"Emma I will lead them to the trail to the camp." I see Muriel and I nod, "I'm right behind you. I gotta get the young ones and the babies."
She nods and starts shouting at the crying women.
I head across the forest. I hear a crack and turn to see Leo standing beside me.
"You came back huh? Ready to kill some shit?" He pants. I know he's freaking out.
Through the woods I can see the building is on fire. The ledge where the snipers are is the only part still standing. Everything else looks blown out and in ruins. It warms my heart a little.
I run to where the screams are coming from. When I get to the women who made it to the forest I point to where I just cam from, "Follow the tree line until you come to a bunch of broken branches, follow them. Safety is that way."
They run holding babies and small children.
I run through the herd and come out at the opening. A man is grabbing a woman. I shoot him and hit his ear. He grabs it and I fire again. I hit him in the throat. The lady grabs her baby and runs from the dying man. I shoot at the last few men on the ledge. I hit one and two duck. I keep shooting as the women make their way across the grass and into the woods.
One man pokes his head up and I fire, skimming his head.
I feel something grab my arm. I turn looking for Leo but he has a man on the ground and is tearing out his throat. There is a hand on my arm. I point my gun but I stop myself. Will's blue eyes are on fire. He drags me into the forest. I see tufts of grass blow up into the air behind me as shots are still being fired at me. I fire a shot at the men on the roof.
"Let me go. I need to save the girls. There is another side of young children. They need help." I pull at him.
He doesn’t speak. I kick and claw at him but he doesn’t budge.
The fight must look like a bratty two year old being dragged from a store. He has no problem dragging me into the forest. I kick and fight. Frustrated tears blind me.
"LEO. LEO HELP."
Leo comes running in with fresh blood on his muzzle. He sees Will and stops running.
"Leo, bite him."
Leo licks his lips and falls into stride with Will. He senses no danger.
I try to keep up but my feet stumble on a log and I lose my footing. Will drags me for a while. My legs bang on sticks and branches and rocks but still he drags me. My arm feels like it's coming out of my socket.
"Just let me go back please. I promise I won't ever run again. I promise. Let me save them Will."
He stops and picks me up. He throws me over his shoulder. I am defeated. The children are dead. He let them die. I let them die.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The sight is beyond what I can comprehend. Children are everywhere. There are toddling about in every direction or breast-feeding. They cry and make noise.
I smile at the sight. I have no idea how he did it but I know it was him.
"Thought you hated kids."
I take the water he offers and drink slowly. I am starved and dehydrated and probably still very sick from the head wound I got the day before.
"How?"
He looks angry. No pissed. He looks pissed. "We followed your trail this morning. When we figured out what you had done, we couldn’t get in so we decided to wait outside and see which exit you came out with guards gunning for you."
I am amazed.
"You sat at every exit?"
"We paired off. It was pretty obvious what you had done when the blast happened and the smoke started filling the sky."
"So many made it. Did we lose any of us?" I ask.
"We lost two yesterday in the giant fuck up we called an ambush. They were shot trying to save Muriel." His eyes flicker on mine. I feel sick. I add them to the list of people who I am to blame for the death of.
He shakes his head like he is reading my mind and sits across from me. "You aren’t responsible. Muriel has talked them down. Everyone knows it's not your fault."
That changes nothing. I sip the water. I am to blame.
My arm stings suddenly as if it is a delayed reaction. I look at my blood soak shirt. I pull it back and wince. The bullet grazed my arm. There is a thick scrape that burned out a path along my left bicep.
Leo is beside me licking my hand. I pat his head, "It's nothing. Just a scratch."
Mona walks over and smiles, "You are one crazy girl. I will give you that. You are balls to the wall, nuts."
Will snorts and walks away. He still looks pissed.
Mona tears my shirt a little and looks. She pulls my shirt open and looks at the quill marks in my chest and hands.
"These are infected. That's going to get infected." She points to the bullet wound.
I shrug, "I've shown up at camp in worse shape than this."
Her eyes flash. She pretends to be looking at my wounds but whispers in my ear. "You need to lead these women to the retreat. They can't stay at the camp with Marshall and everyone. They don't have enough food and supplies for all these women. Plus you're sort of showing Marshall up. You just single handedly rescued over fifty women and children."
My heart stops, "What? No I had help."
She nods subtly, "He isn’t going to take kindly to you leading a mission to save all those women. People are going to ask how come he never did it."
"He's a moron. People should be asking what he's doing up there."
"Well either way you need to take them where he can't touch them."
"Does he know we have to hike all the way to the retreat with all these babies and pregnant women?" I whisper just as softly as she does. She knows who I am asking about. She nods.
"What was his opinion?"
She chuckles softly, "Honey he came and saved you. That’s as far as he got."
My stomach warms but I roll my eyes. "He did the same for Star. I'm pretty sure I know what he wants. Once he gets it I will be just another her. See the way he leads her around now. She follows him like a lost puppy."
Mona crosses her arms, "That’s not exactly how it is."
I raise an eyebrow and feel my face flush, "I heard you guys all talking the other night. They called her a piece of ass. I might not know a lot of things but I know what that is."
It's her turn to blush.
I nod, "As I thought. Anyway the lost puppy thing isn’t really my thing. I like to be the hero not the simpering damsel."
Mona cleans my wound with a salve from her kit, "Well it's what I like the most about you."
I sigh, "My granny always told me not to fall for boys who care what they look like or play in a band."
Mona laughs, "Sound advice."
I can't stop imagining him singing and playing the guitar. The way his lips move when he sings makes me feel funny, good funny. "Yeah well fat lot of good it did me. I always have to do things the hard way it seems."
She puts a bandage on and smiles, "Speaking of doing things the hard way, me and Joe are gonna come with you. To the retreat. We've had enough of Marshall and his shit anyway. They sit on that damn mountain and plan things that never come to fruition."
I don’t know what that word means but I can guess. "He isn’t my favorite either."
I look at the huge group we now have with us. There are pregnant women everywhere and little kids. The oldest isn't two yet because that’s when the doctors take them. They are going to hate the two-day hike to the retreat. It's going to take more like four. I cross my arms and look at Mona, "I'm taking them to the fucking camp. Marshall and the other people there can kiss my ass. We'll stop one day there and then leave the next morning. They can live with one day of sharing supplies and food."
Mona eyes me up and nods, "Okay if that’s what you want to do."
"I'm not in charge Mona. I just don’t see how all these babies are going to make it that far without at least one day of help."
She raises her eyebrow at me, "You sure you're not in charge?"
I frown, "Yeah. I'm positive." Will is in charge. He avoids it as much as I do but I know everyone listens to him when it counts. I look around the camp and sip my water.
I notice the new girls look different than the rest of us. They are shiny and clean still.
I grin, "I'm pretty sure we won't have any shortage of male volunteers to help with them."
She laughs, "They are all healthy and fertile young women. Not to mention how pretty they all are."
I look at her, "It's creepy isn’t it?"
She nods, "Very. Like cyborgs."
I don’t know what she is talking about but I nod. Cyborgs must mean pretty.
Will is talking with one lady who has a small child in her arms. He appears to know her. I wonder if any of the babies are his. It makes me disgusted. I know it's not fair.
Joe pulls Mona away and I barely notice. I am lost in thought and smiling. I can't help but love the fact that Mary is going to be pissed when we get there. There are at least fifty if not seventy-five gorgeous young women in our group. Mary won't be the special one at camp anymore. I wonder how many she will kiss the way she kissed me. I feel my face blush as I bring my fingers to my lips. I feel confusion about her and her kisses. I don’t feel like I want her to be my lover but I wouldn’t protest more kisses. They were nice.
"Thinking about me?"
I look up at Will. I shake my head and blush more.
He still looks pissed. "My brother?"
I frown.
He shakes his head, "Then I don’t even want to know who else you’ve been kissing."
I am tired and still feel sick and it's only just dusk. I get up and leave. He grabs my arm not realizing it's been shot.
I wince and cry out.
"Emma are you okay?"
I nod but cradle the arm in my other one. "I got shot."
He sighs and pulls me into him, "Stop pushing me away Emma. Let me take care of you." He lifts me up and carries me away from the noise. There is so much of it. I notice a buzz in my ears when we are far away from it.
