CHAPTER ELEVEN

Death didn’t come. Instead, I landed softly, cradled in the arms of the thing carrying me. Oddly, the guns on the turret didn’t blast either. And all around the sirens faded to nothing. To my right, an “oomph” of someone landing on the ground followed. Then the Sasquatch started to move again, slowing to a walk. Two sets of footfalls crushed the dry leaves of the forest floor.

Lightheaded from breathing in my carbon dioxide mixed with the fading adrenaline rush, my limbs relaxed from the warmth of the Sasquatch’s fur. Lavender filled my nose from somewhere, and I turned to find it coming strongest from the creature. Tremendous exhaustion overcame me and the will to fight evaporated. There wasn’t anything I could do to free myself, and Landon’s promise had merely been a threat. Maybe he wasn’t even awake, or monitoring me closely enough to care that I’d been abducted.

Before I could stop myself, I drifted off to sleep. I awoke with a body-jolting snort, nestled in a pile of brush on the ground. The burlap sack and the gag were gone, and above me a canopy of redwoods hung against the daylight. Only my wrists were still tethered.

I sat up and looked around. Before me, a small fire crackled and a rodent of sorts lay roasting on a spit over a fire. My tummy, unaware it should be revolted by such things, pinched in hunger.

Barefoot, I gathered to my feet, my stomach muscles aching. The trail led off in two separate directions. Did I dare run? Which way was home?

“Good, you’re finally awake.”

I swiveled around to the stranger’s voice, terrified. With his hood off and blue eyes shining, Zombie Zone Guy scrutinized me.

“You.” I blinked at him, disbelieving.

His eyes caressed me for a minute and a brief smile tipped his lips. Clad in my pink pajamas, I wasn’t dressed for the occasion. I eyed his jeans and dark shirt. Did I imagine his furry coat?

“You hungry?” He pulled a pan off the fire and spooned up what looked like beans onto an aluminum plate. He held the dish toward me.

Disgusted by the sight of the rodent, I shook my head.

“Suit yourself.” He pulled the leg off the charred animal and dissected it on his plate. The sight just about did me in.

I turned away to focus on my surroundings. Escape. That should be my biggest priority. But which way and how far? The dread knotted my stomach and I kicked myself for not taking Survivalist Training in net school. Without supplies, food, water, let alone shoes, I was as good as dead. And then there were the zombies.

My naked wrist reminded me again that he’d broken my watch, and I cursed inside. I couldn’t even half-decide and consult my DOD to see if it were a good decision or not. It lay crushed in front of my house next to… Roofus.

Pinching my eyes shut, I willed away the tears. My parents had to be frantic. What about Elle? Damn that Landon. I raised my chin and eyed the sky. Someone would find me. They had to.

“What do you want with me?” I finally asked.

He stirred the fire with a stick, eyes low. “Nothing, yet.” He chuckled as if he’d told a joke.

I scowled. Why the secrecy? Was I being held for ransom? Or worse, as a slave? Maybe that was part of his game: watching me squirm. I’d heard about sociopaths before, ones who lived among the people before the invention of DOD watches. Whatever he had planned, his Sasquatch henchman wasn’t around.

“Where are we?”

“In the middle of Chesney Forest. Pretty, isn’t it?”

Laughter involuntarily slipped out from my lips. Did he think I was dumb? Yes, this pretty spectacular dense little section of redwoods, ferns, and ivy was unheard of in Brighton, but calling it a forest was a stretch of the imagination. Humans before us had raped and rendered the land useless. This anomaly was only wrapping paper to cover what really hid here: criminals and diseases that made healthy people sick and dead people alive. He had to be insane to expect me to agree.

“What’s so funny?” He continued to dissect his rodent.

“Nothing.” I shook my head. “You live here? Alone?”

“Yes and no.”

Anger flared through me. He acted as if nothing had happened. “Just tell me what you want so we can go back to our lives. My dad works for the EA. He has access to money, or… whatever you want.”

Zombie Zone Guy laughed and finally looked up, flashing his blue eyes. “What good would money do me? Or your stuff?”

“You must want something.” I cringed at my words when he squinted, then his gaze fell to my chest, then to my bound wrists. I raised my bound hands to my boobs to hide the fact I wasn’t wearing a bra.

He inhaled slowly, his eyes losing focus. “This will all make sense soon. I promise.”

Deep desperation swelled over me like a drowning wave. I didn’t want things to make sense. I wanted to go home. “Just let me go.”

His eyes sharpened; the blue held the reflection of the fire. “You don’t want to go home yet. Trust me.”

“Trust you?” I held out my bound hands. “You must be insane.”

He stood and produced a knife from his belt loop.

I shrieked and shied away.

He sighed and held up his hands in surrender. “I don’t want to hurt you. I just want to cut the ropes off your wrists.”

My glance ping-ponged between the knife and his expressive blue eyes. I cursed myself for thinking he was cute originally. He was a monster.

I turned and fled down the trail, wanting nothing to do with him or his requests of trust. I’d chance things on my own.

“Abby!” he yelled. “Stop!”

The tears flew off at my temples as I ran with all my might. He not only knew my name, but where I lived, my birthdate, my advice meeting, my softball field. I wouldn’t be a victim of his stalkery. I would survive.

The path twisted and turned, the trail was covered with jagged rocks and roots on top of soft dirt. No matter how hard I dug my toes in to gain traction, his footfalls came closer. With a quick glance over my shoulder, I was airborne, then eating the dirt. Off balance, I flailed along, unable to slide as I was adept at doing in a game.

I smacked into a rock and a sickening crack reverberated up my arm, then pain. I howled, cupping my wrist. Zombie Zone Guy was at my side in an instant. He turned me over, his gestures gentle.

“Shit,” he mumbled, lightly touching my wrist.

Pulling away from him came to mind first, but I knew I’d just hurt myself further. His hands were rough, nothing like Landon’s. His calluses proved he didn’t live in Brighton, but off the land.

He worked the knot free then let my hands go. Then he tugged off his sweatshirt and yanked his shirt over his head. I gasped and attempted to move away, trapped between his muscled chest and the rock. As he ripped the seam of his shirt, I realized he wasn’t looking to attack me.

I waited, watching, as he fashioned something with the fabric. Then he wove it around my arm, and tied the two ends of the triangle at the nape of my neck. His fingers lingered longer than needed, then he brushed my cheek slow and gentle. My skin tingled under his hypnotic touch.

I immediately thought of Landon and his cocky struts around the pool before he’d soak Elle and me with a cannon ball. Zombie Zone Guy’s strong physique and sinew was undeniable to Landon’s soft pudgy middle. And his scent—tangy and earthy—this was nothing I’d smelled before. I hated myself for liking it.

“Can you walk?”

I startled at the nearness of his voice, lost in conflicting fantasies, and nodded.

He stood, then tugged me up by my good elbow, encouraging me to stand. Besides a nice layer of dirt embedded in my jammies, nothing else seemed to be damaged. He pulled his sweatshirt from his waist and rested it over my shoulders, his blue eyes sparkling as he watched me.

I studied him, questioning. The abduction the night prior and acts of kindness now were giving me whiplash, like he was two different people. Who was he kidding? One kind gesture wouldn’t erase the fact he’d kidnapped me.

“I’ve got it.” I yanked my arm from his grip.

He startled, then his sweet demeanor molded to stone. He backed away and scrutinized me as if I’d bolt again. I merely glared. He knew I couldn’t exactly run now. Forget being tied up, I’d effectively injured myself into becoming his prisoner whether I’d wanted to or not. With a gust of air, I left him there gawking and limped back to camp. His soft sigh came from behind me.

Once at the fire, I gingerly sat down and watched Zombie Zone Guy resume his spot across from me. I stared him down, keeping my eyes up and away from roaming the strange markings on his chest and abs. I wouldn’t let him in, ever. In a fit of frustration, I took off his sweatshirt, and flung it at him over the fire.

He grabbed it in flight and displayed even more machismo with all of his lean sinew, acting all nonchalant. I wanted to puke.

“How do you know my name?” I finally asked.

Instead of putting on the darn thing, he tucked the sweatshirt into his backpack as if he knew I was struggling with all the skin he’d shown, angering me even more.

“I just do,” he said disinterestedly, not offering up his own name.

“What’s happening that I shouldn’t want to go home?” When he didn’t answer, the fear his criminal friends were attacking and killing Brighton’s citizens seized me. Was I spared for a reason?

“No!” I sucked in a gasp. “Not my parents!”

He stiffened. “What do you mean? What’s wrong with them? Did you have a vision?”

A vision? I studied him, confused. “What do you mean a vision?”

His agitation melted back into his walled calm exterior. “I thought because of your reaction, you saw something.”

I crinkled my brow. There was only one person who had visions, and that was the Oracle. Strangely he knew about Advice Meetings, too, enough so to warn me not to attend mine.

Zombie Zone Guy pushed a stick into the fire. “It’s nothing. Never mind.”

“Stop this!” I demanded. “You can’t keep avoiding my questions.”

He looked up, peering deep into my eyes. “One question will lead to another, then another and you won’t be satisfied with the answers, I promise. Even if I knew everything, it’s better you don’t know yet.”

“And what? I’m supposed to just accept you’ve kidnapped me for my own good, because you’re sparing me from something bad that’s happening or going to happen in Brighton… Wait, basically, until you feel I’m fit to be graced with your knowledge, oh mighty one.”

He glared. “Something like that.”

I pushed out an annoyed breath. “Well that, sweetheart, is not going to happen.”

“This was your choice.” His voice was robotic, controlled.

“My choice?”

“I warned you not to attend your meeting and you went anyway. So… I had to save you before they took you.”

“Excuse me? You kidnapped me.”

“Saved you,” he corrected.

I laughed, a short clipped sound. “This is amazing. How’d you know all those things about me, anyway?”

His lips thinned. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Figures, coming from a criminal.”

His brow scrunched up like I’d insulted him. “Criminal?”

I didn’t understand why the label would be so shocking.

“Yeah.” I waved my hand outward to the forest. “The EA has banished you from society to survive on your own,” against the zombies and diseases, and stuff. “And you’ve magically survived.”

He laughed. “Is that what they tell you?”

“Of course. It’s why you’re here.”

“It would be easy to believe that when people disappear, isn’t it?” His eyes formed into slits. “My parents weren’t banished. They escaped from Brighton’s tyranny, Abby. We aren’t criminals.”

“Pschtt. Yeah, right. What could your parents possibly dislike? The clean water? The medical advances? The equality? The crime-free environment?”

“Forced sterilization for starters,” he said plainly.

My mouth hinged open and then shut, my cheeks heating. How stupid could I be? Here he was, staring at me with blue pools of endless water that I could gawk at forever, if I didn’t hate him so much. The reality he might not have been born made me shiver for a second. Could he be telling the truth? Could they really have merely escaped? I pushed down the notion to care, because that would make me want to empathize with him, which I refused to do. I was the victim here, and I wanted to go home.

“You’d already had doubts about going to your meeting,” he continued. “My warning should have stopped you. But being the stubborn girl that you are, you went anyway, and even when your Complement wasn’t on the list, you barged in and put your pretty little head between the EA’s crosshairs.”

I gasped, my legs feeling shaky, and pushed down the flattery tickling my belly at his mention of me being pretty, and exploded.

“How do you know all this? Are you a spy?” Then a more plausible explanation hit me. “You work for the EA.”

Zombie Zone Guy burst into biting laughter. “Hardly. And if you would have mentioned how much of a pain in the…” He quickly clenched his jaw shut.

My brain stuttered. What did he mean, if I would have mentioned?

“What did you just say?”

He swiveled to me, his face hard. “If I would have known what a pain in the ass you’d be, I would have just left you there to deal with it.”

“Me? A pain in the ass? Try looking in a mirror,” I huffed. “I didn’t ask for this.”

“You’re making saving your life very difficult,” he said, harshly. “How about a little gratitude?”

My eyebrows shot up. “I was doing just fine on my own, thank you very much.”

“Were you?” He chuckled. “How’d that meeting go anyway? I bet your Complement was everything you want to be in the future. Successful. Attractive. Happy. Who did she say you’d marry?”

I fought succumbing to my rage. How did he know which button to push? It was as if he’d read my thoughts before he used them against me. He had to be a plant. There was no other explanation.

“I’m done now.” I circled around, yelling into the trees at the EA agents who had to be standing by. “You can come out. I’ve clearly passed the test. I’m tired and injured if you can’t tell.” I lifted my sore wrist and waited for the troops in white to come out from hiding. Only the sweet chirping of birds greeted me.

Furious, I turned to Zombie Zone Guy. “I’m serious. Stop this and take me home.”

His brows pressed together. “This isn’t a test, Abby. I am telling you the truth.”

“The truth? I’ve heard nothing of the sort, and I’m so done being your hostage.”

His jaw clenched. “I cannot believe you…”

“Hostage?” another male’s voice said from behind me with a slight chuckle. “Wow.”

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 586