Into The Fire (The Ending Series) (3 page)

“Unconscious,” I finished for him, refusing to hear him
utter the word “dead.”

2

ZOE

MARCH
15, 1AE

I sat on one of the hay bales arranged around the campfire
and brushed off the bottoms of my feet to pull on my socks. My eyes drifted to
Dani’s cup from the night before, sitting on the makeshift table Jake had made.
It still held about an inch of white wine. Then my gaze moved to the empty
liquor bottles and red plastic cups stacked on the boulder a few feet away. The
sight was enough to make me sick to my stomach all over again. I couldn’t
believe how stupid we’d been…how careless. We weren’t safe, and we never
had
been.

Cooper licked the back of my hand, and I looked down. He was
watching me with downtrodden eyes, his tail moving in a half wag. “Thank you
for your help, Coop,” I said, rubbing his velvety ears. I hadn’t seen Jack in a
while, but I assumed he was still in the tent with Jason.

“What if whoever took Dani is waiting for you guys in town?”
Sarah said to Biggs as he, Harper, and Sanchez noisily readied our weapons
behind me. “I mean—”

“They won’t be, baby,” Biggs said, trying to soothe her. “They
have better things to do than wait around for the likes of us.” His voice was
cool and easy, and I wondered if Sarah believed him.
I
wanted
to
believe him.

I glanced over my shoulder in time to see Biggs give Sarah a
kiss on the forehead. She smiled, rubbing her bulging belly anxiously. Their
unborn child had grown so much in the past month that Sarah was limited to
sweatpants and loose shirts, a look that was so out of character for the former
fashionista, I almost smiled.

“Are we at least moving camp?” she asked him, practically pleading.
“I mean, what if they come back and take someone else?”

“Dani might come back,” I interjected before Biggs could
formulate an answer. I knew he wanted to leave. “Besides, they could’ve hurt us
last night if they really wanted to. They’re not interested in the rest of us.”
At least, I assumed they weren’t.

Sarah tucked a strand of curly hair behind her ear and absentmindedly
chewed on her fingernails—a new nervous habit she’d adopted within the last
couple months since learning she was pregnant. Realizing I was watching her, she
focused on me and lowered her hand from her mouth. “I guess that makes sense,”
she said and wrapped her arms around her belly. It was like she was protecting the
rapidly growing fetus from the gloomy shadow that had settled over us all.

As Sarah retreated into the  barn, an image of her house in
St. Louis flashed through her mind, and I knew she was missing her home. She
hadn’t wanted to leave, but she’d done so for Biggs…for me. A fleeting pang of
guilt gave me pause, but there was little I could do. I turned back around and
picked up my right boot.
Dani’s out there somewhere, in the hands of…who
knows.
That
was my focus.

Three miles to the east, Cañon City was the closest place to
search for maps, plans, and anything else that could help us come up with a way
to get Dani back. Jason didn’t like waiting, but most of us agreed we needed to
be strategic if we were going to have any chance of rescuing her.
Assuming
she’s still alive.

“I think we should assume these ‘Colony’ people want something
specific from Danielle,” Grayson said, practically reading my mind. He sat on a
hay bale on the other side of the dying fire. Although his face was grim and
his weathered skin seemed particularly pinched around his eyes, his presence
provided a sense comfort. I couldn’t quite pinpoint why. Maybe it was because
Grayson reminded me of home, of my past.

I thought of my dad and Jason, of how they used to be, but
that only conjured a mess of unsettling memories.
I can’t believe Dad’s
really gone.
Then, I remembered the box Jason had brought from Bodega Bay—our
dad’s box. I glanced toward Jason’s tent on the edge of the woods, assuming it
was in there with him.

In my peripheral vision, I spotted Grayson watching me. I
looked down at my boot instead of meeting his knowing, apologetic eyes. Satisfied
that the laces were tied well enough, I pulled my pant leg down and raised my
other foot to tie my left boot.

“They wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble,” Grayson
continued, “just to kill her, or—”

I swallowed another wave of nausea. Once the sun had risen,
we’d searched the woods surrounding our camp for what felt like endless,
heart-wrenching hours, only to be left with nothing but broken twigs indicating
there’d been a struggle, the torn yellow armband, a cigarette butt, and five
sets of boot prints, not including our own. We’d wasted the early hours of the morning
getting nowhere. It was difficult to remain hopeful when I could feel
everyone’s concern and even some of their doubt.

I gathered my hair behind me and started weaving it into a French
braid, wondering what was taking Jason so long to get ready.

“—saying. They knew what they were after, and they must have
planned it ahead of time.” Grayson leaned forward to stoke the fire with a
scrap of cardboard.

“If they were after
her
specifically,” Harper said,
drawing my attention to him, “they must’ve known about her ‘Ability’.” He was
rifling through an ammo-filled duffel bag behind me. “It’s the only thing that
makes sense.”

“But what would they want with her Ability?” Carlos asked as
he, too, joined us, donning his leather jacket. Though the sun was up, it was
chilly. “A lot of you have an Ability, you know, so why take her instead of…”
He shrugged.

Grayson nodded thoughtfully and scratched his brow. “True.
There are other, more accessible victims they could’ve taken.” He glanced at
Sarah as she waddled out of the barn, her cheeks packed with the last mouthful
of her second breakfast.

Carlos tossed a piece of straw into the fire. “And…how’d
they know about
her
? How’d they know
anything
about us?”

“Well, I suppose the first thing we need to consider is who,
outside of us, knows anything about the people in our group.” Grayson reached
behind him, pulling a couple saddlebags up into his lap, and he began packing them
with water and granola bars.

Carlos crouched down near the fire, his eyes squinting from
the brightness of the sun. “Hmmm…”

Sarah stopped at the edge of the campfire and tossed her
paper napkin and plate into the pit. The flames grew. As I leaned in toward
their heat, I scrubbed my face with my hands and took a deep breath. I watched the
dancing flames until they died back down, recalling the weekend bonfires Dani
and I used to have on the beach back home.

The beach…
The memory of a dream flickered to life.

I was lying on an incredibly soft mattress, candles
glowing all around me, illuminating the fire burning in Jake’s eyes. “I’m going
to do things to you, Zoe,” he whispered against my cheek with delicious
promise. His fingertips skimmed across my belly, lingering at the waistband of
my boy shorts, and his lips were soft and moist against my neck as he kissed
me. I closed my eyes in anticipation.

“I’m
definitely
going to do things,” he said
again.

“Yeah?” I giggled. “What sort of things?”

“I’m going to…” His warm breath caressing my skin turned
into a chilly breeze, and the heat of his body against mine vanished. A bright,
blinding light seared through my eyelids. Instinctively, they flew open, and I
sat up.
Wait…what?

I was lying on a beach—a seemingly familiar beach that
Dani and I spent long summer days lounging on back home—and I was suddenly
wearing a purple bikini. I closed my eyes and sighed.
So much for a
salacious dream tonight.
I stretched out on my towel in resignation.

“Hi, Zoe.”

I opened my eyes and sat up with a start. Dani was
sitting on a green towel beside me, her legs crossed and her hand raised. She
waved casually. Her hair was poofier and redder than usual, and she seemed more
subdued.

“Uh…hey, D.” I flashed her an awkward smile, and then
realized she wasn’t the only thing in my dream that seemed off. The cypress
tree up on the ridge to my left was too small, and the ocean stretching out in
front of me was too blue, too vibrant.

“Hey, Zoe.” Dani said again, and I looked back at her.
Her grin suddenly grew…too big. I frowned.

Is there a glitch in the matrix or something?
I plastered
a tolerant, perhaps sad smile on my face.
It would be nice if any of this
was real.
“Hey, D.”

Dani donned a pair of sunglasses that appeared out of
nowhere and lay down on her towel, her strangely too-red curls fanning out
behind her. As she adjusted her bikini top, I noted she was much curvier than
in real life.

I started chewing on the inside of my cheek. “This dream
is really creeping me out.”

The breeze died down, and Dani suddenly vanished.

“That’s my fault,” a man’s voice echoed around me. “I was
trying to recreate a scenario that would be comfortable and familiar to you.”

Startled, I scanned the beach. There was no one there.
“Who are you, and what the hell are you doing in my dream?” My eyes narrowed as
I again scanned the endless beach, expecting to see someone walking toward me.

He chuckled. “I think you know who I am.”

It was strange having a conversation with someone I
didn’t know…and couldn’t see. “Do I?” At first I wasn’t convinced, but when he
chuckled again, I thought about the mystery guy from Dani’s dreams.
Is it
possible he’s real?
“MG…?”

“According to Dani, yes, that would be me.”

“And you’re in
my
dream because…?”

“I’m doing a favor for our mutual friend.”

Relieved, I smiled. “Really? Then she’s okay?” I hadn’t
heard from her in weeks, not since she’d gone off on her own. “Is she still alone?”

“Yes, she’s okay. She’s with her friends, and she wants
to know where you are. They’re on their way to meet you, but it might take them
a while…they’re on horseback.”

Ignoring a fleeting feeling of distrust, I told him where
we planned to set up camp once we made it to Colorado. Dani was alive, and I
knew MG was the only hope I had of finding my best friend and my brother.

“I knew I shouldn’t have trusted him,” I spat.

Six heads whipped in my direction.

“Trusted who, Baby Girl?” Harper asked.

“The bastard from her dreams. Mystery Guy or MG or whatever
she calls him,” I said. In my moment of clarity, I’d bitten the inside of my
cheek too hard, and I could taste salty blood welling in the break of my skin. “I
told him where Dani could find us…where we’d be.” I lowered my face to my
hands. “I can’t believe I was so stupid! It had to be—”

“But he helped bring us together,” Carlos reminded me. “Why
would he do something like this?”

“He was playing us,” I snapped. “He’s the only one who knew we
were here. And, outside of us, he’s the only one who knows about Dani’s
Ability.” I shook my head, still staring into the fire pit, which was once
again a smoldering mess of embers and weak flames. “Why was he in her dreams to
begin with? How did he even find her?”
Was he
hunting
her?
Herding
her to the Colony?

“Wait.” Still crouched, Harper pivoted to face me. “Didn’t
Dani
ask
him to find us, to find you?”

Carlos stood up defensively. “She did. And he helped her
learn how to use her Ability. He’s her friend.”

The reminder made my skin crawl.
Was he grooming her?
Molding her into a toy, something he could play with?
I groaned. Not
knowing what MG wanted with Dani filled me with dread.

Understanding widened Harper’s eyes. “He had to have known
we’d figure it out eventually—”

“Right, and now that we know who he is…we still don’t know
who he
really
is,” I bit out, wanting to scream. “It’s fucking perfect.”

“Which is why we need to leave,” Biggs said forcefully. “He
knows we’re here, and if he’s got the whole Colony to back him, we can’t
protect ourselves if he comes back for us.”

“But he could’ve killed us already,” Harper argued. “He
could’ve killed us, taken Dani, and never given us a second thought. I mean, it
makes sense that he’s the one who took her, but the repercussions of letting us
live…” He shook his head.

“We’re nothing to them. There are only a dozen of us and
only half are trained to fight.” I counted to five and then to ten, trying to
breathe away the tremors of outrage.

Jake strode over from the stable, oblivious to our
collective realization. “You ready?” He dropped a pistol holster next to me on
the hay bale. “This one straps to your thigh,” he explained. “Chris had an
extra. It’ll make lugging your duffle bag around easier.”

I gave him a weak, grateful smile, loving his thoughtfulness
and the way his warm, brown eyes made me feel a little less pissed off.
“Thanks.”

Sanchez cleared her throat and we turned to her. She was focusing
on the small, fold-up map in her hands. “I know the Colony is set up at
Peterson, but what about this other base—”

“They were going to take Becca to Peterson,” Jake said.
“Dani’s situation doesn’t seem so different.”

“What happened to her—your sister, I mean?” Carlos asked. I
could feel his growing fear.

After a moment, Jake shrugged. He was as exhausted as the
rest of us, and naturally, he wasn’t eager to relive the moment his sister died
in a bloody heap in his arms.

“We need to know everything we’re up against,” Grayson told
him.

Jake’s expression was blank, but he nodded slowly. I reached
for his hand and pulled him down to sit beside me. He started by telling them
that his sister was like Harper, that the Virus had changed the way her mind
worked, and that she had visions of the future.