Eat the Ones You Love (The Thirteen Book 2) (27 page)

“She can have both,” said the boy with the shaggy hair. “There’s still a whole bunch of soldiers.”

“They thought they were keeping us in,” said a beautiful girl from the back. “Can you feel the rotters now?”

“She’s hungry,” said several children in unison, and Jenny felt a chill. She closed her eyes. She remembered the rotters. In Colorado they had been coming towards her when Jenny cut them down. She thought they’d been after Zeke. When she stepped out of the motor home, they followed her, parting like the Red Sea. And she could feel them now, all around them, and they were coming. They wanted to eat, it was all they wanted. Nothing else. Such hunger. Jenny opened her eyes. More children arrived.
 

“Why?” she said.

“You were the first.”

“You and your sister.”

“We made you a present.”

“Why do you keep saying that?” Jenny said. “What present?”

The girl with the curls came over and took Jenny’s hand. So small and so cold. Colder than Jenny’s. She pulled her past her examination room, where she glimpsed the bodies of the students she killed. One survived. Where did he go?
 

The girl pulled Jenny down the hall. Two doors down, three doors, five doors. Then she stopped.

“We’re not allowed to eat her,” said the girl. “She’s the first too. Just like you. And it's her first time.”

Jenny looked through the window, blinking away the red, but she could barely see. She saw only their shapes at first. A bed, piled with a person-shaped lump. A few figures standing around. One strapped to a chair, struggling. Jenny blinked and shook her head, trying to clear away the red.
 

Jenny squinted and the lump on the bed started to take shape. The buckles of the straps on wrists and ankles. The sparkle of glass under the bright lights. Tiny shapes moving away from the bed, then a face. A hastily shorn head, covered in scars. And a face. Jenny’s own face looking back at her.
 

“No,” Jenny said.

“She’ll be stronger this way,” said the girl. “The rotters won’t get her.”

“No, Sarah,” Jenny said, hitting the glass.
 

The children backed away, holding the empty syringe. Jenny sensed the disease coursing through her sister. Her hard, tough sister was crying now. Watching her. Crying. She had done this. This was Jenny’s fault.
 

“I didn’t come back for her,” Jenny said.

“You just did,” said the girl. “We’re here now.”

“No,” said Jenny. “It’s too late.”

She ran to the glass door, and swiped the card key but the light stayed red. Just like everything else. And the door wouldn’t open.

“Sarah!” she shouted, banging on the glass. She saw the moving shape in the chair now. It was Will, the student who had survived the carnage in her exam room. He was strapped to the chair with sheets. Jenny kicked the glass but it didn’t budge.
 

“Let her go!” she screamed. “Stop it, don’t fucking touch her!”

“It’s too late,” said the girl. “She’s about to turn. It’s magic.”

“It’s fucking death,” said Jenny. “There’s nothing magic. You’re going to change her, who she is, how she feels. She has a fucking child.”

“We are all her children now,” said the girl.

“No,” said Jenny. She kicked the door again and the glass vibrated. “No,” she said again. “Fix this shit. Fix it right now.
Goddammit, fix her
.”

“We’re saving her,” said the girl. And Jenny watched Sarah’s eyes roll back in her head. Her back arched as she went into a seizure. Jenny was punching at the glass, kicking it, shoving it with her shoulder.
 

“Fucking let me in there!” she screamed. She felt every bit of control leaving her body. She grabbed the girl and shook her. “Let me in there, she’s my fucking sister.” The girl was so small in her hands. She looked up at Jenny with big brown eyes. She smiled.

“Let Jenny in,” she said, and a boy stepped forward and slid a card. The door opened. Jenny looked around. She felt wetness on her face that wasn’t blood and her body was starting to ache again as it healed.
 

“You don’t even understand what you’ve done,” she said.
 

“We do understand. It was necessary.”

“For what?” said Jenny.

“For what’s to come.”

She smelled the rank stench of the rotters, and heard their moaning. They were coming. Jenny stepped into the room and the door slid closed behind her.

“Jenny Undead,” said one of the children.

“Don’t call me that,” Jenny said through gritted teeth.
 

“Everyone calls you that.”

Jenny hurried over to the bed, to Sarah. She reached out and touched the scar over her ear. Sarah’s skin was warm, but her heart wasn’t beating. Jenny looked over at Will in the chair and licked her lips. She forced her gaze back on Sarah.

“I don’t even know if she can wake up,” said Jenny. “What if she’s just a rotter?”

“She won’t be,” said one of the kids. Jenny didn’t even look at them. She stared into Sarah’s eyes, wide open and unmoving.
 

“She’s not like me,” Jenny said, stroking Sarah’s face. “She’s not like us. She doesn’t get better.”

“It doesn’t matter. She’ll come back.”

But Sarah didn’t move.

“She doesn’t fucking heal,” said Jenny. “
Look at her fucking scars.
She doesn’t heal. You little bastards killed her.” Jenny balled her fists, digging her nails into her palms and liking the pain.
 

“You had scars, too,” said a girl. Jenny grabbed her by the hair.

“You fucking killed my sister!” she screamed. She couldn’t control the anger any longer. It flamed white inside of her, burning into the red, taking over the hunger.

“You had scars too!” the girl protested, trying to get away from Jenny. “You had scars before you died!”

A twitch of a finger made Jenny stop. The girl untangled her hair from Jenny’s hand, but she didn’t run. Instead she reached up and took Jenny’s hand in her own. In a small, timid voice, the child spoke.

“You had scars. And then you died. Remember?”

“How do you know that?” said Jenny. She was staring at Sarah. Her finger moved again. Then her foot twitched.

“We know everything about you,” said the girl. A boy came around and took Jenny’s other hand.

“She’s not a rotter,” the boy said. “Just let her be.”

“Why have you done this?” said Jenny. She suddenly felt weak. The rage was gone and now the hunger was back. And she felt weak looking at her sister. She sank down to her knees. She was at eye-level with the children now. “Why couldn’t you just let her go?”

“We need you both,” said the boy. “We need you strong.”

“For what’s to come,” said the girl.

Jenny watched Sarah’s mouth move as she tried to scream with lungs that didn’t fill with air.

“What’s about to come?” said Jenny.

“What you’ve always wanted,” said the boy.

“Death,” said Jenny.

“No, silly,” said the girl. “We’re going to cure the world.”

THIRTY-FIVE

The children left Jenny with Sarah. Sarah's eyes were flicking around without focus, before finally landing on her. Sarah groaned, as if in pain.
 

“Sarah, you have to remember who you are,” Jenny whispered.

“She’s not coming back.”

Jenny looked up to see Casey standing opposite her on the other side of the bed.

“You’re not real,” said Jenny.

“Why? Because someone in a white coat told you I wasn’t?” said Casey.
 

“Because I know you’re not,” said Jenny. “I buried you. I saw your dead face. I touched your cold skin.”

“What about her?” said Casey. “You saw her die, too.”

“That’s different,” said Jenny.
 

“Why?”

“Because they didn’t replace your bones with metal and wires,” said Jenny. She traced a scar that ran down Sarah’s neck. She was colder now. “No one cut you open and changed out your parts like an old car.”

“Sully tried,” said Casey.
 

“It’s not the same, Casey. You’re gone. Forever.”

“And what about her?” he said. “You don’t even know her. I’ve never seen her before. I mean, she looks like you but she’s not you. She’ll never be you, Jenny. You’re special. You have more important things to do than to stand here and wait for them to come and kill you. You have something to do now.”

“What is this big important thing?” said Jenny. “How is anything more important than my sister?”

“What about Trix? Zeke? Your friends?”

“That’s not what you mean,” said Jenny. She met his eyes. Big and wide and dark brown. There used to be innocence in those eyes. “You want me to kill
him.
You want me to kill Dad.”

“I’m not really here,” said Casey, raising his hands defensively. “Who really wants to kill him if I’m just in your head?”

Jenny blinked and Casey was gone. Sarah arched her back again and screamed. There was a ripping noise and then one arm was free. She worked in a frenzy to rip her other hand out of the cuff, then her ankles. Jenny watched, feeling helpless. The boy in the chair was terrified. Jenny could smell it in his sweat and his piss and she could hear his heart beating so fast she thought he would die before Sarah even got to him. He was struggling against the sheets that tied him to the chair, but the children had done a good job. Jenny bit the inside of her cheek as she looked at him. The hunger in her was growing, but not like Sarah’s. Sarah would be insatiable for a time. Just as Declan had been. Jenny bit her cheek harder and tasted her own blood. It wasn’t the same.
 

Sarah jumped down, landing on her hands and feet. She looked around, scanning the room. She froze when she saw the man in the chair. Her eyes were cold and her lip curled ever so slightly in what was almost, but not quite, a smile. Jenny understood that look: satisfaction.
 

The man was hopping up and down as much as his bindings would allow. He was looking at Jenny and yelling something through his gag.
Help me
, he was saying.
Help me, help me, help me
. But Jenny shook her head. He chose to join those who poisoned the world. He chose to be here.

“You made your decision,” said Jenny. Sarah knocked over the chair when she pounced. It took less than a minute for the screams to stop. And soon after that, Sarah stopped her frenetic movements and looked up. She dropped the arm she was holding and fell backward, staring at the corpse in horror.

“Sarah,” said Jenny. “It's all right. Stay calm.”

“What the fuck?” she said, her voice high and panicked. “What the fuck, what the fuck?”

“I tried to stop them, I swear,” said Jenny, walking slowly toward her sister. Sarah was wiping at her mouth, trying to remove the blood. “I came back for you, Sarah. But it was too late.”

“Those kids,” Sarah breathed. “Those fucking creepy kids.”

“They’re just like us,” said Jenny. “They did the exact same thing to them. They can’t help it.” Jenny sank down to the ground next to her sister. “I’m so sorry,” Jenny said. “I’m so sorry. I was too late.”

“You’re always too late,” said Sarah.

“I know what it's like right now,” Jenny continued. “Rage. Lots of rage. It turns your vision red and you feel every emotion like a razor blade under your skin. You’re a mass of exposed nerves and everything’s raw. And you’re so hungry that you can feel your insides eating themselves.”

Sarah didn’t speak. She was clenching her teeth so hard Jenny could see her jaw muscles working.

“You’re afraid, too,” said Jenny. “You’re afraid because that taste in your mouth is human. And you’re afraid because you like the taste. You want more and it scares the shit out of you. You’re afraid because you’re so cold and it feels like you’ll never be warm again. You think that maybe the people you love will hate you, or worse that you’ll hate them. But that’s not true, Sarah. You’ll always love him. And he’ll see you. This is temporary. This isn’t forever. You’ll get better because you’re just like me.”

“You aren’t me, Jenny,” said Sarah. “You don’t have a child.”

“And neither will you if we don’t work together.”

Sarah turned quickly to look at her.
 

“You’re wrong about the rage. It doesn’t feel that different. But I am hungry. Where is he?”

“Who, Dad?”

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know, but we’ll find him.”

“Together,” said Sarah.

“Yes,” said Jenny. “I’m sorry I was late. And I’m sorry I forgot you.”

Sarah didn’t respond for a long moment, and Jenny thought she was going to remain silent. She moved to stand up, but Sarah finally spoke.

“Did you ever fall in love? Like you wanted to?”

Jenny felt her guts go hollow.

“Yes,” she said.

They walked out of the room side by side, each a rough reflection of the other. A dozen rotters waited with the children. Standing still and silent. Jenny and Sarah walked past them. The children followed. The rotters followed.
 

“Where are they?” said Sarah. “These friends. They can help us find Rafi.”

“I don’t know, but we’re going to find them,” said Jenny. “Let’s follow the smell of the Living and see where that takes us.”

Sarah smiled a humorless smile. “Gladly,” she said.

“She’s not going to judge you,” said Declan into her ear. “She’s just like you now.”

“Fuck off,” said Jenny.

Sarah looked at her, studying her, as they walked.
 

“What’s happening to you?” she said.

“Nothing.”

“I’m so hungry,” she said. “Is it always like this?”

“No. Not after a while,” Jenny said. “No, that’s a lie. Even after I was alive again, even after my heart was beating, I was still hungry. All the time. I couldn’t keep food down unless it was…”

“Human,” Sarah finished her sentence. There was a harder edge to her voice than usual.
 

“Yeah,” said Jenny.
 

“She’s just like you now,” said Casey. Jenny shook her head.

“I see things sometimes, too,” said Sarah. She kept her eyes trained ahead. There was a fire just behind her eyes, Jenny realized. Her eyes were always wildly alive.