Derek told me that they had been working for Jeremiah for some time. They knew about Mitch, Ashley, and the other team members that had been killed previously, but they had never worked with them. Jeremiah had always been sure that the two parties never had contact with each other. But after the confrontation at Elkhorn, the only team member left was Mitch, though Jeremiah had seen nothing of him since then.
After the attack, Jeremiah called in all his resources and set up a base at Elkhorn, using survivors and people like Derek and Scott to form his small army. This was a good opportunity for me. It would give me a chance to try and find my sister, and Elkhorn was the best place to start.
I eventually broke the ties that bound Derek and Scott, and I found an old first aid kit for Derek to bandage his wounded leg. I trusted them not to come after me because now their boss wanted to see me. I didn’t exactly know why Jeremiah would want me there. Perhaps it was to talk about Paxton, or maybe even to use me to get to Waverly. Her ability could prove very useful for a person looking to start a war. In any case, Derek and Scott had no choice but to treat me as if I didn’t actually interrogate them and threaten their lives.
I feel awkward sitting at the breakfast table. Ray is talking loudly about noises he heard in the night, though he says he didn’t know if he was dreaming or if it was real. This doesn’t help to quell Gabe’s suspicion that I snuck out in the night. I can tell by the looks he gives me. But it’s not like I’m trying to keep it from him. I just can’t really say anything until we are away from Ray and Nancy.
Scott and Derek both sit at the table, each with dark circles under their eyes. Derek’s leg is set straight out, thick with bandages.
“I just can’t believe you were up so early without me hearing it,” Ray says with a laugh. “I must be getting tired.”
“Yeah, why were you up so early, Derek?” Gabe asks.
I try to nudge Gabe, but he doesn’t seem to notice. Or maybe he just ignores me.
Derek shakes his head. “When you’ve been out on the road as long as Scott and I have, it’s hard to trust people. I was out checking to make sure no one was messing with our truck. I wanted to see if our supplies were still there.”
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about the people here in Orick!” Ray belts out. “We have all the supplies we could want. In fact, I’m sure we will load you up when you’re ready to move on.”
“Yeah, about that,” I say.
Nancy comes into the room with a steaming pot of soup. She sets the pot in the center of the table and when she lifts the top, it looks like chicken and dumplings. We’ve had this for breakfast before, so I already know what to expect. Dough balls surrounded by undercooked chicken in a sour broth. It fills the stomach, but I nearly have to pinch my nose to eat it.
“About what, dear?” Nancy asks as she takes a seat on the other side.
“Leaving,” I say. “I haven’t talked with Gabe about this, but I think I’m ready to move on. Scott and Derek have agreed to help me look for my sister in Elkhorn.”
“Oh really?” Ray shouts. “That’s great.”
“Oh, I hope you find her,” Nancy says.
“What?” Gabe looks at me. His face is turning red and I can tell that I’ve done something stupid. I should have talked to him first.
“I’m doing much better now,” I say. “I can barely even tell that I was shot. Just a little discomfort every now and then.”
Gabe shakes his head. “You didn’t want to talk to me about it first before you announced it at the table?”
I roll my eyes at him and take a spoonful of broth and dough. I don’t have to get Gabe’s permission about everything I want to do. “It’s just something I’ve been thinking about.”
When breakfast is over, I walk out onto the porch with Gabe close behind me. He doesn’t say anything at first, but finally he lets out a deep, warm breath that sends vapor a foot out in front of him.
“You and I are supposed to be working together, Remi,” he says. “If I came across upset, it’s because I figured we would both talk about it before we decided to move out of here.”
“I didn’t get a chance to talk to you about last night,” I say. “I meant to, but I needed to make the announcement at breakfast, because we need to get out of here.”
“What’s going on?” he asks.
I tell him about last night. Everything from following Scott and Derek to the mechanic shop, to stabbing through Derek’s leg, to the radio conversation with Jeremiah. Throughout the entire explanation, Gabe’s expression never changes.
“What are you thinking?” I ask.
He simply shrugs. “We’ve obviously got to go if it means finding Waverly.”
“It’s no good that Scott and Derek have never heard of her,” I say. “That means no one has been looking for her. She could be anywhere.”
“Jeremiah might have some of those answers,” Gabe says.
“Except he said he hasn’t seen her either,” I say.
Gabe nods, thoughtfully. Then he looks up. “So, Scott and Derek are here to tell people about how great Shadowface is?”
“That’s what they said, though Jeremiah wants them to come back now. I kind of threw a monkey wrench into their plans for here. There’s no telling how many places they’ve hit over the past month.”
“I hope Jeremiah knows what he’s doing,” Gabe says.
“Me too.”
Nancy starts to cry and Ray holds her close as Gabe and I set our bags in the back of the truck. I can’t lie. It’s actually hard for me to hold back tears too. The two of them have been so good to Gabe and me that it’s difficult just to pack up and leave. For a small time, this place has been a good home for us. But I’ve always known that I wouldn’t be able to stay here forever.
Nancy hugs me tightly. “It’s so dangerous out there,” she says. “You two know that better than anyone. Won’t you stay a little longer?”
“I wish I could,” I say. “But my sister is still out there somewhere. I’ve got to make sure she’s okay.”
“When you find her, you should bring her here,” Ray says. “We’ll all have a fine meal together. Well, at least a meal, anyway.”
Nancy ignores him as she squeezes me tight again. “We will see you again, Remi. You just have to take care of yourself.” She wipes away another tear and looks up at Gabe. “And you too young man! You know where to go if something bad happens again.”
“Yes I do,” Gabe says with a smile.
Gabe and I get into the truck, and wave to Nancy and Ray. There are others here too, but I don’t really notice them as much. None of them offered to care for us the way these two have. When I turn away from them, I look forward at the truck in front of us. Scott is in the driver’s seat and Derek hobbles toward the open door of the passenger side. I’m not sure, but I think he scowls at me before he gets in. Finally, Gabe puts the truck in drive, and the tires roll forward.
For some reason, it’s hard to believe that we are going back to Elkhorn. It feels like an eternity since we were last there.
The morning turns into the afternoon. The afternoon turns into night. The darkness covers us, and this is where I become more alert and on edge. I hate traveling at night. All it takes is an engine problem or a blown tire—even a quick stop to fill up with gas reserves is a gamble. Because when we stop, we are vulnerable. We can’t see five feet away from us, much less shoot in the right direction. I’m always hyper-aware at night. How long have we been traveling? Eight hours? Ten? I don’t feel like we drove this far on the way here, though I was unconscious for some of the ride. We’ve had to make a few detours because of the threat of greyskins.
Once, we had to swerve out of the way to miss one that was in the middle of the road. There are few things more creepy than almost hitting a greyskin in the middle of the road at night. Gabe seems annoyed that I constantly ask him if we’re headed in the right direction. Sometimes he shrugs, other times he says that he is pretty sure.
Pretty sure isn’t good enough,
I think.
“We’ve trusted people before,” I said at some point in the trip while the sun was still high. “How do we know they aren’t just taking us somewhere to be killed?”
Gabe lifted an eyebrow. “You’re the one that got us on the road, not me.”
I hate the blame game, but Gabe played it…and won. He was right. Why were we going out there? The chances of finding out where my sister is located are next to none.
“Look at it this way,” Gabe offered, “this is just one vehicle with two guys. One of them is injured, thanks to you.” He grins slightly when he says this. “You seriously stabbed him in the leg?”
I shrugged. “I wanted to know what they were up to.”
He shook his head. “Well, at least we know now. Anyway, I was just meaning to say that even if they did plan to try something, I think our chances are good against them.”
It was all I needed to feel reassured about following them. I needed that from him. Now, as the night has taken over and I start to recognize the area a little better, I could use more of that reassurance. The familiar landscape of Elkhorn is not a welcome one. In fact, my stomach feels like it’s twisting in knots. I’ve never liked to go back to this place that was once overrun with greyskins, but it would seem that Elkhorn keeps calling me back one way or another. It feels ironic to be where this all started.
The leader of Elkhorn, Stephen, once told me that the epicenter of the outbreak was the safest because of its reputation, but I now know that’s crap. Maybe it used to be. I can’t really look at Elkhorn without thinking about my sister. I can’t believe we met each other there. I want to think that our paths were somehow connected, but it seems that the only link between our coming together was Shadowface. If I hadn’t been kicked out of Crestwood under Shadowface’s orders, then I would have never gone to Elkhorn to look for Paxton’s daughter, Jessi. Of course, I never found Jessi. She’s dead. But I did find his granddaughter, Evie. The little three-year-old was an adorable child. But I also can’t think of her without being reminded of what my sister wrote down in the notepad.
She had written all these visions of the future that she had seen. For some reason, my future included giving Evie away to someone named Jenna. Apparently, I’m going to be really sad about it. It doesn’t make sense because I have no personal connection with Evie. I found her and tried to use her to get Paxton to help us. Instead, he tried to kill us.
It suddenly hits me that Gabe and I going to Elkhorn is no coincidence. That’s where Evie is—at least that is where she was. Evie wasn’t even part of my plan, but I bet she’s still there. That means that her caretaker, Lydia, is either dead, or will be soon. I can’t imagine another reason I would give Evie away to someone else. But most of all, I can’t imagine why I would be sad to do so. Taking care of a kid in this world would be such a burden. I just hope that giving her away doesn’t mean that I’m sending her to her grave.
I hate thinking like this. It’s the reality we live in and I hate it. I’ve given up the hope of ever finding a place where such worries are unnecessary. I’ve come to grips with it—or at least I’ve gotten used to it. Is there a point in life where all the cynicism just becomes too much to handle? At what point does this type of thinking finally tip someone over the edge?
Having been lost in my thoughts, the last hour went by quickly. I break from the thoughts when Gabe starts to slow the truck down. The red brake lights ahead of us shine brightly and the truck in front of us turns down a road. By the headlights, I can see that we are headed toward the compound where Gabe and I escaped just a month ago. My heart beats fast and I kind of want to throw up.
Scott turns his headlights off, and Gabe does the same. We do our best to watch the truck ahead of us, only using the moonlight. We drive for another five minutes. Sometimes I’ll see a random greyskin groping in the darkness and it sends a shiver up and down my spine. I reach for my pistol and grip it tightly, never knowing when something just might try to attack.
But no attack ever comes. We finally stop and Gabe kills the engine. My hands are starting to shake as we get out. Gabe and I grab our things and meet Scott and Derek at a door to one of the buildings.
“Come on,” Derek says, limping in as Scott holds the door open for us. I step in and it’s pitch black. I grip the gun even tighter, but finally Derek leads us to a stairwell and then down. We descend into the basement level. Here there are bright lights and more of a commotion.
At first, I don’t recognize anyone, but then I spot a familiar face. The surprise I have is delight until I see how drained and dreadfully tired he looks. Stephen sees Gabe and me, and his expression lightens a bit.
I’m about to walk over to him and say hello, but I’m stopped by a voice to my right.
“Hello, Remi,” the voice says. When I turn, I’m looking into the face of Jeremiah. He wears a thick, black coat that reaches to his ankles. His hair seems to grow in every direction, and his sunken eyes study me with intensity. “Welcome to my new network.”
The way I went from becoming a stowaway aboard the search and rescue vehicle to being the driver of it feels like a blur. A distant memory perhaps. I had been lying down wet and cold in the back for over two hours before guards resorted to driving outside the compound to look for me. They must have been baffled that I had not been found yet. When the engine rumbled, I stayed still and silent. There were two of them. I could hear them approach the vehicle. Both men muttered curses about me and how I got away. One offered a theory, but I didn’t hear all of it before he closed the passenger door. The rest of their conversation was muffled noises for several long miles.