“How’re Anna and Ben? The others?” Keith locked the door and angled a wooden chair under the handle. Flimsy protection, but added comfort.
I hesitated. It wasn’t easy to explain.
Cara used my back for leverage to stand. Then she motioned for Keith to join her in the corner.
I peeked at them over my shoulder. Their voices carried, but their words didn’t.
Until Keith exploded. “What? No, that didn’t happen. Ben can’t be… You’re lying!”
Several Anemie kids startled and squirmed closer together.
Cara held her hands up to appease him. “He died doing the right thing.”
“And I suppose the right thing is sticking his neck out for strangers?” Keith countered, gesturing to the Anemies surrounding me.
“They were alone. Defenseless.”
“I know. I know.” He leveled his gaze with mine. “Ben was my best friend. I understand why he didn’t want you around.”
I couldn’t argue with him. Because I agreed.
The Anemie to my right tapped my arm.
“Shh. It’s all right.”
He nodded, but crowded closer to his friends.
“We have a way out,” Cara said.
His hands dropped. They fell into whispers again. When Cara finished, she folded her arms.
Keith’s chest rose and fell with his breaths. He studied the ceiling. The muscles in his jaw tightened. “No. I’m not going with you. It’s too dangerous.”
“We can’t stay here. They’ll find us.”
“We’ve been hiding from Vie and the guards for a long time. We’ll keep on the move, like always.”
“There won’t be any more distributions. What will you do for food and water?”
He stood taller. “We don’t depend solely on the welfare of NCAAR Vie. Anemies know how to survive.” He shot a glare at me. “And we don’t need a Vie to help us run away either.”
“But—”
He sliced his arm through the air to silence her. “Get out of here. Meet your Vie friend and don’t come back.” He kicked the chair to the side and unlocked the door, swinging it open. “Leave.”
I stood, ignoring the stare of the Anemie kids. I extended a hand to Cara. “Take good care of them, Keith.”
“I will. Better than you, too.”
The door slammed behind us with a chilling finality.
“He took that well,” Cara said.
I raised my eyebrows at her.
She shrugged. “You didn’t end up with a new set of bruises. I call that progress.”
I blinked, speechless.
A smile broke across her face. “Your sense of humor is rubbing off on me.” She kissed me on the nose. “Let’s head back to Anna.”
“Good idea.”
We took our time walking the hollow tunnels. No light glowed along the crack under the door to Anna’s room.
“Why is it so dark?” Cara scanned the entrance with the flashlight.
“Maybe she went to sleep.” I opened the door. “Anna, did you shut off the light?”
Cara edged the beam toward the center of the room. She clamped a hand to her mouth and screamed into her palm.
Anna lay in a pool of crimson, the contents of her vascular system spilling out through a nasty tear at her throat. A rusted knife rested in her palm. Her eyes remained open as she gasped.
“Why?” I wailed, dropping to my knees at her side, clamping a palm over her wound to staunch the blood.
My body tremored with broken sobs. Death would never stop.
“I couldn’t… live… without Ben,” she rasped, her fingers curling around my wrist. “Don’t forget what you’re supposed to do.” Her grip tightened. Then, just as suddenly, loosened. Her hand fell to the floor.
“No! Anna!” I shook her.
Her head lolled from side to side. Her eyes stared off into nothing.
“Why, why, why? Why did you do such a stupid thing?” I spat.
Cara slipped her arms around my chest and pulled me up and away from Anna. “Justin. She… I don’t know. It’s what she wanted, I guess. I mean, she’s not suffering anymore.”
Her words sounded hollow, cold like the tunnels surrounding us. The explanation meant little, far less than the value of her life.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know what to say and everything sounds so ridiculous,” she said.
“There’s nothing to say.” I wrapped my arms around Cara. This was the world we lived in. Tragedy, sacrifice, and horror. There was no such thing as freedom. Unless you counted death. Anna wanted freedom with Ben, so she joined him on her own terms rather than waiting for a Vie to do it for her.
“I can’t do this anymore. There’s too much dying. Too much pain.” I hung onto Cara tighter. Air refused to enter my lungs. Breathing was too painful because it reminded me I still lived.
“Shh, yes you can. Keep going. For Anna. For Ben and the others. For Martin and Zack. For Sammie. For me.”
“It’s too late. There’s no fixing this,” I cried. Cara washed the blood from my hands with a rag and some water. Some remained caked beneath my fingernails; something of Anna that would remain with me, like her memory.
“You can’t give up. We can’t stay here. Justin, where can we go? Justin?” Cara grabbed my face and forced me to look at her. “You and I have to stick together. You and me. Together. Remember?”
I nodded slowly.
“Good. Now, where can we go?”
I wiped tears and snot from my face. “As close to the bridge as possible.”
“Get up.” She dragged me to my feet. Kept me moving when I struggled to put one foot in front of the other.
Cara had sacrificed her whole way of life and not by choice. No, she had to give up everything because I made her a fugitive. She didn’t deserve this life. This torment. This curse. I had to let her go before she got hurt. “Alex can take you back.”
Cara turned her face up to me. “What?”
“It’s my fault you’re here in the first place. But Alex is alive, and he could protect you. You can return to your old life.”
“How can you say that?” Her whisper impaled me surer than any stake.
“I just thought…” You’ll die if you stay with me. “It might be easier for you than the forest.”
She squared her jaw. “Do I look like a wimp?”
“That’s not what I meant.” I ran my hands through my hair. “I don’t want you to suffer or die because of me, because either or both things are guaranteed to happen.”
She stared at Anna. “Did it ever occur to you that this is my choice? To be with you. To be free.”
“You don’t want to stay with me. It’s Alex’s trance that makes you feel that way.”
“What gives you the right to make all the decisions for me?” Her cheeks flushed a deep red.
“I don’t…”
“That’s right. You don’t. So shut up. Because I do want to be with you and I am coming with you whether you like it or not.” Then her lips were on mine, squashing any reply I might’ve had.
I cemented my body to hers, terrified she’d disappear.
Year 75, Month 6, Day 8, sunset
ear sunset, we reached the closest tunnel exit to the Fifty-Ninth Street Bridge.
“Come on, there’s still some daylight. At least Vie won’t be around.” I reassured Cara.
Actually, I said it to reassure myself. Soon the whole city would be shrouded in darkness. Hopefully, Alex wouldn’t make us wait long, if Abarron let him off his leash. Otherwise, we’d be sitting blood bags at the bridge.
Cara stood next to me, Zapper in hand and face set, ready for battle. She looked way braver than I felt. “I know. Let’s go.”
“Wait. It’s best to hide that. Let them think you’re defenseless, then they’ll leave you an opening to get ‘em.”
“Good idea.” She pocketed the weapon. A smile spread across her face. “That’s how you do it, isn’t it?”
�
�What do you mean?”
“You play underdog, then no one sees you coming, and you completely knock them out. It’s brilliant.”
No one other than my father had ever given me a compliment before. I blushed. “Well, uh, I…” I scratched the scruff of my neck.
She kissed my cheek. “You can say thanks, you know.”
I laughed. “Yeah. Thanks.”
“Ready?” She hooked her arm in mine.
“No, but what choice do we have?”
We couldn’t hesitate forever. Our only chance of survival would meet us at the bridge, and we needed to get to him. Staying here kept us safe, but only temporarily.
Someone approached the entrance. Cara and I ducked behind a wall. The figure was silhouetted, and I couldn’t make out who it was. Then he flipped his ponytail over his shoulder.
Keith.
He was alone.
“Keith?” Cara left our hiding place.
His head whipped toward us. He paused mid-step. The right side of his face was covered in bruises, his eye swollen shut.
“What happened?” I asked, approaching more slowly, gaze falling to his fingers, also stained with blood.
“Nothing.” He glanced at the entrance like he expected someone to show up.
“You’re hurt.” Cara reached out to touch him.
He smacked at her hand. She gasped, recoiling in fear.
I stepped between them. “Dude, relax. Tell us what happened.”
“Nothing. Never mind.”
“Where are the others?”
“What’s it to you? I’m taking care of things.” He narrowed his good eye at me.
“Which means?”
“We have to do what we have to do to survive.” He launched his fist directly at my nose. Like Ben’s punch, I hadn’t seen it coming. They must’ve exchanged fighting tips.
A human sleigh, I slid down the stairs with Keith riding on top of me. Cara screamed at him to stop.
Keith clamped both hands around my neck and squeezed.
“Urk… urgle.” I pounded aimlessly at his elbows then swung at his face, wide.
He easily ducked away. “If I turn you in, the guards will let me live.”
My head throbbed and lungs burned from lack of air.
Cara lifted the flashlight. She swung her arm, smacking Keith’s skull.
Stunned, he fell to the ground.
“Zapper,” I barked.
Cara yanked it out, jabbed it into Keith’s neck, and pressed the button.
His body jerked as his good eye rolled up.
The bitter odor of burnt flesh singed my nose.
“Enough, Cara.” I barely had the capacity to whisper. Rising to my knees, I propped my upper body on my forearms and focused on breathing.
“Did I kill him?” Horror wrinkled her forehead. Panting, her body shook with adrenaline. “God, what have I done?”
Keith’s chest still moved. He wasn’t dead.
“No, no. He’s okay. Just knocked out.”
“Take this thing.” She shoved the Zapper at me. “We don’t have a chance, do we?”
“What do you mean?” I shifted to face her, tucking the Zapper in my pocket.
“Everyone is against us.”
“I’m used to that,” I joked, plastering a fake smile on my face as I extended an arm toward her. “Help me up?”
The dullness in her eyes meant only one thing. She was losing hope. “We can’t even trust other Anemies. Admit it. Vie or guards will find us and kill us. It’s only a matter of when. So, why are we even bothering?”
“We can trust each other.”
A spark of light flashed in her gaze. It spread to a slow nod. She was coming around.
Which was good because, speaking of guards, they may have followed Keith here. As much as Cara needed it, I didn’t have time to console her more. And I didn’t have time to check out the damage Keith had done to my face. Pushing myself and Cara, I rose to my feet, grabbed hold of her sleeve, and dragged her toward the entrance, and launched into a pep talk that rivaled the one she’d given me after Anna’s suicide. “You, me, together, right? Put one foot in front of the other and keep going. We’ll cry when we’re on the other side of the gate.”
She sniffed. “Okay.”
A block later, we stopped to rest between two large Dumpsters situated halfway down an alley.
“God, my face hurts,” I said. The tangy taste of blood coated my mouth, and my nose twanged in time with my pulse.
“Let me take a look,” Cara insisted, her game face back on. She explored my face with her fingers, starting with my cheeks and then moving in.
I flinched and closed my eyes. “Ouch.”
“Sorry. Can you breathe all right?”
“Yeah. Is it busted?” I halted her inspection by circling her wrists with my hands. Even the slightest touch brought a fresh coat of sweat to my skin.
“I don’t think so.”
“We should get moving again.”
The sun had set fully. Alex would be on his way.
“Where should we wait?” Cara whispered.
I shivered. “Dunno.”
“What about that alcove? We can see most of the bridge from there.”
Full of shadows, it was big enough for the both of us to tuck into. Vie could smell us, no doubt, but any uniformed guards on night patrol wouldn’t.
The night’s silence made me restless. I clenched my fists repeatedly then resorted to picking at my fingernails. With every passing minute, the idea that Abarron stopped Alex became more solid in my mind.
“Are we at the right place?” Cara whispered in my ear. Her breath warmed my neck and made my stomach tingle.
“Yep. Maybe he—”
“Even whispering, I can hear you from a block away. How in the world did you survive without me?” Alex stood before us, motionless, as if he’d been there the whole time.
Cara startled.
“Where did you come from?” I said.
His frown lines spread into a smile. “You don’t have to hear me if I don’t want you to. You look awful. What happened to your face?”
Cara and I crawled out of our hiding spot. “Got into a fight. So, how do we get through the city gate?”
“As always, I appreciate your directness.”
“Before we go, I want the truth about Sammie.” I stood straight.
Alex pinched the bridge of his nose. “And as always, I loathe your stubbornness. I told you I could not save her.”
“And I told you that I don’t believe you,” I said.
He ran a hand through his hair. “Are we really doing this here, now? There isn’t much time.”
“I’m not leaving the city until you bring me Sammie.” This was my last chance. Once I got on the other side of the wall, Sammie’d be gone forever.
“Justin.” Cara’s forehead wrinkled. Her eyes darted between Alex and me.
He sighed. “I cannot do that.”
“The almighty, invincible, immortal, all-powerful Vie can’t do this one simple thing?”
Fury filled his voice, and he impaled me with his cold stare. My heart tripped to double-time in response. “Abarron’s patience with me grows thin. I risk so much to help you, and you reject me at every turn. I’ve almost died twice for you. I’m not sure what else I can do to prove my commitment to your success.”
“You need me to help you and all I want is Sammie, whether she’s alive or… n-not” I choked. “I need to see her.”
“Then you want the wrong thing.”
We stared at each other, Vie to Anemie, both of us pathetic in our own way.
“Guys, we can’t stay here all night,” Cara reminded us.
Alex nodded in agreement. “Think of the bigger picture. You represent freedom for your kind.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“You’re the Bringer of Death. Now stop acting like a spoiled brat.” Alex’s arm shot out in front of us. “Shh. Hold your breath for a moment.”
He cocked his head to the side, listening.
Cara squeezed my hand so tight I thought it might fall off.
He whirled on us, tucked Cara under his left arm, and me under his right. “Stay quiet, and don’t struggle.”
He carried us to the two-leveled bridge then dumped us at its base. Well, he dumped me and set Cara down nicely. Jerk.
The bridge spanned the river and ended at the biodome wall on the mainland. Abarron’s engineers had a gate built on the far side. It would take an Anemie few minutes to cross; Alex could do it in a few seconds.
It wasn’t long after we settled in that fifty guards, marching in pairs, passed us. Each one carried a semi-automatic gun. They wore bulletproof vests, heavy boots, and face shields. As if they needed the extra protection against unarmed Anemies.
My heart thumped so fast, I thought the whole city could hear it.
“The guards have free rein to execute Anemies at all hours now. No time is safe for you,” Alex explained, fishing in his pocket for something. A syringe.
The marching faded, and silence once again shrouded the night.
“I have a booster for you, Cara.”
She accepted the injection, no questions asked.
“What, I don’t get one?” I arched a brow at him.
He harrumphed.
Certain no one else approached, he tucked us under his arms again and carried us across the bridge. It loomed over the water, a proud sentinel left over from another time, a pre-Arrival time.
“Are there guards at the gate?” I asked about halfway across.
“No. Abarron knows Anemies can’t get through so there’s no sense in guarding it. We have at least one thing in our favor.” Alex paused at the gate and released us.
The moon had slipped under thick clouds. Cara retrieved her flashlight. She flipped it on, keeping the beam low.
Alex pulled a keycard out of his pocket. “The door will lock behind you. You’ll have the communicator. I’ll contact you with updates. Be sure to show the recording to the others.”
“You really believe I’m the Bringer of Death.”
“Yes.”
“Showing the video to the Anemies in the forest won’t be enough to convince them. I need to bring them more, like a way to kill Vie.”
Dawn of the Vie (Immortal Aliens Book 1) Page 26
