Broken World (Book 6): Forgotten World
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are fictitious or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real in any way. Any resemblance to person, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by Kate L. Mary
Edited by Emily Teng
Cover art by Kate L. Mary
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
1
THE MAN TURNS and his eyes meet mine, and everything in Hope Springs freezes. The people standing around me disappear, and suddenly I’m thrust back in time. Back to Vegas and the Monte Carlo and a broken man desperate to save his sister from a fate worse than death. Back to feelings of terror as we tried to escape. To the days following Vegas, our group hiding in our underground shelter while Hadley and I licked our wounds. Then the attack, and all the uncertainty surrounding us as we spent weeks on the road, struggling and fighting to survive. The devastating loss when this same man disappeared, taking Hadley with him.
All the memories hit me at once, bringing with them a million different emotions. The feelings are so strong that at first I can’t move. Can’t breathe or think or react. Not even when the man steps forward. His mouth dropping open as his eyes move from me to Axl to Joshua. Now that he’s finally standing in front of me, it hits me that I never really expected to see him again.
I’ve been fooling myself. I just didn’t know it until now.
Sobs force their way out of me, shaking my body, and before I even know what’s happening, I’m running. Tears stream down my cheeks but I can’t control the sobs. I’m not even sure I want to. This is the moment I’ve been praying for.
“Jon,” I whisper, still not totally able to believe what I’m seeing. Then I’m running faster, and his name breaks out of me again, only this time it sounds more like a victory cheer. “Jon!”
Like me, Jon seems to be in shock. He hasn’t moved other than that one step, and his mouth is still hanging open when I slam into him, throwing my arms around him. Crying. I’m crying so hard I can’t talk.
“Vivian,” Jon finally says, pulling back. His hands go to my face, and he grins back at me, looking like he thinks he just might be having the best dream of his life.
“We thought you were dead,” I manage to say, the words somehow able to make it out despite almost getting tangled in my sobs. “I never thought we’d see you again.”
Jon shakes his head, then looks over my shoulder and smiles. I turn as Axl and Joshua walk up, and behind them, the man from Hope Springs—Richard—looks like he can’t figure out what just happened.
“Friends of yours?” he asks, shaking his head but smiling too.
“Old friends,” Jon answers.
That’s when I think of Hadley. Of the baby and how I discovered after she and Jon had already disappeared that she was pregnant.
“Hadley,” I say turning back to Jon, grabbing his hand. “She’s with you, right? She has to be!”
Jon’s smile wavers, and his eyes go back to Richard, who looks even more lost than he did a second ago.
“Hadley?” the older man asks. He narrows his eyes on Jon like he doesn’t understand English.
My heart drops, taking my stomach with it. It had never occurred to me that the two weren’t together. I always thought if I found one, the other would be with them too. But judging by the look on Jon’s face, that isn’t true, and it fills me with the sudden urge to hurl. Surely after everything she’s been through, Hadley deserves to find some peace and happiness. Doesn’t she?
“Hadley’s not with you?” I ask, the words coming out so soft that they can barely be heard over the chatter of the surrounding community.
“Shit.” Jon swipes his hand through his hair and glances around before saying, “She’s here.” He looks at Richard and frowns. “She doesn’t want anyone to know who she is. Do you understand? She wanted to put the past behind her. That’s why she changed her name. I don’t want you to think she’s been lying to everyone. She just needed a fresh start.”
I don’t have a clue what’s going on, but I can actually see it when a light bulb goes off in Richard’s head. His mouth drops open and he blinks a few times, and then he smiles. He even lets out a little chuckle. “Hadley… So Ginny is Hadley Lucas?”
Jon steps closer to the older man, lowering his head as his eyes dart around. He’s acting weird. Like he’s afraid the paparazzi are going to show up and start hounding Hadley.
“You will keep her secret,” he says in a low voice. “Won’t you?”
Richard chuckles as he nods. “You don’t have to worry about me, but I got to say I feel kind of dumb at the moment. I’m not sure how I didn’t see it before, to be honest. She always looked familiar, but I thought she just reminded me of somebody I used to know or something. I never dreamed…” He shakes his head again. “It sure is crazy.”
“Thanks,” Jon says, slapping Richard on the arm. “Ginny thanks you too.”
Richard waves him off. “We all deserve a new start, but I reckon it would have been a lot harder for her than the rest of us, all things considered. It makes sense. You can tell her that her secret is safe with me.”
“Thank you, Richard.”
“No need for that.” The old man is still shaking his head when he takes a step back. “I have stuff to do, so I’ll leave you to catch up and help these folks out.” He turns away, waving over his shoulder as he heads off. “Nice to meet you all.”
Jon watches him walk away for a few seconds before turning to face us. He doesn’t say anything, though, and when his eyes move over us, it sends a shiver shooting through my body. He acts like he can’t believe we’re really here. Like if he looks away we’ll disappear again. I can’t blame him, though. This all feels so unreal. Almost like a dream.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” he finally says. “Ginny is going to be so…thrilled.” Jon laughs, and I find myself smiling. “I really never thought this day would come. I guess I kind of thought you might be dead, even if I wouldn’t let myself acknowledge it.”
“What’s all this Ginny business?” Axl asks.
“It’s her name,” I say, remembering the conversation she and I had in the Monte Carlo. Back when we were trapped and had no idea if we’d ever make it out of that casino alive. Back when we did anything and everything to distract ourselves from what was happening around us. “She told me she changed it when she moved to Hollywood. Makes sense that she’d change it back now.”
“She’s changed a lot,” Jon says, waving as he heads down the road. “I’ll take you to our house.”
Axl grabs my hand as we take off after Jon.
“Richard called you Ginny’s husband,” Joshua says from Axl’s other side.
“Yes,” Jon says, smiling in a way that makes me think he isn’t even aware of the gesture. “We consider ourselves married. It’s not really official, but to us it is.” He pauses, smiling even more before saying, “And we’re having a baby.”
It isn’t news to Axl and me, but Joshua almost stops walking. “A baby?”
Jon just nods.
The conversation we had with Dax at the clinic comes back to me, and I suddenly feel stupid for not suspecting Jon and Hadley were here to begin with. Back when we were still waiting for word about Sophia—before she lost her baby—Dax told us they had someone here who had gotten pregnant after the virus.
“Hadley’s the one Dax was talking about!” I say, squeezing Axl’s hand. “She’s the one who got pregnant after the virus!”
“Yes,” Jon says. “
Ginny
is pregnant.”
“Sorry.” I shake my head. “That may take some getting used to.”
We pass a couple men who nod at Jon while looking the rest of us over. They don’t seem threatening, though, just curious. In fact, nothing since we’ve been here has seemed overly threatening, and now that we know Hadley—Ginny—and Jon are here, I’m beginning to wish we’d decided to risk it and come earlier. We put it off for so long, suffered through the whole winter, and all this time we could have been here. Where they have electricity and doctors and supplies. And our friends.
“So this place is as good as it seems?” Joshua asks when the men are out of earshot. Like he’s been thinking the same thing that I have.
“Better,” Jon says. “It’s safe and secure and organized, and we’re in contact with two other groups. One in Atlanta and another down in the Keys, although the distance makes it harder to talk to them.”
Joshua shakes his head, but he’s grinning, and the excitement in his expression is something I’ve never seen before. It’s something bigger than hope, and I can’t blame him. “That’s amazing.”
“Sure sounds good,” Axl says even though his eyes are still moving. Still studying the area around us like he’s waiting for a punch line—or an attack.
I squeeze his hand again, but Axl doesn’t look my way when he returns the gesture. He’s too busy studying Jon. I can’t blame him. Everything about Jon looks so different from the last time I saw him. Back then he was weak and unsure of himself, practically starving. Little more than a broken shell of a person. After losing his sister, Jon spent weeks following Hadley around like something even more insignificant than a shadow. Now he looks healthy and in control, happy and strong. Like someone you could lean on. Exactly the kind of man Hadley would have needed to move forward.
Jon points things out as we walk. The library—which is open and in high demand now that there’s no Google to look things up on—and a pharmacy, as well as a building that holds the town’s supplies. They have a couple greenhouses built and started growing food over the winter, and they even have a large selection of animals that makes our little garage back home seem insignificant. No wonder we couldn’t find any more farm animals than we did—Hope Springs took them all.
By the time Jon turns off the main road, my head is spinning. There’s so much here, and they’re so prepared. It’s everything we’ve wanted to do but haven’t been able to, and it gives me such a strong sense of hope that I can’t help imagining myself here. Living and raising a family. Having the home I’ve wanted for Axl and myself since I first realized I was in love with him. It could all come true now.
“This is our neighborhood,” Jon says, not even looking over his shoulder.
He’s too focused on the houses we pass. Like he still can’t believe they’re real. The street reminds me of something out of a TV show. The houses aren’t new and they’re a bit on the small side and many are in need of repair, but they’re real homes. Something I was sure had gone extinct.
The further we walk the more excited I get, thinking about seeing Hadley—Ginny—again. Even though I’ve searched for her every time I left home, and even though I’ve thought about what I’d do when I saw her again a million times, part of me never really believed I would. It was all part of the charade, like playing house when I was a kid. Something that made me happy and made me feel like the future held some real promise, but also something I didn’t really think could happen. Especially not for me.
“This is it,” Jon says, heading up the walk of a little brick house. “Our home.”
He smiles like saying it gives him more joy than he could have imagined possible, and I can’t blame him. After everything that happened back in Vegas and afterward, I’m sure he never thought he could feel happy again. I know for sure Hadley didn’t.
Jon opens the door, and we follow him inside, stepping into a living room that’s small and cozy. The scent of cinnamon clings to the air, and flames flicker inside the small, red candles set up in a perfect line on the mantle. From the kitchen comes the quiet hum of someone who sounds a million times happier than Hadley Lucas could ever be. Whoever this Ginny is, she’s content and settled in. Ready for the future.
“Ginny!” Jon calls as he pulls his weapons off.
He drops them into a basket that sits next to the door before heading through the living room. I’m right behind him, so anxious to see Ginny that I feel like a kid on Christmas morning.
“In the kitchen!” a voice I’d recognize anywhere calls. “I’m making a pie.”
Her back is to me when I first lay eyes on her, and from this angle, I never would have guessed it was her. Not in a million years. She’s round now and probably close to twenty pounds heavier—not including her belly. On top of that, her hair has been cut short—it’s only around four inches long—and it isn’t strawberry blonde. It’s brown. Even in all the movies she did before the virus hit, I never once saw it this color. No wonder no one here has recognized her.
“Hadley,” I say, stopping halfway to her. My heart is beating too fast to go another step, and my legs are wobbling. I’m also on the verge of bursting into tears, but I know that’s something I won’t be able to control.
Hadley freezes in the middle of rolling out a piecrust, and her breath catches in her throat. Like her, I’m holding my breath, only I don’t know why, because all I really want to do is run to her. Then she finally turns and our eyes meet, and I can’t hold back. I burst into tears as I rush forward, throwing my arms around her shaking body. She hugs me back, crying just as much as I am as we sink to the floor, still hugging. Our tears mixing together.
“You’re here,” she says, pulling back after a few seconds so she can get a better look at me. “You’re alive.”
“I’m here,” I say, looking her over. Marveling at how different and healthy she looks. “Look at you! You look amazing. So healthy and happy. I never thought I’d see you like this again. I didn’t think it was possible.”
Hadley looks past me, and I follow her gaze to where Jon and Axl and Joshua stand on the other side of the room, watching us. None of them unaffected by our emotional reunion. I swear all three of them have tears in their eyes, although I doubt any of them will admit it later.