Page 48

Doctore hovers above me with that sickening grin of his.

He’s proud of himself.

Proud of whatever discovery he made while dissecting my living body.

I look down at the open incisions slowly stitching themselves back together.

When Doctore laughs, fear locks me in place on the gurney.

No need for straps to hold me down.

A knife slices into the newly closed wound on my stomach, exposing my intestines.

I would scream if my throat was intact, but that too has been sliced open.

Doctore’s hand dives into my abdomen with no intention of being delicate.

A wicked smile spreads across his face as his hand finds what he’s been looking for.

When he pulls out a crying baby, I know I’m dreaming.

I’m dreaming because this isn’t the same nightmare memory I always replay.

No. The baby Doctore holds in his hands is a healthy living baby with brown skin and red hair.

When she opens her eyes, they hold the same golden irises Amos has.

My heart flutters for a moment at seeing our baby.

Then she cries. Wailing at the sight of my mutilated body.

Doctore takes her away to soothe her cries.

I try to get up off the gurney, silently screaming for my baby.

It’s a dream . I try to remind myself.

It’s a dream. It’s a dream.

“Lori,” a worried voice in the distance breaks the haze of my nightmare.

I hold on to that voice.

Amos’ voice. “Lori, wake up. Wake up. You’re having a bad dream. Please wake up, Lori.”

My eyes shoot open, catching Amos’ golden glare as he looks at me with fear riddled concern.

I try to move, to say something, but nothing happens.

Am I still dreaming?

When did Amos get back?

Amos scoops me up from the bed and places me on his lap, holding me tightly against his chest. His stump secures me against him as his hand slides up to brush the hair out of my face.

“I got you. I’m here now. You’re all right,” he whispers into my hair.

“Amos?” My voice is scratchy, likely from the screaming I thought was silent in my dream, but must have woken up half the campus.

“When did you get back?”

“An hour ago. I was walking up to the building when I heard screaming from inside. You scared me to death.”

“Amos,” I repeat, this time believing I am awake and safe.

My voice breaks with relief, but the images of my nightmare refuse to leave my mind.

“Doctore took our baby. Our baby girl. He took her.”

“Shhhh, it was just a nightmare,” Amos says, but he can’t quite keep the quiver of fear from his voice.

“I will never let Doctore near our children, should we have any. What you dreamt was not real. Not real.”

Amos lays me back down on the bed.

Before joining me, he throws off his dirty clothes and pulls the blankets over our bodies.

The warmth of him behind me and the pressure of his arms holding me tight against him loosen the last thread of fear keeping me tethered to that nightmare.

I fall asleep quickly in his arms. No dreams this time.

The Wall will offer no military assistance.

No surprise there. Honestly, I don’t blame them.

What if Doctore’s men attack them and they don’t have the numbers to protect The Wall while they are all over the state of Pennsylvania looking for traces of his lab?

But what if we are attacked?

Our community is only a fifteen minute drive to the nearest outpost at The Wall.

Would we be enough to stop Doctore, his Praetorian Guard, and gladiators from invading The Valley?

My logical brain says “no” but my heart wants to believe we can hold them back.

We need to protect this place.

I sit at the table of the conference room looking at Norman as Amos and his commanders talk strategy.

Norman’s face gives nothing away.

No fear. No hint of our inevitable demise.

Nothing.

When I turn my head to look at my mom sitting next to me, her face shows nothing but fear.

The Valley has been attacked before, by small groups of raiders.

People scavenging for food.

Nothing like what we are facing if Doctore were to knock at our gates.

Anna’s and Jeremy’s faces are ashen.

Neither of them have anything to contribute to the discussion, but as members of leadership, they will be making a decision on what we should do.

The current plan is to send out messengers to the other surviving communities.

Not all of them were hit like The Manor House, but they are all scared enough to likely board up their houses and stay put.

They won’t help us. We need to go after Doctore before he comes for us.

But no one has put that option on the table yet.

I know it’s a gamble.

If we bring all our fighting forces, then we leave The Valley defenseless.

It’s likely that Doctore doesn’t know where I am.

Matthew didn’t stumble upon this location.

Kyle brought him here.

There’s no way for Matthew to communicate with Doctore.

He’s been held prisoner all week.

Unless Norman has a way of sending messages.

Then there’s that question that keeps popping up in my head.

Why hasn’t Norman told Doctore where I am already?

He’s done his tests on me, well, not all the ones he’d like to do.

I would think that would fuel his reasoning to contact Doctore since he is no longer allowed near me.

I hate him, but I am not buying it.

It just doesn’t make sense that Norman is still working for Doctore.

Amos breaks my thoughts to ask me, “Lori, what do you think? It looks like you’ve got gears turning in your head.”

“They are turning, but you’re not gonna like my idea.” I lock my eyes with Amos.

He knows my opinion, and he doesn’t like it.

But he’s offering me a chance to bring it to the table.

I appreciate his democratic approach, even though I know most of the people in this room will vote me down.

“I think we should attack. We know the locations of his labs. One of them is just a few hours away. Let’s attack that one first. It would give us an idea of what we’d be fighting to bring down the other labs.”

“But what if attacking his labs puts a spotlight on The Valley?” Lucas asks.

“We might have a small army of our own, but we are nothing compared to the Praetorian Guard. They are made of hundreds of brain-washed psychos. No offense, Jonah.”

“None taken.” Jonah shrugs.

“It’s an accurate statement. But I’m with Lori on this one. We can’t just sit around and wait for Doctore to find us. If we hit his smaller facilities, we decrease his numbers. Maybe we can even turn the gladiators to our cause.”

“That’s incredibly dangerous,” Norman says, finally opening his mouth to voice an opinion.

“You cannot be certain that these so-called gladiators won’t be just as brainwashed. Lori might be the only exception. But she fought Dr. Tuwile’s programming. Not an easy thing to do.”

“How do you know that?” I ask, squinting my eyes at him.

“Because I helped him develop the program. It’s not my proudest moment. There were a lot of things I regret from my time with him.”

“Are you still working for him?” My eyes gouge into his, trying for the intimidation tactic, though I’m not sure I have that down.

“Lori,” Amos warns.

“It’s a fair question, Amos.” My piercing gaze shifts to Amos, who shakes his head at me.

“It is. And perhaps it is time I come clean.” Norman sits up in his chair, eyeing each person in the conference room.

“I didn’t cut ties with Gabriel. At least not when I left his lab. I needed to convince him I was loyal, not dissimilar from Jonah. When he started kidnapping innocent people, I was done. I met you down in the bunker, Lori. I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.”

Amos gets up from his chair so fast, but I’m faster.

I hold him in place, hugging his tall, broad frame to my petite one.

And goddamn, I am strong.

Amos struggles against the restraints of my arms, but I don’t budge.

“Amos, calm down. Let Norman finish. Then I’ll let you at him,” I say.

A grunt of agreement is all I need to loosen my grip on Amos.

When he sits back down, I grab his hand, squeezing gently.

He squeezes back more firmly, not letting go as Norman resumes his tell-all.

“I understand Gabriel’s mission. I agree with it in some ways. As much as you all might disagree, he is a brilliant man. Sadistic? Yes. But brilliant. When he accidentally created the virus that brought us the undead, he went a little mad. He didn’t think he was doing God’s work, but became a god himself. Re-animating the dead. Creating a new…species. Breaking every ethics code to get there. What he did to Lori, what we did. That wasn’t the first time. I put my head down and followed orders because I didn’t want to be the next test subject. Then I had the opportunity to leave the bunker as a field scientist. Gabriel wanted more observations on how the undead moved around, hunted, and turned in a natural environment. He gave me a small team. A few weeks later, we stumbled into a horde of undead too large to escape, but I got out. I found this place. It was a chance for me to start over.”

“Why were you so against having Lori here when she first arrived? Were you afraid she would recognize you?” My mom’s voice cannot hide the rage she tries so hard to contain.

“No. I didn’t think someone could override the programming,” Norman says so casually.

“What programming?” I ask.

“While you were sedated, Gabriel would play specific messaging to change the way your mind thinks. To make you forget about what’s being done to you. To keep you thinking forward instead of in the now.”

At Norman’s explanation, brief clips of words reach my ears.

But I can’t remember what they said.

“I might not remember everything Doctore did to me. But I remember him ripping my unborn baby from my womb. How the hell can anyone look forward from that?”

Norman stares at me with the intriguing eye of a scientist. “I have many follow-up questions to what you just said, but I would like to present a theory as to why I believe you were unaffected. You have an inhuman ability to heal yourself incredibly fast. Perhaps your brain was able to delete all traces of Gabriel’s programming and that is why you could keep your own thoughts and memories.”

“What about me?” Jonah asks, attempting to hide his horrified shock.

I had never spoken to him about what happened when I was having a miscarriage.

He never asked, and it never came up in conversation after he came to The Valley.

“Trauma can untether the bindings of Gabriel’s programming. I saw it happen a few times. I tried helping those poor souls who were unraveling, but Gabriel got to them quickly. He would either have them executed or resubmitted for further programming. You must have hid yourself well, Jonah.”

I feel Amos loosen from the fuming anger tormenting his heart, but I keep my hand in his.

The silence in the room is deafening.

Everyone barely breathes as we process everything Norman has revealed to us.

He was still working for Doctore, Jonah had been right.

Do I believe Norman wanted out?

That he miraculously got his chance to escape without Doctore being suspicious that one of his scientists betrayed him?

“Why wait until now to tell us?” Anna asks, twirling her hair nervously.

“I wasn’t planning on telling you ever, but I figured Jonah would recognize me sooner or later.”

“I did. I told Amos immediately,” Jonah snaps.

“Good soldier.” Norman’s tone isn’t condescending, but the way he says those words to Jonah sends a shiver down my spine.

“No one has asked the most important question yet.”

“And what’s that?” Amos says, pulling his shoulders back as he releases my hand.

“What is Gabriel Tuwile’s biggest weakness?”