by Carter, John
“No, I’ve confirmed it twice. Your diabetes is improving along with your injuries.”
Emma looked down at her palms and removed the bandages. Her eyes widened as she found all that was left of the wounds were pink scars. “What the hell?” She shook as Sarah inspected her hands.
“See, like I told you before, your body adapted to the virus.”
Tony turned to Kayla as she covered her mouth.
“That’s what they were looking for?” Kayla looked over to Emma. “We have to get rid of all of the results. We don’t really know who’s out there anymore.”
“I agree,” Tony said as he squeezed Kayla’s hand. “We can keep you safe here.”
“I thought you’d throw me right out on my ass, if you found out,” Emma said as Sarah looked down.
Tony shook his head, “No, you guys are a part of us now. We don’t leave our own behind to fend for themselves.”
“What do we do?” Rory asked as he held Sarah’s hand.
Jeremiah continued, “Nothing really. We’re stopping the testing and just monitoring her blood sugar.”
“What if one of you gets bitten?” Emma asked as she looked over to Tony and Kayla. “You have to keep testing my blood to see if glucose has anything to do with the effectiveness of this virus.”
Sarah looked over at Emma, “We’re going to have to take that chance. There’s no way we’re losing you again.”
Tony nodded as Jeremiah sat down next to Emma. “You have to keep testing on me,” she whispered to him.
“No,” he said as she shook her head in disagreement. “This is the only way to protect you from what’s out there.” She sulked for a moment until he put his hand in hers.
Rory stood up from the table and walked over to the garden area to start harvesting the vegetables that were ready. Sarah sat with Emma for a while as Dani joined them.
“So you’re joining me tonight?” Dani asked as she stole some of Sarah’s food and smiled. Sarah’s head was turned towards Kayla as she explained what they needed to do.
Emma smirked, “Yeah, bringing your weapons?”
Dani nodded enthusiastically as she finished the stolen food. “I’ll meet you outside around 8. I think my dad and Rory will be on watch at 12.”
“Sure,” Emma smiled as Sarah just noticed her missing food. Dani stood up and took off towards her room. “She ate your apple, by the way.”
“What the…I knew it,” Sarah shook her head and hit Emma on the arm. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“She’s quick.” She laughed as Sarah stood up and went to the garden.
Chloe looked over towards the hill as the day grew into evening. The sky became pink and purple for an hour as she admired it from below. Her new vision allowed her to not have to squint to see. The glasses she had broken last year weren’t needed anymore. Even with the added benefits, she still hated that she was transformed into this monster, but she knew that there was a plan of revenge she had to help execute. She closed her eyes and listened to the quiet stirrings of the wind as it battled with the valley floor. The loosened dirt floated in the air and landed quietly around her. Her hair looked dirty as it flowed next to her. She suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder, and she quickly turned to the owner. “Riles?”
“Trevor needs us to set up near the hill. I need your help in picking the three to go with me. He said you knew those people more than anyone.”
She looked over to where Trevor was standing and watched as he dictated to the other bandit Risers. “He’s fairly annoying now, isn’t he?”
Riles stood still, “Chloe?”
“Yeah, I’ll help you. Bring Simon, Lefty and Pork with you.”
“Pork?”
“He’ll be the muscle, in case you meet Mark,” Chloe turned back and faced the sunset. “I’ve never seen the sky quite like this.”
He looked up and tilted his head in confusion. “Thanks,” he said as he left Chloe alone. She kicked at a rock on the ground and watched it skip through the dirt and land on another rock.
She wandered back to listen to Trevor, “I might as well listen in to see what his plan is.”
Trevor spoke with hands most of the time, but with this lecture, he used his hands to simulate the different torture devices he wanted to use. Mostly biting of the fingers and arms, plus bleeding her dry. “We should probably feed on her right before we kill her completely.”
“Isn’t she one of us?” one of the bandit Risers asked out of turn, which caused Trevor to stop in his tracks.
“No,” Trevor looked at his wound. “Our first wound isn’t going to heal, but I think hers probably did. I don’t know why, but there’s something different about her. I’m thinking if we feed on her, we can get whatever is keeping her alive. Like Chloe said, she can hear her heart beating. We don’t have a heartbeat anymore. Our bodies have stopped growing, moving, shifting and decomposing.”
“Maybe her blood is tainted?” Chloe asked as she crossed her arms. Trevor turned his attention to her.
“Maybe, but I guess we’ll have to find out.”
Dani waited near the edge of the hill and peered out into the valley. Emma joined her after a few minutes and sat next to her. “See anything yet?”
“Not yet,” Dani handed Emma the binoculars. “I’ve brought the axe and of course, I’m wearing the hidden blades.” She smiled as she showed Emma her sleeves.
“Nice,” Emma returned a smile and looked through the binoculars. She suddenly spotted what she thought was smoke in the distance. “Whoa, there’s some smoke there. East on 55.”
Dani perked up and looked towards the direction Emma was pointing to. Emma handed her the binoculars and she looked through them, “Oh shit, you’re right.”
“I’ll go get your dad and Rory. Stay here, okay?” Emma said as Dani nodded. She rushed off towards the bunker. Dani looked out towards the smoke and glanced towards the edge of the hill. She spotted movement near the edge but it was too quick to get a good look at what it was. She huffed and got up.
Dani walked closer to the hidden path next to the hill and squinted her eyes as she remained still. She attempted to listen as the wind kicked up some dirt and temporarily blinded her. A sudden hit to the head knocked her out cold.
Emma ran to Tony and Rory who were sitting in the mess area, “You guys, we’ve found something.” They rushed outside and found that Dani was gone.
“Dani?” Emma yelled. “I only left her alone for a few minutes.”
“What did you see?”
“We saw smoke, towards 55 eastbound.” She pointed towards the highway and looked around the hill. “Where did she go?”
Rory held Emma, “Calm down, okay? We’ll find her.” Tony ran back inside as Rory followed. Emma stayed behind and looked through the binoculars. She saw four men dragging something behind them. “Dani.” She rushed down the hill and hid behind the bush at the edge of the highway. She was suddenly grabbed by a large bandit Riser who held her as she struggled. She kicked at the first Riser she saw in front of her and sent him flying into the air. Emma kicked at the one holding her and he finally rushed her head into the hill.
Rory ran back outside with Jeremiah and Sarah in tow, “Where’s Emma?”
“Shit. She was just here.”
Sarah looked around and found the binoculars near the hidden path. She motioned for them to follow her as she made her way down to the valley and near the edge of the highway. She noticed there were footprints in the loosened dirt. “Are these Risers?”
“Maybe bandits? But don’t they just kill and rob?” Rory asked as Sarah glared at him. “I’m just asking a question.”
Jeremiah looked around frantically and noticed the footprints disappeared as they crossed the highway. “This way!” He followed them until there weren’t any left due to the ground was harder and packed together. “Damn it!” He paced and grabbed at his hair. “We have to find them.” He walked towards Rory, “What did she tell you?”
“T
here was smoke coming from eastbound 55,” Tony answered as he made his way to the ground floor with Kayla right behind.
“Is there blood anywhere?” Kayla looked around. “No,” she said as she found some on the edge of the hill. “No, no, no…we have to go right now. Right now, Tony!”
Tony grabbed Kayla, “Listen. Listen to me. She’s going to be okay. We’re going to find them.”
Jeremiah crouched down and covered his face. Mark walked over to him and grabbed his shoulder. “We’ll get them back, man.” Jeremiah wiped his eyes and followed them as they went back to the bunker to plan the search.
Chapter 15
Emma woke up to Dani screaming at the bandit Riser guarding them. “Leave her alone, you freak.” The bandit looked up from sniffing Emma and sneered at Dani. Emma looked over to the bandit and saw that his eyes were milky white.
“What the hell?” she attempted to back up but her vision was slightly distorted. The bandit Riser backed off and went back to his chair next to the entrance of the tent. She looked back and found Dani reaching for her. Her face was bruised and bloodied. “Oh my god, your face. Are you okay?”
Dani nodded and looked at Emma’s head, “They got you really good.” She tore off a part of her uniform and placed it on Emma’s head. “That’ll stop the bleeding.”
She held it there as Emma attempted to restore her vision by shaking her head. “What the hell is that thing? Is it a Riser?”
“I think so, but I’ve never seen one control its anger so well,” Dani looked at the bandit who sneered at them.
“There’s more of them?”
“Yeah, at least five or six,” Dani said as some familiar voices approached them. The bandit Riser standing guard stood up and stayed still as Trevor and Chloe walked into the tent.
“Well, hello there girls,” Trevor said as the bandit Riser walked in front to keep a distance between them.
“You need a Riser dog to keep us at bay?”
The bandit snarled at them again as Trevor laughed. “Careful. He’s prone to lose his temper quite easily.”
“Chloe. Long time,” Emma watched as Chloe shifted her feet due to feeling uncomfortable.
“Emma. Who’s your friend?” Chloe looked at Dani. Her milky white eyes caught Emma’s attention as she realized Trevor had only one.
“You don’t need her here. I’m the one you probably want to deal with mostly,” Emma looked to Trevor.
“Of course, but we may need some leverage on you,” Trevor smiled. “It would’ve been better if your sister was here,” he said as he looked at the bandit Riser, who dropped his head. “That’s why he’s on guard duty.”
“I’m pretty sure the torture of smelling humans and not eating them is annoying him slightly,” Chloe said as the bandit looked back at her. “We can change that though.”
“What do you want?” Emma watched as the bandit Riser sniffed at Dani. She kicked at him which caused him to bite at her shoe.
“No, Lefty,” Chloe scolded the Riser.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Trevor looked over at the Riser and laughed. “They’ll be looking for you, so our time schedule is going to be slightly hectic.” He walked over to the entrance of the tent with Chloe right behind. “I would be nice to Lefty if you want to keep your arms and legs.” The bandit Riser bared his teeth at them as he followed Trevor and Chloe out of the tent.
“Well, that’s perfect. They’ve got an army,” Emma said as she covered her ears.
“How do you know that?” Dani leaned against the wall supported by wooden pallets.
“I can hear them,” Emma cringed.
Mark, Rory and Jeremiah walked into the bunker with their heads hanging low. Tony and Kayla met them at the door. “Any news?”
“No,” Rory said as Sarah showed up. “We found a day old camp a few miles away that was causing the smoke but no signs of Dani or Emma.”
“We need to break up in to groups and search,” Tony said as he led the group into the mess area. He spread out maps of the area and pointed out the farm. “Sarah and Rory, you head to the farm since you’re more familiar with it.”
Sarah nodded as Rory added, “We can check the forest behind it as well.”
“Sounds good,” Tony agreed. “Kayla and I will check the highway eastbound while Mark and Jeremiah can head westbound.” They all looked at each other and nodded in agreement.
Sarah carried Dani’s new weapon towards them. Kayla smiled and quickly frowned as the thought of her daughter in trouble crossed her mind. She shook her head to get rid of the bad thoughts that surrounded her and pleaded with her mind to stop reminding her of the worst.
Tony grabbed the weapons and handed them out to everyone else. “Let’s go.”
Sarah and Rory reached the farm and found nothing but extra supplies in both the silo and barn.
“I think they were funneling supplies through here,” Sarah looked around for movement. Rory searched the house and found nothing disturbed. They ventured through the forest and found a fresh kill.
“It’s a dead Riser,” Rory said as he inspected it with his machete.
Sarah inspected it, “It looks like something ripped everything out of it. What would feed on a damn Riser?”
Rory shrugged, “Something or someone who’s not human? Maybe another animal.”
“There aren’t any other animals in here, remember? Brady decided to kill everything for their meat.”
They packed up the supplies and decided to return to the bunker with what they found.
Jeremiah noticed a disturbance in the ground near the 155 mile marker on the highway. “Wait, stop.” Mark double backed and stood near Jeremiah. “There’s something missing here.” He walked towards the broken barricade and found a partially eaten Riser.
“Holy crap,” Mark crouched down and inspected it. “Someone took this thing apart.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t think Risers ate each other,” Jeremiah searched the Riser’s tattered clothing and found a sliver of paper that read “Getting warmer.” He passed the note to Mark who looked around them.
“Shit, we’re being watched,” Mark attempted to find any hidden spots throughout the flat land but came up empty.
“Fuck it. We have to find them,” Jeremiah walked through as Mark caught his arm.
“No, we can come back at night. It’s just too close to morning.”
Jeremiah reluctantly agreed as he followed Mark back to the bunker. Mark and Jeremiah sat near Tony and Kayla as they came up empty on their search of eastbound 55.
“We found a note on a dead Riser,” Jeremiah took the note out and put it on the table near the maps.
Kayla picked up and angrily passed it to Tony, “We head out there tonight.”
“Where?” Sarah said as she walked in with Rory.
“Jeremiah and Mark found a dead Riser with a note attached,” Kayla showed the note to Sarah and Rory.
“We found a dead Riser at the farm too but no note,” Rory said.
“It looked fresh too,” Sarah added.
“What the hell are we dealing with here?” Mark looked at Tony for answers.
“We’ve never seen this before,” Tony shrugged.
“Wasn’t Trevor shot? Maybe he turned?” Sarah asked.
Mark looked down, “Yeah but he’d be a Riser if he died. They can’t write, can they?”
“Not that I know of,” Rory answered.
“Either way, whoever it is, we have to get to them before they do something to the girls,” Kayla shook her head.
“We’ll head westbound and once we hit marker 155, we’ll continue with our search.”
“It’s a flat area so we have no chance for cover, other than relying on the darkness of night.”
“Fine, we take off as soon as it gets dark. It’ll be dark once we get there,” Jeremiah frowned and walked off towards the direction of the lab.
Emma kept an eye out as Dani attempted to sleep. She watched as Lefty sniffed the ai
r momentarily and sat back down on his seat. Another bandit walked over to the entrance of the tent and signaled to Lefty standing guard to follow. Emma shook Dani to wake up and they backed up against the corner of the tent. The other bandit, who was slightly larger and intimidating, pointed to Emma.
“Let’s go,” he instructed and attempted to pull her arm.
She pushed his hand away, “Go where?”
He abruptly grabbed at her to stand her up as Dani lunged at him. Lefty pushed Dani towards the pallet wall and held her by the neck. He tightened his grip as she fought with him. Emma kicked at the bandit holding her. He finally released her as Lefty managed to pick up Dani and continued to strangle her. Dani’s legs awkwardly kicked in the air as the other bandit Riser laughed.
“Leave her alone!” Emma ran at Lefty as the other Riser backhanded her. She was sent her flying in the opposite direction. She sat stunned as Dani’s legs stopped moving. Lefty smiled at her and threw Dani next to her. Emma checked Dani as she was facing down on the ground. She moved the hair covering part of Dani’s face and pleaded with Dani to wake up, “Please, Dani! Wake up! Please!” She kept hitting the ground next to Dani’s head to jolt her awake, but Dani laid there motionless.
Both of the Risers laughed at Emma’s attempt to get Dani to wake up as one of them grabbed her left leg and started to drag her.
“No!” Emma kicked back at the Riser but missed as they dragged her away from Dani and the tent. Dani remained still as Emma was pulled away from her.
Chapter 16
Jeremiah packed up a few items in his bag, including a vial of insulin and some syringes. He thought of Emma as he stared at the vial. He hated that she wasn’t there with them. With the full backpack, he zipped it up and slung it over his shoulder. The rest of the group was waiting outside as the sky became night and they would finally be hidden in the flat land.
Sarah stood still as she reached the mile marker first, “Which direction are we going?”
“We have to fan out and see who finds another clue,” Tony signaled quietly and motioned for them to move together in opposite directions.
