Authors: Heather Sunseri
“Because the best infectious disease doctors and research specialists the world has ever known are inside New Caelum. I would go myself, but—”
“Someone has to take care of Key and Ryder.”
“I can send you with samples of the antibodies I’ve extracted from you, and with vials of the treatment I thought was helping the rats. Who knows what they’ve been working on inside the city? But we know one thing: they’ve lacked at least one major ingredient.”
“Me,” I said. “My antibodies.” I closed my eyes, sucking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “I have to go. I can’t let Willow die. And if I can help stop this virus from making a comeback—”
“Are you sure about this? It’s not your fault that their citizens have come down with a virus that should have been long gone from our world. I mean, those people are responsible for turning their backs on
millions
of people.”
I cocked my head. “What are you saying, Caine? One minute you’re telling me they’re the best doctors in the world, the next you sound like you’re trying to talk me out of going.”
Though we were garbed in thick hazmat suits, he closed the distance between us and folded me into a fatherly embrace. “I just want you to be sure. I wouldn’t blame you for not wanting to go.”
I pulled back from him. “Those people killed my parents. It took me a lot of time to get over that. I’ll be going to them with my eyes wide open.”
Caine’s shoulders drooped. “You’re like a daughter to me. I couldn’t be more proud of you.” He pulled out a padded black case and began loading it with the things I’d requested, including the vials of the live virus and my antibodies, and surrounded them with dry ice. He then folded some papers from his clipboards and stuffed them inside an outer compartment of the same case. When he was done, he handed me the case and said, “You don’t have to do this.”
“Yes, I do. I survived Bad Sam for a reason.”
Do something every day for someone who doesn’t deserve it.
Or, possibly, for a whole
lot
of people who might not deserve it.
Caine placed a palm on the outside of my mask next to my non-scarred cheek. “You’ll need to find Dr. Hempel. Of all the doctors who joined the people on the hill, I think we can trust him. And before they closed New Caelum up for good, he was the go-to person for studying the Samael Strain.”
“Dr. Hempel. I’ll look for him.” I tried to smile.
After ridding ourselves of our protective outerwear and armed with the supplies I needed, Caine and I reentered the hallway and came face to face with Nina. Her face was pale. She stared straight ahead, not really focusing on anything.
“Nina, honey,” Caine said.
“Dylan’s sick.”
My hand flew to my mouth.
She redirected her gaze to me. “Dylan’s sick, and Dax is gone. As soon as Dylan spiked a fever, he picked a fight with Dax. Dax left, Cricket.”
I nodded. But I knew that wasn’t the sole reason Dax ran.
I placed my hands on her shoulders. “It’s going to be okay, Nina. I’m going to make sure we get a treatment. Count on it.”
“Where are we going?” I followed Cricket through the streets past Boone Blackston and toward the abandoned estate at the base of the mountain. I still felt the effects of the jolt of electricity that the asshole from my own city had given me.
I watched for any sign of their movement, using the knowledge of tracking I’d learned in survival classes at New Caelum. It was gratifying to find that I could apply these skills in the outside world; our classes had always been held inside simulation chambers.
Either Cricket also knew these signs to watch for, or she simply got lucky with the route she took.
“Are you not going to answer me?” I asked when she ignored my first question.
She had barely spoken to me since we’d left the hospital, except to tell me that I was to come with her if I wanted her help. I figured she had the things she promised—the things that Willow needed—inside the case she’d slid into her backpack, but I also suspected that she had information I wanted, locked up inside that head of hers.
I had never expected her to send Dax away like she did, clearing the way so that she could come with me—wherever it was we were going. Though I didn’t care much for the guy, I had to admit to feeling sorry for the poor chap when she crushed his heart.
When she still didn’t speak, I said, “So I guess you’re not talking to me? Why? What did I do to you? I’m going to keep talking just like this until you speak to me. I will annoy you to death before any virus could ever get you. Well, I suppose the virus could get me first, so you can hold out hope for that, but I will keep talking until it does. Kill me, that is. Is this working—”
“It won’t kill you.” She interrupted me without a hint of humor.
“So, she
does
talk. What do you mean? What won’t kill me?”
“Bad Sam. It won’t kill you. You’re immune. Caine was supposed to tell you, but…” She shrugged. “I guess he never got around to it.”
I stopped walking. Cricket didn’t. I had to jog to catch back up. “How do you know this?”
“We tested your blood. You’re immune to the virus.”
We walked in silence the rest of the way to the estate. I might have been in shock. Immune? Was that possible? That would explain why I hadn’t come down with the virus after I’d kissed Christina. We had been inseparable back then, and I’d never understood why I hadn’t caught the virus from her.
I followed Cricket down a set of stone stairs, different from the ones I’d followed her down before. For a while we made our way through overgrown brush on a path that was well worn, but then she cut away from the path, weaved around a crumbled brick sidewalk, and led me through a large door that was barely hanging on its hinges.
Cricket pushed a few stray strands of hair behind her left ear. The complexion on the left side of her face was smooth, her cheek naturally tinted, flawless. “Watch out for the boards here.” She pointed to an area of flooring to our right. “They’re rotten. If you step in the wrong place, you’ll be in the swimming pool below. And the pool is empty, so that would kinda suck for you.”
“Good to know,” I said, then mumbled, “I’m surprised you warned me.” Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I caught a glimmer of a smile from her. I walked in a larger circle than was probably necessary around the area she’d pointed to.
We climbed the grand staircase, then another smaller set of stairs, and finally exited the building onto a grand balcony that was in a sad state of disrepair. There we stopped. At least I now knew
where
we were going.
“Do I get to know why we’re here?” I asked.
“I needed to be able to hear New Caelum.” Cricket nodded to the forest we now overlooked. Beyond that was New Caelum. “We can rest here tonight. We’ll head toward your city in the morning.”
“I’m sorry. Did you say
hear
New Caelum?”
“Yes. Your city has been active at night lately. The sounds give me a clue as to what might be going on.”
Cricket marched over to a dark corner of the porch and returned with a handful of twigs, which she proceeded to pile inside some sort of metal contraption. She then grabbed some dry brush from another pile and placed it in the middle of the sticks. From her backpack, she pulled out what appeared to be a fire starter. A quiet girl, refusing to explain many things, but definitely resourceful.
“I’d be glad to help you if I knew what it was you were doing,” I said. She’d obviously done this before. I’d venture to guess regularly. “How often do you come up here?”
“Quite a bit.” She stood and started to walk away again, but I grabbed her arm, stopping her. She stared at my hand, wrapped around her forearm. “If you want my help, you will not touch me.”
I slowly loosened my grip, but pinned her with my stare. “What are we doing here, Cricket? I’m starting to lose my patience.”
“You’re welcome to leave. You can try your luck at walking through New Caelum’s gates in the middle of the night, but I’d venture to guess your arrival wouldn’t be welcome, given that your PulsePoint seems to be reaching no one.” She grabbed some larger logs and threw them on the fire she’d quickly and efficiently started. Then she stood up straight and faced me directly. “Since you’re in such a mood to talk, why don’t you tell me why you think New Caelum isn’t communicating with you?”
I stared into her eyes—eyes she so seldom showed me. They were a deep shade of sapphire. I was mesmerized by the darkness in them; I suspected it had been left there after years and years of surviving in a broken world.
“I don’t know why New Caelum isn’t communicating with me,” I said. Or why my mother hadn’t been in contact. I desperately wanted to know how Willow was doing.
“What happened before you left, West?” Cricket sat down on the ground, then pulled some sort of sweatshirt or something out of her bag. Curled up and facing the fire, she used it as a pillow to prop her head up on the hard ground. The fire cast a warm glow across her face.
I also sat, facing her. “My sister was diagnosed with Bad Sam. They quarantined my family.”
There was no surprise in her face. “If they quarantined you, how did you get out?”
“They were sending scouts out to survey how the closest settlements were doing. We made sure a couple of the scouts got reassigned, and Ryder and Key took their places. Mother sent me out with distinct instructions to find Christina.”
Cricket closed her eyes. “Why?”
“Why find Christina? Well, because apparently she miraculously survived Bad Sam six years ago.” I couldn’t help the anger that seeped into my voice. In an attempt to calm my nerves, I lay back, propping my head on a bent arm. “And then she left New Caelum, never to be heard from again.”
“You seem angry at her.”
“At Christina? Hard to hold a twelve-year-old responsible for a decision she made when she was dying of a fatal disease.”
“Then why do you sound so angry?”
“Why do you care?”
Cricket fell silent, staring into the fire.
“That was harsh. I’m sorry. But you couldn’t possibly imagine what it was like to mourn the death of your best friend, to think of her every day for six years, then discover that she’s been alive all along. And that she
chose
to leave New Caelum.” To leave
me
.
Cricket’s voice lowered, almost to a whisper. “Maybe it wasn’t her choice. She was only twelve.”
“Maybe, I guess. But it was certainly her choice to
stay
away, and it’s her choice to stay hidden
now
, isn’t it? That’s why you and Caine seem so hell bent on keeping her from me. She wasn’t dead then. And she’s not dead now, is she?”
Cricket ignored my accusations, and when she spoke, her voice was quiet. “Try to see things from her point of view. She carries the antibodies that will help an entire species fight a disease that threatens their very existence. That disease is trying to make a comeback, and you and your friends show up with your Tasers and your elitist attitudes, your belief that whatever drivel you spout is the gospel. Can you blame her for not falling all over herself to help New Caelum?”
“But it’s not New Caelum who’s asking. It’s me.” But even as I said the words, I realized that Cricket was right. I hadn’t shown up with kind intentions, but with anger. I had tasered Cricket, for crying out loud. She had said I would regret hurting her and restraining her, but I’m not sure I ever did. I did what I had to do. And if I thought I could force Cricket to tell me where Christina was, I’d do it again.
As I watched this mysterious girl beside me settle into sleep, I wondered why she had become so involved with Dr. Caine Quinton and his quest to find a cure for Bad Sam. She and Caine had said they thought they’d developed a cure, but that they’d come up short. They were hoping that Dr. Hempel could help. But would New Caelum simply allow her to enter the city? Would they treat her kindly, or would they treat her like a diseased piranha? Could I protect her inside? Did I want to?
The answer to the last question was easy. It didn’t matter that our meeting had started out somewhat rocky. I was being groomed to be one of New Caelum’s next leaders, and I would not let harm come to a guest I brought into the city. Especially one that had done nothing but be gracious with her help.
As her breathing evened out, I lay down and tried to get some sleep myself. As I did, something in Cricket’s words nagged at me, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.
I managed to sleep for four hours. More than I’d slept at one time in months. When I woke, I immediately dug for my binoculars. I peered through them, searching as much of New Caelum as I could from the estate’s balcony. The part that was lit anyway. The city seemed quiet. More importantly, the incinerator was quiet.
In the bag beside me, I carried enough Bad Sam to kill off all the remaining members of our race. At least, all who weren’t lucky enough to carry the gene that made them immune.
I checked West’s breathing. It was slow and even; he was sleeping soundly. I moved quietly over to his bag, pulled out my PulsePoint, and slipped it into my backpack.
I was closing up his bag when I noticed my necklace; it was attached to a tether just inside the bag. As much as I wanted to take it back, I knew I couldn’t—not yet anyway. He recognized that necklace, knew it was Christina’s. If I wore it, or even acted possessive about it, he might put two and two together. So I reluctantly left it there, then put his bag back where I had found it.
I looked back at West. His face had changed so much. He’d filled out, and tiny hairs had now grown into a light beard. I let my fingers hover along the shadow forming along his cheeks and chin. I longed to lean down and press my lips to his, to prove that the memory I had of him was real. Even though he’d said some unkind things to me, I missed him. And he didn’t know he was actually speaking to the very friend he longed to find.
Seeing that our fire was close to going out, I tossed some branches on it to keep it going for a couple more hours. That should give me enough time to find Zara, get what I needed, and get back.