Emerge (17 page)

The fact that my arms, feet, and nose were ice cold eventually rose to the forefront of my subconscious. It took several more minutes for that irritation to jolt me awake. And as I woke, I realized why that freezing sensation had come back:
 

Cricket was gone. And she had taken the warmth with her.

My eyes sprang open. Not only was Cricket missing, so were her winter coat and the backpack that she never let out of her sight.

I sat up and felt around for my clothes. When I reached for my coat, my hand fell on my PulsePoint. I knew I hadn’t left that out.

I scrambled to get dressed and pull my boots on. I climbed out of the tent and secured the camping gear the best I could, then quickly scanned the area for any sign of where Cricket had gone. It was still very early, and only a little light filtered through the trees.
 

Had she left me sleeping in order to enter New Caelum alone? How could she possibly think she would survive without my help?

And she had left my PulsePoint out. Had she left me a note?

I started to turn it on and check, then remembered how Cricket warned me that she was careful not to leave any tracks that might lead anyone to the campsite. I wouldn’t want to activate the PulsePoint here and risk bringing people to her sacred spot.
 

So I started down the hill, and waited until I was far enough away before I turned on the PulsePoint. And as I feared, she had sent me a note:

Westlin,

In another life, I would have loved the fact that you found me again. But this is not that life. I don’t know what’s happening at New Caelum, but for some reason they cut you off, and after witnessing their murderous acts last night, I hope that you will decide to stay away from there. I will do what I can to save your sister, and to make it back out.

Please understand that I, with the help of Zara and Dax, have already ensured my safe escape. Please don’t interfere. You’ve been given a chance at a completely different life, if you want it. I hope you’ll go back to Caine and your friends and wait for me there.

I asked you if you had been happy inside New Caelum. Content is not good enough. I hope you’ll take this chance I’ve given you to stay on the outside and find happiness. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get the chance to get to know each other again.

Love,

C

“You’ve lost your mind!” I shouted. I was a second away from shattering my PulsePoint against a tree trunk, but stopped short, knowing I might yet need this one connection to the inside.

How had I given her the impression that I desired any sort of life on the outside? I had no intention of living out here, and I had every intention of one day leading New Caelum into the next era.

I rounded a bend in the path and faced New Caelum’s outer gate. Had Cricket truly gone in there without me? How did she get past the gate without being shot?

I stared down at my PulsePoint. She’d obviously turned her own PulsePoint on in order to message me—and that meant she’d alerted anyone watching for it to the fact that Christina was, in fact, alive. That was a big risk, and I knew she hadn’t made that decision lightly.

Maybe it was time for me to take a risk, too.

Since I’d left New Caelum, the only person I’d tried to contact had been my mother—because, of course, she was the only one who knew I had left the city. But she wasn’t answering, and it was a safe bet that everyone else had figured it out by now anyway.

I scrolled through my contacts and pressed on the one name I was sure would answer.

A faint ring sounded through the PulsePoint several times before I heard a voice on the other end.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the president’s son.”

“Hi, Justin. Something seems to be wrong with my PulsePoint. Mother sent me out to scout out a nearby settlement, but when I tried to call her to let her know—”

“Don’t bother lying, West.”

I made a fist and tried to keep the anger off of my face. “What are you talking about?”

“We know you found Christina. Your travel companion, Cricket, is here, inside New Caelum. We know she left you behind. You will be allowed back inside under one condition.”

A sweat broke out across the back of my neck, immediately turning cold in the frigid air. I couldn’t decide if he knew Cricket was Christina, or if he simply knew Christina was alive because of Cricket. “And what condition would that be?”

“You will stick with the government track so that you can join your mother and me in the governing of New Caelum. And you will convince Christina to join us inside New Caelum as well.”

“Or what?” There was no way I would convince Cricket to do anything against her will. And given the amount of hate I had for Justin Rhodes, my mother’s vice president, I wasn’t especially motivated to try.

“Or I will make sure this Cricket thinks that you were the one responsible for Bad Sam being sent out into the outside settlements.”

The enclosed sanctum of New Caelum was drastically different from the outside world I had come to know. The hallways were brightly colored. Lighting was placed strategically along the floor and on the walls near the ceiling, making me feel almost as if I were on a spaceship. The sleek, clean interior contrasted greatly with the run-down, and often dilapidated, buildings that I’d come to know over the last six years.

But despite the colorful atmosphere, I wasn’t welcomed to New Caelum with open arms. As soon as I walked through the gate, I was escorted to a tiny white room by armed men dressed in red hazmat suits, then told to wait.

Hours later, I still waited. I sat on the edge of a bed that was covered in crisp white sheets, perfectly folded back and tucked under the mattress. There was nothing to do, nothing to look at. There were no exterior windows, and the blinds on the interior windows were closed from the other side.
 

On my arrival, I had been given a change of clothes and pointed toward a bathroom—with “everything I needed” to take a shower and “sanitize” myself—but I had chosen to remain in my cargo pants, black tank, and tattered, oatmeal-colored sweater. My heavy coat, dirty and torn, was draped over a silver metal chair in the corner, and crumbles of dried dirt fell off the bottom of my boots onto the tiled floor every time I moved them.

When at last the door to my room opened, I stood and faced it. In walked a man in a dark gray hazmat suit.
 

I cocked my head. “You’re scared I’m sick?” I asked.

“We can’t be too careful,” the man said through the speaker in his mask.

“Whatever. I need to speak with Dr. Hempel.”

“What makes you think there’s anyone inside New Caelum by that name?”

“Because Dr. Caine Quinton sent me.” I decided I wasn’t playing games with these people. Maybe if I shot straight arrows, I’d hit my mark faster. “He says Dr. Hempel is the only person who can help me.”

The man shifted and looked around the room. “Why have you chosen not to shower?”

“Because I like my clothes, and I don’t plan on being here longer than I have to.”

The man smiled. “You’ll be here long enough. You’ll see no one until you’ve properly sanitized and been tested for Bad Sam, as well as a few other diseases.”

So, he obviously knew about Bad Sam and its reappearance. “Is Willow still alive?” I asked.

Through the mask, I saw the man raise both eyebrows. “Yes.” The tone in his voice did very little to convince me though. “She’s alive,” he added, as if the additional words would reassure me.

I took a couple of slow steps toward him. “Look, whoever you are, I brought several vials of the Samael Strain with me. I also brought information that will help Dr. Hempel find a treatment for Willow and a cure for Bad Sam. But we’re running out of time.” I could only hope Dr. Hempel was capable of doing what Caine claimed he could do.

The man leaned away from me. “We have your bag. Why would you bring samples of the virus here? Don’t you realize the danger you’ve put yourself in, not to mention everyone else inside New Caelum?”

I stared through the mask into his eyes. “Are you not listening to me?” My voice escalated. “I’m here to see Dr. Hempel. Give my bag to him, and when he’s ready to hear what I’ve come here to tell him, tell him to come see me. If this stupid city has any hope of surviving another outbreak, you’ll take me seriously.”

Perhaps it was the crazed look on my face, but the man’s eyes suddenly widened, and he backed up toward the door. As he reached for the handle, I stepped even closer to him. Then I sucked in the biggest breath I could and blew it all over the front of his mask.

When he finally managed to open the door and practically fell through it, I yelled, “I want to speak to the president, too!”

He pulled the door shut behind him.

I turned and walked back toward the bed. I didn’t even hear the door open again behind me.

“Hi… Cricket, is it?”

I whipped around. Justin stood just inside the door—and without a hazmat suit.
 

I cocked my head. “You’re taking quite the risk, aren’t you?” I asked.

“I’m immune to Bad Sam.”

I raised an eyebrow. So, some people inside New Caelum knew how to test for immunity? Interesting.

“And I’m pretty sure you’re immune as well, am I right?”

I didn’t answer.
 

He walked over and picked up the clean clothes from my bed, then thrust them at me. “If you want to see Dr. Hempel, you will shower and put these clothes on.”

“And if I don’t? I’d like to see the president first.”

“Funny. I don’t see how you’re in any position to make demands. You’re inside
our
city now; you’ll do what we tell you. And if you cooperate, we’ll see about allowing you to
live
… inside our city walls.” And if I didn’t cooperate, the threat of death was clear. He spoke like New Caelum was some sought-after prize, like I had
chosen
to come here.

I knew I wouldn’t be welcomed, especially since they didn’t know who I was. But I also knew that they wouldn’t understand the timer at the bottom of my backpack. Not yet. And even if someone did figure it out, they wouldn’t be able to stop it without my help. Nor would they locate the bomb that I hoped Zara had successfully put in place. “Fine, but if you don’t come back and get me soon, not only will you risk Willow’s survival, but you will put all those not immune to the virus inside New Caelum at risk of contracting the disease.”

He narrowed his gaze, pausing with one foot outside the door. “What do you mean by that?”

I crossed my arms, attempting to hide the shakiness in my hands. “You didn’t think Caine and Christina sent me here without a well-designed insurance policy to make sure I got back out, did you?”

After agreeing to Justin’s terms, I was granted entrance to New Caelum and delivered directly to a decontamination chamber, where nurses ensured no trace of a virus could have survived anywhere on my body. And as I waited for the shower to scrub me clean, I could think of only one thing—Cricket. Was she close by? Were they treating her kindly? Had they put her through a more rigorous decontamination than me? Though they were treating me like a diseased outsider, I was still a member of leadership, so they knew better than to act abusive. But Cricket had no such protections.

If anyone has laid one thoughtless hand on her, they’ll suffer.
Why couldn’t she have just waited and let me bring her in? Now I had no control over the situation.

Once I was decontaminated, showered, and dressed in my normal black and charcoal gray government clothes, I was covered in a full hazmat suit and escorted to the Presidential Suite, my home for the past six years.
 

Mother was waiting for me when I arrived, sitting on the edge of a chair. Her feet were crossed at the ankles, and her hands fidgeted in her lap. Her face and eyes were void of any emotion. She, too, wore black pants and a gray sweater.

“Mother?”

She stood. “Remove that suit. I know you don’t have the Samael Strain.” The guards behind me left without comment.

Once I had cast the hazmat suit aside, Mother crossed to me, sliding her arms around my neck and gripping me in a tight hug.

I peeled her away and held her at arm’s length. “Where’s Willow? How is she?”
 

I had been forbidden from entering the isolation wing where I presumed Willow was still being held. Given that Willow’s disease had probably progressed to a more advanced state, I wasn’t surprised by the restricted access.

Mother smoothed the collar of my gray shirt. “She’s doing as well as can be expected, but she’s very sick.” She dropped her eyes and seemed to sniffle. “They’re taking good care of her.”

She backed away from me and fidgeted with a ring on her right hand. She seemed unusually unsure of herself. When she looked up, her brows lifted in question. “So, you found her?” Her lips lifted at the corners like she was excited about something.

“Found who?” For some reason, I felt the urge to play dumb.

“Christina, silly.” She slapped at me playfully, a gesture I’d never known her to do in the past. “Tell me all about her. Was she beautiful? Did you recognize her? Did she recognize you?”

I cocked an eye. “What is wrong with you?”

“What do you mean?” She pursed her lips. “I want to know more about Christina. Willow will be so excited to see her again.”

The more Mother spoke, the more I suspected something was off. Her voice was almost gleeful. She was happy, airy. Nothing like a woman worried about her only daughter dying.

“I never found Christina, Mother, but I did find someone who could help us. Someone who knows Christina.”

“I don’t understand. Justin told me—”

“Since when do you speak to Justin about anything?” Though he was technically her vice president, she had stopped communicating with him months ago, and had even talked of taking on a new vice president. She had been pretty confident the council would support such a change.