The Renegades (Book 5): United (12 page)

I
hadn’t even made
ground on the other side when I saw Wren standing by the beach. She kept shifting her position and looking around as if someone could be watching. Water lapped against the side of the boat as it crunched against the bottom of the beach. I hopped out feeling water soak into my boots.

“I hope you haven’t been waiting there since we left,” I smirked.

“You need to get out of here now.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Well, that wasn’t the response I was hoping for.”

“Fritz is here.”

My eyes scanned the beachfront and tree line.

“They’re taken over the community.”

I started walking towards the tree line and she kept getting in front of me.

“Aren’t you listening? If he sees you, you will be pulled aside.”

“Where are the others?”

“Don’t you get it? You are going to die.”

I was still trying to grasp the fact that he was back. I raised my hand. “Slow down.” Everything she was saying was coming out too fast. She was being carried away by her emotions. I motioned for us to get behind a small cluster of trees so that we’d be out of sight of prying eyes.

“Start from the beginning.”

“There is no time.”

I shifted my weight on one foot. “I’ve just traveled a long distance to get here. I’m not going to just up and leave. Now settle the fuck down and tell me what’s going on?”

“The pale ones are here.”

“I already know that.”

She brought me up to speed on what Baja had told them. When she was finished, I sat down on a stump.

“Now you know why it’s important that you get out of here.”

“Does he have the other five?”

“I imagine so.”

“But that’s not…” she trailed off and I caught an edge in her voice.

“Not what?”

“Jess went after him.”

I stood up fast and felt the blood rush to my feet. I felt dizzy. Steadying myself against the side of a tree I breathed slowly.

“Rowan and Baja went after her.”

“Shit.”

We stood there for a few minutes. The sound of waves lapping against the shore and wind blowing through the trees was the only thing that could be heard. A few starlings broke away from the trees. My immediate thought was to rush after Jess but if Wren was right, the chances of getting close without being seen were slim.

“She’ll be stopped before she even gets close to him.”

Wren looked lost as if for the first time in her life she didn’t know what to do. That was the thing about living in a community. Unless you had experienced life outside of the walls and been forced to fight your way out of situations, the natural instinct was to be compliant. Almost no one except those who were military was ready to fight. They were normal families, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles. Most of them had to be taught how to fire a weapon, and while most had learned, they weren’t ready to go up against Fritz and his squad. Hell, even we weren’t. The logical thing was to flee. But that was no longer an option, not without the others. I groaned wishing Elijah and Ben were here. Ben would have known what to do.

“I need to see what’s happening.”

Wren let out a heavy sigh. She turned and started heading back to a lone car parked up near the beach. “Where are you going?”

“If we are doing this, you are going to need to change out of those clothes. Leaving a wet puddle behind you is going to attract all the wrong attention.”

I trudged behind her, my feet squelching in my boots. I cast a glance over my shoulder across the water. I wished I had asked the others to help, the ones I’d met along the way.

* * *

I
t took
us another thirty minutes to reach the house. Inside I stripped off and slipped on some of Rowan’s clothes. Even though they had been washed they still carried his stench. He was a little taller than I was, so I had to roll up the pant legs slightly. I threw on a hoodie and looked at myself in the mirror before joining Wren in the living room. She paced back and forth and then peered nervously out the window.

“Wren. It’s going to be okay.” She didn’t buy it. “After we get the others, we’ll leave.”

“And go where?”

“This is not home,” I replied.

“It’s all I’ve known. Being with Rowan.”

I walked over to her and took a hold of her, she leaned into me, her body was warm. I could feel her chest rise and fall. She lingered there for a moment while I ran a hand through her hair. In many ways her relationship with Rowan was like Dax and me. All we had ever known was growing up together in a small town. Life without him felt empty.

“Come on, let’s go.”

She kept a firm grip on my hand as we returned to the car and drove out. She drove while I sat in the passenger side with a gun on my lap below a blanket. As we came along Route 27 heading for section A, we noticed up ahead there was a roadblock. Multiple vehicles were being inspected by Fritz’s men.

“What now?” Wren looked panicked. I hadn’t ever seen her this way.

“Just play it cool.”

“And what if they ask for our ID cards?”

Since living in the community required a certain amount of oversight, everyone was issued an ID card. It was nothing more than a snapshot, and a few details about who you were and what district you were a part of.

“They are probably just doing routine checks.”

“For what?”

The car crawled ahead. “We’ll soon find out.”

There were two cars ahead of us. The men went either side of the vehicle holding assault rifles in their hands. They were checking ID cards. As they waved on the car ahead of us, we moved up into place. Wren brought the window down.

“ID’s.”

“Right,” she said fumbling through her jacket. She produced it and handed it off to him. He glanced at her then brought the card up. He got on his radio for a few seconds. Meanwhile the other one was staring through the window at me. I wasn’t looking directly at him. My head was slightly dropped.

“And yours?”

“He doesn’t have one yet. He only arrived a day ago.”

My hood was up partially hiding my face. My hand was on the trigger below the blanket. The guy on my side tapped on the window with the barrel of his gun. I brought it down.

“Step out of the car.”

“Is there a problem?”

“Get out.”

As I shifted in my seat, I brought the gun up with the blanket. The man stepped back slightly to allow me enough room to get out. That was all I needed. Straight through the open window I fired. A spray of red mist covered the car as it hit an artery. I turned the gun but didn’t even need to, Wren had already fired off a round. It all happened in a matter of two seconds. Both men dropped to the ground and began bleeding out.

“Go, go,” I yelled. She gunned the accelerator and we powered out of there. Behind us I saw a few people get out of their cars to check the men.

“We need to get off Route 27.”

Wren yanked the wheel at the next turnoff and we disappeared down a back road. We figured they would probably have roadblocks every few miles to coincide with the different districts. Fritz was already on the search for me. I chewed over what Wren had told me about Fritz thinking they had found a way to create a permanent cure. Was that true? Annora had been working all year to try and find something that would last but the closest she had got was managing to keep the virus at bay for a month, then all signs of the infection would begin to show up.

We continued following the winding roads around until we got closer. We abandoned the car in a cluster of trees a mile from section A. The remainder of the way we went by foot. Upon reaching the first line of houses we ducked through the backyard, down the side and came out in a small cul-de-sac. Just as we were about to step out of the brush, two military vehicles came rumbling in. We did the first thing we could think of and entered the nearest house whose door was open. Slamming the door behind us, we tried to catch our breath. It was only when we heard a noise that we saw the family. A man, a wife and two small children. They looked on wide-eyed and worried.

“It’s okay, we’re…” I didn’t even get the words out when Wren tapped me. I turned and saw the silhouette of several men coming towards the door through the glass. They were fanning out, going house to house. No doubt they were looking for me.

We turned and our eyes started darting around the house looking for any place to hide. The man looked at us and then indicated a small closet below the stairs. The wife protested but he seemed to understand our predicament. We didn’t waste a second. We entered a small black hole beneath the stairs. I say hole as that was all it amounted to. It housed an old vacuum cleaner, a mop and a few boxes. There was zero room to move around.

A loud knock at the house door startled me. It wasn’t a knock as much as a fist banging hard against it. They were coming in.

J
ess hadn’t made
it there. With all the roadblocks we had managed to catch up with her. Rowan jumped out of his vehicle and in true caveman style yanked her off the bike and carried her back to the jeep. She was cursing and smacking him all the way. I’m surprised she didn’t take an eye out with the way she was clawing at his hair and face. When he reached the jeep he tossed me the keys to the motorbike.

“You drive it back.”

“Rowan, put me down,” Jess was yelling

“I’ve never driven one.”

“Well, now’s your time to learn.”

My eyes widened at the thought of it. All my life I had driven regular cars. Never once had I got on a motorbike. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the things, but after seeing someone have a gnarly accident, I just gave them a wide berth.

“You know what, it’s probably best you drive it.” I tossed the keys back. He blew out his cheeks and tossed Jess in the rear seat. “Now behave. Holy crap, what the hell did you think you were doing?”

“Izzy’s dead because of that bastard.”

“And you think you are going to change matters by acting all suicidal? You wouldn’t have got within spitting distance of that guy.”

“At least I would have tried.”

“Listen, I’m not going to argue with you now, enough is enough.”

I guessed all the yelling caught the attention of Fritz’s men as they were making their way down to us.

“What is going on?”

“It’s nothing,” Rowan said. “Just a family dispute.”

“Show your ID’s.”

One by one we pulled them out and handed them over. They radioed back in our details. We fully expected them to yank us over to a truck and haul us away but they didn’t.

“Just get that heap of shit off the road.” The one guy gave a nod to the bike.

“Will do.” Rowan tossed Jess a disapproving look before he went over and got on the bike. It rumbled to life, he turned it back around and shot by us without even a nod or glance.

“Don’t say a word,” Jess said as I got into the jeep. “Just get me home.”

I did a huey in the road and started heading back just grateful that none of us had ended up with a bullet in us. The journey back to Montauk was slow and for the most part Jess said nothing.

“We all miss her, Jess.”

“Don’t you even dare.”

“I miss her more than anything. Hell, I loved Izzy but do you think she would have wanted you to do this?”

“You sound like Johnny.”

“Yeah, well maybe he talked some sense into me. Perhaps I can do the same for you.”

The relationship between myself and Jess had always felt a little odd. If it wasn’t for Johnny dating her, I doubt we would have ever given each other a passing look in the hallways of our high school back in Castle Rock. When I’d learned that Johnny started seeing her I had to admit, I was kind of weirded out by it. Back then she was the new girl in town. Johnny had a thing for anyone that looked lost and new. It probably didn’t help that her father was a cop. I was pretty sure he had told her to stay away from our group.

Our group were the oddballs, hers the influential, Izzy’s well… her father was in everyone’s business. Then of course there was Dax, he was just in a category of his own. So much had changed in the time we had been together. The year inside the community had drawn us back into our social cliques. Even in an apocalypse it could happen. People were people at the end of the day. Given enough peace, people soon gravitated back to who they were before the upheaval.

“I kind of feel bad.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Well you know, the way things turned out for you and Johnny. I wished I hadn’t opened my mouth now.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I don’t know about that. Seems that way. Anyway, I just assumed you would give him another chance.”

“Why?”

“Well, everyone deserves another chance, don’t they? I mean hell, if this whole apocalypse has taught us anything it’s that humanity makes mistakes. Okay, admittedly this was one for the history books but I didn’t see what he did as anything anyone else wouldn’t have.”

“What about sleeping with someone else?”

“Oh come on, Jess. He had no way of knowing if he was going to live to see the next day. Everyone has been finding comfort in whatever they can. Whether that is at the bottom of a bottle or in the arms of someone else. Who knows when we are going to leave this mortal coil?”

“So that makes it okay?”

I glanced at her as we drove by a family that looked as if they were packing up their vehicle to leave. Good luck. The chances of them being let out alive were slim. Whatever Fritz had planned, I didn’t think it just involved the cure. His ego was too big for that. No doubt he would want to govern over everyone, and create his own version of the community. However screwed up that was.

“I’m not saying it’s okay, Jess. I’m just thinking that the way you handled it was a little harsh.”

“How I handled it?” She got all uppity and red-faced. I knew I was walking on dangerous ground but I thought it needed to be said. Johnny wouldn’t have said it. Or maybe he had but she didn’t listen.

“He risked his ass back there at Rikers. He risked a lot trying to find you. Hell, Dax wouldn’t have died had it not been for the fact that we came looking for you.”

“Oh, don’t you dare try and place Dax’s death on me.”

There was a break in the conversation. I could see that I had stepped over the line and probably shouldn’t have said what I had. But I called it as I saw it. Facts were facts, he had risked his life trying to find her and after all that, she just decided she was going to hook up with someone else. Okay, maybe he didn’t deserve to have her. Maybe he shouldn’t have thought with his dick but it didn’t take away from the fact that everything he had done from the Fortress to here had been for her. At least that was the way I saw it.

“You hurt the guy.”

“Oh fuck off, Baja. What about how I felt?”

“Point taken,” I said. “But couldn’t you have worked it out? I mean according to him you started seeing Rowan before you even found out if it was true. I mean, him and Danielle. It’s almost like you wanted out. Hell, maybe you were glad to know that he’d hooked up with someone else as it made it that much easier to hook up with Rowan.”

She tossed me the bird. “Can you go a bit faster? I’m getting tired of listening to your shit.”

“That’s your problem, you don’t listen to anyone. You are as bad as Johnny.”

“People change, Baja. You wouldn’t know that, would you?”

“Yeah, just toss it back at me. You probably did the same to Johnny?”

She swiveled in her seat. Her eyes narrowing, her lips pursed. If I had hit a sore point before, I had just hit the jugular now.

“What the hell has it got to do with you?”

“Uh, maybe because I actually give a shit about you and Johnny. You guys had something. Call it what you will. But you had something that others don’t get. Some type of chemistry. But you passed it up at the first sign of someone else showing you attention.”

“Bullshit. He cheated on me.”

“Oh and you’re such an angel, Jess. What about at that party back in Castle Rock a year before the shit hit the fan?”

She frowned, deep lines formed along the top of her brow.

“What party?”

“Rachael Weathers.”

Then it dawned on her.

“Oh yeah, I saw you and that guy. I never mentioned it to Johnny but I think he knew.”

“And?”

“You are the pot calling the kettle black.”

“I still don’t see why this has anything to do with you?”

“You don’t get it, do you?”

“What?”

“In those weeks after we arrived here, he watched you guys every day on that balcony. I saw him. Every day, like clockwork. But I have a feeling you knew that. I think you purposely flaunted yourself with Rowan in front of him just to get a reaction out of him. You fed off his misery.”

She scoffed. “You are crazy.”

“Am I?” I paused. We were getting close to the house. I could see she was getting more and more agitated by the direction of the conversation. “Yeah, I know you think I’m not all there, but I pay attention to the little things. There’s not much that slips by my eyes. I think you got bored with him, perhaps you get bored with everyone. Johnny. Rowan. I wouldn’t be surprised if you hooked up with someone new in a year or three years from now. I think it has less to do with Johnny and more to do with you.”

She looked away. “I’m not listening to this shit.”

“That’s right, you only tune in to your own radio station.”

“Stop the jeep, I’ll walk the rest of the way.”

I pulled up and she hopped out.

“I don’t see why you feel the need to bring this up again.”

“Because you tore him apart, and he’s my friend.”

She scoffed. “I tore him apart? Let’s not forget you were the one who told me. You did it, not me.”

“Let’s face the facts, Jess. You get scared and run when someone actually gives a shit about you. You don’t know how to handle it. So Johnny made a mistake. So what? You did too back in Castle Rock. But to turn your back on him the way you did, that’s not right.”

She tossed up a finger and kept walking. The truth was hard to hear.

I drove past her and saw her in my mirror looking back. I shook my head. In over a year she had barely spoken to him. She was too focused on herself. Too consumed with what she got versus what mattered to him.

When I pulled up in front of the house, Rowan was scowling. “Where is she?”

“She’s walking.”

“What did you say to her?”

“Something she should have heard a year ago.”