The Life Beyond (The Other Life Saga)

by Susanne Winnacker

  The iron gates fell shut behind the bus and we were left to stare at the guards again. Now that it was getting dark, it was probably safe for us to move in.

  “We should try to get a closer look,” I said.

  “It’s too dangerous for you. Wait here. I want to get a look inside the walls,” said Joshua, almost dismissively.

  “No,” I said, frustration flaring inside. “We’re doing this together. If we all crouch and wait for the guards to turn away, we can run to the other side.” I glanced at Tyler who nodded his agreement.

  “Suit yourself,” said Joshua, crawling toward the road as we followed.

  Anger soared through me, mixing with the adrenalin that was pounding through my veins.

  One of the guards took out a cigarette and offered one to his colleague. They moved closer together, their heads bowed as they lit them.

  “Now!” Joshua hissed. We dashed across the road, throwing ourselves to the ground when we reached the other side. Edging forwards, we crawled through the grass. My elbows were rubbed raw from crawling and my clothes were wet. By now the sun had disappeared below the horizon, the darkness helping to keep us hidden.

  From down on the ground, the walls surrounding the lab looked impossibly high. The warning crackle of electricity buzzed close by, raising the little hairs on my neck. The stench of exhaust hung thickly in the air, and something that reminded me of a dog kennel. Goose-bumps rose on my skin. It smelled like Weepers.

  Joshua was staring at something in the distance. “The area isn’t as guarded on the other side of the complex. I’m going to check. Wait here.” Before I could argue, Joshua dashed away, his head ducked.

  “I’m going after him. You coming?” I asked Tyler.

  He nodded. Quickly we straightened, being careful not to be seen by the soldiers, and ran after Joshua. When we’d almost reached him, he turned and stopped.

  “You should have stayed behind,” he hissed. “This is too dangerous.”

  “You’re not doing this by yourself,” I said firmly.

  He began to say something, when a white glare blinded us. Joshua threw me to the ground.

  “What the hell?” Tyler hissed from his position, flattened against the grass.

  I blinked and slowly the contours of spotlights became clear. They rose from the ground behind the fence, stopping their movement with a stuttering groan, towering above the barbed wire.

  “Identify yourself!” a deep male voice shouted.

  I wrenched my head up just in time to see two soldiers striding toward us. Joshua grabbed my hand, tugging me to my feet and dragging me away. Tyler was running ahead of us.

  We dashed across the road and into the forest, weaving our way through the trees and bushes, over rotten trunks. Shots rang out but they sounded strange; a low pop followed by a strange fizzle.

  What were they firing at us?

  The soft earth slowed our steps. Shouts rose behind us. They sounded like commands but I couldn’t make out the words.

  Joshua yanked me deeper into the forest and away from the colony. I realized with sickening panic that I’d lost sight of Tyler. Branches cracked behind us and shouts surrounded us. Something whizzed past my ear and hit the bark of a tree a few feet to my side. Joshua’s grip was painful; he was so fast my legs could barely keep up. But the shouting was growing fainter.

  Something smashed against my back, right between my shoulder blades. Pain slithered up my neck, down my legs and made me stumble. Cold spread through my veins, travelled along my back and left nothing but numbness. I reached behind me and my fingers closed around something fluffy. I pulled it out. A dart. It lay on the ground, a glaring red on dull brown. I staggered back and lost my footing. The trees started swaying like a cornfield in the breeze.

  Joshua’s hands closed around my upper arms.

  Black and blue and red dots flared before my eyes. I blinked but the dots multiplied.

  “Sherry, shit. Stay with me. Say something.”

  “I —” My mouth was dry. “I’m tired.”

  Joshua slung an arm around my waist and dragged me on but I couldn’t feel my legs any more. The numbness spread into my arms until they hung limply by my sides. My body sagged like a sack of flour.

  Joshua lifted me up and my head lolled against his chest. “Sherry, why the hell are you smiling?”

  I tried raising my head to see his face but my muscles were slack. “Remember the first time you carried me?” The words came out slurred.

  Suddenly Joshua let out a groan. I tried to focus. My eyes travelled up his arm to the black fabric of his sleeve and higher. He had been hit.

  Joshua grunted. I wanted to ask if he was okay but my lips seemed glued shut. He sank to the ground, with me still in his arms. I could just make out his face behind the grey haze of my vision. It was twisted with worry.

  “I’m sorry, Sherry,” he said, as he laid me on the ground.

  He raised his gun and shot. A burned smell clogged my nose. I twisted my head to the side. Four soldiers, their guns brandished, were closing in on us. Shadows moved behind them, weaving in and out of view. Creatures with claw-like hands, hairy faces and empty eyes.

  Weepers.

  “Why were you on my bed?” Joshua asked.

  “You were having a nightmare.”

  Something registered in his eyes and he looked away, embarrassed.

  “I was dreaming about my time in the bunker … and about my family.”

  I moistened my lips with my tongue. “Where’s your family?”

  Joshua ran the blade of the knife over his palm. Then he looked up, and the expression in his eyes felt like a stab in the heart.

  “They died.” His tone was flat, but his eyes showed so much pain.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Joshua nodded.

  “You … you mentioned Zoe.”

  Joshua turned and slumped against the wall. “Zoe is …” He paused. “Zoe was my sister.” He swallowed and closed his eyes.

  He looked lost again. I crawled over and sat beside him, clasped his hand in mine and squeezed. He let his head drop back until it rested against the wall.

  “Was your family killed by … them?”

  He let out a long breath and peered at me through half-closed eyes. “My sister was … My mother …” He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut as if he was trying to force an image out of his head. “I don’t know what happened to my father. He was in the military. He was supposed to pick us up after the situation had improved. But he never came.”

  I blinked back tears. Silence settled over us. The air became stuffy. Suffocating. I couldn’t bear it. Say something. Anything.

  Chapter 10

  A biting smell surrounded me. Like disinfectant and vinegar. Grandma had used cider vinegar to clean the windows. She insisted it was better than the industrial cleaner you could buy. I still hated the smell.

  There was a clicking to my right. Weepers? But it sounded too rhythmic and it wasn’t coming closer.

  I wanted to see where I was, wanted to get out of the blackness. My eyelids stuck to my eyeballs. I tried to move but I couldn’t feel my legs and something was pinning down my arms.

  Panic corded up my throat. What was happening to me? I tried to focus on my legs and feet, tried to get a feel for them.

  Focus.

  A tingling started in my toes and slowly spread in my calves. Suddenly, I remembered – the chase through the woods, the darts. The tranquilizer must be wearing off. How long had I been unconscious? What had they done to me? And where was Joshua?

  I forced my eyes open. It felt as if I was peeling my eyelids off with a potato peeler. Water pooled in my eyes and the pain got worse.

  I blinked. The movement was in slow-motion. My vision swam. All I could make out was a white glare, which burned my eyes.

  I turned my head – inch by inch. It took forever but gradually it became clear I was in a lab. I was strapped to a metal table like they used in operating room
s. Brown leather belts kept my hands in place and a drip was attached to my arm. I tilted my head. A clear liquid filled the see-through bag at the end of the drip.

  I struggled against my restraints but they didn’t budge. A groan came from the other side. I saw Joshua lying on the table right next to me and Tyler on the one beside him.

  Tyler lay motionless. From my position, I couldn’t see if he was breathing. Joshua’s eyes were closed but there was movement beneath his eyelids.

  “Joshua?” I whispered.

  He groaned again. His right shoulder was wrapped in gauze but blood had seeped through the white material.

  “Joshua?” My voice rose, panic vibrating through the words.

  His eyes opened but he scrunched them shut immediately. I wanted to grab his hand but the restraints made it impossible.

  After a moment he tried again and this time he kept his eyes open. He blinked and tears pooled in the corners of his eyes. They looked red and inflamed – exactly how mine felt.

  With a low sound in his throat, Joshua tilted his head until our eyes met. His lips were cracked and droplets of blood had dried on his chin. “Are you hurt?”

  I tried to shake my head but the movement sent a stab through my temples. “No. What happened to your shoulder?”

  “They …” He swallowed. “They attacked me.”

  “Did they shoot you?” I’d thought their guns had only been loaded with tranquilizer darts.

  Joshua tugged at the belts keeping his hands tied to his sides. “No, they set their Weepers on me.”

  Then, I remembered the moving shadows, the razor-sharp claws, the empty eyes. For the first time, I was glad that Joshua had been bitten on his hunts. At least, we knew he was immune and wouldn’t get rabies.

  “One of the soldiers ordered a Weeper to attack,” Joshua went on. “It was like a robot. It sank its teeth into my shoulder – I thought it would kill me – they don’t usually stop once they taste blood. But this one did. The soldiers control the Weepers. I think that’s what the collars are for. We got it wrong. They don’t use the Weepers to study their habits, they use them as soldiers.”

  Dread rocked through my body. This was far worse than any of us could have imagined.

  Joshua turned his head to face mine then. His eyes were so intense it sent a shiver through me. “I was out of bullets,” he said. “There was nothing I could have done to make it stop. When I lost consciousness, I was sure I’d never wake. All I could think about was that I’d failed to protect you, that I couldn’t stop them from hurting you.”

  I tore at the belt around my hand. “You didn’t fail. We’re in this together and we will get out together.”

  “How? We’re strapped to tables, without weapons.” His gaze found Tyler on his other side. “Is he okay?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him move. Is he …” I swallowed. “Is he breathing?”

  Joshua kept his eyes on Tyler. “He’s breathing but the tranquilizer has him still knocked out.”

  “Maybe that’s for the best,” I said. “Finding himself trapped in a lab again would drive him crazy.”

  A grimace twisted Joshua’s lips. “Come on,” he said resolutely. “We need to find a way to escape before they come back. Try to get out of the restraints.”

  The leather straps were too tight around my wrists to get them off and the ones around my ankles were even worse. They were cutting off the blood circulation to my feet. That explained the strange tingling in my toes.

  “They’re too tight.” Even with my skin slick with sweat from struggling, the restraints didn’t budge.

  “Mine too.”

  Suddenly a lock clicked.

  The little hairs on my neck stood on end. Three men in white lab coats came into the room, talking in low voices. They didn’t pay us any attention, too immersed in their conversation. Then one of them let out a choked gasp.

  Turning, I saw that the man in the middle was an older version of Joshua. Same blue eyes, same blond hair, same high cheekbones. The face I’d seen before in the photo. Joshua’s dad, Adam Bender.

  He was staring at Joshua like he’d seen a ghost.

  “Do you know them?” one of the scientists asked. His bushy brows drew together as his eyes darted between Joshua and his father.

  Joshua’s dad pulled himself together with obvious difficulty. “I —” His voice was hoarse. He cleared his throat before he continued. “He reminds me of someone I knew once. It’s not important, Steve.”

  His expression became the emotionless mask I’d seen on Joshua’s face so often. Did he really not recognize his own child?

  “Get the vials ready, I want to get this over with. I’ve been awake for more than twenty hours,” the man called Steve said.

  Mr. Bender stayed back while the two other scientists walked up to us. I couldn’t believe he’d let them do that to his own child.

  The scientist beside me released the air from the syringe. Fear coursed through every inch of my body.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Joshua’s dad pull something out of a drawer. A gun.

  With the same concentration and precision I’d seen on Joshua’s face so many times before, he pointed the gun at the head of the scientist about to inject his son. With a soft pop the bullet was released. It hit the scientist in the back of the head. Blood splattered across the room. Like a marrionette whose threads had been cut, the man fell to the ground.

  With a yelp the scientist at my table stumbled back.

  A second pop sounded in the lab and the man tumbled to the ground and went slack. Droplets of blood littered my skin and clothes. My stomach turned.

  I saw Joshua tense when his father came up and began unfastening the belts.

  The moment Joshua was free, he ripped the needle of the drip from his arm. His fist smashed against his father’s chin, sending him flying to the ground.

  “You’re one of them!”

  His father touched his face but he stayed sprawled out on his back. “Josh —” he began, strain in his voice.

  For a moment I thought Joshua would hit his father again but instead his hands curled to fists and he leaned against the table.

  “We thought you were dead! You promised to come, to take us with you. We waited for weeks, for months. We mourned your death! Mom cried every night over you. And you just left us. You didn’t come even though you promised.” A tear rolled down his cheek. “You promised.”

  “I thought you were dead.” Mr. Bender sat up. “They told me nobody in the public bunker survived.”

  “You didn’t even come to find out for yourself. Weren’t we worth that much?”

  “I believed them. They had no reason to lie. At least, that’s what I thought.” Regret filled his face.

  “And why didn’t you tell us you were one of their scientists? You said you worked for the military!”

  “I do work for the military. I just never said exactly what I did. It was confidential. I wasn’t allowed to talk to your Mom or you about the things I did. And I wanted to protect you. And I wasn’t very proud of what I had to do.”

  Joshua went very still. “Tell me you’re not responsible for the virus.”

  “I’ve been working in genetics all my life —”

  “No! Tell me you are not responsible for the Weepers!”

  “Weepers?” Puzzlement showed on his face.

  “Those mutants,” Joshua said. “Tell me.”

  His father stayed silent, his eyes pleading with Joshua to understand.

  How could he expect him to understand? How could he expect forgiveness after everything Joshua had been through?

  Joshua sneered. “You make me sick.” He walked up to me. His fingers shook as he untied my hands and feet.

  I wrapped my arms around him, relief flooding through me as I held him close. His stubble was rough against my skin and I pulled back and traced my fingers over the tiny spikes. I’d thought we’d die in this lab. I realized with such certainity that
I never wanted to lose Joshua.

  “I’m sorry,” his father said, stumbling to his feet.

  Joshua whirled around. “Sorry? Sorry?” All the hurt and anger he’d bottled up since he’d found out was pouring out of him.

  His father spread his arms in a placating gesture. “I will make up for it. Now that I’ve found you, now that I know you’re alive, I’ll keep you, Mom and Zoe safe.”

  Joshua laughed; harsh and cold. “You’re too late for that, Dad.” The name sounded like a curse from his lips.

  “Too late?”

  “Mom’s dead. I don’t even know where the bastards who beat her to death buried her. Do you want to know what happened to Zoe?” His father seemed frozen in shock. “She’s worse than dead. She’s a Weeper. Maybe you can put a collar on her too.”

  His father staggered back, color draining from his face. “No.” His voice was toneless. He bumped against a desk and sank to the floor, burying his face in his palms.

  Joshua turned away, his face stone-hard. He walked up to Tyler who still hadn’t stirred and freed him from his restraints.

  “Let’s get out of here. I don’t want to be in a room with him.”

  Joshua heaved one of Tyler’s arms over his shoulder and grimaced in pain. More blood seeped through the gauze covering his wound. “Sherry, I need your help.”

  I grabbed Tyler’s other arm. “Don’t forget why we’re here, Joshua. You’ve got to ask him.”

  Tyler stirred, his eyelashes fluttering.

  Joshua’s face darkened. He’d probably rather return to Safe-haven without the cure than ask his dad for help. But we’d risked our lives to get here. We had no choice but to ask him.

  Joshua dropped Tyler’s arm. It hit the table lifelessly. He took a deep breath before he finally said. “We need your help.”

  Mr. Bender looked at his son and came closer. “My help?”

  “To get the cure,” Joshua said while he pulled Tyler in a sitting position.

  “We need it to save my father. And your daughter,” I said. At the mention of Zoe, Joshua’s father flinched.

  “We know you’re working on the cure. You have to help us get it.” Joshua demanded. He clenched his hands, knuckles turning white.