Shudder (Stitch Trilogy, Book 2) (27 page)

Regina looked visibly lighter. “That’s
such a relief, Isaac, I can’t even tell you. If that virus was
still out there… we had no hope. And now, with it gone, Paragon’s
biggest weapon has been taken away from them. If there’s no virus,
there’s no reason for all these people to stay trapped behind these
walls. We’ll be able to get them all out soon.”

“
I just hope I’m right…”
he sighed. “We should still be careful, until we can do some
testing or something, confirm that it’s really safe.”

“
Of course, of course,”
Regina agreed, but she seemed more confident than before, less
tired. “So, let’s talk about how we’re going to get to this base of
yours,” she continued. “You said it’s about 140 miles due south of
Paragon, is that correct?”

“
That’s my best estimate,”
Isaac confirmed, “judging by how long it took us to get back here.
Our route there was a little round-about – first southeast for few
days, then the terrain pushed us more southward, and once we
finally hit pavement, we followed it to the highway, which I think
was running east-west through the city. We basically followed the
highway through the city and out the other side. Raptor was about a
day’s walk west of the city.”

Regina nodded. “I believe I know what
highway you’re talking about, and yes, about 15 miles outside the
city on that route would put you due south of Paragon. That’s good,
that means we have a few different options for getting
there.”

Regina got up and went to a large
chalkboard suspended on the wall. She drew an X for Paragon and one
for Raptor, and then drew out a rough approximation of the major
roadways in the area, she explained.

“
First option,” she struck
a straight line from Paragon to Raptor, “we cut through the woods
on foot. As you know, though, this is slow going – and with the
amount of people we’ve got to move, it will take even longer than
you and Alessa found. Not to mention, we’d need to scavenge enough
supplies from Paragon to maintain the whole company for the week or
more it’d take to get there, and I’m not sure how we’d manage that
without attracting notice. And even if we did, that’s still giving
Paragon plenty of time to catch up with us.”

“
There’s another issue, as
well…”

“
And what’s that?” she
questioned.

Isaac hesitated. “There’s
something out there. Some
things
.”

Regina gave him a quizzical
look.

“
Creatures, of some sort.
They’re fast, and strong, and violent. At least as big as a person,
I think. I’m not really sure – we were always running, never saw
them clearly. They followed us the whole trip, attacked once or
twice, though we managed to get away. But with that many people in
our party, we’d have no chance against them. They’d be picking off
the stragglers in no time.”

“
I don’t understand. Are
they animals? Some sort of large predator running wild without
anyone to curb their populations? Cougars, maybe? Or something
escaped from the zoo?”

“
They’re predators, all
right. But not cougars, not wolves, not anything we’ve seen
before.” He took a deep breath. “Regina – I think they’re
human
. Or used to
be…”

Regina’s mouth hung open. “You think…
it has something to do with the virus? Some sort of
mutation?”

Isaac shrugged. “I have no idea. All I
know is, I don’t want to get close enough to find out.”

Regina shook her head in disbelief.
“Just when I thought we might be safe…” She sighed. “Well, onto
Plan B, I guess. The next option is the highway.”

She traced the line of the roads, the
first leading slightly southwest out of Paragon until it
intersected with the highway Raptor lay off of, a good distance
west of it.

“
The roads aren’t
perfectly direct – as you can see, the route leading out of Paragon
will take us about 60 miles west of Raptor – but still, on wheels,
we should be able to make the trip in four hours or less. That
doesn’t give them nearly enough time to catch up to us before we
reach the base, assuming we have a decent head start.”

“
Assuming we had a working
vehicle.”

Regina gave him a knowing
smile. “I know the citizens here get around on foot, but I’ve been
privy to some intelligence…” She paused, grinning. “Paragon’s
military has got a fleet of working vehicles stashed away. Granted,
we’d still need a
lot
of wheels to move the 800 or so people we’re expecting, but
if we could pull it off, that would be a much faster
route.”

“
But we’re not sure if
there are enough vehicles to get everyone there.”

“
Exactly.”

“
So what if there’s
not?”

“
Well…” Regina answered.
“There
might
be
another option, one that’s just as direct and almost as fast, but
much higher capacity.”

She drew a dotted line from Paragon
through the center of the city.

“
What’s that?” Isaac
wondered. “There definitely wasn’t another road in that spot, we
would have seen it…”

“
No, not a road,” Regina
smiled. “Train tracks.”

“
Like a maglev?” Isaac
didn’t see how they could possibly hope to get a magnetic
levitation train running – there was no electricity outside of
Paragon to power the electromagnets they’d need for
propulsion.

“
No, these are old tracks
– iron ones, from a steam engine.”

Isaac was confused. “But the steam
engine is a relic – they don’t exist anymore. What are you going to
use to pull the train?”

A sly grin crossed Regina’s face.
“Sato and Carlos have been working on something, a backup plan, in
case you and Alessa didn’t return. And it just so happens that this
strategy should align quite well with our plans for Raptor. We’re
just missing one essential piece… that’s where you come
in.”

“
Me?”

“
I need you to steal a
battery.”

A battery? That was her solution?
“What kind of battery will power a whole train for over a hundred
miles?”

“
The kind of battery that
powers a whole hospital for over eight years.”

Understanding dawned over Isaac. This
was bold – Regina wanted to steal the reactive core of the medical
facility’s nuclear generator. “You really think we can get the
battery powering the hospital?”

“
I know we can. Or more
specifically, I know
you
can.”

Isaac tossed the plan
around in his head. The med center was used mainly for
experimentation on prisoners, so cutting the power would get the
rebels what they need
and
throw a wrench in Paragon’s vile exploits. He
liked the sound of that.

“
Okay, let’s say I get the
reactor. How are we supposed to hold off Paragon’s forces while we
load 800 people onto a train and get it moving down a
three-century-old track?”

Regina gave him a cunning
smile. “Isaac, I thought you would have figured that out by now,
especially given the
bang
you went out with on your last exit.”

“
A diversion,” he
realized.

She nodded her approval. “I’ll send a
small team to steal some of those military vehicles and hope they
give chase. We’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves to lose them, and
once they do, they’ll meet us at the city to shuttle the rest of us
to Raptor in a few trips.”

“
This might actually be
crazy enough to work,” Isaac contended.

“
Let’s hope so,” Regina
agreed.

Isaac had to hand it to her – the
woman was calculating.

“
But listen, Isaac. This
plan is top secret. We figured out after your botched rescue
attempt that there was someone within the rebels feeding
information to Paragon, but we don’t know
who
. No one knows about this except
you, me, Carlos, and Sato. And it
has
to stay that way. I mean it, not
even Alessa. That’s an order.”

Isaac didn’t like the idea of keeping
things from Alessa, but he understood the need for caution. After
all, if word got into the wrong hands, all of their lives would be
at risk. “Very well,” he sighed.

“
The next step is to go in
for the battery. Like I said, no one else will know what you’re
really up to. I’m sending Alessa and some of the others into the
prison to search for allies to take with us – she would never
forgive me if I didn’t let her go look for Janie, and of course I’m
hoping she’ll be able to locate Lizzie as well… though, to be
honest, I’m not very hopeful of finding either of them.” Regina
looked pained, but she shook it off, determined as ever.
“Meanwhile, we’ll tell them you’re doing the same in the medical
labs. When we meet at the rendezvous, I’ll dispatch the vehicle
teams and the rest of us will head to the depot with the
battery.”

“
Sounds like a
plan.”

“
Anyway,” Regina sighed.
“I’ve talked your ear off enough for tonight. I’m sure Alessa will
be looking for you by now. Just remember, please – don’t breathe a
word of this, to anyone.”

“
I won’t,” Isaac promised.
He turned to go. “There’s one thing I wanted to ask you, though,”
he said. “The little girl, Josephine, who played my sister on the
drama – do you know what happened to her?”

His heart pounded as he waited for her
response.

“
As a matter of fact,”
Regina smiled brightly, “I do – come see for yourself.”

Hope swirled in Isaac’s chest as he
followed Regina down the hall. Could Jo really be here?

Regina paused outside a door and
knocked gently. The door cracked open slightly and someone peeked
groggily out from the darkness inside. “I’m sorry to disturb you so
late, Martha,” Regina apologized, “but there’s someone here I think
you’ll want to see.”

The door opened wider and
the light flicked on, and standing there was none other than
Isaac’s mother. Well, not his
real
mother, but the woman who had played her on the
drama. Either way, it didn’t matter – Isaac swelled with joy at the
sight of her, alive and well.

“
Oh!” she exclaimed,
embracing him in a firm hug.

Beyond her someone stirred in the bed
– Isaac couldn’t see who through the blur of tears in his eyes.
“Martha? Who’s there?” a man’s voice called.

“
Al, come see,” she cried.
She turned toward him but kept one arm around Isaac’s
shoulders.

Isaac’s faux-father sat up in bed,
taking Isaac in through sleep-crusted eyes. “Well I’ll be,” he
whispered.

But before Isaac could respond, he was
enveloped in a small blonde whirlwind that came bounding from the
tiny cot in the corner. “Isaac!” Josephine screamed.

Isaac laughed and lifted the little
girl up in his arms, his heart bursting.

“
Isaac, I missed you,”
Josephine pouted, her skinny arms wrapped tight around his neck.
“Where have you been?”

Albert had gotten out of bed and was
gripping Isaac’s arm affectionately. “I’m glad you’re back,” he
said.

“
Me too,” Isaac beamed. He
knew they weren’t his true family – that most of his memories of
them were put there by the stitch – but in this moment, he just
didn’t care. They
felt
like his family. That was enough for him.

“
Well, I’ll leave you to
it,” Regina said as she bowed out. “Good night, everyone. Thanks
again, Isaac, for everything.”

They smiled as she closed the door
behind her. Isaac put Jo down gingerly and Martha ushered them over
to the bed. “Come, sit down, tell us what you’ve been up
to.”

They all crowded onto the
bed together, Josephine worming her way onto Isaac’s lap. “You
tell
me
what
you’ve been up to first,” he insisted.

Martha smiled. “The day you left, they
sent us all back to the prison. Being in that place again triggered
the dissolution of the stitch, and we were just waiting to be
assigned to our next show. Then a couple weeks later, Regina had
some prison guard smuggle us out a back door during rec time –
apparently he’s been sneaking out whoever he can. And we’ve been in
hiding with Regina ever since.”

“
And did Regina tell you
about me? What I was doing, and who I really was?”

“
Yes,” Albert responded.
“She filled us in on the details.”

“
She said you were on a
secret mission!” Josephine added. “Can you tell us what it was?
Pretty, pretty please?”

Isaac smiled – he couldn’t deny those
puppy dog eyes. “Only if you keep quiet about it… I don’t think
Regina’s had a chance to share the news yet.”

Jo smiled conspiratorially at the
prospect of a secret.

“
Alessa and I found a new
base for the rebels, outside of Paragon.”

Martha and Albert gasped in unison,
but Jo seemed more interested in something else.