PODs (29 page)

S
ome people in the crowd screamed for the guards to open the gates. A few homemade picket signs waved and bobbed in the sea of bodies, but most of the hundreds of people outside the gates stood or sat in silent vigil, lines of suffering showing in their gaunt faces.

The MPs stood in a line in front of the fence, their guns aimed at the people trying to get into the compound. A truck pulled up to the gate, and the crowd reacted, surging to its feet and pressing in. An occasional pop,
pop, pop
was heard when an MP fired his riot gun at someone getting too close to the fence or the truck. The rubber bullets gave people one heck of a jolt.

I saw him on the other side of the gate, standing silently in the midst of the crowd. People bumped and shoved him, jostling him while they fought their way closer to the opening outer gate. He looked at me and smiled. I didn’t return it. I watched him. He never took his eyes off me. They widened the moment he realized what I was going to do, because I wasn’t looking for a way in.

I was looking for a way out.

I stood behind the inside gate, separated from the outer gate and the mob by a large, open area. Several MPs in riot gear stood guard just beyond the inner gate, watching the crowd. Additional soldiers were within the compound, and the weapons they carried didn’t look like the kind that shot rubber ammunition.

David watched me, his eyes pleading. “Evangelina!” he yelled. I could barely hear him over the shouts of the people swarming around him.

I walked to the inside gate and pushed the tall door. The hinges groaned. I grunted as the heavy door dragged through the dirt and gravel. The metal clanged against a large rock, vibrating with the impact.

“Eva, don’t!” I heard David yell. I turned and leaned against the gate, closing it behind me. The latch came down with a loud clang. Dust stirred up by the crowd billowed around me like a fog. I put my hand over my face to protect it.

Turning to the closest guard, I pointed to David on the other side of the gate. “Let him in.”

The MP clutched his rifle across his chest. “Miss, you aren’t supposed to be out here.”

“Let him in,” I said again.

“He’s in the infected area. Go back to the compound,” he ordered. He swung the rifle barrel around, not quite pointing it at me.

I looked at David and smiled. A look of relief washed over his face, and I knew he’d mistaken my smile as a sign I would return to the compound.

“He’s not a top-side survivor. He was in the PODs. He’s not infected.” My eyes never left David’s face.

“He’s in the infected zone. No one comes through that gate without proper authorization. He doesn’t have the required paperwork, he doesn’t get in.”

“Fine.”

I turned toward the gate, hesitating for just an instant. Was I ready to give up what I’d built in the compound? My little house, my friends, my job?

Yes. For David—yes
.

I walked slowly at first, and then I ran. I ran between two guards, hitting one in the shoulder. I stumbled forward toward the gate, hitting the wire mesh so hard it knocked the breath from my lungs. David reached his hand through and cupped my face.

These damn fences! If he can’t be on this side, I want to be on that side
.

“Eva, what the hell are you doing? Go back.”

“I can’t,” I said, out of breath. “I don’t want to.”

“Miss, step away from the fence,” a voice over a loudspeaker warned.

People in the crowd pushed against David, pressing their faces against the fence, screaming at me to open the gate and let them through.

“Eva, don’t be stupid. Go back,” David insisted.

I shook my head.
Don’t make me go back, David. I need to be with you
.

One of the MPs approached, pointing his weapon at me while still keeping his distance from the outer fence. “Go back,” he ordered.

Pleading filled David’s voice. “Listen to him. Go—stay where it’s safe.”

“No! I want to be with you!”

I can’t go back, David. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. There isn’t supposed to be a fence between us
.

I ran down the length of the fence to where a crossbar held the metal-plated gate closed. I tried to lift it free. It was heavy—I could barely move it. I huffed, pushing with everything I had. One bar, one gate was all that separated us.

David
.

“Step away from the gate,” the voice over the loudspeaker said again.

MPs ran toward me, their words unintelligible as they shouted over each other. The shouts from the sea of people on the other side of the gate grew frantic, begging me to open the gate for them.

I looked over my shoulder. The MPs were closing in, their guns drawn. For a brief second, I wondered what I was doing. Why was I risking my life?

“Go back!” David yelled.

“No!”

I looked into his gray eyes and knew. He was the reason I was giving up what the compound offered. David—I didn’t want to be without him a day longer.

I belong with you
.

I smiled at him through the openings of the fence. “It’s okay, David.”

Pushing the bar as hard as I could, I got it just above the brackets before letting go. It fell to the ground with a thud, and dust rained down around us. I didn’t wait, I didn’t think—I just pushed as hard as I could on the edge of the gate. It opened just enough for me to squeeze through. I struggled through the small opening, stumbling out the other side. My hand against the dusty ground, I balanced myself, looking frantically for David.

“It’s open!” someone in the crowd shouted, causing the mob to descend on the opening. They pulled the gate open and shoved their way through. I waded through the people pushing into the compound, making my way to where I’d last seen David.

“Eva, are you crazy?” he yelled, grabbing me in his arms.

“I can’t stay in there, David. Not without you.”

“You shouldn’t have done it.”

“It’s done.” I buried my face in David’s shirt.

He tipped my head up and gave me a deep kiss. “You should have stayed.” He held me, smoothing my hair down my back. “It was safe there—you were safe. It’s dangerous out here.”

S
omething woke me. I couldn’t see anything, so I held my breath, listening. I grabbed the flashlight next to me, but I didn’t turn it on. I sat in the pitch-black tent—a simple tarp strung between two trees that sheltered a single bedroll—and listened.

I heard it again. The crack of twigs, the rustling of leaves. It wasn’t from inside the survivors’ camp; it came from the woods.

The tarp made a crinkling sound as it moved. I jumped and inhaled sharply.

“Shh,” David warned.

“What is it?” I whispered when he moved closer.

“I don’t know.” I had to strain to hear him, but I could hear the lie in his voice. “Just stay still and don’t turn the flashlight on.”

A twig snapped close to the tent. It sounded like it was right next to the plastic tarp.

Then it happened. All hell broke loose.

Screams, along with the drumbeat of running feet, came from all over the camp. The tent was ripped away from the trees and a huge man stood over us, a baseball bat raised above his head.

David grabbed my arm and jerked me from the bed. He blocked the blow with his arm, grunting in pain when the bat connected. He wound his hand around the wooden bat, twisting it from the man’s grasp before he swung the bat hard, hitting the man’s knee. The man fell across the tent.

David jerked me up and pushed me out of the plastic that pooled around our feet. My shoe caught on something and I fell, smacking against the hard ground. David didn’t stop. He pulled me from the tent. Holding my hand, he ran, swinging the bat at anyone who got in our way.

A frenzy of people ran without direction, screaming and cursing. A shelter made of tree branches crashed into a campfire, sending flames into the air and brightening the night. The firelight revealed more men like the one who’d barged into my tent. Tall and broad—easily twice the size of a normal man—they chased the people of the camp, scattering supplies and tearing down the shelters.

David pulled me behind him. I stumbled over rocks and tree roots, trying to keep up with his long strides. We ran toward a circle of men from the camp, nearly two dozen in all. They stood with their backs to each other, the women inside the ring. David pushed through them, putting me inside the protective circle.

A large boom rang out next to me and I screamed. More deafening explosions filled the air as the men shot at those raiding the camp. I put my hands over my ears as shot after shot rang out, until the invaders were dead or had retreated back into the woods.

When it was over, most of them lay on the ground in pools of their own blood. Those who weren’t dead were shot and killed. The men of the camp left no survivors.

I stood in the middle of camp, looking at the still, twisted bodies, at red blood dripping from blue tarps and pooling on the ground below.

Oh, no, no. This is wrong on so many levels. And I’m about to puke from all this blood—or I might pass out. I haven’t decided yet
.

A man lay dying in front of me, his hand outstretched toward me. I bent down, reaching for his hand. David grabbed me before I could touch him.

“Don’t touch the blood,” he said.

I watched in horror as a man from our camp walked up to the dying man and shot him once in the head. He turned and looked grimly at David.

“It’s getting worse,” he said, stopping to reload.

“David, what just happened?” My voice rasped. “That man just shot him. He just killed him right in front of us!”

“They’re other survivors, Eva. They were raiding our supplies. We have to defend what’s ours or we starve.”

“No,” I shook my head. “They weren’t here for supplies. They would have snuck in, taken what they wanted, and left. They were attacking us.”

“You’re gonna have to tell her,” the man who’d shot the dying man told David.

“Stay out of this, Devlin.”

Devlin looked menacing with a shotgun propped on his shoulder. “She needs to know.”

David blew out a frustrated breath. “This is what I didn’t want you to see. This is why I wanted you to stay in the compound, even though it killed me to be away from you. These people, the men who raided the camp tonight. They’re infected with the mutated virus, and it’s done something to them. Don’t touch their blood, Evangelina.”

“And whatever you do, don’t get bit,” Devlin said, walking away.

David nodded. “Don’t get bit.”

“
W
hat don’t I know?”

“A lot,” he answered.

“I gathered as much when the giant crazy-man was standing over us with a baseball bat. What’s going on, David?”

He wrapped the hem of my t-shirt around his finger, bent down, and leaned his forehead against my shoulder. I reached up and ran my hands through his dark hair.

“I didn’t want you out here, Eva. I didn’t want this for you. The virus didn’t die like scientists hoped it would.”

I gently pushed him from me, looking in his eyes. “Are you saying those were topsiders?”

“Yeah, those were topsiders infected with a mutated strain of the original virus. But not all topsiders are infected. Everyone in this camp is clean, as far as we know.”

The sun peeked over the horizon, turning the sky a brilliant shade of blue, streaked in pinks and oranges. Shadows from the trees fell across the ground in front of us.

David sat silently next to me, lost in his thoughts, the skin between his eyebrows furrowed. He threw stones at the trees, the small thuds barely audible over the light breeze blowing the autumn leaves from their branches.

“What are they, David? I mean, it’s obvious they’re human. But they’re something else, too. The virus has changed them somehow, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah. Devlin thinks the virus has affected their brains, rewiring them. He’s the closest thing we have to a doctor. He was in medical school before the virus hit. He says it’s sort of like rabies—the infected have lost all reasoning. They’ve reverted back to an animal state, living purely on instinct—hunting by smell, mostly. They can’t even speak—just grunts and screams. And they avoid coming out in daylight—we think their eyes might be over-sensitized, or maybe it’s their skin.”