The Vault (A Farm Novel) (9 page)

“I knew you’d come back for me.”

I hate that smugness. I hate his confidence. His belief that I could not abandon him completely, even if he’s right. He’s a jerk and he’s pure evil, but he’s still my father. And I can’t just leave him here to die.

Still, to him I say, “We need you alive. When we get to a Farm, you have to get us in and tell the doctor how to treat us. That’s the only reason I came back for you.”

He doesn’t say anything, but his smile doesn’t waver, either.

I lean down and pick him up fireman style, slung over my shoulder.

My father is a big man. Not overweight, but tall and solidly built from a lifetime of having plenty to eat. I should not be able to lift him, but I can. That scares me so much I can’t even think about it.

I’m strong enough to carry him, and together, Marcus and I stumble out over the barren landscape, hoping that we’ll find a Farm before our bodies turn against us. Praying that our immune systems are strong enough to keep the virus at bay until we reach the Farm. And praying that the mercenary-Neanderthals don’t find us first.

CARTER

I left Ely alone to ponder my news about his brother for a minute and went out to check on things in the hall. Most of the crowd had dispersed. Only the two guards and Zeke and Charla were hanging around. I pointed to each of the guards. “Go wash up and then patrol the outer fences.” I wanted them as far away from me as possible. They looked to Zeke to confirm the orders. He frowned but nodded.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t send Zeke or Charla out to the fences. To her, I said, “Go back to the radio room. I want you to try to get that helicopter back on the wire.”

She looked confused for a second, but then nodded. “Okay.”

“Don’t leave your post. Short of the building burning down around you, I don’t want you to leave that radio unless you’re bringing me good news. If there’s anyone still in the helicopter, we need to know where they are. Got it?”

This time she nodded quickly and hurried off. Apparently specific directions helped. Now I just needed to avoid the specific thought of killing someone in a vengeful rage.

I looked at Zeke. “Go find Joe, figure out where he disappeared to and bring him back.”

We could use a little of Joe’s peaceful Zen vibe. After all, he had the best reason of any of us to want Ely dead and he hadn’t caused a riot.

I was about to head back in to talk to Ely more, when Dawn and Darren came hurrying down the hall.

“What happened?” Dawn asked. “I heard something about a fight, that it got really bad.”

She looked from Zeke to me and back again.

Zeke didn’t say anything, but he ducked his head and he tucked his bloodied hands into his pockets. “I’m going to—” He bobbed his head toward the stairwell and dashed off without saying another word.

I nodded to Dawn and Darren. “Come on in. I’m going to need your advice.”

A few minutes later, we were all standing around the map, which was still spread out on the Dean’s desk. Still trying to figure out which Farm Price would have headed for. A hell of a lot had happened in the past hour, but I was right back where I’d been. Only the pile of shit was bigger.

“What kind of facilities would he need?” Dawn asked.

“Enough space to keep the patients isolated from the rest of the population and enough meds to sedate them indefinitely.” I circled three other spots on the map. “I figure the Farms with those kinds of resources are here in Waco, here in College Station, and the Farm up by the border where Lily was when I first got her out.” I exed out that last one. “But this one is almost exactly three hundred miles from El Corazon. With the helicopter loaded up like that, that puts it at the very edge of the copter’s range. Price probably wouldn’t want to push it like that.”

“That’s a big assumption.”

I ignored Darren. “For now, we have to assume he was heading either for the Farm in Waco or the one in College Station.”

Dawn pointed to a pair of spots on the panhandle. “What about Lubbock and Amarillo? Aren’t there Farms there?”

“Yeah. But Amarillo’s too far and Lubbock is also three hundred miles away. Plus, Price left El Corazon heading east. We have to assume he’d head to one of the closer Farms.” And if one more person gave me hell about the assumption, I’d lose it. Because I was barely holding on as it was. Yeah. This was all based on assumptions. And Texas was friggin’ huge. Finding a downed helicopter would make looking for a needle in a haystack seem like an afternoon at the park. Even if all our assumptions were right, only an idiot would think he could wander out into Tick-infested no-man’s-land to find a downed helicopter. An idiot or an arrogant ass.

Thankfully, I had an arrogant ass who owed me.

Just then, Joe, Zeke, and Ely came in. I gave Zeke a hard look when he walked in the room. He seemed to know just what I was looking for, because he nodded slowly to let me know he was himself again. Beside him, Ely tensed and eyed Zeke, but didn’t say anything.

Joe pushed past Zeke. “Zeke said Lily’s helicopter went down and—” Then he stopped short. “This is your big plan? You’re sending
him
?”

“Look—”

“No, you look. This guy’s an asshole. He betrayed us all. He tried to kill Lily. He—”

“He’s also better at staying alive on the outside than anyone I know. He’s a good fighter. He’s been all over the—”

“I don’t care if he has a squadron of winged monkeys who can fly around and spot the copter from the air. You’re not sending him.”

“He’s the obvious choice. He’s the only one good enough to find them without getting killed and he’s the only other person with a dog in this race. His brother was on that helicopter.”

“No.” Joe took a step toward me, anger radiating off him. “Not just no. Hell, no.”

Okay, so much for Joe being the reasonable one. “Look, Lily is out there. She is turning into a Tick. We only have a few days to find her. If we lose track of her now, she’s gone. Forever. And he is the only guy who has a shot of getting to her.”

“McKenna might be alive if it wasn’t for him! Have you thought of that?”

“I have,” I said calmly, trying to soothe Joe’s grief. “But McKenna was bleeding out. It wasn’t Ely’s fault. I’m not saying he was right. He wasn’t. But we need him now.”

“He left my baby to die!” Joe yelled, tears pooling in his eyes.

“I was—” Ely tried to chime in.

Joe whirled around as if he’d almost forgotten Ely was standing there. He took a step toward Ely.

I threw myself between them. Ely was built like a pit bull—stocky and all muscle. Joe was thin and wiry. I’d never seen him in a fight, but if I had to guess, Ely could beat the crap out of him one-handed.

“Look, let’s just—” I said, trying to calm everyone down.

But neither of them listened. And apparently, Ely had taken one too many punches to the head. He stepped up, getting right in Joe’s face. “What was I supposed to do, man?”

“Anything but that. You left her to die, you shithead.”

Joe tried to take a swing at Ely; again I got in the way.

“I was going to Roberto’s. Do you have any idea what a sadistic prick he was? I thought I was protecting her. It’s what I would have done for my own kid, okay?”

Joe stepped back, shock written on his face.

But Ely was still pissed and he kept coming. “You think my brother on that helicopter is the only family I found? I had my sister and two other brothers with me when Roberto’s crew found us and brought us in. The gene or whatever it is that lets someone turn into a Tick? Marcus is the only one of us that has it. So Roberto shot him up with the Tick virus while I watched. The other three . . . Roberto just ate them. I had to watch him butcher my brothers and sister. So, yeah, I left your baby to die in the desert, because it would be fast. Can you even imagine what he would have done to a baby? Because I can and I—”

Ely broke off. Like he’d just realized how much he’d revealed. He stepped away, then bent over, palms to his knees like he didn’t have the energy to stand anymore. Joe had gone pale. He stared at Ely for a second and then dashed back out into the hall. A second later, I could hear him puking.

I felt my own stomach flop over. Joe was a good guy. Too sensitive for the world we now lived in. Sure as hell too sensitive for the job I was asking him to do, but I knew he’d step up and do it.

“Look, here’s what it comes down to,” I said to Zeke. “I’m taking Ely out of here. I’m giving him the plane so he can search for the helicopter from the air. And then I’m going to Sabrina’s to find the cure. I need good people to stay here. Keep things under control.” I pinned first Joe and then Zeke with a serious stare. “You think you can do that?”

I saw it in his eyes, that flicker of doubt. That shame, but then Zeke nodded. “Yes, sir.”

When I’d first arrived, I’d hoped to bring Zeke out with me, because I knew he’d be good in a fight. Now . . . well, now I knew he could fight, but I also knew how susceptible he was to my talents. He seemed too vulnerable to my sway to risk that. I needed good people, but I needed people who wouldn’t follow blindly. I needed people who would stand up to me. And maybe what Zeke needed was a chance to redeem himself.

Joe still stood aside, glaring sullenly at Ely, but looking less sure of his hate. Finally, he nodded, too.

I turned back to Ely, who was standing up now, clenching his teeth and trying to look like he hadn’t been crying. I looked over at Dawn and Darren.

I didn’t want to ask them. Honestly, I didn’t. If it was only Lily’s life on the line, I would have gone to Sabrina’s all on my own. I hated the idea of Dawn and Darren risking their lives because I asked them to. Especially because before they’d met me, they’d been living in relative safety in the small town of Elderton—the only place I’d ever been where people were still living somewhat normally. But Dawn and Darren had come down to Texas with me because they’d wanted to join the fight.

And this? Sneaking into Sabrina’s compound to steal the cure? This was bigger than just me. And even if I wanted to do it by myself so I could keep the people around me out of danger, I couldn’t. Because if I failed, all of humanity would pay the price.

Besides, Dawn had more medical training than anyone else I knew. If I was going to actually find the cure when I got to Sabrina’s, I needed her with me.

I looked at Dawn and Darren. “Any chance I can talk you two into—”

“Absolutely,” Dawn said simply. “We’re with you. You don’t even have to ask.”

Darren grinned. “It’s not like I’m going to let her have all the fun.”

“Okay. Then let’s go find a car.”

The four of us headed down the hall to the elevator. By the time we climbed inside, Darren was bouncing up onto the balls of his feet, channeling his nerves into ideas. “We should stop on the third floor. It’s where the supplies are. We can snag a couple of sat phones and then head down to the maintenance garage for extra gas.”

“We’ll need a lot for the drive from here to Albuquerque,” Dawn said. “That’s what? Five hundred miles?”

“I can take you as far as Lubbock,” Ely said. “It’ll shave at least three hours off your drive and we can look for the crash site. Just in case they did head for the Farm in Lubbock.”

“Okay,” I agreed. “We’ll leave first thing in the morning.”

Even though my instincts were screaming to get out there and start looking for Lily, looking for the cure, I knew there was no point in that. It would be dark soon and we wouldn’t be able to see anything then anyway.

Dawn nodded reluctantly and I could tell she didn’t fully trust Ely. Which was fine. I didn’t trust him, either. I probably never would again.

Yes, I needed him. I didn’t have time to find Lily and bring her to Sabrina and I couldn’t be in two places at once. Ely was the only one with the skills to find that helicopter and rescue Lily and Marcus. But I certainly didn’t trust him to keep either of the Armadale kids safe.

On the third floor, Darren and Dawn got off to go scrounge up the sat phones. Just outside the elevator, I turned to Ely.

Before I could speak, he said, “Everyone thinks you’re an idiot for trusting me.”

“Maybe,” I agreed. “But I’m trying to save your life here, so you should try to be gracious.”

“You’re sending me out there, not so I can stay away from Ticks, but so I can actually track them down, and you think that’s saving my life?”

“Try to think of it as giving everyone here a reason not to kill you right now.”

He nodded, like he saw my point. “I still don’t get you, man. Most people? They wouldn’t give me a second chance.” He leveled a look at me, very serious, very hard-core. “And I’m not sure you should, either. Maybe I’m not the good guy you seem to think I am.”

“None of us are.” I returned his look. “But the people we love are in danger. We don’t have any options except being the good guys they need.”

He seemed to consider this for a moment. Then he nodded solemnly.

“Besides,” I said, “if you betray me again, I will find you. And I will kill you. Myself. Got it?”

He nodded. “I wouldn’t have expected anything less.”

MEL

There is no surprise when I tell Sebastian why I came back for him. No disappointment. Who exactly was I reminding: Sebastian or myself?

Then, as if he is no more comfortable than I am, he looks down at the towels I placed on the sofa and the table to absorb the blood. He arches a disdainful eyebrow.

“What?” I ask.

“You were very careful to keep the blood off the furniture.”

“So?” I ask, not mentioning the nasty stain under the towel.

“We’re trapped in the house of a psychotic murderer, surrounded by a horde of marauding Ticks. I don’t think preserving the upholstery is our top priority.”

Yes. This is better. I can handle sarcastic Sebastian more easily. At least I’m used to him.

I bend down to pick up the towels and the stake—anything with blood on it—and I carry the items over to the fireplace and toss them all in. There are matches on the mantel and the towel catches quickly.

“I don’t want the blood to attract the Ticks. I don’t even know if they’ll drink our blood, but we can’t take any chances.”

“I doubt we need to worry about them. Not just yet anyway.”

“I made sure the doors and windows were locked,” I tell him. “But I don’t think that will keep them out for long.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” he says. “This house may look like a Victorian clapboard, but I’m guessing that’s a veneer covering the bones of a concrete bunker. Don’t forget, Roberto’s been preparing for the fall of humanity for a long time. He wouldn’t live in a house that wasn’t strong enough to withstand a direct hit from a bomb.”

I look around the room at the oak paneling and the large windows. Then I notice that the windows are set deep in the walls, like in a castle. “What about the glass?”

“Probably bulletproof. Or something even newer that hasn’t been released to the public yet. Roberto was heavily invested in the military-industrial complex.”

The stench of burning blood is heavy so close to the fire, so I walk to the window and tap on the glass, trying to gauge just how safe we really are here. Up close, I realize there are multiple panes, and when I tap, it doesn’t ring quite like glass does. In the Before, when I was autistic, I could determine the strength of glass by the way it sounded. Like the flaws in the glass actually vibrated in my ears. What would this glass sound like? Surely not high-pitched and fragile. Maybe low and resonant. Strong.

Then I look beyond the glass, expecting to see the Ticks. Expecting to feel their anger and hunger.

I don’t hear any of that. I don’t feel or even see them.

“Where did they go?” I ask, the hair rising on the back of my neck. If I can’t see them, they could be anywhere.

“Don’t worry,” Sebastian says. “They won’t attack tonight.”

I turn to see him leaning back against the sofa, his head resting against the dip in the camelback, his eyes closed.

“Why? How can you be so sure?”

“I can’t. But this is the very heart of Roberto’s territory. Even though he’s dead, it still reeks of him. Can’t you sense it?” He opens his eyes just long enough to see me nod. I do sense it. It’s why I’m so jittery. “Their instincts will keep them away.”

“If that’s true, then why did Ticks attack the academy? Wasn’t that the heart of your territory?”

“Doubting I’m as strong as Roberto, are you?”

“No. Just trying to understand.”

“The academy was in my territory, but never the heart of it. That was Genexome. The Ticks that attacked the academy were newly made and starving. These are sated and lazy. They’ll attack us if they feel threatened or when they get hungry. Probably not until then.”

“Probably?”

“Just a theory.”

I nod. It might be just a theory, but I hope it is true.

“How does this whole territory thing work? Now that you’ve killed Roberto, does that mean this territory is yours?”

“I didn’t kill Roberto,” he points out, a stab of anger in his voice. “Carter did.”

“So then this is Carter’s territory?”

“No. Even as an
abductura
he can’t claim territory. He’s not a vampire, he doesn’t get to play.”

“So then this could be
your
territory, if you claimed it?”

“According to the Meso-Americana Accords of 1409, yes. I could claim it.”

“What would you need to do? To claim it, I mean?” Because he’s still looking weak, and despite his faith in Roberto’s house, I am not sure how much longer we can keep the Ticks at bay. He’d told me long ago that a vampire was strongest in his or her own territory. Maybe making this his territory would solve both those problems. “What do you need to do? Do you go around scenting trees and pissing in the woods or what?”

“Nothing that animalistic. There are rules. Laid out in the Accords.” His eyes flicker closed, like he is too weak to even finish.

Whatever was laid out in the Accords would have to wait because we have bigger things to worry about. Sebastian’s wound has been bandaged up for several minutes now, and frankly, he doesn’t look any better.

He swears my injuries had been worse. Had I healed this slowly? I don’t think so. Then again, Sebastian had started bringing me cups full of Tick blood to feed on almost immediately.

I cross back over to the sofa and kneel down in front of him. “I need to get you some food and the Ticks are the only source of blood around.”

His eyes open. “You could feed me the dog.”

I recoil back. “Ew!”

“Easy, Kit. I was joking.” His lips curve into a wry smile. “Besides, that dog is more fur than blood. He’d barely tide me over.”

“No wonder Chuy doesn’t like you.” I push myself to my feet and go look for weapons to hunt Ticks. When Chuy raises his eyebrows like he’s asking if he can come with me, I nod. If I’m going out to face a horde of Ticks, I don’t want to do it alone.