Tuck sat in the cab by himself as he worked his way through forest again. The tension was obvious in the back, between the three of us, but there was a much more important task at hand than worrying about emotions and feelings.
But I hadn’t forgotten that I was supposed to have made a decision by now. We’d arrived at what might be our final destination and I hadn’t made up my mind.
I felt unprepared as Avian checked the map and we pulled over less than an hour after we had left the rest of the group. As the houses started to crop up, we parked it next to a few other vehicles that had been long abandoned. We all hunted around for stones of any size and stacked them up directly behind the truck. A message to those who might come looking for us.
Thankful for a nearly full moon to see by, we set out at a jog, each in a hurry to get this suicidal task over with. I had to constantly remind myself to slow down. Not all of us were machines.
The houses seemed so forlorn, their windows empty and hollow. All of the families that had once lived there now didn’t care about their upkeep, didn’t laugh or tell stories within their walls. The houses were all just overgrown pieces of a dead history now.
When we had looked at the map all I saw was city after city stacked together, crammed into such a small space. As we came into the center of the first one, my blood chilled. We slowed as we moved past the buildings, Avian and Tuck’s eyes growing wide.
“You were right,” Avian breathed as he cautiously walked up to a building. Dozens of Fallen stared back out at us, their eyes inactive and empty. “They’re just standing there.”
“They look like they’re just waiting for something,” Tuck said, going nowhere near the building.
“Let’s not find out what for,” I said as I started back down the cracked road.
We jogged for as long as Tuck, Avian, and West could breathe for. Tuck held his side as we slowed, Avian’s breathing became heavy, and West struggled to keep up. I wondered what it would be like to feel physical exhaustion. At times I could be grateful for all the enhancements I had received and developed.
I wasn’t sure how they defined one city from the next. It all just seemed like one endless city that kept repeating over and over. And everywhere empty eyes watched us.
We had just turned a corner when I stopped dead in my tracks, West plowing into me from behind, Avian and Tuck nearly tripping over him. The barrel of a shotgun was pressed tightly to my chest.
THIRTY-ONE
“Who are you?” a thickly built man with graying hair demanded. “How’d you get here?”
“We walked,” I started, holding my hands up, despite the weaponry that hung all over my body. “We’ve traveled from the east and found your sign. We came looking, to see if there was anyone still alive.”
The man’s eyes grew wider in awe. He lowered his gun slightly. Now it was just pointed at my feet. “We haven’t seen anyone else in well over a year. We weren’t sure there was still anyone left.”
“There are more of us,” Avian started. “We’re only part of a fairly large group. Half are still back east. The rest of us are hidden about sixty miles from here.”
He watched us warily and I knew what he was thinking. He was trying to determine if we were human. “You’re coming with me.”
We glanced at each other, knowing we were going to have to be careful. Who knew what to expect.
It was then that we noticed the vehicle that was parked behind him. It was much more rounded than all the other cars I had seen. The front seat where the driver sat was encased with a custom looking glass bubble. The rest of it was a bed similar to the one on our truck. As I climbed in I understood its set up. In case they ever ran into any Fallen and were tricked, they were safely separated in the bubble.
I was confused as the man started down the street. I was expecting the normal engine noise I knew a vehicle should make. This one was soundless.
“Electric,” West said when he saw my confusion. “Now I believe you owe Avian and I an apology?”
“For what?” I asked, furrowing my brow.
“For doubting, for telling us we were wrong. There’s people here. Apparently more than one considering he said ‘we’.”
I just shook my head and watched the buildings as they whipped by. Avian, who sat smashed against my side in the tight quarters of the small vehicle, slipped his hand into mine. The familiar feeling of peace immediately started sinking into me, but even that wasn’t enough to reassure me that everything was going to be okay.
Eyes watched us as we sped down the crumbling streets. I watched for signs of other life, surely this man was not alone out here. But I didn’t see any, just the sad reminders of the empire the human race had once had.
“Where do you think he is taking us?” Tuck asked.
“It will be somewhere incredibly secure,” I said as I continued to observe. “They probably don’t have enough CDU’s to give to each of their scouts. I’m sure he’s taking us wherever there is one.”
Avian’s hand tightened around mine and I noticed how he readjusted his hold on his rifle. Unease washed over me. Not for fear that I might be shorted out in the next hour, but that Avian might do something stupid trying to protect me.
“Don’t,” I whispered to him, though keeping my eyes straight forward. I shook my head just slightly.
“I’m not going to let them do anything to you,” he said as he too kept his eyes forward.
“But I’ll never forgive you if you get yourself killed because of me,” I said quietly, giving his hand a small squeeze.
“Same goes here,” he said as he glanced over at me for just a moment.
We drove for not more than ten minutes when I started seeing them. Humans, standing on top of the towering buildings, watching us from above. Each was heavily armed and looked like they knew how to use their weapons. But despite the fear I knew they must be feeling, I saw the light in their eyes. Was it true that they hadn’t seen any other outsiders in over a year?
We slowed down as we approached a building that had levels upon levels and spanned massively in both directions.
“A real hospital,” Avian breathed as he studied it.
The vehicle we sat in pulled around to the back of the hospital and straight into a huge door. As we stopped inside, it closed behind us.
There were five armed men just inside the door. They each looked as surprised to see us as the first man had been.
“Where’s Royce?” the man who had brought us here asked as he climbed out of the glass bubble. He indicated for us to climb out, his gun pointed at our backs. I wondered if he realized how ridiculous he looked with his one single shotgun when we each had at least three firearms on us.
“He’s upstairs,” one of the men answered him. He stared wide eyed at me. I wondered if anyone could tell that I was different just by looking at me.
“That way,” he said as he prodded West in the back with the barrel. We started walking.
As we walked I noticed that there were rows and rows of vehicles in this concrete expanse of a room. Each of them were shiny and beautiful. They had picked through the best of all the cars, trucks, and vans they could find.
We walked to a large silver rectangle in the wall. The man pressed a button next to it and as it depressed into the wall, it lit up. A few seconds later I jumped, my hands grabbing my hand gun, when the silver wall suddenly opened. I calmed down slightly when Avian and Tuck both stepped inside the box that had opened. The rest of us entered as well and the man pressed another button inside. We started rising.