He looks around, "They gone?"
"Yup."
He takes Will for me. I stretch my arm and shoulder. He weighs a ton. I look down at Leo, "You go back to the house."
He whines. I drop to my knee and grimace at the greenish goo on his muzzle, "Jake needs you." He shakes his head and turns and runs into the woods.
"You're a stubborn brat!" I call back.
I sigh and climb into the truck. Will sits in the backseat looking like he might die any second. Anna is asleep across his lap.
Bernie gives me a look, "Thought you said you were a good shot?"
I glare at him, "I am."
He arches an eyebrow, "You fired like sixteen times."
I blink at him, "I only missed once."
His jaw drops, "There were that many?"
I shake my head, "Leo killed his share."
He moves back a bit, lifting both eyebrows, "Oh." He starts the truck and drives in silence.
We arrive at the guard gate. I tuck the guns that I'm not giving back and pull out my ID card.
The guard gives me a look. It’s a different guy. He seems mellower than the first guy.
"How's it going, Bern?" They know each other.
Bernie nods, "Alright, Dan. I got a couple of sick people. They took the vaccine."
He makes a face and looks over my ID card, "I hated that stupid vaccine. I was sick for a week."
Will moans. Bernie passes Will's ID card. The guard doesn’t even bat an eyelash at the fact Anna doesn’t even have one.
"I'm bringing her in for Michael. She isn’t doing so hot with it," Bernie says like he has done this before.
The guard nods, "Move ahead. They just need to make sure the virus isn’t live. Take it easy, Bern."
"Will do, you too, Dan." Bernie puts the truck in drive and heads slowly to the next guard stop. We each give a saliva sample on the stick and are moved on.
"No live virus?" Bernie asks. The guy shakes his head, "Nope."
Bernie smiles and drives on. We don’t go to his house. We stop in front of a building that looks shiny and pretty. A lady is walking past in the linen clothes. She glances our way, probably wondering about the truck.
"Can you find your way back to my place?" he asks.
I look around and shake my head, "No."
He sighs, "Will?"
"Yup," he croaks from the backseat.
Bernie gets out and opens the back door. He lifts her out, "I'm taking her in. Go hide at my place. If you hear anything, there is a spot in the bathroom where the tiles open. You'll be fine down there for a few days."
Will climbs out and grabs Bernie's arm, "You keep her safe or I will skin you alive."
Bernie nods, "I won't let them hurt her, I swear. The key on the truck that looks funny is the one for the apartment for when the power is out."
Will nods, but all I can think about is the fact he's going to see my dad. It feels weird for me that the man in the building who will fix Anna is my real father. The uncle I never knew.
Will gets in and drives away as Bernie slides his card and walks into the shiny building.
My stomach is in my throat, "We should go back."
He ignores me and drives. I don’t think he's doing well enough to be driving. It takes longer than it did for Bernie, but he finds it.
When he parks the truck he looks at me in the dark, "You gotta be calm, okay?"
I realize my breathing is a bit intense. I swallow and nod, "Ok."
He climbs out clumsily, almost falling onto the ground.
I hurry around the side of the truck, tucking my guns in the back of my pants. I help him up and open the back door. I lift the floor and grab the ammo from the small space and the shotgun from the floor.
He takes the shotgun and walks casually. If anyone sees the amount of firepower we have, we're dead.
He uses the key and opens the door. We walk into the hall, both looking for people. He gets to the door and opens it fast. We scramble inside and close it, locking it. We both lean our backs against the closed door, panting.
"I'm going to take a shower," he mutters and walks away.
I take deep breaths and nod. I reload the guns and refill the empty cartridges.
I feel like I'm having a heart attack. I need a shower too.
Chapter Fourteen
Six days pass in silence. We don’t talk, mostly because neither of us needs to. We don’t kiss or touch. We pace, take turns cooking and sleeping. The walls slowly creep in on me and I think we're avoiding each other.
My heart hurts.
He passes me a stale bun. I eat it like I'm one of the infected. I chew and swallow and ignore everything about it.
I reach down and lightly finger the gun in the back of my pants.
The sun sets and I shake my head, "I have to see."
He turns and grabs the shotgun from the wall where he has it resting, "Yeah."
"How are you feeling?"
He shrugs, "Normal."
He grabs the keys but I stop, "We're walking."
He nods, "I know but we have to lock this place up and I want to be able to get back in."
I sigh and walk to the door, "If we can't find them, I'm leaving here. I never want to come back."
Will grabs my hand, "What about your dad?"
I shake my head, "I'm an idiot. That was a childish, stupid plan. You were right, I should have formed a proper plan. I should have left Jake and Anna up the hill."
His eyes narrow, "This isn’t your fault."
I shrug, "It doesn’t matter now."
He leans over and kisses me. It’s the first kiss since the day we had sex. It makes my belly heat up. He gently caresses his lips against mine and sucks my lower lip in. He pulls back smiling, "It matters. You can't take on that kind of guilt. You didn’t do anything to deserve it. You wanted to stop the injustice. No one sees that as wrong."
I walk out the door, peeking both ways, "I spent so long not caring about any of it and anyone, I swear I don’t know how to just do anything a little. And I can't seem to just care about the people with us."
He laughs, "You still kill pretty easily."
I look back at him as we make our way to the parkade, "Those people chose the wrong side. They chose to be on the side of the tormentors. It's like Anna said, they probably have families and loved ones, but they made the wrong choice. That's all I see."
He opens the door to the parkade. A man walks towards us. He smiles at me. I smile back. Will holds the door for him, holding the shotgun behind his back at a weird angle.
I turn my back too, hiding the guns stuffed down the back of my pants. He frowns and hurries inside.
We close the door and run for the truck.
We hide beside it for a minute, not talking but clearly thinking the same thing. Seconds later, a man comes out with a gun and a flashlight. He looks around and talks into a radio like in the old shows. I glance at Will. His jaw clenches.
"Should we go back and hide?" I ask, never imagining those words would leave my lips.
He steels his eyes, "No. We'll wait, they'll be gone soon enough."
I look around, "Do you think there are cameras that record, like in the old days?"
He smirks, "No. Too much power usage." He kisses my cheek, "You're cute."
I scowl. I don’t know why he says that, but the way he does bugs me.
The man leaves and Will stands, but I grab his hand, "Wait."
He scowls, "Stop being so paranoid."
I shake my head, "I always wait. One more minute."
He crouches down again as a truck comes up the ramp and drives past us with a flashlight shining all about. We are standing at the front of the parked truck, hidden well. He looks at me, "Does that always happen?"
I shake my head, "No, but I learned that whenever you feel like it's safe, it's not."
We wait and leave after a few minutes. We run as quietly as we can to the street. It's dark so we creep through the alleys and hope no one sees his shotgun.
"Can you find the building?" I ask.
He nods, surveying the area, "Yeah."
He doesn’t sound certain, but he ditches the shotgun behind one of the many gardens we see in the alleys. He grabs my hand and pulls me through to the road. We walk casually, wooden. My shirt is baggy enough to hide one gun but I give him the other. He tucks it the way mine is.
My skin is damp from nerves and fear.
"I hate it here," I whisper.
He smiles, "Me too."
Our hands brush against each other and words shoot from my mouth, "Why haven't you touched me all week while we've been hiding here?"
He looks down on me, "I felt gross. I didn’t want to gross you out too."
I grin.
He looks confused but I smile. He was being considerate.
"You thought that I got what I wanted, so I didn’t want it anymore?" he asks.
My smile fades and I feel like the horrid feeling in my stomach makes sense. I stop walking and look at him, suddenly I'm angry. I did think that. I was so worried, I never noticed what it was. I look at him, "Yeah."
He shakes his head, "Emma, I am never going to get tired of you. No amount of time spent or love given, will be enough. I feel like a bottomless pit when I'm with you. I just want more and more."
I frown, "What if it's cause I'm not enough?"
He laughs, "No, it's because you're addicting, and weird, and I can't put my finger on anything you think or feel or do. I want to solve you and have you figured out, and I don’t think one life time will ever be enough."
I nod, "okay." I start walking again.
"You have to tell me what that look is," he sighs.
I glance at him and shake my head, "I don’t know. I just can't help but wonder if normal girls are easy to figure out, and fun to be with, and the reason I'm so confusing is ‘cause I'm a mutant."
