by M. J. Haag
I stood and bolted toward the bathroom, turning scarlet when I noticed Molev sitting up in bed, watching me.
Within the safety of the bathroom, I rinsed my face and tried not to think about what I’d felt waking up in Kerr’s arms like that, what Molev had witnessed, or what the day ahead might bring. However, that didn’t leave me much to think about. So of course, I dwelled on all three until Kerr knocked on the door and told me it was time to go.
When I opened the door, I was alone in the room. The jeans from the night before waited on the dresser. Instead of changing into them, I kept the sweats on. Maybe they would remind me of my mom status and my need to chill my libido.
None of the fey looked at me differently when I walked downstairs, but I sure as hell felt different around them. Last night’s pussy exchange had proven that they were worse than women when it came to sharing what went on in private. And, I was sure most of them already knew I’d just test rode Kerr like a pony.
I tried to keep my focus on the day ahead and took a helping of oatmeal from the small pot on the stove. Molev sat across from me. My mortification flamed in my cheeks.
“Good morning, Cassie.”
“Morning. How are the stitches?” I hoped to divert any uncomfortable questions by bringing up a safer topic first.
“They itch.”
He pulled back the sleeve of his shirt to show me a set of twenty-two on his forearm. The skin looked a healthy grey that matched his face.
“Based on Ghua’s stitches, we should be able to remove them in six days. We’ll watch the skin, and if it looks like it’s starting to grow over, we’ll cut them out earlier.”
“Good.” He set a map on the table. It showed Parsons in all its small-town glory. “Will you show us the route we’ll take today?”
I studied the map for a moment and pointed to the address Lee had given me the night we left.
“I think coming down 59 from the north will be less risky than trying to come in from the east. East is where the majority of the stores are.” It was also where my home was.
He grunted and looked at the map.
“This is all houses,” I said, circling my finger. “Train tracks almost split the town in half, and there’s more houses on the other side.”
“We will stop the truck here and go in on foot.” He looked up at the map, and I found the other two wounded fey just behind me.
“Bauts. Azio. You will stay with the truck. Choose three others to guard it with you.”
They grunted their acknowledgement and walked off. I wolfed down the rest of my breakfast, not wanting to be the one to hold things up.
Kerr took the bowl from me and placed it in the sink.
“Are you ready to find your son?” he asked when he turned to face me.
I nodded, too afraid to speak, and followed him outside. Most of the fey were already out in the yard, which had turned into a churned mess of dirt, snow, and blood. I hurried to the truck and found a fresh bottle of water and more snacks waiting for me.
“Be sure to eat and drink as much as you can before we get there. We cannot take anything into town.”
“I will.” I climbed into my seat, and Kerr closed the door.
For better or for worse, today was the day I’d learn my son’s fate.
* * * *
Squatted in my position behind an abandoned car, I peered over the ledge of snow that dusted the window. A group of infected shuffled our way down the center of the road. My hands shook, and the need to laugh like a madwoman warred with the need to cry. We weren’t even in town yet. This was one of the suburbs on the outskirts. How were we ever going to get through all of the infected?
The warm, steady presence of Kerr’s hand on my back was the only thing keeping me in place. While Kerr and I hid behind the car, many of the fey were spread out, standing still beside trees or a few houses. The infected didn’t seem to notice the big, grey men as long as they were quiet and didn’t move.
I swallowed hard and watched the first group of infected pass the bumper of the car so closely they could have smelled me if they had any sense of smell.
It wasn’t until half of the dozen infected had passed the car that the fey made their move. In a rush, the fey swarmed the infected. A tossed head hit the siding of a nearby house. The thunk echoed in the cold along with the shuffle and scrape of the brief struggle.
When silence reined again, a pile of headless bodies lay in the road. Some weird part of me wondered just how long it would remain there. Probably forever.
As soon as Molev gave the signal, I straightened away from the car and made a dash for the next protective object. Molev and Kerr stayed close to me.
Sprint by sprint, cover by cover, we slowly progressed through the northernmost houses. The further in we drew, the more infected we saw. The smarter the infected seemed, too.
One stopped shuffling and looked at a fey standing beside a tree. It let out a low moan, stopping the other nearby infected. The fey dealt with them quickly before they could draw more infected in. However, that the fey had been noticed meant we had to move slower so every fey could find cover as well.
When the number of infected grew too many to avoid, we broke into a house and waited a few minutes for the group to pass. I looked at the blood-spattered walls and could vividly imagine the horrors that had happened here. It probably hadn’t been much different from what had happened in my neighborhood.
One Hound. One bite. One neighborhood at a time. It had probably taken the hound less than an hour to pepper Parsons with the first string of infected that, in turn, continued to spread the disease like wildfire. I remembered hearing screams and seeing Mrs. Hestel wander around outside afterward. I’d almost opened the door for her, but the way she’d moved and the way her arm had hung oddly at her side had made me hesitate. And, in that moment of hesitation, the sound of the knob jostling in my hand had been enough to draw her attention. The sight of her milky-white, clouded eyes had brought the reality of the situation home. That had been the moment I’d known nothing would be okay ever again.
Kerr held me securely as we left the house with the rest of the fey. I quietly pointed which way we needed to go next. It wasn’t far now. Although I knew the address and general location of Lee’s girlfriend, I had never driven by and had no idea what her house looked like. Seeing a large apartment building in place of a house at the address he’d given almost broke me. There were only so many places to hide in a small apartment.
Swallowing down my fears, I brought my lips close to Kerr’s ear.
“That’s the building we need.”
Kerr motioned to the others. The first group of fey went inside, and I waited with my heart racing. The men all knew what we were looking for. An infant. I’d explained that Caden would be smaller than Timmy. The fey had never seen one smaller and had promised if they found an infected that small, they would not take its head off. They would bring it to me. Just thinking of what they might bring made me want to throw up.
Instead of emerging with a tiny, infected infant, a fey stuck his arm out a window and waved us in. Kerr dashed forward along with the rest.
Inside, bloody handprints smeared the walls. Some apartment doors stood open. Others were closed and needed to be kicked in.
Apartment by apartment, the fey searched for infected. They found a few hiding in the open apartments. Three guys and two women. As I watched the heads being removed, I wondered if one of the women might be Lee’s girlfriend. I still remembered the excitement in his eyes when he told me her name. Dawnn—with two n’s—like it made her even more special. It was wrong to hate someone I’d never met. But, I did.
It wasn’t until the second apartment on the third floor that I found what I was looking for. Not in the form of a body but in the form of a picture. A picture of Caden, taken when he was six months old, lay on the counter, the edges slightly worn.
I snatched up the photo and stared at it with shaking hands.
“This
is it. Her apartment.”
The fey checked everywhere on the third floor but found no sign of Lee or my son.
I sat on a kitchen chair and struggled not to cry.
“I knew this could be a possibility. That I’d get here and find nothing.” I stared at the picture of my son and let the grief wash through me. He was gone. I was lucky to even have the picture I held. I cried for a moment then tried to let go of my pain. I had a daughter who needed me. I needed to move on. I knew it.
“May I see the picture?” Molev asked.
I handed over my precious memory and wiped my face. The fey gathered around and stared unblinkingly at Caden’s image.
“He is very small,” Kerr said, taking the picture from Molev.
“They come out even smaller,” I said. “Between six to eight pounds is the average. Caden was seven pounds and three ounces. About this big.” I moved my arms like I was holding a newborn. The move just intensified my pain. I knew it wouldn’t last forever. That the soul crushing weight of grief would lift by degrees with each passing day. Knowing that didn’t help, though. I hugged my arms around myself.
“They are so helpless at first. So perfectly dependent and in need of love. And, they give it in return with each tiny movement.”
“Where should we go now, Cassie?” Molev asked.
“Back to the truck, I guess.” The pain in my chest overwhelmed me, and I struggled to breathe through my silent tears.
“We are not done looking for your son or husband,” Kerr said.
I lifted my tear-streaked face up to find a room full of fey nodding in agreement.
“There is much left to check.”
He held out his hand, a lifeline to escape my pain.
Chapter Fourteen
“If they are not here, where else would they go?” Molev asked.
“I don’t know. I knew nothing about Lee’s relationship with his girlfriend.”
“Most humans would try to run away from the infected,” Kerr said. “They would go somewhere they thought safe.”
I considered the places Lee might consider safe and came up blank. I tried a different angle. If Lee got it in his head that Parsons wasn’t safe anymore and wanted to leave, what would he do first? I needed to keep in mind that he had our infant son with him.
“I think he would try to go to our house,” I said. “Not because it’s safe but because he only had an overnight bag for Caden. Babies need way more than a mostly empty formula container and a change of clothes. And, our house is on the way out of town.”
“Which direction?” Molev asked.
“East, toward the business district.”
Molev grunted.
Kerr picked me up, and we began the retreat from the building.
It was another hour of playing hide and seek with the infected before I noticed something odd. Every herd of infected that we had come across since leaving the apartment had been heading east with us. Why?
I watched the next group of infected move past then tapped on Kerr’s shoulder. He leaned down so I could whisper in his ear.
“They’re all going in the same direction,” I said.
The wind gusted from the east, and for a moment, I thought I heard talking.
I knew I wasn’t the only one to hear it when the fey veered toward a house with a fenced-in yard, somewhere safe to speak quietly.
“What was that?” I whispered once we were inside the home.
“It sounded like a human speaking,” Molev said.
My heart started to thump faster. No way in hell did I think that Lee was dumb enough to be out there broadcasting his whereabouts. But, it was someone. And there was a slim chance that someone might know what happened to Lee and Caden. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to trust any information we obtained, though.
“Who would be that stupid? Anyone still alive has to know that infected are drawn to sound,” I said.
“And light,” Kerr added.
I wished he’d kept that to himself. As soon as I had that thought, I mentally slapped myself. No. I needed to know all the dangers. Even if it jacked up my level of terror. How else could I keep Lilly safe?
“I need three volunteers to scout ahead,” Molev said.
I shook my head. “If it’s humans, we should stick together. The humans here won’t know about you. One glimpse, and they’ll run in terror. Or worse, they’ll have guns and try shooting you. They should see you with me so I can vouch for you, and we can hopefully avoid both situations.”
Molev grunted and motioned for the door. I figured that was an agreement when the fey began leaving the house.
The sun rose higher in the sky as we slowly progressed east. Above the continuing sounds of the voice, I heard the murmur of infected groans and the occasional pop. Why would people draw the infected toward their location?
Molev signaled something. One moment we were running between houses almost to the edge of town. The next, the fey were jumping onto rooftops. Kerr crouched low with me and together we peered over the roof. Through the barren trees, I saw a legion of infected and the humans purposely drawing them in.
A barbed wire fence, strung at least ten feet high, ran north to south along Pratt Road, cutting off our way to my house. Infected were tangled in the lower wires, creating more of a barrier for the ones behind them. Beyond the first line of fence, another one ran parallel on the opposite side of the road.
Between the wired lines, a group of people, armed to the teeth, sat on top of a tank. A man with a megaphone was speaking to the infected, telling them to come closer if they wanted a bite of human.
“This doesn’t make sense,” I said softly, wedged between Molev and Kerr. “Why would people trap themselves like that?”
“They are not trapped.” Molev pointed north and south. “They are on the road and can leave as soon as they have all the infected where they want them.”
“But why do they want infected there?”
He grunted then slid off the roof without another word. No one else moved to leave, though. Focusing on the road, I counted the humans. There were at least two dozen. All armed with rifles. One man, located beside the megaphone guy on top of the tank, had something bigger. That weapon looked like a mini-cannon.
A minute later, Molev returned to the roof. He held several ball caps.
“Shax, Tor, Gyirk. Will you go with Kerr and protect Cassie while she tries to talk to these humans?”
They nodded, and he handed them each a hat.
“Keep her safe,” he said before looking at me. “The rest of us will be close.”
Kerr slipped the hat on over his head. It didn’t do much to disguise him. He still looked very fey to me. I gently tucked the tips of his ears underneath the hat and used his hair to cover them as well. When I looked at his eyes, they were dilated again. A flush crept into my cheeks at how much he seemed to really like it whenever I touched him.
“It makes you look more human,” I said. “Tucking the ears in.”
The other three did the same.
Without any warning, Kerr scooped me up and jumped from the roof. He landed with a soft thud, and I looked around, fearing a random infected spotting us. But I needn’t have worried. Other fey were fanning out around us, creating a widening circle of safety.
Kerr ran with me toward the road with Shax, Tor, and Gyirk close by. Molev and the rest split off and disappeared between the houses before we passed the final home.
Trees dotted the side of the road, nothing that offered any real protection.
“We can’t get too close,” I said softly. “The infected are going to hear us.”
“No,” Kerr said, “they will see us. You will need to speak quickly when we’re close enough.”
He continued forward. Any infected shambling on the road, the fey killed but not with their usual style. They didn’t toss the heads they ripped off, in their typical display of strength. Instead, the fey pushed each body so head and body fell to the ground at the same t
ime. With how quickly they moved, no one would know how they were killing the infected. That the fey knew to be more subtle with their strength around new humans surprised me.
I started waving my arms to gain the attention of the armed men when we were within 500 feet of the fence.
“What do we have here?” Megaphone-Man blared. “Actual survivors? Welcome to our little gathering. You might have a hard time joining us, though.” He chuckled like he was the funniest thing on Earth.
Kerr’s hand twitched on my leg, and I patted his back, my attention not wavering from the man with the megaphone. With the man still watching us, I gestured at the infected then shrugged to indicate I had no idea how to get around the infected he’d gathered.
“You’ll need to head south. It’ll take you at least a mile to catch up to the guys laying out the fence. And you better not lead any infected to them. They got work to do, and saving your asses isn’t on their list.”
While I considered heading south as he suggested, I heard the sound of an engine coming from the north. My gaze tracked the sound and found our supply truck coming down the road between the fences.
“Looks like Tom-man found us another vehicle to use to gather supplies. Good timing.”
I watched the truck come to a stop near the tank. A young man hopped out, a dark knit cap covering most of his blonde hair.
“You are not going to believe the shit I found,” he said loudly enough that we heard, too. “Not only is this truck half full of supplies, but I also knocked out four aliens to steal it.”
“Bullshit,” Megaphone-Man said. “Are you taking something again? We need you alert, not high.”
How had he gotten the truck? There was no way a single human had stood up to four fey.
“They’re not aliens,” I yelled, gaining their attention and the attention of the infected at the back of the horde crowding the fence.
“And those supplies are ours.”
The guy with the megaphone laughed.
“If they were yours, they’re not yours anymore. And how dumb are you to shout with infected around?”
A few of the infected broke away from the group and started to shamble our way. I started talking fast like Kerr had suggested.
