Adaptive Instinct (Survival Instinct) (32 page)

“In fact,” Crichton suddenly turned to the brown-haired man
, “I finally have a job for you and your men, Edelstein.  I want you to go out with the volunteers who are going after King and Paige.  You’re then to split off and head to the nuclear storage facility where you will be in charge of keeping the generators running until a safe means of disposal is found.”

“Sir?”  The man, Edelstein, didn’t seem sure of this idea.  James on the other hand looked surprised and even delighted by it.

“You have your orders.  Get ready.  Most of the volunteers are all set and itching to go.  I want to open those gates as few times as possible.”  With that, Crichton had dismissed him.  Edelstein jogged over to the stairwell and headed down.

Crichton then turned to Riley.  “Let’s get you to your sister.”

Crichton, along with the man with the machine gun from the doorway, and the merc who had first met Riley when she landed, led the way.  Riley followed them with only James and Owen behind her.  Even though James had won some trust, she still would have preferred him to be in front of her, rather than behind.

As they walked through the prison, she saw a lot more survivors than she ever expected.  The last time she had been here, there had been quite a few, but not nearly this many.  And they were all so… settled.  It was obvious they had been here for
a while, and had set patterns and procedures.  Little kids were playing with toys in a group, while a cluster of women, possibly their mothers or maybe just their caretakers, gabbed nearby.  A small group of men on the first floor were playing soccer, while most of the others watched from the higher levels.  A group of teenaged girls pointed to Dr. Owen as he passed, and giggled behind their hands.  Things here were practically normal.

Riley was led to a room she had been in before; it was the first room they had brought her to the last time.  Then, it had been filled with folding chairs, and was where they were meant to wait to be examined.  Now, all the chairs were folded up and leaning against the walls while a tiny group of people in the middle of the room prepared packs.  One of those people was Cameron.

“Riley?”  She was shocked to see her sister enter the room.

Riley could only smile in response, at a loss for words.  Her sister was completely unharmed.  The two women quickly moved toward each other and embraced.  For everyone else in the room, it was obvious they were related.  They were completely identical in appearance
, save that Riley had long hair in a French braid, while Cameron’s was cut very short.  When they were little, they used to alternate who would have long hair and who would have short hair, so that other people could tell them apart.  As they got older and grew into their own preferences, Riley had begun to keep hers long while her sister chopped all of hers off.  They finally released each other and held one another at arm’s length.

“What are you doing here?” Cameron asked.

“I’m here to get you.  To take you to the cabin,” Riley told her.

“Oh,” Cameron let go and looked at her feet.  Something was wrong.  “I can’t.”

Riley frowned.  “Why not?”

“I have to help these people.”  Cameron knew what Riley’s line of questions would be and just started answering them immediately.  “When they brought me here, they thought I was you, and that I was lying when I told them my name.  James somehow convinced them that I couldn’t be lying, and he got them to test my DNA against a vial of your blood that they still had.  Even though the mercenaries didn’t like me, they let me go, and just watched me like hawks.  I’ve been living here, getting to know people, helping them out.  I’ve been safe, thanks to James.”  She looked at Riley’s entourage and spoke quietly enough for them not to hear.  “They’ve also been letting me in on their plans.  They were going to bring me with them.  The fact is
that I owe these people, the rebels.  As much as I hate to say it, I do.  The others would have killed me if given the chance.  Besides that, I know the people who were kidnapped.  There’s a mother and child.  I used to eat meals with them.  And the mercenary, Nicky, she’s a good woman.  The people here really like her, and if they’re going to convince these people to move, she would be a great help.  I just
need
to bring them back.”

Riley didn’t like it, but she knew the look in Cameron’s eyes.  Absolutely nothing was going to change her mind.  Riley probably had that same look when she had decided to leave the cabin.

“Then I’ll help you,” Riley decided.

“You don’t have to.”

“Yes I do, I’m not separating from you again.  This last week, knowing you were probably here, it’s been eating away at me.  When I read the note mom and dad left, saying they were going to get you, I should have headed out too.”

“No,” Cameron shook her head.  “You did what we were trained to do.  I should never have told them I was trapped.  How did you know I might be here?”

“Shawn showed up.  He told me some mercenaries grabbed you, and with what I learned, I figured you’d end up here.”

Cameron got a funny look on her face.

“We’re losing time,” Crichton barked.  “Are all of you ready to go?”

The group, consisting of a mountainous man, a ball-shaped, female doctor Riley had seen the last time she was there, a scruffy, homeless-looking man, a middle-aged Indian woman with cat’s eyes, a young man with terrible acne, and a man with the posture of a snake, all nodded.

“You’re going with them?”  James figured by the way that Riley positioned herself.

Riley nodded.

James then gestured to the man in the red rain poncho.  “Brunt, you’re up.”

The man nodded and stepped over to the group.  Riley hadn’t noticed before, but he had a pack on underneath the poncho.  Crichton looked to James.

“If it’s all right with you, sir, I think Private Pike should go with them.  I think at least one member on the team should be one of ours.”  It was the first time Riley had seen James unsure.  This was something he knew he should have brought up with Crichton beforehand.  It was likely that Riley’s appearance had interrupted that plan.

“Very well,” Crichton allowed it.  Riley had the feeling the man knew a hell of a lot more than he let on, and that he let James get away with virtually anything.

Riley reluctantly gave the helicopter helmet to James, knowing that their new pilot would probably need it.  It would also hinder her peripheral vision and hearing out there, which could get her killed.  When Edelstein showed up with a group of men, they all left the building.  Dr. Owen looked like he desperately wanted to volunteer as well, but James held him back for whatever reason.

They loaded into a truck with Brunt, or Pike, or whatever his name was, driving.  The huge man took the passenger seat while Riley and Cameron sat in the backseat of the Hummer section.  Both the Bishop girls had had enough rides in the rear container, which was where everybody else loaded up.  As they headed toward the gates, Cameron slid across the seat and leaned close to Riley.

“So, when Shawn was telling you what happened to me, did he remember to mention how he betrayed me?”

13:

River Webster – Day 15

River Webster woke up feeling stiff and sore.  They had spent the night sleeping in a car.  After Quin had knocked out Robin with some sort of drug, they had bundled her up and found a car with the engine off, but with the keys still in the ignition.  River had driven them through the downpour, weaving around cars when he could, backtracking and finding alternate routes when he couldn’t.  The storm had kept up well into the night, and it was decided they couldn’t drive around anymore; it was too dangerous.  River remembered how they had been safe from zombies on the top of the parking garage, so he found another and pulled in out of the rain.  He happened to pick the underground garage for a very upscale hotel in Leighton: the Privia.  Gathers Moss had stayed there a few times.  Unsure if there were zombies in the garage, they parked near a car, which had a cover drawn over it.  They lifted the cover only enough to reveal the driver’s window, which they smashed.  They had gotten lucky that the valet hadn’t bothered to turn on the alarm.  River didn’t think they would have in this place.  The gate they had smashed through was fairly heavy-duty, doing a considerable amount of damage to their car.  Using the delay feature on the headlights of the other car, they unlocked the door through the broken window, opened it up, and scrambled inside.  Quin then pulled the cloth back down, hiding them from any roaming eyes.  Everyone would have to be silent, but not being seen was the best they could do for now.  When the other car’s headlight went out—there being only one left after smashing their way in—they were in complete darkness.

River sat in that darkness now, knowing he was awake only because he was sore.  Even that wasn’t a dead give-away.  When he had first opened his eyes, he thought he had gone blind.  He thought that his substance abuse had finally caught up to him and had taken his sight.  There was a very small and very weak red light near Quin on the driver’s side, however; some sort of indicator light.  It wasn’t bright enough to cast light onto anything around it, but the small red dot floating in a fixed position of the blackness had assured River that he was not blind.  It also reassured him that he was not asleep or high on something.  If he had been, that dot wouldn’t have stayed still, it would have been floating around like a firefly.

He wondered if Robin had woken up yet.  If she awoke in this all-consuming blackness with the only sound being the breathing of the others, what would she think?  She was going to be mad when she woke up, mad that they had drugged her to save her from burning alive.  During the car ride, April blamed Quin for the fire, that he must have been high and not realized what he had done.  She blamed the drugs really, not even Quin.  She was quick to forgive.  Robin wouldn’t be so quick.  Quin seemed to think he must have caused the fire as well.  He couldn’t remember doing it, but he couldn’t see how else it might have started.  Not once during the whole ride, and all through the night, did he ask for another hit of something.  The fact that he could have caused the fire while high had scared him.  River had told them that he hadn’t been watching Quin, so he had no idea what happened.

In truth, River had started the fire.

He had been torn up about Greg.  Not so much that he had died, or that River had been the one finally to end his suffering, but that he was still just lying there on his deathbed.  Still just lying in that reeking corner of sheets and medication with only his infected leg covered.  No one had brought up what they were going to do with the body.  River finally realized that it was because nobody wanted to touch it.  Greg would just continue to lie there, stinking up the place, until he was too far gone to move.  Or, that they would just toss him out into the street.  No burial, no service, just tossed like so much trash.  River couldn’t stand the idea of it.  So, what he did was take down all of the sheets that had surrounded Greg and carefully wrapped him up in them.  He then collected some flammable household products from around the store and doused the shroud with them.  The moment the flame from River’s lighter touched one of those sheets, the whole thing became a great funeral pyre.  He knew it was dangerous, and that they would have to flee the department store, but he did it anyway.  Gregory Ireland, one of the greatest drummers ever to live, deserved at least that.

As the flames started to spread to the rest of the store, River enlisted Quin to help him find the kittens.  They searched for as long as they could, but the little things had gotten out of the bed frame barrier.  Splatter was the only one they found, and that was by luck.  They had run out of time quickly, as the smoke began to choke them.  River scooped up Splatter and ran for the escalators, pulling Quin after him.  How they got out in time was a miracle really.  The rain started to hammer down a few seconds after they got outside.  After the flames, it was blessedly cool.  Quin began to shiver though, so they found an awning to stand under.  When Quin began to sing, River wanted to shout at him, to tell him
just to shut up, but he didn’t when he realized what song it was. 
Come Back Birdie
had always been Greg’s favourite of their songs.  It was fitting that it would be sung at his funeral.

Then Robin and April showed up, and Robin went hysterical when she learned that two of the kittens were probably still inside.  Now they were in the expensive car.

A sharp, rancid smell attacked River.  It seemed that Splatter could no longer hold onto his shit and let it go somewhere in the vehicle.

“Aw, Splatter, that’s disgusting.”  April’s voice had the volume of a mouse, but in the silence of the car, with no visual distractions, it seemed much louder.  So River wasn’t the only one awake then.

“April, you awake?” Quin spoke from next to River.  He didn’t whisper at all which made his voice seem booming.  It was
too
loud; if there were zombies outside, they could hear him.  River quickly clamped his hand over Quin’s mouth.  Quin struggled at first, frightened, but he calmed down when his own hand was placed on top of River’s.  Even by touch, he recognized River’s heavy rings.  He nodded, communicating to River that he understood the message.  River let go of him.  He had terrified Quin more than he had intended, forgetting that Quin was sitting next to the broken window and was in the most danger of having a zombie reach through the shattered glass.  Oh well, whatever got him to be quiet.