I take one step forward and then the next until I am right in front of him. He doesn't take his eyes off me, so I shift mine away.
“Let's go,” I say as I walk past him and board our ship.
He falls in line behind me and places a hand on my back to steady me as I step on board. He still has yet to say a single word to me as we settle in below deck. The captain is a middle aged man who seems nice enough. He introduces himself and then disappears to get us moving.
“How are you?” Lee finally asks.
“Lee,” I respond, “let's not do this whole morning after thing.”
“I meant, how are you after everything with the labs?” he says. “You we pretty upset.”
Now I feel like an idiot. I know that he actually cares because he is a guy that never talks just to fill the silence. Why does he have to be so nice?
“I'm sorry,” I say.
Lee doesn't respond so I keep going, “More people are going to die because of me. If we don’t find Kearn …”
I don’t finish my thought but we both know how it ends. Lee always makes me feel like I can say anything. He is not going to lie to me and tell me that's not true just to make me feel better but he's not going to judge me either. Instead, he reaches across the table to grab my hand. Normally that would be okay, but not after last night. I pull my hand free of his fingers.
“Lee, don't,” I say quietly.
“Dammit, Gabby!” he yells.
I've never heard him raise his voice before so I'm startled.
“Do you really think it all just means nothing?” he asks.
I don't have to ask what he means by “it all”.
“I can’t,” I whisper as I head for the stairs that will take me above deck to escape from this emotionally charged room.
“You don’t own the monopoly on being damaged,” he says before I reach the door. “The difference is that I know it doesn’t mean I’m worthless.”
I escape to the deck and welcome the fresh air. How can everything be so messed up? I finally had a true friend. Lee and I trusted each other. We could talk to each other about anything. I had to go and ruin it, didn’t I? I ruined it for one night of stupid comfort.
Everything I touch turns to rubbish and I’m sick of being that person.
Chapter 26: Gabby
Dangerous days turn into dark nights on the river, but it’s the quiet treatment I can’t stand much longer. It shouldn't bother me because this is nothing new from Lee. He’s usually the strong and silent type but this seems more pointed. He’s deliberately not speaking, which is why I am so relieved when the captain comes into the room. He’s been keeping his distance from us because he’s a Texan through and through. He obeyed Adrian’s orders to get us to St. Louis but he doesn’t like it. To him, we are just the Rebels that attacked his city. We killed people, some of which he might have known. We killed his “prophet”.
“We're here,” he says gruffly.
I look out the small window and all I see is the dark water.
“Then why haven't we docked?” I ask.
“St. Louis is under quarantine,” he says as if I was stupid to even ask.
I know about the outbreak but that doesn't explain why we are still this far out.
“We’re okay’” I say. “We can’t catch it. We’ve had the meds.”
I want to bang my head against the wall as soon as the words are out. The captain and his men haven’t had the meds. His eyes narrow angrily. Now we are the Rebel invaders who are getting special treatment. A faction of the Rebels blew up the labs and every medication inside. Now our lives are being valued over Texan lives.
“The port has been sealed,” the captain says through gritted teeth. “Even if I wanted to risk the lives of the people on this ship, I can’t. No one is allowed in or out of the city.”
“We need to get inside,” I protest.
“Come!” the captain commands suddenly.
We follow him. He brings us to the back of the boat and bends down. He hands us each a paddle and gestures to a small wooden dinghy.
“Now, get off my boat,” he says harshly as he turns and leaves us without another word.
I look to Lee and he just shrugs and jumps down into the tiny boat. I take quite a bit more time. I can’t swim, so being so close to the water makes me jittery. The only time I’ve ever been in a boat this small was when we were fleeing the Texan soldiers that had boarded Captain Collins’ ship. Lee wasn’t with me then. It was Allison, Drew, and Dawn. I didn’t like it then either.
Lee gives me a hand to steady myself. I take it and stare at him as my heartbeat slows and I get my nerves under control. He has that effect on me. I breathe deeply and take my seat as the boat rocks slowly. Lee pushes us off from the larger ship and soon we can’t even see it in the darkness. I hope he knows what he’s doing because I can’t see the docks and have no clue how far we are from them.
I don’t speak for fear that if I open my mouth, I’ll hurl. We row and row and row. It seems never ending.
“Lee,” I say when my stomach finally stops doing flips.
“Yeah?” he asks quietly.
“Do you think there are animals underneath us?” My voice is just as quiet.
“Of course there are.”
As he answers, I bring my free arm in closer to my side in case anything decides to jump up. Lee starts to laugh. Usually I can’t even get a smile out of him and now he's laughing at me?
“Forget about it,” I snap.
“Gabby,” he says my name as he stops laughing, “You shoot guns and go into war and you're scared of the water?”
“I guess it doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?” I ask.
I still feel stupid but there is no way I'm letting him know that.
“Who’s there?” a voice comes out of the darkness as the docks come into view.
“We’ve been sent here from the capitol,” Lee answers.
“The city is sealed,” the man calls back. “You can’t dock here.”
We reach the docks and Lee raises his arm to grab hold of a metal ring.
“Didn't you hear what I said?” the man asks.
“I heard you soldier,” Lee responds.
We can now see the man clearly. He is young, probably close to my age, and he wears a Rebel soldier’s uniform. Lee tells me to grab the dock above us as he hauls himself out of the boat. He throws a rope down and I tie it to the end of the dinghy.
The young Rebel doesn’t know what to do as Lee helps me onto the dock.
“There's an outbreak,” he stammers in one last attempt to get us to leave.
I almost feel bad for him. He’s been assigned to the night patrol of the docks during the quarantine. With no one coming in or going out, it’s a fluff task. He didn’t expect to see anyone tonight.
“We’ll be fine,” I tell him. “Official business.”
I don't tell him that we can’t catch the disease that he may die from. No one in this city is safe except for us. I keep being told that it is not my fault but I can’t help feeling like it is. I did not blow up the labs myself, but I helped those that did. I never thought I’d feel this bad about the labs being gone. We leave the soldier with our boat and start walking towards the government sector of town. We need to report to the city mayor.
“You can’t just leave a dinghy in a boat slip!” the soldier yells. “What am I supposed to do with it?”
I give him a little wave without turning around. It’ll give him something to do tonight.
Chapter 27 : The General
I stare at the list and my hand begins to shake.
“General?” my aide, Evelyn, says. “Are you okay?”
I am standing in front of her desk when I tear my eyes from the page and hand it to her.
“These are the deaths today,” I say, trying to infuse steel into my voice. “Take them out of the records.”
I head back in to my office to do something, but I just stare at the wall, my mind c
hurning.
The clinic is still under quarantine but the disease has not been contained there. TB is working its way through my ranks, the ones that are here anyway. Luckily, most of the troops are deployed to the Texan cities or the Mexican border. Unfortunately, that also means that they are cut off from command. No messengers can get in or out. The outbreak in St. Louis began before ours but we are in the dark as to how it’s progressing. The medicine from Vicksburg’s labs has yet to arrive but my experts tell me it may not work even if it does. It’s a new strain of the disease and by the time a new medicine can be created, our forces could be decimated.
Not everyone dies once they’re infected. Miranda falls into this category. Some people are immune to it all together. Nevertheless, I sign the order. All training and non-essential assignments have been suspended to avoid large groups of people getting together.
I get to my feet and head toward the locked down clinic as I have twice a day for the past week. My daughter is in there. I don’t let her see me because she can’t know I’ve been checking up on her. Her symptoms started yesterday and this strain progresses quickly. My little girl is lying in a hospital bed. They don’t have the personnel to take care of the sick anymore, but Dawn’s friend Drew is there for her. He has proven to be immune.
I watch as Dawn gets violently ill and the sweat pours off her face. My soldiers think that I don’t care about anything, but the sight of my daughter dying is almost too much to handle. For all my power and authority, I feel helpless. I watch Dawn’s face and memorize every feature. She would be amazed at how much she looks like Miranda did at that age. I close my eyes and tears well up beneath my eyelids.
When I open my eyes, I see Drew shaking Dawn. He’s yelling something at her. I can’t take this anymore. I burst into the room and rush to Dawn’s bed. One of the few doctors that’s still alive tells me that I shouldn’t be here, but I am the commander so I will do as I please.
“Dawn, stay with me!” Drew yells.
“What happened?” I ask as I hurry towards him.
“Her pulse weakened as she closed her eyes,” he answers, terrified. “The doc says she needs to sleep but what if she never wakes up?” His eyes turn glassy.
I squeeze Dawn’s hand and then lead Drew over to a couch.
“Rest is the only thing that can help her right now,” I say much more calmly than I feel.
I lean back to get comfortable. Now that I’m in here, I can’t leave, but it’s okay, because this is where I need to be.
“Drew,” I say as I take in the dark circles underneath his eyes, and his nervous hands, “When was the last time you slept?”
“I don't know,” he answers as his leg bounces and his voice sputters. “A few days ago maybe?”
“Stand down, for both your sakes.” I say, not meaning for that to be an order but that’s how it came out. “You need sleep,” I say, softening my words, and he finally leans his head back.
Officer Grace Mills is sitting across the room. She nods to me as I step toward Dawn. She was close with a man in her patrol that was on the list of deaths a few days ago. Lucas Dillon was the first to die. He may have brought TB here. I give her a hopeful look before leaving to find Hunter, the freedom fighter. His immune system burned through the disease in under a day.
As I watch my people around the clinic, grief hangs heavy in the air. They have watched too many people die and they look to me, their leader, to provide them a sense of hope. How am I supposed to give them something that I am lacking at the moment?
I find Hunter standing near a group of soldiers who quickly, but weakly, come to attention. I no longer remember what I wanted to say to the freedom fighter, so I stand silently by him instead.
Suddenly, a doctor rushes up to me. He delivers a bombshell when he says that our Rebel base serves as a kind of incubator for the disease because we use recycled air and live in close quarters.
“We must evacuate or this will just happen again,” he says.
Turning, I say brusquely, “You heard him, Hunter, time to get out of this hole in the ground. We’ll begin preparations as soon as we can get out of the clinic.”
I just hope it’s not too late for my girl.
Chapter 28: Jeremy
I open my palm and see blood. I only started coughing blood today but I’ve been sick for much longer than that. I sit near the side of the road and can’t stop hacking. I’m so damn tired. My muscles ache and I feel like I’m about to pass out. Am I the next one to die?
I crawl into an alley on my hands and knees to wretch. I wipe my mouth on the inside of my shirt and stand. On unsteady feet, I stumble toward the government sector. There is no way I can make it to the Rebel barracks tonight. Another coughing fit forces me back to the ground and I pass out.
“Jeremy?” a female voice says my name, but I can’t raise my head enough to see who’s out here in the dark.
I recognize her voice but my mind is cloudy. I feel a cool hand on my forehead.
“Lee, he's burning up,” she says.
Lee is here? Gabby. The girl must be Gabby. Or am I hallucinating? I try to swat her hand away and tell her not to get too close. I don’t want her to get sick. My words come out all jumbled as Gabby and Lee swing my arms over their shoulders and start to carry me.
We enter a room and they lay me on the bed. I see Gabby pulling something out of her bag and a moment later she sticks a needle into my arm. That’s the last thing I remember, until the sun, and a beautiful voice, wakes me.
“Jeremy,” she coos. “We need you to wake up.”
I open my eyes and see Gabby sitting next to me on the bed. She smiles at me.
“How do you feel?” she asks.
I take a minute to fully wake before responding. My fever is gone and the sweats with it. My head no longer feels like it was cracked open and sewn back together. My cough is still painful, but better. My whole body aches as I sit up.
“I feel better than dead,” I say.
“Drink this,” Gabby says, handing me a cup of water.
“Where am I?” I ask.
Lee is by the window with his back to us but he turns when I start asking questions.
“The government sector,” Lee says with a shrug.
“We went to the mayor,” Gabby explains. “We told him we were here to help with the outbreak, which isn't a complete lie. He was so relieved that someone had been sent to help that he assigned us a flat right in the government sector. All we had to do was give him a shot of this.” She finishes, holding up a small bottle that is now empty.
“That's what you gave me?” I ask.
“Yeah,” she answers, nodding. “It's a good thing we found you. We had just arrived.”
“Getting tired of saving my life, Lee?” I ask, laughing and coughing all at once.
He saved me when British soldiers shot me in the woods on the night they captured Gabby and took her to the Texan capitol. Lee gives me a tight smile, which fades, as my body is taken over by a coughing fit, yet again.
“How long have I been out?” I ask when I can speak again.
“Two days,” Gabby answers. “We wanted to let you sleep off the rest of the illness but we couldn’t wait any longer.”
Her hand has been resting on mine. Lee moves from where he has been scowling at Gabby.
“Let me help you up,” he says when he sees me struggling.
My legs are still weak so I fall back onto the bed, irritated.
“Slowly,” Lee cautions.
“You just need some more rest,” Gabby says.
I want to protest but I know she’s right which only makes me angry. I wasn’t expecting to see her in St. Louis.
“What are you doing here anyway?” I snap, regretting it instantly.
Gabby flinches away from me. It is harsher than she deserves, but I feel like crap. I still haven’t forgiven her for everything that she said before the assault on Texas. She used my little sister Claire’s name like a weapon against m
e. I may never get over that one. Lee moves between us.
“The mayor told us that you’ve been dealing with the refugees,” he states and I nod.
“We’re looking for a man named Joseph Kearn,” Gabby says.
I look at her sharply before asking, “Really? Joseph Kearn?”
“You know him?” Lee asks.
Instead of answering him, I ask, “Why are you looking for him?”
“He is also called the Reverend,” Gabby answers. “He was in cahoots with Tia and Darren Cole when they were in power in Vicksburg. He disappeared a while ago and we’ve been trying to find him.” She pauses and her face grows even more serious, “Jeremy, this man is dangerous. The Coles developed a biological agent that can be weaponized. Joseph Kearn has it and the antidote.”
I knew there was something important about the meeting I witnessed between Kearn and the Mexican man, but Drew didn’t believe me and I haven’t been able to find anything new since he left.
“He's here,” I say. “Or, at least he was a few weeks ago. That’s when I lost his trail.”
I tell them about the rooftop meeting that I saw between Kearn and the Mexican.
“Los Condenados, are you sure that’s what he called it?” Lee demands.
“Yeah. You know what it means?” I ask.
I never paid much attention to the name since I don’t speak Spanish. Lee runs a hand through his hair before focusing intensely on Gabby.
“It means ‘The Damned’,” he says.
A cold shiver runs through my aching bones, as I repeat the name in a whisper,
“The Damned.” A weapon in the hands of our enemy? Gabby tries to hide it, but her face gives away her fear. Her hand subconsciously slides back into mine as she struggles with the new information. She holds her eyes shut and sighs.
Eve of Tomorrow (Dawn of Rebellion Series Book 3) Page 8
