The Plague (Book 3): Winter Storm

by Isla Jones

She grabbed for me; Mason spun around, gun raised. Before the first shot could hit, I burst through a glass door and slammed it shut behind me. I fumbled with the lock, wide eyes on Summer—

  Aimed through the glass at my face, Mason pulled the trigger.

  HORNS, LOCKED

  ENTRY TWENTY-FIVE

  The bullet bounced off the thick glass. I flinched, too stunned to realise that the bullet zipped back and hit Summer right in the bicep.

  A terrible scream ripped through her. At least, I think she screamed. I didn’t hear the horrid sound, but her face twisted, her mouth tore apart, and she dropped to her knees. Blood ran down her sleeve.

  Mason rushed to her side.

  He wound a strip of her jacket around the wound. They forgot me for a moment. But I hadn’t forgotten them or their treachery.

  Shocked, I watched through the (apparently bulletproof) door.

  Summer had let him shoot at me. She’d probably ordered it without my knowing—they’d been taking me to the incinerator.

  I realised, I was something to Summer that she’d never been to me. Disposable.

  Mason hoisted her up onto her feet, his worried glare swerving to me. Summer gritted her teeth and hissed silent words to him.

  I scrambled with the button panel on the doorframe, fumbling the ID card through it. On my third try, the green light blinked red and the heavy clank of the door locking shuddered through the room.

  With my hands flattened against the glass, I pleaded with her in my gaze alone. I watched as she gestured curtly to beside the door.

  Tucking away his gun, Mason led her over and—pulled out his ID card.

  My hands dropped to the handle and held it firmly in place. Mason swiped his card and slammed in his code with bloodied fingers. A button panel on my side beeped. The small light stayed red. His card couldn’t override Summer’s.

  I slumped with relief. But my relief was short lived.

  Mason typed on the panel again—the door didn’t unlock. Instead, a crackle came from the small speaker beneath my panel.

  Summer’s hoarse breath, thick with pain and rage, crept through to my side of the door.

  I didn’t speak. I had nothing to say. Questions swarmed through my mind, but they tangled together like strands of uncombed hair, and muddled everything I knew.

  What could I say to her? Could I ask her why she wanted me dead? Why she was willing to kill me to protect her work? I couldn’t ask any of those questions—the mere thought of them burned my throat with bile.

  Summer wasn’t as affected. She pressed her blood-stained hand on the wall and glared at me through the glass door.

  I couldn’t believe the iciness in her eyes. With a stare, I was snatched back to the day I met Castle, when he looked at me like I was nothing, mere filth, a nuisance. But unlike that day, Summer’s cold stare was a bundle of knives that gutted me clean.

  She slammed her bloodied fingers against the panel. It took me a moment to realise she wasn’t trying to open the door like Mason had been. With each punch of a button, she held my gaze.

  “You think you’re safe in that room?” Her voice rattled through the speaker, heaving with the pain of her bullet wound.

  A pain I’m all too familiar with.

  Only, Summer’s tone hitched with the restrained fury that sparked her eyes into the shards of glass.

  “This is the CDC, Winter. I can reach you anywhere down here.”

  My face twisted as I rested my forehead on the glass. Tears blurred my sight, stung my eyes, brewed by her.

  “Why?” I spoke in a strangled whisper. “Why are you doing this? It’s … me.”

  Those words—those simple words—packed a punch hard enough to sober some of the pain on her face, leaving a glimmer of sorrow.

  A heaved sigh crackled the speaker before she said, “Winner, I love you. But if I need to sacrifice you in order to discover this vaccine, I will. It is my duty, it is what I have worked for my entire adult life and more.”

  At my horrified look, her sorrow crept into a smile that destroyed me more than anything else in this world has ever done before—more than Castle or Leo, death and rotters. Maybe more than when I’d thought Cleo had died back at the farmhouse.

  My knees wobbled, threatening to give out under me. I leaned more of my weight against the door and spoke my shame in a whisper; “I would never sacrifice you to save the world.”

  The greater good was for the noble. Neither Summer or me were noble.

  “The world?” Her smile turned dark, menacing, and matched Mason’s airy chuckle. “The world will be gone before the vaccine is bottled. Even if some survive, the vaccine will only be distributed to those chosen before the outbreak. Let me clarify—I will sacrifice you for my career, to be the one who made a rebirth of humanity possible.”

  I paused a moment to catch my breath, to slow the dizziness that swayed me. The humidity in the room made it hard to fight for a breath deep enough to soothe or steady me.

  “It doesn’t have to be this way, Winner. If you can learn to live with my process, then is…” —She gestured between us with her bloody hand— “doesn’t have to happen. You told me that you broke halo some time ago. It’s merely a matter of keeping it that way.”

  “And what about Leo?” I snapped. “Am I just supposed to look the other way when you’re using him as a fucking pin-cushion?”

  Summer nodded. It wasn’t a nod of confirmation, but one of realisation. She understood that she couldn’t sway me. I chose a side. And she wasn’t it.

  The speaker static silenced. She’d turned it off.

  I watched through blurry eyes as she typed something into the panel, then we locked gazes.

  ‘Sorry,’ she mouthed.

  Before I could slam my fist against the glass door, Mason swept Summer away.

  I shouted her name—until my voice was drowned out by a deep rumble from above. Slowly, I lifted my chin and looked up at the ceiling. A droplet fell from a brass faucet. Not a sprinkler, I realised, but a spiked tap of sorts.

  The droplet landed on my forehead. I crinkled my nose as it trickled down my face to my nostrils. Then another droplet.

  In a blink, water sprayed from a dozen faucets like forked streams.

  The ID card almost slipped from my wet fingers as I tried to jam it into the card swiper. Nothing happened. The blink of the panel had stopped. The power must have been cut by Summer on the other side.

  Clutching the useless card in my hand, I took a step back and ran my wide gaze over the soaked floor. The room was filling.

  And it was filling fast.

  DROWNING

  ENTRY TWENTY-SIX

  The water crashed down on me.

  Each time I tried to move out of the onslaught, another faucet burst open and shoved me back down. I couldn’t keep my head above water. It poured into my mouth and dragged me to the floor. The force spun me around like I was trapped in a washing machine, and I pulled myself out of the tumble.

  Somehow, I managed to get to the glass.

  Waist-down, I was submerged. My teeth chattered as I pounded on the glass. It didn’t so much as rattle.

  I called her name, over and over. But she’d left me. Summer, my own sister, the last of my family, left me to die. She drowned me.

  Tears slipped down my face. I tasted the salt on my tongue before they merged with the water surrounding me.

  “Summer!” My voice was drowned out by the waterfall around me. “Summer, please! Come back!”

  Rising and rising, the water devoured me. It came up to my breasts.

  I looked up at the ceiling—faucets all around sprayed down at me. I was done for. No more lives. No one left to save me—no one left to care.

  Sobs jolted through me. My face twisted and I slumped against the glass, letting the sobs wash over me like the water. I gave in and shut my eyes. It would be easier, I thought, to close my eyes and hide from what was happening to me, happening all around me.

  “Sum
mer,” I choked out.

  The glass wobbled.

  I jerked back and choked on the water that splashed into my mouth. Adam’s face, wild-eyed, cleared before me. He had a chair in his grip; he raised it and whacked it against the glass. Again, it wobbled. No cracks. No breaks.

  No chance.

  “GET CASTLE!” I shouted. My hands slapped against the glass, the water inching up to my chin. “GET CASTLE!”

  He couldn’t hear me. I cried the same words over and over—but no matter how loud I shrieked, Adam kept whacking the chair against the glass over and over.

  Finally, he stopped and threw the chair to the floor. He paced, his bulging eyes on me. Then, he paused, mind churning behind his eyes.

  He turned and ran up the corridor.

  “ADAM!” My cries couldn’t reach him. But I shouted his name until the water poured into my mouth and all that came from me was a gurgle.

  I’ve never been the best swimmer. The force of two dozen rivers crashing down on me didn’t help. Keeping my head afloat just enough to catch a breath was all I could manage, right before being hit back down. Choking on the coldest water I’d ever tasted, I dragged myself through the whirlpool to the table in the middle of the room. By the time I reached it, water swallowed up my whole body. I had to stretch up on the table to suck in a pinch of air.

  Head above water, I caught a glimpse of black by the window. Adam scrambled back into view and skidded to a halt. A second black blur almost took him off his feet.

  Castle.

  His name sputtered from my soaked lips. Like an injured bird, I flapped my arms in a frenzy to stay with the rising level.

  Castle didn’t hesitate a beat.

  His gun was out in a flash, aimed at the window. Before I could choke out a cry of protest, he squeezed the trigger. The bullet bounced off the glass and ricocheted to the wall behind him. He ducked just in time.

  Castle jerked upright and threw his head to the side. Adam’s face turned ghostly pale, wearing the same fear as Castle’s. They didn’t know what to do—how to get me out.

  The water kept rising, pushing me up and trying to drag me down at the same time. My shoes didn’t touch the table anymore, the ceiling drew nearer my face inch by inch. Even with Castle on the other side of the wall, churning through ways to get to me, the water hummed deep with the thrum of my racing heart. Sweat slipped off my body, joining with the water I sputtered out of my chattering lips. But the cold was the least of my worries.

  Gaze glued to Castle, I struggled to stay afloat and avoid the whirls all around me. Castle beat his gun against the glass. My hands pressed against the ceiling as I spat out a spurt of water.

  Castle shouted a silent noise in the corridor, his defeated eyes on mine. For a moment, I thought he was giving up on me. I recognised the sharp gleam in his glare, the same one I’d seen when Leo had returned to the group. Raw fear. Then, he whacked his gun against the glass again—and shouted something at me.

  I frowned, head bent all the way back. It took me a second to realise that he was pointing at something—the far corner of the room.

  Water foamed all around me, spraying like a storm’s birth. But even so, I saw it. The grate. The vent.

  A way out.

  Sucking in a deep breath, I rammed the ID card into my pocket and let the suction pull me under. The force of the faucets stole the clarity from around me—bubbles and swirls distorted my surroundings.

  Air ballooned from my lips as I jerked to my left.

  I dragged myself through the water to the corner, feeling an itch slowly ignite in my lungs. I hit the wall then pushed up for the grate. Hoarse breaths sucked in as much air as my lungs could fit, but my eyes locked onto the vent above me.

  I latched onto it.

  My fingers slipped through the grate. Water rose and rose, reaching up to my neck once more. The grate wouldn’t budge. It was screwed on.

  Panicking, I held onto the grate and looked at the window.

  Castle was gone. They both were.

  Castle had abandoned me. The realisation carved hollow spots all over me—my chest, my stomach, and even my throat. But I couldn’t give up.

  Tears could have been falling down my face, but I wouldn’t have known. All I felt was the final surge of the water rising over me, slipping up to the ceiling and my fingers tangled in the vent.

  A scream tore through me in bubbled gurgles as I rattled the vent. It wouldn’t give out, but it was the only chance I had. The water didn’t care. It slipped above my face and through the grate.

  Still, I gripped so tight that my knuckles ached. My body shook with the force of my last fight, a fight that dwindled with each breath I couldn’t take. The water grew heavier, my lungs reached for air. And my fingers slipped from the grate.

  I sank. Further and further until I just … floated.

  Above me, a flash of grey surged down.

  I blinked, in a daze, catching sight of the falling grate.

  Then there he was. The last person I saw before my eyes drifted shut.

  Castle…

  WALKING TARGETS

  ENTRY TWENTY-SEVEN

  I woke to lips leaving mine. A fleeting moment, one that I treasure as a kiss that never happened. Then, palms hit down on me, forcing up a purge of metallic water from my lungs.

  I choked on the water that spilled from my mouth.

  “On your side.” Castle’s voice was as tight as violin strings. He flipped me over; cold metal pressed against my cheek as I spewed out the last of the water.

  I blinked, once, twice, and metal took shape all around me. We were in the vent. Shiny grey slats boxed us in.

  Kneeling at my head was Adam, not a drop of water marking his troubled face.

  Castle was pushed between my legs, crouched over me, hair plastered to his temples. Harsh breaths came from both of us, joining together in a wretched song that spoke of who we were, our destinies. Forever surviving, just barely.

  Not an ideal life, but the warmth in my chest didn’t care about that. Castle saved me—not for access to the CDC, not for himself. The blur of his shattered-glass eyes told me so.

  My hand shot up and snatched a fistful of his hair.

  In a breath, his lips were on mine, stiff and cold—raw. Then

  The rest of him followed. His hands clutched onto me with such desperation that it was as though he feared that letting me go would mean to lose me again.

  “Ahem.”

  Adam’s forced noise pulled me from the bubble of warmth the way Castle had pulled me from the water.

  Adam shifted onto his knees, crouching. “Sorry to interrupt—” Liar, I thought. “—but what the fuck just happened?”

  Castle released an echo of a sigh against my lips. He drew back from me, the redness lingering in his now-sharp gaze. I knew that look. I read him as easily as I read a street sign. The cutting glare of his eyes asked the same question Adam had—as well as his added, Why can’t you stay out of trouble?

  The truth is, trouble finds me.

  After I told them all that I knew, even about the rotter rooms and orchestrated apocalypse, we holed up in a supply closet a few corridors away.

  Castle gave me his black sweater to replace my sopping clothes, but the swap did little to dry out my tangled, wet hair or to stop the light chatter of my teeth.

  As Adam loaded his gun, Castle took me to the side.

  He didn’t get the chance to say it.

  “No.” My biting tone matched the glare of my eyes. Though, I likely looked like a drowned, rabid rat, rather than someone to be taken seriously. “I’m not staying behind. Finding Leo is just as much on me as the pair of you. Besides, I’m the only one who knows where he is.”

  I pinched Summer’s ID card between my fingers, watching Castle’s eyes frost over like mint leaves caught in a blizzard. “And,” I added, “I know the code.”

  Castle’s breath was hot on my face as he hissed, “Tell me the code and where those rooms are, Winter.
If you think I’m going to march you into your umpteenth brush with death, you’re out of your fucking mind.”

  “If you think—” I jabbed my finger against his chest. “—I’m going to leave this revenge bullshit up to you lot, you’re a complete idiot.”

  The bright gleam of his furious eyes didn’t scare me anymore. Not even when he rolled his jaw to chew back whatever venomous words nipped at his tongue. I didn’t back down—there was no other option but to stand up to him. If I walked away or stayed hidden, I knew what they would do to Summer. And even after what she did to me … she was still my sister. I loved her.

  Surprisingly, that love couldn’t just be washed away by the ice-cold water she tried to drown me in. The deltas would choose a death sentence for her. I had to be with them to make sure that didn’t happen.

  “You’re a walking target,” spat Castle.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Adam nodding to himself, making no effort to hide his eavesdropping.

  “Everywhere you go,” Castle barked, “every time we’re at odds with others, what happens? A bullet goes in here.” He poked my stomach, then tapped my shoulder. “Or you sprain your ankle, knock yourself out, almost drown in a sealed room! What part of this is unclear to you, Winter? Do I have to tie you up and lock you in here to keep you safe?”

  At that moment, I regretted kissing him. The regret burned so hot inside of me that the urge to tear off his lips twitched my fingers. Instead, I levelled my gaze with his and curled my lip.

  “You’re the most arrogant dick I’ve ever met,” I seethed. “The fact that you’d even think about taking my choice away from me just proves that everything you confessed to me was a load of garbage. This isn’t about me and you, or even about Leo. It’s my sister you’re going up against. Don’t think I won’t do everything I can to stop you from killing her.”

  Castle shot forward, his face a breath away from mine. “She tried to kill you!”

  I pushed up on my toes. “She’s my sister!”