Summer Ruins (24 page)

“I know. But we don’t know where we’re going or how long it might be before we find more provisions. There are seventeen of us. That’s too many people to ask Wolf to feed on his own, and there’s food and water and blankets inside. We’re just going to pack a couple of bags, and be right behind you.” I nod and try to smile, meaning to be encouraging. My smile feels malnourished, so it probably does more harm that good, but Deshi nods back a moment later.

Pax takes Laura’s arm, steadying her as they move toward the trees. He’s anxious to check on Leah, I’m sure. I’m counting on the fact that she’s been able to keep the kids calm and away from doing anything stupid this whole time. They’ve got to be a panicked mess by now, wondering if we’re ever coming back for them.

Two figures move at the tree line.

“Pax, wait! Get down!” I scream at the top of my lungs, and he tosses poor Laura into the grass before falling on top of her, guarding her battered body with his.

Chapter 23.

Deshi and Lucas respond as though they’ve been trusting me their entire lives, dropping to the ground at the same moment I do.

“What did you see, Althea?” Lucas hisses from ten feet away, closer to the cabin.

“Two people in the trees.”

Before we can decide what to do or if we’re all about to die, the sun glints off corn-silk hair and my body goes limp with relief. “You guys, it’s just Brittany.”

I get up and march toward her. “Brittany, you can come out.”

She steps into view, Leah beside her. We meet next to the gnarled old tree that Greer previously used as a portal, next to the lake. Sunlight sparkles on the water’s surface, blinking off the ripples made by the summer breeze, nearly blinding me. The fresh smell of grass and flowers permeates the afternoon, clashing with the withered feeling soaking into my bones.

“Sorry, I just… you were gone for so long and after a while it felt like the wrong thing to do to just sit and wait while people were getting hurt…” Brittany trails off, her eyes glued to the dead kids interrupting the picture-perfect afternoon outside the cabin.

“We wanted to help,” Leah adds lamely.

“It’s okay.” I step between Brittany and her view, and watch her visibly shake herself back into the moment. “There isn’t anything we can do for the people inside. Pax and Deshi were just about to take Laura back and tell everyone what happened. Lucas and I are going to gather some supplies and meet you there so we can figure out where to go next.”

Brittany nods like a robot, then turns her back on the cabin. Even though she and Leah have handled all of this weirdness without a misstep until now, Brittany looks like she’s about to lose it.

We can’t baby her right now, though. Once the Wardens report their findings to the Prime, they’ll be back. We’re far too close for comfort, and it’s time to figure out the extent of our joined abilities. Hopefully it involves a way to get everyone safely away from here.

“Go, you guys. We’ll see you in ten minutes.”

They listen to me this time, and even though tears glisten in Brittany’s eyes, she straightens her shoulders and they all disappear into the Wilds.

“Do you know where we’re supposed to meet them?” Lucas raises tired eyebrows at me.

“Yeah. Pax and I met Greer there once. It’s where she told us the story about that Wild Bill guy.”

“The one who died with the dead man’s hand.” Lucas smiles, but it falls away before it can pinch a dimple.

“Aces and eights. That stupid story.” For some reason the memory of that night on Mount Rushmore, with Pax and the two of us unharmed and full of tenuous hope, clogs my chest and throat with heavy wetness.

That was before all of these kids were unveiled or agreed to be part of this insane plot to take back the planet from Others who are stronger, better unified, and more prepared than we are. It was before so many of us died. We’re still better off than we were then, I remind myself. Deshi’s on our side. There are seventeen of us, not three. There’s hope that the Sidhe have survived and will find a way to contact us.

Lucas puts an arm around my waist and pulls me tight, and we walk that way back to the porch, then inside the cabin. We ignore the bodies as best as we can while we stuff canned goods, water bottles, blankets, can opener, and our few tattered personal belongings into four duffel bags. We take as much as we can reasonably carry, since there are more of us now.

When I walk out of the pantry, something looks different. It takes me a moment of staring to figure out what it is, and then it hits me. There were no bodies in the kitchen before, but now there’s a bloodied arm draped across the threshold from the living room. Then the fingers twitch and dig fruitlessly into the cracked linoleum.

“Lucas!” I yell, taking two huge steps to the doorway, letting some heat build in my center in case it’s a Warden springing back to life after my pyro show earlier.

But it’s not an Other. It’s not Greer, either, which was my secret hope. Lucas crashes to a stop beside me and we stare down at a thin girl with brown hair, bangs hanging in her dark eyes.

Tears well as she tries and fails to sit. “Don’t leave me.”

My memory searches for her name and to my surprise, comes up with it: Katie. Another Des Moines girl. A quick once-over reveals blood matting the hair on the back of her neck and one wrist hanging at an unnatural angle. Her good arm, though bloody, wraps around her midsection. “Katie, right?”

She nods, then winces.

“Where does it hurt?”

“Everywhere.” She tries a laugh, but it turns into a gasp of pain. “My leg, my rib cage, my wrist, my head.”

“We’re not going to leave you, Katie, but we do need to get out of here.” Lucas bends, wraps his arms around her, and hauls her to her feet.

It’s going to complicate things, seeing how we’ve got bags of supplies to carry and now a girl who’s taller than I expect who can’t walk without help. But she’s alive. One more person that we’re not responsible for killing.

Yet.

I sling one of the heavy duffels onto my back like a Cell backpack and a second over my shoulder. My free arm goes around Katie, taking much of her weight, and we struggle toward the front door. Lucas leads the way, stooped under two bags on each shoulder, and the twenty-minute walk to the graveyard takes almost an hour.

We find Pax and Deshi pacing outside the biggest tomb, Wolf bounding in circles around them. I pass Katie to Lucas and drop to my knees at the sight of my dog. “Wolf!”

He leaps into my arms, knocking me back against the grass and bumping my head against Lucas’s shin, but it doesn’t even hurt. The slobbery kisses he wipes across my face are the most disgusting and welcome signs of affection ever. The first genuine happiness I’ve felt all day lifts my lips into a smile and I bury my face in his scruff, breathing in the musky, dirty scent of him.

When I get to my feet, I see that the rest of the kids are sitting or standing around the cemetery. They’re relatively clean and unharmed, especially compared to the ones left behind, but fear and grief pinch their faces. No one has been spared loss today, and even though I didn’t know most of those kids all that well, I feel the absence of Greer deep in my bones.

I even miss Griffin’s arrogant grin.

“Hey,” Pax says, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “We’ve been trying to keep everyone calm. For the most part they’re doing as well as can be expected. No one’s lost it yet.”

“Katie!” a scratchy, tear-filled voice chokes out. I turn to see Laura limp across the grass, stepping carefully around tombstones.

She takes Katie’s weight from Lucas and they hug. It’s like our own personal little miracle that the one person Laura was looking for is the single girl left alive when we went back. In spite of everything, it makes me smile, and wedges support under my wobbling conviction. We lost people today, but there are more left. This isn’t over.

“We need to talk to them. Find out how many are going to come with us when we leave for… wherever.” Lucas shifts from foot to foot, having dropped his heavy burdens in a heap in the grass.

Huge trees—so many types I can’t name them all—surround us, fanning the breeze through the afternoon in quiet breaths. They shade this place of remembrance and death, alternating spots of shadows and light fluttering across our faces. It’s afternoon but the sun still hovers; we have hours of daylight still. Brilliant green patches of grass sprout among the weathered headstones, fighting for space among the purple and yellow wildflowers that tangle in pretty clusters.

I step toward where most of the kids have settled against the fence that once protected the final resting place of Wild Bill Hickock. Everyone stops muttering and turns to face us—me, Lucas, Pax, Deshi, and Leah—where we stand together.

The two injured girls are getting bandaged as well as possible with strips of clothing and string, and each have more color than they did when we found them. Pax is going to need to take a look at Katie’s wrist and maybe her leg, which she’s still not putting any weight on. Maybe someone else’s parents were Healers, too, and they can help him decide what to do.

“We’re sorry about what happened. None of us knew it was coming until there wasn’t time to stop it, or to get everyone out. We will tell you what we
do
know about how it happened, but first we need to get farther away from here.” I struggle to keep my voice steady, to not show them how afraid I am that they’re all going to turn and run.

“Why? Haven’t they already done all the damage they can?” The question comes from a tall, blond boy toward the back.

I recognize him because he’s from Danbury; he was friends with Greg. “Not all, Phil. We’re still alive. Once the Wardens report to the Prime what they found here, and that the four of us showed up to try to stop it, you can bet they’ll be back.”

“Where can we go?”

“How will we survive out here alone?”

“They’re going to find us, anyway, why not just turn ourselves in and beg for mercy?”

Their voices mash and swirl together, pounding in my skull until they’re mixed into a stew of hopeless chatter. Pax looks at my face and then holds up one hand, using the other to let loose a piercing whistle. Wolf jerks to the side, giving Pax what would be a dirty look if he were human.

“How’d you do that?” Lucas asks, eyes wide and impressed.

It’s weird, the way even though you know people, they can still surprise you.

“Griffin taught me.” Pax winks at me, then faces the waiting group. “I don’t know everything. None of us does, but the four of us have seen things you guys haven’t, and I promise you this—the Others will kill you if they find you in the Wilds. They have no qualms about extinguishing people who don’t act according to their plan, and right now that includes you.”

“If you come with us, we’ll try to keep you safe,” Lucas continues, as though they’ve somehow worked this out ahead of time. “But not one of us, or anyone else on Earth, is going to be really safe until we finish what we started.”

“We have to find a way to get rid of them and going back to the Sanctioned Cities isn’t an option,” I say softly. “Nothing has changed.”

Maybe it’s the wrong thing to say, since earlier today everything changed for the twenty or so kids who will never breathe again, but it’s still true.

The kids remain silent for a long time. Some of them stare at the ground, others off into the sky or the trees, and a few try to gauge their friends’ reactions through eye contact. I expect it to be Brittany who makes the decision, but instead it’s the girl I left in charge in Danbury all those weeks ago—Jordan.

Her long brown hair shifts in the fragrant breeze, and she holds it back with a hand, picking her way through the headstones to the five of us. She turns without a word, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Brittany comes next, pressing close to Leah as though she’s afraid she’ll disappear again. In the end, everyone’s still on our side, even after today.

“So, where are we going?” Jordan asks, still pinching her hair into a ponytail.

I realize they’ve left their things at the cabin. It’s too risky to go back now, so they’ll have to make do with the clothes and supplies Lucas and I grabbed. Most of them wear shorts and T-shirts paired with tennis shoes, which should be fine.

My mind shifts through possible answers to the question. Lucas and Pax are silent, too, but after a minute, Deshi pipes up. “We just need to pick a direction and go. They don’t have enough manpower to search everywhere, and we’ll be far enough away before they realize there were more of us left behind.”

“Plus, they only know for sure the four of us are still alive, and they’d expect us to travel, not walk,” Pax adds.

We’re underestimating the Others. “They’ll search. And they’ll find our tracks. Even if we leave now, we’re only going to end up with a day’s head start—
maybe
. And they’ve got riders.”

“I don’t know how to fix that problem, but I think we should head south.” Brittany pulls her braid in front of her mouth, poking her shredded lips with the end.

Everyone turns to look at her, surprised at her opinion. She drops her braid and rolls her eyes, standing up straighter. It’s a relief to see the reemergence of this strong, often impatient girl. We’re all counting on her to hold it together.