walker saga 07 - earth (18 page)

We disembarked via the gangplank. I took a moment to stare at the bustling docks around us. Bustling, but not fighting. Humans here were just interacting with each other in a normal day-to-day series of activities. I remembered when the city had been more like that.

In the distance there were hundreds of boats – some so large they looked like small houses – docked alongside long wooden piers.
Holy Walker babies!
There were humans everywhere. On the docks, chatting between vessels. Was that actually laughter I heard?

Shock had my already shaky knees even weaker. I stumbled once and if Brace hadn’t had a hand under my arm I think I’d have face-planted. I swallowed the huge lump in my throat. A rush of emotion was ricocheting up through my body and trying to leak from my eyes. I wasn’t the only one either. Silent tears traced down Lucy’s glittery green skin. She kept shifting her head from side to side in an effort to see everything. Chrissie was opening and closing her mouth.

“You’re going to catch bugs if you keep doing that,” I joked to bring some normalcy back.

No doubt the females we’d rescued would take this sort of normalcy over New York City any day.

I was surprised to see Eva maneuver around the emotional females, and move to my side.

I paused to allow her to say whatever she needed to.

She had to swallow a few times but eventually got the words out. “I’ll never believe that my father wasn’t my real father. He was everything to me. Nothing in this world or any other you talk about could make me doubt that.”

I knew she had loved her father. Truly loved and mourned him. She was unlike most of the half-Walkers. She’d had a loving family and had believed her human father was her real father. That made it so much harder for her to accept what I said.

“I don’t know you, Abby, I don’t trust you. But I’ve felt you in my head. The connection is real between us. I would be stupid to deny it. Today you’ve done something that I never expected to see. You’ve opened the world up, possibly saved thousands of those who were due to be hurt or killed. At great risk to your own personal safety.” That had impressed her. “For this reason alone I owe you my allegiance. I will follow you. I will fight alongside you. I have nothing left to lose any longer, but I still choose my battles carefully.”

She swallowed again, and I wondered what had happened to her family. To the father she loved so very much.

“I’ll join the half-Walkers and fight the Seventine.”

I reached out and placed a hand on her arm, near her bicep. She didn’t flinch from me. She was definitely less jumpy than some of the other females.

“Thank you, Eva. I’m so sorry for your loss, but I hope that you might find a semblance of family with all of us. Our energy is ancient. The seven of us half-Walkers have been friends and family for many millennia.”

Her golden eyes dulled, and I knew I had said something wrong. It was probably the family thing. She didn’t want another family.

“This family is hard to kill,” Brace said. He understood her already. “You don’t have to worry so much about them being taken away.”

Eva’s stunning features crumpled for just a second before she pulled herself together. Shaking off my hand, she stepped back toward Chrissie. “Just let me know when you’re leaving. I’ll say goodbye to the others.”

I held her gaze for a few beats before nodding. We had to leave very soon. I needed to get back to the power grid. But I couldn’t abandon these women until I knew it was safe for them here.

Three of the coastguard led us along the well-maintained wooden docks. There were no gaps or rotted away timbers, unlike the ones we had stood on with the gangers. This was not a world at war; here they still lived normal lives. Like those we had witnessed on television and in books.

“Why did no Walker ever think it was strange that New York City was a war zone, and the rest of Earth was like this?” I lowered my voice so only Brace would hear.

They were the only beings who could have seen both sides of the barrier.

Brace’s ever watchful gaze continued to shift across the faces we passed. He hadn’t lowered his guard – I wasn’t sure he ever fully let go of ‘being on duty’. Duty and wariness came when you were powerful, a leader and also raised by a psychopath.

“Walkers care little for politics within a world, and Earth is the least visited planet. The energy dead zone kept most of us away.” Black flashed across his eyes. “And we can’t be certain that this side of Earth is safe. Appearances can be deceiving.”

He was right. I had to keep a rein on my hope until we had more evidence of the safety here. I remained silent for the rest of the walk along the docks. The other girls kept pace, Chrissie and Eva helping those who were struggling.

I barely recognized Chrissie anymore. The baby-faced sixteen-year-old was now all hard muscles and authority. Her time running the streets with her vigiladies had not been easy.

I wondered what had happened to the rest of the girls from the Compound. Did any of them initially stay with Chrissie after the Olden-warehouse disaster? Probably most of them had either found the rebels, or been killed. Which was not a nice thought or feeling.

Chrissie caught my eye then and gave me the ghost of a smile. She flicked her head left and then right, and I knew she was as astonished as the rest of us that this part of America existed.

Brace shifted to the left, and I realized that he and Colton had again positioned themselves so that they shielded Lucy and me from either side.

Glancing ahead, I understood why they’d suddenly gone all protective-Walker. We were approaching a large building. If there was any trickery to be had here, it would be waiting for us inside those walls.

My bestie rolled her eyes in my direction. “Over-protective little suckers, aren’t they?”

I returned the grin. “They’re not exactly little, Luce.”

Colton grinned. “You got that right, Red.” I was pinned by his icy-blue gaze. “There’s nothing little on me.”

“Dude, you’re like my brother.” I shook my head. “I don’t want to know that shit about you.”

Although, I couldn’t deny the truth of what he said. The parts I’d seen of Colton were perfection, like Brace, and as for those other parts – well, Lucy really liked to explain things in detail. Very specific detail. I knew way more than I ever expected to know about the wolf-Walker. I kind of needed some brain bleach.

Colton’s eyes flashed with mirth as he tilted his head to the side. “Yep, I feel that, little sister. I don’t want to think about your naked bits either.”

Brace’s chest rumbled, but he didn’t say anything.

Colton reached back and snatched up his little pixie mate. “Got more than enough naked thoughts with this one. I don’t have any room for more.”

Lucy gave me a wink from where she was tucked under his arm. “He’s not even kidding. It’s like a B-grade dirty movie up in there.”

Colton and Brace exchanged one of those boy looks, where they were like silently high-fiving each other or something. I guess men are the same, no matter their age or world of birth. Okay, Walkers didn’t have a world of birth, but they came from somewhere. A collision of rocks or something. Either way, they still thought about sex every five minutes.

Five minutes is not exactly right, Red.
Brace’s rumbly timbre suddenly had my own thoughts turning sexual.
When it comes to you … it’s more like sixty seconds.

Damn, not that time, mate. Not the time.

His chuckles were as squirm-worthy as his husky voice. My tinge of red lust was washed away the moment we stepped into the steel, stone and wooden building which was at the back of the docks. Right before the parking lot.

It was a single-level structure, weathered from the constant lashing of salt and the elements. The first room we entered was large and welcoming, sofas scattered around and pictures adorning the walls. I ran my eyes across them, noting the way each was a timeline of events which had been held here over the years. The latest was a yacht race, and the date on the gold plaque was 2037. Shit, it was 2037 already?

The overweight coastguard waved his hand toward the couches. “We’ll need to interview you in small groups. Those waiting their turn can sit here.”

The vast majority of the girls stumbled their way across and sank into the soft depths. Weariness wore heavy on their features. I knew most of them weren’t any older than me, but time on the streets had aged them. Chrissie and Eva remained standing and apparently the six of us were the first group. We followed the human. The other guards remained behind to keep an eye on the girls.

“We stay long enough to make sure that the females are safe here and then we have to go.” I kept my voice low as we stepped down a carpeted hall. “Chrissie, will you and the girls be okay? I know we’re leaving you in a strange place, but at least it seems a lot better than New York.”

She drew herself up taller, almost matching me in height. “The girls will be fine. They’re survivors, and you’ve done more than enough to give them a decent chance at a life. But I want to come with you, to fight this battle. I need to do something … if I don’t the pain will kill me.” Her desperation was clear.

My insides churned as I bit into my bottom lip. It was an unconscious motion, one which I rarely did any longer. But I was feeling all the feels right then for Chrissie. There was no way I could bring a human with me into a Seventine battle. I would not see her die under my watch.

“I wish I could bring you with us, I really do. But this is dangerous. Beyond dangerous. And as kickass as I know you are …” I had absolutely no doubt about her abilities. You couldn’t survive on New York streets without incomparable skills. “I won’t take that risk with you.”

“It’s my risk to take,” she shot back at me.

Words I’d used myself just today with Brace.

He grinned at me, as if to say, ‘See, sucks when you’re trying to protect a stubborn, hotheaded woman.’

I stuck my tongue out before facing the fiery human again.

“I know it’s your risk, Chris, but there’s one thing that can’t be debated. You’re human. Walkers are tough. I’m fragile compared to them, and humans are fragile compared to me. You don’t stand a chance in this battle, and I won’t watch you die.”

I was immovable on this and, one day when her pain wasn’t so great, she would understand why I couldn’t let her suicidal tendencies push her into something beyond her abilities. Had she already forgotten that we had just rescued her from a dock filled with gangers and smugglers who wanted to do God knows what with her? And those enemies were only human. The creatures that the Seventine controlled were so beyond her worst nightmares.

Especially the zombies – freaking zombies.

“Move it!” The sharp words were barked at us from inside the room down the hall.

We’d stopped following the man, and he wasn’t happy about it.

Chrissie threw me a look saying that this conversation wasn’t over, but we remained silent as we filed into the small, white-walled space.

It was set up like an interrogation room: table in the center, chairs on either side. He gestured for us to sit, which Lucy, Chrissie, Eva and I did. The two men stood behind us. There weren’t enough chairs for them, but they’d have stood anyway.

The coastguard slid his large frame into the single chair across from me. “Firstly, I need to see identification papers. Preferably with your address. Also your weapons’ license.” He nodded at Eva for that one.

What?
He was all good with Eva carrying around a big-assed sword, as long as she had a piece of paper saying it was okay? Did that make her less scary? Or the sword less deadly? Earth was whacked out sometimes.

I leaned forward, my hands sliding off the cold metal of the table. “We have no identification. We’re from New York City, and the war there has reached the point where government and councils have been abandoned. We have no birth certificates or licenses. There’s no way to be identified.”

Eyebrows drew together as he examined me. I wasn’t sure how to make him believe us; no doubt if he didn’t, all of the women would be thrown into jail. I wanted them to have a shot at a decent life, not be prisoners again.

The male finally glanced at the blank paper in front of him, before reaching into his pocket and removing a pen. He pressed the ballpoint of the pen into the paper.

“Which country is this New York City in?” He seemed to be working hard to keep his voice even. He totes thought I was crazy-pants. “And how did you make it all the way to Atlantic City?”

Pushing back the fall of red curls which had escaped from my braid, I tried to figure out what to say.

In the silence I wracked my memory for geographical information, I wasn’t surprised when Lucy whispered to me. “New Jersey.”

She’d always been better at school than I was.

Chrissie broke the silence. “New York is in America. We’re north of you.”

He hadn’t scribbled anything on the paper. Instead he continued to watch us. Wariness had descended into his watery blue eyes, and I knew alarm bells would be ringing in his head.

“There’s no state or city by that name in the United States.” Anger tinged his words. “I don’t appreciate being taken for a fool. There are serious consequences for breaching American and international waters without the correct documentation. You’re telling me not only do you not have a single piece of identification on you, but as far as I can tell, the place you’re from doesn’t even exist.”

Eva leaned into him. The desk still separated them, but something in her expression had him jerking back.

“Do you have a map? We can show you where we’re from.”

He didn’t take his eyes from any of us; he was acting like a caged animal. If we weren’t careful he would attack simply because he felt threatened. Without shifting his gaze, he reached down and slid back a large drawer; it took up most of the other side of the desk. From my angle I couldn’t see the contents.

Looks like maps.
Brace had a much better view.

The man shifted the papers around, sort of managing to keep one eye on us and one on the drawer. Finally he pulled a large colorful sheet from the middle of a pile and placed it on the table. The four of us girls leaned forward to examine it. The sketched area was the United States, with a small look at Canada and South America.