Wisteria (Wisteria Series) (18 page)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The trip from Hammond Village to Norton was quieter than before. Bach noticed Felip trying to talk to Wisteria when she appeared to be sleeping. He knew she was just pretending to be asleep since she was still upset, but that was her problem. He arrived in the tiny town of Norton, just as the sun started to set. As he’d been here a few times, he knew where to find the bridge that led to the Isle of Smythe. When they got to the bridge, he parked in front of the high, rusty metal gate.

“You’ve got to flash your lights, and then they’ll let us through.” She’d given up pretending to be asleep.

“I am not going in there with you,” Bach informed them. “The bridge looks secure; you all can walk across.” He turned to Felip. “I will pick you up in the morning.”

“You’re sure you’ll be all right?” Garfield asked. “The biters are more dangerous at night.”

Bach had nothing to fear from the infected now that he was feeling better.

“This isn’t the safest place to have this conversation. Perhaps waiting till morning wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Wisteria piped in.

He sensed a hint of concern in her voice. “Like you said I am
different
.” He flashed his car lights.

The gate opened and a guard emerged. She stopped ten feet away and inspected the car.

“Thank you!” Garfield yelled in excitement and started to get out.

“Stay in the car!” The soldier cocked her gun. “Everyone stay inside.”

“Wisteria, what are they doing?” Garfield nervously got back inside. “Don’t they know you?”

“Relax, she’s got to be sure that we’re not infected or thieves,” Wisteria explained.

“Wisteria.” The soldier broke into a smile. “Who are these people?”

“I’m fine, Rebecca,” Wisteria called out. “They’re survivors. No one’s got Nero.”

The woman stepped closer and inspected the other passengers. Her eyes fixed on Felip. “You look pretty sick. You need to park on the other side of the gate and walk across the bridge.”

“Okay,” she replied. “Are you coming with us, Bach?”

He was surprised Wisteria asked since she was determined to be furious.

The soldier signaled to a camera and the gate opened.

Bach hesitated. He didn’t want to drive into the community.

“Bach?” Leaning through the space between the driver’s seat and the passenger’s seat, her hair dangled on his left arm. “Are you coming?”

* * * * *

Once Bach drove in and the outer gate was closed behind them, Wisteria jumped out of the car. Thrilled to be back, she wanted to race across the bridge home, but Rebecca stopped her and hugged her.

“We were so worried,” Rebecca exclaimed. “I think Andrew lost his mind.”

“Andrew, he’s going to kill me for leaving his line of sight.”

“He’s going be ecstatic that you’re home and your mother is going to be thrilled,” Rebecca said. “First, you’re all going into quarantine.”

“Quarantine?” Garfield exclaimed.

“Only for a week,” Rebecca stated. “Or you don’t get in.”

“What’s going to happen?” Garfield frowned. “At the Dungeons, we were just checked over.”

“It’s just a blood test. Then, they just wait,” Heading to the inner gates, she explained, “If after one week you don’t become sick then they draw blood again, and if you’re negative you’re allowed in.”

“So I am going to spend a week locked up?” Felip asked as he sat in the SUV.

“You left that out when you told us about this place,” Bach commented. “I think we should leave.”

“No, no,” Wisteria pleaded. “You’ll get to see the doctor.”

Standing with his hands in his pockets, Bach appeared like he wasn’t going anywhere. At least he kept his word and brought her home.

Now, he seemed to be deciding whether he wanted to leave or stay on the island. She wasn’t completely sure if he could survive outside alone. Although he had a better chance than most, he’d almost died out there, too. But he had accused her of betraying him and that sickened her. Her feelings were mixed and she felt foolish all over again.

“Wisteria,” her brother called out to her, while standing on the massive wall that surrounded the Isle of Smythe.

She spotted her fifteen-year-old brother waving frantically at her. Ecstatic, she jumped up to wave back at him.

“Who is that?” Bach asked her.

“My brother,” she grinned. For the first time since the dark days began, the Isle of Smythe felt like home.

“No, he means the girl?” Garfield pointed at the girl standing next to her brother.

“My brother’s friend, Hailey.”

“Hmm.” Bach paused. “She is very beautiful. I believe I will stay a while. Let us go inside.”

Garfield had offered to help Felip across the bridge, but both Felip and Bach refused. Bach helped Felip and some fifteen minutes later, the teenagers reached the second gate.

A short, balding man with a medical examination kit met them at the entrance, flanked by two of the island’s guards.

Wisteria didn’t recognize the man.

“Welcome home, Wisteria. I hear you brought some friends,” the strange man said warmly when she reached him. “I’m Dr. Nate Weiss, Amanda’s father.”

“You made it.” Wisteria found it amazing. “That’s incredible.”

“Yep, miracle of miracles, just like you being on the outside for nine days.” Shining a light into her eyes, he instructed her. “Look up.”

Town hall didn’t waste any time putting the guy to work
, Wisteria thought as he started to inspect them for bites and signs of illness.

Nate paid close attention to Felip, but then moved on to Garfield. Wisteria looked up at her brother and was alarmed to notice that the guards on the wall had their weapons fixed on her group. One of them was Andrew; he winked at her and she smiled.

“Where’s my mother?” she asked Nate.

“She doesn’t know you’re here yet. Major Coles wanted to make sure you were in quarantine before she finds out.” Nate shone a light in her eyes again.

“What? He can’t do that.”

“Coles can do whatever he pleases.”

“My brother will just tell her.”

“They aren’t going to let him down until you’re in quarantine.” Nate signaled to the guard on the wall

The gate opened. They were ushered into a van, and once the door was shut, they were in total darkness.

* * * * *

“Wisteria, Wisteria, wake up.” She felt her mother stroking her hair.

Slowly, she opened her eyes, still groggy from the injections she was given. She was exhausted.

“How are you feeling?” her mother asked.

Seeing her mother made a smile spread across her face. “Mum.” Still weary, Wisteria fell asleep again.

When she woke up again, she found herself lying alone in a police cell. A few minutes passed before she remembered why she was in a prison cell, along with all the injections and blood tests she had gone through over the last seven days. The Isle of Smythe’s police station was the only place that could hold a biter.

Going to the door, she peered through the small square window. “Hello?” She wasn’t sure if anyone could hear her through the bulletproof glass.

A face popped up in front of the glass and surprised her. “How are you?” her mother asked.

“I feel like a pin cushion.” She rubbed her behind.

The cell door opened and her mother came inside. “Baby, thank God, I thought you were dead.” Her mother squeezed her so hard that Wisteria almost couldn’t breathe.

As she hugged her mother tightly, Wisteria didn’t realize how terrified she was until she saw her mother crying.

Her mother never cried.

“I’m fine,” Wisteria reassured her.

After several minutes, her mother finally let go, while kissing her forehead.

“What happened to the others that came with me?” she asked as they walked out of Smythe’s police station quarantine center.

Her mother hesitated. “They’ll be released and housed somewhere. It turns out Felip wasn’t infected. Just a bad case of food poisoning.” Putting her arm around Wisteria, her mother gushed, “Baby, I’m so glad you’re back.”

“Wisteria!” David was waiting outside the entrance to the police station.

She embraced her little brother.

“You’ve lost some weight,” David commented.

“I’ve only been gone a few days,” she countered.

“Fourteen days, ” her mother corrected. “You were outside for nine days.”

Only nine days
? It seemed longer, like a lifetime.

They made their way down the steps and met Major Elliot Coles on his way up.

Coles was the head of security on the Isle of Smythe and part of the unelected leadership council. Her mother worked for him indirectly and he was Lieutenant Andrew’s commanding officer.

Her mother scowled at him as the man inspected her.

From Coles’s expression, he wasn’t happy to see her mother, either.

Since the army handled the island’s security and the trackers were considered part of security, her mother had to deal with him.

“Lara, we need to talk. It can’t wait,” Coles stated coldly. “Wisteria, you’re back. Welcome home.”

“My daughter just got back.”

“She survived outside on her own for nine days, I’m sure she can make it back home with her brother’s help.” He walked up the steps into the station. “You need to get in here now.”

“Elliot,” her mother said sternly.

“It’s okay Mum, I’ll see you at home,” Wisteria interjected.

“Are you sure?”

“We’ll be fine Mum,” David called out. “Just don’t kill Major Coles,” he teased.

“I promise you nothing.” Her mother looked like she was going to cause Coles physical harm.

When the siblings got home, she found her mother had already prepared breakfast for her. Wisteria didn’t feel like eating, so she wandered up to her room to rest.

* * * * *

The next morning, Wisteria came down to find her mother stewing some dried vegetables in the kitchen.

“You’re up?” She hugged her. “I thought maybe you would want lie in for a while.”

“No, I slept enough in quarantine.” Wisteria picked up a piece of wheat bread and was about to put it in her mouth when her mother snatched it.

“You’ll eat with the rest of us,” the older woman scolded.

Wisteria jumped up on the kitchen counter and watched her mother cook what now looked like a deep brown paste. She knew it would taste fine, but it still looked like brown paste.

“Brown lumpy goo.” Her mother read her mind. “The breakfast of trackers.”

“I wish it didn’t look like gruel.”

“You’re welcome, Princess. Don’t worry, soon you’ll resume your kitchen duties, and then I’ll be free to start complaining.”

“I wasn’t complaining, I was wishing,”

Then her mother pinched her.

“Ah, what did you do that for?” Wisteria whined.

“If you make a wish, you need a pinch to seal it in!” Her mother released a huge laugh.

“We don’t do that when you make wishes.” She tried to pinch her back, but her mother ducked.

“I don’t make wishes, I’m a realist.” Her mother frowned. “So I don’t need a pinch.”

“Not even when I was gone? You didn’t wish for me to come home?”

“I didn’t wish; I prayed.”

The room fell silent.

“Well, just so you know, I had steak last week,” Wisteria gloated. “With carrots and eggs.”

“Weren’t you living in that car park with cannibals?”

“Not in the dungeon, when I was at the Hunter Tower.”

“Yes, with those boys. How anyone would survive there is beyond me.”

She hadn’t told her mother about Bach’s abilities because Wisteria wasn’t sure her mother would believe her. She wasn’t sure she believed it herself.

“Those boys are probably armed robbers,” her mother conjectured while she cooked.

“I don’t think so. Bach saved my life after what happened to Melissa.”

“I suppose.” She didn’t sound convinced. “I owe that boy more than you know, but why didn’t he bring you back? Wouldn’t it be safer to bring you here?”

“He’s harmless, Mum.”

“He’s a cute boy. I won’t be surprised if Hailey or Yvette takes a liking to him.” She gave Wisteria questioning look.

“I don’t care.” Wisteria shrugged nonchalantly.

“That’s the right answer. I don’t want any babies from you, and that boy is just looking for someone to get pregnant.”

“Which one?”

“Does it matter?”

Being Yoruba, her mother believed there was no place for boys in Wisteria’s life until she turned twenty-three and then miraculously got married. While her mother was exasperated with David’s active dating life, he was a boy, so allowed to get away with a lot. But for Wisteria, a girl, that was out of the question.