Edge of Mercy (Young Adult Dystopian)(Volume 1) (The Mercy Series) (21 page)

Understanding dawned in my mind. Once again, he saw this as an opportunity to take power. He was more like the father that raised him than he realized, but I certainly wasn’t going to tell him that. Even if his motivation was a little skewed, I could use that key, so I’d play along for now.

“Why are you here instead of Nick?”

Thomas stepped forward this time, and Peter moved aside to let him answer. He looked reluctant but finally admitted, “I traded a duty with him.”

“Nightwatch?”

He nodded and touched the window. I raised my hand and traced my fingers over the spot where his rested. The glass was cold to the touch, but it warmed me in a way I was just beginning to understand.

Zeke had always held a certain fascination for me. On the outside, he was every bit the hero he wanted to be. He was a braggart whose confidence never faltered. And why should it? To me, he was larger than life and could do anything he put his mind to, even outrun and outwit a vicious pack of Draghoul if he really wanted to.

But Thomas was different. He’d never brag about his skills, just quietly save a helpless person from a horrific end. He’d care for a baby with an unexpected gentleness. He’d watch over and protect someone weaker than him, even when she didn’t know he was there. God save him, he’d take a nightwatch just to make sure that same person was okay. Without a doubt, I saw his greatness, but he’d probably argue against it. He was my hero, and where I didn’t really know how to feel about Zeke, I knew I cared for Thomas in a way I’d never cared for anyone before. If ever I could say I loved someone, it was surely Thomas.

Suddenly uncomfortable with the turn of my thoughts, I lowered my hand and changed the subject. “Where’s Star.”

He turned around and showed me a sleeping bundle of baby strapped to his back before facing me again. “I haven’t let her leave my side. She’s doing well, but I can tell she misses you.”

A panicky thought struck, and I squished closer to the window. “Get her out of here. Don’t let her see our mother like that.”

Thomas looked at the door across the hallway.
He knew.
An icky feeling of too many secrets kept from me washed down my spine. He must have known she was here all the time. Maybe he could tell me why.

“She wouldn’t recognize her anyway.”

“I know, but she might be scared…scared of her own mother.”

“She’s not your mother anymore. The sooner you understand that, the safer you’ll be.”

I looked at my feet. Why couldn’t I seem to learn that lesson? “Why is she here? Why keep her?”

“Quillen had an idea he could cure her. He kept her to test his theory. Obviously, he was wrong. There is no cure.”

I shivered. Quillen might have misrepresented himself to me, but no one could doubt his determination to help us all, whether we wanted his help or not.

“And the others?” I thought of the shrieks up and down the corridor each night.

Peter spoke up again, “I’m not sure who’s in the first cell, but the other is my real father.”

No words came to mind that might shape some sense of what he’d just admitted. “I thought he was shot and died.”

Thomas spoke up, “He turned when he died.”

My confusion wasn’t easing with these short explanations. “How? Was he scratched or bitten, too?”

Peter emitted a frustrated growl and turned away. He knew I wouldn’t want to hear the truth. “Well?”

Thomas sighed heavily. “We’re all infected already, Charlie. Once our body ceases to live and our immune system is completely repressed, the infection takes over and we become monsters.”

“If it’s already inside us, why aren’t we turning now?”

“I don’t quite understand it myself, but Quillen said once you’re exposed to the virus through the environment, it lies dormant until a second introduction through a scratch or bite or until all body functions stop due to death. Quillen could explain it better.”

“Oh, no. This can’t be.”

“I know. But Quillen says there’s hope for a cure. A few people are completely immune to the virus.”

Like my sister.
No wonder Quillen was so determined to find a cure. If the boys in front of me turned into Draghouls at this moment, I couldn’t have been more stunned. Like a parasite eating away at my insides, the infection was a ticking time bomb with nothing to diffuse it. Hopelessness washed over me. Why even bother eking out an existence if the disease was going to win in the end?

I turned away and fell to my knees on the mattress. Dazed, I lay down and covered my face with my hands. It was too much to take in, and my mind simply shut down.

After some time, they said goodbye, but I didn’t make the effort to turn as they walked away. A small part of me registered the light still glowing from the hallway, and I noticed tears rolling down my cheeks, but I didn’t bother to wipe them away. My food sat uneaten, but I couldn’t motivate myself to reach for it. Eventually, I drifted into sleep, my nightmares no worse than this reality.

Chapter 18

I awoke briefly sometime in the night with a fire building deep inside me. Something had to happen and soon.

I didn’t know how long I’d slept, but the shrieks around me made it apparent the sun was still down. For a long time, I lay still, distinguishing my mother’s voice from the others. I reminded myself the creature across the hall was no longer my mother. She hadn’t recognized me through the window and would attack me on sight, but she had meant everything to me once, and those feelings tended to stick around.

I wondered if any part of her was still my mom. If deep inside, on some tiny level, part of her would recognize me as her own. I guess I wanted her to be more than a monster, wanted all of us to become more than monsters.

No more tears filled my eyes. I was done crying and feeling sorry for myself. Things couldn’t get much worse, and I couldn’t change a thing about my inevitable future from in here. First order of business was to get out of here. Thomas and Peter would work on that part, and I would rely on them as much as I could. Otherwise, I’d try to use the mattress to gain some leverage whenever someone actually did open the cell door.

The next thing I wanted to do was talk to Quillen. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but if anyone knew whether a cure was possible or not, he did. I might even allow him to take a limited amount of Star’s blood. And, with that, he could cure us all.

Yeah, and geese were going to start falling from the sky every day too.
No!
I had to stay positive. We would be okay. He’d cure us all. It was the only option.

The screeches continued, and I figured the creatures would go on as long as I was here with them. According to Thomas, I secreted a pheromone, or scent, that drove them into a frenzy, so they’d go on until dawn. I didn’t pretend to know the science behind it although I’d had the sex ed classes in school long ago.

Just as I’d begun to tune them out enough to sleep again, I heard the door at the end of the hallway open and slam against the wall. The Draghoul around me went crazy, and I distinguished a few sets of booted feet stomping down the corridor.

I stood at the window, hoping it was Thomas or Peter or both, here to get me out, but Jonas’s face appeared instead. Beside him was a sneering guard I recognized as Nick Stone. He had a tight fist gripped around the upper arm of Peter. My first thought was that I’d been right to suspect him. He’d probably brought them all here to begin my torture.

Then Jonas lifted his hand and my gaze shifted to a shiny metal key framed by the window. “Did you really think I’d let this idiot get his hands on the key?”

I watched, dumbfounded, as he slammed the key against the glass, clearly expecting an answer. “Why are you asking me?”

“Because you sent him. Made him believe lies about his mother and me, so he’d help you.” His boot struck out at the lantern, and it rocked on its side before settling a foot down the hall, still upright.

“Did you think I’d sit here meekly and wait for you to hurt me? To save myself I would have in a heartbeat, but I didn’t have to lie. I just told him where he could find the truth.”

Jonas turned toward a cowering Peter. Obviously he hadn’t totally shaken the shadow of this man from over him. “You see! She’d say anything to save her neck. You’re just the fool she was waiting for.”

Peter’s confused gaze swung to me, and I stared straight back at him. “I didn’t lie. Besides, you said you’d known all along somehow. Didn’t you?”

He dropped his eyes to the floor, and the creatures around us chose that moment to pick up their ear-splitting cries. Behind the guard, I saw the face of my mother as she fought to get to the living people in front of her. She didn’t deserve an end like this. None of us did, not even the monsters standing outside my door.

“Why do this to me? What’s the point of bringing children into this messed up world anyway? We’re all infected. We’ll all be terrors eventually. No one should be given that for a future.”

“You’re a fool. I don’t care about children. I care about a cure. We need more immune specimens like your sister. Once Quillen perfects a cure, I’ll be the first to use it, and then maybe I’ll share it with the others—for a price.”

My brain turned over his words until everything became clear. This man was more devious than I’d even dared give him credit for. He was downright malicious, going above and beyond the boundaries of evil. “So, I’ll be kept here until I’m close to giving birth. Then you’ll infect me, hopefully creating another immune child, like Star.”

He clapped his hands in a slow clap. “Give the girl a prize. You’re just a means to an end.”

“You’re the monster.”

“Oh, you haven’t seen anything yet. Tomorrow, the community will host a lottery. Funny, I have a notion my name will be the most likely one pulled.”

Nick and Peter followed as Jonas turned to go down the hall, but he turned back briefly to collect the lantern, taking the light with him as he went.

“I’ll never be willing.”

“I don’t care. Get some rest. Tomorrow’s a big day for us all.”

The door closed with a crash behind them, once again bathing me in darkness. If ever there were a time to cry, it would be now. Yet, for the time being, no tears came.  Instead, an intense anger burned within me, stirring up thoughts of how many ways I would hurt Jonas the minute he came near me. Images of crushing his windpipe, bloodying his nose, and of course, bringing him to his knees with a swift kick between his legs all came to mind. Not for the first time, I was thankful for Thomas’s brief lessons. I’d put them to good use soon.

I paced in the darkness, tripping over the mattress on the floor a few times. A step into the tray of food on the floor reminded me I hadn’t eaten. I lifted it and took it to the sink. Unfortunately, I’d ruined anything edible with my restlessness, but I pulled the saved chunks of bread out and finished off the few I had left. It wasn’t much, but I was grateful to have it, even if it had come from a spineless, sniveling idiot, who’d ruined my best chance of escape by getting caught trying to steal a key.

I knew the moment the night slid into day because silence fell up and down the hall. The creatures had gone into their sleep state, and I was wide awake with a growing rage.

I practiced punching and kicking the air then moved to the mattress by the wall. By the time I finished, I was sweating and realized I’d probably expended way too much needed energy.

With my hands up, I felt my way to the bunks and sat on the suspended springs of the lower bed. I steadied my breathing and waited for whatever was next.

What came next though was totally unexpected. With a loud buzz and a whoosh, I thought I heard my cell door slide open. But that made no sense, so I continued to sit, not daring to trust what I thought I’d heard.

Then the door at the end of the corridor opened, only the sound came to me clearer than it had before, like a barrier had been taken away.

Light streamed down the hallway, and I saw for myself that my door was indeed open. Not wasting another moment, I ran for the mattress on the wall and stood with my feet braced apart, ready to do some damage. Whoever it was, was in for a world of hurt.

The footsteps of my would-be victim came closer and as he stopped in front of my open cell, I shoved into him with all my might, and heard a grunt of pain as whoever it was landed against the opposite wall. Seizing the moment, I abandoned my weapon and ran down the hall toward the gaping doorway and my freedom.

I didn’t look back as the person behind me groaned and slid to the floor. I’d done what I’d meant to do, and now I had to escape.

“Charlie, wait!”

I stopped and swiveled around. Thomas lay awkwardly against the wall and floor, a mattress cocked over his legs. I stared for a few extra seconds before springing into action to run back to him and toss the mattress aside.

“Oh, Thomas, I didn’t know it was you. I thought it was a guard or Jonas or someone here to hurt me.”

He eased up to a sitting position and rubbed a knot on the back of his head. “Well, if it had been one of them, that wasn’t a bad idea to get past them.” He pulled himself up the wall to stand. The look in his eyes filled me with a little pride, but I quickly squashed it when he swayed a little on his feet.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I think I hit my head, but I’m good now.”

“How’d you get the doors open without a key?”

He rubbed his hand over his head again and looked up and down the hallway. “I wasn’t sure it would work, but I found an override button. It opens all the doors in this wing. Worked pretty well.” With the hand he used to nurse the injury I inflicted on him, he reached for my hand instead. The warmth of his skin sent a tingle up my arm and to my mid-section. I was so happy to see him. “Come on, we got to get you out of here.”

He picked up the dropped lantern, and I noticed Star wasn’t on his back, thank goodness. If I’d hurt her with my ignorance, I’d never forgive myself.

“Where’s Star?”

“I’ll take you to her right now. Come on.” With a tug, he pulled me toward the exit, and I followed at a trot. As we went, he pushed the doors of the cells that held the Draghoul closed.