Removing my palm, I tensed, waiting for her to break her promise. Instead, she brought a panicked gloved hand to her mouth, frantically feeling her suit.
“I didn’t break the seal. Your suit’s intact. You haven’t been exposed.” I knew from the First Wave that the people who survived Makanza were permanently infected. It seemed I was one of them now, able to infect those around me. That sudden realization dawned on me like a collapsing house of cards. Will I ever be able to see my mom again?
Oblivious to my epiphany, the soldier doubled over, her panic evident in her harsh breaths.
Hunkering down, I tried to look in her eyes through the goggles. “Please, just tell me where they are. I need to see them.”
“You’re Davin Kinder? The one who’s . . . Changed?”
I nodded curtly, my mouth tightening.
“Your sister’s in tent four.”
My gut clenched. “And my brothers?”
Her head dipped. “I’m sorry. They’re dead. The youngest one died two days ago.”
It felt as if the world rocked underneath my feet. “No!” The whispered statement left my mouth before I bolted upright and flew out the door.
12 – SAYING GOODBYE
The activity outside the tents had increased. Soldiers swarmed all around like flies on a decaying carcass.
I accidentally knocked a few off their feet in my whizzed run by. I didn’t stop to see if they’d realized why they’d fallen.
Find Mina! Just find Mina!
The fourth white tent billowed in front of me. As I had at the first tent, I dropped to the ground and rolled underneath.
Death hung in the air on the other side.
I gagged, bringing a hand up to cover my mouth. The stench was nauseating.
Fear filled my chest, making it hard to breathe. Please don’t let me be too late!
The fact that I would never see my brothers again hadn’t fully set in. Just acknowledging it made grief rise so highly inside me that it felt as if my heart would explode.
Don’t think about that now.
Since all of the activity seemed to be on the outside of the tents, I cautiously pushed to a stand.
Bodies filled half of the beds in front of me.
Most of them had sheets fully covering them. There weren’t any MRRA soldiers around.
Breathing through my mouth to try to bypass the smell, I stepped away from the wall and began combing the aisles.
Some of the beds had feet poking out. Mottled complexions with burst blood vessels lined the dead’s skin. Those that were alive looked minutes away from death. In one bed, a child, probably no older than three, lay so still that I thought he’d already passed. But then his chest rose a few millimeters as a wheezy breath escaped his lips.
An armband covered his wrist. I swallowed tightly. It was Zander Running Bear. I barely recognized him. He was so thin, and his cheeks were hollow, the exact opposite of the chubby toddler I’d last seen only months ago. His mother was a few years older than me. She’d grown up on the reservation. I’d only seen her a few times when we’d visited, but she had loved this boy.
The fact that she wasn’t beside him told me she was probably dead.
Tears pricked my eyes as I hurried to the next bed that still held the living.
This one held a man around my father’s age. He appeared close to death too. A shallow wheeze rattled his chest.
The tears fell then as I gazed down at him. So this is how Dad died. Alone in a tent as death surrounded him.
I blinked back the river that wanted to run down my face. From the sounds building outside, more soldiers were arriving. I didn’t have much time.
Racing from bed to bed, I checked each living’s armband since I was terrified I would walk right past my sister without recognizing her. It wasn’t until I neared the end of the tent that I found her.
She lay deathly still as her dark hair splayed across her pillow.
I dropped to my knees at her side and grasped her hand.
It was cool and limp.
“Mina?” Somehow I managed the word through my thick throat. “Can you hear me?”
She flinched, her brow furrowing slightly.
“Mina?” I called louder.
Her eyelids cracked open.
I expected to see the glassy stare, similar to how Aurora’s eyes had looked in the days before she’d died when she’d been hallucinating around-the-clock. Instead, Mina’s eyes appeared foggy but clear.
“Davin?” Her word was a raw whisper, barely able to be heard.
I squeezed her hand tighter. “Yeah, it’s me.”
“What . . .” Her lids closed. A dry tongue came out to lick her lips. A quiet moan came from her before her eyes opened again. “What’s happening?”
“You’re in the tents. We all got sick.”
“But . . . you . . .” Her lids closed again. “Not sick?”
I squeezed her hand harder. “No, I’m not sick anymore. I . . . Changed.”
Her mouth parted in surprise before a ghost of a smile graced her lips. “You’ll live.”
Hot tears filled my eyes again. They streamed down my face like a cascading waterfall. “Maybe you will too! You’re still alive. Maybe you’ll Change too!”
She weakly shook her head. “No, I won’t. S’okay. Just . . .” Another wheezy breath rattled her chest. “Take care of Mom. She’s . . . alone.”
My heart slammed against my ribs as the truth hit home. It was just me and Mom now, if she was lucky enough to survive the outbreak. For all I knew, she’d caught the virus too. I hadn’t spoken to her in days.
But I couldn’t tell Mina that. The smile that filled my sister’s lips seemed accepting of what was to come, and if believing that Mom and I would survive brought her peace, then that was what I would let her believe.
“Yeah, me and Mom are okay. Don’t worry about us.”
A shout outside the tent made me tense. They were looking for me inside the tents now. I only had minutes until they found me.
“I have to go, Mina, but I wanted to say goodbye. I love you, sister.”
That smile came again as her lids fluttered closed. “Love you . . . too . . . and tell Mom . . .” A long three seconds passed and my heart squeezed, fearing she’d already gone, but then a sudden rise of her chest filled me with hope. “Love Mom too.”
“I’ll tell her, Mina. I promise to tell her that you love her and that you said goodbye.”
The faintest squeeze of her hand was her only response. I leaned up to kiss her on the forehead as a final breath rattled her chest.
My tears fell onto her hair like giant raindrops as her hand fell limp in mine. She was gone. I knew it immediately. It was as though part of her just disappeared.
Squeezing my eyes tightly closed against the terrifying onslaught of what tomorrow would bring, I kissed her one last time before I bolted to a stand as the tent’s door flew open.
“There he is!”
I didn’t know what it was—my sister’s death, the menacing way guns pointed at my face, or the gut-wrenching realization that all of my brothers and sisters were dead—but the world suddenly flashed by me as I dropped to the ground and rolled back outside.
All I knew was that I needed to run.
I needed to escape the reality that was my new life.
Because it was a life so daunting, I didn’t know if I wanted to survive it.
But Mom may still be alive. Move! Find her!
It was the only reason I kept going.
I RAN AND ran and ran. The ground flew beneath me as the world whizzed by. The prairie grass cut into my hands when they skimmed along the surface, but I welcomed the pain, anything to stop the bitter agony that was building inside me.
I’d failed.
I’d failed my entire family.
I hadn’t saved my brothers, sisters, or my dad. I hadn’t kept them safe from the virus. We’d all caught it, and they had all died.
Except for me.
Staying alive was my punishment for how badly I’d failed them. Forever I would live with this grief, with this knowledge that I hadn’t kept them safe.
I fisted my hands tightly against the onslaught of emotions. Thankfully, one coherent thought remained.
Find Mom. Call her. See if she’s alive. She’s all you have left.
Agony ripped through me as I flew toward the horizon. But how am I going to tell her about Mina, Lars, Aurora, and Elliot?
When the bridge to the small town of Mobridge appeared in front of me, I came to a sudden stop. Several empty MRRA trucks were parked beside it.
My harsh breaths filled the air.
The Missouri River flowed calmly beneath the long bridge, not like the tears that still poured down my face. A breeze licked my skin as I stood there while the sun continued to shine. It all appeared so normal. So beautiful.
But the world was anything but. Everything had been turned upside down and inside out. Nothing would be the same again. They’re really gone. They’re really all gone. Dad. Mina. Lars. Elliot. Another sob filled my chest. Aurora.
But my mom could still be alive. I needed to know if she was.
Go to the trucks. They might have a phone.
In another blurred dash, I was at the truck. I wrenched the door open. It ripped off its hinges and crashed to the ground.
What the hell?
I still didn’t know how to control the new strength in me.
Don’t think about that now. Find a phone!
My movements were frantic as I leaped into the cab and searched around. A single satellite phone sat on the dash. A choked sob of gratitude filled me that for once something had gone my way.
With a shaky hand, I picked it up, doing everything I could to keep my newfound strength in check. If I applied too much pressure, the phone would explode in my grasp.
My fingers fumbled on the buttons. It took two attempts before I got the number right.
Three long rings passed before anyone answered.
“Mom?” The single word tore from my throat.
“Davin?” My mom’s voice rose. “Davin, is that you?”
“Oh, Mom . . .” I lost it then. I crumpled onto the seat, the old leather cracking in protest as sobs wracked my shoulders. The phone squeaked menacingly in my grasp. Loosen your grip. Don’t break the phone!
“Oh, sweetie. Where are you? Are you hurt?”
Taking a shaky breath, I tried to calm myself enough to speak. I didn’t know how much time I had. Pull yourself together!
“Davin, sweetie, it’s fine. Just breathe. I’m here. I’ll always be here. Just take a deep breath and tell me what’s going on.”
Her soothing words helped calm the panic shooting through me. “I . . .” I took a deep breath as another sob threatened to choke me. Where do I start?
“Your brothers and sisters?” My mom’s voice was quiet. “Are they with you?”
I squeezed my eyes tightly shut as more tears leaked from the corners. “They’re dead, Mom. Everyone’s dead. Dad, Mina, Lars, Elliot, Aurora. They all died.”
Her muffled cry filled the phone.
I hung my head as the weight of the world pressed down on my shoulders.
“All of them?” she finally asked in a choked voice.
I nodded. “Mina said she loves you. She wanted you to know that. And I was with Aurora when she passed. I held her in my arms. She didn’t die alone.” Hot tears made the world turn into a blur. I raked a hand through my hair again and again. “I’m sorry, Mom. I failed them. I failed you. I should have protected them. I shouldn’t have let them get sick.”
“No!” The word ripped furiously from her mouth. More of her cries poured through the phone before she took a deep, staggering breath. “You did not fail me, Davin, and you did not fail them! I know you did everything you could to help them, but you were put in a position you should have never been in. It will never be your fault. Do you understand that?”
I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. Instead, I covered my face with my hand as sobs shook me.
“Davin, sweetie, I love you. I’ll always love—”
A shout made my head snap up.
My eyes widened.
A group of MRRA soldiers stood near the bridge’s edge. One of them pointed at me.
I hadn’t seen them in my fog-filled state. And just across the bridge, on the other side of the quarantine barrier were America News Network cameramen. They scrambled to a stand as one of them grabbed his camera and pointed it my way.
“Mom, I have to go!” My words sounded choked around the tears. “The soldiers are after me. I’ll call you again when I can.” I snapped the phone closed just as she asked another question.
With a quick leap, I was out of the truck. Where to from here? Behind me was the reservation. In front of me was civilization where healthy people lived.
Healthy people who you can now infect.
I turned back to the reservation with the intention of running when a stinging pain filled my shoulder.
I hissed and grabbed my arm. A feathered dart penetrated my shirt. Horror descended on me as I realized my mistake. I shouldn’t have stopped. I should have kept going.
I wrenched the dart from my shoulder, but it was too late. The soldiers advanced as the world began to swim in and out of focus. When the first one reached for me, I fought him off.
He flew from me like a thrown ragdoll and screamed in pain when he hit the ground. I still didn’t know how to control my new strength.
Another tranquilizing dart pierced my chest. I gritted my teeth as the world began to spin.
“Grab his arms!” one of the soldiers yelled. “Hold him down!”
They descended upon me like ants swarming a hill.
Still, I fought.
My movements were clumsy and grew weaker by the second. I thrashed and stumbled, but the drug swimming through me was too much. I couldn’t fight it.
“Tie him up! Keep him down!”
More grunts and shouts filled the air.
I fell to the ground as the men grabbed my arms and legs. In their white suits and dark goggles, they looked like aliens surrounding me. The last thing I saw before unconsciousness claimed me was the bright sunshine overhead as the world continued to turn.
POUNDING FILLED MY skull, deep throbs in tune with my heartbeat. The steady lub-dub made me groan.
“Open your eyes, Kazzie!” The command was harsh and low. Hatred filled the words.
I snapped my eyes open but immediately winced at the harsh lights above. What the hell? Where am I now?
I was lying down. That much was apparent. But I couldn’t move. I glanced around, and my heart rate increased when I realized my limbs felt frozen. I’m tied down. They’ve tied me down!
I thrashed against the restraints, but it was no use. Even though power flowed through my veins, whatever held me was too strong.
“That’s enough!” the voice yelled.
I darted my head around. Solid concrete walls surrounded me. My eyes widened when I noticed a room a dozen feet away, separated from my cell by only a window. Inside the sheltered room stood a man with his hands clasped behind his back, his stance wide. Gray eyes that looked like a storm at sea narrowed. The man had military written all over him. Buzzed haircut. Crisp uniform.
But the look on his face . . .
I’d never seen hate like that before.
“Where am I?” I croaked.
“Your new home. You were moved here this afternoon after that stunt you pulled on the reservation. I’m Dr. Roberts. I’m in charge here and responsible for your containment.”
“My new home?” Confusion reigned. Everything still felt fuzzy, and my head pounded like a drum.
The man smiled, making me swallow tightly. “That’s right. This is where you live now.”
“I live here?” I was in a bed. White walls and a white ceiling surrounded me. Off to the side was a windowed hall. The windows ran from floor to ceil
ing. Anybody who stood in the hallway could see me. And at the end of the room was that window into the sheltered room—the place where the man stood.
The rest of the room was solid concrete with no windows. A simple desk and chair stood off to the right. I couldn’t be sure, but there appeared to be a bathroom tucked discreetly in the corner.
Revulsion swept through me.
This wasn’t what my life was supposed to be. A month ago, I was in Rapid City, applying for colleges and working construction to save money while my brothers and sisters went to school while living with Mom, doing all of the normal things kids our age did.
Not this.
I swallowed tightly. The simple movement made my head hurt more, but rage boiled up inside me. Dad’s dead, my brothers and sisters are dead, and now this.
My throat constricted as that rage turned to pain. My life is over. But then I remembered my mom. I remembered our call. She’s still alive. She’s still out there. You have to keep going for her.
“What is this place?” I managed to ask in a hoarse voice.
The gray-eyed man behind the window spoke into the microphone. “This is your cell, Kazzie. You’ll live here for the rest of your life since you can never walk free. As an infected Kazzie, you can infect those of us who are healthy. Therefore, you need to be contained.” The man paused, glee filling his eyes. “So as repayment for housing and feeding you for free on the taxpayer dollar, the MRI will use your DNA to study the virus.”
It suddenly dawned on me where I was. “No!” I whispered. “You can’t keep me here!”
Dr. Roberts grinned as he crossed his arms. “Oh yes, I can, and I will. Welcome to your new home, Kazzie—Compound 26.”
COMPOUND 26
Book 1
1 – FIRST DAY
Considering my first day at the Compound fell on the ten-year anniversary of the First Wave, I should have felt driven, purposeful, even proud. Instead, I couldn’t take my eyes off the wall ahead.
The tall, dark wall stood resolutely. Against the azure sky, it looked menacing and bleak. The wall had to be at least twenty feet tall, maybe thirty. It created a perfect square perimeter around the Compound. The only way in was through the gates ahead.
The Complete Makanza Series: Books 0-4 Page 8
