by M. J. Haag
When I faced Adam, it was in time to see the single, remaining infected knock Adam back into the wall. Adam’s face went slack, and his knees buckled.
The infected stood over him and let out a moan.
I grabbed the knife from the ground.
“Asshole.”
It turned at the sound of my voice, giving me the perfect target.
It dropped in a heap beside Adam, who had his eyes closed.
“Shit, shit, shit.”
I ran to the kitchen and washed my hands before returning to him and tapping his cheeks.
“Come on, Adam. Wake up.”
He didn’t respond. I checked his pulse then the back of his head. There was a considerable lump already forming, but no blood.
As much as I wanted to keep trying to help him, I knew I didn’t have that luxury.
Leaving Adam where he was, I ran back to the control room and absorbed what was happening on the monitors. What I saw made my heart stop.
The grey men were back, and they weren’t alone. There was a young, human man with them. He was walking in their midst, looking around the barn. An infected dropped from the trap door in the ceiling. The closest grey man ripped its head clean off and tossed it aside. The human said something and smiled. The grey man returned the expression as another used the ladder to climb up to the hayloft.
More of the grey men came in and began picking up the heads and bodies piled by the main doors. The infected. The grey men had killed them all.
The human in the middle pointed, and grey men started moving as if the human was directing them.
What in the hell was happening?
The man then left the barn, along with most of the other grey men. I stared at the empty space for a minute.
Those grey men had picked up a cow and hadn’t hurt it. They’d returned and brought a human with them. He smiled. He talked to them. And they listened.
I hurried out to the hallway and tried to wake Adam. He still wasn’t responding.
His words about working together echoed in my head, along with all of the stories we’d heard from people on the radio about grey men on a human killing spree.
Easing the pack off my back, I went to the door and hoped that the grey men were the miracle they seemed to be.
The moment I lifted the latch, something shoved against the door. Decaying fingers once again appeared and wrapped around its edge.
“Help!” I didn’t stop leaning into the door as I screamed again and again.
Suddenly, the pushing stopped. I looked over at the fingers, which now loosely curled around the door, no longer holding it.
A knock startled me.
“Anyone home in there?”
“Yeah,” I answered. “There’s still an infected holding the door.”
“Uh, that’s just what’s left of him. The rest is gone.”
I’d seen the human on camera. I knew he was real, but I was still terrified to open the door. Too many people had died by being stupid about so-called friendly company.
“Why are you here?” I asked instead of opening the door.
“A few friends of mine saw the cattle yesterday. They thought the herd had been abandoned. We came to take them back to Tolerance.”
“Where’s that?”
“Out in the middle of nothing, a few hours from here. It’s a town my friends made. It’s protected by a wall to keep the infected out.”
“Your friends with the pointy ears?”
“The very same,” he said without hesitation.
Taking a steadying breath, I opened the door.
Not a speck of blood dotted the dark hair or pale skin of the younger man who stood in front of eight of those grey-skinned men.
After everything I’d witnessed in the last twenty-four hours, seeing those grey-skinned men in person shattered any remaining hope I had left of a stable world. I started shaking hard. I knew it was a mixture of adrenaline and shock.
“You shouldn’t need the knife anymore,” the man said, not moving to enter. “The fey will get any infected that are still hiding. I’d keep it close, though.”
Fey? My gaze shifted to the creatures behind him. They were huge. The guy in front of me, who was tall, barely came up to their shoulders. Their arms were thicker than my head and their legs even bigger. If the grey skin, pointed ears, and sharp teeth didn’t give away that they weren’t human, their eyes did. Green with a vertical slit for a pupil.
“Are you hurt?” the man asked.
I shook my head, dragging my gaze to his.
“What about the guy behind you? Was he bitten?”
“I don’t think so. The infected pushed him into the wall. He has a lump on the back of his head.”
“Has he opened his eyes?”
“No.”
“I’m going to be straight with you. You had a great setup, but the infected know you’re here. It’s not safe to stay, and he could probably use a doctor.”
“You have a doctor?”
“As close as we can get to one. She was a nursing student but has treated her fair share of injuries since the quakes.”
“What’s the catch?” I asked. “People don’t help people anymore.”
“You’re right. Most don’t. That’s why my sister made friends with these guys.” He jerked a thumb at the men behind him. “They help humans and don’t ask for much in return.”
“Much?”
“Just a chance to prove they aren’t what everyone thinks they are. Monsters. Demons. Grey-devils. They’ve been called a lot of things.”
I exhaled a shaky breath, doing my best to keep it together as I put the knife away. The guy didn’t make a rush for me.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Ryan.” He held out his hand, and I cautiously took it.
“I’m June. That’s Adam.”
Ryan nodded and released my hand.
“It’s not smart to stay too long in one place. If you’re okay with it, one of these guys can take Adam out to the truck.”
“You have a truck?”
“Several. For the cattle and any supplies we find along the way. We don’t waste the gas. When we leave Tolerance, we scavenge what we can to keep everyone fed.”
“What are the chances Adam and I will be coming back here?”
“We’re not kidnapping you if that’s what you mean. You’ll be able to leave whenever you want.”
“And if that’s not what I meant?”
Ryan studied me for a minute. “If you’ve been here all along, you might have missed what’s been happening. The infected are getting smarter. It won’t take them long to figure out there are humans keeping the cattle alive.”
I nodded, thinking of the one in the blue coat who’d left.
“Then we have a lot of supplies to take with us.” I moved away from the door and motioned for Ryan to enter.
“Fallor and Etri, can you dispose of the infected?” He looked at me. “June, do you mind if the rest of the fey come in?”
“No. It’s fine.” In reality, it was anything but fine. But what were my choices?
I watched the pair of them pick up the infected with ease and head out as the rest crowded into the hall.
“Would you mind closing the door?” I asked. “It feels wrong to leave it open.”
One of the fey shut it but didn’t let it latch. I guessed that was better than nothing.
Motioning for Ryan to follow me, I stepped over Adam, showed Ryan the supplies in the kitchen, and then led him farther back to the aquaponics. He didn’t hide his excitement.
“This is amazing, June. You have no idea how starved people are for greens. Did you and Adam make this?”
“No. His uncle did.”
He started studying all the components.
“I think we could replicate this in Tolerance.”
“Ryan.”
One of the fey stopped in the doorway and tilted his head.
“What is it?” Ryan asked.
“I think someone yelled hellhound.”
“There was one in the silo,” I said, standing. “We can check the cameras.”
By the time we reached the control room, though, the monitor showed an empty barn.
“Hellhound or not, let’s hurry up,” Ryan said. “Grab what you can.”
He looked at me. “We’ll need to leave the fish. I don’t know any way of moving them. But I promise the fey will come back and try to save them.”
I turned off the monitors and reduced what energy consumption I could so the tank would be fine for a few days. Then, I watched the fey load up their arms with the supplies Adam’s family had gathered. When the grey men had what they could carry, one of them carefully picked up Adam from one of the bunks he’d been moved to.
On some level, I was terrified I was making the wrong choice. But mostly, everything felt surreal. The infected laying a trap and killing our cattle…the grey men and how they killed the infected.
When we reached the main barn, I glanced at the opening to the silo. There were no infected or a hellhound there. Just a lot of blood.
Surrounded by the fey, I stepped out into the yard. One of them was spraying off at the milk house. He wasn’t wearing a shirt. Nearby, a blonde stood next to a dead infected, but she wasn’t looking at it. She was watching the bathing fey.
The truck Ryan mentioned waited in the driveway. There was another human man behind the wheel and a woman standing, with bow ready, on top of the cab. The young girl, her dark, curly hair pulled back into a poof at the top of her head, watched us with a serious expression.
Four humans in a sea of grey men. Each of those four looked free, but were they really?
I wished Adam was awake. His insight had saved us so many times.
“Did someone yell hellhound?” Ryan asked, pausing to look at the washing fey.
“Yes,” the blonde said angrily. “And not enough fey came running. If not for Brenna, I’d be dead.”
She glared at all the grey men.
“You guys are shit for protection. I understand finding new people is amazing, but don’t sacrifice the ones you already have.”
I realized she was talking about me when Ryan apologized and said, “We were under a lot of concrete and couldn’t hear.”
“The fey by the trucks heard. Am I that useless? That much of a bitch that I’m not worth saving?”
The grey men—fey, I reminded myself—shifted restlessly around me. I wasn’t sure if that was because of the packages they carried or the guilt the woman was piling on.
“They were told not to leave the trucks under any circumstances,” Ryan said. “We’ve been tricked before. Infected bait them away from the trucks then try to disable our only means of escape. I’m truly sorry, Hannah. It was my order. Usually, there are fey assigned to each human. We weren’t prepared for how hard it would be to load the animals, let alone hear a yell for help.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said when she looked at me.
“It’s not your fault. It’s theirs. If they want to keep us alive, they need to plan better.”
The fey who’d been washing by the milk house tossed the hose aside and pulled the girl against his chest.
“Forgive me,” he said. “Because I will never forgive myself for what almost happened.”
She hugged him in return, and it looked far from a platonic embrace.
“As you can see,” Ryan said to me, “we get along with the fey, which is a good thing. They have the speed and strength necessary to kill the infected quickly.”
“And the dog things? Can they kill those?” I asked.
“Yes. It’s not as easy, but the fey are the only ones who can kill the hellhounds.”
“Fine. We’ll go with you.”
“I don’t think you’ll regret it. But, if you change your mind after a few days, we can always come back here with the fey to see if I’m right about the infected returning.”
I had no doubt he was right. I’d seen the way the infected had acted. The farm was no longer a safe haven.
Whether or not Tolerance was remained to be seen.
Chapter Three
While the others loaded the cattle and supplies, I waited in the back of a truck with Adam and the fey who held him. The fey studied me far too closely.
“You can put him down,” I said. “He can rest his head in my lap.”
“I will hold him. He smells of infected and blood.”
“Yeah, he killed a few before I yelled for help.”
The fey continued to stare at me with his weird eyes. Even while freaking out on the inside, I wanted to ask questions. What was he? Where did he come from? Was it true that he and his kind killed humans? But until Adam was out of his hold, I’d rather not risk asking something that might upset him. I’d seen the aftermath of their destruction. Heads didn’t just pop off of bodies on their own.
I heard a flurry of low voices just outside, and a minute later, three fey rounded the corner, carrying another.
“June, please sit by Adam,” one of them said. “Uan was attacked by a hellhound and is covered with contaminated blood.”
I scrambled to my feet and changed sides of the truck.
Uan moaned as they gently placed him on the floor. It looked like the dog had chewed his neck and shoulder and torn open his insides. Blood glistened wetly with each of his gurgling breaths. If death had a sound, it was that.
“Be well, Uan. Nancy needs you,” one of the fey said before the group walked away.
I glanced at the fey holding Adam.
“Isn’t someone going to help him?”
“Cassie will.”
The engines started, and a fey jogged to the back of the truck. He hesitated at the doors, though. His gaze shifted between me and the fey holding Adam.
“Do you want a light?” the new fey asked me.
“I have one. We’ll be fine.”
He grunted and closed the door. In the dark, I shrugged off my backpack and pulled out the flashlight. It reflected off the netted supplies that jostled as the truck started to move and gave enough light that I could see the hurt fey was going into shock.
Digging through the items in my bag, I found the space blanket packet. The fey said nothing as I tore it open but stopped me when I moved to put it over the injured fey.
“It’s not safe to touch him.”
“I’ve had plenty of infected blood on me and haven’t turned yet. I promise I’m not going to roll in it. I just want to cover him.”
He grunted, which I took as a go-ahead. Uan’s shaking didn’t ease up.
“How far until that town Ryan talked about?”
“Many miles. Rest.”
With a sigh, I pulled up my hood and leaned against the truck’s cold wall.
“You are safe.”
The words startled me from an unintended doze.
“What?” I asked.
“June?”
The sounds of Adam’s voice had me scrambling to my knees. He looked pale in the dim light, and his pupils were messed up.
“You hit your head, Adam. What’s the last thing you remember?”
He frowned, his gaze flicking to the fey holding him.
“I don’t know. Am I dreaming?”
“No. He’s real. The infected attacked the bunker, and one knocked you into the wall. These guys helped us.”
“Oh. Okay.”
He started to close his eyes.
“Adam, I don’t think you should go back to sleep.”
“June?” His eyes popped open, and he glanced at the fey. “Am I dreaming?”
I knew it was a concussion, but understanding that didn’t make it any easier to see Adam’s confusion and complete dependence. After answering him again, I did my best to keep him alert for a while. His continued memory reset was upsetting, but I counted us lucky that we hadn’t suffered worse as Uan struggled to breathe with each mile.
When the trucks finally rolled to a stop, I was reli
eved.
The doors opened, letting in a blast of colder air. I shivered lightly and looked over at Uan. His grey skin looked waxen with a green undertone.
“He needs a doctor fast,” I said.
The fey at the door grunted and jumped into the truck with a few of his friends. They tried gently lifting Uan, but he groaned.
“It might be easier if you set him on the blanket then lift the blanket. It’s strong. It’ll hold.”
The fey immediately listened, working together to move the injured fey and carry him out of the truck.
When the one holding Adam stood, Adam opened his eyes.
“What in the hell are you?”
“Adam, you hit your head,” I said yet again. “He’s helping you.”
“June? Am I seeing things?”
“If you’re seeing a guy with grey skin and pointy ears, then no, you aren’t.”
“Did you give me something? My head is pounding like a bitch.”
It wasn’t the first time he mentioned it.
“No. I didn’t give you anything. I wanted to wait until you were a little more with it. Does anything else hurt?”
“No. Just my head.”
The fey jumped out with Adam, and another was there to offer me a hand, which was way more than a hand. He lightly gripped my waist and lifted me down.
“I’m going to throw up,” Adam said a minute before he heaved. Thankfully, not on the fey who carried him but to the side.
I barely noted his suffering, though. Our surroundings had caught my attention. We stood near a wall of smashed-together vehicles. That feat of repurposed metal stretched as far as I could see in either direction. In front of us, two huge metal gates slowly opened.
“Come,” the fey said. “Matt will help you.”
I followed the fey with Adam through the door. Another man was hurrying to meet us. I had a hard time staying focused as I tried to take in everything. The wall surrounded what looked like an entire subdivision of houses. There were people everywhere. Human people.
“He’s hurt but talking,” the fey holding Adam said. “Uan met with a hellhound and will need Cassie’s attention.”
