I nod, "Yeah."
Anna comes down the hall, looking sleepy. Nick is beside her with a swollen face. His look tells me he wants to talk to me alone. I hug Anna and lead her into my room, "Sleep in here for a bit. You need to sleep to get better again."
She sighs, "I know. I'm just tired of being tired."
I hug her, "You'll feel better soon."
She squeezes me back, "I just wanted something of him."
I kiss her cheek and whisper, "You have his heart, Anna."
She starts to cry again, nodding, "I know." I give Nick a look. He stays in the hall as I take her into the room and tuck her into my bed. I kiss her forehead. Leo growls in the hallway and saunters in, jumping on the bed. He curls into a ball.
I rub his huge ears, "You stay with her, okay?"
He yawns and nestles into her better.
She closes her eyes, making tears stream down her cheeks. I leave, closing the door and leaning against it. Nick looks down, "I'm sorry, Em. I tried so hard, but there was no way."
I shook my head, "You said the cervix was closed."
He nods and closes his puffy eyes, "I'm scared it was me, putting my hand up there and touching it, might have made it worse. Sometimes examining a woman who is about to lose a baby seals the deal."
I put a hand out on his arm, "Just keep her and Will alive. I don’t give a shit about babies."
He snorts and looks at me. I swear his blue eyes have a hint of green in them and look similar to mine. He nods at me, "You really are cold sometimes. I see that hate fill you, like the breeder babies."
My gaze narrows, "Why don’t you have that?"
He shakes his head, "I don’t know. Some do and some don’t."
I look down the hall, "I don’t think Star has it naturally. I've seen it develop in her. She used to be different."
He nods, "It might be something that triggers in us, when we need it."
"Well then, I hope you never get it."
He laughs bitterly, "Me too." His look darkens, "How did you do it?"
"Arrow to the eye and then blew the house up."
He laughs, "Wow, so the whole place is gone?"
I nod, "It is. The breeder babies that were with him are gone too, mostly."
His stare meets mine again, "I will keep them safe and earn your trust. I swear it. I just want to be part of something good for a change."
"We'll see. But make no mistake…"
He cuts me off, "I know. You'll kill me and gut me like a fish, and burn me, and drag me behind a horse in the field. I've seen it, Emma—you’re badass."
I laugh and slap his arm, "I've never had a real brother before. This might be fun, as long as you don’t make me kill you." I walk past him to the yard and pray that he is the good person I'm betting he isn’t.
Chapter Sixteen
I look back at them and wink. I like the winking thing. It makes me feel like I know something I definitely don’t.
I walk from the woods, past the broken branches I did last time, and cross the broken highway where the bloodstains are still splattered on the cracked road.
I don’t like being without my weapons, but I don’t imagine the rules of the towns have changed much. What has changed is the blue-eyed guy next to me this time.
Jake looks nervous and smiles, "So we just walk in? They won't shoot us?"
I look up at him and smirk, "That’s how it works usually. They want the trade so they don’t normally kill the customers."
He doesn’t look like it eases him at all.
We cross the road and I hear it; it still makes my stomach turn to stone.
The screams of the men who rip and tear fill the air. I see them running for us, hoping to rob us of whatever we have and rape me, of course.
Jake turns to run but I grab his hand. As the first ones get close, I see the bullets hit.
They drop mid-run.
I put my hands into the air so the guards see that it isn’t me. Jake copies me, looking anxious and ready to run. The last couple thieves stop when they see the ten dead men on the pavement.
I glance at Jake, "This is easier with Mitch."
He swallows, "Was it like this last time?"
I nod. My eyes sparkle, "It was worse."
I can see him understand what I did for him as he shakes his head but has nothing to say.
We cross into the gates. The guard flashes me a grin, "Smart girl."
I give him a grin, "That wasn’t me. Maybe it was God."
He snorts, "Welcome to the trading post."
Merchants don’t rush at me like last time. They watch me from the lean-tos and shanties. I walk to the one where the old lady was. She sees me and scowls. I smile, "Surprised to see me alive?"
She mutters, "And yet, you came back." She sees Jake behind me and instantly her face splits into a grin, "But this time you brought me something I would be willing to trade for."
I look back at Jake. He gives me a clueless look. I smirk, "Yeah, he's not for sale."
She shrugs, "Too bad. We would pay by the pound for something that beautiful and that size."
Jake frowns, "What?"
I laugh, "I need needles and if you have any of the antibiotics left, I need that too."
A slow smile creeps along her old face, "Well, someone went and destroyed all the farms and labs so the antibiotics are all gone."
My hand lashes out fast, grabbing her throat and lifting her to her toes, "I have things to trade."
She gags and sputters but breaks out into a laugh. I toss her back into the stacks of trash bags. "I know where your son is."
Her eyes widen, "LIAR!"
I shake my head, "I know where he is."
She scrambles up, "How—how do you know where he is?"
I remain stoic.
"I can get you needles but the antibiotics are gone. Everything is gone. The power hasn’t been on here in a while, but I can get you the needles. Where is he?"
She grabs for me, but I shove her back, "He's dead. I killed them all. You want to know who ended the power and the farms? It was me. I murdered every doctor I saw."
She screams and leaps for me, but I drop her skinny body to the ground and hold her there, "I did it especially for you. You and the other people of this shit hole, who traded the girls to the farms and camps." I get off of her. She is trembling and twitching, but still manages to pull a knife from under her dress. She leaps at me but Jake grabs her arm and bends it to stab the knife into her chest. He freezes and steps back.
She gags and opens her mouth to scream but she can't; he must have stabbed into her lung. Blood fills her mouth and she drops to the ground.
He's about to freak out. I point his face at mine, "Thank you."
He stops, realizing he saved me. His eyes dart back to the dying woman. I shake my head, "Trust me, she earned this fate."
He swallows and nods, "Okay." He doesn’t believe me, but he never sat in the woods, terrified and listening to the screaming girls begging for death over the farms and being loaded into the trucks. I did.
Her body stops making sounds. I step over her and start to rifle through her cabinets. I open a drawer and a moth flies out. I wave it away and see the needles with plastic wrap on them still.
I sigh, "Found them."
Jake points at the now-dead woman, "What about her? They're going to know we killed her. The guards will kill us."
I smirk at him, "I know another way out. Come on." I drag her body to the back of the so-called store and bury her in the bags of garbage.
I stuff the needles in my sack and walk out into the street. The noise of the town is louder than before. People are bustling about and the merchants are shouting about their goods. I walk to the inn, keeping my head down.
The lady with the nice teeth smiles up from behind the bar, but doesn’t really look at me, "No purchase, no room."
"I came to tell you that my virtue is no longer at risk."
Her eyes lift and her face breaks into a huge grin, "You're still alive."
I smile back, "Not for long. I just killed that old lady who betrayed me last time."
She winces, "Oh, that was a bad move. You came here right afterwards?" I nod. She shakes her head, "Thanks, kid." She gives Jake a sly smile, "Now tell me that was the person you were buying antibiotics for."
I nod, "It was."
Her eyes roam his whole body slowly, "That was worth it then."
I glance back at Jake and smile. His face is bright red but his eyes are still processing the fact he murdered a woman. I know some of the spark that makes him shiny and fun is going to die out. For him, killing her was like rubbing the magic dust off of a butterfly; he won't ever fly as high as before.
"We need the tunnel, just in case."
She winks, "What have you got for me?"
I smile, "Freedom."
Her gaze narrows, "What?"
I nod, "I killed Michael and burned the city to the ground and we have created a small village, where people are free and equal. I am offering you a place to live there."
Her eyes shine. She looks like she might turn me down, but she ducks behind the counter and comes up with a sack. She hurries around the counter, "I knew saving you would be a good idea."
She points to the stairs, "Hurry up."
I run up the stairs and enter the bedroom I slept in last time. She follows and closes the door. Jake looks lost, but as she opens the closet, his jaw drops.
I nudge him, "Her husband was a government man."
He nods, "Wow."
She puts a hand out, "I'm Stella, by the way."
I laugh, "Emma, and this is Jake."
She licks her red lips, "Well Jake, you are a tall drink of water, aren’t you?"
His cheeks are burning, "Yeah, I get that a lot."
She nods, "I bet you do." I lead the way down the stairs into the tunnel and she closes everything up. I run, dragging my hand along the wall until I see the circle of light again. I climb the small ladder and push the hatch slowly. Nothing moves as I open it fully, and climb out into the fading light of the sun.
