Glitch

by Brenda Pandos

  “You’re right,” Kaden interrupted, his voice icy. His eyes were fixed on the tree line, watching like a gazelle for predators.

  Memphis’ brows pressed together. “Huh?”

  “You should take her to the colony. It’s safer there, for now.”

  Memphis blinked. “What are you going to do?”

  Kaden didn’t turn around. “Set up a decoy.”

  A decoy? So that’s how they kept the zombies away, by using something to distract them. Smart. But a part of me wanted to keep tabs on Kaden. Chances were he’d run across the EA’s search party and Landon should be at the forefront, maybe. That or he didn’t care. Did he know the truth about who I was? Would he insist I go home? Of course, I’d just blame the Sasquatch, since Kaden was wearing the fuzzy coat, too. My brain stuttered for a moment. Why was I intent to protect him?

  At the rustle to my left, I jumped and scooted closer to Memphis. A furry human-like face peered from the brush. Kaden’s Sasquatch.

  With a quick nod to his companion, Kaden opened his backpack and took out another T-shirt, slipping it on. He turned to his brother, seriousness imprinted on his face. “Can I trust her with you?”

  Memphis put his arm over my shoulder and held me close. “Of course, brother. She’s safe with me.”

  I wanted to snort. Between the two of them, they treated me more like a delicate flower than a future leader. Whatever else Kaden hadn’t told me, I hoped Memphis would accidentally spill, especially about these warehouses filled with shoes.

  Kaden finished putting out the fire and collected his camping gear, sliding everything neatly into his pack. As he trudged off into the forest, distrust swelled inside me. Kaden’s little Oracle story had me going, at least during the heat of the conversation, but I still didn’t completely believe him. I’d figure out a way to get home with or without his help, asking Memphis if I had to. Both Landon and Elle would know what to do and help me discover the truth, if I truly was the Oracle.

  I waited for Kaden to turn around and say good-bye. Like a ghost, though, he merely disappeared into the trees.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Memphis escorted me in the opposite direction and took extra care to make sure I didn’t injure my bare feet, even so far as to offer up his shoes. At first, his concerns seemed chivalrous. After fifteen minutes of watch-outs and are-you-okays, I was thoroughly annoyed. What happened to the “be our leader,” rah-rah mantra? My arm, though, had swelled two sizes larger than normal and the intense throbbing made dental work without Novocain look like a walk in the park.

  “I got it, Memphis.” I pulled my arm from his grip. Why hadn’t I insisted I go with Kaden, then made a break for it? “How much longer?”

  “It’s not much more. We could stop for a bit if you want. Are you thirsty?” He pulled out a canteen from his backpack and handed it to me.

  My outstretched fingers trembled as extreme thirst brushed over my parched lips and down my throat. My entire upbringing consisted of warnings about the diseases of the zombie zone. I hesitated for a moment and studied Memphis’ physique. He looked healthy enough. If I didn’t stay hydrated, I’d die of thirst before something else overtook me. Casting fear aside, I slugged down a mouthful. The mucky dirt lining my throat washed away. My stomach rumbled in hunger as if expecting more. I cursed my stubbornness with Kaden earlier. Would it have killed me to eat a few beans?

  “Let’s keep moving,” he said as he put away the canteen.

  I had to hope, wherever they lived, there were hot showers and real food. A girl could dream.

  “Do you have any pain reliever?”

  Memphis opened his pack and rummaged around. “I might have something…” He took out a small package, studying it for a moment before flipping it over. The words and logo were faded—a brand I didn’t recognize. “It expired fifteen years ago, so I don’t know if it’s safe.”

  “Then why do you carry it?”

  “Well,” he smiled sheepishly, “for an emergency, I guess. It’s better than nothing, and I hate the taste of herbs.”

  Though technically this was an emergency, I’d suffer through instead of taking my chances. I only trusted Brighton Pharmaceuticals, not this unfamiliar Advil brand. And it wasn’t like I could consult my DOD watch before I accidentally poisoned myself. I handed back the meds and thanked him anyway.

  Up ahead more light spilled onto the trail, and I could barely make out a grassy clearing through the branches. My heart skipped, in fear and in excitement. Where was all the destruction?

  “Wait.” Memphis held out his arm to stop me.

  Expecting danger, my heart stalled. He merely rummaged around in his pack again and pulled out a fur-covered coat like the one I’d seen Kaden wear when he kidnapped me, only I could now see it was a lightweight parka. He fastened the hood over my head and secured the Velcro straps under my chin. Being shorter than Memphis, the edges of the garment bunched at my bare feet.

  “We should be careful.”

  I reached up and felt two round protruding nubs on the sides of my head, almost like ears on a bear suit. “What is this thing?”

  “We fake like we’re Sasquatch, just in case the EA is watching on satellite. As far as they’re concerned, Sasquatch aren’t a threat and with everything, it’s better to be safe.”

  He put on a similar looking fuzzy hat that covered the back of his neck. I withheld my giggle.

  “What about the zombies?” I asked.

  Memphis’ lip quirked upward. “What?”

  “I’m sorry…” I tried to withhold my snicker. “You just look a little funny.”

  “No, what do you mean zombies?”

  I rolled my eyes. His overbearing protective act was becoming a bit much. “You know—the zombies.” I lifted my arms and moaned. “They attacked and killed millions of people and the main reason why we have a huge wall surrounding Brighton.”

  Memphis’ brows shot up. “Seriously?”

  I huffed, not finding his teasing funny. “Come off it, Memphis. You know that’s why the wall’s there.”

  “Abby, I don’t know what fairytales they’ve told you in Brighton, but there’s no such thing as zombies.”

  I put my good hand on my hip, tenting the huge furry frock away from my body. “Yes, there are.”

  “Oh, really.” He pressed his lips together to hide his smile. “Have you ever seen one?”

  I grit my teeth. Not a live one, no, but I wouldn’t admit that. “Jimmy is frozen on display at the museum behind bullet-proof glass. He killed over a thousand people before they were able to stop him. They say he’d start back up if he was ever defrosted. Besides there’s hundreds of photos and videos, too.”

  Memphis’ eyes narrowed. “Jimmy would most likely crumble in a rotting pile of stink, that’s if it were a real body.”

  I frowned. “Of course he’s real.”

  He inclined his head. “There’s no such thing as zombies, Sugar.”

  I blinked at him, annoyed he was so determined to shelter me. “I know they exist, along with all the rest of the viruses that kill people.”

  He lifted his chest in a dramatic inhale. “Viruses, yes, but not zombies.”

  I peered up at him and playfully punched him in the shoulder. “Stop teasing me. I can handle the truth.”

  “I’m not.” Memphis grew serious, before he cracked a canary smile.

  “See? You are joking with me.”

  “Sorry.” He pressed his lips into a line. “So let me get this straight. The wall surrounding Brighton’s main purpose is to keep out zombies?”

  I growled on the inside. “Yes, jerk face. Just like you probably have some barrier around your colony.”

  He snorted. “Yes, we do, but that’s to keep the EA out. Abby, I promise. There seriously aren’t any zombies—here or anywhere.”

  I frowned, wishing I had my flat screen so I could show him live footage. “This is ridiculous.”

  He shook his head, still chuckling. “Just
face it. The EA has you fooled, Sugar, and I can’t wait to share this around the campfire tonight.”

  Humiliated, I fumed. Memphis was making jokes at my expense and he was wrong. The EA wouldn’t go so far as to lie about the zombies for all these years and fake the evidence, would they?

  I’d seen the footage and saw what the infected people did, and when we finally saw one in real life, I’d do the “told you so,” tongue-waggle before I ran like a wild woman.

  “The Attack happened before we were born so… maybe they’re all extinct now.”

  He shrugged and returned his backpack on his shoulders. “Maybe.”

  “Fine!” I marched through the blanket of vines into the clearing alone. I’d find the colony without him if I had to. Someone there must know the truth about the walking dead. Why would the EA tell us otherwise?

  My breath stole from my lips, and I slowed, overwhelmed by my surroundings. Beauty unlike anything I’d seen spread for miles before me.

  “I’m sorry.” Memphis caught up to me and touched my shoulder. “No one really knows how The Attack happened, since most everyone died from the virus. But as far as I know, there were never any zombies.”

  “Yeah, okay,” My voice had lost all its vibrato.

  Arguing was no longer on my agenda. The sight of everything stole my very breath. White tipped mountain peaks spread across the horizon as a backdrop to rolling hills that undulated with thousands of clusters of trees as far as the eye could see. Wide and vast, the land looked untouched.

  Brighton’s history books had painted everything outside the walls with a dingy and polluted brush. All that was supposed to be here was barren wasteland unable to sustain life along with the remains of millions of people’s stuff. The zombies were nature’s way of mutating the pesticides and expunging the humans off the face of the earth, forcing those who survived to start over. Brighton spared us and we were the new guardians of the land. But unable to see beyond the trees on the other side of the wall, we couldn’t know this existed.

  “What is this place?”

  I looked over my shoulder, expecting the spires of Brighton’s Capital to be piercing the clouds in the distance. Only an endless span of green treetops flowed across the landscape behind me.

  “Where’s Brighton?”

  Memphis pumped his thumb over his shoulder. “It’s up and over that ridge and down a ways. Like two days walk.”

  I followed his gesture and balked at the distance. “That’s not possible.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Kaden and that thing took me last night. There’s no way they covered two days distance in a few hours.”

  “Really?” He arched a brow, then blew out a breath. Was he lying? Or over exaggerating?

  “Yeah,” I said, more firmly. “Two days is not possible.”

  “Well, if you ran the entire way, sure it is…” He shrugged. “But who wants to do that?”

  I dragged my fingers over my lips and looked away. They couldn’t have possibly run the entire way, could they? But why? There had to be another reason besides the fact my Complement asked him to rescue me and not that I was their leader. But what?

  I gulped and studied the horizon. “And where’s your city?”

  Memphis pointed in the opposite direction. “Up there a ways.” I squinted to look for it. “It’s well hidden, of course.”

  A million questions swirled in my head, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready for the answers after the most recent info dump. Ignorance had become sweet infuriating bliss.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Memphis finally said.

  “There’s nothing like this in Brighton.”

  “Shame, really.” He ambled next to me. “You’re all stuffed behind that wall, unable to go anywhere.” I wanted to disagree about being stuffed, but was thankful he didn’t crack a joke about the zombies again. “Have you ever been to the ocean?”

  I shook my head. Rumor was the southern end of Brighton ended at the ocean and the EA officials lived there, but were too busy at the Capital to enjoy it. That helped with jealousy, considering we were all supposed to be equal and no one had anything better than anyone else, unless you worked for the EA, which most everyone did. There were always perks to a government job.

  “We’ll have to remedy that some time.” There was a hint of a smile in his voice, and if we were in a different place and I hadn’t been kidnapped, I would have wanted to take him up on it.

  “Yeah, maybe,” I didn’t really intend to collect on his offer, though. I needed to find a way home.

  We continued across the clearing, neither speaking, but only after Memphis explained we needed to amble, like a Sasquatch would walk. I followed his lead, feeling silly.

  Butterflies danced on the wild flowers at our ankles. Colorful birds I’d never seen before flew through the treetops. I’d dreamt of places like this and drooled over the pictures in eBooks depicting the past, which didn’t do real life justice. I couldn’t believe that only a few days walk from the wall, all of this existed and that I’d been lied to.

  I felt Memphis’ hand brush against mine. From the corner of my eye, he seemed to be looking straight ahead. Was he making a move?

  “So,” I said, pointing in the nearby cluster of trees to give my free hand something to do. “Is it over there?”

  Memphis stuffed his hand in his pocket. “What?”

  “Your colony?”

  “Kind of. You’ll see.”

  Unsure what his intentions were, I followed along as if nothing had happened until we neared the first cluster of trees. He pulled out a mirror and flashed sunlight toward them. Then he pumped his fist and made finger signals like we did during our softball games. A whistle sounded way up from the closest tree.

  “Okay, we’re clear to continue.” He proffered his arm.

  Reluctantly, I took it.

  “So what’s your colony like?” I asked as we walked under the trees. I looked upward. All I could see were the tree limbs. No forts or men hiding on the branches.

  “Uh,” he scratched his brow, “people a lot like Kaden and me. There are some rules, to keep peace and such. I don’t think, coming from Brighton, you’ll have a problem with it… but you’ll need to contribute your skills—”

  Suddenly, four bodies dressed in black, their faces covered in war paint, repelled from the trees and surrounded us.

  “What is this, Memphis?” one guy asked. “You’re not allowed to bring outsiders into camp. Where’s Kaden?”

  “It’s okay. She’s not a threat—” Memphis began.

  Two guys surrounded me and one grabbed my arm. I shrieked, the pain was absolutely unbearable. I tried to call for Memphis when a hand holding some stinky cloth slid over my face. Foggy tunnels lined my vision as my ears throbbed with a dull loud noise. My face slicked over with sweat and the urge to vomit churned my stomach. I crumpled into the strangers arms.

  “She broke her arm, dammit!” Memphis yelled from somewhere. “Don’t touch her.”

  My legs felt spongy. Sweat pooled underneath the brow of the heavy hood.

  Then, when I didn’t want them to, things went dark.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  My body swayed in a soft swinging motion, swaddled tightly. The voices—mostly male—were at first a jumble of noise filtering in my head until I could pick out individual voices. Memphis’ was somewhere close by.

  “Where to?” a man asked above me, his voice deep and rich.

  “Here.” The woman’s deep concern couldn’t be mistaken.

  I peeked one eye open. Something white covered my vision. Afraid they’d put that horrible antiseptic stuff on my nose again, I didn’t dare move. The throbbing in my arm was still there, intense but manageable.

  Through the gauze, I saw a figure holding the bottom end of the cloth hammock that cradled me. I didn’t dare try to see who walked at my head. Memphis and the woman were behind me, speaking in low whispers, difficult to decipher. Shade from trees above
encircled us. The stretching sound of ropes rubbing together all around us puzzled me.

  “Why did Kaden do this now?” she asked. “I’m confused.”

  “It’s a long story. Kaden will have to—”

  “Memphis!” From somewhere up ahead, a deep male voice spoke. The entire entourage stopped. “What is this?”

  “I didn’t do it, sir,” Memphis said, his voice pinched. “Kaden went against orders and—”

  “And you risked bringing her here?” the man asked. His heavy footfalls on what sounded like wood came closer and stopped.

  My body trembled. What would he do to me? Visions of being left alone in the field we’d just come from ran through me like wild fire. Couldn’t they just return me to Brighton?

  “Sorry, Dad,” Memphis said. “She’s hurt and can’t fend for herself—”

  “Where’s Kaden?”

  This was their dad. I gulped in terror and hugged my arms tighter to myself.

  “He’s setting up a decoy in case they come looking—”

  The man groaned. “Of course they’ll come looking for her. You should have left her.” He stood at my feet now, but I didn’t dare look. Tension lay in the air, so thick it swirled around my neck and threatened to choke me. “Does she even want to be here?”

  “No,” I wanted to say, but I didn’t dare speak.

  Fear rippled through me. Not only had I misunderstood about the decoy, Kaden had acted on his own accord. And all I wanted to do now was to rip off the blindfold and beg for safe passage home.

  “Tend to her, Lana,” he spoke softer to her, then his hard edge returned. “I’ll deal with you in private.”

  Once again the entourage began to move. A shudder passed over me, and I didn’t want Memphis to leave my side. He was my lone friend in the midst of these crazed criminals, or was he? Had I blindly believed what Kaden had said? That I would be their leader? How could I have so stupidly gone along with this? My heart raced. Where were they taking me?

  After more swaying and creaking of ropes, the footfalls changed to a harder surface and we entered a dark room. Then the cot was lowered. After much scuffle, a creak of a door swished behind me, embracing me in silence. Voices outside retreated away.