke her. The truth swelling. She tried to swallow it again but couldn’t. The sorrow on her face forced her friends to hang their heads.

  “Jenny…?” Matt asked, starting toward the kitchen, toward her.

  “Danny died.” Both words spilled out while Jenny struggled to steel herself against the emotion building inside. Grant said nothing. Matt’s lips curled inward. She brushed past both of them and into the dining area. Their faces would do nothing but soften her.

  “How did it happen?” Grant’s voice remained strong as he followed closely behind.

  “Griffin too.”

  “Griffin and Danny? What the hell happened?”

  “The S.A. took you guys away, then…” She paused and shimmied her way into a booth before wiping the condensation from the window with her sleeve. Still refusing to make eye contact with anyone, Jenny quickly brought the binoculars up.

  “Jenny, please…” Matt sat in an adjacent booth and rested his hand on her back. “I don’t understand.”

  “Who attacked us?” Grant asked. “The S.A. was gone.”

  “Griffin—” Lowering the binoculars, Jenny offered a shaky glance back toward them. “It’s fine,” she lied. “All that matters is that Danny and Sherman saved me.” The canine perked up at the mention of his name. “You’re good, boy.” Her chest trembled through a short chuckle.

  “What about Griffin? Did he do something?”

  “Matt…” she started but couldn’t bring the truth forward. “We just have to move on. It doesn’t matter anymore.”

  “The fuck if it doesn’t.” Scrambling to get to his feet, Matt banged his thighs against the booth’s table, knocking a napkin dispenser onto the floor. “What did he do, Jenny? I always noticed how you act around him. Never really talk about him. He did something, didn’t he? What was it?”

  Xavier sent a few glances their way, but wisely remained at his post.

  “You gotta tell me, Jenny.” He slapped his palms down on her tabletop.

  “Settle down, Matty.” Grant took hold of his shoulders, trying to pull him away from the table.

  What do I say…? If I tell him the truth, he’d never forgive me for hiding it from him, right? And the baby… What if he rejects it? Or me? I can’t risk it. I can’t let him know. “Griffin…” She searched for a reason. Something that would stick. “He—he gave you guys to the S.A., right, but he—” Jenny struggled to keep her voice steady through the lie. Most of this isn’t a lie. Just blurt it out. “Griffin was giving me away. Like a slave or something. I don’t know, but Danny found out, and they fought.” She calmed her words. “Sherman got a hold of Griffin, and he took out a pistol. Just started shooting and Danny got hit. He—”

  “You ain’t gotta finish, girlie. We know...”

  Grant eased Matt into one of the seats and sat down opposite him at the table. Neither said anything more, burying themselves in thought, in silence. Jenny turned her attention back to the Depot. They need some time…

  Through her binoculars, she scanned across the parking lot, past the several-hundred-or-so vehicles placed in a deliberate pattern to slow the approach of unwanted guests. Her view was limited, but up to this point, still no sign of the Second Alliance along the ground. So far, so good. She focused atop the roofline. What the…? Defenses were bolstered—guards riddled the rooftop with rifles drawn toward the middle of the parking lot.

  “One thing I don’t under—” Matt started, but Jenny shushed him.

  She danced the lenses through the lot, between the cars. The guards’ immediate focus

  failed to become apparent. “Lots of guards on the roof focused on something, but I can’t tell what.”

  “What they got?” Grant asked, shooting up from his chair and toward her.

  “I said I can’t tell right now.” Frustrated, she scanned once more before moving to a different booth to see if it would help. It didn’t. “Damn it…”

  “You think it’s the S.A.?” Xavier asked from across the room.

  “Naw, don’t think so.” Grant snapped his attention away from the window and over to Xavier. “There was some kinda agreement, or else they wouldn’t’ve taken us away in the first place. No way our guys would be pointin’ guns on them if that was the case.”

  “Maybe… What if I went out there? I could scout it out.” Xavier walked away from his post. “At least if they see me, they won’t do anything. I can just say you guys let me go or something.”

  “But what if it’s not them? And whoever it is does do something?” Jenny fired back, her eyes still scanning the parking lot through the binoculars. “Even if it is them, it won’t work anyways. The S.A. wouldn’t be able to get close to the Depot like that, it’d be over by now.”

  “You gonna tell me why that is now?” Grant asked. “They seemed cozied up pretty good together yesterday.”

  “So, about that.” She lowered the binoculars, turned, and allowed her companions to observe the smirk stretching across her face. “The Depot thinks the S.A. were the ones that killed Danny and Griffin. I didn’t see a point in correcting them. Figured it’d be best to let them take the fall for it.”

  “Sounds good to me.” Matt stood from his seat, moving toward the window to observe. He gestured for the binoculars.

  Jenny obliged but kept her attention on whatever standstill existed in the lot. “The S.A. needs more enemies. So, when Derrick caught me leaving out the backdoor with Sherman. I… I may have mentioned something about the S.A. Didn’t really have time to explain, and it just seemed like the right thing to do.”

  A hand gripped her shoulder from behind. “At least you found a way to make us smile,” Grant said. “At least somethin’ good came out of this. I think you’ve done great, girlie, come a long way for sure. Knowin’ what you did all
by yourself, I ain’t never been so proud of somebody before. Danny’s lookin’ down on you right now, prouder than ever on what you can do.”

  Jenny slid away from the window. “I know.”

  “He trained you well. Looks good on you.” He flopped back in his seat. “You’re a leader. How you handle that dog. How you came and got us. You’re meant for this.”

  “Meant for what?”

  “Stoppin’ the Second Alliance.” Grant stiffened upright in the chair, his voice eager. “Givin’ them what they deserve. They gonna keep comin’. Now, especially. We gotta let the Depot know that. When you walk over there and we’re with you, and you’re tellin’ them what happened, how you got the best of them, they’re not gonna have a choice but believe in you. I’m not sayin’ it’ll be easy or that you’ll be leadin’ some big army, but it’ll inspire them. Get them fired up to make sure what happened to River’s Edge doesn’t happen here.”

  Jenny nodded. “Then we warn them. Tell the Depot what’s coming. Xavier,”—he looked to her—“I appreciate you volunteering, but… if you walk out there in that uniform, you’re guaranteed to be shot.” She let a long breath escape her. “I guess I couldn’t blame you if you had second thoughts about sticking with us. Going against your parents would be tough.”

  “It’s not about going against my parents. They aren’t out there fighting, they don’t even know what’s going on. Someday I’ll show my mom and dad the truth. Then they’ll know the S.A. isn’t for us. It never has been.”

  “Yeah, I hope they do figure it out...” Her voice trailed off, her thoughts moving on, trying to piece together some kind of plan. Xavier’s definitely out. Sherman too. Grant… He’d be better off staying behind. She sighed. “So, I’m thinking it has to be just me and Matt going out. Anyone else will be too big of a risk.”

  The binoculars dipped from Matt’s gaze. He faced Jenny, but said nothing, a look of doubt greeted her.

  “You don’t even know what’s out there…” Grant pointed out the obvious.

  “The fact no shots have been fired is a good thing. I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to get the guards’ attention before getting too close. It’ll be fine.” I hope… Jenny stripped her sock hat and kerchief away. “Grant, can you stay here with Xavier and Sherman? I know it’s probably not what you want, but it’s what we need. If for some reason we don’t make it—”