EVOLVED

by Jessica Gomez

  “Fuck. Lil?” I’m awake, can hear and see, but can’t get my appendages to do what I want them to. “Move your foot a bit.” I try my best to do what he asks. “There we go. Come on, babe.” Fingers wrap around my ankle and my body begins to slowly drag across the ground. “I got you. Almost there.” Asher finally gets me close enough to place me in his lap. Our chains make it a tight fit, but it’s enough to have him close. I feel safer. He twists my hair away from my neck and cusses.

  What’s wrong with me? I want to ask, but my lips aren’t forming the words correctly, leaving me unintelligible. I’m having a reaction from Jeff’s bite. I only pray that that baby has no residual side effects.

  “Lil, stay with me.” Asher taps my cheek, bringing around my awareness. “Drink this.” He tips my head back and cool water begins to touch my lips. I gulp down several mouthfuls before Asher pulls it away. “Easy. You don’t want to choke.” He gives me a moment to breathe, then tips the container back against my lips. Once the water is empty, he sets it to the floor. He reaches up and pulls my eyes lips open, studying my pupils, checking for signs of infection.

  The water has loosened my lips as words are finally able to break free. “I feel drunk. Waisted off my assssss.” My words are discombobulated. Asher’s features begin to swim in and out of focus. Tears are suddenly glistening in my eyes. “Thank you for being my friend,” I blurt out.

  This statement makes him chuckle, despite the seriousness of the situation. “You’re welcome.” His smile is large, but slips moments later as he meets my eyes. “Same to you, you know. You keep me going. Keep reminding me that I’ve got to get out of here and find my family.”

  I reach up, my arm flopping back and forth, patting him on the cheek. “I’ll get us both out of here.”

  He places his hand over mine, holding it to his bearded face. “I sure hope you’re right.”

  I relax back into him, my muscles turning to mush as my mind begins to drift. My head is hazy, jumbled, only small snippets of voices are in the background. Growling sounds. The word mine echoes in my ears before the warm body beneath me disappears. Skin on skin contact only feet to my right, but I can’t open my eyes to watch. Who’s fighting? Confusion settles in and I let it, let the darkness take over. Weightlessness is the last sensation that overtakes me as I lose the battle with consciousness.

  ~~~~~

  My body is heavy, impossible to move, but my awareness grows by the second. A large hand covers my growing belly, as a soft voice whispers against my ear.

  I mutter.

  “Shh. Calm,” the voice whispers, but I don’t sense a breath against my skin.

  Confusion swims because I don’t recognize the voice. The deep timbre informs me it’s male, but it’s not Asher. No one else in the cave speaks. I wiggle around, testing my limbs, but whimper when the arms around me tighten. My fight or flight instinct is crawling to the surface, but I know escaping is out of reach because I can still feel the chain wrapped around my ankle.

  “Calm. No fight.” His English is choppy, as if he’s just learning the language. He pulls my hair to the side and drags his warm wet tongue across my shoulder, against the bite.

  I whimper, remembering.

  One arm pulls me to him, while the other massages my stomach, ignoring my panic. The flipping and fluttering in my belly is growing by the day. The baby remained silent during the first few months, only to grandstand now, pushing back against anyone’s touch.

  Purring sounds over my shoulder as he feels the baby. “Keep safe. You. Baby. Mine.”

  The words snap me back to reality, the last of the haze drifting out of my body. Jeff. He’s the one behind me. But how the hell is he talking? I glance around the room, finding everyone around us sleeping. The only noise is our heavy breathing. “What?” I ask quietly, sitting up to look at him.

  “Mine. Hungry?” he asks.

  His vocabulary is twice the size it was before I fell asleep. “Hungry?” I repeat the question. I know what he’s offering, but he never spoke the request.

  “Yes. Hungry?”

  The action draws my attention to his lips. They’re not moving. “Do we have fish?” My words are shaky, already knowing the answer before he speaks again.

  “Yes.” He nods, reaching behind us and pulling out an already cooked and flayed fish.

  His lips remain immobile. I can hear him, but he’s not speaking. My heart’s beating as fast as a hummingbird’s wings, fluttering my stomach. The tickling sensation has Sweet Pea doing flips again. My breathing is slow but harsh. Why can I hear you? This time, I ask silently.

  He reaches out to me and traces the sensitive bite mark on my shoulder. “Bite. Made you mine,” he silently says, letting me know I’m not crazy.

  I reach up for the first time and touch the bite mark left behind. The wound is still tender, but not bleeding. My mouth hangs open in shock. I have no idea what to say or how to approach this situation. Nothing could prepare me for being able to hear Jeff talk to me. I’m barely grasping the fact that the infected can talk at all.

  Color drains from my face when the next thought runs through my mind. Will I be able to hear the rest of them too? Wanting the answer, I look to Jeff and ask just that. “Can I hear the others?” Using our telepathic communication is uncomfortable and too intimate, so I ask the question out loud.

  He shakes his head, but since he can talk better through our thoughts, that’s where his communication remains. “No.”

  My heart is still racing, but curiosity is getting the better of me. “You can speak better.”

  He nods again and smirks. “Yes.” This time, the word is out loud.

  “How?” I’m putting things together, but this scenario is so farfetched, its making me dizzy.

  “You talk here.” He points to his head.

  If he understands and I can finally hear him, I want to know. “Why did you take me? Why am I here? Can I go home?”

  His eyes cloud with my three questions. “No. Mine.” He looks at my belly and then back to me. “Bed. No talk.”

  He lays us down, much like we were before, but my head is racing with unanswered questions. Sleep eludes me with each passing minute as I puzzle out this enigma. There are patches of silence when I’m left alone with my own thoughts, and then there are times when I can hear Jeff speaking clear as day. I don’t have a clue as to why his bite would connect us this way. Possibly something in his saliva? The thought is equally interesting, unbelievable, and frightening as hell. Throughout the night he speaks to me, trying to calm me to sleep. It seems that the only time he can hear my thoughts are if they’re directed to him, and vice versa. Otherwise we’re left in our own heads. I’ve also noticed that when Jeff speaks to me, whether silently or out loud, my Sweet Pea responds. Jeff’s focus is on me, but the baby is a close second. Even before I knew I was pregnant, he scented me, making me wonder if he knew the entire time. Perhaps the main purpose of my kidnapping? Does he want me and the baby, or is he going to dispose of me once my baby is born?

  “Shh. Sleep,” he whispers in my ear.

  My body stiffens, but my eyelids are extremely heavy, pulling me toward sleep. When he speaks the words, it dawns on me that his verbal and silent voices sound completely different. His spoken voice is gruff and harsh, intimidating. Silently, he sounds like the man under the infection, the Jeff before the Flash. Is he still human somewhere inside of himself? My heart’s crushing at the possibilities. Could we get the humans inside the infected back? We’ve killed so many before we understood. Dane took his own life for what the infection turned him into. Could we have gotten him back too?

  “Why do you want me?” Exhaustion is causing the words to come out slurred.

  A warm, wet sensation touches my shoulder before he speaks. “You, mine. Baby, mine.” He nuzzles my hair and pulls me closer.

  My heart begins to break as darkness closes around me. My mind and body are betraying the inner voice that’s shouting at them to stay awake, to f
ind a way to escape. Pregnancy is draining, making me weaker, and more tired than normal. Even if I wanted to move, I don’t think I could with my exhaustion claiming me.

  Guilt consumes me for my weaknesses. “I’m sorry.” The apology’s meant for Sweet Pea and Azami, Ian, James, and the rest of my family.

  I’m failing them.

  Chapter 13

  Ian

  My pack is heavy on my shoulders as I take my first step into the frigid air. There’s only about a foot of snow remaining, with some of the wildlife returning as winter’s hold begins to lose its grip. My heart is fluttering with hope that I’m trying to control. James may have had a vision, but that doesn’t guarantee that I’ll get her back.

  “You ready?” Mason slaps my back as he walks past me, heading to our first search area.

  “Absolutely.” I’ve doubled up my socks, so blisters will stay at bay. Michael advised wearing additional clothing because of the severity of my frostbite.

  “Let’s get going. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover today.” Mason heads out in front of me, leading the way.

  Before we left, we mapped out the areas we’d be searching. We’re traveling to the west, places that Mason has already searched, but double checking with my sixth sense. When Lillie’s at the caves, I can sense her within the entire system, no matter where she spends her day. At times when she’s sending out stronger emotions, I can sense her from farther distances. We’re hoping to get lucky, stumble on something that will point us in the right direction.

  Once we get past the areas on the west side that he’s already searched, we’re moving down to the riverbank and following the stream down a couple miles, checking for any tracks. Our best guess is that they’re using rivers, ponds, or lakes to get their food. Larger game tend to roam the lower lands with less snow to forage, leaving the infected with fish as an alternative. Their kind can travel rapidly, the snow not hindering their escape, seeming impenetrable by the cold. Even as that thought crosses my mind, something tells me he’s stuck close to the lands he’s familiar with, especially with the snowfall blanketing the ground. When the snow melts completely, we may have to rethink our search. They may be grounded now, but that will all be over when the snow melts and movement is once again possible.

  “What’re you thinking about?” Mason glances over his shoulder.

  We’re trudging down the mountain, my sixth sense only picking up Mason’s frustrations from all his previous unsuccessful searches. “A lot,” I answer honestly.

  Mason snorts a laugh. “You got that right, brother.”

  “I’m eager to find her, worried about what I’ll find when I do, worried about her state of mind, what’s happened to her while she’s away, whether the baby is okay. There’s so many things running through my head, it’s hard to wrap my mind around one thought at a time. At least being out here is helping my pent-up frustrations. I’m finally able to do something about it.”

  Mason slows his steps for a moment and turns to me. “Don’t overwhelm yourself. Overthinking is going to drive you crazy. Deal with what’s before us now, and that’s finding her. Once we do that, then we’ll worry about everything else. One thing at a time.” He turns back around and begins to lead us the last few feet to the water’s edge. “I don’t want to cross over the river unless we have to. The water is too cold to step through and would hinder our efforts. You watch the bank on the other side for signs of life, I’ll track this side. We’ll move down the river about two miles today and then sweep back up the mountain to cover the hills on our way back. Tomorrow, we’ll do the same thing, but on the other side of the river. Work our way around the east side of the mountain. This will give our perimeter another two miles. After that, we’ll regroup and figure out if we want to continue down the river or look in other directions.”

  I nod, even though he can’t see me. It’s a solid plan. There’s only two of us searching this way, in a sweeping motion, which will give us the best results. Plus, now that I’m out here with him, I’ll sense her before we pass the area. The river is our best starting point. Honestly, I don’t think they’re next to the river, the water’s too fast. To catch fish in the river, they’d probably have to enter the water, which is too cold in the winter months. They may have a tolerance against cold weather, but the freezing water is a completely different story.

  As we walk, I mention my line of thinking to Mason, who agrees. “I think our focus after the river should be the surrounding lakes and ponds. Water that’s more stagnant.”

  “The other thing we need to consider is that they may not eat fish. They could be surviving off something else completely,” Mason suggests. “I’m hoping we’re right, but we don’t really know enough about the new infected to make a snap judgement. We need to keep our minds open, in case they move in another direction.”

  “They have to eat,” I mention, hashing out some of our questions. “They’ve attacked other humans and eaten them since the beginning, but we also know they eat fish and wildlife too. The smarter ones like Jeff, have the capability of hunting, but not knowing their full potential is frustrating. They’ve surpassed anything I thought I knew about them. I’m not putting it past them to function more like humans than infected now. When he came to the cave and attacked us, their plan was thorough. He used Azami against Lillie because he knew she was her weak spot. Only a sophisticated being, infected or not, can plan an attack of that magnitude.”

  “I try approaching the situation by placing myself in his position. My first objective would be to get Lillie far enough away from us that we wouldn’t stumble on her. Keep hunkered down for the winter. Since most of the wildlife is scarce, I’d use fishing as a method to collect food. He’d require shelter.” He pauses for a moment, thinking. “I’m not sure if he’s with other infected or taken Lil somewhere alone. Humans and animals alike all have a pack mentality. More than likely, they’re huddled together someplace. They require a shelter large enough for at least a handful of people. Unfortunately for us, we’re in the mountains, and there’s about a million and one places to hide.”

  “I agree, but if we’re following our own guidelines, would they stay where they are after the snow melts, or move to another location to get farther away?” I ask, praying they stay put.

  “The same question crossed my mind,” Mason states. “Let’s hope they stay where they are, but Jeff has to know we’re going to come looking for her. Which makes me think he may move again as soon as the snow’s gone.”

  We remain quiet as we follow the river down two miles, and then wrap back around toward the west to finish our perimeter search. We stop a few times to rest and munch on the food Sarah packed for us. My feet and muscles are damn sore after walking all day. My emotional senses are overloading with frustration, from not only myself, but Mason too. We’d spent a better part of twelve hours out walking and searching every inch of the forest on the west side of the mountain. Tomorrow we’d wake up and follow the same pattern, but to the east. I can sense she’s not out here. She’s much farther from me than the west side of the mountain. If only I had a four-wheeler to cover these lands, I’d find her much quicker.

  When I return home, Azami is waiting for me in the kitchen. I’ve already cleaned myself up before heading in to find her. Jen volunteered to keep her busy during the day while I went out to search for her mother. It seems like every eye in the room turns to me, hope shining bright, and then snuffed out as they read the melancholy on my face.

  Still nothing.

  When I finish eating and clean Azami up, she wraps her little arms around my neck and buries her face. She begins patting my back as I walk down the hall to get ready for bed. The day has worn me out, and Azami seems just as ready for sleep. She forfeits her bed and decides to curl up next to the wall on her mother’s side. I stand there, staring at her for what feels like hours, before crawling into bed next to her.

  She turns to me immediately, the blanket pulled up to her chin, tired eyes half close
d as they stare back at me. “I miss Mommy,” she whispers. “The flowers are too far away. I want her home now.” Her lower lip begins to tremble.

  “I do too, Pumpkin. Come here.” I pull her against me, never wanting to let go, when I realize what she said. “What do you mean, the flowers are too far away?”

  “Uncle James says we get her back. When I watched in here.” She points to her head. “She comes back when the flowers are on the ground.”

  This girl. She’s too intuitive for her own good. “You’re listening in again, are you? What have I told you about intruding on people like that?”

  A hint of a smile lifts her tired face. “Uncle James says it’s okay for me to do it to him anytime I want. I asked, Daddy.” Her eyes take on a wide-eyed glitter look, guaranteeing she’ll talk her way out of anything.

  I chuckle before answering. “If you ask first, I guess that’s okay. Now get some sleep. I’m going to look for Mommy again tomorrow.”

  “Can I come to look for Mommy too?” Her question twists my heart.

  “No, baby. It’s too cold outside, and Uncle Mason and I walk too much for you to keep up with us. I’ll try not to stay out so late this time,” I tell her. Today got away from me. I wanted so badly to find a clue, only to come up empty.

  “Okay,” she breathes out, sleep beginning to take her under.

  I scooch her back over to her side of the bed so I can get up and stoke the small fire we have warming our room. The warm water running through the veins of the cave keep the rooms relatively warm, but a fire makes it perfectly livable. Once I’m done, I crawl back under the blankets, hoping that Lillie and the baby are somewhere warm.

  Chapter 14

  Lillie

  I wake with a groan. Rolling over, I try to sit up, but fail on my first couple attempts.