She’d always kept me on the outside of her group, and at every turn I knew I was being tested. But with Ana it was more about her helping me and vice versa. I was useful. Kaitlinn made it clear to me that I wasn’t.

  About time I made her rethink that.

  Chapter 5 (Ana)

  T he rest of the troops walked off with Jacobs. I watched ‘em head back, ready for another fight, and wondered if Dawn was right, that they’d just be picked off. They had a fighting chance if they got to a Storehouse. But there were also the roving bands. I half wondered if Jacobs was into more than he let on, if he had information about the Guard he didn’t want shared with Dawn and the non-Action side of the Coalition.

  Jacobs stopped and gave me a look as the others walked about him down the path toward the Storehouse. The serious glint in his eyes faded and his lips turned up a little. He arched his arms up in the Valkyrie salute, and I returned it. We watched each other for a moment, two ragged warriors more than ready to take a break from this endless trip around the outlands but unwilling for any surrender that wasn’t part of our total victory. Much as guys like him could be pricks, I knew if things really got hot, he’d have taken a shot to the chest for me. I’d have done the same for him too.

  We shared this thought without a word spoken between us. He turned around again and was gone.

  Dawn led the way toward the Capital at first. I was a little amazed until I realized she was staring at her P-LAD for directions. I couldn’t help but wonder if her intellect was limited to her technology access.

  There we were, a Warrior, a Worker, and an Intellectual Product, a cross section of what Lebabolis represented in its essence. Three of us working together, but not how they had planned.

  After Jacobs’ outburst, Dawn claimed we had even less time than before. With Treg and me close behind, she hurried over the leaf coated ground. Her trail sent flurries of leaves around, and the branches in her way snapped back as if in surprise. I watched her relentless pace and chuckled to myself as I waited for a stumble from her. The warm air brushed past us with each step we took. The air was dank with the smell of leaves both growing and rotted.

  Finally, she stumbled over an exposed root, but that only slowed her down for a second. It was like she was in a trance with just every so often making an adjustment. A slight turn here, a little jag there, but her pace was as steady as a Radomet. We pawed our way past the branches that flung back angrily in the path of Dawn’s wake.

  “Watch it!” Treg called out. “You may know the way, but we need to be careful.”

  “It’s fine,” she said. “I scanned this area; there are no traps.” Her arms swung wide, with not even a glance back our way.

  I wondered if my comment to Jacobs that she was on the up and up was gonna bite me on the ass. Treg shrugged and rolled his eyes at me as if he’d heard my worries out loud.

  “Hear that, Treg? The Intellectual says there are no traps. Maybe she can get on her little play pretty there and fetch us a ride, save her precious little feet from all this abuse.”

  Dawn stopped short and darted back to us. As fast as she’d moved ahead, she rushed back within an arm’s length from Treg and me. Her precious P-LAD was clutched tight to her side, and her deep blue eyes pierced into ours. She held her gaze on us; her only other motion was the excited heaves of her chest. Beads of sweat formed on her crinkled brow. She switched her glare between Treg and me. In her eyes was a blend of aggravation with some fear too. By sheer reflex, I felt my scowl deepen.

  “You think I wanted this? You think I wanted to be out here with any of you people? I was perfectly happy where I was, in a lab doing research for Charista, when she pulled me out for this. I’m sorry that I don’t see any reason to be here any longer than possible.”

  “We were happier when you weren’t an appendage to us, too,” I said speaking for both Treg and me.

  “You made the deal, you live with it. Just like me.”

  I gave serious thought to ripping the device out of her hand and popping her with it. The tightness in my gut spread to the rest of my body and I could feel my teeth clench. I’m not sure how I managed to speak instead of whack her, but I did. “So you want to get back to your little death facility, I get that. Until then, you’re not under the cozy umbrella of the Capital out here. We’re a team, get it? So you best listen up to the people who’ve covered combat areas on foot more than you.”

  “How about you show me some courtesy as well?”

  “How about you give me more than two feet of space,” I said, raising my weapon up to my chest, and in a flat tone I whispered, “How about it?”

  That’s when Treg stepped in between us. She shook her head and glanced at her P-LAD until he grabbed her shoulder. “See, we don’t get to play with just our own Product here. It’s all about one in the Action—excuse me—the Coalition. And that means what’s best for every... one. Get it?”

  It was my turn to pull him back as Dawn blurted out, “You weren’t so successful you didn’t need to make a deal with Lebabolis, now, were you?”

  For someone who was supposed to be smart, she didn’t have an ounce of self-preservation.

  What she did have was luck because Treg and I both felt like she wasn’t worth the trouble of killing.

  Treg shouldered his rifle. “Call out directions from the rear, and let us with the guns do what we do.”

  Dawn tapped her P-LAD in thought. “I guess you have a point.” She averted her eyes and pointed in the way she’d been headed when we’d stopped. I felt a tinge of relief at what was the most progress we’d made yet on this hike.

  “I’ll cover the rear.” When Dawn eyed me, her eyebrow arched. I added, “Don’t worry, honey, I’ll have his back, and I just might cover yours too.”

  Treg flashed me a wink and activated his rifle as he stepped out ahead. Dawn followed in the middle, and I held the rear up. We were as prepared for action as anyone could’ve been in our situation. My hand found the handle of my dagger. I’d be able to toss it at somebody if needed. It sure came in handy on the Verge back to 2014.

  I smirked to myself thinking back to when Jacobs had his gun at her chest. He’d have blasted her wide open, and then we’d be off somewhere else. But I couldn’t do that. I had a deal and I had to focus. If nothing else, for Varrick. What would become of him if I didn’t?

  Dawn’s eyes slid to Treg then back to me every so often. She wasn’t sure she could trust us, but she finally realized she didn’t have a choice. Our pace was slower this time as she pointed out dips and breaks in the ground ahead.

  My gut eased a tad when it looked like we had made a breakthrough with her. However, the searing hunger pains I’d felt back in the crater were creeping in much worse by now. While the thought of food was appealing, the idea of what we had to go through to get it wasn’t. I took a few deep breaths and focused on ignoring the nag of my belly. I looked through the woods every chance I got but saw nothing even close to being food.

  The outskirts of Lebabolis, where we were, were barren. Any worthwhile food was harvested from this place a long time ago. A person could find food if they had some know-how and some time, but we were short on both.

  “Can’t you find a Verge on that P-LAD of yours and get us through this quicker?”

  “Not since the Omegans started using Darkness and made the Verges unstable.”

  We walked on in silence for an hour. The forest provided just enough sound that covered up the noise of our breaths. The periodic chirp of a bird and the smooth rustling of leaves were the only noise for a while, until my curiosity got the better of me. I thought of how wide the Coalition was, and the fact they had stuck me with Dawn, of all people. An Intellectual Product. Ok, she could’ve helped when it came time to work with Cataclysm, but why now? We were in a bad way out here, and another Warrior Product would’ve been far better.

  My boredom had gotten as bad as my hunger. “So laboratory, huh. What were you making in there, more Radomets?”

  Dawn glanced over her shoulder but kept walking before she said, “Not quite.”

  “Well, what then?”

  “Chemical experiments.” Her answer was squeezed out as easy as someone who’d been tortured for it.

  “So then, Radomet research.”

  “No, not that. We were studying the effect of a new virus on humans.”

  That stopped me short.

  A jolt of disgust hit me like a fist to the midsection. Visions of Varrick and the others with Pox flooded my head, and along with my progressing hunger it made me dizzy.

  A new virus?

  I knew they’d already experimented on augmentation like with Radomet, but this was the first I’d heard about there being biological weapons in their programs. “You’re telling me you developed biological weapons for use on people?”

  “For defense purposes.”

  “Defense from what?”

  “Oh come on, Ana. You know about the groups out in the Outlands. You don’t remember, or perhaps you were too young, but we had raids in the city. Why else do you think we made such a well-trained army?”

  “OK, got me there. What kind of virus?”

  “Is this really important right now?” She flashed a worried look.

  “Maybe, maybe not. Ya know, you can call ‘em experiments when they’re in a lab, not when they are used on real people. And Dawn, when you toss me that scared look, it makes me wonder what else you’re up to and why you’re really here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I bet you heard by now a lot of our people came down with this thing we call Pox. It’s lethal, and so far no one’s been able to treat it. My little brother has it, and Charista promised she’d cure him and our people. Seems a little strange to me if she’d make that claim and not have some kind of person like yourself to back that up.”

  “That would be strange alright.”

  The heat of the woods I’d been sweating off just coursed through me, but this time it was anger. It could’ve been the shakiness in her voice, or the weeks and months of running ragged with little to no sleep or food, or just the damn stupid smirk on her face right then, but a switch flipped in my head. Everything at that moment had to wait for me to set her straight. The Capital, the Valentium; even Cataclysm and Varrick had to wait for me to take care of this.

  I grabbed her shoulder and spun her back until our eyes were directly across from each other.

  Treg approached us. “What’s going on?”

  “A little girl talk, Treg.”

  My face seared, but the warm air had nothing to do with it. My gaze dug into her eyes like a needle. Dawn panted, her eyes wide. “W-what are you—”

  “I’m not too happy about this either, but since you never bothered to ask Treg or me how we felt about being stuck with some low-life Lebabolis scum, I’ll just say it. It sounds like you’re avoiding telling me something, and I’m not too good with secrets. So I’ll ask you one question, nice and easy, and you better tell me straight or you’ll regret it, I promise.”

  “O-OK.”

  “Did you develop Pox?”

  Multiple beads of sweat formed and trickled off her forehead. Her eyes looked in several directions before they returned to me. “What do you mean?”

  “It’s not a complicated question. An Intellectual Product can handle it. Did you develop Pox?”

  “Does it make any difference now? Your brother, your people have—”

  And she was avoiding again. Time for more persuasion. In a breath, the dagger was in my hand and at her face. She squealed at the cool blade pressed into her flesh. A tear joined the sweat that now poured off her face.

  Treg gripped my arm, but I flung my shoulder and broke his grip.

  “Ana, what are you—”

  I held my hand up and waited for Dawn’s response.

  Her eyes were wide and focused on the blade an inch away from her right one. “OK, yes, yes, yes I did. But I was part of a team. I wasn’t alone.”

  “Same difference. Doesn’t make you any less guilty. Like when you blew our craft up.”

  “That wasn’t me!”

  Her eyes still hadn’t convinced me. “I’m watching you, twitchy. I get any, and I do mean any, funny feelings about you, I’m knocking your ass out and dragging you to the Capital. I’ve been wound up for a while, and I think the exercise would do me some good.”

  At that moment I prayed there was a Verge nearby that I could’ve jumped back through so I could’ve eliminated every person who had developed that illness, including Dawn. But there was nothing I could do. We were stuck, and so was she. The emptiness of my options made me even angrier, and I was back to thoughts of what I’d do to Dawn to relieve some of this.

  Treg squeezed my arm that held the blade. “There’s no time, and you know we need her. Let’s go.”

  I gave her another moment to wonder how far I’d take this, then pulled back and walked on with Treg. Dawn followed behind us at a safe distance.

  “The hell’s with you?” Treg asked.

  I shrugged. “She’s bugged me. For a while now.”

  “She’s up your ass by assignment. Of course she’d bug you. Can’t you just deal with it?”

  “It’s kinda tough when she’s one of those who made my brother and the rest of our people sick. You know, people in the Action? Dammit Treg, they poisoned us. Why don’t you care?”

  Treg crouched under a low branch. “Hey, you know I do. But we made this play with them. We got a deal, and you heard Charista. She’ll cure them if we finish it.”

  “If she can.”

  “Now we know for sure they developed Pox, so they can also stop it.”

  I glanced back at Dawn, several steps back. Her eyes widened when they met mine. I took a little satisfaction from her apprehensive stare as I turned back around slowly to continue our trek.

  We walked in silence for another hour. The path got rougher, and each time I lifted my feet over a fallen branch or stump my hips rewarded me with shooting pains. My stomach ache had progressed into a mild burning sensation by then. I strained to think of when my last actual food was. A week? Could it have been that long?

  “Treg, how bout a break, huh? This walking is killing me.”

  “Can’t keep up with the Warriors, Worker Product?”

  I tossed a branch at him. “You know better. Come on, let’s rest for a few.”

  Dawn was surprisingly agreeable about stopping. Amazing how a blade to a person’s face can change their whole disposition. We pulled up against a cluster of trees and lay back on the grass. The light from the sun dotted the leaves and ground around us and made jagged shadows on the ground of our surrounding foliage. Dawn leaned on a tree off to one side of the clearing on the far end away from us. I drank the rest of my water, which amounted to two gulps. It wasn’t even enough to soothe the itchy dryness that stretched down my throat.

  Treg sat across from me, his legs crossed and rifle leaned over his shoulders. His eyes scoured the land around us, but like I’d seen, there was nothing.

  “Treg, we need rations. Anything. What Sector are we closest to?”

  He sighed. “No clue. Better ask Dawn; she’s got the nav data.”

  “Do I have to?”

  “Wherever we are is the outskirts of Lebabolis. They trained us in spots like these, but I wasn’t in this exact one.”

  Dawn alternated between gazes at her P-LAD, cautious looks our way and around the woods as if she could find some food and prove us both wrong. She’d be the hero Intellectual Product who got one over on the Warrior Product and warrior type who couldn’t fend for themselves in the wilderness.

  “Think it’s a good idea we talk, based on our last conversation?” The thought made me chuckle.

  Treg watched Dawn for a second, then replied, “Just be less you, and that’ll be a start.”

  I kicked a patch of leaves into Treg’s lap in response and approached Dawn. She held her water bottle up, so the scant drops in it fell into her mouth as I neared her.

  “Hey.”

  She pulled the bottle back and jerked her head in my direction.

  “We need food and water soon.”

  She resumed her gaze around the woods. “How about we find a stream?” Dawn looked at her P-LAD and checked the maps.

  “I got another idea. Let’s try a housing unit in the nearest Sector.”

  “That wouldn’t be smart,” Dawn said, avoiding my stare.

  “Try necessary. Where are we; what Sector’s close?”

  “You realize the Omegans were spotted in groups in most Sectors?”

  “I’m not saying we mount a damned offensive. We peg the housing units, we pop in, grab some rations, pop back out. We need a recharge. It’s at least another half day to the Capital, right?”

  “We should keep going; we’ve had enough delays.”

  “But we might have to detour again, and the Capital isn’t expecting us. What if it takes a while to get through to ‘em? And what if the Omegans are there too? We may have to hide and wait longer than we think or draw down on a bigger force. In either case, we should be ready to wait longer than we think.”

  She looked down toward the P-LAD in thought. I looked at the screen for any hint of a tracker or a link to Charista. I was waiting, hoping to see anything that would’ve justified what Jacobs thought and given me a green light to tear into her. But nothing except her eyes locked on mine. “You’re not going without me.”

  “As if I didn’t know that.” I smirked. “Get the coordinates and we’ll make it happen.”

  Dawn’s P-LAD screen flashed into nav mode and scrolled several maps as well as our location before it displayed a jagged red line between two sites. “We’re near the border between Sector Two and One. We could arrive at a housing unit, maybe 15 or 20 minutes from here.”

  “That sounds good.” I motioned Treg over and pointed toward Dawn’s P-LAD. “So according to Dawn there’s several housing units nearby. We gotta be light and quick about it; you know the Omegans are in a lot of places, and the ones who aren’t trying to get to the Capital are busy scouring the rest of Lebabolis for anyone who didn’t make it to the Capital for Lockdown.”

 

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