New World Order (21 page)

“I have to clean it,” I told her. Between my first aid training at the Academy and my experience with Jack’s bullet injury, I knew what I needed to do.

Jin managed a curt nod. I
dug in my backpack for my first aid kit and flask. The water in my flask was already filtered, so I didn’t need to worry about infecting the wound. I started folding her tunic out of the way, but she caught the edge and pulled it back down, her eyes the size of saucers.

“I need it out of the way, Jin.” She looked around at the figures watching her and shook her head. Her modesty was obviously
greater than her pain, which said something considering she was panting through gritted teeth and her forehead was slick with sweat. “We need some privacy,” I called out.

Eli left immediately, but it took the others some coaxing from Summer to stop gawking.

I rolled up Jin’s tunic to just below her breasts. Putting on a pair of sterilized gloves, I poured the water liberally on the wound,
flushing it as best I could. Somewhere behind me I heard Reyes and Hayley having a short, heated exchange. Summer was beside me, looking on with concern. I took the disinfectant out of the kit.

“Hold her hand,” I said to Summer.

Jin-Sook grasped Summer’s hand as if it were a lifeline. She screamed when I poured the disinfectant onto her raw flesh. Blood flushed out of the wound with it, and
my chest tightened in panic. I reached into the kit for a sterile pad and fumbled to open it, silently cursing Doc for not including a syringe full of nanobots in the kit.

Hayley came up behind me. “Pour more on,” she said. “Jesus, she’s a woman!”

It was a common mistake. The People went out of their way to look androgynous.

“She’s bleeding too fast,” I said.

“It’s flushing out the wound,”
Hayley said.

I only took a split second to make the decision to pour more on. Jin dug her fingers into Summer’s hand and hissed loudly. More blood flowed out, but not as much. The wound looked clean. Using the sterile pad, I blotted it dry.

“It should be sutured,” Hayley said.

I checked my first aid kit but didn’t find a needle. “I don’t have anything.”

With a frustrated, fuming sigh,
Hayley dropped her pack to the ground and roughly undid the zipper. She pulled out her own first aid kit and a headlamp. The twilight sky hadn’t really registered with me. So much had happened in the last fifteen minutes.

“I don’t know why I should bother,” Hayley said, yanking the light onto her head. “I have a dead soldier with an arrow sticking out of his chest. Anyone know who put it there?”

The accusation was clear, but before I could speak in Jin-Sook’s defense, she spoke for herself.

“He pulled his gun on my friends. We didn’t do anything to them. They came here looking to kill us.”

Putting on sterile gloves, Hayley threaded a needle. “When I’m done here, I intend to find out if that’s true.”

I didn’t argue when she motioned me out of the way, too grateful she was willing
to help despite the angry set to her expression. She’d just given up going to look for Alex in the river to help a “heathen” who had killed one of her soldiers.

I glanced over at Reyes. He was halfway to the river, the raft set down in front of him. Two soldiers were walking toward him while the other two stayed with Wilcox, who was still lying on the ground.

I picked up my first aid kit,
stopped to fill my water flask at the river, and then went to Wilcox. The two soldiers held their guns on Reyes, who didn’t even seem aware of their presence. As I approached, one of them jerked his rifle in my direction. I rolled my eyes at him. “Whatever,” I mumbled.

“What are you doing?” he asked warily.

“Relax,” I said, holding up the first aid kit. “I’m going to help your friend.”

I kept walking, half expecting one of them to shoot me, but they didn’t. Nice Soldier, the one who was always paying attention to Summer, was standing beside Wilcox. He gave me a small smile as I approached.

“Has he woken up yet?” I asked.

“He moaned a couple of times,” Nice Soldier said. He squatted down on the other side of Wilcox, and I glanced at his nametag: Price. “Can I help?” he asked.

I shrugged. “Honestly, I have no idea what I’m doing.” Other than flush the cut on the side of his head, disinfect it, and slap on an antibiotic-filled bandage, I could do little about a head injury. Although I remembered that our doctor in the Pit had given ice to Jack to help ward off a concussion. The water in the river was close to freezing.

“Do you have a rag or a towel or something in
your pack?” I asked Price.

“I have a blanket,” he said, opening his pack.

The temperature was already dropping with the setting sun. “I can’t soak that. You’ll need it tonight.”

I had two things in my pack that could be used as a compress: my blanket and Jack’s t-shirt. The blanket I wanted to save for Jin-Sook. It was going to be a cold night, and she’d need at least a few piled on her
to keep her warm. That left Jack’s t-shirt. Biting my lower lip, I eyed Wilcox and considered using the shirt as a compress. The shirt barely held Jack’s scent anymore, although when I breathed it in deeply enough I caught the vague idea of him. Was saving Wilcox really worth obliterating those last vestiges of Jack?

No.

Wilcox was one of Alex’s men, which meant the only reason he was there
was to make sure Jack didn’t make it home. And he certainly hadn’t hesitated to shoot me. Just stepped forward and pulled the trigger without a second thought. There was no doubt in my mind he would do the same to Jack when we found him. Only Jack wasn’t wearing a bulletproof suit.

“Guess we don’t have a compress,” I said. I assuaged the guilt niggling at me by cleaning and dressing his cut.

“We make camp here tonight,” Hayley announced in a loud voice. She pulled her gloves off as she looked around at all of us. Pointing to the two soldiers beside Reyes, she said, “We’ll need to bury Sims, or he’ll attract scavengers. Recover his personal items for his family first.” She looked at Price and the other soldier. “Build a fire and get the tents pitched.”

“A fire out in the open is
a bad idea,” Eli said, as he walked toward where Jin was lying.

Hayley rubbed her hand along the back of her neck and didn’t even bother to look at Eli. “Your friend’s in shock,” she said in an irritated voice. “She needs warmth.”

Eli started to protest, but Hayley walked away. She was the commanding officer, and the soldiers did her bidding. Eli had no say.

She was looking at me when
she said, “You and I have a conversation to finish.”

I wondered if I should bring up Alex and whether or not it was too late to go after him. Not that the dark was a problem for Reyes, Summer, and me, but given the temperature of the water and the length of time Alex had been gone, his only chance of survival was if he’d managed to get to dry land.

I took a deep breath, hoping to resolve
this as quickly as possible, and walked toward her. “Hayley, I’m sorry about Alex. I thought he was Jack’s friend,” I said. “It made his attack on us that much harder for me to understand.”

With a look of contempt, she waved her hand at me in a sweeping motion. “You’re wearing some kind of bulletproof suit, riding around in a raft outfitted with technology I’ve never seen before, and you’re
claiming innocence?” She put a hand on her hip. “You think I’m an idiot?”

I crossed my arms over my chest and shifted my weight to one leg. “So what was Alex doing on the beach, then? Mmm? He came to pay us a social visit maybe?”

Her contemptuous expression faltered for a second as doubt flitted across her features. “Well, I’m beginning to wonder what Jack Kenner was up to.” She narrowed her
eyes at me. “Did you two put together some kind of urchin-heathen army to finish off what you started? Kill all of us big, bad borks?”

I didn’t see any reason to keep it from her since Doc had said it was time to reveal our militia. It might even help end this conflict and send them on their way.

“Jack’s not involved. Neither are the People.” Her eyebrow rose in question. I leaned toward her
and said conspiratorially, “I don’t call them heathens because they’re not.” I straightened up. “Yes, the Pit has put together a militia, but not because we want to finish what we started. You might find this hard to believe,” I said, sarcasm dripping from my voice, “but after years of abuse at the hands of the
bourge
, we don’t trust you. Can you really blame us for coming up with a defensive
strategy?”

“
Defensive?
” she exclaimed. She reached out a hand and touched the fabric of my suit. “It crumples bullets, and I saw the force you used to take out Alex.” She looked me in the eye. “And please don’t tell me you’re just
that
strong.”

I slapped her hand away from my sleeve. “I stand by defensive and—”

The sound of splashing water and something like a cross between a moan and yelp
interrupted us. I turned around to find Price standing over Wilcox with an uncapped flask in his hand. Wilcox was half sitting up, his head dripping with water.

“He woke up,” Price said with a smile.

Not exactly the ideal way to bring him back to consciousness, but effective.

“We do this my way,” Hayley said in a low, threatening tone and brushed past me.

Reyes was standing not far from
us, and I was pretty sure he had been listening in. I made eye contact with him. “I haven’t forgotten about the raft.”

He ignored the comment. “You’re not planning on camping here for the night, are you?”

I cast a glance over at Jin-Sook. Summer was propping up her backpack behind Jin while Eli helped ease her back onto it. They put another blanket over her. I didn’t think her injury was
fatal, but I knew it was going to hinder her ability to travel. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do yet.

“Not much choice,” I said.

He flicked his chin in Hayley’s direction and cocked an eyebrow at me. “You trust her?”

Trust was a complicated word. I didn’t
dis
trust her, like the way I distrusted Alex. Hayley’s actions toward us were driven by anger; Alex’s actions were not. His motivation
had been much more sinister.

“Not entirely, but I don’t think she’s a sneaky murderer either,” I said and headed in the direction of Hayley and Wilcox.

Wilcox was holding his head, moaning in pain. Hayley had a first aid kit open, a small package of pain medication in her hand.

“I promise. Right after you answer a few questions,” she was saying as I came up to them. He grumbled something
unintelligible, and she ignored him. “What were you, Alex, and Sims doing here?”

“I already told you, sir,” he said without lifting his head from his hand. “They ambushed us.”

“That’s not what I asked,” Hayley said firmly. “Now, I want to know why you three ended up here at the river. Alex told me you were backtracking to try to pick up the recruiters’ trail after we lost it.”

“Yes sir,
we did,” he said and lifted his head slightly to look at her. “It led us right here to the river.”

“Excellent,” she said, as if rewarding a child. “Come show me the trail, and this entire matter will be cleared up.”

Wilcox’s eyes widened, and he went even paler than he’d already been. Hayley was watchful, and by the look on her face, she noticed his discomfort. “Um,” he said. He dropped his
head back into his hands and groaned. “My head hurts. It’s hard to remember.”

Hayley stood up. Her knuckles turned white as her fist gripped the package of pain medication. It was obvious Wilcox was lying, which meant there was a strong possibility I wasn’t. “Well, when you do remember,” she ground out, “I have that pain medication.” She made to walk away.

“Over there.” He pointed in a general
direction.

“Are you sure?” Hayley asked. “You know the punishment for lying to an officer.”

I didn’t know the punishment for lying to an officer, but Wilcox did, if his squirming was anything to go by.

“I
think
,” he said. “You know…if I remember correctly.”

“We’re going to check it out. Hopefully we can pick up the trail at this time of night, otherwise we’ll have to wait until the
morning, which will only delay your pain relief.” Hayley motioned for Price and the soldier next to him to check it out. They took their headlamps out of their packs.

“I can look,” I offered. “I don’t need light.”

“And what would that accomplish?” Hayley asked caustically and clicked on the headlamp she was still wearing. My eyes snapped shut against the sudden glare. I didn’t need to see
her to know she was smiling.

“Wait,” Wilcox said. Hayley returned to him, her light shining in his face. He put a hand up to shield his eyes. “Are Captain Mills and Private Sims really gone?”

Hayley turned off her headlamp and squatted so she was at eye level with him. “Yes, they are,” she said softly. Wilcox drew in a deep, ragged breath and let it back out. “I’m not going to find a trail
in the woods, am I?”

He put his hands on either side of his head and stared at the ground. “No,” he said and took another deep breath. “Captain Mills told us our mission was to make sure Senator Kenner didn’t make it home. But he assured us we were
not
going to kill the senator, or anyone else for that matter.” He stole a look in my direction. “Until he saw them in their raft. The captain ordered
us to kill them, but by the time we got down to the beach, they were gone. So he changed the plan to finding their raft and shooting it instead.”

Hayley was quiet for a moment and then cleared her throat. “Did Captain Mills say why Senator Kenner wasn’t supposed to make it back?”

“No, sir.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “But in our defense, there’s something not human about those urchins. When
we left the ridge to come to the beach they were pulling their raft onto the shore. By the time we
drove
down here, they had already climbed on foot to the top of the ridge.
Who can do that?
And then they
flew
back down to the beach. No amount of shooting stopped them. The bullets ricocheted off them.”

Hayley tossed him the package of pain meds and stood. Her face reflected anger, but there
was something else in her eyes too. Sadness. “Looks like your story checks out,” she said to me. And walked away.