I approach the Z quickly and swing my ASP wide. It comes around to connect solidly with the side of the zombie’s skull where it makes a disgusting thunk sound. Not a crack like it should, but the soft tissue noise of the metal sinking into the rotted out mush that is this guy’s face. I’ve probably damaged his brain, but I definitely haven’t destroyed it.
“Need help?” Vin asks, sounding bored.
He doesn’t sound like he’ll actually give help if I need it. It sounds more like a taunt than anything else. I ignore it and him.
I take a step back as the zombie stumbles toward me, then I bring the ASP toward him on a backhand. It hits him in the face, right in the eye, and the force of the blow snaps his head back. I take the opening to put my foot in his gut. He lands on his back on the ground, his broken, grappling fingers clawing at the air to find me. I quickly circle around to his head and bring my ASP down hard on his face twice, using the hard ground under him to solidify my blows.
“How did you ever survive out here alone with skills like that?” he asks.
“Shut up. I’m good.”
“You’re slow.”
I stow my weapon before casting him a smirk. “Am I?”
Before he can answer, I’m gone. I’m running.
Vin is good at a lot of things: overthrowing a dictatorship, taking out zombies, wooing women, getting stabbed, singing show tunes. But what Vin is not good at, what he’s gotten soft on, is cardio. He’s lived too long and too cushy inside The Hive. He hasn’t had to run for his life on a regular basis for years, and while he’s still in great shape, he’s not in as good of shape as me. Not even close.
The second my foot hits the grass of the park, though, I throw on the brakes. I barely maintain my balance, and when Vin slams into my back we both stumble forward. His arms go around me to keep me standing but instead of feeling closed in or freaked out, I’m amazed. I’m too shocked to notice anything but what I see in front of me.
The woods are full. There are tents peppered in with the trees, sections of tall grass have been trampled down to make what looks like a small road, but most importantly is this: there are people. Lots of people.
“What’s happening?” I breathe.
“I don’t know,” Vin replies, his voice low and tight near my ear. “But we’re about to find out.”
“Hold it right there!” a man shouts, jogging toward us.
We’ve been noticed. How could we not be? We came barreling toward this place at full speed right out in the open, and as stupid as it sounds, I thought it was safe. I never thought in a million years that the Colonists would take the woods. Why would they want it? It’s out in the open, it’s vulnerable, it’s dangerous. What are they doing here?!
“Are they the cannibals you sided with?” Vin asks me.
I shake my head. “No. There are too many and they wouldn’t come out in the open like this.”
“Colonists,” he growls.
“I think so.”
“Who are you?” the man asks, slowing as he approaches us.
I look him over quickly, checking for weapons. So far his hands are empty but I recognize the matte black shell of a gun on his hip. When I glance at Vin I see him eyeing it too.
“No one,” Vin tells him calmly.
The guy frowns at Vin, his eyes on his neck. On the tattoo openly displayed. “You’re Hive.”
“What of it?”
“You should leave. This isn’t your fight.” The guy sneers at Vin. “Nothing ever has been.”
Vin takes a menacing step toward him, ignoring the gun. “You think you know something about me?”
“I know about your kind. You’re as good as Colony which means you’re an enemy and you should leave before I put you down.”
The guy’s hand is resting on the gun now. I don’t know if Vin believes he has bullets for it, but as the man’s words sink in, I realize I believe it. 100 percent. As though that very gun were pressed against my forehead.
“You’re a Vashon,” I say quickly.
The guy’s eyes flicker to me. “Yeah. I’m from the island. Who are you? A Hive whore?”
I narrow my eyes at him. “No. I’m Joss.”
“What’s a joss?”
“The girl about to kick your ass if you call me a whore again.”
I can’t see his face, but I hear Vin snicker.
“Sure,” the guy replies sarcastically. “Why don’t you and your man pack it up? No one here is shopping for what you’re selling.”
“Where’s Crenshaw?” I demand.
That gets his attention. He steps back from Vin, looking at me with interest.
“How do you know Crenshaw?”
“How do you know Crenshaw?” I fire back.
“He was one of the founders of the island. Every Vashon knows about Berny Crenshaw.”
“Berny?” I nearly choke on the sheer normalcy of it.
“How do you know him?” he repeats.
“He’s a friend.” I shrug, feeling weird using the word.
The guy looks doubtful but he hollers over his shoulder for someone to get Berny and bring him to the perimeter. When he looks back at me his hand is still on his gun and his eyes are narrowed.
“We’ll see how your story shakes out in a minute, won’t we?”
“You’re way less fun than the other Vashons I’ve met.”
“When have you ever met a Vashon before?”
“I was on your island.”
“We don’t allow Hive on our island. Ever.”
“I told you, I’m not Hive. And I was there to meet with your council.”
His eyes harden. “You’re one of the three. The ones who sold us out to the Colony.”
“No, that was…”
Oops.
“Who then?”
I glance nervously at Vin. “No one.”
“It was Marlow,” Vin tells him plainly. “He sold everyone out. It’s why The Hive has fallen.”
“That’s not the story we’re hearing here.”
“What story is that?”
“That The Hive tried to take a Colony. That the Pod cleared out before they could get their claws in it. That the Colonies are marching on that Pod right now.”
“The Colonists are attacking the Pod in the north?” I ask incredulously. “How did they kn—”
“Athena!”
I look past the guy to the tents of roughspun cotton in raw colors. To the clean, easy moving people around them. To the break in the crowd that has formed around a great, white wizard. He has his staff, his robe with the little blue sailboats, and the biggest smile I’ve ever seen on his face. He looks at home here with these people. Like Merlin at Camelot.
“Crenshaw,” I say with relief.
“Come, child! Come,” he calls, beckoning me forward.
I glare up at the guy who held us back, tempted to flip him off as I pass. Vin follows slowly behind me as I make my way into the forest I don’t recognize anymore. The air feels different. There’s so much more movement in it. It’s so much more alive. There are smells I don’t know and some I thought I’d never know again. And there are so many people. The park is swarming with them but they don’t feel like insects. They don’t make me cringe like Risen or Colonists or cannibals lurking in the dark. It feels… I don’t know. Almost good.
Crenshaw hugs me for the second time this year and I’m worried I’ll get used to it. I might even like it a little. When he releases me I can’t get over how happy he looks. The man is literally glowing.
“You have done well, Athena,” he tells me in a hushed tone. “I did not believe it possible, but you have proven me wrong. You have made me a believer. Perhaps I always should have been.”
“Cren, what’s going on? That guy—”
“Ah, yes,” he interrupts, nodding to the jerk who called me a whore. “The soldiers at the perimeter. They are imperative. The gates to Hell have been flung open. Wraiths are again a danger. But these soldiers, they have made my home a safer place than it has ever been. I owe them a great debt.”
“Not that one,” I mutter. “That one gets nothing.”