Away From the Sun (2 page)

But the more I ponder it, the less I think it would be the way he claims. The people there already have their view of me. The thought of me killing Skip is still fresh in their minds. That’s not something that goes away easily. Even if I did go back, would it be the same? Gabe would be there, that’s comforting. Except now he’s apparently madly in love with me.
 

I sigh and close my eyes. I think about listening to the people outside the window to hear what they are saying, but I decide not to. Their laughter makes me jealous. I can turn off my super hearing anytime I wish, but I can’t drown out normal noises. Hearing their happiness makes me sad and I wish that I could make myself deaf, if only for the night.
 

I might have slept two hours. I find myself up and ready to go before sunrise. My thoughts throughout the night wouldn’t leave me alone. It’s so stupid. The guilt running through me is unlike anything I’ve felt before. I know I have no ties to Stephen, but I also know that I can’t just let him go to this meeting by himself. I’m not sure what it was, but something he said to me last night has stuck. I won’t forgive myself if I don’t go.
 

I make my way out of my room and down a flight of stairs to the building’s entrance. When I walk through, I find myself in an almost empty parking lot in the middle of the compound. The only person out here is Stephen. His head jolts up to me when he sees me open the door and his teeth flash in the early morning sunlight as he smiles.

“Good morning,” he says, lifting a bag into the back seat of an SUV. “On your way out early?”

“I’m going with you,” I say.
 

He raises an eyebrow and closes the back door softly.
 

“What changed your mind?”

I shrug. “Well, you know, I like putting myself into potentially dangerous situations. The idea of meeting someone that calls himself Shadowface is just irresistible. I like doing things with people that could put me in the grave by the end of the night.”

“Okay, okay,” he says, raising a palm in the air. “I get it.”

“I want to figure out who this guy is,” I say honestly. “Since the day I heard about him I’ve wanted to know who he is and what he’s up to.”

Stephen nods, opens the front door, and motions for me to get into the seat.
 

“I want my weapons,” I say.
 

“Already in the vehicle,” he says with a grin.

“Am I that predictable?” I ask, getting into the SUV.
 

He closes the door, circles around the front, and finally sits behind the wheel. “You aren’t predictable so much as readable,” he says. “I knew the moment that I asked you to go with me that you wanted to. I knew it would just take some time alone to think about it.”

“Well, you lay the guilt trip on pretty thick.”

He turns on the SUV and we begin to roll forward. He brings the radio to his mouth and orders a guard to open a gate for him. When the guard asks where he’s going, Stephen simply tells him to stay sharp and be aware of any movement in the town. It’s not two minutes later, and about a mile out of town that Stephen gets another call on the radio.

“We’ve got a vehicle sitting a couple of blocks from the gate, boss,”
the guard says.
“Just came up. Looks like there’s three of them.”

“I swear, they want me to micromanage everything,” he says to me. He presses the radio button. “Deal with it. If they’re friendly, let them in. If you have any doubt, turn them away. Either way, make sure you have back up near you.”

“Ten-four.”

“More guests?” I ask.
 

“It’s odd,” he says. “Seems like the longer we stay here, the more people forget that we’re at the epicenter of the outbreak. Travelers seem to wander aimlessly until they finally find a place to stay, and they don’t care where it is so long as it looks safe.”

Tell me about it,
I think to myself. I look at Stephen, most notably at his ring finger on his left hand. The gold glints in the morning sunlight and he twists it in a circular motion with his thumb, seemingly out of habit. Normally, I don’t care to ask people about their past. It’s always the same story. It’s always about loss. But something comes over me.
 

“Your wife know you’re out here?” I ask, nodding to his ring.

At first, he gives me a confused look, but his face softens when he can tell that I’m looking at his wedding band. “Oh,” he says. “No. She died.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I say.
 

“It was tough to deal with,” he says. “Still is.”

I look away from him and study the landscape in front of us. As we leave the city of Elkhorn, we travel through land that is familiar. How many times have I driven on this road with friends from college? How few were the days that I was on this road to go back home to visit my parents and sister?

“You know,” he says, “for being located at the Epicenter, we sure did get a lot of raiders when we started our little group. For a while, they were more dangerous than the greyskins. One night they raided us…”

“Stephen,” I say, reaching out and touching his arm. “You don’t have to tell me.”

He swallows hard. “One night a group of raiders came after us,” he continues, “and we just weren’t ready for it. They kidnapped several in the group, all of them women. One of them was my wife. It soon became clear that there was no intention of ransom. They continually threatened that if we got anywhere near them, they would kill them.” He shakes his head, keeping his eyes fixed on the road. “What could we do, you know? We knew what was going on. We knew what the raiders wanted. We decided not to let them have it. We staged a rescue attempt.” He swallows again, perhaps holding back tears. “It might just be the first time in history that a raider was true to his word. The second they caught wind of us, it was over. The women…my wife…they were all dead.”

I feel sick to my stomach.

“The raiders got away, too,” he says. He looks at me. “Where’s the justice in that, you know?”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” are the only words I can think to say. What does someone say to
that?
I feel angry for him. As if the world wasn’t hell already…why did people have to turn against each other when the greyskins were the true enemies? It just makes me wonder if those that became raiders after the outbreak were already bad people, or if they were just surviving the only way they knew how. They started by lying, stealing, killing. And the more they did it, the less they saw people as people. Their lusts and desires took over them. Is that evil nature within all of us?
 

The clock on the dashboard reads 7:52 when I see the first sign for Sealy. Once I realize that it’s only a mile away, my heart begins to beat a little faster. When we reach the city limits, I see an all too familiar sight. Though I’ve never been through Sealy, it is the same as everywhere else. Everything looks about thirty years older than it actually is. Soot and decay clings onto all the buildings, and roads are cracked through the middle. Near the center of the town is a wall made of
 
concrete and various other large objects. It is only a little more secure than Elkhorn’s compound.
 

This is it? This is all there is to Shadowface’s hideout?
“Seems pretty sad for Shadowface,” I say. “I figured it would be a bit more fortified than this.”

“This is probably just a meeting place,” Stephen says. “I doubt he stays here.”

It makes sense. Why would Shadowface direct us to his personal lair? Though, this place is undoubtedly under his control. Apart from a few greyskins that we pass on the way to the wall, the entire town seems empty. Even the little bit I can see beyond the wall is stark with very little life.
 

We’re about fifty feet away when a guard signals for us to stop. He’s big and buff, holding a large rifle in his arms.
 

“You’re not carrying any weapons on you right now are you?” I ask Stephen.
 

“No,” he says. Before he opens the door to step out, he looks at me with caution in his eyes. “Stay sharp. Who knows what this could turn into.”

“Exactly why I didn’t want to come with you,” I say as he opens the door. I open mine too, and the sight of us both seems to make the guard nervous. He points his gun at us, and we both throw up our hands in the air.
 

“My name is Stephen. I’m here under Shadowface’s direction.”

“We were only expecting
you
,” the guard says to Stephen.
 

“She is a friend,” he says. “We’re just here to negotiate.”

The guard at the top of the wall picks up his radio. Any normal human being wouldn’t understand what he was saying from this distance. But I turn my head slightly and focus on him.
 

“The leader of Elkhorn is here,” he says quietly. “He has brought a friend with him. A woman. Do you still want me to let them pass?”

There is a brief pause before someone, a man, answers.
“Frisk them. Escort them to the meeting room.”

“Copy that,” the guard says.
 

“Maybe you coming here wasn’t such a good idea,” Stephen whispers to me.

“It’s all right,” I say, hands still in the air. We watch as the guard leaves the top of the wall to open the front gate. “They aren’t going to stop us from coming in. Remember, Shadowface never told you that you couldn’t bring anyone.”

“That’s right,” he says, nodding.
 

The front gate creaks open. This time there are more guards—four of them, each with a large gun and muscles that are so big they almost look fake. The man from the top of the wall walks ahead of the rest and instructs Stephen and me to turn around. Hands still in the air, we do what he asks. I watch as he checks Stephen for a weapon. It’s no shock that when he gets to me he takes his time. His hands rub up and down my legs and around my chest two or three times. I bite my lip, fighting the urge to kick him in the face. When I look at Stephen again, I can tell his distaste for Shadowface’s men is already growing.

I shake my head at him. “What do you expect?” I say to Stephen. My eyes go from him to the first guard. “Pigs.”

The guard meets my stare with a smirk on his face. “Shadowface likes us to be thorough.”

“I’m sure you don’t mind it either,” I say.
 

“Come on. The boss is waiting.”

I take a step forward and it feels surreal. Only days ago, I was studying the journal in Crestwood, trying to make sense of who this Shadowface person was. Now, I’m about to come face-to-face with him? Wouldn’t someone called Shadowface want to remain in the shadows? Wouldn’t he want to keep his identity a secret?

As we walk forward, I try to scan the surrounding area for noises, whispers. I look at the buildings, searching for someone giving instructions to other guards. Perhaps I might hear Shadowface devising his plot behind the scenes. If I can locate such a voice, it would give us an edge in the negotiations. If, that is, negotiations are what Shadowface has in mind.

The gate closes and in our short walk to one of the nearest buildings, I hear nothing. The guards escort Stephen and me up a flight of stairs and down a long, dark hallway. The place is dirty, and creepy. I feel like it’s the sort of place where a greyskin could jump out at any moment. I hate the feeling, especially since I don’t have a gun on me. I glance to my left at Stephen and he lifts an eyebrow. No doubt he’s unsure of his decision to bring us here. I’m already starting to second-guess my decision.
 

The guards lead us to a room with a table and a few chairs. There is no window, but there is a single light that hangs loosely from the ceiling. On the other side of the room is another door. The guards tell us to have a seat and that someone will be with us in a few minutes. When they close the door behind us, I can’t help but scan the room until my eyes fall on Stephen again.
 

“I feel like I’m on one of those old cop shows where the police sit and monitor the prisoners before the interrogation,” I say.
 

“Well, at least there’s no two-way mirror,” he says.
 

“Doesn’t mean there isn’t a camera or a microphone or something,” I say as I bend down to have a look under the table. Nothing but gum and pencil marks.

I sit up straight and set my elbows on the table in front of me. I hold my chin in my palm to make it look like I’m resting, but really I don’t want Stephen to notice that I’m craning my neck to get a better listen behind the door across from us.
 

This place is unfamiliar to me, so it takes a few seconds before I locate some noise. I can hear two people talking. A man and a woman.
 

“Just act as you normally would,” the woman says to the man.
 

“I still think I should test the waters,” he says. “I’ll be able to see if they are easily intimidated.”
 

“No,” she answers.
 

She’s clearly the one in charge,
I think to myself.
 

“You know,” the man says, “sometime soon you are going to have to flex some muscle. Fear is a powerful emotion.”

“It’s a reckless emotion, Samuel.”

Samuel.

“When people are afraid, they tend to do stupid things. We don’t want them to do something stupid. We want them to trust us.”

Samuel doesn’t seem to respond. Perhaps he nods, or even shrugs. I turn my head away the moment I hear footsteps.
 

“Someone’s coming,” Stephen says.
 

“Don’t trust him,” I say to Stephen.
 

He looks at me, his forehead crinkled in confusion.
 

“The guy that’s coming in here,” I say. “Don’t trust him. He’s just going to say things that you want to hear.”

“How do you know that?”

But I don’t have time to answer before the door opens in front of us and a man comes walking in. He is tall and thin. His hair is cut short, almost shaved, and a five o’clock shadow darkens his jaw. His eyebrows seem sharp as they dart downward, darkening his already brown eyes.