Wisteria (Wisteria Series) (37 page)

She nodded.

“Ugh…”

“What was that?” Vic asked.

“Probably kids making noise,” Rupert remarked. “I wonder if your friend, Garfield, decided to play hero?”

“He’s a coward.” Brenda sneered. “He’s probably in some hole, crapping on himself.”

“Dean, go take care of them,” Rupert instructed the red-headed man, who then nodded and disappeared into the trees.

Wisteria started getting to her feet but Brenda stomped on her back down, causing her to collapse. “You just stay where you are. Neil, get this helicopter in the air,” Brenda instructed the other Red Phoenix man.

“Ah!” a man’s shriek cut through the night.

“Dean!” Neil exclaimed. “You said there weren’t any biters here.”

“There aren’t; this town is clean. We’re leaving now,” Rupert ordered, and then moved Wisteria into the helicopter.

“What about Dean?” Neil asked Rupert. “If there’re no biters, we should wait for him.”

“He’s got until I close the door.” Brenda moved toward the aircraft.

The stench of the flesh eaters began to emanate from the woods. Looking around from where she knelt, Wisteria could see now that no one doubted it: there were biters in the woods.

“John, what are you waiting for? Get us out of here.” Brenda turned to Vic, who was almost passed out. She kissed him. “Just in case we need more time.” She pulled him out of the helicopter and threw him onto the ground.

“You’re not going to leave me here?” Vic cried.

“She’s right,” Rupert added as he lifted Wisteria off the ground. “You wouldn’t have made it back alive anyway.”

Wisteria heard another series of louder and closer groans.

The woman looked around slightly startled, as several biters staggered forward.

“Bloody hell,” Rupert gasped.

She knew she was dead whether or not Red Phoenix took her, but this way, she had a choice. With the group distracted, Wisteria broke free from them and ran again. She hoped the Red Phoenix agents were more concerned about getting away from the biters than they were about stopping her.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

“Ah!” Bach’s body slammed into Mrs. Kuti’s front garden as he skidded along the ground. His skin stung as he landed among the strangle weed. He scrambled around, trying to free himself from the poison that was burning him.

Felip came down a few feet away on the pavement. “You should have taken Lluc’s advice and remained in Jarthan until you recovered.” He approached Bach. “Then you would have lasted longer against me. Do not misunderstand; you still would not have stood a chance.” He struck Bach with an iron bar and Bach collapsed into the toxic plants. “I am stronger than you.” Felip pounded Bach again. “So, do the smart thing and stay down!”

“Do not do this! Felip it is not too late for you and me to—” Bach noticed his cousin hadn’t stepped into the garden. He was afraid of the little violet flowers.

“Us? Bach this is not about you.”

“Why let her come back?” Bach asked. “Why not take her when we were in the Hunter Tower?”

“Because I did not realize who she was at first. Then you tried to renew her, and just by the way you looked at her, I knew. Those Red Phoenix fools attacked too soon. And you found out about the obsidian crystal and I had to get it.”

“Why?”

“You could never begin to comprehend me or my plans. But know this much: your Terran is more useful to me now I know she’s in Mosroc..” He swung at Bach with the rod but Bach caught it and pulled it out of Felip’s hand, flinging it away before he fell back down.

“Qwaynide!” Felip kicked Bach’s face.

“You have succeeded.” Sinking to the ground, Bach conceded. “You have beaten me.”

“Succeeded? I have not even started but this is all you will see.” Felip grabbed Bach’s hair and lifted him to his knees. “Trust me. I am not done with her, your brothers, and all the Elders. This will only be the beginning.”

Bach grabbed Felip’s neck and squeezed him tightly, digging his nails into his cousin’s neck.

Felip let go of Bach, but Bach maintained his grip.

“Stop!” Felip tried to shake him off.

“You know why it hurts this much?” Bach drove his fingers deeper into Felip’s neck. “The strangle weed you buried me in. It is in your blood now. This is what you wanted, to know if you were better than me? You have only succeeded in knowing that you are not!”

Felip fell to the ground choking, but then he started laughing. “You are going to be having a party. A couple hundred infected are on their way.”

“You have summoned the infected?”

“Where is your Thayn?” Felip croaked. “You still think she is alive? You should make sure she is safe before the infected arrive.”

Wisteria!
Bach dumped Felip on the ground,hesitant to leave him. Bach was uncertain what
his friend
might still do, but he knew Felip had only given up Wisteria in order to save himself.

Sprinting away, Bach raced through the streets back to the shelter where he left Wisteria and her mother.

The front door was open. Something was very wrong. He spotted a soldier standing outside, and from the window he saw two more soldiers standing along the corridor.
Why were they there?

Jumping on the roof, he entered the house unseen, through a window on the second floor. He sped down to the basement, to the bunker where Wisteria had been.

The door to the bunker was wide open and inside he saw Coles kneeling over a lifeless body.

The sorrow in Coles’s eyes couldn’t be hidden as he stroked the person’s hair.

It was
Mrs. Kuti.
Bach stepped into the bunker.

Coles’s mouth dropped when he saw Bach and he immediately drew his weapon.

Bach took the gun from the man before he could move.

“I wasn’t going to kill you.” Coles got his feet. “I know you’re not going to hurt me.” The man’s eyes were red and swollen, almost as if he was crying.

“How do you know that?”

“Lara left me a note. She wrote it while she was in here. You and your friend were helping her. Your friend probably betrayed us, and you aren’t sick. She wrote that you weren’t physically capable of harming Wisteria.” The man took out a piece of paper.

Bach reached for the paper but the older man put it away.

“It’s what it says,” Coles replied. “But you’re going to answer for this because I know you are somehow in the middle of it. Someone spotted them putting Silas Cheung into a car. When the soldiers looked here, they found Lara lying here. She’s dying. You started this, didn’t you? Those people are in my town because they want something from you. You need to tell me what it is.”

“They came for Silas Cheung and Wisteria. Not me.”

“I don’t know if I should trust you. It’s clear Lara did, so I’ll trust her, and I know Wisteria isn’t part of this.”

Bach squatted over Mrs. Kuti and for a second, he’d thought it was Wisteria. Placing a hand on her neck, the blue light seeped into her skin.

“Get away from her,” Coles ordered and Bach heard the soldier take out another weapon.

Bach had no time to explain how the regeneration worked. He probably wouldn’t work because Lara was almost gone.

“What…are you?” Coles asked in shock.

“I thought I could help her.” Bach rose slowly. “I am not sure if I can.”

“Major, there’s been gunfire heard at Mulberry’s.” Rebecca appeared behind Bach and immediately drew her weapon. “What’s he doing here?”

“Wait!” Coles waved at the tracker. “He’s going to see Dr. Hindle.”

Bach put Coles’s gun on the table. “I don’t have time for this. I can help you.”

“You’ve helped us enough.” Coles waved him away.

Coles was right. There was no time for these conversations.

He had to find Wisteria. Bach sped out of the bunker before more soldiers arrived and tried to haul him away. He remembered running through the orchard when he escaped from them days before. There was a clearing in Mulberry Orchard large enough to land a helicopter. Once down, the trees might provide adequate cover. He knew where the orchard was on the map and was certain if she were alive at that moment, he would be able to rescue her. He sprinted in the darkness, toward Mulberry Orchard.

* * * * *

Bach got to the gates of Mulberry Orchard. Andrew, along with a handful of soldiers and trackers, were on the street, shooting at a swarm of the infected which were emerging from the orchard. Bach counted seven infected on the ground and six more staggering through the open fence.

“The Lazarus boy, back from the dead?” Andrew called to Bach as the soldiers shot the fleshers one after the other.

“You do not seem surprised to see me?”

“What were you expecting—a hug?” Andrew replied, and then fired, hitting a biter directly between the eyes. “Coles radioed and said you might be coming and that you weren’t infected. He also told us Wisteria and Cheung might be in there.”

“Have you been inside yet?”

“Are you insane? No one’s going in there until we know we’ve got all the fleshers!” Andrew fired again as two more biters wandered toward them.

Bach scanned the fence. He saw three or four but could sense thirty-seven he had not sensed earlier. “Where did they come from?”

“I’m guessing that the Dr Frankensteins on this island have been up to something… But I won’t know where the biters came from until we get inside and no one’s going in until I’m sure all the biters have been cured.”

“I can help.”

“No, find cover and leave this to us,” Andrew insisted. “This isn’t a place for children.”

“Right.” Bach backed away. He ran down the side of the fence and once out of sight he leapt over the ten foot gate, landing other side. Looking for any sign of life, he only saw the shuffling bodies of the infected, heading toward the gate. He locked the gates to the orchard, sealing the remaining infected inside.

“What are you doing? Bach, get out of there,” Andrew bellowed.

Bach moved as quickly as he could toward the clearing. He hoped that she’d still be there. No, he actually prayed that she would not. Wisteria and Cheung might have found some extremely clever hiding place. At the clearing he saw a helicopter that had just taken off. Leaping, he barely got hold of the landing skid and managed to pull himself against the heavy downwash and winds. Opening the helicopter door, he spied a woman inside, who cursed when she saw him.

“We were wondering when you’d show up,” she yelled.

Bach scanned the interior of the vehicle. Tied up behind them was Cheung. They were the only people inside. Next to the woman he saw the red handle of Wisteria’s sword.

“Where is Wisteria?” Bach advanced toward the woman and the pilot.

As he got closer, he recognized the woman as one of the people who had invaded the penthouse in the Hunter Tower. “You tried to kill me.”

“And you’re trying to kill us now. That makes us even,” the woman jeered.

“This is not a game. Where is she?”

“I don’t know.” The woman laughed. “I could’ve thrown them out.”

Bach looked out of the window. They were now flying across the water toward Norton. When he turned back to face the woman, she was holding a gun in Bach’s face.

“These are the kind that can hurt you,” she sneered.

“I don’t have time for this,” he said as she fired the poison dart at him.

Catching the dart in midair, he yanked her gun and threw both objects out of the open door. Then he grabbed Wisteria’s sword and pointed it at her. “Tell me where she is!” Bach repeated louder than before.

“She’s dead!” The woman fired her gun at the controls of the helicopter.

“What are you doing?” the pilot exclaimed.

The woman let out a harsh laugh as Bach felt the helicopter start to plummet.

“Tell your Sen there are still two powers greater than he is. God and the devil. And one day, I’ll see him in hell.”

“What?” Bach rushed over to try and extract her, but she’d handcuffed herself to the console. “Woman, do you want to die?” He pulled at the cuffs but there was no way he could get her free before the helicopter crashed. “What is wrong with you?”

“I’d rather die than become one of your sleepwalkers,” she replied. “I only wished I could take you with me.”

Grabbing the pilot and the teacher, he jumped out of the helicopter. They landed in the water just as the helicopter crashed into the Norton shopping center.

He swam ashore while dragging the teacher with him. As calming as being in the water was, he couldn’t stay. He got out, set Cheung down, and saw the pilot running into the town of Norton.

Bach caught up with the man. “You are going to tell me where Wisteria is!”

“I don’t know,” the man replied. “I only fly the helicopter. I don’t know.”

“Tell me!” Bach squeezed the man’s neck.

“Ack,” the man choked, as they heard a loud groan.