In the After (28 page)

“Of course not.”

“Well, I have to get to class.” I turned to go.

“Amy, I . . . ,” Dr. Reynolds began.

“I’ll walk with you, Amy,” Gareth said, cutting him off. He nudged me so my legs would
start working. I tried not to look back, but when I did, Dr. Reynolds had already
disappeared into the Rumble Room. I exhaled with relief.

“That man is creepy,” I whispered to Gareth.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Gareth told me. “He must know you’re training with
us.”

“How?”

“My guess is Marcus. . . . Kay has thought he’s a spy for Dr. Reynolds for a while.”

“Why would he need to spy on the Guardians?” I couldn’t help but look behind me again,
making sure we weren’t being followed.

“When the Guardians started, Marcus was supposed to be the leader, no questions asked.
Dr. Reynolds is smart, though. He saw that the citizens wouldn’t be happy with anything
like a military dictatorship; no one wants to live under a police state.”

“So Kay is in charge and Marcus reports back to Dr. Reynolds everything that isn’t
quite right with the program,” I filled in.

“Yeah, that’s what we think. We’re extra careful around Marcus and the Elite Eight,
not that we do anything wrong to begin with,” Gareth said, shooting me a sideways
glance. “Except for training you. Kay must have a grand plan to put herself at risk
like that.”

“Maybe Dr. Reynolds won’t care,” I offered.

Gareth shook his head. “He sets the rules; he’ll definitely care about them being
broken. But he may weigh the benefits.”

“What do you mean?”

“Training you isn’t that bad in the grand scheme of things. If he puts a stop to it,
he’ll expose his spy and lose an almost-trained Guardian.”

We reached school and I turned to Gareth to say good-bye, glad to know he was someone
I could trust. “Thanks for helping me out back there.”

“Sure, just . . . take care of yourself, honey,” he said with a wink, back to his
normal, teasing self.

“I will.” I grinned, but my amusement faded as he walked away.

After scanning the grounds, I spotted Baby and ran to her side, engulfing her in a
giant hug. I kissed the top of her head and walked her to class, though I really wanted
to take her in my arms and run away. But away to where?

I wake up screaming. There are hands on my shoulders, holding me down, and another
pair on my forehead, trying to calm me
.

“Amy . . . drink this,” Dr. Thorpe commands. She is at my side with a cup of water
.

“They’re here. The Floraes—” I yell as tears stream down my face
.

Dr. Thorpe flashes a light in my eyes, examining me. “You’ve just had a bad dream,”
she assures me. “You’re safe here.”

“We’re not safe!” I yell. “Where’s Baby? I have to save Baby from the Floraes.”

“You’re having an adverse reaction to your treatments.”

“Do you want to die?” I cry. “They’ll kill us.” She doesn’t understand the danger
we’re in
.

“Amy, calm down.”

“Let me go!” I yell at the top of my lungs, pushing Dr. Thorpe out of the way. I fall
out of bed and crawl toward the door
.

An orderly stops me before I make it more than a few feet. He picks me up and drags
me back to my bed. I scream and try to fight, but my blows are wild and powerless
.

He holds me down while Dr. Thorpe straps me to the bed, securing my wrists and ankles.
She steps away, watching me as I struggle
.

“You paged me?” Dr. Reynolds enters the room, eyeing me
.

“Ms. Harris isn’t reacting well to her treatments,” she says loudly, upset. “The electroshock
therapy has obviously worsened her condition.”

“Please,” I beg. “Let me go.”

“The trial treatments were a mistake,” she tells him, frowning
.

“How were we supposed to know that?” Dr. Reynolds asks calmly. “She seemed like a
promising candidate.”

“Perhaps we should continue with her original medication,” Dr. Thorpe suggests
.

“It was ineffective against her psychosis.” Dr. Reynolds glances at me. “Maybe if
we up the dosage?” Dr. Reynolds scribbles on my chart before he hands it to Dr. Thorpe
.

She reads it and stops. “But that’s nearly twice the dosage!”

Dr. Reynolds looks at her. “Do you disagree with my prescription?” he asks coldly
.

Dr. Thorpe flinches slightly. “No . . . I agree completely.”

Dr. Reynolds leaves, but Dr. Thorpe stays and stares at me for a moment. She takes
a deep breath before stepping outside my room, returning a few moments later to give
me a shot. The sedative takes effect almost immediately. I begin to lose myself
.

She stands over me as I try to keep my eyes open
.

“Please . . . ,” I whisper. “If you tie me up, I can’t escape from Them. Please . . .”

Dr. Thorpe’s figure blurs as the medicine takes hold. “There is nothing to worry about,”
she tells me as I lose consciousness. “Everything is just fine.”

• • •

The past few weeks were hell. Kay was riding my ass even harder than usual. On top
of that, my mother was almost never around. If it wasn’t for Vivian, I would have
been lost. I’d drafted her to help me babysit and sometimes she slept over. We talked
about everything we missed from Before. Baby loved our sleepovers and tried to stay
up with us but always conked out long before we did.

That evening, though, I was alone on the couch in my pajamas, reading. My muscles
ached and I was tired from training. All I wanted to do was relax.

Amy
. Suddenly Baby was standing over me, back from the bedroom.
The noise has stopped
. Baby looked half relieved, half frightened.

What do you mean?
I asked.

The noise is gone
. Baby explained.
The humming
.

What hum—?
I sucked in a breath as I realized what she was trying to say. The sonic emitters.
If it was quiet, it meant . . .

My thoughts were interrupted by a scream that sliced through the silence. I jumped
off the couch, flipping off lights as I went.
Baby, stay there
, I told her as I ran to our bedroom. I looked out the window into the courtyard below.

A chill settled over me and I began to tremble. A pack of Them was in the Quad, feasting.
I crouched down, my head in my hands, rocking back and forth. I couldn’t let myself
completely break down. Baby watched me from the doorway.

Baby, it’s Them. They’re here now
.

Baby shook her head, not wanting to believe me.

I froze and tried to think. We couldn’t run, I knew that much. We couldn’t wait either.
Wooden doors didn’t offer much protection. They would be busy for a few minutes with
the people outside, but They’d managed to spread across the world in a matter of days.
It wouldn’t take Them long to wipe out the population of New Hope.

My mother would be prepared for something like this. I took a deep breath to calm
down. Then I remembered Adam, in his room.
Baby, check on Adam. If he’s awake, make sure he’s quiet
. She nodded, her instinctive survival skills resurfacing.

I ran down the hall and surveyed my mother’s room. She would have a gun somewhere,
but she’d want to keep it away from Adam. My eye caught a metal box on the highest
shelf in the closet. I pulled over her desk chair to retrieve it.
Please don’t be locked
. Shaking, I fiddled with the catch.

The box swung open and I half laughed, half cried out. There was a gun and a full
clip of bullets. It was a Guardian gun, completely silent. The kind I’d been practicing
with for months. I quickly loaded the clip and ran to check on Baby.

She was standing over Adam’s crib, silently watching him. She turned when I entered
the room, though I hadn’t made a sound.

The noise is back now
, she told me. The emitters were on again, but that wouldn’t help with the Floraes
already inside New Hope. It would only agitate Them.

I have to go. I have to find Them. The ones that got inside
. The people of New Hope were loud and ignorant. They didn’t know how to deal with
the Floraes in anything but theory.

Should I come?
Baby asked.
I can help you hear Them
.

No, stay with Adam. He needs you now. Make sure he’s quiet. If one of Them gets in,
hide
.

What if he cries?
Her face was desperate. She loved him too.

Make him understand. If you have to, leave him
. As soon as I signed the words, I regretted them, but I didn’t have time to rethink
my decision. I couldn’t allow Baby to die. It was better one of them survived than
neither. I shook the dark thought from my head as I hurried downstairs.

I silently slipped through the door and quickly scanned the area. They were everywhere
in the Quad: at least ten had already found victims, several more crouched, ready
to run down anything They heard. One loped toward me and I reacted automatically,
aiming for its head, just like in target practice. I squeezed the trigger.

It fell, twitching, and two more pounced on it, tearing into its yellow-green flesh.
There were quite a few feeding, but I left them for now. They wouldn’t be done for
a while and I was more concerned with the creatures still looking for food. After,
I could go back and pick off the feeding Floraes one by one.

I heard one behind me and spun around to fire.

“Cool it, it’s just me.”

Kay’s voice came from the hood of a synth-suit. She blended in with the night and
I had to squint to make out her form.

Her voice carried across the Quad, and several Floraes looked up at us, torn between
their fresh kills and the promise of more meat. I sprinted quickly to her side and
placed my head next to her ear.

“What is happening?!” I whispered desperately.

Kay shook her head. “I wish I knew.”

“Do you have an extra synth-suit?”

“At the Rumble Room . . . I can’t spare a Guardian to go with you, but I could give
you my keycard . . .”

“That would take too long. Forget it. I’ll be fine without one. I’m used to this.”

“Good luck,” Kay whispered, and disappeared into the night. Hopefully the Guardians
were prepared. This wasn’t search and rescue, this was war. The Guardians were accustomed
to meeting the Floraes with other Guardians as backup. We had to protect the people
of New Hope now. They were absolutely defenseless.

I felt dangerously exposed with the moonlight reflecting off my pale skin and white
pajamas. But at least I had a gun. I snapped into focus.

There was a Florae to my left. I knew it had spotted me because of its frenzied snarl
and its sudden galloping strides. I turned and shot it in the shoulder, which barely
slowed it down. I re-aimed and managed to get its neck. Its momentum threw it forward
and it fell at my feet, its head flopping to the side. Black-green blood spurted and
I jumped back. I didn’t want the scent of blood on me.

I needed to make every shot a head shot, or I would just piss them off. That’s what
the Guardians taught me: to kill a Florae you have to shoot it in its head or slit
its throat, detaching the head from the body. I remembered every training session.
Don’t fear Them. I am the one with the gun
.

More screams tore into the night from across the Quad. The world was ending again.
I fought my urge to run and hide, like I did so many times in the After.

A blur of yellow sped by me, then one of red. I killed the two Floraes following the
children, whose jumpsuits reflected the moonlight so they were lit up like beacons.
They were running home, to their dorm, but the movement only attracted more Floraes.
How are there so many? How long were our defenses down?

I crept along the shadows to the school, where dorms took up the two top floors. Those
kids were all sitting ducks, but I didn’t know what I would do when I ran out of bullets.
I had no knife; besides, I doubted I could actually kill a Florae with just a blade,
even though I’d been training for it.

I reached the school’s main entrance, and from the splintered wood it was clear the
Floraes were already inside. My heart stopped. The children in their beds would have
nowhere to hide. They would be slaughtered.

I rushed inside and down the hall, keeping as silent as possible. Most of the yellow
and orange doors were closed. Upstairs past the red doors, I crossed back to the stairs
that led to the dorms. I was in too much of a hurry. I didn’t hear the heavy breathing
until it was almost too late. One of Them was nearly upon me when I spun around to
fire. Luckily my shot found its forehead. Its yellow eyes, fierce and burning, extinguished
as it fell to the floor.

I took the stairs sideways, trying to keep one ear above and one ear below. When I
heard whimpers, I burst through a door and skidded into the room, almost falling.
When I regained my balance, I realized why the floor was wet; it was slick with blood.

Crazed, I scanned the room, shooting the feeding Floraes one by one. There were no
survivors. I wasn’t thinking straight; I should have started at the first room and
worked my way down. I stepped back into the hall, leaving a trail of bloody footprints
behind me. I heard a noise from behind a closed door.

I leaned in, listening. I heard a whimper, then a soft “Shhhhhhh.”

I opened the door and stepped into the room quickly, closing the door behind me with
an almost inaudible click. The Floraes would be there soon. If I heard, They did too.

The room looked like a kindergarten classroom: lots of little tables surrounded by
small chairs. There was a door at the far end. I listened for noise, breathing, anything
to tell me where people were hiding.

Near the far wall I heard a gasp, and when I ducked low, I saw them under a covered
table. A Minder and two toddlers in pink stared at me fearfully. I looked under the
other tables, where more little children crouched, frightened.