Emerge (4 page)

Dax stopped just short of letting the gun touch his heavy jacket. “Put the gun away, Zara.”

“Why are you two back? You’re not wanted here.”

“Why don’t I show you—” I began.

Dax squeezed my hand again, cutting me off.

“You should put a muzzle on her.” Zara wore camouflage pants and a tight-fitting black knit top. She was military, and looked every bit the part. She did everything she could to be a necessity to Caine. And she hated that I, by contrast, didn’t have to do anything to remain in his good graces. Even worse, in her eyes, I was constantly doing things to
not
deserve Caine’s fatherly affection—like leaving and taking his daughter with me.

“Let us through, Zara. We need to see Caine. Dylan and Nina are in trouble. Surely you don’t want me to tell Caine that you played a hand in keeping us from helping his daughter.”

Zara’s lips lifted. “Seeing as Nina arrived several hours ago with some new friends, I don’t think Caine gives a flying crap what you know. So why don’t the two of you turn around and head on back from whence you came.”

That was good news, but what did she mean by “friends”? Surely she wasn’t talking about the guys who’d tasered Dylan and stolen him and Nina from our campsite. I wasn’t about to ask. “Whence?” I laughed. “It doesn’t matter how hard you try, or what fancy words you spout, you’re still an idiot in Caine’s eyes. Now get out of our way, or I’ll move you myself.”

Zara lunged at me, her arms flying, but Dax caught her in mid-air. She continued to reach, though, and she managed to grab and yank a handful of my hair.

I screamed, digging my fingernails into her arm and forcing her to let go.

“Give it a rest, you two,” Dax laughed. “At least let me get you some white t-shirts and a pool of mud before you start this shit again.” He shoved Zara backward. She was breathing hard.

My pulse didn’t rise above sixty beats per minute.

Zara huffed, but allowed us to pass. “Why did you come back, anyway?” she yelled.

“We missed you.” Dax blew her a kiss, and if we weren’t walking away from her so fast, I was sure Zara would have spit on us.

Once inside the walls, I immediately felt claustrophobic. It was small-town living at its worst. A main street divided two rows of two- and three-story buildings on either side; these buildings had served different purposes prior to Bad Sam, but our people had managed to redesign them to our needs over time. There were other settlements like this out west, all having popped up gradually in the one to three years after Bad Sam was gone, but Boone Blackston was the only settlement between New Caelum and the ocean.

“You coming?” Dax called, getting ahead of me. He stood at edge of the sidewalk, and was about to head down the stairs to Caine’s underground offices. Dr. Caine Quinton was Nina’s father; he was also the doctor who had nursed me back to health and helped me flee the city once I was well enough. He had raised me from the age of twelve on.

When we’d left the community a few days earlier, I had made it clear to Caine that I wouldn’t be back for a while. Yet here I was. “Yeah.” I jogged to catch up.

We descended the stairs. But before we had a chance to knock, the door opened and laughter spilled out.
 

I followed Dax inside. Sure enough, Zara was right—Dylan and Nina were there with Caine. To my surprise, the two city kids were there too: Ryder and the girl. There were smiles all around.

“What the hell, Caine?” Dax stormed over and grabbed a handful of Ryder’s shirt. “This guy tasered Dylan.”

Ryder didn’t seem the least bit bothered that a guy a third bigger than him was holding him in his fist. He looked at Dylan, and then over at Dax. “Wow, twins? How cool is it that a set of twins survived the apocalypse?”
 

I hated when people referred to what had happened as “the apocalypse.” It sounded so end-of-the-world and made me picture zombies.

I made eye contact with Nina, raised a brow in question.

“We’re okay,” she said, for Dax’s benefit more than mine. A vein was bulging from his neck.

“Yeah?” Dax’s face reddened further.

I glanced toward Caine, who was leaning against a work table with his hands clasped in front of him, letting the scene play out. “Caine, you want to enlighten us?” I asked.

“Oh, I guess. This is so fun, though.” He pushed off the table. Unbuttoning the cuffs of his shirt, he rolled up his sleeves, one and then the other, in a slow, relaxed motion. His dark hair, in need of a haircut, lay disheveled across his forehead. His eyes were a smokier blue than Nina’s. “Dax, Cricket, this is Ryder and his friend Key. They’ve run away from New Caelum and have requested asylum.”

“Run away,” I deadpanned. “Why?”

“What Cricket means,” Dax said, tightening his grip on Ryder, “is why would you leave your elite bubble and risk contamination from the likes of scum like us?”

“Let him go, Dax.” Caine laid a gentle hand on Dax’s shoulder. After a few seconds, Dax finally released Ryder. “Your questions will be answered in time. Their Tasers have been handed over to us. Their truck confiscated. We welcome visitors. Until they prove otherwise, we accept them as new friends.”

Ryder and Key traded glances. Lines formed across Key’s forehead as she opened her mouth to speak. “We have another friend. He chose to walk here after we found Dylan and Nina.”

“Your friend will be welcomed as well,” Caine said.

Dax chuckled under his breath and shook his head. It was clear that he wasn’t going to be joining the welcoming committee any time soon.

“Thank you.” Key moved closer to Ryder. She wore a silky, royal blue blouse, tucked into royal blue tight-fitting pants, and Ryder wore all black. They both had an air of polished sophistication about them. I couldn’t tell if they were just friends or if they were a couple. It was funny that I’d thought she was a boy at first, because now that I saw her up close—her high cheekbones, her naturally pink-tinted lips, and her dark eyelashes—I had no idea how I could ever have mistaken her for anything other than a girl, and a striking one at that.

I also wondered why Caine was accepting these two into our community without further questioning. He’d always been very accepting of newcomers, but this was the first time any of those newcomers had come from New Caelum.
 

And would he be so accepting when he discovered that the virus might be back? Though Ryder and Key appeared innocent enough now, they had tasered Dylan, and they’d exited the city right on the heels of some kind of pre-dawn hazmat operation. Something didn’t add up. I suspected they hadn’t simply run away.
 

Nothing was ever that simple.

Ryder and Key had successfully infiltrated the settlement where Mother claimed I was likely to discover Christina. Somehow, my friends played the role of “victims of the evil city” perfectly, and they had won the trust of the two outsiders we found camping in the woods.

I had yet to lay eyes on Christina, but according to Mother, I’d find her near Dr. Caine Quinton. I was skeptical. If Christina was so angry at age twelve that she ran from the protection of New Caelum, why would she remain this close? Especially if she had any idea that she might be hunted down one day if the virus were to ever surface again.

And who had taken care of her? She was only a child at the time. Had this Dr. Quinton nursed her back to health? Or was she already cured before she left New Caelum? I suddenly realized how little I knew .

I’d spent the day following the guy with a chip on his shoulder and the small blond-haired girl who looked angry at the world. They led me to the exact settlement Mom spoke about, the only one she thought existed east of New Caelum.
 

At the gate, it had been quite comical to see the tiny blonde engage in an argument with the butch-looking chick. This girl was twice her size and all muscle; she could have squashed the little one easily had Mr. Chip not protected her.

Now, in a tree half a mile from the settlement, I used my monocular to watch Ryder and Key. They emerged from the building they’d disappeared into over an hour ago—the same building Mr. Chip and Miss Blonde had run to the minute they arrived at the compound.

The air was cool and crisp and darkness was descending. I’d freeze if I didn’t enter the compound soon, but I was hoping that Ryder and Key would tell me they’d found Christina before I made my presence known. What if she ran when she saw me? What if it was me she’d been running from all along? It seemed silly to think that I was the reason she ran from the city when we were only twelve, but I couldn’t take that chance. I had to find Christina and take her back to New Caelum to help my sister. According to Mom, the antibodies living in Christina’s blood were Willow’s only hope for survival.

The girl they called Nina was showing Ryder and Key around. The three of them disappeared into a small house. I jerked the monocular away from my face, slamming it into my thigh. “Come on, Ryder.” I needed them to call me on their PulsePoint, but I had no idea if they still even had their PulsePoints on them. Were they taken when they relinquished the Taser? Did they leave them inside the truck?

After a while, I decided to give up on Ryder and Key for the night. I’d have to find a spot where I could stay warm until morning. If I still hadn’t heard from Ryder by then, I’d enter the compound.
 

I hadn’t seen anyone on the hike out of the mountains or on the deserted roads near the settlement, so I assumed I was mostly safe out here. I climbed out of the tree and decided to go in search of an abandoned building or some sort of shelter that would protect me from the cold wind.

I had only gone about a hundred feet when I heard what sounded like mild cursing. Under the cover of trees, I searched through the dark, thick shadows and barely made out the outline of a female form—it was the angry blonde I had been following all day, walking fast along the road. My luck had changed.

“Cricket,” a male voice called out from the direction of the compound. “Cricket” didn’t look back, and if anything, quickened her pace. It would appear that she didn’t wish to be found.
 

I looked back in the direction of the voice; it was Mr. Chip, the guy who had hung close to Cricket all day. “You’re going to freeze,” he warned, then with a wave of the hand, he turned and headed back inside the compound. I was really starting to dislike him.

Cricket darted away from where I was hiding. I decided to follow.

She walked at a good clip. I found it difficult to keep up as it got darker out—especially since I had no idea where I was going, and I was trying to stay far enough back so as not to be heard.

More than a dozen turns later, not only did I have no idea where I was, but I realized I had totally lost sight of Cricket. I peered through my monocular, turned to night vision, but all I saw was the dead end of a gravel road. Overgrown shrubs lined one side of the road, and a crumbling stone wall the other.

I heard the sound of a howling dog in the distance, and in my mind it sounded very much like a hungry wolf. Leaves blew in the cold breeze, and limbs knocked together with an eerie crackling. I was growing colder. This had been a stupid idea.

Using my night vision monocular, I searched for Cricket again. She had vanished. How was that possible? Just as I was about to give up, I felt a hard jab in my ribs from behind. “Don’t turn around,” Cricket said with a low, but very girly, voice. “Who are you? Why are you following me?”

The muscles along my spine tightened, yet I smiled at the same time. I’d been had by a girl who was half my size and barely came up to my shoulders. “Cricket, I presume?” I tried to glance over my shoulder to get a good look at the blond beauty behind me.

She poked me harder. “And your name?”

“I mean you absolutely no harm. Can I please turn around so that I can introduce myself properly?”

“You tell me your name and why you’re here, and then I’ll decide if you can turn around.”

I laughed. This was a girl who liked getting her way. “My name is West. I’m from New Caelum.”

The moment of silence that followed was deafening. The pressure to my ribs lessened just long enough for me to turn on Cricket and see that she was holding nothing more than a rotten tree limb. She backed away, her eyes wide. She had just opened her mouth to say something when the silence of the dusk was broken by the roar of an engine, and a pair of bright headlights penetrated the dark, blinding me.

A large truck was coming toward us. I shielded my eyes against the headlights and saw the outline of two men inside the truck’s cab. This was one of the scout trucks from New Caelum. And clearly not Ryder and Key, since their truck had been confiscated by the people inside the settlement.

I hadn’t gotten the chance to discover the identities of the other scouts who had left New Caelum that morning. I had been too busy hiding, trying to keep secret the fact that the president’s son (who was supposed to be in quarantine) had snuck out on one of the other trucks. But I knew that none of the other trucks were supposed to have come east, and I had no idea why this particular one appeared increasingly determined to run us down. It didn’t seem to be slowing.
 

“Run!” I screamed.
 

Cricket and I quickly darted behind the stone wall. The truck slammed on its brakes, stirring up a large cloud of dirt, then beeped in reverse until it swung around and was once again facing us.

“This way.” Cricket led me to an opening in a wire fence. She squeezed through, then turned and helped me, since I was much larger and didn’t fit as easily. I followed her down some concrete stairs that seemed to lead nowhere, but at the bottom was a door in the side of a hill. She dragged me inside, then pulled out a flashlight and lit up a long hallway. I had no idea where she was leading me or why she was helping me. And as I stared down this hallway of darkness that led to who knows where, I wasn’t sure I
wanted
her help

We walked, unhurriedly, to the other end of the hallway, passed through another door, then went up a flight of stairs. When we reached the top of the stairs, I was surprised to find myself inside a huge room with gigantic two-story windows. Many panes were broken, but they were still grand, elegant—unlike anything I expected to find outside New Caelum. I looked up to find a sliver of a moon hanging low in the sky.