Eaters (Book 2): The Resistance (34 page)

The other Beasts were now just a few yards away now. She quickly guided Aidan around to the passenger seat of the Jeep, shoved him inside and slammed the door. Then, she ran to the driver's seat and hopped in. Turning the keys in the ignition, she heard a satisfying purr as the engine roared to life and saw that Lady Luck was still with her—
it looked like there was just enough gas in the tank to ride down to Sabre.

Chapter 26

As they drove south, leaving Sedona behind in the rearview mirror, Cheryl realized that the injury to Aidan's head was worse than it had first appeared. He faded in and out of consciousness, occasionally mumbling something under his breath about
Eaters
and
Beasts
.

She'd have stopped and picked up a survivor or two if anyone looking verifiably human had approached them on their way out of town, but everyone screamed past them as if they were afraid that they were part of the O.N.E. organization. She was speeding now, avoiding the occasional vehicle stalled in the road…or a body lying next to it.

All she could think about was getting to Sabre fast, so Kai or Hannah or one of the others there could look at Aidan's head and attend to his injury. Since Jake hadn't mentioned anything about killing anyone by Mark, she assumed that the others got away. Hopefully Zach, Diego, and Jordan had escaped his attack and made it down there safely, taking their captives, Philip and Ashley with them. She looked forward to seeing everyone, including the Vultures…assuming they were all still alive.

Aidan started rambling again. "N.E.U.s…
dead motherfuckers
."

Cheryl ignored him as she wondered if the Jeep she was driving had been one of the getaway vehicles planted by the RT. After noticing a bright pink, metal water bottle in the cup holder with the initials
PS
engraved on the side, she decided it could have been Paige's. She had sacrificed her life for the cause of the resistance and Cheryl hoped it wasn't in vain, considering that things hadn't gone exactly as planned. Chances were, O.N.E. would bring order back to the town and use Cyclops to reassert their control.

"Pull over."

Cheryl looked sideways at Aidan. "
What?"

"Stop the car," he said, looking at her with one wild green eye.

After slowing down, she pulled to the side of the road and halted in the gravel. He reached over, grabbed her hand and put something in it. She looked at the bloody object and realized it was the thing Aidan had taken from Paige's hand just before the explosion.

A smile crept across her face as she left Aidan resting in the SUV, got out and faced north. Then, she pressed a button on the detonator marked with a triangle. Two seconds later, she felt the ground rumble underneath her feet and saw a plume of smoke rise up over Sedona, silhouetted against the backdrop of the silvery moon.

Nobody but Aidan was there with her to witness the destruction of Cyclops, but she imagined that enough people in the RT had survived to throw up a cheer as the pyramid and the omniscient, evil machine on its top came crumbling down.

After she got back in the car and started driving again, Aidan reached towards a silver CD sticking out of the stereo, pushed it in and hit PLAY. A tinkle of notes from Guns & Roses'
Sweet Child O' Mine
started playing. It was the same song they'd heard months ago in the middle of the desert, coming from the bar called, Black Todd's.

He started mumbling again, and eventually she realized that he was talking to her, so she turned the music down.

"I know a place…perfect place to build a cabin. There's some game, and if we get some seeds from Jeremiah, we can start a farm. There's a stream with fresh water and plenty of fish. When it rains, you can see a rainbow over it."

"Sure," she said with a laugh. "I remember how you described your camp in the Galiuro Mountains. Before we got there, I thought it was an all-inclusive resort with golden fixtures."

"So…I exaggerated a little. But this place…"

***

During the drive, Cheryl had a lot of time to think. The world was still in shambles—it was filled with Eaters and every danger was still waiting for them, but she knew this was another new beginning. They were starting over with the knowledge of who their enemies were…and how to take them down. Of course, if it was possible that now the animals and plant life carried the genetically modified virus that caused the infection,
then God help them
.  That meant life was still as uncertain as if they were standing on a flimsy raft in the middle of a vast ocean filled with death. But, for now…
they were alive
. They had helped to take down O.N.E.'s stronghold in Sedona, and that was no small thing.

She knew she needed some time to mourn Mark's passing as well as her father, Patrick, Edmond, Jasmine, and the rest she'd come to know and care about. Their memories would always be tucked away in her heart. In the meantime, life would move forward for the living.

It's okay.

This time, the reassuring voice in her head had most certainly not come from Mark. It was her own inner guide, reaffirming that hope was the only thing she needed to keep going.

She didn't know if she could handle hanging out at Divine Sundaes with Hannah and Jeremiah or playing the good little farm wife to Aidan. As much as she'd found peace in the garden at Fort San Manuel, she'd come too far to sit around shucking corn or shelling peas. Maybe it would be with a trowel in one hand and a rifle in the other, but she'd keep on fighting...help take the planet back, one dead freaking zombie at a time.  She wasn't deluded into thinking it would easy. O.N.E.s disastrous play for power using XCGen's franken-science to recreate a civilization made out of live and dead marionettes was a well-organized plot and supposedly being carried out in multiple cities across the world. They hadn't counted on one thing, though—people like those in the RT who believed in freedom and were willing to die to preserve that right for others.

Cheryl smiled as she took Aidan's hand and drove into the night.

THE END

Eaters: The Resistance is Book 2 in a three book series.