From the Shadows

by Jacqueline Brown

  Ten

  “Helicopter,” I said, as terror overwhelmed me.

  Jonah blinked toward the sky. None of them understood. None of them heard as I did.

  “Where are our weapons?” I yelled.

  “There,” Ash said, pointing to a shack beside Mrs. Pryce’s.

  In the summers, this sound had filled my evenings. They had come almost every night to practice their maneuvers and pursuits. The speedboats raced through the salt water, pretending to flee, and from the air they would be chased and encircled as if they were the enemy. Then, I had found the massive, hovering machines impressive. I had felt a sense of safety, knowing the government was practicing ways to protect me.

  Now I felt terror as the long blades of the green camouflaged helicopter became visible above the trees. It slowed above the town and then hovered above the lake, pushing the cattails down, spraying the precious water into the air. The trees were thinnest by the quarantine huts. Huts that were barely strong enough to withstand the wind from the blades, let alone an attack.

  We sprinted now, out of town, passing the girl shaking in silence with Astrea in her arms. “Stay here,” I yelled over the racket of the blades.

  As we neared the clearing of the sick huts, Blaise and Josh called out, stopping us from going beyond the cover of the trees. I tossed Blaise her gun. The ground trembled from the noise of this machine that I hadn’t heard in months and had never been so close to. I thanked God that the trees were there, blocking any attempts at landing. The quarantine shacks were clearly visible. Sara and her family did not come out, and I prayed the roof would not collapse on top of them.

  Behind us East, Jael, and Ash approached. Their weapons were drawn as they too, hid beneath the trees. Beyond Blaise, a man with short hair and dark skin appeared. I turned from him. The helicopter was coming in lower. It had two sets of blades, but it carried only the pilot and one other man.

  “What do they want?” I yelled to Jonah.

  His face told me he didn’t know; his eyes told me he was as worried as I was. The machine dipped low. The front of my hair whipped violently in the wind. I placed my arm above my eyes to try and shield them from the wind and debris.

  The machine rose and the wind calmed. It circled around our hill. The sound began to fade as the helicopter moved on to the north. My body shuddered as I allowed the fear I had been suppressing to escape. Jonah pulled me to him. His arm wrapped around me as if he needed me as much as I needed him. He kissed the top of my head and loosened his arm. I wanted to slide to the ground to huddle against the tree, but I refused to allow the fear to control me.

  The silent woods erupted into crashing as the people from town ran toward us. Mrs. Pryce was one of the last to make her way from town. She could not run. The group opened to allow her to come to the center.

  From her spot beside Mrs. Pryce, Becca asked, “Did they make contact with you? We could see they came low, but couldn’t tell how low that was.”

  “No,” East answered.

  “How many were there?” Mrs. Pryce asked.

  “Just two,” Ash answered. “The pilot and one other.”

  “What do you think they wanted?” Mrs. Pryce asked, her voice thoughtful and calm.

  “They saw our fires and wanted to know what was here,” the dark man with the short hair answered.

  “Haz?” I asked when I heard his voice.

  Mrs. Pryce gazed at him. “I like the haircut, Detective.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He nodded.

  “Is that you? You are so cute!” Blaise said, reaching out to touch Haz’s smooth cheeks.

  He winked at her.

  Josh nudged his wife, “Should I leave you two alone?”

  “Oh, he is so cute. He even has dimples! You know I love dimples,” Blaise said to Josh.

  “Yeah, yeah, he’s dreamy,” Josh said. “Seriously, if you keep talking about how attractive every other guy is, I’m going to get a complex.”

  “You’re cute too, sweetie,” she said, taking his scruffy face in her hands and kissing him in a teasing way.

  “Can we focus?’ Jael said in irritation. “Why did they come here? What is their goal?”

  “They’re coming to expand,” I answered, surprised by the sound of my own voice.

  Everyone stared at me.

  “What?” Jonah said.

  “It’s what Trent told me. Once DC is organized and under their control, they will move out beyond the beltway to the rest of the country.”

  Haz stepped forward, “That makes sense. We are between DC and Camp David. This is a natural place for expansion.”

  “Wait. Camp David is near here?” Blaise asked.

  “I didn’t know that either, until going over the maps,” East said. “But yeah, it’s a few miles northwest of us.”

  Silence settled on our group, and in the emptiness of the moment, a memory of Trent invaded my mind. It wasn’t of terror or violence. It was mid-November. We went for a run in Central Park. The leaves were already on the ground. The sun was setting, and rather than run in front of me, as he usually did, he slowed his pace to match mine. Staying beside me throughout the park. That evening he’d kissed me on the cheek as I made dinner, a gesture of kindness. A gesture that had caused me to imagine a future of peace and happiness with him beside me.

  My body shivered. I wanted no memories of my time with him, not the good, or the bad. I wanted to move forward as if the past had never happened, but that was impossible.

  Jonah squeezed my hand. “Are you okay?” he whispered.

  “Yes,” I lied.

  “What is their next move?” Mrs. Pryce asked, to no one in particular.

  Jonah’s hand tightened around mine. “They will ask for our guns,” he said.

  “In exchange for food and medicine,” East added.

  Mrs. Pryce shifted her gaze to the hut where Faith and Sage lay. “Food is not needed. Medicine is,” she said stoically.

  “But at what cost?” Haz said.

  “What?” Becca asked.

  “At what cost will the medicine come? What will you lose to gain it?” Haz asked.

  Mrs. Pryce spoke, “Can any cost be too much to save a life?”

  “I suppose that is a question for each of us to answer,” Haz said, “But when I think about this country, I think of those who died so it could live.”

  “What does that have to do with our needing medicine?” Becca asked, frustration evident in her voice.

  “We are at a point of decision, much like I would think the founding men and women were,” Haz replied in an even tone. “What sort of country do we create, or more accurately, do we allow to be created? There are many in DC who are creating a vision for our nation. That vision is not my vision. And it is not what I believe our founding brothers and sisters gave their lives for. It is not what our military and police officers gave their lives for over the centuries, and it is not what I will give my life for now. If they come here, I would urge you each to think about what you want for those that will come after you. Is it a society where the strong are valued and the weak are not? Because at some point, each of us has been weak and we will be weak again. Is our value only when we are twenty-five and physically agile and mentally strong, or do we hold value at other stages of life as well?”

  Haz’s words were thoughtful in a way I had never heard him speak before, and yet somehow, they were familiar, as if I expected him to say them. He was a leader, a true leader, one who served first and asked nothing of others that he wasn’t first giving himself.

  “So,” Ash said, “what are you suggesting?”

  Haz stood taller. “I am suggesting that each of us needs to decide for ourselves what we want and what we value, not just for our lives in this moment, but for the future of our nation. A nation that was once great and can be again.”

  He sounded more like a senator or a president than a cop.

  “And if they don’t care to leave?” Mrs. Pryce asked.

 
; For the first time, I heard fear in her voice.

  Haz folded his arms and said, “Then, we fight or we run. But we don’t bow to them and we don’t join them.”

  Eleven

  Jonah and I went to the door, followed by Josh and Blaise. I tapped on the wall of the hut. Sara came to the door. Her transformation was overwhelming.

  “Was that a helicopter?” she asked, her eyes glazed over.

  We nodded. She didn’t care about the helicopter, but the truth was that in this moment I did. If I had seen her before the helicopter, I would have flagged them down and given whatever they asked for in exchange for medicine that would save the ones she loves.

  “How are your mom and sister?” Blaise asked gently.

  Sara leaned against the thin wall that moved against her weight. “Sage is better,” she said, almost falling asleep as she spoke. “Mom is worse. She’s coughing up blood.”

  “Blood?” Josh whispered.

  “She smoked for years. She used to get bronchitis every winter, but I’ve never seen her cough up blood before,” she said, with tears in her eyes.

  “But she’s strong, Sara,” Blaise said. “She can beat this. She can beat anything.”

  “Her spirit is strong,” Sara agreed, “but her body was always so much older than she actually was, even before all of this. You saw her when we got here. It was like she had aged ten years in a few months.”

  “She’s going to be okay,” I said. “She’s allowing herself to crash now that she knows you’re here. You’ll see, she’ll bounce back soon.”

  “Thanks,” she mumbled, and my heart broke because I knew she knew I didn’t believe what I was saying. No matter how much I wanted to.

  “Sara,” a frail voice called from inside.

  Sara’s eyes flashed and she disappeared from the doorway.

  “Wait, be careful,” Sara said.

  “I want to go outside. I’m tired of the darkness.” Sage’s voice sounded fatigued but aware.

  A moment later Sara and Sage stood before us. Sage’s wavy brown hair was tangled, her normally light skin now even paler than mine, and her dark eyes had even darker circles beneath them.

  “Are you feeling better?” I asked, as Sara helped Sage shuffle past me.

  “Hi, Bria,” she said, genuinely pleased to see me. “Who’s the cute boy?” she said, pretending to whisper.

  I glanced at Jonah, who suppressed a smile.

  “His name’s Jonah. He sort of rescued us,” I answered.

  “I bet,” Sage said, a playful grin on her face as Sara hovered over her, guiding her to the fallen log. Sage sat on the log for a moment and then slid to the ground.

  “Are you okay?” Blaise asked, rushing beside her.

  “I’m fine,” Sage said, waving Blaise away. “I just wanted to have something to lean against. Sitting is hard work after lying down for so long,” Sage said, her voice strained yet cheerful. “You two seem different,” she said, her eyes on Blaise and Josh. “More connected. Ohh, did you two finally …”

  “Get married? Yes, we did,” Blaise said, turning pink and winking at Sage.

  “That’s awesome! I wish I could’ve seen that! The wedding that is not the—”

  “We know, Sage,” Sara said, cutting her off.

  “So, where did you get married? And what did the dress look like?” Sage spoke as if the last five months hadn’t changed everything.

  Jonah whispered, “Is she always this happy?”

  I nodded. “Sage is like your own personal cheerleader. Always upbeat. Loved by everyone who meets her.”

  “Funny, I didn’t sense any of that from her journal,” Jonah whispered.

  I glanced from him to Sage, and realized he was right. In her journal, she was sullen and brooding. Often angry and depressed, or at least in the few pages we had read.

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” I said. “I guess we all put on a mask to one degree or another.”

  “I wish I could do that. I’ve never been able to pretend to be happy when I wasn’t, at least not for very long,” he said, watching Sage and Blaise discuss the details of the wedding and of our life at my family’s home.

  Sara had returned to the hut to check on her mom.

  “Why did you leave? It sounded perfect. Well, as perfect as you can get now,” Sage said, leaning forward and bracing her face with her hands.

  “To find you,” Blaise answered.

  “Me?” Sage asked, lifting her head.

  “Yes, of course!” Blaise answered, laughing at Sage’s surprise.

  “Why else would we be here?” Josh asked, sitting on the ground, his back pressed against the log.

  “I-I don’t know,” Sage said, cocking her head to one side. “You all came here for me?”

  “We couldn’t just leave you and your mom out in the world,” I said. “Not when we didn’t know if you were okay.”

  “You left paradise for me and my mom?” She looked from each of us to the next. “Why would you do something that crazy?”

  “Love.” The word came from behind us. “Hi, I’m East, Jonah’s sister. You must be Sage.”

  Sage nodded. East sat on the log. Blaise sat near Sage, trying to smooth the tangles from her knotted hair.

  “But you don’t even know me,” Sage said, staring at East.

  “Sara loves you, and we love Sara. Love is the only thing powerful enough to make us do something this crazy.”

  “Your sister is incredibly wise when she wants to be,” I whispered to Jonah.

  “Annoying, isn’t it?” he whispered back.

  “Only sometimes,” I said, enjoying his body so close to mine.

  The rest of the day was spent with Sage. After East went to town to tell them of Sage’s recovery, we had a steady stream of visitors bringing snacks or homemade trinkets. It was clear we were not the only ones who loved her. Everyone expressed their concern for Faith, but with Sage’s fever gone, there was renewed hope that Faith would be better soon. Sara spent most of the day with her mom, though she came out often to check on Sage. I begged her to sleep while her mom slept and she said she would, but she never did. Her mom had become delirious as the fever spiked. Blaise kept making dandelion tea, but Sara couldn’t get Faith to drink more than a few sips.

  As the sun set, Haz and the girl came into our clearing. East lagged far behind them. Haz walked with a hand on the girl’s shoulders. She had a squirming brown puppy in her arms.

  “It was the only way to get her to come with us,” he said as I shot him a look of concern about the dog.

  “Yay! One of the puppies. It’s gotten so big. I must have been sick for longer than I realized,” Sage said, holding her arms out for the squirming fur. “And another cute guy,” she said, turning her head and pretending to whisper to Blaise.

  “That’s Haz,” Blaise whispered back. “He is super cute.”

  “A complex,” Josh said, not-so-quietly to Blaise. “I’m not even sure what that means, but I’m totally going to develop one.”

  Blaise turned and pulled his neck toward her, passionately kissing him. The kissing continued, until Jonah launched a twig that hit Josh on the side of the face.

  “Hey, what was that for?” Josh moaned, rubbing his face.

  Jonah joked, “No one wants to watch you make out. Besides, I owed you an interruption.”

  “What, you mean back at the hospital? We were in mortal danger,” Josh said.

  “Still, I didn’t appreciate the interruption,” Jonah said, placing his arm on my shoulders, a playful grin on his face.

  “You can keep making out if you want. I’m going to bed,” Sage said, handing the puppy back to the girl.

  Haz took her hand and helped her up.

  “Thank you,” Sage said. She bent down and fake whispered to Blaise, “I’m never washing my hand again.”

  Blaise and I laughed as Sage wandered toward her hut. The girl played with Astrea, making sure her tail didn’t get in the fire that now burned in f
ront of the fallen log. The girl was happy with this wiggly creature—more happy than I had ever seen her.

  I leaned against Jonah, closing my eyes as twilight settled onto the earth. I felt a sense of calm that I hadn’t felt in a long time.

  A scream ripped me from the peace.

  In a moment we were each on our feet, running toward the quarantine hut. Blaise and I were there first. I tore the quilted door open and entered, my eyes unseeing as they adjusted to the darkness.

  Sage was there, slumped in a corner. The scream had been hers. Blaise rushed to her.

  Against a wall, Faith lay on a thin sheet. Sara sat beside her, using a wet rag to moisten and cool her mother’s forehead. I was close now and could see the drops of water running down Faith’s face. Her damp hair stuck against her scalp.

  The scene, without Sage slumped in a corner, was exactly as it should be: Sara caring for Faith, Faith unmoving.

  But Sage was slumped in the corner.

  “Sara?” I whispered, my voice shaking, though I didn’t know why.

  She didn’t respond. I moved closer, kneeling beside her.

  “Sara?” I repeated, touching her cautiously on the shoulder.

  She turned her face toward me. My pulse quickened as she blinked and smiled at me. Her eyes were glazed, her expression strange and childlike.

  “Mom is resting,” she said, staring through me, not really seeing me.

  Goose bumps covered my skin as I tried to understand what was happening.

  Sara turned, her haunted gaze returning to her mother.

  My body started to shake. I looked from Sara to her mother. I stared expectantly at Faith’s chest, waiting for the next breath to come … for it to rise or fall. There was no movement. Terror engulfed me. My right hand shook as I moved it to hover near Faith’s nostrils. I prayed for warmth, for the faint movement of air.

  There was stillness.

  I pulled my hand away, rubbing it roughly with my left hand, trying to stop the shaking, trying to regain control. Sweat ran down my back and under my arms, and my breath came and went in shallow respirations.