Mitch shoves me, "Get going, chicken shit."
I growl and walk into the house. Nan makes a muttering noise as I walk past her, ignoring it. He's in the bedroom, getting boots on. I close the door behind me and pressing my back into it.
He doesn’t look at me. He walks to the door, like he might move me or walk right through me.
I flinch when his hand moves. It stops him, but I can see his face get red. "You think I would hit you?"
I shake my head, "No."
I don’t wait for him to act nuts. It makes us both nuts and I'm tired of that song and dance. I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss his throat. He remains wooden.
I bite him softly, smiling against his skin, "Just say the thing you think."
He shakes his head.
I climb him like a huge tree, wrapping my legs around his waist. I close my eyes and whisper into his ear, "I don’t know how to say it, Will. I don’t have that thing that I need to tell you how I feel, but I know how I don’t feel. I know the things I can't live without. Don’t make me shoot you."
He scoffs. I can feel him softening. His hands creep along my legs, cupping my butt. He holds me to him, pressing his face into mine. "I don’t have a purpose, Em. It's making me nuts."
I pull back, "You have a purpose. You make these people trust this place and me. You are the figurehead. You're the brains; you don’t need to be the brawn anymore."
He laughs, "Nothing like taking the man out of me."
I laugh too, "You know what I mean."
He shakes his head, "Next time can you just shoot me? I think it might be less painful than listening to this speech."
I shake my head, "No." I kiss his cheek, "Now I'm gonna go do a perimeter check with Mitch, my friend, and then I'm going to torture my new brother."
He flinches, "What?"
I nod, "He's mine and Star's age and from the city. His eyes are clear like ours, and I swear I can see Michael in his face. I asked him if he was a Gen baby and he said yes."
Will places me down, "Great. This is just getting better and better."
I kiss his cheek, "It's like you said. They are going to try to take what's ours ‘cause we have it better than them."
He kisses my lips softly, "Em, they aren't taking anything."
I reach behind me and open the door, "Please, Will. Please rest. Don’t exert yourself. Your breathing has been sounding bad."
He nods, "Okay. Stay with Leo."
I wink at him like Jake always does, "Done."
I leave the house again, worrying about everything.
Mitch gives me a shitty grin, "Was that so hard?"
Chapter Thirteen
The bark feels rough against my hands but the cool wind feels amazing. I can see Leo doing laps in the woods and Mitch in the tree to the right of me. Nothing else is moving though. We've run a perimeter and now I'm camped in my tree. Leo makes his way back to the meeting tree and sits at the bottom. He clearly hasn’t gotten a scent or seen anything; he looks peaceful like we're playing.
I look down at Leo, "Guess we're going with torture."
He pants and smiles. He doesn’t care either way.
I feel myself harden as I get back down on the ground. The forest sings around us. I leave the woods and stalk across the field, loving the feel of his fur in my fingertips as we walk. Mitch leaves the forest when he sees me walking in the tilled field.
The first thing I see is the lid of the bunker open when I round the corner. My guns are out instantly. Leo crouches low as we crunch our way to the farmhouse. Jake and a few guys are chatting in the horse pen and a girl with really blonde hair is feeding the goats. Men are hammering metal and no one seems to notice the bunker lid. He's snuck into the house maybe.
I open the porch door. Nan isn’t there. No one is. I slip down the hall, peeking in the doorways. No one makes any noises. I open Anna's door, but even Leo doesn’t want to look in there. The thing in the doorway is disturbing. I raise my gun at him, wincing in horror.
Anna frowns and wheeze yells at me. I can't understand her, but the doctor waves his free hand at me, "Her cervix is still closed. The cramps and bleeding are probably just spotting. You were right about the bed rest though."
His other hand moves between her legs. I gag a little bit, shaking my head. Anna snarls at me.
The doctor guy nods at the door, "Close the door. She says if Will sees, she's going to be pissed."
I stumble back. Leo has abandoned me. I close the door, still holding my guns out.
"Emma, would you stop. Jeeze, you act like such a boy sometimes."
I look down the hallway at Nan and shake my head, "What was that?"
She laughs, "Well, I figured why lock the doctor up, we can just get him to check out Anna real quick before you kill him. So I got Jake to let him out." I snarl but she points a thick wooden spoon at me, "Now you better not give me that look, young lady. I'll slap you around. I am not taking that shit off of you."
I point, hearing the way my voice cracks, "Nan, he's a monster. He's like me but worse. He's on Michael's team. He's probably killing Anna."
She rolls her eyes, "Through the vagina? Yeah, that's an efficient way to kill."
I gag as she says it and storm out of the house.
Will is crossing the field. My lip lifts when I see him talking to Mitch. I walk the other way. I know what is going to happen if I stay or confront him. I'm in the mood to shoot someone.
Leo rejoins me when we reach the forest's edge. I wave at the guy on the platform, "Take a break."
He nods and climbs down. I climb up and Leo finds himself a nice spot to make one of his nests. I see Jake crossing the field to where I am. When the tree sways, I clench my jaw. He climbs onto the platform, grinning away.
"Will send you?"
He nods, "You know it. He's a chicken shit when it comes to you angry."
I mutter, "I need to shoot him again, I think." I give him a look, still listening to the sound of the forest, "You know that guy is a bad man."
He shakes his head, "No, he isn't. He's a scout who won't make it back. He's been training to become a breeder doctor; Anna is a breeder, whether we like it or not. She is having that baby, against my wishes. It's better to have someone here who knows what they're doing."
I scoff and look down at Leo. He is still curled in a ball.
Jake tosses a balled-up leaf at me, "You need to stop being so paranoid. Maybe everything is going to work out. Maybe this is a safe place for us to be."
My stare darkens, "I don’t believe that place exists. I'm trying to, but I can't and he is a reminder that we are in danger at all times."
"Emma, you are so bad at being around other people sometimes. You gotta mellow out."
I scowl. I don’t know what that means.
He laughs, "My dad used to say that all the time to my mom—mellow out. It means calm down and be chilled out."
I get up to climb down and leave him up there, but Leo isn’t curled in a ball. He's staring at something in the forest and I don’t hear the forest song.
He chuckles, "I mean really…" I reach over and clamp his mouth shut, pulling him down to the platform on his belly. I lie beside him, keeping my eyes peeled to the forest. A crunch off to the left sends my eyes in that direction. I see Leo turn that way too.
I see the slightest flash of something between two trees. It comes out after another tree. It's a horse. The rider is slumped over the head of the horse. I jump up and start climbing down. Leo is already running in the direction. I shout up at Jake, "Sound the alarm."
He looks panicked for a second but gets up, and I hear the gong of the log against the sheet of metal we dragged up into the platform.
I jump into the duff on the forest floor and sprint into the trees.
I see her matted hair, soaked in blood and start to feel sick, "STAR!"
She lifts her bloody face, weakly and smiles, "Em."
I grab the reigns of the horse and see the second one behind her. It's empty. The rider has fallen off. I jump onto the back of the horse with no rider and pull Star's horse.
We ride across the dusty grass into the driveway that has become our courtyard. People rush towards me. Will pulls Star down. I don’t look at him or her. I enter the house. Nan sees my face and moves. She knows better. I kick the back room door open. Anna is laughing and talking in her whisper. I grab the doctor guy and drag him down the hall. He shouts and screams, and Anna makes her wheezy noises. I point at Nan, "Keep her in bed. No matter what."
Nan nods once.
I drag the shouting man out into the yard. I point at my bloody sister, "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?"
He sees her face, swallowing hard. I see the recognition in his eyes. He knows her face and what happened. He looks at me, trying to hide it, "I don’t know."
I punch hard. He knocks back. The gathering crowd shouts. I feel someone grab at my arm, but it's too late. My rage is there; they get shoved back hard and my gun is out. I fire a shot into his thigh, "WHAT IS THAT?"
He screams, "I DON’T KNOW! I KNOW THEY WERE GOING FOR THE SOLAR PANELS! I DIDN’T KNOW WHEN! I WAS TOLD TO CHECK YOU GUYS OUT AND GO THERE!"
I fire at his other leg, barely grazing it, "YOU COULD HAVE WARNED US!"
He screams again, "PLEASE, I DIDN’T KNOW WHEN! I SWEAR! I HEARD YOU WERE THE ONE WHO SAVED US ALL IN THE CITY AND I VOLUNTEERED TO COME HERE AS A SCOUT! I WANTED TO FIND YOU!"
I lift the gun into his face. Leo growls in front of me, snarling savagely.
Tears stream down his cheeks, "Please. I didn’t have any part in that."
I feel something wrap around me. I assume it's Will about to rip my arms off, but it's Anna. She wraps herself around me whispering, "He's not bad. I know him. I met him at the farms. He snuck me to a different area, to make sure they put a baby in my belly. His name is Nick. Doctor Nick. Remember me telling you about Doctor Nick. He was the nice one. This is him. I was trying to tell you, when you were dragging him away."