“Give me a little time, I’ll be ready to go,” Major said, sitting more upright. He took another drink, then looked up. “I saw you, Valerie, in my dream, and bits and pieces of events. I saw the other DiaZem. And I saw. . .” He looked at Griff and then at the ground. “We need to keep moving. We’re running out of time.”
Jack patted Valerie hard on her back as he walked over to O’Connell’s body.
“I can’t,” she said, anticipating another request. “I don’t think my ability works the same for regular people.”
“Nope. Not this one. He deserves what he got.” Jack looked back at her and smiled. He looked over at Courtney, who seemed very much out of place. “Got a hand?”
“How did you do that anyway?” Courtney asked, grabbing under one of O’Connell’s shoulders. “Did you know the lightning would work?”
“No, I didn’t, but once I started, the electricity stimulated the stem cells in his brain to repair itself from the inside out.” Feeling better about the situation, Valerie grabbed a bottle of water and cleaned her arms of the blood. “The damage was corrected. Maybe it just took some time for his brain to reboot. I was scared he wouldn’t wake up.”
“Well, you did good, kid,” Jack grunted as he and Courtney pulled the body to the middle of the road.
“If it is of no concern to anyone, I am pretty close to home. I have someone I need to check in on. It’s been days. I imagine she’s worried about me,” Courtney said, looking between Jack and Valerie.
“No one will force you to stay. We’re all here to protect that which is dear to us. Yours is not any less important.” Valerie wished Courtney would stay, but would not try to convince her.
“Thank you again. I know one day, I’ll be able to repay your kindness. Be safe.”
Courtney walked away, and Jack turned back toward Major.
“Are you just going to leave him there?” Valerie pointed to O’Connell’s body in the middle of the road.
“They will find him better here than tucked behind a bush. Someone needs to take him back to his family. Just won’t be us.” Jack continued to walk over to Major, who was getting to his feet.
“How are you doing, old man? We thought you were down for the count. Can’t keep Austin Major down.” He grasped Major’s arm and pulled him in for a hug.
“Yeah, I think I’m ready. Two shots to the head in one day? Let’s get out of here. Birds are starting to circle.”
Valerie looked up; there were no birds in the night sky.
The last leg of their journey gave Valerie plenty of time to digest what Hyka had said. Even in her rage, she had been right. Valerie needed their guidance now more than ever. With the near loss of Major, the attempt to bring him back was a natural choice. The mission to save lives was embedded into every part of her being. Valerie could not risk losing anyone else. She would fight against the CDC, but still needed to figure out how, and fast.
“What did you see when you were out? What was your dream?” she asked Major after an hour of walking and out of earshot of the others. He was silent for a few seconds, then let out a long sigh and shook his head.
“They die. They all die. All the regular people, until the only people left are the DiaZem and the conductors. It’s happening soon, and I don’t know how to stop it. Hell, I don’t even know what ‘it’ is.” He balled a fist and shook his head. “I’ve known Griff for twenty years. We grew up in the army together. I’ve never had a more loyal friend. I wouldn’t have met Hyka’s mother if not for him, and he was there to pick me back up when she left.” He looked up ahead of them at Griff. He wiped his eyes.
Valerie noticed the drastic contrast from the man he was earlier in the day. Whatever he saw in his dream, he believed it was real.
“He’s tired. Griff,” Major said. “We should stop, but we are running out of time. We’ll be at your place before morning. We’ll rest and stock up there. Gia would have taken Caleb somewhere safe and left behind a clue of some sort. Something in plain sight the CDC wouldn’t pick up on. Something only you would understand.”
“I hope so.”
Their pace had slowed by the time they crested the last hill. Valerie could see the rooftops of her neighborhood. Even with miles left on their journey, she began to run. She passed Griff who had fallen back to let Jack take the lead. As she moved beyond the team, Jack picked up his pace and joined her.
“We’ll go at this pace as long as you can.”
Her lungs burned, and her legs were sore, but the end was in sight and she picked up her speed. Valerie’s heart raced faster than her legs would move. The cold air in her face made her eyes water. She let the tears fall and pushed out any negative thought of failure. She had done something otherwise impossible. She had fought with everything she had to make it this far. The end was within reach. Home represented safety, unity—even the slight promise of reunion. In her space, she could center herself, rest, think. Find the clue and find her son.
Valerie slowed to a walk once she could see her house. The street was quiet, but this was nothing unusual. Her yard, however, was littered with the contents of the garage. Even her porch furniture rested in the bushes. The CDC was so desperate to find her son that they had left nothing unturned. They had also left the front door open.
“Let me go in first,” Jack said as he moved past her with his handgun drawn and ready.
She followed him through the threshold, heart pounding in her chest. Jack moved, clearing the downstairs. She stood in her living room while he finished a sweep of the second floor. Pictures had been pulled off the wall and smashed on the ground. The couches were torn apart, and tables flipped. Her TV was gone. The CDC must have left an easy target for looters.
“House is clear,” Jack announced as he made his way back down the stairs.
Valerie could not hold back the tears. She leaned her weight against the wall and slid down until she sat on the floor. She pulled her knees up and rested her head.
Jack, without a word, began working. He put the tables right side up and replaced the cushions on the couches the best he could in their state. He dusted glass off an armrest and placed a pillow he found on the floor in the corner of the sofa. Then he moved to her. Jack scooped Valerie up and laid her on the couch. He pulled up a blanket and shook hard to free the cloth of debris and covered her. Valerie curled up on the couch. She breathed the familiar air of her home deeply, closed her eyes to shut out the disheveled state of her sanctuary, and was soon asleep.
“Hello?” Valerie jumped at the man’s voice, but Jack beat her to the front door.
“Who the hell are you?” Scott had a handgun pointed at Jack, who stood with his hands in the air.
“Scott!” Valerie ran to him and almost knocked him over. She hugged him hard and buried her face in his neck. She kissed him long and hard before he pulled her away.
“Hon, what are you doing here?”
Scott was not alone. Behind him outside were two men in CDC uniforms waiting by their blue truck. They carried the plastic weapons she had seen at the checkpoint.
“Where is Caleb?” he asked.
“I don’t know where he is,” she answered, and she slid out of his embrace. Though he was in regular clothes, she remembered seeing him in his own CDC uniform in the video Lucas had shown her. She stepped back away from him.
“What happened to you?” Scott started. “Why aren’t you in quarantine? I thought you were at the CDC facility. They let me come home to get Caleb, and we were going to meet you there.” Scott stepped toward her with his arms still open. He noticed Jack again, still standing with his hands in the air, and motioned to him. “Who is this?”
Before Jack could answer, a confrontation broke out by the blue truck, distracting them. Major overpowered one of the men and took his plastic weapon. Hyka had the other in a choke hold. She released him when he stopped struggling. She relieved the man of his gun and shot a stream of blue electricity at him.
“I think he pooped a litt
le,” Hyka said, pointing over her shoulder as she walked up the stairs to the front door.
Scott just stared at her as she let herself in the open door.
“Is this your dude?” Hyka asked Valerie with a nod toward Scott.
“Scott, this is Hyka, Jack, and Major.” Valerie motioned behind Scott outside at Major, who was zip-tying the CDC men.
“Could use some assistance,” Major yelled toward the house.
Hyka ignored her father and walked toward the kitchen. Jack went outside to help Major, leaving the couple in the foyer to talk.
“They are after me, the CDC. But I won’t go. I needed to make sure Caleb was safe. Gia took him somewhere, and we have to find him before they do.” Valerie had no idea where to start.
Scott looked over her shoulder at the destruction in the living room.
“Who did this?” He continued to the dining room and into the kitchen, cabinets were open, and their contents appeared flung across the room.
“The CDC and then probably looters after. We can’t stay here. We need to find Caleb.”
While she had already assessed the physical state of their home, Scott was still trying to process the scene.
“Where is he?” Scott asked again, his frustration and anger at the situation building.
“I don’t know. Gia was supposed to leave a clue. Something I would find and the CDC wouldn’t. But we are running out of time.”
She stopped, realizing while Major had dreamt of the death of his friend, he had, by proxy, also witnessed the death of her husband. They were, indeed, running out of time.
Hyka stood watching them while eating from a bag of potato chips like popcorn at the movies. Her crunching was enough to shake the image from Valerie’s mind.
“We need to search the house. I’ll start upstairs in Caleb’s room if you want to try down here.”
Scott nodded at Valerie’s suggestion. “What am I looking for?”
“I honestly have no idea.”
Caleb’s toys covered the floor of the loft playroom. The TV, DVD player, and all of Caleb’s movies were gone. Looters had even taken his race car bed frame from the boy’s bedroom. She picked up an action figure. Caleb’s current favorite. She tucked the toy into her pocket. The violent state of the room broke her heart. This was once a safe place for her son to play and sleep. She would never feel safe here again. She could never feel safe anywhere. She was still lost in thought when she heard the tune “I Love Paris” coming from downstairs. She left the loft area and walked to the balcony overlooking the living room. Scott was standing with a musical birthday card in his hand.
“Happy 356th Birthday, Mommy,” he read out loud. He threw the card down in a pile he had already gone through.
“That!” Valerie said and ran down the stairs to retrieve the card. The music did not play when she opened it again, but her excitement indicated she had found the clue. “Something I would know and no one else would.”
“She found the thing,” Hyka yelled down into the basement where Jack and Major had taken the CDC men.
Soon the entire company was in the living room waiting for Valerie to explain how the birthday card told her where to find Caleb.
“There is a brand-new resort west of the airport that just opened, twenty minutes from here. The whole place has themed rooms and restaurants. For Gia’s birthday, I took her and Caleb to a restaurant called Little Paris. Caleb told her she was old and said some ridiculous number. But I think this is a room number. They must be staying at the resort in room 356.” Valerie could not contain herself.
“Can we drive this time?” Griff asked from the couch. He had arrived when Valerie was upstairs.
“We have uniforms and a truck. We can travel as CDC without being questioned,” Major offered.
“You guys change,” Valerie suggested. “I’ll grab supplies from the basement. We can’t stay here. If they’ve been holed up at the resort this whole time without being caught, then we should be safe to hide out there for a while until we figure out what to do next. Hyka, can you help me carry stuff up from the basement?”
The women left the men to change into their borrowed uniforms. The basement was unfinished and empty except for a few boxes, and the two men who were zip-tied and still unconscious. Valerie opened a closet next to the stairs. Looters had already picked through the barren shelves.
“So much for that idea,” Hyka said.
“The closet is a decoy. We keep dead batteries here to satisfy thieves, thinking they scored a huge stash. Wait here—I’ll open the door.” Valerie stooped down and followed the closet under the stairs until she came to a small door, just tall enough for her to crawl through. She punched a series of numbers to unlock the miniature door. A couple of seconds later, a section of otherwise empty wall space opened next to Hyka. Valerie grinned so big her cheeks hurt. Hyka walked into a hidden room lined with shelves full of emergency provisions.
“Impressive.” She let out a small laugh.
“Six months of supplies for the three of us. We have cots, rainwater collection in the window well, food, ammo. The windows are bulletproof and fortified but make for fast egress if necessary.” Valerie handed Hyka a couple of five-gallon buckets of shelf-stable food, not knowing how long they would hide out at the resort. Once they sent up the last of the supplies to be loaded, Valerie stole some time alone with Scott as she freshened up.
“You are so beautiful,” Scott said as she pulled her shirt up over her head and turned on the shower.
“A side effect of this whole mess, but something about me makes me different than the rest. They’ve been hunting Caleb to get to me.”
“I can’t wrap my head around any of this. Please, start from the beginning,” he requested.
Valerie explained the week’s events, including her conversation with Max and what Lucas had told her. She told him how she killed a man and brought Major back to life. When she had finished her story, she opened the shower door and reached for the plush towel she had set out. Scott stood from the side of the bath and crossed the space between them. Valerie dried herself. This was the last place he had kissed her goodbye. She regretted not staying in the moment with him before and would not allow the opportunity to escape her again. His eyes locked with hers and she welcomed his gentle touch, running his rough hands over her damp skin around to the small of her back.
With a sense of urgency, she pulled his body against her, kissing his mouth with all the heat and need that had been missing since their last time together. Deepening the kiss, he picked her up, and Valerie’s long damp hair fell forward, brushing against Scott's cheeks. Exiting the bathroom, he took little time crossing the room to the mattress, which was shoved into the corner. As he leaned her back against the crisp sheets, he knocked aside the debris that stood in the way of their reunion.
Valerie felt in control and powerful. She felt whole again, connected to someone who honestly knew her. The feeling of being in his arms was what she had been missing, needing. She collapsed against his chest, his arms around her, caressing her hair as he pressed a kiss on her head. She hoped their passion hadn’t drawn the attention of the guests downstairs, but none of that had mattered the moment that she was back in his arms.
In a fleeting thought of apprehension, Valerie considered the slight chance of the two of them returning home at the same time. If she had not run the remaining miles or if she had not been able to save Major’s life, she would have missed this opportunity. The reunion seemed almost too good to be true, but there they were, together again. Things were starting to turn in her favor. She put her arms around her husband and held him as tight as her strength allowed.
“There were times I thought I couldn’t keep going,” she cried into his shoulder. “I thought they’d catch me and I’d never see you again. I knew I had to fight and push on. I need you, Scott. I can’t do this without you.”
“You’ll never have to. I am not going anywhere. I shouldn’t have left you to begin wi
th. I beat myself up the whole time we were apart. We both should have stayed home. I’m sorry I dismissed your concerns. You were terrified, and all I could think about was how beautiful you are and how lucky I am to have you. I brushed you off and doing so almost cost me everything,” he said, kissing her head, her neck.
She pulled him away from her and looked up into his eyes. “But you don’t understand. Even when we get Caleb, you’re still in danger. We have to run as far away as we can. Now I have you, I don’t ever want to let you go. Everyone keeps wanting me to fight this huge war, but all I want is you and Caleb.” Tears fell down her cheeks. “I feel like I can only have one or the other and I can’t risk losing you. How can I be strong enough without you?”
“Valerie Marie Russell, you are my wife. I didn’t marry you because you needed me. I married you because you make hard choices without blinking an eye. You raise our son to be kind and fair, and you are breathtakingly good-looking,” he laughed. “You never needed me to be those things. I am lucky you chose me to share your tenacity. I’m sorry I don’t spend much time telling you how amazing you are. You keep this house, our son, and our whole lives together. All while handling all the stuff you have going on with work. We will do whatever you choose. If you want to fight this guy head-on, I’m right beside you. If you want to find a cabin in the woods and spend the rest of our days living off the land, I’ll grow a beard and become a mountain man.”
Valerie smiled through her tears. After years together, she had never loved him more.
He pulled her tighter against him. “Let’s go get our son.”
Valerie held Scott’s arm and rested her head on his shoulder in the back of the package truck. He stroked her hair with his free hand. She was almost complete. Having her husband by her side made the entire journey seem trivial. She was minutes from reuniting with her son and would have time to rest. With Scott, she could figure out how to take on the CDC and free the rest of her family.
With no windows in the back compartment, the only light came from strips at the seams of the door. Griff was snoring, and there was no doubt Hyka was napping as well. Jack and Major were in the cab wearing their new blue uniforms, navigating to the resort.
Apparent Power: DiaZem Trilogy Book One Page 14
