CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Completely drenched, Bach emerged from Barton Lake after almost twenty minutes, while trying to appear calm.
Waiting on the bank was Felip, who laughed as Bach approached, carrying a bagful of the scarlet coral to add to the small pile of obsidian Bach had fished out of Barton Lake.
“Is that all of it?” Felip asked.
“Yes.” Bach concealed his anger over Wisteria running off with some boy. If he’d just renewed her then she would be fine and she wouldn’t have any interest in anyone else. As for Steven, Bach should renew him as well, and send him off to meet the infected. He was livid over all of it and frustrated that he just didn’t do what he’d been taught—just renew her.
“You never thought to check down here before?” Felip said for the seventeenth time as Bach dropped the last of the coral he found. “All the times you were communing with the Terran girls?”
“Obsidian coral becomes unstable underwater. I did not think to look there. The coral should have turned black.”
“This is not the Jade Ocean. Something about this environment makes these thrive.” Felip picked up one of the corals. “These are three times as large as they should be.” He tapped the coral with his faycard and the card glowed. “It seems fine.”
“Hmm.” Bach took the obsidian coral and pulsed it with his blue light. The stone glowed. “Strange.” Suddenly, he dropped to his knees, out of breath.
“What is wrong?”
The world seemed to be spinning around him. “I do not know, but it will pass. I am fine.” Bach looked around and his vision was returning to normal. “How do you think the obsidian got here?”
“There is enough obsidian here to send a hundred of us home. Why would the Terrans have this? It is useless to them. Even with the obsidian, they could never survive the journey,” Felip wondered.
“Somehow, your ancestor did it.” Bach panted. “No one knows how he got to the Jade Ocean.” He immediately regretted the remark as being part human was a great humiliation to Felip.
“I will ask him when I die.”
“I am sorry, Felip. I was not trying to be a vadda. What if they found a way to pass to our realm without being renewed? We know at least one free Terran has done that. With this much obsidian, they could be planning something.”
“Maybe they are very, very stupid. After all, Wisteria wore it as jewelry.”
“You are probably right. Still, we should not take any chances.” Bach got to his feet and lost his balance slightly.
“What is wrong with you?”
“She still bathes in strangle weed.” He shook his head to regain his focus.
“You need to tell her to stop.” Felip inspected Bach’s eyes. “That should not be a problem now that she is your Thayn. Let her know the strangle weed could kill you.”
“I just need to regenerate again.”
“Yes, but you need to make sure you set her straight about this. What is the point of renewing her if you cannot get her to do what you want?”
“I did not renew her.”
Angrily, Felip’s eyes widened and Bach could see his pupils dilated almost to the size of his iris. “You are in love with her?”
“Never,” Bach said fiercely. “I do not know what happened.”
“And how does she feel about you?”
“Her feelings are not important. I could not renew her because the strangle weed’s poison was inside my system.”
“Are you certain that is the only reason? If Enric or the others hear you are in love with a Terran…” Felip laughed. “You must know exposure to strangle weed can mess with your mind.”
“Nothing has actually happened.” Bach turned his attention back to the stack of coral nearby. “We have to get this back to Enric. We will go on foot.”
“Why? We will take our vehicle in the morning. It will be faster and the Terrans will not care if we leave. I am even certain your friend Coles will be thrilled.”
Bach wasn’t ready to leave Smythe at that moment. “But we may not be able to come back, if they discover the obsidian coral gone. We can go and return before they realize we have left.”
“Why would you want to return here? For your Terran? If you want to, why not just take her? They will not let you take her without a fight. When that happens, the Thayn usually gets killed.”
“I am not strong enough to take her with me now and renew her. She will fight me, if I tried. Take the coral to Enric and let me regenerate. Tomorrow I will renew her.”
“You do not need a lot of energy to wipe her mind. That is why you Inos have the faycard. I can help you regenerate, so you can renew her now.”
“Felip, by then the sun would be up and we will not be able to leave.”
“Why are you making up pathetic reasons for not wanting to renew the damn Terran? You will not be the first one that really likes a Thayn. You will learn to live with it. Just renew her or leave her to breed with other Terrans. I see the way she looks at the golden-haired boy. Steven Hindle? Garfield tells me Steven would like to breed with her.”
“D’cara, Felip!” Bach swore and flung one of the sacks of obsidian coral at his friend. “This discussion is over!” The breeding comment was disgusting. But Bach couldn’t leave Wisteria here to be with someone else. At the same time, he could never be with her either, but how could he, a Sen-Son, want a free Terran girl so much? It was revolting, even though he did love her, or he thought that he did. No, it was the strangle weed messing with his mind.
They started placing the last of the rocks into his messenger bag. They heard some rustling. Someone was moving in the trees.
“Hey, Bach, what are you doing here?” Hailey appeared from the trees while underneath a yellow umbrella.
He was so preoccupied about his Terran and the obsidian coral he didn’t even realize it was raining. “Go, get out of here,” he said to Felip. “I will meet you back at the apartment.”
Felip took the two bags of obsidian coral and disappeared into the night.
* * * * *
Bach was long gone, probably off to hook up with Hailey, Wisteria decided, as she and Steven walked home in the rain that night. Just stop thinking about him, because there’s nothing you can do. She wanted to cry, but she was too mad. Bach was just like Steven; she glared at the blond-haired man walking beside her.
“Are you okay? You’re not getting wet?” He stretched his umbrella over her. “I know your people don’t like to get their hair wet.”
The umbrella was too small for two people to share and they both got soaked.
“My mother didn’t ask you to walk me home, did she, Steven?” Wisteria commented.
“No.”
“Why did you lie?”
“Because I knew you wanted to come with me.” He smirked. “You just needed to give yourself permission.”
Looking at Steven, she noticed that his blue eyes didn’t light up the way they used to. “Listen, I can get home alone. Thanks.” Leaving with him was only to get away from Bach while still possessing some degree of dignity.
“Wisteria, how else was I supposed to get you alone? Your bodyguard didn’t look like he was happy to see me.”
“My bodyguard? You mean Bach? You don’t like him, do you?”
The boy muttered something unintelligible.
“Why?” Then it clicked in her mind. “This is about Hailey? You want her back.”
He’d have to be pretty desperate to try and use her.
“No way, Wisteria. I’m not a child.” He chuckled. “I don’t care what Bach’s doing with Hailey.”
“Sure.” She didn’t want to think about Bach and Hailey together.
“Bach, and even Garfield, they don’t get how things are here. They’re coming in here and trying to upset things.”
“By standing up to Coles or by dating your ex-girlfriend?” she heard herself snap with frustration. “Yeah, we need to be careful or the biters are going to overrun the Isle of Smythe because Bach is doing your girlfriend.”
“We’ll be on this island for a long time. Mess with things and it becomes a prison. Do you get it?” He really thought he was making sense.
Was this how petty she sounded when she complained to David about Hailey and her friends? “Listen, if you want Hailey back—”
“Honestly, Wisteria, I’m not going to talk about the bitch. Let’s talk about you instead. You’ve been avoiding me. After that time in class when we held each other, you disappeared.”
“You mean when you grabbed me and stopped me from helping Garfield?” That seemed like ages ago and she realized Steven hadn’t even been on her mind for a while.
“I prevented Blair or Coles from beating the crap out of you. You didn’t even thank me.”
She couldn’t figure out what game he was playing this time, perhaps he missed the attention. “Seriously, Steven, is this a joke? Gareth’s going to jump out and throw rotten meat or something in my face. Where is he?”
“Come on, Wisteria, you’re being dramatic.”
“You’ve done stuff like that before, more than once.”
“Yeah…that. Okay, but I’m not doing that now.” He ran his finger down the side of her face.
“What are you doing?”
“Isn’t it obvious? You’re special to me.”
Once upon a time, she would’ve been so happy to hear those words, but not now. “Stop. I’m going home—alone.” Pushing past him, she marched in the direction of her house.
“Come on.” Blocking her path, he placed his hands on her shoulders. “Don’t tell me you’re not interested or a little tempted. I can see it in your eyes. I could be the best you ever had.”
Wisteria rolled her eyes. Technically, he’d be the first she ever had.
“Hailey and Bach would go insane once they find out we’re shagging.”
“Good night, Steven.” She forced his hands away and kept going.
“Wisteria, wait. Why are you acting like a baby?” he yelled after her.
“Ugh…”
She froze when she heard it.
“That’s impossible,” he gasped.
“You’re so full of it Steven,” she seethed.
He and Gareth had played this trick too many times for her to even flinch. His plan tonight was to humiliate her in some way. What was she thinking, walking home with him?
“No, look!” He twirled her around to face four biters ambling toward them.
“Mrs. Reynolds?” Wisteria backed into Steven.
Her English teacher shuffled forward among the infected. The woman’s eyes were blood red and her mouth was smeared with blood, a sign she’d just fed.
“We’re going to die. We’re going to die,” Steven chanted. “What are we going to do?”
“Steven, we need to go, but you have to keep quiet.”
“I…I…” Frozen, he gaped at the biters.
Mrs. Reynolds groaned.
“Run!” Wisteria raced toward the library and then noticed Steven wasn’t with her.
Paralyzed with fear, he was still standing there, watching the biters.
If she kept going, she would make it to the library’s bunker. If she went back to him, she might get bitten. “Steven,” she whispered to him.
He didn’t respond.
Sprinting back, she called to him again. “Steven, let’s go.”
“We’re going to die,” he muttered.
“No, we’ll make it. We’ll make it.” Tugging his arm, she got the boy to move.
They barreled toward the library, cutting through the town square. Three more biters appeared in front of them, blocking their path. One of them was Tim, Gareth’s brother and the boy from the ration center.
“Tim!” exclaimed Steven as he reached out to Tim’s flesher.
“He’s gone, Steven!” She seized his arm, but the boy refused to move.
“We’ve got to help him, Wisteria. We can’t leave him.”
“Shh!” Cupping his face, she pleaded. “If you stay, you’ll be infected or killed. Please, Steven.” She released him and they darted to the nearest building on the square, the abandoned courthouse. They tried the doors, but they were locked.
“Is there anything we can use to break the window?” She looked around but saw nothing.
“I’ll use my fist,” he offered.
“No, if you’re bleeding and they smell it, they’ll really go crazy. We’ve got to get back to the library.”
“But the library’s that way.” He pointed in the direction of Mrs. Reynolds’s flesher, now a few feet away. “We won’t make it.”
“They’ve just fed and aren’t as desperate to feed, so we could outrun them.”
“Are you sure?”
She wasn’t, but it was the best idea she had. “Yeah, but we’ve got to be quiet. Run.”
Steven hesitated when he saw Tim. The biter was less than six feet away.
“Please, Steven. You don’t need to die like this.” Taking his arm again she implored him to move, but the boy stood firm. “I’m sorry, Steven.” Abandoning him, she bolted down the courthouse steps and into an alleyway. Checking on Steven, he was still watching as Tim’s flesher approached him. He was trying to talk to it.
Taking out a flip knife, she ran back .
“Steven, please I’m scared!” She tried to appeal to his sense of honor or something. “I need you to protect me.”
“We can help him,” Steven maintained.
“Come with me…” She poked the tip of the knife into his neck. “Or—I’ll cut you and the biters will eat you and that will give me more time to get away. Your choice.”
Still in shock, Steven nodded and they started to move. Running through the alleyway, they circled back to the library. Six biters were on their trail by the time they reached the library’s entrance. She searched through her backpack for the key.
“Hurry, hurry,” Steven begged her.
“Ugh…”
There were seven or eight biters now.
“Wisteria!” Steven shouted in panic.
When she found the keys, Steven grabbed them from her and started to unlock the door.
“Faster,” she said nervously.
She could smell the creature’s foul breath.
“It’s Scott!” Steven gasped as he got the door open. “But Scott died years ago.”
Shoving the bewildered boy inside, she slammed the door shut. “Hear me, Steven,” she ordered as she started turning all the locks “Finish fastening all these locks, put up the steel cage over this door, and then get to the bunker.”
“Where are you going?”
“I need to sound the alarm.”
“No. You can’t leave.”
The biters were scratching on the door.
“We’ve got to warn the town. Do you want to do it?”
He didn’t answer.
“This way, everyone has a chance at getting to safety.” She placed the keys in his hands. “Lock the security cage and we’ll be fine. The windows have iron bars so there’s no other way in.” She left him.
‘‘Ugh…” The biters thumped against the door.
“Get to the bunker and lock yourself in. Don’t open the door for anyone except for me!” she called as she ran to the stairs.
“What if you don’t make it?”
“Wait down there for two weeks and pray.” Ascending the stairs two at a time, she headed to the library’s alarm system on the second floor. When she got there, she sped through the stacks until she reached the offices. Forcing the office door open, she leapt over the counter into the back offices where the alarm was located.
Using a large book, she smashed the glass window of the inner office and climbed through. “Ahh.” She winced as glass from the window cut her shin. Limping across the room, she found the large red box mounted on the wall. Inside the box was a smaller rusty box, a switch, and a lever. Hitting the lever to set off the siren, she was taken aback when nothing happened.
“No!” She banged her fist against the smaller box and hit the button again. Still nothing happened. “Okay, think about what to do, Wisteria!” The battery was most likely dead. She pumped the lever to recharge the battery until her arm hurt. Then, closing her eyes, she flipped the switch. The loud booming siren went off.
Clambering back through the window, she raced down the rear stairs, toward the underground floor to the bunker. When she got to the basement, she hurried into the old staffroom to the steel door of the bunker. Letting out a deep sigh of relief, she pulled the door, but it was locked. “Steven,” she whispered.
Then she heard movement from behind her.
“Steven, it’s Wisteria.” She tapped on the bunker door.
“I can’t let you in,” he replied. “You might be infected.”
“There’s no way I could be infected because you locked the main doors.” She pulled on the door. “You locked the cage, right?”
“No, there was no time. I’m sorry.”
Her heart sank. “Okay, there’s a rifle in there. If I’m infected you can shoot me.” Wisteria could smell the stench of the biters.
They had broken into the library.
“Please, Steven?” She closed her eyes. The idiot would be dead if not for her, and now he was too scared to do the one thing to save her.
“I’m sorry, Wisteria.”
“Please, Steven, I’m scared and I don’t want to die. If you let me in, you’ll save my life. Please, I’m begging you let me in,” Wisteria heard herself crying. “Steven Hindle, open this door!”
No response.
Scanning the room for another option, she spotted drops of her blood trailing out the room like bread crumbs. Tim’s silhouette appeared at the end of the dimly lit corridor and she sped to shut the door.
She pushed a table against the door as a barricade, and then another one. Struggling, she placed the second table on top of the first. This probably wouldn’t save her, but it was something. The sofa was heavier and more awkward to move. At first, it refused to budge, but she kept trying. “Oh,” she cried out, slipping on her own blood along the floor.
Getting up, she furiously kicked the couch and started pushing at it again. It didn’t move. Looking around for something she could move, she bumped into someone.
“Ah!” she jumped back. “Steven?”
He’d opened the bunker door. “Hurry!” He took her hand.
She didn’t need to be asked twice and she ran in. They shut it, then bolted and locked the bunker’s three metal doors. Once secure, Wisteria sank to the ground while her body shook.
