The Life Beyond (The Other Life Saga)

by Susanne Winnacker

  Someone gripped my shoulder. “Come on. We have to get out of here!” Quentin shouted. Alexis and Marty were at his side. They led us into another drain, so low we had to crouch. By now the whooshing sound had grown to a roar, echoing in the drains. Water began to pool around our legs; still shallow and slow but more was racing toward us.

  The tunnel narrowed until we had to crawl. Only the adrenalin and blind fear surging through my body was keeping me moving. Water lapped against my chest and chin. After a few seconds the small tunnel ended and opened up to a wide drain. We jumped down and landed in deeper water. It reached our waists and slowed us down as we hurried after Alexis and Quentin. More Undergrounders had joined us.

  “Do you know where we’re going?” Joshua asked.

  “Of course,” Alexis said.

  A hissing rose in the tunnel behind us. I turned around to see a wave head our way. “Hold onto the walls!” Quentin ordered.

  We tried to press ourselves against them but there was nothing to hold on to.

  The wave washed over us. My feet lifted beneath me and I struggled against the tide. I heard Tyler cry out, and saw to my horror that his bag with the camera equipment had been swept away. Water flooded my mouth, tasting of mould, detergent and something rotten. I gagged and spat it out. My hair clung to my face and I had to push it out of my eyes. I looked around until my gaze found Joshua. To my relief, he was clutching the backpack with the cure.

  “Come on. We have to get out,” Quentin said.

  In the distance I could hear the rumble of another wave. There would be no room to breathe if it reached us. Our heads were inches from the ceiling of the duct. We swam as fast as we could but it felt like we were barely moving forward. The rumbling was closer and the water stirred. It was getting harder to stay above the surface.

  “We need to get up there!” Alexis pointed at a ladder that hung from the ceiling and led into a narrow shaft. We crowded around it. The growing current tore at us. I swallowed gulp after gulp of the disgusting water. The youngest kids went up first.

  A wall of darkness and noise raced toward us. It filled the drain. In a few seconds it would take us with it.

  “Hurry!” Quentin screamed. I gripped the slippery rungs of the ladder and pulled myself up. My wet clothes dragged me down and my arms protested as I climbed into the narrow black pipe. Water and dirt rained down from the kids climbing above me. Below me I could hear the comforting rhythm of Joshua’s breathing.

  The roar of the water echoed through the pipe.

  “Faster!” Someone screamed.

  A screech sounded above us and dim light filtered into the duct. We spilled out of the tunnel and plopped down on the ground. My chest heaved and I shivered, though the night air was warm. Quentin was the last to emerge, but he didn’t lie down like the rest of us, and instead began to check our surroundings.

  We were in a narrow alley filled with dumpsters.

  “Where’s Mo?” Quentin asked. That was the name of the boy I’d seen who’d been sniffing glue.

  Alexis sat up. “I don’t know. He was with us in the drain.”

  Quentin’s face tightened. “I hope he’s with the others.”

  “Do you think they got away like we did?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. And I’m not sure we’ve got away yet. We need to keep moving.”

  I struggled to my feet and wrung out my clothes. Joshua took my hand.“Where are we?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Quentin said as he led us out of the alley. We weren’t close to the strip. This part of Vegas had been run-down and poor even before the rabies. A few homeless people sat in their shabby homes made from cardboard boxes and shopping carts, watching us.

  “Won’t they tell on us?” I whispered as we walked past them.

  “They’re hiding from the military too,” Alexis said.

  Not a single window or street lamp was lit in this part of town. We didn’t speak as we crept through the streets. It was silent except for the occasional siren or car.

  We came to a junkyard littered with old fridges, TVs and other technical equipment. Only a few shabby cars were parked among them. A cat hissed and jumped off a fridge as we walked past. The scuttling of more animals followed.

  Without Mo we were fourteen people. Quentin and Alexis talked quietly among themselves as they checked the abandonded cars for something usable. I had a feeling Joshua, Tyler and I were their topic.

  The other kids sat on the dusty ground, crying and shivering. Some gave us angry looks.

  I approached Marty who leaned against an old freezer. “What’s the matter with them?”

  He shifted and stared at his feet. “They blame you.”

  Us? “Why?” I asked, but Quentin and Alexis chose that moment to return.

  “We’ll divide into three cars,” Quentin announced. “We can’t stay together. It’ll draw too much attention. We’ll have to find a new part of the drains and settle there.”

  “Why can’t you just return? The water will be gone soon,” I asked.

  Quentin shook his head. “Don’t you get it?”

  Joshua wrapped an arm around me protectively.

  “Hours after you return, they flood the drains? That isn’t an accident.”

  “What do you mean?” Joshua asked, his voice hard.

  “They must have followed you and saw you enter the drains and now they probably know we live there. We can’t return. Ever.”

  “Nobody followed us,” Tyler said, but there was a hint of uncertainty in his voice. I had been too sick to pay attention.

  “It doesn’t matter now. It’s too late,” Quentin said. He rubbed his face.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “We didn’t mean to put you in danger.”

  Quentin met my eyes. They were tired, not angry. “It was just a matter of time. We’ve been living in the same place for too long. We’ll search for another part of the drains that we can make home.”

  I glanced at Joshua. Was he thinking the same thing I was?

  “Why don’t you come with us?” I asked.

  “Where?”

  A hush fell over the Undergrounders. They exchanged disbelieving looks.

  “To the Void, you mean?” Alexis asked.

  Fear flashed across the faces of the younger kids.

  “Yes. I mean it’s no worse than here. On our side you wouldn’t have to live in drains and eat rats. We live in an old Mission in Santa Barbara, near the ocean. There’s no military there. Well, at least not yet.” I explained.

  “It’s full of mutants,” Marty whispered.

  “There are Weepers but they keep to the cities and there aren’t as many as you think. Of course, it’s not safe. But we look out for each other. Besides, there’s nowhere that’s safe anymore,” Joshua said.

  “So we could move around outside?” A girl, only a few years older than Mia, asked. Her face was smudged and the fuzz on her head matted.

  “Yes. We have a courtyard where we’ll grow crops and there are roses and birds.” As I described our new Safe-haven, it seemed much more idyllic than I’d remembered it. But I could still see the uncertainty in their faces.

  Alexis looked thoughtful. “Why not?” she said eventually. “It’s not like we’ve got anything that keeps us here. Our families are all dead. We’re being hunted.”

  “But what about the others? They could be anywhere,” Quentin said. Two dozen Undergrounders were still unaccounted for. “We can’t search for them now. Not when we don’t know if the military is surveying the area. We can’t just leave here here.” He took a deep breath then and kicked at the ground with his feet.

  “But we could do something from the other side of the fence,” I said. “I mean, we have the camera with the footage —”.

  And then I remembered. Everything had been destroyed in the flood. Sickness rushed through me, although I couldn’t tell if it was from the virus, or from the realization that all the evidence we had worked to collect was gone.

>   Joshua touched my shoulder. “It’s okay. I’m just glad we got out. We can film the fence again when we’re back on the other side. But with the drains flooded, I think we’ve lost all our footage of the Undergrounders.”

  Against all my instincts, against my desperate need to take the cure to my dad, I spoke up. “Then we need to film something else. People already know the fence exists; it won’t be enough. And besides, we need to find another camera.”

  Joshua stared at me, before linking my hand with his. “Are you sure, Sherry?”

  “You’re really determined to do this, aren’t you?” said Quentin. It was weird; his tone almost sounded admiring.

  “Yes,” I said, my brain now working overtime. Nausea rippled through me again, but I fought back. There wasn’t time for me to feel unwell. “Maybe we should split up,” I continued. “Joshua and I could try to get some more footage – maybe from that military base nearby. Tyler, you can take everyone else and the cure, over to the other side. What do you think?”

  My question was directed at Joshua, but to my surprise, it was Quentin who answered.

  “I’m thinking I’ll lead you to the base and get you in,” he said.

  Joshua’s eyes narrowed. “Why? What’s in it for you? I thought you wanted to stay out of it.”

  Quentin met my eyes. “You saw what just happened there. No matter where we hide, the government will always find us. I’m sick of hiding.” He took a deep breath. “We lost over twenty kids today. I won’t let those bastards take any more.”

  Despite everything, I smiled. Quentin looked back at us, a steely determination etched on his face. “Do you remember you asked me why I didn’t try to make everything public before?”

  I nodded. “You said you can’t hack the military system without —”

  “— being inside the base to log into their system,” Quentin finished for me.

  “If we got into the lab, could you hack their computers from there? And then what? Can you destroy their system?”

  Quentin shook his head. “No. I can’t and I wouldn’t. Their system is linked to nuclear power stations. It could lead to a catastrophe.”

  Joshua’s grip on my hand tightened. “So what could you do, then?”

  “I could search for classified information; secret memos, maps of their bases and labs. They used to store them on a central server. We could use that information later.”

  “Could we send everything to a radio or TV network on this side? Would they make it public?” I asked, hope rising within me.

  “No, they’re all run by the government. They wouldn’t broadcast something like that,” Alexis said.

  I should have thought of that. Immediately, another idea struck me. “Quentin, could you hack into their frequency?”

  He was silent for a moment, deep in thought. “I’d need a tower or an antenna mast for that but the ones this side are all heavily guarded.”

  “There’s a tower near L.A.,” Joshua said, glancing at me. “I remember. We drove by it on our way from Safe-haven to the mission. I noticed it because it was one of the few things that hadn’t been destroyed by the bombings.”

  “On your side?” Alexis said.

  “Yes.” Joshua nodded.

  “We could direct a speech to the people out there,” I said. I could hear the excitement creeping into my voice. “If we managed to broadcast that, people would believe us, don’t you think?”

  “They might,” Quentin agreed. “The situation in the poorer areas of the east coast is already strained, maybe such a report would tip it over. It would be a start.”

  “Okay, so what about the camera?” Joshua asked.

  “There are a few abandoned stores close by,” replied Quentin. “We should be able to find something.”

  “Okay. So it’s a deal?” I held my hand out to him and we shook on it.

  “Deal,” he said, his lips forming the first genuine smile I’d ever seen from him.

  Joshua squeezed my shoulders, and I could tell he was pleased too.

  I turned to Tyler. “Do you think you can do it? Do you remember where the tunnel is?”

  “Yeah, I guess,” he said. “But won’t you need me?”

  I touched his arm. “You’re the only one who can lead them to Safe-haven and I know you don’t want to return to the base.”

  He relaxed under my hand. A thought, dark and terrifying slipped into my mind, as I imagined Tyler reaching Safe-haven – as I imagined Mom and Mia’s faces when he told them about Bobby. I buried the thought deep within me. I had to stay strong.

  “Okay, so it’s settled then?” I asked. In the back of my mind, despite how excited I felt, I could still feel the seconds ticking away. Time was running out for Dad. In fact, maybe it was already too late. But I would not give up hope.

  Quentin addressed the other Undergrounders who’d been whispering among themselves during our conversation. “I won’t force you to come with us,” he announced, “but you have to decide now.”

  They exchanged looks and slowly, one after the other, nodded. It showed how much they’d gone through that they accepted it without complaining.

  “We’ll follow you wherever you go, Quentin,” Marty said.

  Quentin didn’t say anything but I could tell that the boy’s words meant a lot to him. The Undergrounders trusted his judgement.

  “What about your dad, Sherry?” Joshua asked gently. “He needs the cure. It’s been six days since he started showing symptoms. Maybe you should go back with Tyler and the others.”

  I looked at him then, gratitude swelling in my chest. But I realized that a big part of me wanted to help Joshua and Quentin gather evidence against the government. This had been my idea from the start and I wanted to make sure it was successful.

  “I’m taking the cure with me,” Tyler said. “Geoffrey and I can go to your home in L.A. We don’t need to wait for you.”

  I couldn’t believe Tyler would offer to do that for me. But Joshua spoke up. “Wouldn’t you want to do that yourself?”

  “I think Sherry could,” interrupted Quentin. “I don’t want to stay on this side of the fence any longer than I have to. We could get it done in a day. If we hurry, maybe we can even catch up with the others. Traveling in large groups always takes longer.”

  I glanced at Joshua. He didn’t try to talk me into coming with him but his eyes said it all. No matter what, he wanted me with him; wanted to be there so he could be the one to keep me safe.

  I took the vials out of the bag except for one – in case we needed it – and handed them to Tyler who stuffed them into his backpack.

  “It would be good if you could leave a car on the other side of the fence for our return,” Joshua said. “We might be on the run and won’t have the time to search the area for a ride.”

  “Sure. I’ll hide it in the bushes near the tunnel entrance.”

  I hugged Tyler. “Stay safe,” I whispered. After a moment he returned my hug. “You too,” he said. “And keep Joshua out of trouble.”

  “I will.” As I said it, I realized that was another reason I couldn’t go with Tyler and the Undergrounders. I had become as protective of Joshua as he was of me. I had to make sure he made it home alive.

  As I stepped away from Tyler, tears filled my eyes. This could be the last time we saw each other.

  Joshua and Tyler now faced each other, hands in their pockets. “Be careful,” Tyler said before pulling Joshua into a brief embrace.

  Quentin rubbed Alexis’s back as she buried her face in his chest. It was the first time I’d seen those two so close. With an embarrassed smile, she took a step back to give Marty room to shake Quentin’s hand. The rest of the Undergrounders crowded around their leader, hugging him and saying their goodbyes. I realized then how much he was risking by leaving them in the care of Tyler and helping us on our mission.

  Eventually Quentin joined Joshua and me in the old Nissan we’d chosen for our journey.

  Quentin and Joshua took the fr
ont seats. I sat in the back, staring out of the window as the car moved away. Tyler raised one hand in a final goodbye. I held my hand up to the window and waved slowly. I kept on waving until they had completely disappeared from view.

  An owl hooted – the sound eerie and comforting. Our tent swished in the wind, twigs creaked, trees rustled.

  I stared into the glow of the gas lamp. Bobby lay across from me, his sleeping bag pulled up to his ears but he was awake. Dad was reading a book and making sure that the storm didn’t take our tent with it.

  Something tickled my shin and I shook my leg. It was probably grass that had got into my sleeping bag. But the tickling moved up to my knee. I unzipped the bag and stuck my leg out. Dad looked up from his book.

  A black bug was crawling over my skin. With a shriek I jumped up and danced around to get rid of the insect but it clung to my knee. “Get it off me!”

  Bobby sat up, guffawing. “It’s just a bug!”

  “Get it off me!”

  Dad stood and grabbed my arm. “Stand still.”

  Shaking, I stopped jumping.

  Dad bent down and picked the beetle up. “It’s harmless.” He held his hand out but I turned away, feeling my cheeks redden with embarrassment.

  Bobby was still laughing his head off. “I can’t wait to tell Mom about your dance!”

  Dad smiled at me. “Everything okay?”

  I nodded and sank down on my sleeping bag. Bobby grinned at me over the gas lamp. I poked my tongue out at him but couldn’t help the smile tugging at my lips.

  Chapter 13

  We searched two stores before we found a couple of old cameras and some batteries.

  1 hour and 37 minutes after we separated from the Undergrounders we finally reached the military base, which was a few miles outside of Vegas. We parked a safe distance away and decided to walk the rest.

  “We’re almost there. Let’s stay here until nightfall. It’ll be easier to get inside then,” Quentin said. We leaned against the wall of a run-down building. A faded sign announced that it had been a motel long ago. Windows and doors were missing and the inside was blackened. It looked like it had been set on fire.