by Angel Lawson
The Girl Who Kicked Ass
By
Angel Lawson
Chapter 1
Schwoop, schwoop, schwoop…
The helicopter blades are hypnotic, lulling my weary bones and exhausted mind to the edge of sleep. My eyelids threaten to close, but I force myself to stay awake. I keep my hand on my weapon. I still haven’t decided if we just caught a ride with friend or foe, and I won’t let my guard down until I do.
We’re huddled close on the floor—my entire team. Cole sits closely to me with a protective arm wrapped around my waist. To my left, Parker’s dark hair is a tangled mess and she looks like maybe a couple of her braids were yanked form her scalp. The glazed look in her eye makes me think she’s probably more in shock than actually asleep. My boy, Jude, stares straight ahead, too exhausted to even notice the blood seeping through his torn pants. In his hand is the handle of a blood-stained knife, ready just in case.
Everyone feels miles away except Davis, who’s fully alert like a good soldier. I watch him, aware that he’s keeping a careful eye on Paul.
Paul, who’d been on the brink of death days ago. Who’d spent the last half a year as a lab rat at the hands of my sister, Jane, and her laboratory/survivalist compound, PharmaCorp. He’s the only one that seems unfazed by the battle we’d just escaped. He’d just saved my life fighting harder than anyone I’d ever seen. Other than Wyatt, of course.
Wyatt Faraday, who’d said some very curious things just before we parted. Things that made my heart ache and my mind bend. He’d said his goal was to keep me alive. Me. Specifically. Maybe he just needed something to fight for, other than himself, for once.
I push back the worry I have for him. When General Erwin dropped out of the sky like a dark angel, Wyatt wasn’t fighting off the Eaters with the rest of us. God knew where he’d gone off to, whether it was on purpose or if he was chum for the monsters we left swarming below the helicopter. Erwin had alluded to the fact he would be fine, but how does he know? The General is probably just happy he isn’t here.
For a dozen reasons, some I don’t want to admit to, I am not okay with the fact he’s not here.
I feel a warm tickle on my neck and turn to face Cole. His arm is still wrapped around me, even while he sleeps, like he’s clinging to a lifeline. I snuggle in against his chest and his arms tighten. It’s not us against just Jane anymore. It’s our tiny team versus Cole’s sister Chloe, who has transitioned to a Hybrid, a terrifying mixture of the adrenaline-fueled Eater combined with the strength and skill of a top-notch soldier. Add in the lack of independent thought and the compulsive, murderous rage and you have a Hybrid, my sister’s answer to the apocalypse.
No, now it’s the six of us against PharmaCorp, the force behind my sister’s biological warfare that created this entire worldwide disaster. She wasn’t content to bring down society and rebuild with normal humans. She had to push her twisted vision on the survivors of the crisis, each scenario worse than the last. It’s the six of us against Chloe, a former friend who has changed into the leader of a genetically altered army whose goal is to take over existing society.
Against the sound of the beating propeller I lean back into the comfort of Cole’s arms, still keeping an eye on Erwin in the front seat. I’m wondering where we’re going, what will happen when we land, and how are we going to fix this crazy world, because running is no longer an option.
*
I barely remember landing, following the soldiers across a wide strip of pavement, or being led down the long corridors to the barracks. We’re pointed toward dormitories and file in.
In the dim room, Parker does ask in a quiet, shell-shocked voice, “Are you sure this is safe?” and I recall telling her that we’re fine and to go to sleep. What I don’t tell her, as I drift off with my cheek on a scratchy blanket, is that I have no idea what Erwin wants us for. I do have a couple guesses, though.
I wake with a pounding headache and expectations of finding the door locked, but to my surprise, it isn’t. There are clean towels on the small metal desk against the wall and clean clothes stacked on the chair. Parker is already awake and other than the missing clump of hair, looking much better than the night before. “I peeked down the hallway. There’s a functional shower and bathroom at the end.”
I look down at my hands, which are coated in blood, dirt, and grime. My pants have a tear in the thigh and I don’t have to raise my arm to know how absolutely horrific I smell. “I don’t even care if the water is cold.”
We shower quickly and quietly. I can’t be sure we’re not being watched, and my sense of paranoia rises when I step out of the stall to find two sets of boots waiting by the bench with the camouflaged uniforms.
I sigh at the green and gray material.
“What?” Parker asks, buttoning her shirt.
“A lot of things turned out differently than I expected and I’m dealing with it, you know? Like sure, I’m not going to college. I’ll never go to a football game or watch Duke play in the Final Four or you know, get into med school. There’s no way I’ll ever get that Mini Cooper I dreamed about buying. But wearing drab military uniforms and constantly being on one ’team’ or the other is a whole new level of my life has gone off the rails.”
Parker stares at me like I’ve lost my mind, which is fair, as I’ve definitely lost my mind. “At least we have clean clothes.”
“Yeah.” I pull on a white T-shirt and tie my camo shirt around my waist. Just before we leave the room, I glance at my face in the mirror.
“Holy crap, Park! You didn’t tell me it was so bad,” I say, wincing at the sight of myself in the mirror. Both eyes are blackened from hitting the tree root in the fight with the Hybrids. My nose is swollen and puffy.
“I didn’t think you’d really want to know.”
When we exit the room, Cole is waiting for us outside the door, fresh and squeaky clean from his own shower. His blue eyes widen when he sees my face but he quickly rearranges it into something more appropriate. Too late.
“I know. It’s awful.”
He touches my cheek, gentle and soft. “How does it feel?”
“Like I landed on a tree stump with my face.”
“Ouch.” He kisses my temple.
I brush the damp blond hair away from his eyes. “How did you sleep?”
“Fair enough. You?”
I nod and say quietly, “Are you okay? You know, with the whole Chloe thing?”
“No, I’m not really okay with it.” His jaw tics. “It’s a lot to take in.”
“We’ll figure it out.”
“With Erwin?” he asks. Neither of us want to get into it with Erwin again, not after last time.
“If we have to. At some point, we’re going to have to go bigger to deal with this. We can’t beat my sister and all her resources with six rouge Fighters, none of whom have much experience.”
A guard—or soldier, they may be the same thing--waits for us at the end of the hall. The others file out of their rooms and I give Davis a smile. He greets me with a warm smile; we’ve become close over the last couple of months. I don’t know his full story but he’s the best soldier I know, after Wyatt. He’s big and burly, sort of like what you’d think a Marine would look like. Rambo or the Hulk, but not green. He has dark hair and watchful eyes, eyes that are currently still watching Paul closely even though he seems normal enough today after his display of heroics last night. Maybe it was just one of those bizarre adrenaline spikes last night.
Maybe pigs can fly, right?
I tug Davis on the sleeve and he slows. I ask the question that’s been building for hours. “So what’s
the deal with that?” I ask gesturing carefully at Paul.
“So you saw that last night.”
“Uh, yeah. He saved my life. I was one second from being Eater dinner, but let’s be clear, the Paul I knew could not do that.”
Davis nods. “Do you think he’s one of them? A Hybrid?”
“God knows what my sister did to him. I know he was pumped up with a half a dozen vaccine combos over the last couple of months. He may be hybrid of a Hybrid for all I know.”
Davis looks thoughtful at that idea. “I’ll keep an eye on him. If he steps out of line, I’ll take him out.”
“You think you can beat him?”
He doesn’t acknowledge that statement. I continue to keep pace with him and he says, “Something else?”
“Where do you think Wyatt went last night? One minute he was there, the next, gone.”
He shakes his head. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
Everyone heads up the stairs. Jude and Parker talk to one another and we follow, passing a blank-faced guard. We’re in the echo-y stairwell when I stop Davis. “Can I ask you something else?”
He pauses, a look of concern on his face. “Sure? What is it?”
“Do you trust him?”
His eyebrows furrow together. “Who?”
“Wyatt.”
I expect him to say yes. To reassure me. But instead, he thinks for a moment before saying, “Wyatt is very good at his job. He’s a stickler about meeting expectations. He always completes the assignment.”
“What’s his assignment?” Other than protecting me.
He lifts an eyebrow. “That’s a question I can’t answer.”
“Because you know and can’t tell or because you actually don’t know?”
“I don’t know anything, Alex. I promise.” He may not know, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t suspect something.
Great. That makes two of us.
*
The smell of bacon makes my stomach rumble like an earthquake, and I nearly break out in tears when I see the glass carafes of coffee lined up at the end of the bar in the cafeteria.
“Is this heaven?” Parker asks the guy wearing a hairnet behind the sneeze guard.
“One biscuit or two?” he replies, holding the lumpy, golden circle with a pair of tongs.
She breaks into a smile, asks for two, and talks about it all the way to the empty table in the middle of the room. “It’s heaven. I knew it. We died the other night and God sent a helicopter to bring us to heaven.”
“It’s not heaven,” I reply after a gulp of coffee that tastes, quite frankly, like angel tears.
“Could’ve fooled me,” Jude argues. Honey drips down his chin. He wipes it away and then licks his hand.
“Don’t get your hopes up. My last run-in with General Erwin didn’t turn out so well.” That’s the understatement of the year. During my journey from Raleigh to Georgia I teamed up with Wyatt, Cole, and Chloe for protection and company after I lost my mother to an Eater attack. Little did I know that Wyatt and Cole were tracking me for different but connected reasons. Both were assigned to follow me and ensure my safe arrival at the demands of my sister (Wyatt) and father (Cole) with the data and samples needed to create the vaccine. We were all surprised when we were ambushed by General Erwin, still functioning as a member of the US military. He also wanted the data and knew that my father used my blood as the base for his research.
We managed to escape, but only by the skin of our teeth. That’s when I learned what a bad-ass ninja Wyatt is. It’s also when I realized Cole had feelings for me that went beyond friends. We lost one of the Fighters that helped us escape, Richardson, and later the gunfire outside PharmaCorp. That’s when Chloe was shot and our crazy life got crazier. No, our run-in with Erwin definitely set things off in a bad direction.
“What do you think Erwin wants?” Cole asks.
“He may still just want access to the vaccine or he may know more,” I reply. “I never quite understood his motives.”
“You think he knows about EVI-2 vaccine?”
There are two vaccines. My sister created both. The first one, EVI-1 is a regular vaccine that stops the E-TR virus from spreading. It’s a tiny parasite that eventually fries people’s brains and turns humans into cannibalistic rage monsters. Then there’s the EVI-2. That one still does the first part, stopping the virus from spreading, but from what we’ve just learned has the added dash of Eater rage while still in control of their faculties. Chloe is Patient Zero for the EVI-2 and she’s now the leader of the pack.
I glance at Paul, who quickly looks away and continues eating. “We’ll find out.”
The remainder of breakfast is a blur of eggs and bacon and filling our bellies. I’ve just pushed my tray through the slot when a female soldier appears and asks me to follow her.
“What about them?” I ask, pointing to my friends.
Another solider appears on cue and says, “I’m supposed to give you all a tour of the facilities while Ms. Ramsey meets with the General.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” Cole asks.
“I’m fine,” I say and adding quietly, “Get a feel for the place okay? Layout, lab, Eater torture rooms, that kind of thing.”
He nods and squeezes my hand before walking off.
The walk with the soldier feels like déjà vu, except this time I don’t have a splitting headache from being drugged and kidnapped. I do have a busted nose but my hands are free, so I feel like we’re making progress.
“Where are we?” I ask, not really expecting an answer.
“Arnold Air Force Base.”
I’ve never heard of it.
This must be clear to the soldier because she says, “Outside Chattanooga.”
“Tennessee?” Who knew I’d travel so far during the apocalypse. My home in Raleigh, the one I knew I’d never see again, suddenly seemed even further away.
“What happened to Fort Shaw?”
“It was compromised. Fort Arnold was still functioning with generators and supplies, but had lost a lot of crew. Erwin packed us up and we headed east.” She stops in front of a closed door and knocks.
“Come in.” Erwin’s voice sends an unpleasant chill down my spine, but I shake it off and within seconds we’re standing across from one another in the non-descript office. A far cry from my sister’s suite at PharmaCorp. “Thank you, Mitchell,” he says and waves her away. I stand awkwardly in the room until he gestures at the chair across from the desk and I sit.
“Did you find your quarters comfortable?” he asks, eyes lingering on my battered face. “Settle in okay?”
“If you mean sleep, then yeah, it was fine.”
“Good, hopefully you’ll all find a bit of respite here. I know it’s been a challenging time.”
My back is ramrod straight because God knows what this man will do if I relax my guard, but his words definitely pique my interest. “How exactly do you know what we’ve been through?”
Erwin lost his formal dress sometime after the fall of society. I don’t blame him. Who wants to wear a suit when there’s a monster outside the door trying to eat you for lunch? But he’s still imposing in his cargo pants and button-up camouflage shirt—similar to what I’ve been given to wear. It’s clear this building is a shell of the operation he had at Fort Shaw, but the man across from me still carries a look of determination.
He leans back in his seat and says, “Alexandra, I realize we got off to a rocky start when we first met in South Carolina.”
“You shot me with a tranq dart and kidnapped me.”
“Right,” he says, looking surprisingly apologetic. “It was an overly aggressive move on my part. Obviously things have changed since we saw each other last. Hell, things could be changing right now for all we know. The foundation of society has crumbled and I’m doing everything I can to hold on tight and keep my people safe. People like you and that team of misfits I pulled off the ground last night. The last time we met, that meant I
needed that vaccination and you were the only way for me to get it. That’s no longer the case.”
“Yes, I remember.” He’d strapped me to a chair and endlessly withdrew blood in an attempt to replicate my father’s test vaccine. He’d nearly gotten me, Cole, Wyatt, and Chloe killed. Yeah, I remember. And he just made it clear I’m here because he still needs me—just not in the same way.
“I realize due to all of that, you don’t trust me. I don’t blame you, but I also know that you’re a good person, Alexandra, and if my intel is right, you’re also aware that your sister has lost her Goddamned mind and has to be stopped.”
“Tell me what you know about Jane and PharmaCorp. Everything,” I say, for once feeling like I may be on even ground.
“It’s classif—“
“Don’t,” I say, holding up my hand. “Don’t bullshit me. Don’t hold back. If you want my help, I need to know everything you know—classified or not.” I snort and shake my head. “I mean, classified from who? You’ve seen what’s out there. It’s a warzone of infected civilians and power-hungry humans. Not to mention the ones that fall in between.”
He eyes me carefully. “Where do you fall?”
“I’m definitely not infected.” I hope my face doesn’t give away that we may be harboring a Hybrid, though. “And I’m not power hungry.”
The General leans forward on his elbows and sets his hard gaze on me. “Maybe it’s time you learned to be.”
*
Erwin tells me what he knows—which is a lot. He knows about Jane and the two vaccines. He’s aware of the testing, the Hybrid armies, and her plans to rearrange civilization on her terms. He also knows where more test subjects are being held, along with camps holding survivors under the guise of protection when really they’re just guinea pigs or potential Hybrid soldiers.
“What does she need these soldiers for?” I ask when he’s finished. “Sending them after me and the others was a bit overkill. We were definitely outmanned.”
“Besides having someone that can fight and eliminate the Eaters, there are pockets of the military left all over the country—just like the one here. I think her primary motive is to take us out and then she can be the Director of the world.” He leans back in his chair. “What were you planning on doing when the Hybrids caught up with you?”
