The Scavengers (11 page)

“You really think I'm stupid enough to leave Scavengers wandering around unsupervised in my valley?” He asked. He had a sword in his left hand. It was similar to the one Jeb was carrying except it was half as thick and twice as long. There was blood on the blade.

I blinked at him as the realization set in. “You've been following us this whole time?”

“Not just me,” he said. “But you're never alone, Pilar. Never.”

“Guess life outside the Cube isn't that different from life inside the Cube after all,” I complained sullenly.

Seth laughed. “Life outside the Cube is very different from life inside the Cube.”

“How would you know?” I asked. “I bet you've never been inside the Cube.”

“I've heard pretty vivid descriptions of what life in there is like,” Seth said. “Communal dining. Communal bathing. Apartments that started life as prison cells. The Powers That Be watching every move you make. Not enough food. Not enough water. I have to be honest with you, the entire lifestyle sounds abhorrent.”

“It's safe,” I said.

“You don't really believe that,” Seth countered.

I was about to argue with him but then I hesitated. “How do you know what I think?”

“Why would you leave the Cube if you were happy living inside it?”

“I never said I was happy.” I brushed my thick hair back up into the ponytail I'd trapped it in. It was easier to fight without all those curls in my eyes. Four more zombies appeared from behind a stack of cars on our immediate right. I lifted my machete and then turned and smiled at Seth. “Can you even fight?”

“Can I fight?” He seemed to be both insulted and amused by the question.

“I heard that you don't have to worry about being attacked by zombies because they aren't interested in eating one of their own kind. I figure that means you're probably really out of practice.” I had no idea why I was taunting him or why it felt so good to do it.

“You don't think I can fight?” Seth stepped in between me and the approaching zombies. Two of them were huge. They had been thick bodied men when they were alive and one still had most of his muscle. The other had a big chunk missing out of his shoulder but was still making rather impressive progress as he bore down on us with drool frothing from his lips. The two following on that one's heels were smaller but just as ugly. The one on the right was wearing a red shirt and kept snapping its jaws at me.

“Let's just say I'm not counting on you to save me,” I told Seth.

He shook his head at me with obvious disbelief. “Stand back.”

“And watch you get eaten?”

He jerked his chin at the zombies and bared his teeth in a look that barely passed for a smile. “Keep your eyes open, little lamb. You might miss something if you blink.”

“I'm waiting,” I said as I crossed my arms over my breasts.

Seth was downright graceful as he turned to face down the zombies. He lifted the sword high into the air and then spun so fast that I could barely keep track of the trajectory of the blade as he took two steps forward and decapitated the first zombie. The muscled monster man lunged for him but Seth ducked neatly underneath the zombie's outstretched arms and then brought his blade cleanly upwards through the center of the undead man. It had never occurred to me to cut a zombie lengthwise but I supposed it was just as effective as I watched Seth's sword come up through the top of the skull. He pulled it loose with a twist of his wrist, kicked a third zombie to the ground and cut its spine loose of its body before the fourth zombie could get halfway to him. The fourth zombie was the smallest of the pack but it was also the quickest. Not that speed did the creature any favors. Seth beheaded it the second it got within range of the sword. It crumpled to the ground beside its counterparts.

Seth wiped the blade of his sword on what was left of the zombie's red shirt. He smiled as he approached me but didn't speak until his nose was only inches from mine. “Did you really think that the high priest of the Church of Chaos would be weak?”

I blinked up at him. “I think there's a zombie behind you.”

It wasn't a lie. It was a woman who had clearly been fat in life. Her massive bulk was preventing her from moving easily through the gap between two of the cars. In fact, the zombie appeared to have gotten herself wedged in between the hood of one car and the trunk of another.

“Kill it,” Seth told me. His words were clearly meant as a challenge. I stepped around him, adjusted my grip on the machete and approached the struggling zombie. I raised the blade of the machete and prepared to strike. Seth grabbed my wrist.

“Hey!”

“You're holding your weapon incorrectly,” Seth informed me. He slid his arm down the length of mine and grabbed the handle of my blade. His arm looked amazingly pale, almost translucent, when pressed against my own tanned limb. “Strike upwards, not downwards. And slide your hand closer to the top of the handle.”

“Why?”

The stuck zombie hissed angrily at us and tried to bite.

“It'll give you better force for your blow.” Seth physically took my hand in his and slid it up the old wooden handle. With my fingers stuck under his, he drew my arm back and then thrust the machete forward and up into the zombie's throat. Her head came off much more cleanly than those of my previous kills.

I looked sideways at Seth. I was eye level with the hole in his jawline. “I should swing the blade upwards?” I tried another practice swing at the air. Seth's hand was still on top of mine.

“Yes.” He released me and then demonstrated the gesture for me. “And keep your hand near the hilt of your weapon. You'll have better control that way. You'll be less likely to drop your blade if a strike doesn't go as intended.” He tilted his head at me curiously. “Didn't Drake teach you how to fight?”

“He said he didn't have to teach me. I work- I mean worked – in the hospital ward at the Cube. I've been decapitating zombies for the last 3 years.” I practiced the swing again. The machete did feel a lot sturdier in my hand when I held it as Seth had instructed.

“You didn't have to fight zombies in a hospital ward,” Seth said flatly.

“No, I didn't. But it’s not that different.” I wasn't sure why the tone Seth had used to ask the question was bothering me so much.

“Do you know how to defend yourself against a zombie?” Seth asked.

“Sure. The hospital ward trained us extensively. Curl into a ball and expose your least important body parts first. Don't let it access your neck, head or chest because none of those can be amputated to save your life after the attack.”

“Not the worst advice I've ever heard but that's not going to do you any good in battle.” Seth was frowning now. He twirled his sword through the air several times and then slid it back into the holster that crossed over his shoulder. “I thought all the Scavengers were supposed to go through basic combat training before they ever left the Cube.”

“I was an exception to the rule.” I knew I sounded just a little bit smug but I didn't care. I felt pretty good about myself right this minute.

“You were an exception to the rule?” Seth asked.

I nodded and smiled at him. I wondered if he was impressed.

“Why?” Seth asked.

“Why what?”

“Your hospital training wasn't extensive enough to justify skipping your combat training. Why didn't they teach you how to fight before they brought you out here?” Seth leaned back against the side of the car beside us. “You should have received at least a month of training when you signed up.”

“I never signed up,” I told him.

“What?” He furrowed his eyebrows and scowled.

“I didn't sign up to become a Scavenger. I was invited to join. All the usual training requirements were waived for me so that I could start hunting immediately. Drake told me we'd make up my training later.” I shrugged at Seth. “I guess I just have talent.”

“I don't think so,” Seth shook his head at me. “Drake invited you to become a Scavenger?”

“I already said that.”

“Why does Drake care if you're a Scavenger?”

“Maybe he thinks I'm special.” I decided now wasn't the time to admit that I'd kind of wondered the same thing.

“No one is special to Drake Bledsoe except Drake Bledsoe,” Seth said flatly. “Tell me why he wanted you.”

I intentionally diverted my eyes away from Seth's disturbing one-eyed gaze. “Tell me why you keep following me around?”

Seth hesitated for a minute and then shrugged. “You intrigue me.”

“Me?” I frowned at him.

“Most Cube girls run away screaming the first time they see me or someone like me. You confronted me. You didn't even try to hide behind Drake.”

“I don't hide,” I said flatly. “I wasn't raised to hide.”

“Which makes me all the more curious how you were raised,” Seth countered. “You're carrying weapons you don't know how to use. You're fighting a war you don't understand. You tell me Drake wanted you and yet I can't see any advantage in him having you.”

“Maybe you just don't know me well enough.” I debated throwing my machete at his head. I wondered if I could hit the streak of white hair in the middle of his skull. I was debating my odds when I realized how unlike me the thought was. How wrong it was. I dropped the machete and stared at him. “What's wrong with me?”

“You're misunderstanding me. I'm not trying to say there's anything wrong with you. I'm just confused as to why you would be valuable enough to Drake that he'd bring you out untrained-.”

“No. I don't mean-.” I blinked frantically and tried to clear my head. Suddenly everything around me felt overwhelmingly fuzzy. I slid down to my knees in the dirt beside my machete. “Seth, please. I don't feel right.”

He closed the distance between us in a heartbeat. His hands were warm as he took my face into his palms and tilted my head up. “Tell me what you feel.”

“Homicidal.” I blurted out the truth before I could think better of it. “It’s not me. I help people. When people are sick with fever, I wipe their faces down with cold cloths. I bring them painkillers in the night when they cry out. I don't enjoy blood, Seth. I don't enjoy pain.”

“And yet?” His tone was surprisingly gentle as he knelt down in front of me. I kept my eyes closed so that I didn't have to look at him.

“I want to kill you,” I whispered.

“Well, I'm not very likeable.” Seth's hands were gentle against my skin.

“No. No, you don't understand. It took me two years to stop crying when I had to give a patient stitches or a shot without using a numbing agent because I couldn't stomach listening to them scream. I still cry when I know my patients are suffering but I can't bring them any relief from the pain and the agony because we don't have any pain medication left or the doctors don't feel the patients’ injuries are bad enough to justify using the meds.” I tried to turn my face away from him but he held on to me. “I've watched so many people suffer and I can't stand it. I left the hospital ward because I didn't want to see any more death. Why do I suddenly want to see blood? What's wrong with me?”

“Ah.” Seth stroked one hand down the side of my cheek. “Drake fed you some rock candy, didn't he?”

I nodded, not sure what the rock candy had to do with my sudden and unexplained desire to commit cold blooded murder.

“Now you're having fantasies about killing me?” He sounded quite calm about it.

“I'm not like this,” I whispered.

“It's the rock candy,” Seth explained. “It has side-effects. Don't worry, they pass.”

“What?” I stared at him in total disbelief. “The rock candy is making me want to kill you?”

“The rock candy is making you want to kill everything,” Seth clarified. “I just happen to be the only living thing around at the moment so you're focusing on me. Don't worry, if you're noticing that you're not behaving like yourself then the effects are already starting to wear off. You'll be back to yourself in a couple of hours.”

“I don't have a couple of hours,” I whimpered as my world spun in circles before my eyes. The strength rushed out of me and I collapsed forward. Seth wrapped his arms around me and held me against his chest. I wanted to fight against him. I knew I should fight against him. I tried to push myself upwards and away from him but the entire world dropped out from underneath me and went dark.

A memory tugged at my mind as I felt myself dropping down into a dark abyss within my own mind. I had taken the rock candy for a reason. I had made a promise. A promise that had been important. I had been doing something important before I'd found myself here, cradled against the chest of a terrifying monster who insisted on being ridiculously kind to me even when I told him I wanted to watch him bleed. “No, I can't.”

“Lay down little lamb, you're going to be okay.” Seth's voice was like a bright light driving away my fear.

I had a sudden moment of clarity as I opened my eyes abruptly. “Jeb,” I gasped and struggled to sit up. “I told him I'd protect him.”

“He's fine.” Seth pushed me back down into his lap.

“No, I promised!” I succeeded at sitting up only to fall back down. The sunlight was burning into my eyes and I felt hot all over.

“I'll protect him. Trust me.” Seth put his hand over my eyes and pushed me back down.