by D. Laine
I swapped out my gun for my favorite long blade. It sliced through the air and connected with the backside of the tag’s neck with a soft crunch. Another tag rushed from my periphery, and I swung my arm around, catching it in the throat. A fine red mist sprayed from the wound, dousing everything within a five-foot perimeter, me included. But that didn’t stop me.
They kept coming, and I kept taking them down. Until there were no more.
When the last tag fell, Red turned to me. He tried to wipe the blood from his face, but only managed to smear it even further. Pulling his hand away, he studied his crimson stained fingers and swallowed hard. His voice was gravelly when he finally spoke. “National Guard, huh?”
I nodded. “That’s right.”
He blinked and shifted his gaze to the pile of dead tags behind me. “I’ve never seen any guardsmen do what you just did.”
“Because you hadn’t met me yet.”
He stared at the bodies, nodding slowly.
I tried again, because I knew he was thinking too much. I had shown him too much. We all had. “I adapted to survive. This out here? It’s different than what we trained for. I’ve seen a lot, and learned a lot.”
Red stared back at me with pursed lips. “Well, thanks for saving my life.” He suddenly smiled broadly, reminding me of a creepy clown with painted-on lips that took up half of his face. “I owe you for that, so I won’t tell anyone your secret.”
I opened my mouth to plead my case again. He stopped me by taking my hand in his and giving it a gruff shake.
“Honestly, I won’t say anything,” he assured me quietly. “I don’t where you came from, or why you don’t want us to know. As long as you’re on our side, it doesn’t matter. We’re cool. So you don’t need to plot how to kill me in my sleep.”
I forced a laugh to downplay the reality of his words. Because the truth was, the thought had already run through my mind.
16
THEA
The whole “we stick together” moto lasted about two days. Dylan and Jake weren’t too keen on doing patrols, which consisted of walking the perimeter of the fence surrounding the town for six hours at a stretch. I had to admit, they had a point. It was boring work.
But it was safe work. And even if only for a few days, I wanted to enjoy the false sense of security. Being out there—outside the fence—was dangerous. But someone had to do it.
Funny how it always ended up being Dylan and Jake who skipped out on patrol to go on supply runs. In fact, they were out on one now while I walked in circles. They hoped to uncover something about Calvin or Lucifer on one of their runs, but had yet to learn anything we didn’t already know.
I felt a faint sense of disappointment and frustration trickle into my head. From Jake. They hadn’t learned anything useful once again today. Good news was that they were on their way back.
I couldn’t see Sadie, where she patrolled her section of the fence on the other side of the community, but I suspected she had received a similar confirmation from Dylan through their bond. Theirs was a strong one—stronger than the one I shared with Jake. But we were getting better. I was getting better at letting him in.
Reaching the stream that snaked through the northernmost section of the town, I turned and started back the way I had come. I followed the beaten-down path already chiseled into the dirt and ash around the perimeter by the Dugway soldiers—aka “Duggies,” as we had taken to calling them lately.
Despite some of them suspecting that we were more than just a few lucky survivors, no one had said or done anything to threaten our presence here. Yesterday, I overheard one of the survivors say that she thought we were a group of Special Forces operatives or something “top secret” sent here by the government.
Most of these people had no idea what was going on outside the fence. Aside from the family that originated here, none of them had seen tags up close, let alone fought for their lives. They were refuges from the volcano’s eruption, but had gotten lucky otherwise. They had no clue how bad it was out there.
They appeared to be fascinated by us, and I suspected half of the women under the age of fifty had a crush on my boyfriend. The other half turned red in the cheeks when my brother walked by. Mealtimes were particularly amusing, when they all lingered after receiving their rations, choosing to eat on the sidewalk in front of the general store rather than their private living spaces. Just to catch a glimpse of Dylan or Jake.
They provided the rest of us with mealtime entertainment, reminiscent of our days with the agency surrounded by all of their admirers. Except I didn’t feel ostracized here. And I highly doubted Lucifer was hiding out with this eccentric bunch. Even if Dylan and Jake were a little wary of the Duggies, I didn’t suspect they were a part of anything bad—not like the agency.
It may have been foolish on my part, but I trusted these people. I wanted to do my part in protecting them. So no matter how boring it was to pace the same path for hours on end, I did it.
When a fleeting tickle raced across the back of my neck, I almost didn’t notice. Then it came again, stronger, and I skidded to a stop. My spine stiffened as I turned around, expecting to find a mob of bloodthirsty tags racing toward me.
I saw nothing, and that unnerved me even more.
The ash fall was thin here. Visibility was good, compared to what I had grown accustomed to. Flat ground surrounded the fence on three sides. On a good day, we could see for miles. The northeast corner was bordered by steep rock faces and narrow crevices. Plenty of places for someone—or something—to hide.
My eyes burned from the strain of looking for the source of my alarm. I wasn’t entirely sure where it was coming from, or even if there was something out there. All I knew was that some internal alarm had been triggered.
And it was still sounding off. My entire body locked. Goosebumps traveled up one arm and down the other. I hiked my gun, taking aim on . . . nothing.
“Thea?” I didn’t turn at the sound of Sadie’s voice behind me, unwilling to take my eyes off the rocks. “What’s going on? What’s wrong?”
“I feel something.” I shook my head, because I realized how that sounded. But if anyone could understand those words, it was the others in my group. We had learned to take seriously the things that would have labeled us crazy before the apocalypse.
Sadie came to a stop beside me, her weapon positioned stiffly in her arms. “A tickle?”
Eyes on the rocks to the north, I nodded.
“I feel it, too,” she said.
“It’s not tags.”
“No.”
We both knew what had triggered us, but neither spoke the name out loud. Like saying the word “Watchers” would cause them to materialize in front of us. I doubted we were in imminent danger, but I didn’t exactly want to confront them, either.
They needed to stay far away from here. Far away from Dylan and Jake.
I reached out to my brother through our connection, only to find that it felt . . . fuzzy. That couldn’t be good.
“Can you sense Dylan?” I asked Sadie.
“I think he’s okay, but it’s not . . .” She sighed warily. “Something’s not right. But I don’t know what’s wrong.”
Whatever was out there didn’t make a move. Nor did it go away. It merely . . . watched.
Suddenly, I knew what it was. Lowering my weapon, I took a step toward the fence. “Maria?”
I held my breath as I waited. For what? I didn’t know. It wasn’t like I expected her to step out of hiding and say, “Here I am!”
“What do you want?” I demanded.
Nothing.
Footsteps approached, and I backed away from the fence. The last thing I needed was to look unstable in front of the Duggies. I couldn’t explain this mysterious encounter to them without telling them what I knew.
But it wasn’t one of them approaching.
“Everything okay?” Ewing’s voice sounded tight behind me.
Just as suddenly as the unseen force
gripped me, it vanished. The tingles and goosebumps faded. My hands shook from pent-up adrenaline as I lowered the gun to my side.
Whatever had been there was gone now, and I hadn’t seen a thing.
I EMBODIED the stereotypical worried sister and girlfriend when Dylan and Jake got back a few hours later. Though our connection had been working fine since the encounter, and I knew they were okay, I didn’t relax until I physically had my hands on both of them.
Seeing them with my own eyes confirmed that they were unharmed and unaffected.
In the privacy of our cramped apartment above the laundry mat, Jake fired question after question. After the third “I don’t know,” Dylan gave up trying to make sense of what had happened. He set out to distract me in the best way he knew how.
Settled on one of the mattresses on the floor, with his back to the wall, he pulled me between his legs to cage me in with his knees. His chest warmed my back, and I sank into him, seeking the protection he offered.
Of course, he sought a lot more than that, as evidenced by the hardening length pressed against my tailbone. His fingers flirted with the hem of my shirt, causing little tingles to shoot through my body. Every time he made contact with my flesh, his breath grew heavier in my ear. It didn’t take long before I couldn’t focus on anything but where his hands were, and what they were doing.
Jake was saying something, but damned if I knew what. Everyone was staring at me, but I didn’t know why.
I hadn’t moaned out loud . . . had I?
Behind me, Dylan snickered. His chin came down on my shoulder. “I hope you have your walls up.”
“What?”
“You’re getting a little flushed.” His fingers grazed the side of my neck, forcing me to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from making a noise. “I would hate for Jake to know what I’m doing to you over here.”
“So stop it then,” I whispered over my shoulder.
“You don’t want me to.” He leaned away, forcing me to turn my head to look at him. Seeing my face, he smirked. “I didn’t think so.”
“Not here,” I muttered under my breath quickly before turning back toward Jake, who was still staring at me. “What? Did you ask something?”
Jake flicked an annoyed glance behind me, easily pinning the source of my distraction. “I asked if you had ever felt it before.”
A snort escaped Dylan’s mouth before he pressed his lips to my shoulder to stifle the rest of his laughter. I stared blankly at my brother.
“The tickling sensation?” Jake pressed when I couldn’t form a response.
Dylan’s body shook. He was one phrase taken out of context away from cracking up. And because of him, my head was now in the gutter. I couldn’t make any sense of Jake’s questions.
“Dylan, stop messing with her,” Jake growled. To me, he rephrased, “The feeling you had earlier? Have you ever experienced it before?”
Oh. That tickling sensation.
“No. Never.”
“Then I doubt it was Maria,” he concluded.
At that, Dylan straightened. “Maria?”
“I can’t be sure,” I quickly said. “I just thought—”
“But you’ve seen her before, and didn’t have a feeling around her,” Jake pointed out. “No one did.”
“Right. But this time, it was more like a feeling of being watched. Maria confronted us the last time.”
Dylan blew out a puff of air, his playfulness nothing but a memory. “There is no way for us to know what happened today. We’re just speculating at this point, and that solves nothing.”
His body tensed behind me. Though I didn’t look, I suspected he was staring at Jake. The same way Jake was staring at him. I glanced at Sadie, and saw that she looked as anxious as I felt.
Jake was the first to break the awkward silence. “You’re going to have to accept the fact that Maria isn’t on our side anymore.”
And that only made it more awkward. No one dared to breathe.
Behind me, Dylan stiffened. Thinking that he wanted to stand, I started to slide away. His arm quickly snaked around my waist to hold me against him. Perhaps he thought I gave him the strength of composure, or he had motivation to not lose his shit if I was sitting with him. Whatever it was, I wasn’t about to move.
His voice came out surprisingly smooth despite the anger simmering beneath the surface. “Then we have a problem,” he said to Jake, “because I don’t accept that.”
“Dylan, she—”
“Maria could still be in there,” Dylan snapped. I flinched, and his thumb moved in a lazy circle over my stomach as if in apology.
“What if it comes down to her or one of us?” Jake asked. “What then?”
“Then I’ll do what I have to do. You of all people should know that.”
“I do.” Jake nodded. “I just want to make sure we’re still on the same page.”
“We always have been, Jake. Nothing has changed.” Hidden under the heavy tone of determination was a hint of sadness.
The cause was something only I understood, even if I didn’t entirely understand it. I knew Dylan cared about Maria. Not the way he cared about me, but in his own special way. They would be bonded forever by something none of us could ever truly appreciate. I realized that at the same time I realized Dylan would do just about anything to get her back.
He wouldn’t risk any one of us. But himself?
He was that kind of guy. While it was one of the reasons I fell in love with him, I now wished he had been ingrained with a little more self-preservation. For my own selfish reasons, of course.
I held on to his arm around my waist, wishing for the ability to stay like this forever.
I knew better than to wish for the impossible.
17
DYLAN
Sleeping in the crowded apartment, squeezed onto a mattress on the floor beside Thea with someone’s feet near my head and Ewing snoring loud enough to wake the dead, was not how I preferred to spend my nights. Because this was the apocalypse, I sucked it up.
Not like I had never slept in worse conditions. At least I had a mattress. And my girl beside me. But sleep was lost to me once again. Unwanted REM-generated conversations with the Watchers had triggered an endless cycle of insomnia. Tonight was no different.
I sat up and squinted into the darkness that canvased the room. Four shadowy lumps lay sprawled across the floor. One was missing. Since Robbie had agreed to patrol nights, that was nothing unexpected.
I didn’t know how long I sat there before a hint of light filtered through the narrow window across from me. The others would rouse soon, but I couldn’t lay in this room a minute longer, listening to Ewing. He had a serious problem. Something he should have seen a doctor for before it was too late. Now we were stuck with him and his sinus problems.
Tip-toeing around the others, careful not to step on anyone, I slipped out of the room and took the stairs down to the laundry mat. Pushing through the wall of damp clothing hanging from the ceiling, I stepped outside and onto the street.
The peaceful predawn silence welcomed me. Above me, the few stars that speckled the sky receded as the sun crept closer. I found the one that I had named for Marcus, and watched in raptured silence as its faint light faded. Until it came back tomorrow.
The star would return, but Marcus wouldn’t.
I had refused to name a memorial star after Maria, for fear that the symbolic gesture would jinx her; that in doing so, I would be admitting she was truly gone.
She wasn’t. Not as far as I was concerned. It may be too late to save Marcus, but I would do everything in my power to save Maria. And if I couldn’t?
I turned to peer down the length of the street. Visible in the strengthening light was the fence that bordered the town. Beyond that lay the shadowed peeks and rough edges of the canyons to the northeast.
I didn’t know how I knew, or if it was only wishful thinking, but I sensed her near. Watching and listening. My words were to her, if she
could hear them.
“I’m sorry.”
For letting her down.
For letting Marcus down.
I couldn’t afford to let anyone else down, but I couldn’t shake the sense of impending doom and fear that Marcus and Maria were only the beginning.
HOURS LATER, I stood in the living room of an abandoned house on the other side of the Colorado state line. At least, I assumed it was abandoned because the owners had taken everything. Or looters had hit the jackpot in here.
I took a seat in the plush leather chair left behind and stared at the vacant wall where the television had once been anchored. Seconds later, Jake descended the stairs with heavy steps.
“Here.”
I looked up as he tossed a pair of boots at me. I snatched them out of the air moments before they connected with my nose. “What’s this?”
“What does it look like?” He marched by me to peer into the ransacked kitchen. “Nothing in here?”
“Like I told you five minutes ago. Nothing.” I stood to follow him, holding the boots out in silent inquiry.
“That’s all I found upstairs,” he explained, gesturing flippantly. “Unless you plan to start wearing skirts and high heels.”
I glanced at Jake’s feet. “But you—”
“Mine are better off than yours.” He hiked a foot in the air to show me.
His still had decent tread. Mine could double for roller skates on wet ground.
“Thanks, man.” I accepted them with an appreciative nod.
Jake peered out the open front door while I sat down to swap out the boots.
Outside, two Duggies stood sentry in the middle of the road while another pair checked the neighboring house. The sun started its slow descent behind the murky gray cloud that blanketed the sky. Considering the distance we had traveled today, I suspected it would be dark by the time we made it back.
