Twisted World: A Broken World Novel (22 page)

Despite the sadness surrounding us, Parv let out a little laugh. “Al never has lost his sense of humor.”

“I hope he never does,” I said, wiping the tears from my face. “What about Mom? Did she know all this?”

“Yes and no.” Parv sighed. “She would be furious if she knew your dad kept all this from her, but when we found out he was immune she was pregnant and he didn’t want to scare her. Or dampen her good mood. Then she was happy for a long time, and after everything, I think he just didn’t want that to change. Then Margot died…” I swallowed and Parv patted my hand again. “She heard the rumors about Angus and we all talked about it, but we kept the majority of what was going on a secret from her. It’s how your dad wanted it.”

“What now? What do we do about Dad? We can’t just leave him in there, but how the hell are we going to get into the CDC?”

“I’m open for suggestions.” Parv pulled her hand off mine and stared at the ring on her right thumb, putting it next to the matching one on her left ring finger. “We need someone on the inside. Problem is, there isn’t anyone. Not anymore.”

I started to nod, but stopped when I realized she was wrong. There was Jackson.

If anyone knew what was going on inside the CDC, it would be him. His father was in charge of the entire country, plus Jackson had been doing an apprenticeship at the CDC for years. Since he was fifteen. He had to know something, and if he didn’t, he could get information easily enough.

Only I hadn’t spoken to him in days and after what Ticker told me the other night, I wasn’t planning to. Ever again if I could help it.

It couldn’t be too late to smooth this whole thing out, though.

“I could talk to Jackson.”

Parv put her hand on my leg again, only this time it was more forceful. As if she was trying to stop me from running off. “That’s a big risk, Megan. I know you two have been close for a long time, but he’s the Regulator’s son and you know your dad never trusted him. We have no way of knowing how much Jackson knows or how deep into all this he really is. He could be innocent, or he could know every single dark secret his father has.”

I thought about all the stuff Matt and Ticker told me, comparing it with the Jackson I always thought I knew. The one who’d been sweet and caring with me. The one who acted understanding. Matt had called him a sociopath. Could he be? If so, I would be taking a big risk.

But it could be my only chance…

“I’ll be subtle,” I said almost to myself, then turned to face my aunt. “I’ll just feel him out.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea, Megan.” Parv squeezed my knee before letting out a sigh. “But I have a feeling I won’t be able to talk you out of this. You’re too stubborn. Just like your mom. Both of them.”

Her smile was small in the dim light of the lantern, and I mimicked it.

“What next?” I asked after a few seconds of silence. “Are you going to talk to Al about all this?”

“I need to,” she said, “but finding privacy is going to be tough. We need a place away from the prying eyes of the government, but with our jobs, that isn’t going to be easy.”

She had a point. Even up here we were taking a risk, and the apartment was totally out of the question. The streets would be too out in the open as well. Anyone could watch us or eavesdrop on our conversation. We needed a place that was either outside the reach of the government, or so insignificant that they would never even consider bugging it.

“What about Dragon’s Lair?” I asked, an idea forming in my head. “There’s no way anyone would care what goes on inside the bar.”

Parv nodded slowly. “That could work, but I’d still need to get a message to Al. If we’re on the right track, then there’s no doubt in my mind that we’re being watched, and you are for sure. We’d need it to be subtle. ”

“Charlie can do it.” It was the perfect solution. “She just started an apprenticeship with Al anyway, so no one would suspect that she’s passing him a message. She already told me she’s going to stop by the bar tomorrow for the fight. When she does, I’ll give her a note to take to her dad.”

“It could work,” Parv said. “We’ll shoot for eleven. Al will still be working, so no one will be suspicious if he heads to the entertainment district.”

I got to my feet and stretched. Sharing my worries with my aunt had helped ease the heaviness in me some, and knowing that Parv, Al, and I were going to meet tomorrow gave me hope that we might be able to figure this whole thing out. But it was late and I had an early shift, followed by a few hours on my feet in Dragon’s Lair. Plus, somewhere in the middle of all that, I needed to get in touch with Jackson and try to make up with him.

“I need to get some sleep,” I said through a yawn.

My aunt stayed where she was as I made my way across the wall toward the ladder, keeping my body low so I didn’t fall. My feet were still on the top rung when she called out to me.

I looked her way and she held the ring up. “Thanks for this. It hurts, but I’m glad that I finally know what happened to him. It’s nice to have some closure. I wasn’t sure if I would ever get it.”

“I know the feeling,” I said, letting out a deep sigh.

“We’ll find him,” Parv said firmly. “I promise.”

I nodded as I headed down the ladder, hoping that she was right, but unable to ignore the doubt inside me. All we had were theories right now, and no real plan to speak of. Hopefully, we could come up with something and fast.

T
he sound
of one of my guards trying to cough up a lung woke me at the ass crack of dawn. I threw my arm over my head, hoping to drown out the noise, and squeezed my eyes shut tighter, but it only made his coughs echo through my brain. The cement walls of the back room magnified the sound, and every time he hacked it vibrated through the air, bouncing off the stone until it slammed into me.

Now that Jackson had kicked me out of his house, waking up was more of a shock to my system than I would ever want to endure this early in the morning. The stink of death clung to everything in the bar, seeping from the holding room and making the stuffy atmosphere even more stifling. The sheets under me probably hadn’t been that clean to begin with, but now they were soaked through with my sweat and sticking to my body like a bucket of glue had been poured over me. As much as I hated the prick, I found myself wishing Jackson and Meg hadn’t gotten in a fight.

More coughs echoed through the air, this time coming from the opposite corner of the room. I pulled my arm away from my face as I twisted on the cot, the metal frame and springs groaning under me. The room was dark but not pitch black, and even with the shadows stretching across the small space, I could make out the other two beds. Both guards were curled up under blankets—just the sight of it made me sweat even more than I already was. The tremors moving through their bodies’ rocked the wobbly beds so hard that they looked like they were on the verge of falling apart.

The guard let out another cough that rattled through his chest in terrifying sickly way. A second later, he groaned. I pushed myself up into a half-sitting position, trying to get a good look at the guy. His face was visible, but just barely, poking out of the blanket that was draped over him. He reminded me of an infant who’d been swaddled by his mother. His cheeks were flushed and his forehead was moist with sweat.

“You sick?” I asked despite my better judgment.

These assholes had gone out of their way to show how little they gave a shit about me, so I tried to tell myself I was just asking because I didn’t want to get whatever this dude had. It wasn’t true, though. Despite how hard I’d tried to own the I-didn’t-give-a-damn-about-the-world attitude over the past year, it was all an act. My mom—God rest her soul—had raised me to care about people, and it was a habit I couldn’t seem to shake. Even if the people around me didn’t deserve it, I found myself unable to turn my back on them. Like when I’d stumbled upon Meg in the bathroom that night. Even if she hadn’t looked helpless, I would have run to her aide. I would have killed the guy in exactly the same way even if I’d stepped into that room and found Meg ready to slit his throat herself, because that’s what I’d been raised to do: look out for others.

On the other cot, the older guard pushed himself up, and his gaze moved across the room to the guard I was staring at. With the old guy up I was able to get a better look at him. He didn’t seem any healthier than the first one did. The older man’s skin was pale but his cheeks were pink. Sweat glistened on his face while tremors shook his body. He also had dark rings under his eyes that made it look like he’d dropped ten pounds over night.

“Shit. Everybody was—” He hacked for a few seconds before spitting a big wad of phlegm on the cement floor. “About every other person at that strip club was coughing like crazy last night. Looks like we caught what they all had.”

I found it impossible to respond when the conversation I’d heard in the Regulator’s house came back to me. Was this the flu he and his nasal friend had been talking about? I knew I couldn’t rule it out, even if I didn’t totally understand the point of it all. After what had gone down the night before, I believed with everything in me that the people in charge would do
anything
to meet their goal. What the goal was, I still didn’t know, but it was something big and something a hell of a lot different than finding a cure for this whole zombie crisis.

The guards continued to cough, but my brain was wide awake now and I knew I’d never be able to get it to turn off enough to go back to sleep. My nerves were shot and I needed to calm the hell down. It didn’t matter how early it was, I wanted a drink.

I threw myself out of bed and headed for the other room, my bare feet slapping against the cement floor as I went. Despite the humidity clinging to the air, the stone was cold against my skin. So chilly, in fact, that I hadn’t even made it out of the holding room when a shiver ran up my spine. It was like that old superstition about someone walking over your grave, and it wasn’t very far-fetched either. There was a hell of a good chance that I wouldn’t make it out of this settlement alive, and thinking that had me even more unsettled than anything else that had happened so far. Which was saying a lot.

The main room was dark except for a few lights that shone down on the rows of booze lined up behind the bar. The glass sparkled as I rounded the counter, heading straight for the bottles. One drink should do the trick.

My hand was trembling when I poured myself a glass of whiskey, so much so that liquid sloshed across the counter. I ignored the mess and threw the drink back, closing my eyes when it burned its way down my throat. I didn’t move, waiting for the alcohol to work its magic. When it didn’t work, I opened my eyes poured another glass, once again spilling it. I didn’t clean it up before tossing the second drink back, closing my eyes in a futile attempt to block out reality.

“You better wipe that up or Dragon will piss himself.” Helen’s gravelly voice echoed through the room, and I swear I almost pissed
myself
.

“Shit.”

I opened my eyes to find her headed my way, wearing scrubs and already smoking. Her blue eyes were only a shade lighter than the clothes, and her short hair was wet and slicked down against her scalp like she’d just gotten out of the shower. She sucked in a mouthful of chemicals, allowing them to set up home in her chest as she crossed the room.

When she stopped in front of me, she opened her mouth and let it all out in one puff of smoke. “Little early to be drinking.”

A cough echoed through the bar from the other room and Helen’s eyes darted toward it. The cigarette was halfway to her mouth when her lips turned down, her hand frozen inches from their target.

When she looked back at me, she didn’t blink. “Sick?”

“Coughing like crazy.” I put down the empty glass and tried to hide my shaking hand.

Helen’s sharp gaze caught the movement and she frowned even more. “It’s going around.” Her eyes flitted back up to mine as she took another drag. She didn’t blink until after she’d let the smoke back out. “We were busy as hell at the CDC yesterday. So much so that I was dragged to the ER to work instead of doing my usual job.”

“I didn’t even know you worked there until Dragon told me last night.”

The older woman nodded once. “I’m a nurse. Twenty years ago when this shit started, I was working in the ER. Right here in Atlanta. I watched the beds fill up, watched people die slow, horrible deaths. Watched loved ones cry their eyes out before following the people they’d been mourning to the grave. The bodies piled up, in the halls first, then later in the rooms. Stacked one on top of the other as we ran out of places to put them. It got to the point where we couldn’t even take patients back to the beds. We just saw them in the waiting room. Not that it mattered. By then, most of the staff was just as sick and we knew there was nothing we could do.” She took another drag off her cigarette, her hand shaking slightly. When she spoke again, smoke came out with the words. “I kept on working until the very end, waiting for my turn.”

“But it never came.”

“Not yet, anyway.” She swallowed before pointing back toward the room my guards were still coughing away in. “You be sure to steer clear of them. Understand? This thing is contagious, and once you get it, you can kiss your ass goodbye. There’s no coming back from it.”

My stomach dropped. “People are dying?”

“Not yet, but they will. This comes through every few years and it’s always the same. I’ve been working at the CDC since day one, so I’ve watched it all happen.” She paused to take another drag, but her eyes were still glued to mine. “I’ve seen it
all
.”

The smoke that came out of her mouth was so thick that it blocked her lips from view, but the words were loud and clear. She knew something, just like Dragon did. I’d seen the way Helen looked at Meg when the girl wasn’t paying attention, and it was obvious that the older woman knew something about Axl or the family. Maybe not where Meg’s dad was exactly, but something for sure.

“You’ve worked at the CDC for twenty years?” I asked, holding her gaze. “You must be pretty high up, then.”

Helen’s lips twitched like she was holding in a smile. “Sure am.”

“Seen a lot.”

“Sure have.”

I waited for her to say more, but she just watched me as she smoked. I knew she wasn’t going to give me any real information, but maybe if I could get her to allude to something it would help give us an idea where to go next. If she worked there, she must have seen something.

“Dragon said you knew Meg’s uncle.” I held my breath and waited. It was a big leap, but it could pay off.

“Joshua was a good man.” Helen barely blinked. “It’s a shame what happened to him.”

“That’s all?”

“Didn’t know him that well. He worked in the labs. See, I’ve been around since the beginning, and over time my duties have expanded to include some of the more restricted areas.” She put the cigarette between her lips, not looking away. Her mouth closed around the cancer stick, puckering as she sucked the chemicals in. After a second, she opened her mouth and let the smoke out. It floated into the air, making her face fuzzy.

“Aren’t you afraid of cancer?” I asked, nodding toward the cigarette.

The bootlegged cigarettes that had replaced the ones previously manufactured in factories, back before the days of zombies, didn’t have filters. There were also no real regulations when it came to making them, meaning who knew what the hell went into them. It wasn’t like the surgeon general was around anymore to stamp warnings on packages.

Helen shrugged as she took another drag. The cigarette had burned down to almost nothing now, and the thick smell of tobacco was pungent. “There are worse ways to die these days. Much, much worse ways.” She stood up straight. “I have to be going. See you tonight for the fight.”

Helen headed for the door, not looking back and still smoking.

She wasn’t wrong, especially if she and Dragon were involved in what I was starting to think they were involved in. A plan to overthrow Star or something very similar.