by Sarra Cannon
“Did the virus take her, too?” Karmen asked.
Crash shook his head. “Cancer,” he said. “When I was fifteen.”
“Damn. That must have been devastating.”
“You have no idea,” he said. He didn’t like to think about everything he’d had to do to survive when his mom died.
“What did you do without your parents? Did you have any place to go?”
“I followed in my mother’s footsteps,” he said with a smile. “I was resourceful. I was put into the foster care system for a while, but after I earned enough money, I bought a new identity off a shady guy and pretended I was eighteen. I quit going to school, staying on people’s couches until I made enough money to rent that apartment.”
Karmen lowered her head. She looked like she was going to cry.
“What?” he asked.
“I feel terrible,” she said. “I was so ugly to you and insulting about that apartment. Just knowing what you went through to get that place on your own when you were alone and so young. I’m sorry.”
On instinct, he leaned over to touch her arm.
The moment his skin touched hers, a vision flashed in his mind. He was transported to a place where a deep red ocean stretched out as far as the eye could see. The two of them were standing on a shore made of black sand, watching as the fiery waves crashed against the beach and lapped at their bare feet.
She was the same, but different. Older. Still just as hauntingly beautiful. She’d been crying over something, but he couldn’t remember what.
Just as suddenly as it had begun, the vision disappeared and he was back in the farmhouse.
He gasped and pulled away.
Karmen’s eyes widened. “What just happened?” she asked, her voice trembling.
“Did you see that, too?” he asked. He thought he was going crazy. It had felt so real.
She nodded, her chest rising and falling rapidly with each breath.
“Was that us?” he asked. “How is that possible?”
“I have no idea,” she said.
She lifted her eyes to his and he knew her. Not just in this life. In many. He knew it deep in his bones.
“What was that place?” he asked. It couldn’t have been real. No ocean on the planet was red like that.
Karmen took a deep breath and shook her head, her face going through a mix of emotions before she settled on a strangely beautiful smile.
“This may sound crazy,” she said. “But I think it was home.”
The sewers were his only chance.
He’d studied the maps of Manhattan and there was no other way. The streets might be less crowded with those things during the day, but there were enough of them roaming around even in sunlight to make it too dangerous for him.
The subway tunnels would probably be even worse than the streets. It was dark down there, and the boy had a feeling it was one of the places the dead went to hide during the day.
The sewers were the only place he could think of where he might be safe. Even if a few of the undead had found their way down there, there would be enough tunnels and hiding places for him to avoid them if he needed to.
He wasn’t looking forward to being alone in the dark down there. He knew it would stink, but he would rather stink and be alive than risk the streets and die.
He wished there was a way to get his hands on a map of the sewer systems, but he wouldn’t have even known where to look for one. Some kind of government building? It would be too dangerous even if he knew exactly where maps like that were kept.
His only hope was to go below the surface of the streets and try to follow them as best he could. He could tell just by studying the map that the guardian was somewhere on the island of Manhattan, near Central Park. He had circled a four-block area where he had felt most drawn to her power.
He would have to do his best to get close enough to where she was before he came out of the sewers to search for her. That would be the most dangerous part of his mission. Once he was above ground, he would be in danger of being seen by the rotters. If the Dark One found him, she wouldn’t rest until he was killed or captured.
He could end up putting the other guardian in even more danger if he wasn’t careful. But he also knew from his dream-talks with the old man that once they were together, their powers would increase. If he could only get to her, everything would be better. He would bring her back to his apartment if he could manage it. They could hide here together until the others found them.
It was risky, but what choice did he have? He couldn’t stay here alone for the rest of his life. There was work to be done, and he couldn’t do it on his own. He needed them, and they needed him, too.
Did any of them know more about what was going on than he did? Were they searching for him?
He was tired of being alone with his thoughts.
Tomorrow morning, when the sun came up, he would start his journey. He would take his time, sleeping in the sewers if he could, until he got to her.
The boy folded his map and placed it in his backpack. It was just an old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles backpack his mom had gotten him second-hand before school started, but he smiled when he looked at it. If the Ninja Turtles could handle living down in the sewers, he could, too.
He knew they weren’t real, but zombies weren’t supposed to be real either. Human boys weren’t supposed to be able to run seventy miles per hour.
But he could.
He finished packing the supplies he thought he might need on his journey. A flashlight and some extra batteries. Food and water. A change of underwear. A black hoodie that was way too big for him, but would hide his face and keep him warm if he needed it.
When he was finished, he climbed into the safety of his dark closet and rested his head against the bag, thinking that before this all started, he had wanted to believe in superheroes.
Now, he had become one.
And out there somewhere, someone was counting on him to rescue her.
Waves pounded against the side of the boat. It was too small of a boat for such rough waters, but they didn’t have too much farther to go.
Parrish looked around, part of her knowing she was dreaming, but another part feeling like it was more memory than dream. She’d been here before.
In the distance, she saw the small strip of land and pointed. Her companions nodded and kept rowing. Crash on one side, Noah on the other. Karmen sat at the other end of the vessel, talking to another young man Parrish didn’t recognize.
No, that wasn’t exactly right.
She didn’t know his name and she was sure she’d never seen him before, but somehow she knew him. But how?
Inside the dream, she couldn’t think clearly enough to know how she recognized him, but he belonged there with the four of them. They were a group, and they were almost done with their work. Just one important mission left before they could rest.
The boat finally pulled onto the small white-sand beach, and Parrish jumped out, the skirt of her dress floating in the water as she helped pull the boat onto the sand.
“This is it,” she said.
Her familiar katana was strapped to her back with a strip of tied leather, but she looked so much different than she did now. She was older and dressed in very different clothing than the kind she usually wore.
The others were different, too. If she had to make a guess, she’d have said Noah looked about thirty or thirty-five years old. He wore black pants and a white shirt, his hair long and wavy, tied behind his neck with a black ribbon.
“Do you have the stone?” she asked the young man. He had dark, smooth skin the color of ebony and his eyes were black and beautiful.
He nodded and handed the stone to her.
She stared at it, feeling its weight on her palm even in the dream. She turned it over in her hand, studying the symbols etched into each of its five sides.
A cross. A bolt of lightning. A rose. A spiral. And finally, an infinity symbol. She ran her fingertip over the last symbol, f
eeling along the grooves as something important clicked into place in her mind.
This is my symbol. It always has been.
“Let’s get this over with,” Karmen said, climbing out of the boat. “I want to go home.”
Parrish caught her friend’s arm as she passed. “We aren’t going home,” she said. “That’s why we’re here on this island. We can never go home again, don’t you understand that?”
“What if I refuse to stay?” Karmen asked, pulling her arm away.
“We brought her here to this world,” Parrish said. “It’s our responsibility now to watch after the people who live here. We are their guardians now. It’s not your decision anymore.”
Tears welled up in Karmen’s eyes. Her face had aged, but she was still a beauty even then. Her hair flowed down her back almost to her knees, and the wind carried it up like a sail.
“I didn’t ask for this,” she said.
“None of us did,” Parrish told her. “But we cannot argue against destiny.”
Karmen closed her eyes and Parrish grabbed her hand. They had been through so much, and it broke her heart to know that for them, it would never truly be over. Someday this world would need them again, so they had to do this one thing that would guarantee they were still around when the time came.
Together, the five of them made their way to the center of the small island. There was nothing more than a few lonely trees on this land, and Parrish knew that after their spell had been cast, it would be impossible for human eyes to ever see or discover it. This would be their place, the keeper of their memories.
She nodded to the young man and he smiled. He pulled a small dagger from his belt and began to draw an outline in the sand. A circle in the center with five lines radiating from it like the sun. At the end of each line, he drew a symbol from the stone.
When he was finished, he put his dagger away and closed his eyes. With palms raised toward the sky, he knelt at the center of the circle. All around them, the ground rumbled and shook. Black stone rose from the sand, filling in the design the man had drawn and making it permanent.
He opened his eyes and nodded to Parrish.
“Take your places,” she said.
Each of them moved to their place around the spire, stepping onto the pillar that held their symbol. Noah on the cross. Karmen on the rose. The young man on the spiral. Crash on the lightning bolt.
Parrish walked to the center of the spire and placed the stone inside a five-sided hole. It fit perfectly and as it descended into its place deep inside the black spire, the line from the center to each of the pillars lit up with a brilliant light.
All except hers.
Parrish stepped carefully through the sand and stepped onto the pillar with the infinity sign carved inside.
A bright light flashed before her eyes and she opened them, sitting up with a choked gasp.
The dream fell away as quickly as it had come and she was back in the farmhouse, sunlight streaming through the windows.
She squinted and looked up at a smiling Noah.
“Sorry to wake you up, but we need to get going,” he said. He studied her and frowned. “Are you alright?”
She shook her head and closed her eyes, wishing the dream would come back to her. She had the feeling she’d been on the edge of discovering something very important.
But all that lingered was the memory of the spire on the beach. The symbols etched into the stone. What did it all mean?
“I’m fine,” she said. “I just had a vivid dream, that’s all. Where is everyone else?”
“Loading up the truck,” he said. He lowered his hand to hers and helped her up.
She stared at him, suddenly remembering the image of him standing on the white beach, his hair tied back and his face older, but familiar.
“You sure you’re okay?” he asked.
“I’ll be fine,” she said. But the memory of the dream lingered long after they’d closed up the old farmhouse and started the journey to the compound. Something about it had rattled her. Something beyond the fact that it had seemed like a memory or that she’d felt connected to the symbols on the stone.
They were a couple hours into the trip when it finally hit her.
She sat up in the back of the Humvee and glanced over at the new girl. Lily.
Everyone in this truck had been there on the beach.
Everyone but her.
The drive to Philly was quiet and mercifully uneventful. The roads in some places were clogged with traffic, but it was nothing the Humvee couldn’t handle. He’d been driving the whole way, and even though he hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before, he was living on pure adrenaline at the thought of what might be waiting for them in Pennsylvania.
He’d convinced Karmen to ride up front with him and they’d talked about their favorite books the entire ride up. She was actually a pretty cool person when she wasn’t trying to push everyone away.
They’d grown quiet as they got closer to the city, though.
The idea of a safe place to live was exciting, but there were so many unknowns. How would it change their group? Would they still be able to spend a lot of time together? Or would the bond they’d created slowly begin to unravel?
“Does anyone need a restroom break before we get any closer?” he asked, kind of hoping someone would need to stop. It was around three and it was hot. He prayed the armory had air conditioning or it was going to be a rough summer ahead.
“I could use a break,” Lily said. She stared out the front window and placed a hand to her temple.
Crash’s eyes widened. How had he never noticed her hand before now? It had been severely burned, the scars traveling up beyond the sleeve of her shirt.
Had she been wearing long sleeved shirts the whole time she’d been with them? It hadn’t occurred to him before now, but he was pretty sure she had, which was strange considering the heat. Maybe she was embarrassed about the scars.
She caught him looking and pulled the sleeve up past her fingertips, her hand disappearing inside the fabric.
He decided not to ask her about it.
“Do you want some Tylenol?”
“Tylenol?” she asked.
“For your head,” he said. “The way you were touching your forehead made me think maybe you had a headache.”
“No,” she said, looking away. “I’m fine.”
Crash continued down the road another mile and turned in to the first place he could find—a pharmacy just on the outskirts of the suburb they were heading toward.
“My friend said most of the pharmacies had already been cleared out, but we may as well check inside to see if there’s anything useful.”
Everyone piled out of the Humvee and went through the process of clearing the place out. There were a handful of rotters inside, but it was becoming second nature to kill and move on.
Crash headed to the pharmacy section and jumped over the counter. His friend Tank had been right. Someone—actually, several someones by the looks of it—had already ransacked this place. There wasn’t so much as a single pill left behind the counter.
“Find anything?” Noah asked.
“No. You?”
Noah shook his head. “The most useful thing I found was a pack of ballpoint pens and a few spiral notebooks,” he said, holding them up. “Parrish and I have both been journaling. I thought I’d see if she wants a couple of them.”
Crash smiled. How cool would it be to see Parrish and Noah’s journals on the shelves in a bookstore someday, long after this plague had been eradicated and the world had gotten back on its feet? A chronicle of how they won the war against the rotters. It was a nice thought.
When everyone had finished in the bathroom, they climbed back into the Humvee and got back on the road. They were close now, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that the whole dynamic of their small group was about to shift. Parrish held the map open to help him navigate through the suburb. Lily sat behind her, her burned hand on her forehead
the entire time. Crash wondered if she was really okay.
The drive from the pharmacy to the armory should have only been about fifteen miles, but it took nearly four hours to navigate the clogged streets of the town. The place was a real mess, and he had started to worry that they wouldn’t be able to find a way through and would have to resort to hoofing it. He finally found a street that was open and nearly cried for joy when the National Guard Armory came into view.
“Damn, this place is pimp,” he said as he pulled up to the gate. It was dark out, but the armory was lit up with floodlights mounted to the sides. He leaned forward to get a better look at the makeshift barbed wire fence his friend had constructed around the building. “No rotters getting in here without taking some serious damage.”
“Oh, thank God,” Karmen said. “I had nightmares that we’d get here and find it overrun, just like that safe-zone we tried near our house. Also, I have to pee again.”
Crash laughed. What would that girl do without modern conveniences like bathrooms?
“It looks secure,” Noah said.
“Let me go talk to the guard and tell him who we are,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”
Crash took his gun, just in case, and walked to the front gate. A small guard post had been built up by the fence. It was barely bigger than a small closet, but it was fortified with sheets of solid steel. No way a rotter was breaking through that. Through a small window, he could see someone sitting there, immersed in a Nintendo DS game.
Some guard.
Crash knocked three times, following the instructions Tank had given him the day before. A small slat in the middle of the upper half of the door slid open. A pair of hazel eyes peered out at him.
“May I help you?”
“My name is Crash,” he said. “Tank’s expecting us.”
The slat slid closed and Crash waited as several locks clicked open on the other side. After a short wait, the heavy steel door creaked open and a tall, lanky white guy with shoulder-length, greasy hair nodded to him. He held a plain brown clipboard and a pen.
“How many?”
“There are five of us,” he said.
