Rage Within (36 page)

He waited until his fingers were numb and he could no longer feel most of his appendages. So cold. Finally, when he couldn’t take it anymore, he poked his head up a little higher, wiping the leaves and junk from his eyelashes, and took a quick peek.

The yard was empty.

Yanking on Aries, he brought her up too. She was shivering like crazy. Rubbing her hands against her body to try and keep warm. Leaves and twigs tangled in her hair.

“Next time I get to pick the hiding spot,” she said as her teeth chattered.

Carefully, making as little noise as possible, they climbed out of the abandoned pool and stood on the tiles, listening to the night and for any sounds of impending danger.

They could hear shouts from halfway down the block as the Baggers continued their search.

“Come on,” Aries said, breathing on her hands to try and send the numbness away. “Let’s go. If I get pneumonia, I’m coming back to haunt you.”

He took her fingers and rubbed them between his own hands. “If we get out of here alive, I’m buying you the biggest, hottest cup of coffee you’ve ever seen.”

She smiled. “You’re on.”

CLEMENTINE

They waited in the new safe house, sitting in the living room, weapons close by just in case. Claude had agreed to stand first watch, and she wondered if he would even bother coming back. She had yet to hear him say more than a few words since he’d arrived with Larisa.

Eve was asleep again, her head in Raj’s lap, drooling enough to soak a quarter-sized spot on his leg.

An hour passed.

She went through the cupboards for something to do and was rewarded with some warm cans of Coke. She passed them out, and Raj drank his in a few gulps while Joy placed hers on the table and just stared at it sullenly.

No one talked. There wasn’t anything left to say.

Even Colin looked lost without his Game Boy.

Poor Michael. How must he be feeling right now, knowing that he’d brought the Baggers right into their hiding spot? How dare one of them pretend to be her brother, Heath. Even weirder, how on earth did they know about Heath to begin with?

Daniel must have been feeding them information all this time.

The revelation hit her like a slap to the face. How were they supposed to trust anyone? Baggers or not, who’s to say they wouldn’t all turn into betrayers if they were given no other way out?

What if one of them had already done something? She studied Colin for a while, watching the way he crunched his empty Coke can between his hands. She didn’t trust him, never had, but she still didn’t think he’d go out of his way to rat them out.

Trust.

They’d have to learn it all over again.

And it was going to be hard. But still completely necessary.

A soft knock at the door broke her concentration. Flying out of her chair, she grabbed hold of her baseball bat, wishing for the millionth time she hadn’t given Aries her Taser.

Raj beat her to the door, pulling back the window curtain slightly. His shoulders instantly relaxed. He unlocked the dead bolt and let them in.

Both Michael and Aries were soaked. Water dripped from their hair, which was covered with leaves and dirt clumps. They looked like soggy water monsters.

A short burst of laughter escaped her lips before she could even think about it.

“Are you suggesting I’m not my usual hot self?” Michael said through chattering teeth. He came straight for her, wrapping his freezing arms around her and embracing her in a bear hug before she could even think to try and stop him.

“You’re getting me soaked,” she protested.

“Misery loves company,” he said, refusing to let go.

Even though the cold dampness transferred to her own clothing, she was still filled with a warm glow of happiness. She wanted to hold on tight to him and never let go. But that
feeling went away quickly enough when she realized Aries and Michael had arrived alone and what their embrace must be doing to Joy. She pulled back, smiling at him, but firmly enough that he let her go.

Joy had stood up, waiting in the middle of the room, a strange look on her face.

“I’m sorry,” Aries said. “We tried but there were too many of them.”

Joy nodded. The tears were thick in her eyes. “Thanks,” she said with a soft voice. “You did your best.”

Aries opened her mouth to say something more but didn’t. Clementine went over to her friend and tried to put her arm around her, but Joy shrugged her off.

“Do you think it’s safe enough here to spend the night?” she asked in a hollow voice.

“Yeah, safe enough,” Michael said. “They didn’t follow us. We doubled back and forth a few times to make sure. I’m probably going to be sick as hell the next few days, but it was worth it. Besides, I’ve always got Clem to be my nurse.”

Clementine made a tsking noise with her teeth. “I’m not going near you if you’re sick.”

He grinned at her wickedly. She loved it.

“Then I’m going to go lie down for a bit,” Joy said. “No offense, but I kinda want to be alone.”

They all nodded. They understood.

“And I need to find some dry clothes,” Aries said. “I’ve never been so cold in my life.”

“Hope they have some good brand names in the closet,” Michael said. “I won’t cover my frozen skin with anything less than Louis Vuitton.”

“That’s a purse, dumb ass,” Clementine said.

“Wow,” Michael said as he put his arms around her again.
“My girlfriend knows both cars and clothing. She’s a dream come true.”

She laughed. It was a good sound and it made her feel warm inside, despite the icy fingers on her waist.

“It’s good to have you back,” she said.

ARIES

She waited until they were all asleep before scribbling a quick note and sneaking out into the darkness. There were still a few hours to go before light and she wanted to get down to the water before it might be too late.

It was a stupid idea and she knew it. But she had to know for sure.

She’d managed to find some new clothing. Nothing nice, just a pair of men’s sweatpants and an oversized hoodie, but it was warm. The shoes she wore were a few sizes too big and she had to stuff some tissues in the toes, but they were dry. She wasn’t about to start being choosy at this point. They could always find new clothes. There were an abundance of stores from which to pick.

She rubbed her fingers against the glass vial of sand in her pocket. It soothed her, making the anxiety a little less painful.

Kitsilano Beach was quiet. Even the waves didn’t seem to be making much noise. She walked through a pile of litter, kicking at a discarded Sprite can, as she headed toward the park bench, keeping her guard up just in case.

She needed to know.

Ahead of her, she could see the figure waiting. She approached him cautiously, the baseball bat tight between her clenched fingers. As she drew closer, she recognized the shape of his back, and her shoulders tightened. He didn’t turn around, even when she stopped a few feet away.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Daniel,” he said. The waves washed quietly against the shore, and in the distance she heard a seagull cry.

“What does that mean?” she asked.

Daniel turned slowly to face her. She raised the bat, prepared for the worst, but it was only his brown eyes looking back at her.

“How could you do this to me?” She could feel the tears burning, threatening to fall, and she blinked them back furiously. No, she wouldn’t cry over him.

“Do you want an explanation? Would that make everything better?”

“No, but it’s a start.”

He nodded his head slightly, suggesting she sit down. “Don’t worry, I won’t bite. I’m normal enough for now.”

There was so much pain and misery in his eyes that she believed him. She sat down cautiously on the edge of the bench.

He didn’t say anything for a while and the silence was too much. Finally the word blurted from her lips. “Why?”

“Did you know they tortured me back at the camp? They’re torturing Mason, too, probably as we speak.”

“Why?”

“They want Mason to give up information,” Daniel said. “As for me, they’re mad that I’d been avoiding them. I’d managed to stay away from them for too long. It was punishment because I’ve been behaving badly.”

“You betrayed us.”

“Not me. Never me. The monster inside me did it.” The anger rose in his voice, and she flinched a bit, gripping her weapon tighter.

“Explain it,” she said. “You tell me.”

“It started right before the earthquakes,” he said. “I was having blackouts. Periods of time where I couldn’t remember a damn thing. Often when I woke up, I’d find myself in situations. I’d done something terrible. I beat the living crap out of some guy at school. I woke up in the park with blood on my face and hands. I had no idea why. Everything was a great big blur. Do you have any idea what that’s like?”

She didn’t say anything.

“After the earthquakes, everything started to make a bit more sense,” he said. “I started putting bits of the puzzle together. They came for me and tried to make me join them but I ran away. I couldn’t understand why they didn’t try to kill me. But by then I was in too deep, I guess.

“And after a while I started remembering things,” he continued. “Little flashbacks and small memories that invaded my mind. I was doing terrible things. I was killing people and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. Part of me didn’t want to stop either. It was like something primitive had taken over my brain and I enjoyed it. And the voices in my head, always whispering at me. Telling me that I craved it. I needed it. They get inside my brain and stir things around. I don’t know which way is up or down.”

“Are they all like that?” she asked. She thought back to when Nathan died and the female Bagger that started crying and mumbling about being sorry. “I mean the Baggers. Do they all have moments of being . . . human again?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. Most of them, they’re stuck in their world, they don’t have a conscience like me. At
least if they do, I’ve never seen it. I’m the only one who seems to be trapped between both worlds. But if it makes you feel any better, you help me sometimes. You seem to keep me sane.”

“Me?”

“Yeah,” Daniel said. “When I’m around you, I feel cleaner. I can last longer without changing. I think that’s why the Baggers are so interested in you. In us.” Daniel reached out and gently pressed a finger on her shoulder. “There’s something special in you. But you have to be careful. The Baggers have you on their list and they’ll do anything to stop you now. Not only did Leon fail at getting you, you made him look stupid. He’s not going to be happy about that. He’s someone you have to watch out for.”

“Then we need to figure out how to stop this,” she said. “And you can help. Tell me more about the Baggers. What makes them crazy?”

“Something big,” Daniel said, and his voice quavered. “Something evil. Remember what I talked about before? A deranged sort of Mother Nature? That’s really what it’s like. It’s been here since the beginning of time. It has no name; it existed before words had meaning. You can’t destroy it; it would be like unmaking the earth.”

“But why try to kill us?”

“This probably isn’t the first time it’s tried to destroy mankind. There are cultures in the past that have apparently self-destructed. Look at the history books; it’s all there in black-and-white. It lies dormant for a long period of time and then it awakens. It looks at the way people misuse the earth and it gets pissed.” Daniel looked down at his hands. “It finds ways to get inside human minds and makes us turn against each other. It started the earthquakes and has given explicit instructions on how we’re supposed to rebuild the
world. It wants us to get things right this time.”

“Get things right? It killed everyone off.”

“That’s the idea. Fewer people means less damage to the world. If we can control everything, we can keep it from getting overpopulated. It wants to put the world back in balance. No more pollution. No more animals being driven to extinction. Of course, the execution is a little flawed. Killing almost everyone off and then putting the last of normal mankind into slavery isn’t a great way to start over.”

“But what gives it the right to do this?” Aries snapped. “Who said it could make all the decisions on who gets to live and who gets to die?”

“I don’t know,” Daniel said. “I’m just the messenger, and even I don’t have all the details. All I have is what the voices tell me. And when I’m in Bagger mode, it all makes perfect sense.”

“How do we stop it?”

He shrugged. “I have no idea. It speaks to me, to all of us. The voices we hear. It tells us plenty of things but not how to stop it.”

“Yeah, I guess that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?”

“But I do know this,” Daniel said. “The Baggers will continue to make themselves comfortable, and kill anyone who tries to stop them. Eventually there will be no one left to remember how things were before the world ended. We’ll have an entire culture built up around a new world order that they control. Sure, the Baggers won’t last forever either. They’ll die off too. Maybe people will get tired of it and fight back before then. Maybe there will be enough survivors to take them down. But I doubt it. What’s happening in Vancouver is happening everywhere in the world. And the Baggers are far more organized than we are.”

“So we’re just supposed to sit back for a few generations and hope that eventually everyone will be good again?”

“You can’t do anything to change them, Aries. The best you can do is wait it out.”

She paused, thinking about his words and their meaning.

“But maybe they could all ‘come back’ instead,” she said. “Maybe we could stop it. What if we can find a way to get this thing out of your head permanently? Out of everyone’s heads.”

“Seriously?” Daniel asked. “This isn’t like turning a light switch on or off. I can’t get rid of the darkness. It won’t go away. You can’t just smack some sense into me. No matter how much you manage to help me, you’re just not strong enough to keep me sane all the time.”