“I’ve seen worse,” Stefani said. She kept her sniper rifle up as she scanned the area. Her hood provided a level of camouflage that made Carlee’s old friend look like a ghost with a vendetta.
“There must have been thousands of people who lived here . . . and from the size of the prints, it must have been a first-generation Apostle. I don’t understand this.”
“They kill people. Not much to understand about it.”
“But why come down here and do this when there hasn’t been an Apostle out this way in years? Why do it by hand? And why be so precise? It didn’t leave anyone alive.”
“Almost no one,” Stefani said. “I got a read on someone not far from here.”
Carlee took one last look at the ten-foot-deep footprint in the middle of the shattered asphalt and followed the reading with her hood. A human was still alive, not too far from them. A golden indicator bounced in her vision, noting where the poor soul was.
“Let me guess—we have to go help it,” Stefani said. The lack of enthusiasm in her voice wasn’t surprising. Stefani had never enjoyed what she called Carlee’s projects, but Carlee had never enjoyed shooting people, so they made a good team.
“You read my mind.”
“Jane sent us out here to try to gather some clues about what happened, not to come back with another one of your projects.”
“We help people; I don’t need to remind you or Jane about that.” Carlee pushed toward the lone survivor with a sense of urgency. Given the nature of the deceased in the area, she wasn’t particularly hopeful about the status of the person her hood was leading them to.
“Take it easy,” Stefani said from a few steps behind.
“I think our new friend would appreciate it if we hurried.”
“And I’d appreciate it if—”
Carlee activated her gloves with a mental twitch, and two of the energy pistols strapped to her sides flew to her hands. She rolled forward as a leech rose from the ground in front of her and fired a red laser right through where her heart had been a moment before. She pulled up and aimed at the leech, but it exploded as an energy blast from Stefani’s rifle hit it in the side.
“—we could slow down,” Stefani finished. “In case you didn’t know, there’s something bad hiding behind the rubble.”
“Point taken,” Carlee said. “And thank you.”
“You don’t need to thank me, Carl.”
“But I always will.” She smiled at her friend. They had been together for years, and Carlee had stopped counting how many times Stefani had saved her life a long time ago. She returned the favor often enough, but it didn’t put her in any less of debt to her companion, who was far more loyal than Carlee deserved.
“Touching,” Stefani said. She didn’t lower her gun as they continued forward. It only took them a few minutes to reach their target, and luckily, no other leeches tried to kill them on the way.
“There he is.” Carlee rushed over to the man sprawled out in the road. He was missing an arm and a leg, and from his appearance, it looked like a miracle that his heart was still beating. Her hood scanned him over, popping up information about his vitals and blood counts.
“You sure know how to pick ’em,” Stefani said.
“It’s not as bad as it looks. He hasn’t lost much blood, his brain looks in good shape, and his vitals look stable.”
“That’s great news.” Stefani was too distracted looking for any other leeches to pay much attention to what Carlee was saying. That was fine; it wouldn’t do Carlee any good to save the man only to have a leech sneak up behind them.
“I think he might be in good enough shape to walk if we can wake him up. We’d have to get him some crutches, but I think we can work with this.” Carlee said.
“Why do you think that leech was waiting there for us?” Stefani asked, apparently uninterested in talking about the survivor when there were other matters at hand. “It’s not like them to just sit around waiting like that. It almost felt like a trap.”
“Now who is the one being paranoid?” Carlee checked the man over one more time before gently lifting his head and stroking his cheek. He was likely going to be in a state of shock when she woke him, so she took care to make it as gentle as possible. It wasn’t the first time she’d found people like this.
“I’m always the paranoid one,” Stefani said. “You’re the one with faith, remember?”
“Hello,” Carlee said, smiling at the man as his eyes slowly blinked open. “You’re safe. Don’t worry.”
His eyes went wide as he realized where he was, and he tried to get away. But he didn’t know how to compensate for the loss of limbs, and his body was weak. She easily kept him under control.
“You’re going to be OK. My name is Carlee, and we’re going to help you.”
He looked like he wanted to cry, but he didn’t have any liquids left in his system to generate tears. He tried to speak but only managed a raspy cough. He had short brown hair, scruff on his face, and eyes that had seen too much.
She smiled at him, and he dropped the knife from his hand, which Carlee hadn’t noticed him holding, letting it fall into the dust. He relaxed, and Carlee’s stomach knotted. So many of the people she helped didn’t deserve it, or they hated her for it, but he was different. In fact, this whole moment was different; it felt like the beginning of a path she was supposed to be on. She stared at him for a moment, stuck in a strange sense of familiarity that she had long ago learned to recognize as meaning something much more. It was only when he coughed that she remembered that he needed some immediate care.
“Stefani, do you have any water on you?”
“I used it all,” Stefani responded. She was farther away than before; apparently, she had moved on to other distractions.
“That’s fine.”
“Are you really going to risk it for some water?”
“He’s thirsty.”
“He’s going to be dead soon,” Stefani said. Her voice was growing closer again. “No point in getting us all killed.”
“We’ll be fine. Besides, he’s the first survivor we’ve found. Here, drink.” Carlee picked up the water bottle resting next to her and pressed it against the man’s lips, and he trembled as the refreshment poured into his dry mouth. He choked on it at first, but he forced the liquid down, drinking more and more.
“He’s going to throw it up,” Stefani said.
“You’re always so uplifting to be around,” Carlee said. She didn’t take her eyes off Jeff while he continued to drink.
“Cheery people end up dead.”
Unfortunately, Stefani was right about Jeff throwing up, so she helped to rotate him so that he wouldn’t make a mess on her uniform.
“Everyone ends up dead. I’m going to press a prosthetic leg and a crutch for him,” Carlee said to her companion.
“I’ll do it,” Stefani said. “And why not? An Apostle came through here yesterday, systematically killing everything that moved. What could go wrong with doing some pressing for a half-dead man?”
“The Apostle killed almost everyone,” Carlee corrected. “Everyone but him.”
The sentence nagged at her as she said it. It seemed odd that there would be only a single survivor, especially one who seemed to alter the paths before her. She couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more going on here than she realized.
“Thank you,” he said. His voice cracked, and Carlee smiled at him again. He was doing well, all things considered.
“And he speaks!” Stefani said.
He tried to push himself up to a better position, only to realize that he only had one arm. Carlee felt a swell of sympathy as she helped him up. She could ease all of his troubles, but she wasn’t sure what Jane would think about that. Besides, it was one thing to press in a water bottle; it was another altogether to press in mechanical prosthetics.