Emerge (3 page)

I watched with anticipation to see where the trucks would go once they got outside the gate. It didn’t matter that the roads outside the gates were overgrown with foliage and brush. The trucks would forge their own paths.

The first truck made a right out of the compound. The second followed it. The third went left. And the last forged straight ahead. And as they sped up, so did my pulse. I tracked the motion of the headlights as the trucks eventually went in four different directions. They were on a mission, and I was helpless to know what that mission was.

As if suddenly slapped awake, I jumped up. I quickly stuffed my binoculars into my backpack and threw the bag over my shoulder. I slid several times on the wet foliage as I made my way back down the path toward the spot where my friends slept.

We, of course, always camped off the beaten path, but not because we wanted to be hidden from passersby. After all, no one ever passed by. And the only beaten paths were our own.

Twenty minutes later, as I neared the spot where I had left my friends, I slowed, listening for anything out of the ordinary. The forest was silent except for the shifting of trees and the blowing of crunchy brown leaves that hadn’t yet fallen from the trees.

The leftover smell of campfire reached my nose. Of course my friends had thought I was insane for extinguishing the fire before I left, but they were used to my craziness.

Something stopped me from racing the rest of the way to the campsite. Something was… off. Allowing the trunks of the larger trees to shield me, I darted stealthily from tree to tree.

I spotted Nina as I took cover behind an overgrown rhododendron. She was standing without a coat, her pale-colored shirt almost glowing in the predawn light. I couldn’t make out the expression on her face, but she didn’t appear to be moving, and I could see the fear in her ice-blue eyes.

I saw no one else.

I couldn’t see enough of the campsite to figure out what was going on, so I decided to take in the campsite from another angle. I moved right. I realized I would have to expose myself briefly in order to reach the next large tree that would cover me. I took in a deep breath, and just as I moved my foot, I heard movement behind me. I froze. I started to whip around to my left when the movement advanced on me too quickly for me to react.

An arm encircled my waist, and a hand covered my mouth. “Shhh. It’s me. Don’t scream,” Dax whispered close to my ear.

Every muscle in my body ached with tension as I turned in Dax’s arms, letting out the breath I was holding. “What happened? Something doesn’t feel right.” I kept my voice low.

“I woke about an hour ago and decided to go looking for you. When I returned, three men had cornered Nina and Dylan. I’ve never seen them before.”

“They’re from New Caelum.”

Dax jerked back like he been punched in the gut. “What are you talking about? What are they doing outside the city?”

“I don’t know. I watched them leave. Four trucks left the compound about thirty minutes ago, heading in different directions.”

He held a finger to his lips, warning me to keep quiet. Grabbing my hand, he pulled me away from the campsite. We circled around a wide perimeter and came at the site from the opposite side.

From a spot well hidden in thick forest underbrush, we could see and hear three men questioning Nina and Dylan. Nina stood with her hands hanging to her side. Her fingers shook, and she shifted her stance.
 

“Who else was with you?” a man with short dark hair asked. He didn’t appear especially threatening, despite Nina’s obvious fear. “The two of you were obviously sharing this spot when we got here.” He pointed to where they had slept. “Who do these two sleeping bags belong to?” He held up Dax’s and my sleeping bags.

Nina and Dylan traded glances. I knew they wouldn’t say a word about us. But I feared what the three men would do to my friends as a result.

One of them bent and sifted through Nina’s bag. “Ryder, I think I found something.” At the sound of the voice, my head popped up. Due to the lack of morning light, I had failed to notice that one was a girl. Her hair was short, and she was quite a bit smaller than the other two.

I squinted, studying the girl as she pulled what appeared to be the map Nina always carried around with her. We always teased that she’d get lost without it—which was true. I, however, had the entire area memorized—every tree, every body of water, every established community east and directly west of the city.

The one named Ryder grabbed the map and held it up to Nina’s face. “What is this? What’s it a map of?”

Nina remained silent. The third one, the one who hadn’t yet spoken, stood back, appearing to take everything in. Though it was still dark, there was something about this one… a familiarity of sorts. I wanted so badly to get a closer look at him.

“You don’t feel like talking? That’s okay.” Ryder opened the map and turned it in a few different directions until he decided on one. Almost as quickly, he folded it up. “We’ll take this.”

“Are we going to bring them with us?” the girl asked.

“I’ll make that easy on you,” Dylan said. “Over our dead bodies will we go with you. I don’t know what you want, but you won’t make it one day out here in the wild.”

Ryder smiled. “What makes you say that, pal?”

Dylan stepped up to him. “Well,
pal
, you’re obviously from the city. I’m going to guess you’ve been there a long time. The people on the outside won’t take to you very kindly.”

“Maybe they’ll take more kindly to us if
you’re
with us.” Ryder raised a hand slightly and pulled a device from his waistband. Next thing I knew, he had stuck the device into Dylan’s side, and Dylan collapsed.

Nina screamed and fell to her knees beside Dylan. “What did you do?” she yelled.

“He’ll be fine,” the girl said softly. “But we need you both to come with us. We have no intention of hurting you, but we need your help.”

Ryder scooped his arms under Dylan’s. The other man grabbed Dylan’s feet. They carried him away, in the opposite direction from Dax and me.

By now, darkness was lifting. The sky was brightening. Through the trees, I followed the two men with my eyes until they reached one of the trucks from New Caelum. I could now see that they were younger than I had at first thought. Teenagers, probably. Boys.

The girl stood in front of Nina. She, too, was young. “I promise we don’t mean you harm. We’re looking for someone. A girl about our age. There are others from the city who are looking for other information, but we only want to find this person. You’ll be more protected if you come with us.”

Nina seemed to think about that. “Well, it’s not like I have much of a choice. I’m not going to let you just take Dylan.”

The nameless boy returned. “Ryder’s waiting for you. You’re going to go on ahead. I’ll search the area for the missing companions. I’ll contact you on the PulsePoint.”

Nina smiled. “You’ll never find them.”

“Either way, you can either go willingly with your friend, or we can force you.”

I could practically hear Nina’s brain processing the choice. Finally, she sighed and followed the girl toward the large truck.

I cocked my head and watched as the remaining city boy bent at the knees and picked through the rest of our belongings, standing when he found something.

I squinted my eyes to see what he was holding. When the small item came into focus, my hand flew to my neck. It was my necklace—a leather necklace, with exotic beads from my parents’ travels, and adorned with a small wooden charm, a gift from a friend.

He slid the necklace into his pocket, and my blood boiled. But I tried to hide my emotions, not wanting Dax to do anything to alert this guy to our presence. The city boy then surveyed the rest of the campsite, circling the fire, and studied the foliage. He moved toward the trees that I had squeezed through earlier that morning and disappeared into the forest.
 

I recognized a tracker when I saw one. This guy was tracking my moves from earlier. How the hell would he have learned to do something like that?

And why were we so important?

Dax stood slowly and motioned for me to follow him. We circled around the back side of the campsite, opposite where the mystery guy had disappeared into the trees.
 

The truck pulled away and continued making its way east, heading directly toward the community we’d left just the day before. I prayed Nina and Dylan would be okay. But we all knew and accepted the risks of going rogue, away from one of the established communities.

Slowly, Dax and I continued to circle the camp area. The mystery guy was gone.

Dax faced me. “He’s tracking you.” His tone came out in a harsh whisper. We’d both watched the guy studying the broken branches, the bent grass, and the impressions my feet had left in the moist dirt.
 

I smiled. “He can try. He won’t be able to track me very far.” I had learned long ago to cover my tracks.

Dax put his arm around me and pulled me to him in a playful hug. “That’s my girl. Let’s get our stuff and get out of here. We have to warn as many others as we can.”

I swore that discovering my best friend had contracted a deadly virus was the worst day of my life. That was, until the day Mother told me she was gone—dead.

We were both twelve years old, but we had a maturity level closer to that of experienced adults. We had to.

She never cried. Not upon hearing that she had the virus. Not when she became violently ill. Or so I was told. She had to have been in excruciating pain, but a nurse—Mother’s friend—told me she had been brave all the way until the end.

The end…

I often wondered what “the end” entailed. Did she see a bright light? Was her body suddenly devoid of all pain? How much had she suffered? Were her parents there to greet her in some dream-like state? That’s if her parents were actually dead.

Part of me had hoped her parents were dead so that she wouldn’t be alone. But it seemed wrong to wish for someone’s death. Even if it was for a good reason.

The day before Christina became sick, we spent time on the roof directly above the president’s wing. That was one of the perks of Mother being elected president of New Caelum—we were permitted outside, but only on the roof.

Christina had long brown hair. Pale skin. Freckles. Her eyes were a light blue, the color of robins’ eggs. She was the most beautiful creature I’d ever known. Would ever know.

She was just starting to develop a figure. I couldn’t help but notice—and like—the way her breasts were filling out. Thinking back now, she was awkward. We both were.

What I remembered most was the way her lips felt that day. It was our first kiss.
 

And our last.

Her lips were hot. I think she had a fever, even then. I still wondered how I didn’t contract the virus. For two weeks after that, I lived in acute fear that I would suffer through the illness that took so many of my friends, including Christina. If I was being completely honest, I would have admitted that I hoped the illness would take me, too. I found myself thinking often over the next six years that Christina had been the lucky one.

And now? Finding out she was alive somewhere? That she had fled the city years ago after surviving? That’s what Mother had said—Christina had
chosen
to leave.

We were in love. Even at twelve, we knew we would be together forever. We were soul mates.

That thought seemed silly and naive, now that I knew the truth. Now that I knew that she had voluntarily left New Caelum. Voluntarily left
me
.

I held up her necklace in front of my face. A leather beaded necklace from her parents. It still held the wooden Tree of Life I had made for her, had given her when we were forced to move into New Caelum. The charm was meant to remind her that our life would be okay as long as we remained friends and together.

I pocketed the necklace again. I would find her. She would save my sister. She owed me that.
 

Then I would say goodbye to her forever.

Again.

Dax and I arrived at Boone Blackston just before dinner.

“They’re not going to welcome us back every single time we up and desert them,” I said in a low voice behind Dax.

“Especially when they find out we allowed some elite assholes to kidnap Nina and Dylan from right under our noses.” Dax reached for my hand. The feel of his calloused fingers against my palm gave me the feeling of security I was craving. “Let’s find Caine.”

Boone Blackston was similar to an early settlement of the 1700s. The two hundred or so long-term residents of Boone had constructed a tall fence around the dwellings. Most lived inside the fence, though many of our resources—water, our extensive gardens—were located outside the fence. Everyone was required to pitch in, whether it was to grow food or to create the supplies we needed, or simply to search for items that had survived the past six years inside malls, stores, or wholesale clubs. The people of the community trusted each other, but they also looked out for each other. Though they mostly weren’t related by blood, they felt a strong sense of family.

Dax and I approached a small door to the right of the larger steel gate that protected the entrance to Boone. Predictably, the small door opened and out popped a guardsman on duty—or, in this case, a guardswoman.

“Hi, Zara. It’s so nice to see you.” My words came out clipped and lacking sincerity.

Dax squeezed my hand hard. “That won’t help,” he said through gritted teeth.

I smiled oh-so-sweetly. Zara and I were not, and never would be, friends. She had tried to have me thrown out of the community several times, but Caine wouldn’t hear of it. And she wouldn’t be able to keep me out now, either.

Dax started to walk right past Zara, but she pulled a gun from her waistband and pointed it directly at his chest.

I tried to hide my surprise. Zara wouldn’t have the nerve to hurt Dax. Me, maybe, but never Dax.