by Rachel Aukes
I nodded, but we hadn’t heard from the capital since the fires. “I’ll try.”
“No.” He shook his head harder and pulled out a slip of paper. He held it out, and I grabbed it. He continued. “You must promise me that you’ll deliver these items to the capital. You must do it soon, before the samples start to break down. Bonnie can direct you on the temperatures they need to be maintained at.”
I read the list. His journals, blood samples from the kids, him, and Henry, and the antigen samples. I handed the note to Clutch and watched him as he read it.
“I’m dying,” Dr. Gidar said. “But my research will save countless lives. That’s why I need you to bring it to the capital. I know you’ll have to leave the safety of New Eden. It’s dangerous out there, but I remember your father telling me you had become a pilot.” He smiled. “He was so proud of you. He spoke of how you succeeded at anything you set your mind to. You’ll make it through.”
He coughed and winced. Blood speckled his lips. “Your father was a man of his word, so I’m counting on the same from you. I need your word that you’ll deliver these items to the capital as soon as you can.”
I looked at Clutch, pleading for I don’t know what in my gaze. He watched me, his jaw hard but his gaze soft. “If you do this, I’m going with you.”
I gave a tight nod and inhaled deeply. “You have my word, Dr. Gidar. I’ll deliver your research and samples to the capital.”
“Good,” he said, and he sank down into the couch.
He died several minutes later. Clutch and I stood there, Clutch with his sword, and I with my machete, ready for Dr. Gidar to awaken.
Thank God he never did.
We waited an hour before we let Bonnie check his pulse and take several blood samples. We carried him out the back and placed him in the wood coffin Hugh had built. The two of us stood outside, and I went to close the coffin, when Clutch put a hand on my arm. He pulled out his knife. “We need to play it safe.”
I nodded and took a step back as Clutch stood by Gidar’s head. I watched Clutch lift the blade and bring it down. No blood splattered, but I knew Clutch hadn’t missed. He shut the coffin and we headed back inside.
Bonnie came running out. “Wait! Bring him back inside.”
“But he’s dead,” I said.
“His heart rate had slowed too much for me to get a pulse. But, his cells were still alive when I checked them. He’ll be like the kids, but he’ll live.”
I swallowed the bile rising in my throat. Bonnie must’ve seen something in our gazes because she shoved past us and to the coffin. She raised the cover and gasped. “What have you done?”
“We thought he was dead,” I said weakly.
“I take full responsibility,” Clutch added.
“You killed him.” Her words dripped with venom.
“We couldn’t risk him turning,” Clutch said.
She watched us, her jaw lax, for a long moment. Finally, her eyes narrowed and her jaw clenched. “Don’t let his death be in vain. Make sure you do what you promised him.”
I lifted my chin. “We will.”
I spun around and cut through the house and out the front door. Clutch caught up and kept pace alongside me. I reached out my hand, and he took it. He didn’t let go, not even after we reached the silo.
Inside, we went straight to Justin’s room. “Dr. Gidar is dead,” I said. Not waiting for a response, we left and headed to the dorm where the remaining Fox survivors were eating. Clutch and I took turns in telling the events that had transpired and our mission.
“I’m in,” Griz said.
“You’re not going anywhere without me,” Jase added.
“Without us,” Hali said, giving Jase a look. “We’re a team.”
“You know I’ll go,” Vicki said.
“I would go, too,” Deb started. “But…”
“I know,” I said. “And, I understand.”
“Are we going to fly?” Benji asked, his eyes wide. “I’ve never flown before.”
I smiled. “You’ll go on the next trip. We don’t have much room this time. Actually,” I said sheepishly. “I’ve never flown anything bigger than a four-seater.”
“We can’t all go,” Clutch said. “We’ll scout airports tomorrow. There are two within twenty miles of here.”
Jase raised his hand. “Uh, we know the capital is in Saskatchewan, but that’s a pretty big area. Any idea exactly where we’re going?”
“A place called Moose Jaw.”
JUSTICE
Chapter XVIII
Christmas lights draped from the guardrails of the walkways, giving the silo a festive ambience. Except for the Marshall survivors, no one seemed to notice that a brilliant man had died yesterday. Justin had given everyone the day off. The excitement was palpable as residents prepared for tonight’s Christmas Eve celebration. Nearly everyone—even the non-Christians—was helping decorate and plan skits. People were smiling. Benji was in a wild group of seven kids running down the walkways.
Clutch, Griz, and I were included in the few exceptions. We were fully geared up and on our way topside when we ran into Justin. “Good morning,” he said with more enthusiasm than usual. “You’ll be back before dark, won’t you? Everyone’s been looking forward to the banquet for some time.”
“That’s the plan,” Clutch said.
“One, maybe two airports, and then invite Sister Donaldson and Connie to tonight’s banquet,” I said, neglecting to mention Henry’s name. “It’s a full day.”
Justin nodded. “If they happen to bring Connie’s husband, we’ll have him stay in the lab with the others.”
“Understood,” Clutch said. “We’d better head out.”
Justin stood off to the side. “It looks to be another sunny day. Be careful out there.”
“We always are,” Griz said as we walked past Justin and outside.
New Eden’s vehicles were all parked outside the silo by a new gate installed after the fires.
Dozens, if not hundreds, of starlings flew over the ruins of New Eden. Birds were one of the few species that multiplied after the outbreak. Like mice and cats, they were everywhere now, and I had nightmares where the birds became sick like the dogs and wolves and would dive-bomb us. It wasn’t as bad a nightmare as some.
Luckily, these starlings seemed to have no interest in us, to dive-bomb or otherwise, as we headed toward our vehicle. Clutch and Griz chose our Humvee since a few inches of snow still blanketed everything. It was full of gas, along with six five-gallon containers full—we always kept everything ready in case we had to make a sudden evacuation.
As we approached the vehicle, I glanced at Griz. “Shotgun, sucker.”
Griz held up the key, a shit-ass grin on his face.
My eyes widened, and I made eye contact with Clutch. He took off running, and I leapt forward. He had a head start and reached the passenger side first. When he reached for the door, I tackled him from behind. He went down on a knee before catching himself and somehow managing to grab me and flip me over him. I landed on my back with a thud, and the air was knocked from my lungs.
I looked up to see Clutch standing over me. He tried to give me his mean look but failed, and he held out a hand. I grabbed it, and he pulled me to my feet. I pouted. “Bully.”
“It was self-defense,” he countered before he brushed snow from my hat. When he looked at me, I could see warm love in his brown eyes, and it melted me. I smiled and leaned into him, and he wrapped his arms around me.
The Humvee’s engine roared to life, and we broke apart. Clutch opened the front passenger door, but instead of climbing in, he held the door open for me. I grinned and jumped in. “Thank you.”
He climbed in the backseat, “Remember, paybacks are hell.”
Griz drove through the gate, which the guards closed as soon as we’d left the safety of New Eden. The roads weren’t as bad as I’d expected. Other than a few high drifts, which Griz seemed to take pleasure in plowing through, we m
ade pretty decent time to the first airport, where we were able to fill up over fifty gallons of avgas into plastic containers and stack them in the Humvee. It was a small airport with fourteen hangars and without a zed in the vicinity. After we scared off the lone dog, we checked out each hangar. Unfortunately, not a single plane would start. We could jump start a couple, but I was hoping to find a plane that started without any issues the first time. Call me superstitious, but I felt more comfortable in a plane that didn’t need encouragement to run.
After burning two hours there, we moved on to the second airport, which was only twelve miles away. The drive was peaceful, and I found it odd how not a single zed shambled around. No animals roamed the fields—the packs of dogs seemed to stay near towns. Every field we passed could’ve come straight out of a Bob Ross painting.
The second airport was larger than the first, with both a paved and a grass runway. I didn’t like the row of trees off the end of the paved runway. Too many things—both two-legged and four-legged—could be hiding in there. The airport had twice as many hangars, with a large corporate hangar close to the airport office. Three zeds watched us from inside the office, and we quickly dispatched them.
This time, we only had to go through three hangars to find a plane that started. A big Cessna 210. It was more complex than anything I’d flown before, but it had four seats and could be loaded down with anything we could stuff into it. Like enough fuel to get us to the capital and back home again.
I gave one final look at the plane and put my hands on my hips. “Project Moose Jaw is a go.”
“You’re so adorable when you try to talk Army,” Griz said as he and Clutch pulled the hangar door closed.
An eagle soared overhead, and I watched it ride a thermal. My soul lifted. Soon, I’d be up there again, like that eagle.
Our last stop of the day was Picadilly and Connie’s house. The only other time we’d been there before, we’d left in a hurry. Since that visit two months ago, the squadron dropped off a box of food every other week…up until the snowstorm, when all travel had been halted.
We drove past the small store that served as a New Eden outpost and pulled up outside the two-story house. We cautiously stepped through undisturbed snow and up porch steps. I looked through the window. A wilted peace lily sat in the center of the kitchen table. “Looks like nobody’s been here for a while.”
After throwing a quick glance at Griz and me, Clutch knocked on the front door. “Sister Picadilly? Connie? We’re from New Eden. Anyone home?” He waited for a minute before knocking again. “We’re coming in.”
He turned the handle and then shoved his shoulder into the door. It burst open, and we stepped inside. No fire burned in the fireplace, and I could see my breath. The boxes the squadron delivered sat in the kitchen, filled with empty cans and garbage.
“Hello?” Clutch called out.
I looked around. “Maybe they’re out.”
“Yeah, maybe they went to the mall,” Griz said.
I flipped him off and followed Clutch up the stairs.
As soon as the smell hit me, I reached for my machete. Death.
Zeds smelled like death.
Two doors were open. The only closed door was to the same room Henry had been in when we were here last time. Griz moved from behind me and checked the first of the open bedrooms while Clutch checked the other. I stood in the hallway and watched the closed door, while glancing down the stairs every few seconds.
When Clutch and Griz returned, they moved to the closed door. I stayed behind them. Clutch rapped his knuckles on the door. Nothing. He looked back to Griz who nodded, and Clutch opened the door.
No zed jumped out, and Clutch stepped inside. Griz followed.
“What the hell?” Griz said.
“What is it?” I asked, still keeping an eye on the hallway.
Neither answered, and both emerged from the room and closed the door.
I looked at both of them. “What’s in there?”
“They’re dead,” Clutch said. “All three of them.”
I frowned while I tried to make sense of his words. “They’d survived so long. Why would they give up now?”
“Oh, they didn’t give up,” Griz said and brushed past me.
“What? What do you mean?”
“They were killed,” Clutch replied.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “There weren’t any signs of violence downstairs.”
“Trust me,” he said. “They didn’t die by their own hands. Whoever killed them was thorough.”
“Oh.” Thankful I wouldn’t have the images of the corpses of Picadilly, Connie, and Henry seared into my brain, I followed Clutch downstairs. “They were good people. Who would do such a thing?”
Downstairs, Griz stood by the back door and held up a hand. He made a gesture to Clutch, who nodded and moved closer to him. Clutch looked at me, held up his hand, and then pointed at the ground. Stay here. I frowned but nodded, not moving. What had Griz seen or heard?
Griz opened the door, and the two took silent steps outside. I moved to the door but didn’t go outside. Clutch and Griz were at the small detached garage. They slammed open the door and rushed inside. A racket ensued as though an entire shelf of paint cans fell at once. Someone shouted and then there was eerie silence.
After an interminably long minute, Clutch and Griz emerged, dragging an unconscious man with greasy brown hair between them. I ran outside and stopped cold when I recognized who they’d found. He had three fingers missing from his left hand.
I felt myself grow faint.
Hodge.
Chapter XIX
Christmas day
Hodge wasn’t dead. The leader of the Black Sheep—Camp Fox’s captor—was alive. He bore a scar from where my bullet had skimmed his neck. If my shot had been one inch more accurate, the murderer would’ve been dead.
I stood outside the silo, my shirt doing nothing to block the cold air. “They’d be alive if I’d killed him when I’d had the chance.”
“It’s not your fault, so get that thought out of your head,” Jase said while he rolled snow into a ball. “There aren’t any guarantees in this life. Picadilly and the others could’ve just as easily been killed by zeds or animals than by Hodge. That you clipped him while he was speeding away with his tail between his legs is amazing enough.”
I sighed and rested my head against the concrete wall. “I can’t believe that he’s been near New Eden for months. We’ve been feeding him. For all we know, we led him to the house, and he killed them.”
“You can spend all day wondering what happened, but unless he talks, we’ll never know. So, quit beating yourself up over it.”
“But, Camp Fox is gone because of him. He killed so many people…Tyler—”
“I know,” Jase said softly before scowling and tossing the snowball at a tree. “But, he’s not going to hurt anyone else ever again.”
I sighed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
He stuck out his chest. “Of course I’m right. Now, let’s get inside before we freeze to death out here.”
We entered the silo to find a flurry of activity. I stopped the first person we came to. “What’s going on? I didn’t think the Christmas stuff was starting for a couple hours yet.”
“Justin decided to get Hodge’s trial out of the way. They’re bringing him up now.”
Jase and I glanced at each other, and we both hustled toward the control room, which served as town hall. Justin stood there, with Dr. Edmund at his side. Clutch and Griz, surrounded by a dozen other guards, led a bound Hodge up the steps and before Justin.
Hodge was clean now, a stark difference from how he’d been a few hours earlier. My brain would be forever scarred with seeing his naked body after we brought him to New Eden. I’d stood guard while Clutch and Griz had stripped him out of his flea- and lice-infested clothes before bringing him into the silo. The man hadn’t bathed in months and reeked of sweat and shit. He’d even had the gall to wag
his tongue at me when he stood naked in the snow.
“Like what you see, don’t ya,” he’d said.
“Not impressed,” I’d said drily.
Clutch had also replied for me with a punch to Hodge’s stomach. I’d smiled when the man was bent over, dry heaving his guts out. It was then I’d seen the scar across the side of his throat—the one I gave him.
He should’ve been dead.
Instead, he stood in New Eden, healthy and fed.
“Hodge, you have been judged and found guilty by a jury of New Eden citizens. You are here today to receive sentencing for your crimes in leading a group of bandits into ruthlessly attacking, without provocation, the peaceful citizens of New Eden, Camp Fox, and other groups of survivors. Your Black Sheep are responsible for over one hundred murders of innocent people, including children. You have been a festering sore on the communities working hard to rebuild after the outbreak. What do you have to say for yourself?”
Hodge spat on the floor. “Fuck you.”
“So be it,” Justin said. “Whether you live or die will be in the hands of fate.”
Hodge laughed. “You think you can live like you could before? That you can have laws and jails? That’s bullshit. The zeds have already won the war. To survive, you have to be like the zeds. You have to take what you need, or else you’ll die. Hell, you’re dead already. You just don’t know it yet.”
“It’s ironic you say you must be like the zeds,” Justin said. “Because, in a way, that’s your punishment.”
Hodge cocked his head.
Justin continued. “Our people are working on a vaccine against the virus. We lost our lead researcher two days ago, but our research team, with the guidance of Dr. Edmund, has isolated an antigen. You will serve as its test subject. If you survive, you will serve out the rest of your life, however long it may be, in a tiny prison cell.”
“Ha,” Hodge called out. “Give me what you got. I’ll outlive you all.”
“We shall see.” Justin motioned to Dr. Edmund.
