Rage Within (23 page)

Aries nodded, thankful for all the sleepless nights when they’d sat around and planned their escape routes. After almost being defeated back in Gastown, they weren’t going to make the same mistake again. They had multiple escape routes, all memorized by the entire group. Even Michael and Mason, who were AWOL, knew the routine. They knew where to go.

No one would ever be separated by accident. Funny, all that planning and they still were missing half their group. Everyone knew what to do if the safe house was attacked, but no one knew what to do if someone simply didn’t come home one day.

What about Daniel? That was simple. He didn’t count. Aries knew that he’d manage to find her no matter where she went. He always seemed to know her next move, even before she made it.

Protect the group. Maintain focus. She liked Graham and his family, but she had her own family to worry about. And Graham was six feet of pure muscle. He was also one of the rare people to have a gun. He could take care of himself. At least she hoped he could.

Meanwhile, she had a blind guy and a girl who was bleeding profusely and not a single person with enough medical know-how to do anything.

“I need you to go and help Larisa,” Aries said to Clementine. “You have to tell her to get ready. We may have to leave in a hurry.”

“That’s it?” Clementine stamped her foot down hard on the tiled flooring. “I don’t get a say in this? I just do what you say?”

Aries sighed. “No, that’s not it,” she said. “Of course you have a say, but we have to be levelheaded about this—”

“Oh, right, I’m just the stupid blond cheerleader, what the hell do I know.”

“That’s not fair,” Aries said. “You know I don’t think you’re dumb.”

Clementine stormed across the room until she was just inches away. Aries actually stepped backward, unsure of her friend’s next move. She heard Raj suck in his breath.

“We are letting a man die,” Clementine said. “And his family. And you’re just going to let it happen because the rest of us are oh-so-more important.”

Aries opened her mouth to retort, but Clementine shouted at her. “No, let me finish! You’re in charge. Perfect Aries, who all the boys love. But what have you done to actually deserve this?”

“Excuse me?” Aries said. “I’ve done just as much as everyone else. I’ve kept this group together. I’ve kept us all alive.”

Clementine’s face was growing steadily pinker. “But you’ve done nothing. You haven’t watched your parents die. You haven’t had to hide out while the boy you thought you loved stalked you and tried to kill you. You didn’t stab someone in the gut and feel his blood pour out onto your shirt.”

“I saw my best friend die and I kept everyone in the school back then. I protected them.”

“Protected them?” Clementine snorted. “That’s the biggest lie of all. All you’ve done is hide. You’ve barely stepped outside since all this happened. Lucky you. You haven’t even killed anyone yet.”

“That has nothing to do with this,” Aries said. She looked over toward Raj for help, but the British guy had magically disappeared from the conversation. He must have retreated to the living room during all that accosting.

“It has everything to do with it,” Clementine said, refusing to stop. “You play it safe, I get that. But you have no idea what it’s really like out there. You’re so bloody clueless.”

Aries stared at the anger in her friend’s eyes and couldn’t quite understand how this conversation had grown so dangerous. Clementine was her friend. At least Aries thought she was.

“And what about Mason?” Clementine asked. “Or Daniel. Are you really going to rush to their defense if it compromises the group? You said last night you think Mason might be captured and down at the compound. What are you going to do if you find out that’s true? Are you going to risk everyone’s life to try and get him out? Doubtful. You’ll probably say it’s too dangerous and turn your back on him.”

“I’d never do that,” Aries said.

“What about Michael?” There was no stopping Clementine. Tears began to fall down her cheeks. She furiously wiped them away with the palm of her hand. “Are you going to leave him out at UBC to die? Is he too risky? He might be dead as it is. Best to leave him and focus on more important things.”

“Of course not.”

“But you’ll leave Graham and his family?”

“They’re probably dead!” Aries shouted. She was getting tired of all these accusations. Clementine was trying to make her out to be a monster. How could she do this to her?

“You don’t know that,” Clementine said.

“Yes,” Aries whispered. Her own tears were wet on her cheeks. “I do know that. Because, regardless of what you believe, I know the Baggers. If they found out about Graham, they’ve already gone there and killed them. And we’re wasting time here arguing about a dead man. For all we know, we’re next.”

“How can you be so . . . so cold?” Clementine didn’t wait for an answer. She turned and ran out of the room.

Aries listened for the door, but she heard Clementine’s feet on the stairs instead. She retreated to her bedroom, and the muffled sound of the door slamming vibrated against the walls.

Aries stood in the middle of the kitchen, completely unsure of what to do next. Eventually she grabbed some paper towel to wipe away the tears. It wouldn’t do any good to have the others see her that way.

*   *   *

More than anything else in the world, she wished Mason were with her. He’d know what to say to make everything right. He’d find a way to calm Clementine down. Sure, he didn’t speak much, but when he did, the others listened. They respected him. That was something that Aries suddenly discovered she was severely lacking.

Respect.

Colin laughed at her. He refused to do anything she asked and straight-out threatened her when she pushed.

Now Clementine was basically calling her a coward.

How dare she.

Aries stormed up the stairs but stopped when she got to the top. She wanted to confront Clementine again, scream and yell at her, but she didn’t have a clue what to actually say. Stopping at Jack’s door, she thought about going to him for comfort but paused when she heard Joy’s voice. Joy had been spending a lot of time with Jack lately.

She turned away and went back downstairs.

At the front door, she paused. Pulling the radio out, she turned it over in her hands. Maybe it was best to go check on Graham. It wouldn’t take long, just a few minutes to run on over. Then she could go back to Clementine and prove that she wasn’t the bad guy after all.

“Nathan, are you there?” Her breath made a scratchy sound when she breathed into the radio.

“Yeah, it’s all clear out here.”

“Okay,” she said. “Meet me at the end of the block. I need
you to come with me. We’re gonna take a trip. Just you and me.”

“Okay,” his voice said, sounding far away.

They’d only be a few minutes. Just enough time to determine the situation. If everyone was dead, she’d be able to relax knowing she was right. If they were alive, she’d be able to warn them and be the hero a leader needed to be.

Either way she couldn’t lose.

She looked forward to hearing Clementine’s apology.

*   *   *

Graham’s house was on the corner of what used to be a very busy intersection. Gone were the long lines of cars, the honking horns, the impatient drivers who wanted to get home after a long day at work.

Aside from a few abandoned vehicles, Granville Street was empty.

Aries and Nathan sat crouched behind a monster Hummer. One of its tires was flat, and its passenger door was open. There was dried blood on the dashboard and cracks in the glass. It rested halfway up on the sidewalk, the front bumper embedded in a stone gate. Whoever had been driving must have been speeding and not wearing their seat belt.

Safety first.

“Do you see anything?” Nathan peered around the front of the Hummer. His baseball bat rested between his knees.

They both studied the darkened house.

“No,” Aries said. “But that doesn’t mean anything, right? We’re too far back to tell. The doors are closed.”

Nathan frowned. “I don’t know. There’s no one on guard. It’s exactly the same as Clementine said about Brandi’s place. I think maybe we should go back.”

Aries stood up. Clementine’s accusations were still running through her mind. Her cheeks burned as she remembered the
words. Clementine had called her a coward. A lousy leader. Well, maybe not in those exact words, but the implications were there. Aries couldn’t let it go. She needed to prove that she was more than just a clever girl who was really good at hiding.

“We can’t,” she said. “I’m not leaving until I know for sure.”

Nathan sighed. “You’re the boss. But for the record, I don’t like it. How do we know they’re not on their way to our place right now?”

“We would have seen them,” she snapped. “There’s only one direct route to our place from here and we took it. The Baggers aren’t going to sneak along the side streets. They have no reason to be cautious.”

“I’ve still got a bad feeling about this.”

Aries didn’t. She felt exhilarated. The adrenaline coursed through her veins. If there were Baggers inside, she’d kill each and every one of them. That would prove to Clementine that she was strong enough to lead the group. It might even make Colin respect her a little bit.

“She didn’t mean to hurt you,” Nathan said. “Really, Aries. You should let this one go.”

She shook her head. “Come on.” Without waiting for a response, she moved around the Hummer and headed across the street. Nathan’s footsteps slapped the concrete behind her.

She knew she was being reckless but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. Clementine was right; she’d spent too much time refusing to take any chances. And there was still a chance that Graham and his family were safe behind those walls. The more she thought about it, the more positive she felt. She was going to warn them, become the hero, and save the day.

Leaders took risks. They made dangerous decisions that sometimes cost people their lives. This was war and the
Baggers were the ones making the rules. She needed to learn to play their game.

The front door was slightly open when they approached.

She didn’t stop to think about it. She ignored the little voice in the back of her head screaming at her to stop being such an idiot.

Bringing her kitchen knife higher up against her chest, she pushed open the door and stepped inside.

The door opened only halfway. Something blocked it. Putting her entire weight against it, she shoved on the wood until the mystery thing behind it shifted. A body made a squishing noise as it rolled back toward the stairs. The smell hit her face and Aries involuntarily stepped backward and into Nathan, gagging.

Clementine was right, she really was too sheltered. She’d been around dead bodies lately, even the smell of decay at her parents’ house was still etched in her mind. But this was the first time she’d ever been up close and personal to something so fresh.

So wet.

“It’s Graham’s wife,” Nathan said with a small voice. “I can’t remember her name.”

“Me neither,” she said, and that angered her even more.

“Think anyone’s still alive?”

She straightened her back and took a deep breath. She could do this. She was strong, no matter what the others thought. “Let’s find out. But be quick. We need to get back and make sure the others are safe.”

She turned up the volume on her transistor radio but it remained silent. Aries knew that Eve, Joy, and Jack were on the other end and it made her feel a little better. If something had happened, they would have contacted her by now.

Aries stepped past Graham’s wife. Nothing she could do about her now. Trying not to notice how the woman’s chest was ripped open, she headed up the stairs first. They checked the bedrooms quickly but there were no signs of death on the second floor.

Graham was in the living room, facedown on the carpet. Someone had shot him in the back of the head. He’d crashed into the bookshelf on the way down; dozens of books and DVD movies were scattered around him.

“There are three bodies in the kitchen,” Nathan said as he came through the dining room. “Elderly people. There are no signs of the kid.”

Aries nodded. There hadn’t been a single clue to suggest that Graham’s little girl was still here. “They must have taken her.”

“Were there any others?”

“Yeah, another girl in her twenties. They probably took her, too.”

Nathan grimaced. Obviously he was thinking the exact same thing as her. The Baggers had killed the old and the men and taken the little girl and the young woman. It didn’t get much creepier than that.

“We should leave,” Nathan said. “Aries?”

She didn’t get a chance to respond.

Nathan didn’t even see it coming, but she had a full view. The dining room door was open and the Bagger slipped through without making a sound. He crossed the few steps toward Nathan before she could even open her mouth in surprise.

Everything was moving too quickly. She couldn’t even get out a gasp.

Nathan looked at her, a puzzled expression on his face. His
eyes widened when the Bagger grabbed him by the face.

One violent twist.

A loud cracking noise.

Nathan dropping to the floor, the surprised look etched on his face, forever in time.

She might have screamed, she wasn’t sure, she couldn’t hear anything, but at the same time, the world had grown extremely loud. Lifting her knife, she jumped forward, throwing herself on the Bagger before Nathan’s body even finished hitting the ground.

The Bagger tried to swat her away but she was too quick. Adrenaline pounding through her veins, she raised her knife and pushed it straight into the Bagger’s chest. Blood squirted out in all directions, spraying her face, soaking her shirt.

This time she did scream, a long, sickening wail that surprised her. It wasn’t even her voice. It belonged to someone else, it had to; she wasn’t capable of making such a noise.

She shoved the Bagger backward, leaving him to clutch at his chest, trying to remove the kitchen knife that stuck straight out of his body, while gagging on his own blood as he crashed into the dining room table. Dropping down on her knees, she grabbed at Nathan, pulling him against her body, trying to will her own life into his body.