He burned with embarrassment and anger but did as he was told. He was glad Maibe wasn’t there to see him just roll over like that. Even the little he knew of Gabbi, he knew she would have thought him less than nothing for not standing up for himself.
He listened in the darkened hallway during their dinner. Goosebumps rose on his arms from the cold and his feet fell asleep as they laughed and shared stories by candlelight and wine. Dr. Ferrad made a speech about how her scouts looked for people in order to bring them back here where it was safe. That they were close to a cure and wanted as many people as possible to be a part of making history.
He realized this must be how he’d gotten captured. Dr. Ferrad sent her people out to collect other people and he’d been caught in that net.
The next morning, Dr. Ferrad stopped him on his way to his chores. She placed a gloved hand on his shoulder because he was still a Feeb and she didn’t dare touch him barehanded. He had the food bucket in one hand and the V girl’s food tray in another. He must have been standing there, frozen in a memory. Dr. Ferrad said his name and shook his shoulder like it was the tenth time she’d done it.
“Alden Bennings, you need to come with me now.”
He set down the bucket and tray, but then paused. “They’ll be hungry.”
“Never mind that,” Dr. Ferrad said. “It’s time for you to receive the cure.”
She led him to the gray room and strapped him down to the hospital bed. For their own protection, she said. Not his.
“Why now?” He said this in a fit of anger even as he wanted to hug her, thank her for finally, finally taking this burden from him.
She didn’t answer him except to continue hooking up an IV line and two thin tubes that disappeared into the dark shadows of the room.
The light glinted off Dr. Ferrad’s plastic mask. He’d worn one very much like it when protecting himself from the infected. Had he looked as funny as Dr. Ferrad looked right now?
Probably worse, he decided. She looked tired but confident. He suspected he’d looked like a coward.
Chapter 15
The dead around us went cold and the Vs outside kept smashing themselves against the door. Leon, Bernice, and Nindal, and many others from the town were still alive. They clustered around each other, somehow keeping themselves separate from Tabitha’s people even though there wasn’t that much space.
Ricker, Gabbi, and I hovered over Jimmy and planned how to run with him when the time came. Kern stayed by our side, his bandage an inky black in the cave light. He didn’t talk much and he sat down a lot, but he helped with Jimmy.
It took hours to find another way out of the cave. The other entrance was at the end of one of the passageways blocked with supplies.
We waited now in the darkness lightened only a little by the sunlight that filtered through the opening. We didn’t know what was on the other side, only that at least there was no thumping.
Everyone worked to clear the way and then we were outside. The sunlight, the heat, the brightness were all shocking, almost painful.
Bernice and Nindal carried Jimmy between the two of them almost like an apology. Ricker helped me walk. There still hadn’t been a chance to look at my leg. Gabbi was in front of us, Ricker’s machete in her hand.
We were above the cave now, in the middle of the forest. Wind fluttered through the leaves. Sunlight dappled the brush at ground level. The sudden heat brought goosebumps out on my skin. There was a moan and a figure darted from one of the trees but at first no one reacted. A ghost-memory. I was seeing a V that wasn’t there. He raced toward us, his features distorted in rage, his hair dirty and tangled, his muscles straining with his sprint as if he thought that if he could just make us go away, so too would he banish that rage.
The noises around me softened and then stopped, people and trees became just shapes and colors.
Ricker shouted. He ran for the V and a part of me understood this did not make sense, not if the V were a ghost-memory. The V barreled into Ricker and they both fell onto Kern. Bernice and Nindal ran, jostling Jimmy around. Gabbi yelled and slashed at the V with the machete.
Kern twisted around on the ground, pulled out a gun, angled it, pulled the trigger. Blood misted into the air. The V toppled over.
People streamed out of the cave. They spread out and began firing. Shadows moved from around the trees. The forest was full of shadows and moaning. It was beautiful how desperate we all were to stay alive. Ricker loomed, blocking out everything except for the sweat that plastered his hair to his head and streamed rivulets down his cheek. Dirt smeared his nose and chin. Blood droplets spattered his face like freckles. He said something as if from down a long tunnel. “Maibe, you’ve gone Faint again. You’ve got to snap yourself out of it. We have to run!”
I understood his words but there wasn’t time to explain.
“Come on, Maibe.” He slapped me, a sharp blow to my right cheek that flared lights in my eyes. I waited for my aunt to appear, but she didn’t and I was so happy about that. The world tilted and I was flying in the air, flipping over. More shouts and more gunfire. I stared at something yellow with red spots, scuffed from fighting—a bullet casing that sparkled like gold in the sunlight.
I reached my hand out to grab it but couldn’t reach. I was folded over someone’s shoulder. This thought tickled the edge of my brain. Ricker’s belt was eye level. The rise and fall of his steps jarred me. His jeans were dusty and threadbare. He was stronger than I remembered. He carried me like I weighed nothing.
He began to run. I wanted to tell him I was fine. I wasn’t going Faint, or at least I wasn’t going all of the way Faint. This felt different somehow—my head was clear even as my leg burned, even as his run bounced me like I was on a roller coaster ride. His shoulder dug into my stomach like the safety bars had when I’d ridden with my uncle. I pictured my legs dangling across his chest and his arm latched over my knees to keep me from falling. I wiggled my toes like a child on a carnival ride.
Suddenly there was a shout and I turned weightless. The ground rushed to my face as if I were flying into it.
I knew I was awake even though everything was still black—I no longer felt numb. I was no longer weightless. My nose pressed into something firm and musty smelling. A low humming sent vibrations into my body.
I pulled my head back a few inches. Light flooded in, revealing ribbed upholstery fraying at the seams. There was a dusty, cracked window. The ceiling cloth was torn and hanging down. Shapes and colors passed by the window, slow but steady.
I sat up and the movement made my head throb. I put my hand to my scalp and it felt crusty. My hand came away with flakes of dried blood. I was in some sort of van, in the back seat. The van crawled along faster than I could walk, but slow enough to avoid all the obstacles on the road. One person sat in the middle row. Then there was the driver and another passenger in front. A sharp edge jabbed my thigh. I looked down—the metal shape of a seatbelt latch. As if on autopilot, I grabbed the seatbelt and clicked the metal together.
The person in the middle row turned, showing me a profile. His face was familiar, yet strangely out of reach. Maybe that meant I still wasn’t in control yet. Fear snaked up my spine at the thought that maybe I would be gone for good, but then that very fear calmed me. In those worst, stone-like moments, I was at my most numb. All fear and guilt and anger had washed away. These terrible feelings told me I was back—fear was my friend.
“What’s happening?” I said.
“You weren’t out for long this time,” Ricker said. “I just couldn’t wait for you to come out of it. I tried, Maibe.”
I remembered the slap and then him running and me flying.
“I made you drop me, didn’t I?”
“We had to get out of there.”
“You’re dodging my question.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “There was a V running straight for me. I was so angry. I wanted to rip the V to pieces. I…I think I threw you to the ground.” He
looked sick to his stomach. “I was filled with so much hate. I knew if I could just get my hands around his throat that everything would feel better.” His neck muscles clenched and he jutted out his chin as if trying to fight off some inner demon. It all rushed up in me at once that maybe he was about to lose it again, this time inside a car full of people.
“I didn’t drop you,” he said. “I threw you off.”
There was a thump on the side of the van, hard enough to make it rock.
Fear squeezed my stomach. “What was that?”
“Vs,” Ricker said. “There are so many obstacles in the road. We’re driving slow enough—sometimes they catch up.”
I examined the rest of the passengers and the driver. “Where are Gabbi and Jimmy?”
“In a different car. With Kern and some of Tabitha’s people.” The lines on his face deepened as if he were an old man filled with burdens too great to bear. “Maibe…Kern was bit. Four others of Tabitha’s people were bit as well…It’s bad.”
“They’re trapped in the fevers,” I said, not asking a question. “They’re trapped like Ano and they’re not coming out until we find some medicine.”
Ricker closed his eyes and he wiped furiously at his cheek.
I grabbed his hand. Things were going terribly wrong, but I felt like I was regaining some control. I felt better, more myself than I had in weeks. He’d slapped me and I hadn’t lost myself. Not completely. “I’m still here, Ricker. We’ll find what they need. We will.”
Another V slammed into the van. The driver swore.
“Do you think these Vs were Feebs like us?” Ricker said, but it wasn’t the question he wanted to ask. I could read it in his eyes. What he really wanted to ask was if I thought whether he would be next.
I sat up and held his face with both of my hands. “You could never go V.” I kissed him deeply until his mouth relaxed. He wrapped his hands over mine and pulled me into his warmth. I drowned in the kiss. He took a hand away, the cool absence breaking my focus. I felt a hand in my hair, running fingers through it, holding me gently, and then more strongly.
“Ouch.” My head throbbed where I’d hit it.
He sat back as if slapped. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Maibe.”
“Stop it. It’s okay.”
Another V threw herself at the windshield. A window from the car in front of us rolled down. An arm snaked out and the muzzle of a gun flashed twice. The V flew off the windshield, leaving behind streaks of blood.
“Well, that kind of ruins the mood, now doesn’t it?”
He tried to smile at my joke but it didn’t reach his eyes.
“Ricker.” I grabbed his hand again.
He squeezed back and then pulled away. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll all turn V or Faint. We’re all dead either way. Isn’t that what you always said?”
Chapter 16
“We’ll take Corrina’s medicine,” I said. “We’ll take it and it’ll work.”
He didn’t respond.
“I know I said that.” I pulled out the pouch of herbs Corrina had given me and searched the van for any sort of container we could use as a cup. “I’m not taking it back. We’re dead or might as well be but we still have to do what’s right. We still have to help people.”
“Why?” Ricker said. “No one’s helping us.”
“Tabitha—”
“She’s doing this for her own reasons,” Ricker interrupted.
He was right. She might have decided to help us at the moment, but it wouldn’t last. “Because,” I finally said.
“Because why?”
“Just because, Ricker.” I held out my hand for his own pouch of herbs. “Because we have to.”
He hesitated, as if ready to argue with me some more, but then pulled out the pouch and handed it over.
The driver passed back a water bottle. We created a makeshift stove out of a hand lighter and a small metal container from the trunk and did our best to make the tea. It was bitter at first and then turned sweet by the end. We passed around the water bottle now filled with tea to everyone in the car, using up all of Corrina’s gift. We didn’t feel any different, but then again, we had no idea how long it took to start working. If it worked at all.
Another hour passed and we covered all the ground that it had taken two days for us to hike. The Vs stayed with us. Three of them had busted our windshield at this point. The V mob formed a growing entourage that fell behind as we gained distance on clear stretches of highway and caught back up as we slowed to maneuver around obstacles.
The cars discussed plans across walkie-talkies. Tabitha wanted to use the Vs like something similar to what Spencer had done to get inside the Cal Expo fairgrounds years ago—draw in a big mob of them to do the fighting for us. I did not think it was a good idea. The only way to the reservoir was through the town itself, drawing Vs into where we didn’t want them to be. We’d have to wind into the hills and be a slow-moving target for anyone waiting for us down at the reservoir. The hills were steep and would leave us few places to hide. The direct exit to our town was blocked by the layers and layers of obstacles we’d placed there.
The vehicles made their way through our carefully constructed path. I wondered how Tabitha planned to get in contact with the town and warn them about the Vs. There was still a gate to get through.
But the gate that should have been closed—it was wide open. We lost the Vs around a corner, but it was only a matter of time before they would catch up. The lead vehicle stepped on the gas and we followed in a rather stately line, weaving in and out of the town’s cottage-style ranch houses. There wasn’t a single Feeb walking around.
I held my breath as I examined the windows for signs of life. Was there anyone left in town to care for the Faints and for Ano? My hands became clammy at the vision of him lying in that hospital bed, shouting out, no one there to help. Where were Corrina and Dylan?
Movement shifted the curtains of a second-story window. A hand pushed the curtains aside and for a brief second Corrina stood outlined by the white window frame, raising her hand as if in hello to us. Or was it as a warning to ward us off?
A boom sounded. Something kicked up asphalt in front of the lead car.
Uninfected streamed out of the houses and stood on the rooftops, the late afternoon sun glaring behind their backs. The first car swerved and slammed into a telephone pole that had long ago turned into a posting board for photos and messages to dead loved ones. The vehicle in front of us veered to the right and wrecked a fence before skidding to a stop in a front yard, the passengers dashing out, Gabbi included.
A bullet smashed through the driver’s side window of our van. Glass flew, our driver’s head lolled to the side. I ducked down, the noises more terrifying now that I couldn’t see what was going on. I scrambled over to the van door and inched it open. Ricker was on the floor, watching me. The van had stopped near the large oak tree on the corner of the block.
Bullets whizzed past the opening, throwing shrapnel from the tree, the dirt, a wooden fence, the street. I rolled out of the van and against the tree, the shade cooler than the van had been.
The gunfire petered out and stopped. People began shouting.
Someone pointed a rifle barrel at my face.
I moved slowly to see who held the rifle. He hadn’t shot me yet, so maybe if I didn’t him give him a reason, maybe he wouldn’t.
But then I realized he was a she. A woman held a rifle at my head. She was dressed in fatigues faded from dust, heat, the wear of years. Her combat boots had seen better days as well. The heat left large sweat marks on the army green T-shirt she wore under her bullet-proof vest. She even wore a military helmet. There were several dents in it along with a chip off the front. A wisp of blonde hair fell across her forehead and there was something very strange about her skin. Veins and mottled skin—like a Feeb’s—yet faded, as if getting washed away.
“Hello, Maibe.”
I started at my name. Now I looked her full in the f
ace. I’d been looking at all the details, missing the big picture.
I knew this woman.
“It’s Jane. Don’t you remember?” She smiled, as if that would make everything better and I wouldn’t notice the rifle still pointed in my face. “Don’t move!” She shifted the rifle to point above my head, at whoever appeared behind me.
This had been Corrina’s best friend. When Corrina and Dylan had let me into the RV, she’d already been there. She’d slept with Dylan before the world fell apart and told Corrina at the worst possible time. She had left us while we were being turned into Feebs. She had sided with Sergeant Bennings and hadn’t been seen for years. Alden would have told me if she had come back. He would have.
“Do you know where Alden is?”
“The girl does have a voice. Still talk about zombie movies too?”
I cringed at the disdain in her voice. She was the worst kind of person. Someone who liked to laugh while she stabbed you in the back.
“What do you want?” Ricker said behind me.
“Get up,” she said. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you. Yet.” She smiled. “That’s gotta be a line from a movie, right?”
“What’s wrong with your skin?” I said.
She stepped back and motioned for the two of us to stand.
“Nothing another week or so won’t fix up.”
Chapter 17
They gathered us into the church with the Faints. Tabitha’s people, those now trapped in the fevers like Ano, were brought into a back room and laid out on the extra beds. Kern was put in a bed next to Ano and tied down to the frame. Bernice and Nindal carried Jimmy to a different bed in the Faint section. Ricker and Gabbi followed. Three of Tabitha’s people had died, others had been injured in the brief fight with the uninfected. Corrina and Dylan treated them as best they could.
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