Page 54

Lori

I jolt awake, breathing in a gulp of beautiful, sweet air.

I’m alive. Then the pain hits.

Radiating from my side.

I touch the tender newly healed skin, wincing at the sharp tendrils of discomfort.

Lifting my eyes, I take in my surroundings.

I’m not in that room with all the monitors.

The room where I killed Doctore.

Shit, I didn’t sever his spinal cord.

But he certainly wouldn’t have dosed himself with the sacramentum gladiatorum if he wasn’t absolutely certain he had perfected it.

Closing my eyes, I try to remember what happened after I killed Doctore.

The soldiers were angry, but I lost consciousness fast and can’t recall anything after that.

When I open my eyes again, I look at the white walls around me.

It looks like one of the medical rooms at The Valley.

But that would mean I’ve been out for hours, maybe longer depending on how far away Doctore had taken us.

The bed I’m lying in feels warm, further evidence that I’ve been out for longer than I thought.

I gently pull the blankets off, revealing a fresh change of clothes.

No more rancid blood stains, yay.

Even my feet look like they’ve been scrubbed.

How long have I been out?

I must have said my last thought out loud because a voice responds to the question.

“You got in a little after midnight and it’s now…” My mom pauses to look at the watch on her wrist before telling me the time.

“Ten past four in the morning.”

“Mom,” I say before breaking into a side-splitting sob.

She runs to my bed, pulling me to her chest as she lies down beside me.

“Oh, honey. It’s okay. Everything is okay now.”

“Is it? Where’s Amos? Jonah? Olivia and Kyle? I don’t remember how I got here, if they got out.”

My mom gently strokes my cheeks, brushing the tears away.

“Amos is fine. Jonah was badly injured, but he’s healing. Healing quickly too. Olivia has a few broken bones, which are also healing quickly.”

That means the sacramentum gladiatorum worked for them.

That means they are immune like me.

Relief sweeps over me, but then I see the look on my mom’s face.

“Kyle?” I ask.

“I’m really sorry to tell you that Kyle didn’t make it.”

“No.” My chest clenches.

“But Doctore gave him the sacramentum gladiatorum too. What happened? Amos can’t be okay after his best friend died. I need to go to him.”

I try to stand, but my mom pulls me back down.

“Let him rest. He had a tiring night bringing you back home. General Greene was ready to throw you in the brig for killing Dr. Gabriel Tuwile. That man has wanted his hands on Gabriel for years. I’m glad he’s dead. Sorry it had to be you to kill him though, sweetheart.”

“I’m not sorry. It needed to be me.” I rest my head on my mom’s shoulder, letting my body relax.

“Am I in trouble?”

“No, honey. Amos reminded the general why it was better this way. Persuaded him it would be dangerous to keep Gabriel alive. Now there are hundreds of soldiers with no one to command them. General Greene needs men. It was the perfect compromise. The only thing Amos couldn’t stop was the confiscation of Gabriel’s super soldier serum, which I believe is called sacramentum gladiatorum?”

I nod.

“That guy was obsessed with anything Roman. Honestly, he would have conquered the world if I let him live.”

We both chuckle at the morbid joke.

After a few silent moments, I nearly fall back asleep, then my mom’s voice pulls me to alertness.

“I was so worried about you, Lori. I knew I couldn’t hold you back. There’s no stopping you when you are on a path. When you didn’t come back when you were supposed to, I feared the worst. I kept reminding myself that you came back to me twice, and you would do it again. I was so scared.”

“I’m sorry, mom. I promise not to scare you like that again.”

“Don’t you go making promises you can’t keep.” My mom turns her head enough for me to see that sharp side eye of hers, making me giggle.

Shifting on the bed a little, I stifle a groan of pain.

My side burns. Usually a good sign that I’m healing, but still unbearable.

My mom gets up, responding quickly to my quiet groans of agony.

“Let me get you a painkiller.”

“No, I’m fine. I’ve been through worse without any. Please don’t waste them on me.”

“You sure?”

I nod, patting the side of the bed for her to lie back down and resume cuddling.

“Do you know how the military found us?”

Once my mom lies comfortably at my side, she explains how a patrol unit had seen a fleet of vehicles—Amos’ red Honda among them—heading for Hershey, the danger zone.

“They followed as closely as they dared and stopped once they reached the quarantine signs. The patrol then split up, half heading straight for The Wall and the other half back to The Valley. It took the military a day or so searching the area before they found your location. The Giant Center. Where hundreds of living people were fleeing.”

The timing couldn’t have been any luckier , I think.

“The military swooped in with their helicopters and raided the arena,” my mom continues.

“Looking for Dr. Tuwile, and perhaps they were also hoping you’d still be alive. I know they value Amos, but I doubt they brought their forces in to rescue all of you. You found Dr. Tuwile’s super secret lair. And they wanted it.”

“Makes me even more furious that they refused to assist us in our search and to help guard The Valley when we thought our community was in danger,” I say.

“Twats.”

“Twats they are.”

“At least they arrived in time to save us. Most of us.”

Kyle.

I didn’t know him very well, but he and Amos were so close.

He was Amos’s right-hand man.

He was a good guy. He deserved better.

I can’t help but believe that it’s all my fault.

Doctore wanted me. Capturing me with my friends must have been a dream come true for him.

A way to punish me for escaping.

Closing my eyes, I soak in the memory of his soulless eyes losing their wicked spark as his life drained away.

The sight should cause me to feel remorse.

Some kind of human reaction to killing another human.

But Doctore was the devil incarnate.

He is the one responsible for killing billions of people, for creating this nightmare world.

Maybe he deserved to live in his creation, but I couldn’t let him continue his work.

Even if it was through the command of someone on the side of humanity.

“You’re awake.”

I lift my head up to see Amos standing in the doorway of my room.

If I hadn’t known all that’d happened, I would have been able to guess from the state of him.

Black hair askew and those once lively golden eyes have turned a dull, muddy color surrounded by red that tells me he’s been crying.

But he’s cleaned up, wearing fresh clothes that aren’t those horrid gray uniforms of death.

My mom rolls off the bed as he approaches.

“I should reprimand you and tell you to go back to your room for more sleep,” my mom says with a false motherly command in her voice.

“But I know you’ll get more rest with each other. Just promise me you will sleep. Both of you.”

“Yes, Mom,” we both say with a laugh.

Amos locks his eyes on mine as he makes his way over to my bed.

A tether hooked to my heart.

I pull on it, urging him to me faster, and he quickens his pace.

The bed dips just before Amos grabs me firmly by the skull, smashing our lips together.

His kiss is hard and fierce and everything I need.

When he pulls away, his warm breath tickles my chin.

I yearn for more, but our bodies are so tired.

Still healing from the battle we endured.

I wrap my arms around him, holding him close as I press my head against his chest. The thumping of Amos’ heart grounds me as my mind replays all the moments I thought I was going to lose him.

“I’m so sorry about Kyle,” I say, needing to get the worst of it all out in the open.

Amos squeezes me, holding back a sob.

“Me too. He was a good guy. A great friend. A hell of a fighter.” Amos kisses my forehead.

“Now let’s go back to our room, shower, and sleep in our own bed.”

“Are we allowed to leave the medical building? Don’t we have to get discharged?” I ask with a smile.

“Nah. If anyone tries to stop us, I’ll just punch them with my new superhuman strength.”

“You have superhuman strength?”

Amos shrugs as I hop off the bed, the cold floor shocking the warm skin on my feet.

Then I think about the combat boots I had been wearing when I got captured.

Those were great boots and not so easy to come by in my size.

But I don’t want to think about that just yet.

I don’t need to fight.

I need to rest. I need to live.

At The Valley, with Amos, I can live.

If the world will let us.