Twisted World: A Broken World Novel (21 page)

“Meg!” Donaghy was at my side a second later, concern written all over his face. “What the hell just happened? I saw you try to open the gate.”

I swallowed and my gaze moved past him, to the ring where men were already cleaning up the mess that used to be my uncle. The crowd around us thinned, but there were still too many people who might hear what I had to say, and the gray man was right. I needed to be careful.

I leaned forward, pressing my lips against Donaghy’s ear. “I can’t tell you right now, but I need you to do something for me. Can you?” I pulled back long enough to meet his gaze, and he nodded. “Get the ring off the tall zombie’s finger for me. Please.”

Donaghy was frowning when I pulled away, but he only hesitated for a split second before heading back into the ring.

I watched as he said something to the men cleaning up the dead. One of them slapped the fighter on the back, and I recognized him from the day outside the walls. For the first time, found myself wondering what had happened to the other guy. The one who had been bitten. I hadn’t seen him since then, and it looked like Dragon had already hired his replacement.

“Want a trophy, huh?” The man in the ring laughed and Donaghy gave him a rare smile. “Go on, then.”

The fighter dug through the remains, his broad back and shoulders blocking my view. Less than ten seconds later, he was standing. When he climbed out of the ring, he grabbed my arm and wordlessly pulled me toward the back room.

Neither one of us said a word until we were inside the holding room and the door was shut behind us, and even then the only thing I could mutter was, “Did you get it?”

Donaghy nodded as he slipped the ring into my hand, his eyes holding mine and seeming to penetrate the darkness of the room.

I curled my fingers around the little band of gold, feeling like it weighed a hundred pounds. It was cool against my palm and moist with the black blood of the zombie Donaghy had ripped it from. Logically, I knew that creature wasn’t my uncle. Not anymore. Of course, knowing that didn’t ease the ache in my heart. It was like losing him all over again.

“You going to tell me what’s going on?” Donaghy finally said.

I took a deep breath through my nose, then blew it out of my mouth, hoping to ease the pain in my chest. It didn’t work. “That was my uncle.”

Donaghy took a step back. “What?”

“There were all kinds of unanswered questions surrounding my Dad’s disappearance. Questions I now know were justified. At the time, though, it was mainly my mom who was asking them. Add to that the many rumors we’d heard over the years about my uncle still being alive, and she seemed to come unraveled almost overnight.

“I don’t know if Joshua believed the rumors or if he was just humoring Mom. He worked at the CDC—he was a doctor—and he started poking around. I wasn’t even sure what he was doing, and I guess at this point none of us will ever know, but less than a week after Dad disappeared, there was an accident in one of the labs and Joshua was exposed to the newest strain of the virus.”

“An accident?” Donaghy said, and I nodded. “And he died?”

“This new strain works faster than the others, and by the time Parvarti, my aunt, arrived to tell him goodbye, Joshua was past verbal communication. Since he was infected with the virus, they couldn’t allow her to bury his body. They swore they would dispose of him humanely—”

My voice broke and I tightened my grip on the ring. I had no clue why Parv hadn’t gotten it when she went to say goodbye, but I knew I had to give it to her now. And tell her—as well as everyone else in my family—what happened here tonight. I didn’t know why the government delivered Joshua here, but it had to be a message. A very nasty one.

“Were you here when they brought him in?” I asked, tearing my gaze away from the floor so I could look at Donaghy once again. “Helen said someone brought him. Told Dragon he had to be added to the fight tonight.”

“Yes.” Donaghy let out a deep breath. “I thought they were trying to get rid of me. It was the only thing that made sense at the time.”

“Maybe they were,” I said, shrugging. “Two birds with one stone.”

Donaghy was nodding when the door behind us was thrown open, and I spun around to find Dragon standing there.

His eyes were narrowed when he stepped inside, but when he saw us, confusion clouded his vision. “What the hell is going on in here? I expected to walk in and find you two going at it.”

I slipped Joshua’s ring onto my thumb even though it was covered in blood. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Dragon stepped closer. “You’re supposed to be working and you tell me nothing. You almost rip the door to the ring open during a fight, and all you have to say is
nothing
.”

I slunk back, but Donaghy stepped in front of me before I could respond. “She was scared. Thought the zombie had gotten his teeth into me.”

Dragon’s eyes narrowed even more as they moved back and forth between the two of us. “Something going on here that I need to know about?”

“Just killing some time before I get shipped back to DC,” Donaghy said, not looking at me. “Can’t blame a guy for wanting to get laid by somebody who isn’t covered in lice and losing most of their teeth. Right?”

I tried to curl into myself so I looked hurt by his words, and it was much easier than I expected it to be. My insides were raw and achy, only the pain had nothing to do with the implication that Donaghy was just using me for sex. It was because all I could think about was how I was going to tell my aunt what happened here tonight.

Dragon exhaled as he jerked his head toward the door. “Whatever you do, do it on your own time. Got it?”

“Yeah. Sorry.” I slinked past Donaghy, not looking up to meet his or my angry boss’s gaze.

Dragon didn’t follow and neither did the fighter. The place was nearly empty, and the few patrons still at the bar were crowded around Glitter, hanging on her every word. The girl sure knew how to work the crowd. It got her tips, too.

She caught my gaze as I stepped behind the bar, and the look of pity in her gray eyes reminded me of the man who had stopped me from opening the cage. In the middle of everything, I’d totally forgotten about the sudden reappearance of the mysterious gray man. Where the hell had he come from and why? Was he watching over me like some fairy godmother of the apocalypse?

On the other side of the bar, Helen was watching me closely, almost like she wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to fall apart. Her concern made sense now. Like Donaghy, she probably assumed they’d brought that zombie in to finish him off and she thought I’d take it hard. I would have too, although probably not as hard as this.

I looked away from the older woman and tried to focus on my job for a change. It would have been nice if it weren’t such a mindless task. A distraction would have been welcome right about now.

I
tried
to head after Meg, but Dragon stepped between me and the door, blocking my way.

“You listen here,” he said, speaking so low that I almost had to lean forward to hear him. “I’m the last person who would normally try to stop someone from getting his jollies, but the girls in my bar are off limits. Understand?”

“Off limits?” I repeated the words like I’d never heard them before.

Dragon nodded and I clenched my hands into fists, having to stop myself from punching him right in the damn face. I knew he was screwing Helen, so it only made sense that I’d have suspicions about his relationship with Glitter, but this was too far. Even if it meant a ticket back to DC, there was no way in hell I was going to let this asshole put his hands on Meg.

“Don’t you fucking touch her,” I growled, stepping closer.

Dragon’s right eyebrow shot up, and his eyes narrowed to slits. “You telling me what to do in my own place?”

I clenched my jaw, holding back the angry words I wanted to hurl at him. If I got sent back to DC, I wouldn’t be able to help Meg do anything. Not look for her Dad, and definitely not keep this asshole off her.

“No.” The word shot itself from between my teeth with so much force that it felt like I’d spit in Dragon’s face.

The bar owner grinned, showing off the gap in his mouth where his teeth used to be. “That’s what I thought.” He slapped me on the arm and I flinched when my fist almost shot out. “Besides, I have no intention of laying a finger on her.”

I relaxed even though I wasn’t sure if I believed him. “You don’t?”

“No.” Dragon rolled his shoulders back and the muscles popped. “I’m keeping an eye on her for someone. Making sure she’s safe. Same as Glitter.”

The conversation I heard this morning ran through my head. Maybe he was telling the truth. “Who?”

“Nobody.” The other man waved his hand like he was trying to brush my question away. “Just an old friend.”

Something wasn’t sitting right with me, though, and it wasn’t just the old friend or the fact that I suspected it was the same man who’d given that note to Meg. It had to do with what Dragon had said this morning, after the zombie got dropped off.

He turned to head back into the bar, but I stopped him in his tracks when I said, “You knew that zombie was Meg’s uncle.”

Dragon turned, slowly, his eyes once again narrowed.

I lifted my hands. “You’re the one who said it was a message, then Meg told me it was her uncle and I connected the dots. It wasn’t hard. What I want to know is: How did
you
know it was her uncle?”

Dragon’s jaw ticked. “Helen works at the CDC.”

That I hadn’t known, but it still didn’t explain much of anything. “So?”

“So I met the guy. Everybody knows the family, and everybody knows about the bullshit rumors going around. It made sense that they sent him here as some kind of message for the girl. What that message is, I don’t know. Who knows what she’s gotten herself mixed up in.” Dragon took another step toward me. “What I do know is this: You better watch who you talk to about all this. You claim to like this girl, but you’re not going to do anybody any favors by running your mouth. Least of all her.”

Dragon’s words were steady and his gaze even as he held mine, but I didn’t buy it. He knew more than he was letting on, and it had something to do with the man he’d been talking to this morning.

At this point, though, I couldn’t let him know that I was suspected anything.

“No worries.” I matched his tone. “I’m just trying to look out for her too.”

Dragon held my gaze for a few seconds longer before turning away. His jaw was clenched like he was holding in a barrage of curse words as he headed out into the bar.

I followed him, silently. Thinking it all through. I didn’t know where this man fit into the puzzle that seemed to be Meg’s life, but I was positive he did. According to everything I knew about her, the first time Meg had set foot in this place was the night she was attacked. I found it hard to believe she’d met Dragon anywhere else, and she’d never indicated that they knew each other outside this bar. But he had an
old friend
who wanted to make sure Meg was safe? Why? And who?

I needed to keep my ears open.

T
he Atlanta evening
was hot and muggy when I stopped in front of the gate. Overhead, the moon was tucked behind a blanket of clouds, barely allowing any rays through to illuminate the wall. I didn’t need it. I’d climbed the ladder to the guard towers hundreds, if not thousands, of times over the years. Between Dad, Parvarti, and Al working the fence, there had been no shortage of people for me to visit, and I liked sitting up there. Watching the darkness of old Atlanta and imagining that life might one day be able to spread beyond these walls again. That there still existed the possibility that we could start over.

It seemed like a lost cause now.

The metal ladder groaned under me, its rusted rungs chafing my palms as I pulled myself up. The heaviness that had settled inside me this afternoon was not only still present, but worse than ever before. It grew with each rung I climbed, every inch bringing me closer and closer to my aunt.

I hadn’t seen her all week. I knew she was avoiding going home—avoiding all of us, probably—and I couldn’t blame her. She was trying to move on and we were all reminders of what she’d lost.

The darkness didn’t ease when I reached the top, so I paused to allow my eyes to adjust. Someone turned my way, cloaked in the shadows of the guard tower, and I blinked. Parv’s small frame came into view after only a second, no more than a black outline against the dark sky.

“Megan?” Her voice was a total contrast of the person I’d known all these years. She was small and soft-spoken, but to me she had always seemed larger than life. Tough as nails and ready to take on anything. She’d had to be to rise to the rank of Judicial Officer of New Atlanta.

“It’s me,” I said, a sudden feeling of déjà vu coming over me. Hadn’t I said those exact same words to Mom last night when I got home?

I pulled myself forward, keeping my body low so I didn’t topple over the side and fall into the zombie world that existed beyond the wall. It was so dark that even though I was familiar with the area, I had to feel my way. Most people turned on a lantern up here. Maybe the darkness was comforting for Parv.

“What are you doing up here?” she asked as I settled in next to her.

She moved a few things around and a second later a match flared, the small spark turning into a tiny flame that lit the space just enough to allow me to make out my aunt’s face. Shadows, long and black, played across her features, making her cheeks appear sunken and her eyes nothing more than dark pits. It sent a shiver down my spine that I couldn’t shrug off until after the lantern had flared to life between us. Only then could I see my aunt clearly, and only then were her gentle brown eyes a comfort.

“I wanted to talk to you,” I said, shifting so I had my legs pulled up against my chest. “You haven’t been around much.”

Parv exhaled as she nodded. “I know, I’m sorry. It’s been hard pulling myself out of this. I’ve had to do it before, but this time…”

She swallowed and looked away, and I found myself wondering if she was talking about her family or someone else. I knew that everyone in her life had died from the initial outbreak, and that she never got to say goodbye to them, but something about the expression on her face told me that the loss she was referring to was something else altogether. Someone she had loved before Joshua, maybe?

“How’s your mom?” Parv asked, her gaze focused on the dark city in front of us.

“She was better last night. A little more together. Even though she was out of it again this morning, I can’t help hoping it’s a good sign.” Parv nodded in understanding. “She had this crazy dream that Angus came into her room. That he told her to get her shit together or something like that.”

I chuckled, but it was cut short when Parv turned her whole body to face me.

“Angus came to her room?”

“In a dream,” I said, wondering if I’d forgotten to mention that part.

“Right. Of course.” Parv shook her head. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

“Um…”

For a second I couldn’t think, too caught up in conspiracy theories that were as old as I was. Then the reason I was here came screaming back and I almost burst into tears. The last thing I wanted to do was kick someone when they were down, but that was exactly what I was about to do and I hated myself a little for it. Not that I had a choice.

“It’s about Joshua,” I finally said. “Something happened today.”

Parv closed her eyes and nodded. “What is it? Just tell me.”

I took a deep breath, and when I blew it out, the words came with it. Everything that had happened. Me getting a job, the note given to me by the stranger, the warnings I’d been given, how I was sent outside the fence, and finally seeing my uncle as a zombie this evening. The whole time I talked, Parv kept her eyes shut. They were clenched tight, but the emotions that played across her face were so raw and painful that I physically hurt for her.

When I was done, I slipped the ring off my thumb and held it out to her. The light from the lantern highlighted the design etched into the silver metal.

Parv opened her eyes, which were shimmering with tears, and took the ring from my hand, rubbing it between her fingers like just having it made her stronger.

“Thank you.” She slipped it on her thumb, just like I had earlier, then took a deep breath. “I think I always suspected they hadn’t taken care of him the way they said they would. Just like I always knew it was no accident. Maybe that’s why it was so hard to deal with it.” A tear slid down her cheek and she swiped it away almost violently. “You know, we resisted falling in love for a long time. We’d both been stung before and I guess we didn’t think the pain was worth it. When we first got here, we were only living together out of convenience. We’d been together for months, on the road and in Colorado, but Joshua and I were both naturally quiet people, and we really hadn’t taken the time to get to know each other.

“Time moved on and we became…comfortable. It was two years after we got to Atlanta before we admitted to one another how we felt. By then Luke and Charlie had already been born, and your mom was pregnant with Margot. I was in my mid-twenties and Joshua was pushing thirty, and we figured it would be a good time to start a family.”

Parv stopped like the words were too hard to get out, and I held my breath. I’d never heard most of this stuff before. There wasn’t a time that I could think back on and remember Parv and Joshua not being together, and I’d had no idea that they’d ever wanted children. They’d always been an odd couple. Joshua, taller than anyone I’d ever known and so pale that he looked like he spent his life in the lab, hidden away from the sun. Parv had barely come up to his chest, and next to him her dark skin had washed him out even more. But as far as I knew, they’d always been happy.

“You couldn’t have kids?” I asked when she didn’t say anything else.

Parv tore her gaze off the ring circling her thumb and focused on me. “It never happened for us.”

There was so much space between those words that I couldn’t help trying to search the gaps for some hidden meaning. I couldn’t find one, of course. Maybe Parv had a baby when I was too young to remember and it had died. It happened so much in the early days that it seemed like a logical conclusion to jump to.

My aunt let out a deep breath, and when she inhaled she looked like a stronger person. Like her old self. “Tell me more about this note and the man who gave it to you.”

“Okay…” I hadn’t come here to burden my aunt, but if she could figure some of this out, it might help all of us. “He was older. Sixty, maybe. Thin. Gray hair that was wild and a beard that was just as crazy. And he had these gray eyes that—” I broke off short of telling her that they had reminded me of Dad. I didn’t want to sound like Mom. Crazy and out-of-touch with reality.

“That’s it?” Parv asked. “Nothing else really stood out?”

“Other than the fact that he popped up again tonight in Dragon’s? No.”

“Did you tell anyone else about all this?”

“I talked to Al when I first got the note, but he freaked out. He tried to act like it was no big deal, but I could tell he was nervous.”

“If you were in the apartment,” Parv said. “It’s understand-able. We never know when they’re listening.”

They
? Now who sounded like Mom?

“Who exactly are you talking about when you say
they
?”

“We aren’t sure exactly. It could be just the government—Jackson’s dad—or it could run deeper. The CDC. For all we know, it’s all connected. We can’t ignore the rumors that have surrounded Angus for years. That’s why Joshua originally agreed to be Dr. Helton’s apprentice. Before the virus hit, he’d worked as an ER doctor, and he was better suited for trauma than research. But they were low on doctors and needed help creating a vaccine, and we’d only been here for a few months when Dr. Helton approached him about it. The timing was good.”

“Why?”

“There was this man named Jim who left Colorado with us.” Parv paused and patted my leg. “He was a good friend of your biological father’s, actually.”

Jim? Hadn’t that been the name of the zombie slayer Luke introduced me to? The one who’d said he knew my parents? No. It couldn’t be. Could it? Everything else seemed to be connected these days, so I shouldn’t be surprised, but how did Luke know him?

Parv sighed like the memories made it difficult for her to breathe. When she continued, her voice was quieter. “Anyway, we got separated from Jim on the way here, and when he finally arrived, he had a woman with him. Amira was deaf, but she could read lips, and while in quarantine a couple guards said some things in front of her about a
cabbage
and a
vegetable
. She’d gotten the impression that they were talking about a person. Since we’d already heard rumors that Angus was alive and being kept under lock and key, it seemed like a good idea to check it out. So, Joshua went to work with Dr. Helton at the CDC.”

“He never found anything?”

“No,” Parv said firmly. “But there were areas he was never allowed access to. Even after almost twenty years. Top secret sections that were off limits. Guarded.”

What the hell was at the CDC that they didn’t want people to see? Especially other doctors.

“Parv,” I said, choosing my words carefully while inside me, something that felt an awful lot like hope tried to force itself to the surface. “Do you think my dad is still alive?”

My aunt held my gaze, her dark eyes boring into mine while my heart beat faster and faster with each passing second.

“I do.” When she finally said it, the words were so soft that they almost got caught on the breeze. “After Jim got back and the rumors grew worse, Joshua tested Axl’s blood. He was immune.”

I squeezed my eyes shut when they filled with tears. All the horror of what Dad could be going through hit me with so much force that it felt like the wall under me had collapsed and I was being crushed under the rubble. If Parv was right, then Dad was being used as an experiment. Poked, prodded, possibly injected with things. He was probably in horrible pain.

“So the CDC knew Dad couldn’t be infected?” I asked, my eyes still closed.

“They did.”

“Why didn’t they tell him?”

“Only they can answer that question for sure.”

“Why now?” I whispered. “Why take him now? If he was immune, why didn’t they take him back then?”

Parv’s hand covered mine and I opened my eyes. “I think they didn’t need him yet because they had Angus. Plus, the city was still new, so they were probably short on resources. I don’t think Angus died the way the claimed, but instead they kept him as a prisoner for years. Used his blood to create new vaccines as the virus mutated. I think two prisoners would have been too hard for them to control, so they kept your father’s immunity a secret instead. Either Angus has recently died for real—” Parv paused to take a deep breath. “—or the virus has finally mutated in a way that doesn’t respond to Angus’s blood. This is just a theory, but one Joshua and Al happened to agree with.”

Al.
So my uncle knew all this. No wonder he was terrified when I brought him that note.

“I can’t believe this,” I said, allowing the tears to stream down my cheeks. “Why did we stay if you guys thought this might happen?”

“Because we didn’t know anything for sure, and even with the risk of something like this happening, this city was better than anything
out there
. You have no idea what we went through before we made it here, and we had to believe that we could have a real life inside the wall. Plus, by the time we formed these theories, Al and Lila already had two kids, and your parents had you and Margot to worry about. Leaving the city meant putting all your lives at risk. There were unsanctioned towns, but they got raided and overrun all the time. Plus, they didn’t get help from the little bit of government that we did have. We briefly talked about going back to Colorado, but before we could figure out a way to make it happen, the town was breached. Everyone we knew there was killed.” Parv squeezed my hand. “We did the best we could with the information we had.”

“It’s like putting a Band-Aid on an amputation,” I muttered, repeating one of Al’s favorite sayings.