Out Of The Ashes (The Ending Series, #3) (3 page)

“Hmmm.”

“Were you a doctor before, or is
this, you know, just part of your Ability?” I had no idea what counted as an
“Ability,” only that Sam had said everyone who survived the Virus had one—at
least those who weren’t “Crazies.”

Harper
He
smiled. “This doctor stuff is all training, Baby Girl. I was a medic in
the Army. My Ability has to do with visions and seeing things that haven’t
happened yet.”

I snorted, determined not to cry
out in confusion and disbelief.

“I know it’s a lot to take in,
especially all in one day, but we can’t risk another incident like earlier
today.”

I shrugged, figuring the more
answers I had the easier it would be for me to fit in. “Yeah, Sam said he has
heightened senses, that he can hear, smell, and see things that others can’t.”
I shook my head.

“Try not to move, Baby Girl.”

“Sorry.”

Harper shifted his hand down to my
chin, gently gripping it while he moved my head from side to side in tandem
with the flashlight he waved in front of my face.

“What are some of the others’
Abilities?”

“Well,” he began, “let’s see—I’m
not sure what Tavis or Daniel can do, but Carlos can control electricity, Dani
can communicate with animals, Sanchez is telepathic, Jake can regenerate…Chris
and your brother, well, they’re the reason you’re dealing with things as well
as you are; Chris is keeping you calm, and you’re brother is keeping your
Ability hidden. He can actually nullify
or
amplify other people’s
Abilities.”

Regeneration? Communicating
with animals? Telepathy? Controlling electricity?
I was almost afraid to ask… “What’s my Ability?” I placed
my hand on Harper’s, gently pushing the pen light down so I could look him in
the eyes. “What’s Jason protecting me from?”

Harper gave me a sympathetic
smile. “You can see people’s memories. You can feel what they’re feeling. On
top of everything that’s happened today, we didn’t think it was a good idea to
add your Ability into the mix, too.”

Jason and Chris had been shadowing
me pretty closely all day. Part of me wondered if I should be offended that
they hadn’t told me about this sooner. But then again, the idea of having an
Ability, especially one that was so intrusive, didn’t seem like something I
could handle on top of everything else.

Harper clicked the light on, blinding
me once more.

“Is there something
wrong
with
my eyes?” I asked a bit tersely. The more he wanted to check them, the more
concerned I became.

“No. Sorry to scare you. There’s
nothing wrong, I just—” He gave me another sympathetic smile as he clicked the
light off. “I was just making sure there’s no brain damage, or…I just want to
make sure I’m not missing anything that might help us figure out exactly what
she did to you, or how bad it is.” He sighed. “But I don’t see anything, and I
doubt I will without doing an MRI or—”

“It’s only been a day,” Dani chimed
in as she walked by. It was the first time I’d heard her speak since the
incident with the little girl…the Crazy. Dani stopped in the narrow clearing
where everyone was setting up their tents for the night. “You might be back to
your old self by tomorrow, Zo. Could be all you need is a good night’s sleep.”

Dani fought to keep a nylon
sleeping bag from slipping out from under her good arm. Although she flashed me
a smile over her shoulder, I could tell it was weak and forced. I could picture
a real Dani smile brightening her face to glowing, nothing like the halfhearted
smile she gave me now, which had quickly faded.

I watched as she struggled to open
a tent bag. “I’m sure you’re right,” I said and glanced up at Harper. “Tomorrow
will be better. Can I be done?” I felt like I needed to be doing
something
to help Dani, since I was otherwise useless and she was having such a hard time
after such a crappy day.

Harper nodded absently, not really
staring
at
me so much as staring
through
me. He rubbed his jaw and took another deep breath.

I stepped toward Dani but
hesitated the moment Jason appeared beside her, crouching to help. He muttered
something I couldn’t hear.

“Yeah…I just want to go to sleep,”
Dani said.

“This isn’t even our tent, and you
shouldn’t be doing this on your own, Red. You’ll just make your arm worse.
Please…just ask me for help next time.” Jason, a man of words that were few and
to the point, continued to grumble as he pulled the tent out of its bag and
unrolled it like doing so was second nature.

“I didn’t want to bother you.”
Dani rested her hand on his shoulder, his body tensed
and stilled.
“I was thinking Zo and I could
share a tent tonight. You know, since it would be weird for her…” Dani’s gaze
drifted to Jake.

Hurt flashed in Jason’s eyes.

“It’s alright,” I rushed to say.
The last thing I wanted to be was more of an inconvenience than I already was.

Jason and Dani both looked at me.

“I don’t mind having my own tent.
You guys share, really.”

“I don’t think you should be alone
tonight, Zo. What if something happens?” I noticed Dani’s eyes skirt to Jake
again; he’d just dropped his own tent on the ground on the other side of the
fire.

“What if your memory comes back
and you’re all alone?” Dani said, bringing my attention back to her. “I should
be with you…unless…” Again, her eyes drifted to Jake.

What does it mean that he can
“regenerate”?
A rush of anxiety filled me
as I thought about sleeping in the same tent as him. Dani might’ve told me that
Jake and I were
together
, but she hadn’t given me any of the details,
and I wasn’t quite ready for that yet.

Becca walked past, startling me.
Her face was soft and glowing in the building flames. “We can share a tent
tonight, if you would like,” she said. I hadn’t talked to her much since we’d
left Colorado Springs, so I was surprised she’d even offered.

I flashed her a grateful smile.
“Thanks, Becca.” Looking at Dani, I asked, “Do you mind?”

Dani shrugged and shook her head.
“Only if you’re sure, Zo.”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“You can use this tent,” Jason
offered, prepared to pull the tent poles out of the pack.

“That’s okay, Jason. I can finish.
You guys can set up your stuff. Can you just point me to my things?” I hadn’t
needed them for anything yet, since we’d been riding all day. “I do have
things
,
right?”

Jason nodded to Dani, and with a
willing smile she picked up the flashlight he’d set on the ground and walked
with me over to Mocha.

As I trudged along behind her, I
noticed how many people were bustling around, chatting while they set up for
the night. Our cramped little camp was in a wooded area off the highway, out of
sight but not so far away from the road that I couldn’t hear one of the horses
clip-clopping lazily on the asphalt.

Stepping up to Mocha, Dani started
untying the two long stuff sacks secured behind the saddle with one hand,
tossing me each as she freed them. Both were black with a purple Celtic knot
painted on the side.

“That’s your sleeping bag and
sleeping pad,” she said, pointing to each before she peeked into one of the
saddlebags, which were still on the horse. “Yep, your clothes and whatnot are
in here. Give me a sec and I’ll have these down for you.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll get them,” I
said, not wanting her to struggle needlessly. As I fumbled to loosen the saddlebag,
I stared at the knot painted on it. I had no idea what the heck it meant.
“Apparently I really like this symbol,” I said. “It’s all over my stuff.”

Finally unfastening the bag, I
turned around. Dani eyed me a moment, her face cast in shadows; obviously it
meant something important to her, too. I glanced back down at the bag, the knot
glaring at me.

Assuming it was my confusion that
made her expel a tiny sigh of sadness, I released a sigh of my own. “I’m sorry,
Dani. I wish I could remember…”

She stepped closer and nudged my
arm with her good shoulder, offering me a reassuring smile that didn’t touch
her eyes. “It’s okay, Zo. We’ll figure it out tomorrow. It’s been a long day,
and we all need our rest.”

I nodded and turned to tug the
leather bags off of Mocha’s back, but grunted when they were heavier than I’d
expected.
“What the hell did I put in he—”

“Here.” A deep rumble came from
behind me, and an arm reached over my shoulder and grabbed the cross strap of
the saddlebags. Jake pulled them effortlessly off the horse and asked me where
I wanted them.

“Over by Becca,” I said, pointing
dumbly. I’d decided Jake was intimidating—alluring but intimidating—and it
prevented me from putting on a show of calmness around him, like I could around
everyone else.

A pained expression pinched his
features, but without another word, he headed to the other side of camp, toward
Becca.

Dani was watching me, idly patting
Jack, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. She gave me a reassuring nod—the nod
that I’d grown used to over the past twelve hours—before I followed quickly
after Jake.

Feeling inadequate in our silence,
I occupied my mind with observations of the rest of the campers, busy in their
various stages of getting situated.

Chris, just finished setting up a
tent for Camille and Mase, was pulling her blonde hair up into a ponytail,
while Mase, huge, dark, and imposing, stood in front of the tent with Camille
in his arms, her head resting on his shoulder. They’d been inseparable since
she’d awoken right before we stopped for the day, and despite being unconscious
since before they’d found me, she still looked exhausted. Mase stared at the
nylon dome like it was from another dimension. He seemed constantly confused—even
more than me, which I thought a little strange—but after a brief moment of
hesitation, he ducked inside the tent with Camille.

Gabe, the tall, blond man who
seemed to keep to himself, was setting up another tent beside theirs.

“What’s his Ability?” I asked
Jake. When he peered back at me, I pointed to Gabe.

Jake’s jaw clenched, and I
immediately regretted asking him. “He can manipulate people’s dreams,” he said.
I didn’t need to know the history between them to know it wasn’t a good one.

“Oh.”

Sanchez, who seemed to be leading
the group with Jason, was stacking wood next to the campfire, while Sam and
easygoing Tavis hauled over bunches of kindling. I enjoyed watching Sam and
Tavis interact; they acted more like brothers than father and son—though I’d
been told they were neither—and they laughed more than the others, which I
found comforting.

But as much as everyone
seemed
to coexist easily enough, a cloud of tension hung over the group. I wasn’t sure
I wanted to learn the cause yet. Trying to remember everyone’s names, their
Abilities, and my relationship with each of them was chore enough.

Jake stopped short in front of me,
and I ran into his back.

“Sorry,” I said, unable to stop a
nervous laugh from bubbling out of me. “I got distracted.” I dropped the load
in my arms on the ground near Becca.

Jake set my saddlebags down as
well. “I’ll be right back,” he said and headed back toward the horses.

I watched him for a moment—watched
the way he rubbed the back of his neck and the way his shoulders relaxed the further
he was from me.

I turned to Becca, who was attempting
to finish setting up our tent. “Thank you, Becca. I appreciate you offering to
stay with me tonight.”

When I realized she was
practically wrestling with the tent poles, I crouched beside her to show her
how they worked. “It’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it,” I said. I was
surprised I remembered silly things like that—how to set up a tent, how to
excuse myself when I sneezed and cover my mouth when I coughed.
Why can I
remember those things but not others?

“You have done this before,” Becca
said quietly, watching the way my fingers moved and how I maneuvered the fabric
of the tent as I pushed the poles through the red nylon loops.

“Yeah, I guess I have. You’ve
never been camping?” Slowly, I forced one end of the pole into the corner of
the tent, and watched as Becca mimicked what I was doing.

“Not that I remember, no.” Her
voice was distant, as if her mind was somewhere else.

“Yeah, me neither…at least, not
that I can remember.”

Jake returned, dropping two more
stuff sacks on the ground, what appeared to be another sleeping bag and pad. He
looked at Becca. “Those are mine, but you use them tonight. We’ll stop
somewhere tomorrow to get you your own gear.” Becca watched Jake, her mouth
pulling into a barely-there smile. “Thank you, Jake.” The way she spoke to him
seemed deliberate, like she meant more than what she said.

He watched her for a moment, his
head tilting slightly to the side before he nodded. When his stare shifted to
me, he appeared uncertain and regretful. There was a long, awkward silence
before he said, “Will you please let me know if you need anything else?” His
tone was soft, beseeching, even. There was something warm and inviting about
his deep, velvety voice. “
Anything
,
” he repeated, his eyes filled with a sadness I didn’t
understand.