Affliction Read online

  I suddenly sit upright.

  There were several Flesh Bags that I passed on my way here through the woods. If Cable stretches out his mind to connect with them, he will be able to pinpoint my location within a mile or two from a far greater distance than what it would take for him to get a lock on my mind.

  Come first light, I have to move on, but I can’t leave the kids here for Cable to track my scent to. The boy is weak and I won’t truly know where Hope’s condition lies until she wakes.

  “How the hell am I supposed to travel with two half-dead kids?”

  I stare at the dancing fire for what feels like hours as the scent of Flannery burning comes and goes and I try to figure out a way out of this mess. Taking the kids with me to Atlanta is out of the question, but I can’t just dump them in a house along the way and expect Cable to pass them by.

  “Shit.” I toss a long branch on the fire and feel the ache of exhaustion in my weak throw. “I’ve saved them from one death to set them up for something far worse.”

  As I look back toward the house, I feel desperate. I promised the kid that I would keep him safe. I have to find a way of fulfilling that promise, but at what cost? Am I really willing to let the lives of two kids weigh against the potential thousands that might be lost at the hands of Dr. Wiemann if he arrives safely in Atlanta?

  “But I don’t even know if he’s alive,” I rage to the night, yanking at my hair as I double over. There are too many uncertainties, too many variables.

  The only certainty I have is that these kids will remain in danger, with or without me.

  I shove forward onto the ground and rest my head back against the hay bale. Slowly, my eyes begin to fall closed as I allow the crackling and popping of the fire soothe me to sleep.

  Sometime later, when a fine dew has formed along my arms, I wake feeling stiff and sore but far less weary. I stretch the length of my body and then stand to dust myself off. The fire has burned down and the glow has diminished, but the sun has yet to rise. The house sits behind me, dark and silent. I pause to consider the events of the previous day. Just when I think that I have seen the full extent of the evil this world has to offer I always seem to stumble across something new. Perhaps some man really did create this worldwide epidemic or maybe it was nothing more than God’s way of trying to purge the earth of all of the greed, filth and war.

  If that is true, he sure did a piss poor job of it. The only ones that seem to be left have proven to be vile, repulsive and untrustworthy, but there are a few among us who remain pure. Good, hardworking men like Nox still choose to believe that we can take what life has been left to us and make it a better place. I only hope that he, and the kids in the house behind me, can find it.

  Staring out across Flannery’s darkened land, I know that I have to push on to Atlanta no matter the cost. I have to finish what I started, but I can’t take the kids with me. This isn’t their fight and they won’t survive the trip across the mountains. They need to rest and time to recover. I need to find a way of hiding them until it is safe for them to come out.

  When that time comes, I need to know that I have provided everything they will require to make the journey back to Nashville. It won’t be an easy or a safe road, and if there was any other way, I would go with them myself, just to see them arrive into Nox’s care.

  With my mind made up and no turning back from the course ahead, I am surprised to realize that I am sad at the idea of saying goodbye. It’s stupid really, but true all the same. I guess the kid’s spunk reminds me a bit too much of myself.

  Glancing toward the barn, I frown. I know there is something I still need to do before we leave and a couple minutes later, I find myself looping my finger through the metal pull ring on the trap door in the barn floor. A small set of five rickety steps leads down to a packed dirt floor and total darkness.

  I cover my nose as the stench of urine and feces rises from below and makes my eyes water. “That is putrid!”

  Taking the steps slowly down, I duck my head and hunch over to enter the space. Small shafts of light from the fire outside barely reach through the floorboards. There is no way the people that were kept down here were able to see anything beyond their own hand in the dark. Being thrust out of this dark hole and into the light of day must have been excruciatingly painful.

  “I can sure relate to that.”

  But as I look all around me, I realize in retrospect that the pain of sudden light was far more welcome than what awaited them after.

  I push forward onto my hands and knees and crawl around the support beams that burrow deep into the earth to find rotting clothes and thin moldy mattresses lying about. With each one that I count, I feel my revulsion grow further. There are twenty-two in all.

  “There were eight more people trapped down here before the kid arrive.”

  I close my eyes and allow myself to tilt over onto the floor. Drawing my knees up to my chest I try to imagine what life must have been like for Hope and the kid. There is barely any room to sit up straight without whacking my head on a beam, no water to clean with and an overflowed rusted pail to share among everyone for excrement.

  When I lower my head onto my knees, I turn to look back toward the hatch and realize there is a pile of small bones at the bottom. The state of this prison is beyond anything I could have imagined as I crawl over and lift a skeleton between my fingers.

  “They were forced to eat rats,” I whisper and toss the bones aside with disgust.

  Glancing around me, I understand fully the mental and physical torture these poor men, women and children suffered. Flannery may have been psychotic, feeding on the power of completely controlling these people by holding their lives in his hands, but though his depravity was extreme, I know that it is nothing compared to what Cable and his army are capable of.

  Using the wooden frame to hoist myself out of the reeking pit, I slam the door shut and vow that no one will ever see this place again. While rummaging through the tables of farm equipment I stumble across a can of turpentine and begin spraying it all over the barn, soaking the wooden floor and walls. I grab a handful of hay and then close the door behind me. Setting the dried grass alight, I toss it through the rectangular opening.

  The explosion is swift and powerful, rocking me back off my feet with a blast of hot air. Flames race up the door and the paint begins to bubble as smoke billows out of the narrow gaps in the wood.

  “What the hell was that?”

  I turn to see the kid hopping across the yard as he works to shove his leg into his pants. He races up to me and then throws up a hand to shield himself against the heat.

  “I fall asleep for a couple of hours and you decide to go all pyro on me?”

  Staring at the flames rising high into the sky, I know that I shouldn’t have done it. With the mixture of burning skin on the air and now dancing fire, someone will see and know that we are here. Come dawn, the sky will be a wash with a thick trail of smoke that is as close to a fucking arrow pointed at our heads as we can get.

  But it needed to be done. Everything that bastard touched needs to be cleansed with fire.

  “It’s about time someone burned that shit to the ground.” I say and then glance over at him when he stops by my shoulder. “I should have let you do it.”

  He shakes his head. “It took me months to get out of that hellhole. Nothing could make me go back in. Not even to burn it to the fucking ground.”

  I don’t think I can blame him one bit after what I just witnessed. “Are you okay?”

  He snorts and crosses his arms over his chest, betraying his lingering fear and insecurity. “What is okay anymore? I don’t think I even remember the meaning of the word.”

  “Yeah,” I nod as I think about all of the shit I’ve been through to reach this point. “Most days I feel the same way.”

  I can feel him watching me from the cor
ner of his eye. “I should have asked earlier...there is a lot of blood on you. Did he hurt you?”

  I look down at my clothes and realize that despite my attempt to wash in the well water, I still look like a walking slaughterhouse. I will have to rummage through Tilly’s clothes before Hope wakes in the morning to see if there is anything that fits.

  “I’m fine. All of the blood was his.”

  “Really? He didn’t hurt you at all?”

  I lift my arms and show him my wrists. “I’m not completely unscathed.”

  “No. I guess none of us are.”

  I know that he’s thinking about Hope and her lost arm. I have found my own thoughts lingering on her too. To be so young and to lose something so vital is a tragedy. My only hope is that she proves to be a strong kid and that he can be the protector that she needs in the coming days.

  He has a strong jawline and broad shoulders, despite his obvious state of malnourishment. I imagine once he’s cleaned up a bit, he will be a fine looking young man. Once he reaches the hotel, I have no doubt Flynn and Nox will happily take these two under their wings.

  “You should grab a few more hours of sleep while you can. I’ll stick around and keep watch.”

  He darts a wary glance toward the trees surrounding us. “Are you expecting trouble tonight?”

  I jerk my head toward the fire in response. “That glow will be seen for miles. I doubt anyone will come looking at this time of night, but we will want to move on before first light, just in case someone gets an early start.”

  “And go where? I don’t exactly have a home or a family to go back to.”

  “You have Hope and hopefully your father. For now we can stick to the mountains and then find somewhere off the road that’s remote enough for you to avoid detection until you two are strong enough to travel.”

  “And what? You plan on just finding a cute little place to set up a home temporarily, is that it?”

  I turn back toward the fire. “I’m not the home making type.”

  His brow furrows and his lips move rapidly before he glares up at me. “You said we will find somewhere off the road that’s remote enough for you to avoid detection. You’re not sticking around, are you?”

  “Trust me, Kid, this has nothing to do with you. I’ve just got somewhere that I have to be.”

  “Yeah,” he snorts and backs away. “I get it. You did your good deed and now you’re out. I know how the drill works.”

  I grab hold of his hand before he can walk away. “I did what I did today because it was the right thing to do. You two needed me and I helped, but I’m no good for you. I’m...” I don’t really know what I am anymore and there’s no way I can explain it to him in terms that he would understand. “You saw what I did to Flannery—”

  “Yeah, I did,” he interrupts me. “You know what that tells me? It tells me that you’re a badass that can keep Hope safe. How can you save our lives and then just bail like that after you told me that you’re different?”

  “Kid, don’t make this harder than it has to be. I’m doing this for your own good.”

  “I get it,” he spits back at me and tries to pull away but I hold on tight. He glares down at my hand. “Look, all I ask is that you help me with Hope until we find somewhere, and then you can be on your way. No hard feelings, no burdens on your life and no questions asked. You’ll be free of us, just like you want.”

  I close my eyes at his final remark. “It’s not about being free of you. There are things in this world that you don’t understand. Things that are worse than that old man burning over there.”

  “I doubt that,” he scoffs from just behind me.

  “Trust me, the sooner I leave you two the better it will be.”

  “For you, you mean,” he mutters and shoves me hand off.

  When he turns his back on me, I feel like I’ve just taken a bullet to my gut. I did the one thing I swore I wouldn’t do: I’ve abandoned him just like all of the others before me, but there’s not a damn thing I can do to change it.

  TWELVE

  A haze settles low over the ground while dawn’s first light first peeks through the trees. Birds rouse and begin their sweet morning songs as I crush the final glowing embers beneath my boot and turn away from the smoldering remains of the barn. Flannery’s homestead may lie in ruins, but it will never be enough to wipe him from Hope’s memory.

  Glancing toward the house, I feel a growing sense of foreboding. The smoke has traveled high and far. I would not doubt that it can be seen as far as Nashville. Someone will surely come to investigate.

  We have to get moving.

  I pause to kneel by the stream to wash away the dredges of sleep that linger and to apply new bandages to my wrists. The skin is red and raw as I peel the dried fabric away and fresh blood begins to seep through. Wiping my hands against my clothes to dry them, I am grateful for the new shirt that the kid brought out to me just before dawn. It is a little big but a simple knot near my waist has taken care of the bagginess.

  There is little that I can do to salvage my jeans. No amount of washing will be enough to remove all of the splatters of blood and I’m not about to wear some old ladies pleated skirt while trekking through the woods.

  When the back door to the cabin opens again, I look up to see the kid standing there with his hands shoved deep into his pockets.

  “Are you about ready to leave?”

  He nods. “I have packed up a couple of things for the trip. Flannery had a stash of homemade canned jars from his garden that I nabbed and some medical supplies for Hope that we might need. I didn’t touch anything else. I looked all around for your bag but couldn’t find anything. He must have stashed it somewhere.”

  “I didn’t have one.” I flick the last few drops of water off of my hands and then climb the stairs to join him.

  “You didn’t have any supplies with you?”

  I hold open the door and wait for him to walk through. “Nope. I lost it.”

  The skin around his eyes pinches before he looks away. “Because of the attack on the hotel?”

  “Don’t go reading too much into all of that. I didn’t run away because I was afraid I’d be next, Kid. I left for reasons that are personal to me. I lost the bag on the road between here and there when I ran into some trouble. When you’ve got a choice between shooting a Raider or holding your bag, you just drop and take aim.”

  He steps aside once we enter the kitchen and then reaches out to grab hold of my arm. “Why do I get the feeling that you are running from something?”

  “Aren’t we all these days?”

  I can tell that he doesn’t like my answer, but it is the only one he is going to get. I was honest with him the night before when I told him that he would be safer without me. Maybe now he will start to believe that.

  “How is Hope?” I ask to change the subject.

  “She’s weak and really groggy. I’m not sure that we should move her.”

  Glancing at the sunlight that is streaming in through the kitchen window, I know that we have hung around far longer than we should have. “We have no choice. I will carry her.”

  “No way!” He shoves the duffle bag that sits open on the table toward me. “She’s small but she’s not that light, and besides, she’s my responsibility. I should be the one to take her.”

  “Look, Kid, we don’t really have time to argue about who cares more about her safety. You are dead on your feet as it is and I’m much stronger than I look. I will manage far better than you will with her. You just need to worry about keeping up.”

  He draws himself up and presses back his shoulders. “I can take care of myself.”

  “Right.” When I reach over and give him a shove he nearly topples over. I give him a knowing look as I walk past him and enter the hallway to see that the chair has been moved aside and the door to
Hope’s room now stands wide open. I turn back. “Did you tell her about me?”

  “Yeah. She will probably be shy around you though so don’t take it hard. She’s got a heart of gold and dimples that will ruin you, but she’s scared.”

  I poke my head around the door to find the little girl sitting on the edge of her bed.

  “Hi, Hope. My name is Avery,” I say as I step lightly into the room.

  Though her eyes are deep rings of purple circles and her skin is as pale as a winter snow, there appears to be a small light of recognition in her eyes when she looks up at me.

  “You’re safe now,” I whisper. “That man isn’t going to hurt you ever again.”

  She stares unblinking at me before lowering her gaze again.

  I swallow hard as I glance at her bowed head. Her silence is unsettling after hearing the kid talk about how full of life she once was. I sink down onto the bed beside her and feel her naturally lean toward me when the soft mattress caves under my weight, but she quickly shifts over.

  “You’re dress is so pretty.” I don’t really know what more to say that that to the mute girl. Her dress is far from pretty. In truth, it is more tatters of soiled fabric and dirt than anything and I feel inadequate when I speak to her.

  “You and your friend are going to come with me for a while. Do you think that would be okay? We are going to see the mountains. Have you ever been there before?”

  She shifts her tiny body away from me. When I lean forward to look at her, I realize that she is holding something tucked in the crook of her injured arm. The bandages show minor bleeding and will need to be changed before the day is out.

  “How is your arm? Does it hurt much?”

  Once again, I am met by only silence and I feel myself beginning to fidget. How am I supposed to help her when she won’t speak to me? Hope is so frail and tiny for this dangerous world. How will she ever survive the evil that waits for her?