The Lair (6 page)

They paused about twenty feet from the house. Lily swung her bow off her shoulder and wiped her palm on her jeans before pulling an arrow from her quiver. She notched it, but kept it low to the ground. Better safe than sorry on all counts. When Carter found out she’d gone on the food raid, he was going to be pissed, even if things went well. If she accidentally shot Stu, it would all be over.

“We ready?” Stu asked.

As they approached the house, Stu took point. He tried the knob on the door first, just in case. When it didn’t easily open, he moved down the wraparound porch to the nearest window. Jacks moved in the opposite direction, toward the south side of the house and Lily followed him. Jacks found a window open just a crack. While he worked to pry it open, Lily scanned the woods beside the house, paranoia dancing along the back of her neck, her fear whispering to her:

Don’t screw this up. You mess this up, you mess it up for everyone. For every Green who’s going stir-crazy in the caves. For every Elite who needs one less thing to do. Worst of all, you screw this up, Carter will never trust you again. It’s bad enough that you came in the first place, if you screw it up, it’s all over.

Her nerves were rattling so badly, her vision blurred around the edges. Worse still, she couldn’t trust herself, because her nerves were groundless.

Everything she saw, every car parked silently on the street, every tree in every pristine yard, told her that Ticks had not been through this area—at least not recently. There were no overturned vehicles. No broken windows. No deep gouges in the lawns where the long claws of Ticks’ feet might have gained purchase before they leaped for the kill. No lingering stench of rotting flesh. No smeared bloodstains on the porch. There was no destruction. Anywhere.

It was like Sleeping Beauty’s castle. Like the people who’d lived here had simply walked away from their lives.

She’d once heard a rumor on the Farm that when things went bad, all the Mormons had retreated to some vast underground fortification beneath Salt Lake City. Maybe that’s what had happened here. Maybe they’d all just left. And maybe without the scent of fresh human blood to lure them here, the Ticks had simply stayed away.

It was the only explanation Lily could think of.

Jacks jimmied the window open then pulled his radio off his belt and brought it up to his mouth. “We found an open window. South side. We’re going in.”

“Copy that,” Stu’s voice buzzed through the radio. “I’m working my way over there. I’ll be around in a second.”

Jacks brushed the curtain aside and stuck his head through the window. Then he nodded back toward Lily. “Lights are off, so you’ll need your flashlight.”

Lily slid the arrow back into her quiver and slung the bow over her shoulder before pulling her flashlight out of her pocket.

“I’m going in.” The window came down low enough that Jacks was able to just swing his leg over the ledge, duck his head, and step inside. Lily waited a moment before following.

The windows opened into the dining nook in the house’s kitchen. A table was positioned right beside the windows; the seven chairs around the table were askance, as though a family had sat there just this morning. At one end of the table, there was a high chair. A lone Cheerio on the high chair’s tray was the only sign the house had ever been lived in.

She thought of the houses they had searched for supplies on their way north. At each one, she’d had this same sick feeling in her gut, like this was a horrible invasion of the homeowner’s privacy. Mixed with that was a kind of sorrow. A mourning for the lives that had been lost.

Both of those emotions flooded her now, as well as something else. Something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. An ineffable sense that something wasn’t right.

And that was what guilt felt like, she supposed.
Yeah, you dumbass. Something’s not right. You lied to Stu to come on this food raid and Carter’s going to be pissed as hell. That’s what’s not right.

Too late to do anything about that now. She was here. She should find what she needed and get out.

Jacks’s radio buzzed, making Lily jump. “Can I have a sit rep?”

Jacks raised the radio to his mouth. “We’re in the kitchen. I’m searching the cabinets.”

“Okay,” Stu answered through the radio. “I haven’t found another open window yet. I’ll be there in a second. Start looking for a stash of supplies.”

“I’m going to go search upstairs,” Lily told him.

Jacks hesitated, but finally nodded. “Don’t leave this house.”

“Right. I’ll be careful.”

Shining her light ahead of her, she made her way down the hall. She moved the light across the open doorway of a laundry room and moved past to the stairway going up to the second floor.

There was no point in creeping around, so she took the stairs two at a time. At the top was a narrow hall, the door to a bathroom open at one end, and a pair of open doors on either side. Bedrooms, presumably.

She looked through the bathroom first and found what she was looking for under the sink. She swung her backpack off her shoulder and quickly filled it with two boxes of tampons and a package of maxi pads. Not much, but it would help. And there were surely other bathrooms in the house. Still, what they needed to do was hit a store. She found no other useful toiletries. No toothpaste, no soap, no first aid kit. Sure signs that the family had made it out, but her initial sense of unease didn’t dissipate.

The house looked too pristine. But she wasn’t sure why that bothered her. In the next bathroom she found a stash of toilet paper. Even as she loaded the rolls into her backpack, it bugged her. Why bring everything, down to the last Band-Aid, but leave five rolls of toilet paper?

Crap. This wasn’t right.

Skipping the rest of the rooms, she turned to head back down-stairs. Somewhere down below, she heard Stu’s sat phone ring and then him answer. And a second later, she heard a noise from one of the bedrooms. Probably a rat. But if it wasn’t a rat, she didn’t want to turn her back on the sound to blithely walk down the stairs. If there was something in this room, she wanted to face it head on and well armed. She slung her bow off her shoulder and pulled an arrow from her quiver before nudging the door open with her toe.

Heart pounding, she pushed open the door to the bedroom the rest of the way. It had once been a child’s room. A pair of bunk beds lined one wall. A low bookcase stretched the length of the window. There was a toy box beside the door, the lid ajar with the arm of some stuffed animal dangling out. The kid’s books, the toys, the cheerfully yellow bed linens. The innocence of the room did little to banish her terror, it only made her heart twist and squirm in her chest.

Food raids were the worst job. Ever.

Another faint sound emanated from what must have been the closet—a sound that was neither as innocent as rats nor as ominous as Ticks. A human sound.

If the person in the closet was a crazy, survivalist gun nut, wouldn’t they have already come out, guns blazing?

Unless, and the thought stopped Lily in her tracks, the person in the closet was a kid.

CHAPTER SIX

Carter

My eyes were heavy as I drove down the mountain. The road was sharp and winding, the pavement slick. Driving should have taken my full attention. Instead, I was damn near nodding off. Maybe Lily was right. If I couldn’t stay awake behind the wheel maybe the Elites were doing too much. But what was the alternative? Send untrained, untested Greens out to gather supplies and do patrols? Christ, it’d be like sending lambs to the slaughter. And if I wouldn’t send Lily out into the field—and she at least had combat experience—then I sure as hell couldn’t ask anyone else to go.

I briefly considered pulling over on the side of the road and taking a combat nap, but Taylor was still up on the mountain fiddling with the Romex wire and his solar panels. I’d left a couple of other Elites up there with him, so at least someone had his back, but I knew Taylor. He’d stay up there working away until I either brought him what he needed or he ran out of food. Either way, I figured I needed to do it quickly.

I was headed down the mountain, past Base Camp, toward Elderton. Since I didn’t want to surprise anyone, I picked up the satellite phone and buzzed Stu, who was heading up the supply raid in Elderton.

“Yo,” Stu said.

“How’s the raid going?” I asked.

There was a moment’s hesitation on his end. “It’s great. It’s going great. I can totally handle this.”

Maybe sleep deprivation was making me punchy, but he sounded a touch paranoid. I rubbed at my eyes, which were starting to feel like they were lined with sand paper. “Yeah. I’m sure you can.”

“Excellent. ’Cause I got this. Nothing’s going to happen.”

“Right.” Nothing happened on most food raids. They were pretty routine. The thing with the Tick attacking the guy before Lily, McKenna, and I arrived, that was the outlier. You had to be cautious, sure, but it was nothing a group of Elites couldn’t handle. “No, I’m sure you’re doing great. I just wanted to let you know I’m heading into town, too. I didn’t want to surprise anyone.”

“You don’t have to come check up on me. I’ve got this.”

“I’m not checking up on you. Taylor realized we’re going to need another inverter on the solar panels. He says he saw at least a dozen houses with solar panels when we did that first sweep of the town back in the fall. I know there are a lot of other towns where I could pick one up, but I figured I could get in and out of Elderton quickly, since you guys have already done a sweep today.”

“Oh, okay.” Stu sounded relieved. “I just didn’t want you to think I couldn’t take care of her.”

“Take care of who?”

Suddenly I was wide awake. Instinctively, I slammed on the brake and the car started skidding across the road. It spun to a stop just as Stu answered. I knew what he was going to say before he even spoke.

“Lily. She’s doing great, by the way. A little jumpy, but she’s handling it.”

I sat there for a moment, heart thundering in my chest, vision darkening around the edges, sucking in one breath after another. Finally, my voice was calm enough to ask, “Lily came on the supply raid with you?”

“Yeah.” Despite my attempt to sound calm, something in my tone must have tipped my hand because Stu sounded nervous. “She said you guys had talked about it. I never would have let her come if I’d known you hadn’t approved it.” Then Stu muttered a string of curses.

And now I looked like an idiot who’d been duped by his girlfriend, Lily looked like the bitch who went behind my back, and Stu felt like he’d betrayed me. Damn it!

“No, it’s fine,” I lied. Goddamn it! What the hell was she thinking? “We did talk about it. I just—” Jesus, I hated lying, but what choice did I have? “I didn’t think we’d settled it.”

“You sure this is okay?” Stu asked.

No. It wasn’t okay. It was pretty effin’ far from okay. Because Lily was in danger. Far more danger than Stu knew. “Just keep an eye on her, okay?”

“Yeah. Of course.”

I slipped the Hummer back into gear and eased my foot onto the gas. I glanced down at the paper map open on the seat next to me and did some quick calculations. “I’ll be there in less than twenty. Give me the address again.” I wrote it right on the map as I drove. “Probably more like fifteen minutes. And don’t let her out of your sight until I’m there.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Lily

Lily crept across the floor and pressed her back to the wall. She stood there for a long moment debating what to do, her heart pounding so loudly she was sure whoever was in the closet could hear. Was this crazy? Part of her screamed that she should tiptoe back downstairs, grab Stu and Jacks, and get the hell out of there. But she couldn’t leave a kid alone here in this house. She just couldn’t.

“I’m going to open this door,” she said loudly. “I don’t mean you any harm. I’m here to help.”

Then she twisted the knob and yanked the door so it swung out opposite her. There was nothing. Just clothes hanging on the rods. Shoes scattered across the ground.

She flicked the light over the interior and that’s when she saw it. One of the shoes inched back. There was someone there. A kid in scuffed black Mary Janes.

“I know you’re there. I—” and then she broke off. What had this kid been through since the Before? How had she even survived? Lily used her most soothing voice, the one she used to use to talk to Mel when her sister was freaking out about something. “I know you’re frightened. I can help you.”

Nothing.

No more movement from the shoe. No rustling of clothes. Hell, as far as she could tell, the kid wasn’t even breathing.

On impulse, Lily added, “I have a younger sister.” Which wasn’t true. Mel’s autism always made her seem like the younger one. The one who needed to be taken care of.

“I would do anything to protect her.” Which was true. There just hadn’t been anything she
could
do. Lily felt a surge of anguish rise up inside of her. How was it possible that Mel was gone? Maybe forever. How had she let that happen?

“I know there are a lot of things to be afraid of, but I can help you. I can keep you safe.” Again, a lie. In the world they lived in now, no one could keep anyone safe. No matter how you tried to protect them. Wasn’t that what she’d told Carter just this morning?

“I can help you, but only if you come out. You can trust me.”

Gently, the row of clothes stirred. Fingers crept around the arm of a coat and then the girl stepped forward, out from between the clothes, into the beam from Lily’s flashlight. She blinked and held out a hand to shield her face.

Lily lowered the flashlight and flicked it off.

The girl was maybe six or seven and dressed in a faded cotton dress and leggings. Her dark hair fell in fat, messy ringlets, but it was her eyes that surprised Lily. She’d expected to see fear and caution; instead, they were bright with curiosity.

Lily crouched down to her level and held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Lily. What’s your name?”