Colony East (3 page)

Finally, Brad’s gang was out there somewhere. She hoped the gang had forgotten about them, but, as a precaution, they needed to prepare for Brad’s return.

Abby sat opposite Mel and Jordan at the kitchen table.

“Mel’s not feeling well.” Abby told Jordan about Brad’s gang and what had happened. “Stay with her. I’m going to look for bandages and something to clean your cut.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m fine.”

Abby glowed inside. Stubbornness was a Leigh family trait, and Jordan’s attitude proved he was getting stronger. She had never seen her brother more agreeable than when he had been close to death.

“You can’t let it get infected,” she said. “The illness might have weakened your immune system. Even a small cut could be dangerous.”

He shook his head. “Abby, I can’t believe Mandy is here.”

She narrowed her eyes, wishing that he would be a little less stubborn.

Soap was almost as valuable as food and water, Abby thought, as she groped inside the dark cabinets below the sink, where her mom had often kept a spare bottle of dish liquid. No luck. Next, she checked the laundry room. On the island, they used detergent for bathing, saving one brand for their monthly shampoos because it stung the eyes less. Finding nothing, she looked inside the washing machine, but the well was clean of detergent residue.

Abby knew that alcohol killed germs. Remembering where her mother kept liquor, she rushed to the closet and reached up to the top shelf. She cursed the scavengers who had already found the whiskey.

Head down in near defeat, she entered the bathroom, not expecting to find much. Kids would have looked here first for medicines and toilet paper. Catching her reflection in the mirror, Abby gulped. She felt so much stronger than the ragged girl who stared back. She bared her teeth, and amused herself with the thought that she could scare Brad’s gang away with this face.

She swung open the medicine cabinet door and grabbed the only item on the shelf, which she quickly tossed on the floor. They didn’t have much use for an earwax removal kit.

All of a sudden, Abby’s knees buckled, and she gripped the sink to steady herself. The toilet was in one piece. Few toilets had survived the winter on Castine Island. The water in the bowl turned to ice and the expansion cracked the porcelain. How strange that a toilet could stir such a flood of emotions.

It reminded her of Kevin, the boy she had loved. Three months earlier, Kevin Patel had told the survivors on Castine Island that the water in toilet tanks was safe to drink. Not long after that, he had died from the epidemic.

Tingles bubbled deep inside and boiled over, and she erupted in a fit of giggles and sobs. Doubled over at the waist, Abby laughed so hard her stomach ached and cried so hard she felt her lungs might burst. Tears of absurdity mixed with tears of sorrow streamed down her cheeks.

A hand squeezed her shoulder. “What’s wrong?” Deep creases cut across Jordan’s brow.

Wiping away tears, Abby caught her breath and simply shook her head. He’d never believe her. “We need something to drink, and…”

He lowered his eyes. “I spilled the beer.”

“What?”

“It was an accident,” Jordan shot back.

Abby removed the tank lid. “We have plenty to drink.”

His eyes widened. “Kevin!”

Maybe now he’d understand her strange outburst. She cupped some water from the tank and brought her nose close to it. Dejected, she opened her fingers and let the water dribble out. “Bleach.”

Jordan pointed out the dispenser hooked over the lip of the tank. “Mom used these all the time. I’m sure the upstairs toilet has one too.”

Then she lit up with an idea. “Jordan, stick your hand in. The bleach will kill the germs.”

He immersed his cut. Blood dissolved in the water, turning it red.

Abby peered into the tank. “Is it working? Do you feel anything?”

“Does stinging count?”

She winked. “Mom’s looking out for us.” She quickly looked away because further eye contact with her brother would lead to more tears.

“Abby, I’m sorry about the beer.”

“Forget it. There wasn’t much left anyway. I’ve been thinking we could drink from the Charles River.” The river separated Boston from Cambridge. It was a half mile away.

Jordan swished his hand back and forth, making little wavelets. “Dad used to say that if you fell in the Charles, you’d need a tetanus shot.”

Abby smiled sadly. “The polluters are gone. I saw lots of kids camped along the river.” Then she swung the bathroom door closed and lowered her voice. “I need to talk to you about Mandy before she comes back.”

Jordan scoffed. “She left us to die. What more do I need to know?”

“When I went to the airport, there were thousands of kids ahead of me in line. Do you remember me going?”

He nodded reluctantly.

“I wasn’t sure I could live long enough to get a pill for myself. And if I did get pills, I had no idea how I’d get back to Cambridge. Jordan, you were dying.” He lowered his eyes, and she saw his lip quivering. “I met Timmy outside the airport. He came up to me and took my hand. We stuck together the whole time we waited. Later on, I heard motorcycles. Kenny rode by first. Then Mandy stopped and gave me two pills. One for me and one for you.”

Jordan chuckled coldly. “What, did she feel guilty that she left us to die?”

Abby ignored the comment. “She brought Timmy and me here on her motorcycle. We found you on the couch, and you weren’t breathing. I crushed the pill and put the powder into your mouth. We did CPR. I pumped your chest while Mandy gave you mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.” Abby paused to let that sink in. “She saved our lives.”

Jordan was silent for a few seconds. “Why would she give up pills? It makes no sense.” He shook his head. “Abby, there’s something she wants from us. Don’t be so gullible”

Abby took a deep breath. The only way Jordan would understand Mandy’s motivation was if she shared Mandy’s secret. The one she had confessed just before they left the airport.

“Jordan, after the night of the purple moon, the mainland was very different from Castine Island. Everyone panicked. Mandy was no exception.” Abby struggled to get the words out. “Mandy left her little brother in the woods.”

He cocked his head. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“He was three years old. She took him into the woods and left him there, because the older kids in her gang thought anyone under the age of nine was too hard to care for.”

Jordan pulled his hand from the tank. “She murdered him!” he cried.

“No!”

“Fine,” he hissed sarcastically. “She just left him in the woods to starve to death. Wait, was it in the winter? Then she left him to freeze to death. Abby, are you crazy? What more do you need to know? Did we abandon Toucan? What about Clive and Chloe? They were babies. Were they too hard to care for?”

“The mainland was different.”

Jordan glared. “If you and I had lived in Portland, would we have taken Touk out to the woods?” he muttered and looked away. “You know the answer.”

“Mandy will never forgive herself. Ever.”

“Good,” he fired back.

“Jordan, she made a mistake.”

“Some mistake.”

Even though Jordan had tuned her out, Abby had to finish telling him why she thought Mandy had changed, why she trusted her.

“Mandy gave us the pills because Timmy was with me. I saw the way she looked at Timmy. Mandy has a big heart and something about Timmy touched her. She’ll protect him. I know it.”

“She’ll leave him just the way she left her brother,” Jordan stammered.

Abby realized the revelation had intensified Jordan’s hatred of Mandy. Was her brother right? She couldn’t know for sure how Mandy would react in the future.

“Think what you want,” she said. “We need Mandy to make it to Castine Island. We all need to work as a team.”

He nodded. “We’ll use Mandy to help us find a boat, but there’s no way she’s going with us to the island. Timmy and Mel are welcome. I’m not inviting someone who murdered her own brother.”

Jordan opened the door and immediately jumped back. Mandy was standing right outside.

Abby gasped for breath, feeling as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. How long had she been standing there?

Mandy raised her hand. In it was a small knife. “I found this on the floor.” Her voice bled with sadness. All of a sudden she fixed an icy stare on Jordan, and he stared back. Abby saw that his hands were shaking until he anchored them against his legs. A chill rippled through Abby from the pure hatred in both their eyes. Mandy tossed the knife on the floor, turned and left.

Jordan gave her a knowing look. “Convinced now?” He picked up the knife and slipped it into his back pocket.

Of all the problems Abby was facing, Brad’s gang just fell to the bottom of the list.

CHAPTER FOUR

Jordan pressed back against the wall. Mandy perched on the kitchen counter to his right, higher up than he was. He figured she had chosen the spot to intimidate him. He avoided looking at her.

Sitting on the floor nearby, Timmy was building a tower of wooden blocks. The boy had found Jenga upstairs in Jordan’s old bedroom.

Mel sat mute at the table opposite Jordan, sniffling every now and then. He still found it hard to believe it was really Mel Ladwick. The most striking difference was her eyes. They were just haunted. What had she seen?

Abby was in the dining room looking for something to bandage his hand. He wished she’d hurry up.

Jordan looked at the bottle of murky water on the table and licked his lips. Mandy had supposedly collected rainwater from a blowup swimming pool in the yard where she’d hidden her motorcycle, but he had yet to take a drink. Even Mel, with her crazy eyes, too traumatized to talk, had taken a sip, but he refused to accept water from the girl who had murdered her little brother.

Jordan watched his hand slide forward as if it had a mind of its own. The pull of the water proved greater than his distrust of Mandy. He wrapped his fingers around the bottle and brought it to his lips. The sip pooled beneath his tongue and dirt stuck in the cracks between his teeth. He tilted his head back and let the muddy water sluice down his throat. It only nibbled at his thirst, and he wanted more, but he wouldn’t give Mandy the satisfaction.

He turned his attention to the pile of mostly dead bugs—an assortment of wings, legs, heads, and bodies of squished crickets and grasshoppers that Timmy had pulled from his pocket in two fistfuls. Timmy had collected the bugs in the front yard, which he called cricket heaven. Jordan thought how the epidemic had destroyed much of the human population, but other species were thriving as a result. A grasshopper leg twitched. He put a pinch of unmoving parts in his mouth and started chewing. Disgusting! But the protein would make him stronger. He swallowed too soon and felt spiny appendages sticking in the back of his throat.

With an aftertaste of insects lingering, Jordan glanced at the basement door and thrilled at a sudden memory of creamy chocolate, sugary raisins, chewy fillings. He nearly blurted out that he knew about a candy stash. Two Halloweens ago, he had gotten a large haul—two pillowcases filled to the brim—and worried that Mom would confiscate the candy, he had hidden some in a shoebox in the one place that she refused to enter: the messy basement. Candy was way better than bugs, but with Mandy around, he’d keep the stash a secret for now.

“Look!” Timmy shouted. With gleaming eyes, he added a new Jenga block to the tower. At least three feet tall, the tower wobbled and then toppled. “Anyone want to play with me?”

Mandy hopped off the counter and sat next to Timmy. Jordan shook his head, seeing Mandy’s red-rimmed eyes and wet cheeks. Instead of staring him down as he imagined, she’d been crying. She wiped her eyes and added a block to the tower. Something inside Jordan softened, and he felt the pull to join them. Then he tightened his stomach and pushed back in his chair, reminding himself what Mandy had done to her brother.

Abby returned with a strip of cloth and a safety pin. As she wrapped his wound, Jordan’s thoughts returned to the candy in the basement. How could he get it and then share it with everyone except Mandy?

Abby addressed the group. “I don’t think we should stay here. The kids who chased Mel might come back. We can go to the O’Brien’s house next door.”

“Nobody’s going to mess with us,” Mandy said.

“Abby, you’re right.” Jordan nodded to his sister. “We should switch houses.”

Mandy shook her head. “There are gangs everywhere. Anytime we move, they might see us. I’m not worried about four kids.”

He faced her and blurted, “We’ll go, you stay here.” He spoke without thinking. How then would he get the candy in the basement?

“We’re staying together,” Abby spat as she shot Jordan a nasty look. “Someone should keep a lookout.”

“I’ll do it.” Timmy playfully knocked over the tower of blocks and skipped away to the front door.

Mandy took a seat beside Jordan. “How’s your hand feel?”

He slid his chair a few inches away and ignored her question. “Abby, we need to get pills, right? We have to go to the airport.”

Mel choked on a sudden sob. They all waited to see if she had something to say, but Mel just lowered her eyes.

“After we get the pills, we need to find a boat,” Jordan continued.

“I can’t swim,” Timmy shouted from his post.

“I’ll teach you,” Jordan told him.

Abby gave Timmy a reassuring smile. “Jordan’s a good sailor. We won’t capsize.”

“You should wear a life jacket,” Mandy said in a concerned tone.

Jordan sneered, making sure Mandy saw his cold expression. Her comment smacked of incredible insincerity. She leaves her baby brother in the woods to starve or freeze to death, and now she wants to make sure Timmy wears a life jacket. Maybe Abby was right. The guilt was eating Mandy alive.
Eat away!

He turned to Abby. “The first place to check for a boat is the Charlestown Yacht Club.” They had both taken sailing lessons there. “Some people used to put their boats in the water in March, and one of those would be perfect, because I need to find one with a hull that ice hasn’t damaged. They stored sails inside the club, and some of the boats might have a spare mainsail below deck too. We won’t get far without a good mainsail.”