Born (31 page)

People are looking at him and me and
raising eyebrows.

"To the deep end ladies. If the
ceiling collapses it's our best shot at surviving.

Those of us who can swim all swim in a
chaotic hoard for the deep end. The others cry and scream at the shallow end.
The noise is unbearable. Leo is panting and panicking. He wants out of the
pool. I let him go. He knows best. His instincts are better than anyone's. He
swims to the edge and climbs out. He slinks to the corner and sits there. A
girl who doesn’t look much older than me follows him. She curls against him and
cries.

The noise is too much. Suddenly another
noise rises over everything and shakes the building around us. I blow my air
out and let myself drop to the bottom of the pool. I look up at the feet above
me. They seem calm and collected for a second. Then it looks like red ink has
been spilled into the pool. The water starts to froth and churn. I can't see
above me anymore. My chest is crying out for air but I stay down there and
watch. A woman is shoved under. I grab her hand and pull her down to me. I
swim, towing her to the shallow end. The frothing water is everywhere. It looks
like the rapids of a river. When I pull her out of the water I am elbowed in
the face. I see stars for a second but keep moving. I am shoving people out of
the way. I drag the girl to the shallowest part and start patting her on the
back hard. She chokes out the water and starts coughing. I am tripped and
pushed under. Feet trample me. I grab the girl who was coughing and push her up
out of the water. I am under water and drowning but holding her out of the
water.

A hand grabs the scruff of my neck and
lifts me from the water. I look up to the see the worried face of the doctor.
He points to the broken windows that lead to the outside.

"Freedom."

Leo is already out the window. He is
watching me from the other side.

I shout, "THE WINDOWS. BREAK THE
WINDOWS MORE SO WE CAN ALL GET OUT!"

The women rush at the windows and start
smashing the lounging chairs against the already damaged glass. One window is
broken and a girl is pushed through. I see her skin scrape again the glass. She
screams. They are panicking. I unscrew the silencer and fire a shot into the
cracked and ruined ceiling. The women stop and look at me. I walk to the dark
haired girl on the ground bleeding, "THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT? TO KILL EACH
OTHER? SINGLE FILE FOR FUCKS SAKE!"

The doctor picks her up and climbs out of
the jagged glass. The women leave, obviously calmer, but still in a hurry. I
climb out and ready myself with my gun. There is no one on the brown grass.

The doctor shouts back, "RUN FOR THE
WOODS!"

The doctor is running across the grass
with the girl in his arms. I hear a shot and he drops. The girl screams.

I look up at the roof to see a sniper
team. I aim and fire several times. The first four men drop off the roof making
the women and girls scream more. The fifth man sees me and shoots. I feel a hot
burning feeling in my left arm but ignore it. I aim and fire and knock him
back. He's too far for me to kill but I know I winged him.

"RUN NOW!" I scream. They all
scramble. I grab the girl under the dead doctor and help her. Leo is running
ahead showing them the way. I look to the left and see a group of women with
screaming babies fleeing for the woods. Some fall as gunshots ring out. Their
babies fall with them.

I hear my father whisper to me. 'You can't
save everyone Em.'

I shout at the women with me, "
Run and break the branches. Stay together. I
will follow the broken branches and find you. I will lead you to safety
."

"Emma I will lead them to the trail
to the camp." I see Muriel and I nod, "I'm right behind you. I gotta
get the young ones and the babies."

She nods and starts shouting at the
crying women.

I head across the forest. I hear a crack
and turn to see Leo standing beside me.
"You came back huh? Ready to kill some shit?" He pants. I know he's freaking
out.

Through the woods I can see the building
is on fire. The ledge where the snipers are is the only part still standing.
Everything else looks blown out and in ruins. It warms my heart a little.

I run to where the screams are coming
from. When I get to the women who made it to the forest I point to where I just
cam from, "Follow the tree line until you come to a bunch of broken
branches, follow them. Safety is that way."

They run holding babies and small
children.

I run through the herd and come out at
the opening. A man is grabbing a woman. I shoot him and hit his ear. He grabs
it and I fire again. I hit him in the throat. The lady grabs her baby and runs
from the dying man. I shoot at the last few men on the ledge. I hit one and two
duck. I keep shooting as the women make their way across the grass and into the
woods.

One man pokes his head up and I fire,
skimming his head.

I feel something grab my arm. I turn
looking for Leo but he has a man on the ground and is tearing out his throat.
There is a hand on my arm. I point my gun but I stop myself. Will's blue eyes
are on fire. He drags me into the forest. I see tufts of grass blow up into the
air behind me as shots are still being fired at me. I fire a shot at the men on
the roof.

"Let me go. I need to save the
girls. There is another side of young children. They need help." I pull at
him.

He doesn’t speak. I kick and claw at him
but he doesn’t budge.

The fight must look like a bratty two
year old being dragged from a store. He has no problem dragging me into the
forest. I kick and fight. Frustrated tears blind me.

"LEO. LEO HELP."

Leo comes running in with fresh blood on
his muzzle. He sees Will and stops running.

"Leo, bite him."

Leo licks his lips and falls into stride
with Will. He senses no danger.

I try to keep up but my feet stumble on a
log and I lose my footing. Will drags me for a while. My legs bang on sticks
and branches and rocks but still he drags me. My arm feels like it's coming out
of my socket.

"Just let me go back please. I
promise I won't ever run again. I promise. Let me save them Will."

He stops and picks me up. He throws me
over his shoulder. I am defeated. The children are dead. He let them die. I let
them die.

The sight is beyond what I can
comprehend. Children are everywhere. There are toddling about in every
direction or breast-feeding. They cry and make noise.

I smile at the sight. I have no idea how
he did it but I know it was him.

"Thought you hated kids."

I take the water he offers and drink
slowly. I am starved and dehydrated and probably still very sick from the head
wound I got the day before.

"How?"

He looks angry. No pissed. He looks
pissed. "We followed your trail this morning. When we figured out what you
had done, we couldn’t get in so we decided to wait outside and see which exit
you came out with guards gunning for you."

I am amazed.

"You sat at every exit?"

"We paired off. It was pretty
obvious what you had done when the blast happened and the smoke started filling
the sky."

"So many made it. Did we lose any of
us?" I ask.

"We lost two yesterday in the giant
fuck up we called an ambush. They were shot trying to save Muriel." His
eyes flicker on mine. I feel sick. I add them to the list of people who I am to
blame for the death of.

He shakes his head like he is reading my
mind and sits across from me. "You aren’t responsible. Muriel has talked
them down. Everyone knows it's not your fault."

That changes nothing. I sip the water. I
am to blame.

My arm stings suddenly as if it is a
delayed reaction. I look at my blood soak shirt. I pull it back and wince. The
bullet grazed my arm. There is a thick scrape that burned out a path along my
left bicep.

Leo is beside me licking my hand. I pat
his head, "It's nothing. Just a scratch."

Mona walks over and smiles, "You are
one crazy girl. I will give you that. You are balls to the wall, nuts."

Will snorts and walks away. He still
looks pissed.

Mona tears my shirt a little and looks.
She pulls my shirt open and looks at the quill marks in my chest and hands.

"These are infected. That's going to
get infected." She points to the bullet wound.

I shrug, "I've shown up at camp in
worse shape than this."

Her eyes flash. She pretends to be
looking at my wounds but whispers in my ear. "You need to lead these women
to the retreat. They can't stay at the camp with Marshall and everyone. They
don't have enough food and supplies for all these women. Plus you're sort of
showing Marshall up. You just single handedly rescued over fifty women and
children."

My heart stops, "What? No I had
help."

She nods subtly, "He isn’t going to
take kindly to you leading a mission to save all those women. People are going
to ask how come he never did it."

"He's a moron. People should be
asking what he's doing up there."

"Well either way you need to take
them where he can't touch them."

"Does he know we have to hike all
the way to the retreat with all these babies and pregnant women?" I
whisper just as softly as she does. She knows who I am asking about. She nods.

"What was his opinion?"

She chuckles softly, "Honey he came
and saved you. That’s as far as he got."

My stomach warms but I roll my eyes.
"He did the same for Star. I'm pretty sure I know what he wants. Once he
gets it I will be just another her. See the way he leads her around now. She
follows him like a lost puppy."

Mona crosses her arms, "That’s not
exactly how it is."

I raise an eyebrow and feel my face
flush, "I heard you guys all talking the other night. They called her a
piece of ass. I might not know a lot of things but I know what that is."

It's her turn to blush.

I nod, "As I thought. Anyway the
lost puppy thing isn’t really my thing. I like to be the hero not the simpering
damsel."

Mona cleans my wound with a salve from
her kit, "Well it's what I like the most about you."

I sigh, "My granny always told me
not to fall for boys who care what they look like or play in a band."

Mona laughs, "Sound advice."

I can't stop imagining him singing and
playing the guitar. The way his lips move when he sings makes me feel funny,
good funny. "Yeah well fat lot of good it did me. I always have to do
things the hard way it seems."

She puts a bandage on and smiles,
"Speaking of doing things the hard way, me and Joe are gonna come with
you. To the retreat. We've had enough of Marshall and his shit anyway. They sit
on that damn mountain and plan things that never come to fruition."

I don’t know what that word means but I
can guess. "He isn’t my favorite either."

I look at the huge group we now have with
us. There are pregnant women everywhere and little kids. The oldest isn't two
yet because that’s when the doctors take them. They are going to hate the
two-day hike to the retreat. It's going to take more like four. I cross my arms
and look at Mona, "I'm taking them to the fucking camp. Marshall and the
other people there can kiss my ass. We'll stop one day there and then leave the
next morning. They can live with one day of sharing supplies and food."

Mona eyes me up and nods, "Okay if
that’s what you want to do."

"I'm not in charge Mona. I just don’t
see how all these babies are going to make it that far without at least one day
of help."

She raises her eyebrow at me, "You
sure you're not in charge?"

I frown, "Yeah. I'm positive."
Will is in charge. He avoids it as much as I do but I know everyone listens to
him when it counts. I look around the camp and sip my water.

I notice the new girls look different
than the rest of us. They are shiny and clean still.

I grin, "I'm pretty sure we won't
have any shortage of male volunteers to help with them."

She laughs, "They are all healthy
and fertile young women. Not to mention how pretty they all are."

I look at her, "It's creepy isn’t
it?"

She nods, "Very. Like cyborgs."

I don’t know what she is talking about
but I nod. Cyborgs must mean pretty.

Will is talking with one lady who has a
small child in her arms. He appears to know her. I wonder if any of the babies
are his. It makes me disgusted. I know it's not fair.

Joe pulls Mona away and I barely notice.
I am lost in thought and smiling. I can't help but love the fact that Mary is
going to be pissed when we get there. There are at least fifty if not
seventy-five gorgeous young women in our group. Mary won't be the special one
at camp anymore. I wonder how many she will kiss the way she kissed me. I feel my
face blush as I bring my fingers to my lips. I feel confusion about her and her
kisses. I don’t feel like I want her to be my lover but I wouldn’t protest more
kisses. They were nice.