I carried Cricket to an exam room and lay her on a bed. It wasn’t the cleanest spot, but it would have to do for now. I checked her pulse; it was slow. Too slow. Why hadn’t she just turned around and left when I’d told her to?
I had never intended to hurt her. But the longer she’d stood there, the more I’d wondered if she, too, knew something about Christina. I was already sure that Caine was hiding something; was this girl in on it? She looked to be the same age as Ryder and me, and therefore she was the same age as Christina. Could they have been friends?
She moaned; she was waking up. I began sorting through her bag. I found the bottle of pills, a jacket, some binoculars, and a PulsePoint. I paused, staring at the device carried by all residents of New Caelum.
I moved to stand over her. “What the hell are you doing with a PulsePoint?” I asked her, even though she wasn’t really conscious yet. It didn’t make sense.
I searched the room for supplies. Nothing, as expected. I’d have to venture deeper into the hospital. Maybe we’d get lucky.
Two exam rooms over, I discovered some padded hand and ankle restraints. I returned to Cricket and strapped her to the gurney. She moved her head from side to side, her hair falling away from her face to reveal the scars on her right cheek and neck.
Unable to stop myself, I traced my fingers along the textured skin. Her eyes popped open, and I stepped away.
“What are you doing?” She jerked her head left, then right. “Where are we?” She took in her surroundings. “We’re at the hospital. Where’s Key? You need to move her to the infectious disease wing. It’s locked, but Caine has a key. We can help her, West.” Only after her ramblings did she finally try to move—and discovered her restraints. She tugged at them before turning her shocked gaze on me.
I had stooped to new depths. I reached in her backpack and pulled out the PulsePoint again. “Where did you get this?” I asked calmly.
She looked from the PulsePoint to me, and her eyes widened further. I could almost see her mind racing through a hundred possible answers, none of them the truth. She leaned her head back and stared up at the stained ceiling, and her breathing quickened.
Ryder entered the room. “Key’s all set up in a bed down the hall.”
Cricket remained silent. Her blue eyes pointed to the ceiling while I inwardly berated myself. I glanced over my shoulder at Ryder. “Cricket says there’s an infectious disease wing, but that it’s locked. Caine has a key.” That’s where they must have stored all the supplies.
Ryder walked over to Cricket and looked down into her face. “Is this true? Why would you need such a place? It’s not like you people on the outside have any real doctors, or any idea how to treat the sick.”
Cricket laughed under her breath. Ever since I had met her, she’d seemed quiet, shy even, except with the GI Jane gate guard. But this time when she spoke, she seemed confident, self-aware. “You two are a couple of real heroes, aren’t you? Why did you leave the city? You obviously didn’t do it because you thought it was better out here. Although I must say, that was a nice act you put on to get Dylan and Nina on your side. But now what? What are you going to do when Key’s fever gets so high that she has seizures? Or when she becomes dehydrated because the fluids in her body are evaporating? What will you do when she starts to bleed from the eyes and other not-so-pleasant areas of her body?” She jerked her hands and feet against the restraints. “What are you going to do when the two of you become infected too, and you can no longer help her? What, exactly, is your plan?”
Ryder’s face paled. His mouth hung open. I moved to stand in front of him, blocking Cricket from his view. We needed to focus.
“The plan is…” I moved toward Cricket and waved the PulsePoint in her face. “The plan is for you to tell me where you got this.” When she didn’t answer, I placed a hand on her shoulder, leaning in close to her face. “You stole this, didn’t you? You know Christina. What did you do to her?”
She refused to answer. She wouldn’t even look me in the eye. I tucked the PulsePoint into my waistband. “Fine. Don’t answer. But you’ll stay restrained until you tell us what we need to know.” Finding Christina was our only hope to save Key and Willow.
I turned and motioned for Ryder to join me in the hallway. Just as I reached the door, Cricket said, “Get Caine, let us help Key. And then I’ll tell you where Christina is.”
chapter eleven
Cricket
The last conversation I’d had with my mom and dad occurred the day before I moved to New Caelum with West and his mother. I still remembered Mom’s voice, even now, over a sketchy telephone connection. She was tired. I asked her if she was crying, but she denied it.
She knew then, as I would find out a day later, that she had been cut off from her home country—from me—forever.
She told me things like, “Keep up your studies, and work hard always.” And, “Do something nice for at least one person, even someone who might not deserve it, every single day.”
I didn’t know what she meant at the time. But now, thinking back, I realized that my mother and father had done nice things for people they didn’t know every day of their lives—even when doing so meant risking their own lives in a foreign country.
My mother said goodbye to me that day. And I have wished for the opportunity to tell her I loved her ever since—because I don’t remember what my last words to her were.
What if my mother died and didn’t know how much I loved her?
The lump in my throat was almost too much to swallow past. I choked against it. Tears fell from my eyes with nowhere to go but down my temple and into my hair. I wiggled my wrists against their restraints, wanting badly to wipe all evidence of emotion from my face.
I must have eventually drifted off to sleep, because I woke to the sounds of various distinct noises—the distant sound of voices, the echo of many footsteps, and doors slamming against walls, loose on their hinges.
I was watching the door like it might explode, and it did when Dax blew through it. “What the hell!” He ran to me, cupped my face. “Are you okay? Which one did this to you?”
“I’m fine. Calm down.” As angry as I was at West, I didn’t need Dax playing the hero at the moment.
West and Ryder entered the room behind Dax, followed by Caine, who seemed to be assessing the situation.
Dax began unbuckling the restraints. His breathing was coming at breakneck speed. “Calm down? Are you kidding me?” He pulled at the leather with increased frustration. “Tell me who did this.”
As soon as he had freed one of my hands, I grabbed his arm, my hand gripping the rough fabric of his heavy coat, and tugged him toward me. He leaned his face in and stared into my eyes. I pinned him with my best listen-to-me-or-else gaze. “Dax, don’t do anything. I mean it. There will be time for consequences later.”
He searched my eyes like a crazed lunatic. “West did this, didn’t he?”
“Dax, look at me.” But I had lost him.
He turned and charged at West.
Caine stepped in front of him and pushed him backward. “Listen to Cricket. Help her remove the other restraints.”
Dax reluctantly returned to me, then smoothed my hair back. “I will kill him,” he said, not caring that everyone standing there heard him, including West himself.
Dax didn’t mean what he said in the literal sense, but I’m sure he did mean to hurt West. I would make him understand. I’d have to. “No, you won’t, because that would hurt me. Please don’t do anything until we’ve had a chance to talk, okay?”
He took deep breaths in and out while he continued to free my limbs from the leather straps and rusted buckles. By the time he helped me off of the metal exam table, his breathing was finally slowing a bit.
With Dax directly behind me, I took three steps toward West and looked up into his eyes. “You will live to regret strapping me to that table and not letting me help Key.”
“Maybe. But as long as you keep up your
end of the bargain, I don’t really care what I have to live with.”
I analyzed the desperation in his expression. Did he mean my promise to help Key, or was he that determined to find Christina Black? Though I had promised, I wasn’t sure I could produce Christina for him. “Why is finding your friend so important to you?”
He tilted his head, considering the question. “I have my reasons.”
“You’re so desperate to find her that you were willing to hurt someone you barely know?”
“You might not believe me, but I am sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I panicked.”
“Actually, I do believe you.”
“You do?” Dax asked behind me. When I didn’t answer right away, he ran a hand through his hair. “Unbelievable.”
“Like I said, he’ll regret it. We’re wasting time.” I looked at Caine. “What has West told you?”
“Not enough. That he left you here at the hospital, and that I needed to come. Dax was nearby and overheard. Obviously, there was no stopping him.”
Dax scoffed behind me.
I nodded in understanding. “Key has a high fever. I don’t know what it is. Could be the flu. Their immune systems are most likely compromised from being locked up inside that airtight facility. I gave her fever-reducing meds, but that was hours ago.”
Caine turned to West and Ryder. “You two have been exposed to her. You’ll need to stay here at the hospital—but away from her.”
“Like hell we will,” Ryder said. “If you think I’m turning her over to you, you’re crazy.”
Caine stared at Ryder for a full ten seconds in silence. Then he pulled a weapon from behind his waistband and handed it to Dax. “Fine. Dax and Dylan will escort the three of you back to the entrance to the city.”
Dax cocked the gun and held it in the air, just looking for an excuse to use it.
I held up a hand, urging him to stand down. “Wait. Just stop.” I stepped up to West. “You don’t want this. Key will die if she has the virus. So will you if you get it.” I looked back and forth between West and Ryder. “And if my suspicions are correct, the virus is already in your city. They won’t take you back, which is probably why your PulsePoints stopped working. You’ve been cut off.”
West stared into my eyes. I wanted to turn away, but I didn’t dare.
Finally he turned to Ryder. “She’s right. We need their help. For Key’s sake, and for Willow’s.”
I gasped at the sound of his sister’s name. West lifted a brow; he heard me.
What’s wrong with Willow? I wanted to ask, but I couldn’t. Did she have the Samael Strain?
Ryder let out a huge sigh. “Why should we believe that you guys can help us?”
Caine turned to me. I closed my eyes for a brief moment, then opened them and said, “Because if Bad Sam is back, I can produce Christina Black. That’s why you came, right?”
Ryder looked from me to West, who didn’t stop staring at me. “Fine. What do we need to do?”
“Dax,” Caine began. “You will return to the settlement and alert the town that we are in quarantine status until further notice. Everyone is to go into lockdown mode, and they are to know that this is not a drill. Bring Dylan and my daughter back with you. They’ll need to be monitored and tested for the virus. Let’s just hope that if this is Bad Sam, we can contain it.”
Dax nodded at each instruction. I couldn’t help but think about what Caine didn’t say: If we can’t immediately contain the virus, our settlement most likely won’t survive.
“West, you and Ryder will follow me.” Caine grabbed the gun back from Dax. “And if you give me any trouble whatsoever, I won’t hesitate to send you back where you came from, and I will have no problem using force to protect my people.” He led West and Ryder from the room while I stayed back to speak with Dax.
Just before West disappeared, he looked back at me one last time, like he wanted to say something to me but wasn’t quite sure what.
It wouldn’t be long before he figured out who I was. One way or another, I knew he’d put two and two together. How could I have been so careless with the PulsePoint?
When they were gone, Dax started in on me. “What the hell, Cricket? Do you realize what kind of danger you’ve put yourself in?” He faced the window while running a hand through his sandy blond hair.
Not as much danger as he thought, seeing as I was immune to Bad Sam. “Yes,” I said simply.
“Why would you do that? What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that a girl needed my help, and I was able to provide it.”
The look on his face softened. “Have you given up? Is that why you keep disappearing and constantly putting yourself at risk? Are you planning to leave?” He touched my cheek gently, then slid his hand around to the back of my neck, holding my gaze with his chocolate brown eyes. “Sometimes I feel like… like you’re always just a day away from leaving me—from leaving Boone Blackston. Like you’re just going to walk off into the sunset and never return.”
I blinked up at him. “I’m not going anywhere.” Not yet, anyway.
He pressed my head to his chest and wrapped his other arm around me. “Don’t leave me,” he whispered. “If you go, I go with you.”
~~~~~
Dax unlocked the bell tower in the center of town. We raced up the six flights of stairs, and Dax entered the code to signal the alarm for a mandatory quarantine. The quarantine alarm—a verbal message over loud speakers—would continue to play for one hour from the time it was started.
I looked Dax in the eye, searching for a sign that he was virus-free. I didn’t think he had been exposed to Bad Sam, but I couldn’t be sure. He hadn’t been around Key since she’d gotten sick, but he’d been exposed to all three of the city folk on several occasions now, and had spent the night in the same room with West, back at the Biltmore Estate. We’d learned years ago that it didn’t take much to contract this virus—casual contact, breathing the same air as someone with symptoms. Key wasn’t coughing yet, but that didn’t mean she was safe to be around. Her temperature was climbing quickly, and other symptoms would soon follow.
My heart squeezed at the thought that either Dax or West would come down with the disease. My heart couldn’t handle seeing either of them sick with this fatal fever. They had both meant too much to me at different points in my life.
Dax crossed to me. “Let’s leave. Get away from here.” There was fear in his voice.
My heart felt tight, knowing I couldn’t leave with him. “I can’t. Caine needs my help.” I cringed inwardly at my choice of words. How would I explain to Dax that Caine needed my blood in order to continue working on the antibodies for a cure for Bad Sam? Dax and I had agreed a long time ago that we didn’t need to rehash every detail of our past—and I had decided that that included my intimate history with Bad Sam.
“Caine doesn’t need you. If this is Bad Sam, we both know our best chance of survival is to leave the settlement. Caine will understand that.”
Dax was right about one thing: his best chance of survival was to flee. Most of the people who had survived the initial Bad Sam outbreak did so only because they lived in isolated areas far away from the cities, away from the people who spread it. It wasn’t until after the virus had died out that settlements started popping up, formed by survivors who craved community.
But if the virus was back and the people dispersed, we’d be starting all over again.
I knew I couldn’t promise to leave with Dax, but the look on his face was desperate. “Let’s at least let Caine test us to see if we have the virus now.”
He nodded in agreement, though reluctantly.
Footsteps thudded on the stairs below. Nina popped her head through the opening in the floor. “What’s happened? Where’s my dad?” She climbed up, and Dylan followed.
“He’s at the hospital. It’s Key.”
Nina gasped. Her hand flew to her mouth.
“You don’t think—” Dylan grabbed Nina’
s hand and pulled her closer. Exactly the way they shouldn’t react.
I shook my head. “I don’t…” I crossed to the window and looked out over the south side of town. “I don’t know.” I faced them again. “The four of us need to get to the hospital. We were exposed to them more than anyone else. We have to think of the townspeople.”
They all nodded silently. Nina moved toward the exit.
I started to follow, but Dax put a hand on my arm. “Who is Christina Black?” he asked, and for a moment, it felt like the Earth stopped moving on its axis.
Nina’s head snapped around to look directly at me, her eyes wide.
I turned to look out the window again. There were times when Christina Black had been gone for so long, I wondered if she had ever existed at all. “Christina Black was a little girl who came down with the Samael Strain. She was twelve years old, already an orphan, and by some grace”—or curse—“she survived the unimaginable disease. She was forced to start her life over with no family, no friends, no one to care about, and no one who cared about her in return.”
“She survived Bad Sam?” Dax asked. “I thought that was impossible. Where is she now? Why is this West looking for her?”
“Christina disappeared a long time ago. Before you and Dylan came to town.” I spun around, not making eye contact with any of them. “We need to go. Caine is expecting us.”
chapter twelve
West
Finally, Cricket returned to the hospital. She had not yet looked my way. On purpose? Maybe. I wouldn’t look at me, either, after what I did to her.
The isolation unit I was in was obviously state-of-the-art, and I was impressed that Dr. Quinton had been able to keep it in such good shape. Pretty much every hospital in the country had built one of these units eight years ago, back when Bad Sam looked to kill everyone in its wake.
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