Emerge (7 page)

I narrowed my stare at Ryder. Who was he calling stupid? But I remained silent while West assessed the situation. It seemed like he was taking forever to make up his mind, and I knew I was running out of time. Each minute that ticked by increased the risk that our settlement would be exposed to the possibility of another outbreak. And this time, perhaps no one would be left.

“What’s it going to be, West?” I wiggled the bottle of water in front of him. “Let her suffer more than she needs to, or let me make her a bit more comfortable while we assess what we’re actually facing?”

“Fine.” He stepped aside. “Set the pills in front of her, and then step away. She’s strong enough to reach for them.”

I walked a wide path around the two boys, then knelt beside Key so that I could see her face. Her teeth chattered. She looked up at me as I set the bottle of water close enough for her to reach. “Hey, Key. Can you open your hand? I’ll drop the pills.”

She did as I instructed. She awkwardly put the pills in her mouth, then grabbed the water bottle. Too weak to raise her neck, she simply squirted some water in her mouth and rolled her head backward to swallow. She choked slightly, but managed to swallow the pills. Water ran down her cheek and into her hair. “Thank you,” she managed.

“I’m going to get you help, Key. Do
not
let yourself think the worst. You might just have a nasty bug.” I rose and faced Ryder and West. “I need for the two of you to tell me why you’re so sure this is the Samael Strain.” When they just stared at me, I repeated, “Tell me why you think Bad Sam has returned.”

They traded glances. Caine was right: West didn’t trust us. Why would he?

“Why did you come here?” I asked. “You risked our lives and your health when you left the safety of New Caelum. And now you’re taking a huge gamble just staying in the same room with Key.”

“So are you,” West pointed out. “Why would you do that?”

“I’m the one asking the questions now, because not only have you risked your own lives, but now I have to tell
my
people—mothers, fathers, their children—that they must put themselves into quarantine. We have to watch each other in fear and paranoia while we wait out the incubation period of a virus that those people hoped to never again see in their lifetime.” My voice grew louder and more panicked with each word.

“I’m sorry,” West said softly, looking down at his feet. I was confused by his sudden retraction.

“You’re sorry? For which part?”

He lifted his head, and his eyes narrowed in on me. And in three quick steps, he was on me. He fiddled with something at his waistband, and before I knew what was happening, he’d pulled a Taser from his holster and jabbed it into my side. The electric jolt immobilized me, and I collapsed into his arms.

He slid a hand to the small of my back, and another under my neck, supporting my head as he lowered me to the ground. “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you tell your people.”

The look on her face when I drilled the Taser into her ribcage would haunt me for a long time. And apparently, I had overdone it, because now she lay unconscious. What had this scarred girl ever done to me except try to help me and my friends? And I had rewarded her with a fifty-thousand-volt electric shock. What kind of person was I becoming?

“Grab her feet.” I slid my arms under hers and lifted her upper body while Ryder grabbed her feet. “We need to relocate before her friends discover us.”

“What about Key?”

“There’s a hospital a few blocks away. I passed it yesterday. We can hide the truck, and hopefully there’ll still be some supplies to help keep Key comfortable. We’ll try to call my mother again from there, and we can go out at night to hunt down some food and water.” I needed to reach Mom. I had to know how Willow was doing and find out if the virus had spread. I glanced at Key over my shoulder as we carried Cricket. God, I hoped she didn’t have Bad Sam.
 

Ryder and I put Cricket in the front cab of the truck. When we went back inside the warehouse, Key was pushing herself up, first to her hands and knees, her arms having obvious trouble even with her lightweight frame. “I’ve got it.” She stood and held her hands out to the side, trying to gain some sort of balance. Her eyes were watering. Her face flushed. “I can ride in the bed of the truck. As long as I can lie down, I’ll be fine.”

“Key, let me help you.” Ryder stepped closer to her.

“No! Don’t come close. We have to minimize your exposure.” After grabbing Cricket’s water bottle, she limped weakly outside, and was barely able to lift herself into the back of the truck before she collapsed.

I scooped up Cricket’s backpack, and Ryder and I climbed into the cab.

At the hospital, we found an underground garage and parked the truck. The hospital looked to be in even worse shape than most of the rest of the buildings: windows shattered, doors busted open. I figured the hospital must have been ravaged by desperate looters during the outbreak. The odds that there were any supplies left weren’t good.

I carried Cricket to an exam room and lay her on a bed. It wasn’t the cleanest spot, but it would have to do for now. I checked her pulse; it was slow. Too slow. Why hadn’t she just turned around and left when I’d told her to?

I had never intended to hurt her. But the longer she’d stood there, the more I’d wondered if she, too, knew something about Christina. I was already sure that Caine was hiding something; was this girl in on it? She looked to be the same age as Ryder and me, and therefore she was the same age as Christina. Could they have been friends?

She moaned; she was waking up. I began sorting through her bag. I found the bottle of pills, a jacket, some binoculars, and a PulsePoint. I paused, staring at the device carried by all residents of New Caelum.

I moved to stand over her. “What the hell are you doing with a PulsePoint?” I asked her, even though she wasn’t really conscious yet. It didn’t make sense.

I searched the room for supplies. Nothing, as expected. I’d have to venture deeper into the hospital. Maybe we’d get lucky.
 

Two exam rooms over, I discovered some padded hand and ankle restraints. I returned to Cricket and strapped her to the gurney. She moved her head from side to side, her hair falling away from her face to reveal the scars on her right cheek and neck.

Unable to stop myself, I traced my fingers along the textured skin. Her eyes popped open, and I stepped away.

“What are you doing?” She jerked her head left, then right. “Where are we?” She took in her surroundings. “We’re at the hospital. Where’s Key? You need to move her to the infectious disease wing. It’s locked, but Caine has a key. We can help her, West.” Only after her ramblings did she finally try to move—and discovered her restraints. She tugged at them before turning her shocked gaze on me.

I had stooped to new depths. I reached in her backpack and pulled out the PulsePoint again. “Where did you get this?” I asked calmly.

She looked from the PulsePoint to me, and her eyes widened further. I could almost see her mind racing through a hundred possible answers, none of them the truth. She leaned her head back and stared up at the stained ceiling, and her breathing quickened.

Ryder entered the room. “Key’s all set up in a bed down the hall.”

Cricket remained silent. Her blue eyes pointed to the ceiling while I inwardly berated myself. I glanced over my shoulder at Ryder. “Cricket says there’s an infectious disease wing, but that it’s locked. Caine has a key.” That’s where they must have stored all the supplies.

Ryder walked over to Cricket and looked down into her face. “Is this true? Why would you need such a place? It’s not like you people on the outside have any real doctors, or any idea how to treat the sick.”

Cricket laughed under her breath. Ever since I had met her, she’d seemed quiet, shy even, except with the GI Jane gate guard. But this time when she spoke, she seemed confident, self-aware. “You two are a couple of real heroes, aren’t you? Why did you leave the city? You obviously didn’t do it because you thought it was better out here. Although I must say, that was a nice act you put on to get Dylan and Nina on your side. But now what? What are you going to do when Key’s fever gets so high that she has seizures? Or when she becomes dehydrated because the fluids in her body are evaporating? What will you do when she starts to bleed from the eyes and other not-so-pleasant areas of her body?” She jerked her hands and feet against the restraints. “What are you going to do when the two of you become infected too, and you can no longer help her? What, exactly, is your plan?”

Ryder’s face paled. His mouth hung open. I moved to stand in front of him, blocking Cricket from his view. We needed to focus.
 

“The plan is…” I moved toward Cricket and waved the PulsePoint in her face. “The plan is for you to tell me where you got this.” When she didn’t answer, I placed a hand on her shoulder, leaning in close to her face. “You stole this, didn’t you? You know Christina. What did you do to her?”

She refused to answer. She wouldn’t even look me in the eye. I tucked the PulsePoint into my waistband. “Fine. Don’t answer. But you’ll stay restrained until you tell us what we need to know.” Finding Christina was our only hope to save Key and Willow.
 

I turned and motioned for Ryder to join me in the hallway. Just as I reached the door, Cricket said, “Get Caine, let us help Key. And then I’ll tell you where Christina is.”

The last conversation I’d had with my mom and dad occurred the day before I moved to New Caelum with West and his mother. I still remembered Mom’s voice, even now, over a sketchy telephone connection. She was tired. I asked her if she was crying, but she denied it.

She knew then, as I would find out a day later, that she had been cut off from her home country—from me—forever.

She told me things like, “Keep up your studies, and work hard always.” And, “Do something nice for at least one person, even someone who might not deserve it, every single day.”

I didn’t know what she meant at the time. But now, thinking back, I realized that my mother and father had done nice things for people they didn’t know every day of their lives—even when doing so meant risking their own lives in a foreign country.

My mother said goodbye to me that day. And I have wished for the opportunity to tell her I loved her ever since—because I don’t remember what my last words to her were.

What if my mother died and didn’t know how much I loved her?

The lump in my throat was almost too much to swallow past. I choked against it. Tears fell from my eyes with nowhere to go but down my temple and into my hair. I wiggled my wrists against their restraints, wanting badly to wipe all evidence of emotion from my face.

I must have eventually drifted off to sleep, because I woke to the sounds of various distinct noises—the distant sound of voices, the echo of many footsteps, and doors slamming against walls, loose on their hinges.

I was watching the door like it might explode, and it did when Dax blew through it. “What the hell!” He ran to me, cupped my face. “Are you okay? Which one did this to you?”

“I’m fine. Calm down.” As angry as I was at West, I didn’t need Dax playing the hero at the moment.

West and Ryder entered the room behind Dax, followed by Caine, who seemed to be assessing the situation.

Dax began unbuckling the restraints. His breathing was coming at breakneck speed. “
Calm down?
Are you
kidding
me?” He pulled at the leather with increased frustration. “Tell me who did this.”

As soon as he had freed one of my hands, I grabbed his arm, my hand gripping the rough fabric of his heavy coat, and tugged him toward me. He leaned his face in and stared into my eyes. I pinned him with my best listen-to-me-or-else gaze. “Dax, don’t do anything. I mean it. There will be time for consequences later.”

He searched my eyes like a crazed lunatic. “West did this, didn’t he?”

“Dax, look at me.” But I had lost him.

He turned and charged at West.
 

Caine stepped in front of him and pushed him backward. “Listen to Cricket. Help her remove the other restraints.”

Dax reluctantly returned to me, then smoothed my hair back. “I
will
kill him,” he said, not caring that everyone standing there heard him, including West himself.

Dax didn’t mean what he said in the literal sense, but I’m sure he
did
mean to hurt West. I would make him understand. I’d have to. “No, you won’t, because that would hurt
me
. Please don’t do anything until we’ve had a chance to talk, okay?”

He took deep breaths in and out while he continued to free my limbs from the leather straps and rusted buckles. By the time he helped me off of the metal exam table, his breathing was finally slowing a bit.

With Dax directly behind me, I took three steps toward West and looked up into his eyes. “You will live to regret strapping me to that table and not letting me help Key.”

“Maybe. But as long as you keep up your end of the bargain, I don’t really care what I have to live with.”

I analyzed the desperation in his expression. Did he mean my promise to help Key, or was he that determined to find Christina Black? Though I had promised, I wasn’t sure I could produce Christina for him. “Why is finding your friend so important to you?”

He tilted his head, considering the question. “I have my reasons.”

“You’re so desperate to find her that you were willing to hurt someone you barely know?”

“You might not believe me, but I
am
sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I panicked.”

“Actually, I do believe you.”

“You do?” Dax asked behind me. When I didn’t answer right away, he ran a hand through his hair. “Unbelievable.”

“Like I said, he’ll regret it. We’re wasting time.” I looked at Caine. “What has West told you?”

“Not enough. That he left you here at the hospital, and that I needed to come. Dax was nearby and overheard. Obviously, there was no stopping him.”