She gazed up at him and then noticed Heath for the first time standing behind him. And . . . something was wrong. There was no recognition in her eyes. No jumping up and down. No screams of joy.
“Clementine?”
Heath began to laugh.
Michael suddenly understood he’d done a very stupid thing.
“You sure are gullible,” Heath said. “You should have listened to your dead friend. He suspected me from the very beginning. But no, you were too stupid to figure it out. Too eager to get back to your pretty girlfriend. You didn’t even see when I dropped the key on the floor for the others to claim him while we were out nabbing the van.”
Michael’s teeth clamped down tightly, his fingers curling into fists at his sides.
“I mean, even I can’t believe how easily you fell for that.” Heath’s voice changed to a higher octave. “Clementine? You’ve seen her? My dear, sweet baby sister. Oh, I’m the luckiest brother in the entire world. I can’t wait to join her. We can bake cookies and pies. It’ll be so delightful.”
Clementine jolted as if she’d been hit by lightning.
“How is that possible?” Raj asked, taking a step forward and looking right in fake Heath’s face. “There’s nothing wrong with your eyes. I’ve never seen one of you without the black veins.”
“When it gets to be too much, it shows,” fake Heath said. “The eyes are the window to the soul. But some of us have learned to push it back down. Keep it hidden. Sure as hell fooled you all. Who are you gonna trust now?”
“Everyone in this room except you,” Clementine said. “Isn’t that why you took Mason? Isn’t that why you lied to Michael? You had no idea where we were until tonight. I trust everyone here. They’ve never let me down.”
The fake Heath moved quickly, shoving Michael aside and grabbing Clementine by the arm.
“They’re gonna let you down now, sweetie,” he hissed. “Not a single one of them can save you now.”
Raj jumped in, but fake Heath slammed him back and into the advancing Aries. Michael took advantage of the distraction and punched the fake Heath as hard as he could. It barely made a dent.
But he let go of Clementine and shoved her into the pile of her friends.
“Oh, come on,” he said. “You can do better than that.”
Michael nodded, raising his fist again. “You’re right, I can.”
He faked a left jab, punching with his right when Heath blocked. His fist smashed against the side of the Bagger’s face, hitting his ear with all his might. The Bagger let out an oomph noise, and then punched back, sending Michael against the wall.
Michael didn’t pause at all. Instead he ducked his head in, pushed forward, and body slammed the fake Heath, knocking him back against the already broken flat screen television. Jagged glass sliced Michael’s arm, but he barely registered the burning pain. Instead, he twisted his body around until he was on top of the other boy, and began sending blow after blow into the Bagger’s face and upper body.
When he was finished, the fake Heath’s face was mulched. He smiled up at Michael through bloodstained teeth.
“You do realize you’re just helping me stall, right?” He turned and spat blood on the wall. “They’re on their way here. Any second now they’ll burst through your security. Can you fight us all off? Nope, don’t think so.”
“Come on, Michael.” Clementine grabbed his arms and pulled him back. “He’s right. We have to get out of here.”
“Get the others,” Aries snapped.
“I’ll get Eve,” Larisa said. She turned and headed up the stairs with Joy right behind her.
Fake Heath laughed again, a low, throaty chuckle. Pulling himself up to his feet, he swayed unevenly as he tried to maintain his balance. “I know who you are. I recognize you. I hope they get you last,” he said, looking directly at Aries. “I hope they force you to watch them tear apart your friends piece by piece. And only then will they turn on you.”
Michael spun back toward him again, the rage turning his vision bloody red. But Clementine was on him at once, whispering into his ear with her soft, beautiful voice.
“He’s not worth it,” she said. “Let it go. Let them all go. Don’t leave me.”
And he didn’t. “You’re not worth it,” he said to Heath. “But she is.”
Turning his back on the Bagger, he gave Clementine a tender kiss. “I love you,” he said. “Now let’s get everyone to safety.”
She nodded.
MASON
He sat on a bench down by the water and waited for the Baggers to come and get him. It didn’t take long.
“All that work for such little results,” a voice said behind him. “An entire rescue effort for nothing. You’re still here. I’ll bet your friends were very disappointed in you.”
He didn’t move or acknowledge the voice. If they were going to kill him, he wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of getting a rise out of him first. No, he was done with all that. He’d accepted it; whatever they wanted to do to him was fine.
“Do you think you’ve won?” the voice continued. The Bagger stepped into view. It was Leon of course, surrounded by a few of his lackeys. He didn’t look as impressive anymore. His shirt was undone at the waist, and there was a sizable black smudge on his cheek.
Mason shrugged. “It’s not about winning.”
“Oh, but it is,” Leon said. He sat down on the bench beside Mason and pulled a small flask from his pocket. Twisting the cap off, he took a drink, and then offered it up to Mason. “Winning. Losing. It’s all about how you play the game, right?”
Mason took the flask and sniffed it. A strong alcoholic scent hit his nose. He took a sip, enjoying the instant warmth as it slipped down his throat and into his stomach.
“I play the game very well, Mr. Dowell,” Leon said. “Better than anyone else. Why do you think they chose me to run this place? That is one thing I think you’ve greatly underappreciated about me. I like to win. And you may not know it yet, but I’ve won. Should I tell you how?”
He handed back the flask and looked out at the water. The crowds had dispersed; the majority of the prisoners had escaped into the dark city. The remains of the unlucky ones littered the pavement, but the casualties weren’t as bad as he’d feared. The surviving Baggers were out hunting now, trying to round back up whatever people they could find. Every few minutes he’d hear a scream or a shout as someone was torn from their hiding spot. He hoped that Casey had gotten out, but he probably wouldn’t know for sure until everything got settled back down.
“Most of the people in this camp were useless,” Leon said. “We were using them to help clean the streets, but they really meant little in terms of our future. Even the ones inside the casino—they’re all expendable. Small fish. The important people are kept elsewhere. So it doesn’t matter to us that a few escaped. Besides, we’ll round them all back up eventually.”
“You won’t get them all. That’s enough for me.”
Leon crossed his legs casually and stared out at the water. “You are a fool, Mr. Dowell.”
“Oh yeah? How do you figure that?”
“You could have run. You could have kept them safe. Instead, you destroyed everything that you hold dear. In one brief, shining moment, you signed her death warrant.”
“I kept her safe by not running,” Mason snapped. “Why else do I have this stupid thing on my leg? You would have just hunted me down. And her.”
Leon chuckled. “If you had run, she would have stood a chance. At least for a short period of time. You might have been able to protect her.”
“She does a good job of protecting herself, in case you hadn’t noticed,” he said. A seagull dropped in from the sky to attack a piece of litter on the ground in front of them. He inhaled deeply, smelling the sulfur and smoke from the smoldering buildings behind them. “They managed to do all this damage and still get away. Do you really think I worry about her safety? She’s stronger than all of us put together.”
“She has her Achilles’ heel, just like you have yours.” Leon took another drink from the flask, and the Baggers standing guard behind him smiled knowingly. “And you just tossed her right into the arms of her biggest weakness.”
Mason paused.
“She likes pretty boys, doesn’t she?” Leon continued. “She likes you, but there is one other that she can’t resist. You must hate that. Being second fiddle. Knowing that no matter what you do or say to impress her, you will never hold the first position in her heart.”
“She can do whatever she wants with Daniel,” Mason said as casually as he could manage. “It’s her decision, not mine.”
“Is she better than Chickadee? You never did get a chance with that pretty little bird either. She was too busy dying.”
“That’s none of your business.” The anger was strong in his voice. He tried to hold it back, but it was getting harder.
Leon stood up slowly, brushing out the creases on his pants. “Ask yourself this,” he said with a grin. “Do you really think I didn’t have this all planned out? Did you think your friend’s puny attack wasn’t on my radar? I knew it would happen probably before you did. Of course, I admit I didn’t think your friends would end up doing quite so much damage. I might have underestimated that a little. Who knew those gutless wonders in camp would fight back too?” He looked around at all the dead bodies on the ground.
“You’re telling me you set all this up to try to trap Aries?”
“No.” Leon took another drink of his flask. “We set all this up because we want to take everyone down. There are still people hiding out there and we’re going to find them. This was a good location. It will be rebuilt and we’ll continue to bring people here to work.”
“But why Aries? Just because she’s managed to evade you for so long?”
“Like you, there’s something inside her that piques our curiosity too. A strength of sorts, perhaps. And like you again, soon we’ll have the chance to ask her about it. Do you think she’ll like the cattle prod? Not strong enough? How about battery acid on that pretty face of hers?”
“You’ll never get her,” Mason said, the grin appearing on his lips before he could stop it. “She’s too smart for you. She keeps proving that.”
“We’ll get her. It’s only a matter of time.”
Leon passed the flask over and Mason took another drink. Might as well, it wasn’t like he had anywhere else to be.
“Your friend Daniel, doesn’t he seem odd to you? Always so secretive? Sneaking off in the dead of night, never spending more than a few hours at a time with you. He’s been your ally all along, hasn’t he? Or maybe he’s lying. Perhaps he’s only doing all that because someone asked him to do it.”
Mason’s stomach turned to ice. Suddenly all of Leon’s hints made sense. Everything he knew about them . . .
“You just sent her off into the arms of one of us,” Leon said. “And the best part is, you were too stupid to notice.”
“No.”
Mr. Leon brushed off his pants one last time and then turned toward the other Baggers. “Take him back.”
ARIES
At least they were prepared this time.
She raced up the stairs toward the bedroom where Larisa, Claude, and Joy were trying to get Eve out of her bed. She was still under the influence of the sleeping pills and couldn’t seem to focus enough to know what was going on. Colin appeared from behind them, his face pale and terrified.
“Come on,” Aries said. “You know where to go! Let’s get there now!”
“Can you fetch Jack?” Joy asked.
A twinge of pain shot through her stomach. How was she going to explain all of this once they were safe at the abandoned house they’d already marked a few weeks ago as their escape location?
She’d have to worry about it then. Right now there were more important factors to face.
“I’m on it,” she said.
Joy smiled in relief.
She left them in the room and raced down the hall, stopping to pick up a discarded baseball bat that had been left haphazardly on the floor by the bathroom. For a moment she regretted her decision to toss the machine gun, but it was too late for regrets now.
Suddenly the image of Daniel looking up at her, the black veins shadowing his beautiful brown eyes, hit her so hard, she had to steady herself by leaning against the wall. A painful emptiness spread through her stomach like wildfire, making her want to curl up in a small ball and drop to the floor.
No! She wasn’t going to think about it. Not now.
Not with such little time.
Pushing herself away from the wall, she stumbled down the hall, stopping at the next bedroom door. She didn’t knock, but turned the handle with sweat-drenched hands and went inside.
“Jack.”
The boy on the bed was sitting up, his back against the headboard.
“Go away, Aries.”
Her mouth opened, and a small sob escaped her.
“No,” Jack said. The expression on his face was serene. “We made this decision. You and I. We’re not going to go back on it now. Consider this our good-byes.”
“I can’t—” She paused, inhaling deeply. “I can’t do it.”
He waved her over to the bed and she went to him. Wrapping his arms around her, he stared blindly at the wall. “You can and you will. I’m cool with it. I want this. Respect my wishes.”
She stayed with him for a few more seconds before he gently pushed her away. Standing, she nodded, and then felt stupid because he couldn’t see.
“I’ll miss you,” she said, tucking in the blankets around his body so he wouldn’t get cold. “You’ve been a good friend.”
“Me too.”
She stood, listening to the sounds of the others rushing through the house in a mad panic. Walking over to the door, she paused one last time. “Merry Christmas.” The words sounded so sad, she instantly regretted saying them. She should be sounding more positive, more leaderlike.
“Say good-bye for me,” Jack said. “They’ll understand.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
* * *
Somehow everyone managed to get out of the house. As they ran into the dark cover of the football field, she heard the white vans, engines screaming, turn the corner and slam on the brakes.
They didn’t look back. Moving at a decent pace, Raj carried the half-asleep Eve as he’d carried Nathan earlier.
Joy was waiting for them around the side of the high school building.
“Where’s Jack?”
Aries pursed her lips together tightly. She had hoped they’d be farther away before the question came up. It was going to be hard to convince them all not to go back at this point.
“He doesn’t want to come,” she finally said. “It was his choice. We have to respect his wishes.”
Joy instantly began to cry. Michael and Clementine exchanged looks.
“We can’t do that to him,” Joy said between huge sobs. “We have to go back.”
Aries went over to her and tried to put her arm around Joy’s shoulders, but her friend pushed her away. “We’ve done everything we can,” Aries said. “We can’t go back. Do you see how many of them are there? They’ll kill us all.”
“But we have to,” Joy said. The tears were slowing down, replaced by anger. “He doesn’t get to make that decision. I won’t allow it.”
She broke free from the group, but Michael was too fast. Grabbing hold of her arms, he held on tightly. She fought him like a madwoman, kicking and screaming. Panic welled up inside of Aries; the Baggers were going to hear them.
“We have to get her out of here,” she snapped. “Or we’re all dead.”
Michael nodded, trying to pull Joy back, even lifting her up off the ground, but she continued to fight, scratching his face with her nails.
“He doesn’t get to make this choice,” Joy screamed again. “He doesn’t know!”
“Know what???
?
“That I’m pregnant.”
Michael let go of her instantly.
Joy dropped to the ground, landing on her knees, and every single one of them flinched in shock. She picked herself up, wiping the tears from her cheeks and neck, and walked straight up to Aries.
“I’m pregnant.” She was out of breath, panting from the struggle. “And he needs to know. He’ll change his mind if you tell him.”
“Are you sure?”
Joy nodded. “I picked up one of those home pregnancy tests last week while getting supplies. It was positive.”
Aries nodded. “You’re right, then.” She thought about the white vans that were probably piled up in the driveway by now and how the Baggers were most likely in the house and running up the stairs to the second floor as they spoke. “You all head on. Don’t stop till you reach safety. You know the address. I’ll get him.”
“Are you sure, babes?” Raj asked. “The place is swarming with ’em. It might already be too late.”
“I can still try.”
Michael caught her by the arm. “This is a bad idea,” he said.
She shook her head. “No, this is the only idea.”
“Then I’m coming with you.”
JACK
He had told himself he’d be brave when it happened. There would be no begging or pleading for his life. He wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.
It sounded like a herd of elephants tearing through the house. It was only a matter of time before they came up the stairs and opened his bedroom door.
Breathing deeply, he tried to control the panicky feeling in his chest. He chose this. He needed to be strong.
Would it hurt? Dying?
Jack didn’t believe in heaven. The thought of an afterlife where everything was calm and peaceful didn’t make much sense to him. Dying, he believed, was like going to sleep and never waking up, and in the long run, that didn’t sound so bad. He enjoyed sleeping. At least there would be no pain.
I’ll sleep when I’m dead.
His brain continuously banged against his skull. Some days were better than others. But although he tried to play them down, the migraines were immeasurable. He’d never experienced such pain. He hadn’t thought such agony was even possible. On the bad days he couldn’t even get a basic thought out. No amount of drugs could lessen the burden.