Outbreak (4 page)

“Oh my god.” Miles’s eyes grow wide, and he reaches up to rub the back of his head. “Shit, man. I’m sorry . . . But are you sure? I mean, how can you even tell that’s him? You can’t see his face.”

“Because I met him . . . the last time Harper and I were deployed.”

Miles’s eyes bug out, but his expression quickly turns serious. When he speaks next, his voice is slow and deliberate. “What do you mean you
met
him?”

“I mean he saved my life. A couple gang bangers were torturing him for information, and Harper and I got caught in a shootout. I would have been killed, but he shot one of the other drifters. When I saw his face, I just knew.”

“Are you sure he’s your brother, though?”

“You don’t think I checked?” I ask, a little irritated that he’s so reluctant to accept my story.

“Okay, okay. I’m only asking. I mean, it just seems so . . . unlikely.”

“I know.”

“So you two talked?”

I nod.

Miles jerks his head around behind him, as though he’s worried someone might overhear us. “
Are you out of your fucking mind
?”

“What was I supposed to do?” I snap. “I thought he was dead all these years!”

“Dude! If Jayden finds out you were talking to a drifter, you’ll be in the cages for the rest of your life! Shit. Treason is grounds for lethal injection.”

“You think I don’t know that?” I growl. “He’s my brother!”

“You’re not thinking of trying to find him again, are you?”

I glance at the screen. This conversation is not playing out the way I’d hoped.

“You’re going to try to find him!” Miles snaps in disbelief. “Eli, you’re gonna get caught! Are you seeing all this?” He gestures around at the monitors. “They’re watching you everywhere! They’re probably watching us right now!”

“So what?”

Miles shakes his head and then falls silent for several seconds. 

“Are you thinking of
joining
him?” he asks in a husky voice. “Going AWOL and turning drifter?”

“No!” I splutter. “No. Of course not.”

He looks marginally relieved, but he’s still shaking his head.

“I’m not crazy,” I add. “You know what’s crazy? The board thinking we can protect the compound when we have no fucking clue who these guys are or what they’re planning.”

“What do you mean?”

“The drifters want to bring down the compounds. To them, we’re the enemy. Hell, we’ve been killing off all their friends for years.”

“You sound like one of them.”

“I’m not! It’s just the truth.”

Miles sinks down into the chair next to me as though our conversation has taken everything out of him. He presses his hands together and lets out a hard breath against his fingers. “Eli, I want you to listen to me: They are the enemy. The drifters want us all dead. They’re the people you need to be fighting — not Jayden, not the board, not even Constance.”

I open my mouth to speak, but he points his index finger at me in a commanding way that makes the words die on my lips.

“I know you’ve got this crusade against Jayden and Constance because they tried to put Riley six feet under, but people like them exist to keep us alive. The drifters are the real threat. They’re the ones we’re fighting.

“I know your brother being one of them makes you question everything. Shit, you’d be fucked in the head if it
didn’t
. But don’t confuse the issue.”

When Miles finishes, I’m completely speechless.

Miles — the guy who shamelessly steals extra rations and takes on illegal fights — still believes in Recon’s mission. He still thinks the compound has his best interest in mind. He believes we’re doing the right thing. 

And if he believes it, that means everyone else must believe it, too. In that moment, it hits me just how tight a hold the compound’s leaders have on our minds.

When I finally find my voice, it’s hoarse with indignation. “What we do is
murder
.”

Miles shakes his head slowly, his dark brown eyes serious and unyielding. “No, Eli. We’re fighting a war.”

“What war?” I yell. “They’ve got nothing, and we have everything! They’re blowing us up with our own mines, for god’s sake.”

“What has gotten into you?” he snaps, jutting his face forward so it’s closer to mine. “You of all people used to understand. You used to hate the drifters more than anybody.”

I scoff and look away, but Miles isn’t letting this go.

“Eli, those people are the ones who killed all your cadets. They’re the ones who killed your parents.”

“Don’t you get it?
Those people
are somebody else’s parents. And we just shoot them like they’re not even human.”

“Whatever. We wouldn’t even be having this conversation if it weren’t for Riley. She’s got you all turned around.”

“I’ve got it under control,” I snap.

“No, you don’t. That’s your problem. You think you can handle Constance and the drifters on your own like you’re some one-man army. But the only way Riley’s ever gonna live is if she takes that ticket to 119. Period.”

His words settle in my stomach like a brick. “She already did.”

“What?”

“I sent her and Celdon to 119. She’s gone.”

Miles gives me a funny look. “No, she’s not.” 

“Yeah, she is.”

Miles’s eyes grow wide. “Dude, you need to get some sleep.”

“What are you talking about?” 

“I just saw her.”

My spine goes rigid, and my heart speeds up. “What?”

“Yeah.” He glances at the time again. “She’s in the training center right now with all your cadets.”

Even though I know it’s impossible, a bolt of electricity shoots through my chest. It stings with fear and dread, but it also leaves a trail of warmth in its wake. 

Harper can’t be here. Miles must be talking about someone else who just looks like her, but I have to see for myself. 

Without another word, I fly out of my chair and squeeze past the servers crowding the doorway. I shoot out of the surveillance room and down the dimly lit tunnel toward the training center.

The smell of bleach and sweat hits my nostrils before I even open the doors, and when I step inside, my senses are overwhelmed by activity after hours alone in the dark.

It’s nearly oh-eight hundred, so the training center is swarming with cadets warming up and waiting along the walls for their commanding officers.

I carve a path around the older Recon veterans stretching on the mats, looking for a dark head of silky hair and a pair of luminous gray eyes.

In my desperation, I almost call out for her, but there’s no way she’d be able to hear me over the cadets’ chatter and the heavy
clink
of weights. As someone passes above me on the suspended metal track, the loud shaking adds to the din.

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch the flick of a dark ponytail.

If Miles is seeing things, then I am, too. But there’s no mistaking Harper’s lean profile or her energetic cadence as she jogs around the track.

The fear simmering just beneath the surface spills into my bloodstream and ignites a fire in my chest.

Miles wasn’t hallucinating. Harper is back.

four

Harper

The first rule of avoiding murder? Don’t go anywhere alone. Stay away from dark tunnels and shady underground fights. Stick to public places with lots of people.

That’s the
only
reason I dragged myself to training this morning after Celdon and I returned from 119. I didn’t sleep at all last night. My mind was reeling from everything we’d learned about the virus and the danger we’d be facing now that we’re back on Constance’s radar.

Jayden is going to try to make me disappear — no doubt about it — but I don’t plan on going down easily.

As I round the corner of the suspended metal track, I inch closer and closer to Lenny. Her normally creamy complexion is flushed from the run, and her fiery red braid is swinging back and forth between her shoulder blades.

She isn’t as fast as I am, but she’s pushing herself this morning. She beat me to the training center and didn’t even stop to talk when I arrived.

Her impending deployment must have lit a fire under her, and now she’s training like crazy in the hope that if she’s fit enough, fast enough, and strong enough, she might be able to outrun death on the Fringe.

Blaze is another twenty yards ahead and gaining speed. When I got to the training center, the first thing I noticed was that he’d trimmed his spiky copper hair into a clean crew cut. His normally carefree expression mirrors Lenny’s look of panic and determination, and his shirt is already drenched with sweat.

“Hey! Riley!” calls an angry voice from below.

I know that voice. It sends a surge of heat through my chest that quickly spreads to my extremities.

I quicken my pace and glance down to the training floor. Eli is standing in the crowd, staring up at me.

Even though it’s only been a little more than a day since I last saw him, I drink in the sight of him as if it’s been a year. Those sharp blue eyes are boring into mine, and the severe set of his jaw makes it look as though his face has been cut from stone.

This is not the concerned, compassionate Eli from the Fringe or the intense, fiery version who pinned me up against the wall. This is Eli the asshole, and he looks pissed.

“Get down here!” he yells.

Lenny glances over her shoulder and raises an eyebrow. “What did you do?” she pants, a devilish grin cracking her anxious expression.

“No idea.”

I jog around her and take my time coming down the rickety stairs toward Eli. But as soon as my feet hit the floor, he’s striding toward me with purpose.

In all his handsome, furious glory, I have the bizarre urge to tear off his uniform and run my hands down his body. His chiseled chest is rising and falling rapidly under his gray fatigues, and his powerful arms are clenched at his sides.

But as soon as he gets close enough to kiss, he clenches a hand around my bicep and drags me across the training center like a disobedient child. I don’t look up, but I can feel the other cadets’ eyes on my back as Eli drags me toward the exit. 

Indignation flashes through me, and a hot flush spills down my neck. As soon as we clear the double doors, I yank my arm out of his grip and shove him in the chest — hard. 

Eli looks momentarily stunned but doesn’t relax his posture. 

“What the hell is your problem?” I snarl.

“My problem?” he repeats, eyes flashing. “What the
fuck
are you doing here?”

“Keep your voice down,” I hiss, glancing over my shoulder. 

Through the open doors, I can see a few cadets craning their necks to get a good look at us. Eli’s sudden fits of rage aren’t a secret in Recon, but it’s not every day that a lieutenant singles out a cadet and drags her out of the training center.

I’m unprepared for the intensity of my outrage. Eli has no right to order me around — especially after he lied to me about coming to 119.

I’m hurt and humiliated and a little offended that he’s so unhappy to see me. I mean, I didn’t expect him to sweep me off my feet and kiss me in front of everyone, but a tiny bit of enthusiasm would have been nice.

Eli’s eyebrows are furrowed in deep concern. He’s
definitely
not working up to a passionate kiss. “Harper . . . why did you come back? You shouldn’t have come back!”

“We didn’t have a choice.”

He frowns. “Did they send you back?”

“N-No.”

“Then why are you here? You should have stayed at 119.”

I look around again to check that the tunnel is deserted and lower my voice. “We
couldn’t
.”

I take a deep breath, steeling myself to voice the horrible reality of the situation. “There
is
no 119. Everyone there is dead.”

Eli stares at me in disbelief. Then a look of intense distress flits across his face. “
They’re all dead
?” he whispers.

I nod. “We looked everywhere. We couldn’t figure out where they all could have gone. And then we saw the dead level . . .” 

A violent shudder rolls through me. Eli twitches as though he wants to pull me into his arms, but then he swallows and clenches his fists.

“We went poking around in the medical ward,” I continue. “Celdon accessed the network so we could check the news feeds and hack into their medical records. They all died from some kind of virus, but Health and Rehab didn’t know what it was or how to cure it.”

“But what about the supply shipments? Why would our people go there if . . .”

“They’ve been looting from 119 — cleaning out their medical supplies and who knows what else. Those Operations workers
must
be part of Constance.”

“And you didn’t find out how the virus was introduced in the first place?”

I shake my head. “We didn’t get that far. But Celdon snagged all the files. He’s going to see what Sawyer can make of them. Maybe she can tell us what happened.”

Eli lets out a full-body sigh, and his gaze drifts over my shoulder. Now that I’m this close to him, I can see the deep purplish shadows etched under his eyes. It looks as though he hasn’t slept since I left. 

“What are we going to do?” he mutters, running a hand through his hair.

His words wash over me like ice-cold water, and the hurt I felt when I found out he lied hits me all over again. I know I shouldn’t even say it — his dishonesty is not our most pressing problem — but the words spill out before I can stop them. “There is no ‘we,’ Eli. Not anymore.”

Now I have his full attention. “What?”

“You lied to me,” I say, unable to conceal the pain in my voice. “You never asked for Celdon’s help or appealed to bring Owen to 119. You never had any intention of joining us.”

“That’s not true.”

“It isn’t?” I snap, glaring up at him. “What was the plan, then?”

“I . . . I was going to follow you. But I had to see Owen first. He was never going to agree to live in 119, but I thought maybe he could relocate to be closer. Then if I was placed in Recon, I’d at least have a
chance
of seeing him again.”