The Wilds: The Wilds Book One (22 page)

Chapter 33

Days blended together when you were in the hole, and the eight-foot square became your entire world. If you didn’t make a mark on a stone or the ground, you lost track of how long you were there as the hours blended together. The guard had said “they wanted me,” but “they” were taking a long time getting me.

Once a day they lowered in enough food and water to keep me alive. The thing about the human brain is it’s meant to be stimulated, and if it doesn't get any of that stimuli from the outside, it will make up its own diversions. I wondered how long it would be until they broke my mind.

I’d lost count of how long I’d been there when I heard the explosions that night. At first, I thought I’d made them up in my mind—that I’d finally cracked.

It wasn’t until I heard a familiar male voice that I started to consider that it might be real.

“Dal?”

“Dax?” I asked, my voice raspy from lack of water. You didn’t get good catering in the hole.

“I’m getting you out. Hang on.”

The lid lifted and a rope with a loop on the end was lowered, the sound of bombs exploding as it did. I climbed into it and he was pulling me up and out of the hole. For someone who normally lacked expressions, I must have looked pretty bad from the look of his face.

There he was, standing next to Tank. If I wasn’t so stunned, I would’ve started crying full-fledged tears, but I’d have to believe it first.

He’d come for me. He’d actually come for me.

“Can she ride?” I heard Tank say.

“She has to.”

“It’s going to hurt,” Tank said, looking at the way my arm was bent.

“It’ll be death if we leave her here. Get the rope,” Dax said, leading me over to the bike. I followed him and still couldn’t believe he was here.

Dax got on his bike as mayhem was happening beside us, explosions still going off at the building. The last boom finally snapped reality like a band and brought me out of my shocked haze.

“My friends! I’ve got to get my friends!” I wasn’t leaving them again. There’d be no getting them after this.

Dax grabbed my arm and dragged me back. “Bookie and Lucy are getting them. Bookie knows what to do. He should already have them. We have to go.”

I’d told Bookie every step of the plan. He’d have it covered. I could count on Bookie. I knew it in my heart.

I nodded and Dax helped me balance to get on the bike behind him. Tank tied a rope snug around me to help me stay behind Dax, once we took off and I only had one hand to use.

“Why did you come back?” I asked before Dax started the bike up, still stunned he’d come for me.

I thought he’d tell me this wasn’t the time for questions, but he turned his head so I could see his profile before he said, “Someone told me once not to be that person. I figured if I left you for dead I was a shoo-in for the role.”

He was making a joke, but I knew what he’d risked coming here. “Thank you.”

“You haven’t experienced the ride home. Don’t thank me yet.”

I put my forehead to his back and wrapped my good arm around him. I was barely holding it together. Then I felt his own hand covering mine, as if he knew.

We took off and I heard bikes fall in behind us as we drove away from the chaos of explosions still going off and the Cement Giant being destroyed. I saw girls running from the building and knew that Bookie had made sure that the building was being bombed exactly the way I had wanted. That he’d gotten Margo the book so that everyone had been prepared. If the guards had looked in the cells that night, they might’ve wondered why everyone was sleeping underneath their bunks, the tables on their sides, set up like shields.

The bike ride was a rough one and I didn't see much after we got going, focusing on not retching on Dax’s back as the pain shot through my arm with each bump. I heard the bikes roaring into place behind us as we took to the forest, but I didn’t have the maneuverability to see them. This time, we didn’t stop riding until we got to the pirates’ bay.

I felt arms wrap around me before I got off the bike. Dax untied us from each other and then Margo was hugging me full force.

But only Margo. I looked over her shoulder and I saw Lucy and Bookie, and some other guy that I’d seen working guard duty at Dax’s, but no Patty or Cindy.

“Where are they?” I asked, and I hoped that she’d say they got left behind somehow. It was better than what I feared.

Margo pulled back and she didn’t have to say they were dead. It was there for me to see in the tears in her eyes. “Ms. Edith went nuts after you left. She thought we knew where you went. I think I only made it because of who my father is.”

It took a minute for it to sink in. I kept looking for them, like they had to be with us somehow. It wasn’t until I saw Bookie’s expression that I really believed it. He’d never looked at me like that before, not once in the time I’d known him. His eyes dropped, as if he couldn’t stand to see the realization in my own.

I fell to my knees and sobbed for the first time since I was four. Margo collapsed beside me. Everyone else gave us our space, except for a nudge when we had to get on the boat. We sat together on the deck as I told her everything that had happened, and she told me the rest of what had gone on there. By time we crossed the bay, I had no tears left within me.

The rest of the trip was a blur of pain and mourning. When my body wasn’t in agony, my heart was.

Chapter 34

We got back to the house after two days and a really rough ride home. The pain of riding with my arm, even with the makeshift splint Bookie had given me, took a hard toll on my body. I had a blurry memory of Dax carrying me up the stairs to bed.

I slept for an entire day and didn’t try and fight it, knowing the reality I’d wake to. I’d never avoided life before, but I wanted to now. When I woke up the next morning, though, I knew I was going to have to face the future. It was coming whether I wanted it to or not.

I inched along the hallway and made my way down the stairs in an effort to get to the breakfast buffet and get about the business of living.

Bookie was there waiting with a smile. He didn’t say much but he made a pile of food on my plate while I held it, my other hand stuck in an unfortunate position attached to an arm that had been broken and recently set.

He walked outside with me and we both sat with our breakfast. We’d been eating for a few minutes before he started to talk. “I’m sorry. I wanted to save them. I wish I could’ve. Margo said they’d… It wasn’t an option.”

I didn’t want to talk, and especially not about them, but I’d do it for Bookie. He deserved that and more than I’d ever be able to give. “It wasn’t your fault. I’ll be forever grateful that you got Margo out. You did a good job.”

He nodded and looked like he felt as inadequate as I did right now. But he cleared his throat and carried on. “So what are your plans now?”

“I’ve got to leave.” I’d known it before I’d even gotten back here, but it still hurt to say the words.

“I was afraid you might say that. I want to go with you.”

I dropped my fork onto the plate in my lap. I’d need my strength, but I couldn’t force the food down any longer. “I can’t take you from here.”

“I know the Wilds as good as anyone and better than most. You need me more than they do. They’ve got a doctor. They’ll be fine without me.”

“I can’t have you do that.”

“I might not look like much now, but I can be the man you need.”

“It’s not that. I think you’re one of the greatest people I’d ever met. But anyone that comes with me is getting a death sentence.”

“I understand you have to do what you feel is right. But so do I. I won’t let you do this alone.” He shrugged.

I didn’t have a chance to argue with him as I saw Margo coming. Bookie looked over at her and then to me, knowing the conversation that was going to happen, and got up, offering her his seat beside me.

She was eating but I couldn’t swallow a thing.

I didn’t know what had happened to me. I wasn’t me anymore. I felt like I was living in some purgatory, perpetually on the brink of crying. I’d wanted to live life, but living it was a lot tougher than I’d thought it would be. I’d had this delusion that once I got out of the Giant, I could make everything right. Boy how wrong I’d been.

And this was going to be one of the toughest conversations I’d ever had.

“Dax said I need to get away from here. He found me a place to go nearby that he says will be safer if they come. I told him that we had to wait a little bit until your arm healed more if he didn’t mind. He didn’t say anything to that, though. If he thinks we’re going to separate places he’s crazy. Not that he said that, but he didn’t seem to be including you, which was bizarre. Why wouldn’t we go together? He’s a little tightlipped, huh?”

I knew why he hadn’t said anything. Even though Margo didn’t see it yet, Dax knew I was the reason it was unsafe here.

“We aren’t going there together.” I looked down at the wood under my feet and dragged a toe across it. “They’re going to come for me. They did this time and they’re going to do it again.”

“But I thought you killed Ms. Edith. Dax said she was dead.”

“That might not be the end of things.”

“I won’t leave without you.”

I shook my head. “I’m not giving you a choice. You’ve got a chance to live a peaceful life. I don’t. I won’t take that from you. If you force me, I’ll go with you and then disappear, but you’ll just be making it harder on me.”

She put her plate down and stormed a couple feet away. “How come you can risk yourself for me and I’m not allowed to do the same?”

“I know it’s not fair but I’m still not doing it. Margo, you’ve just gotten out, so maybe you don’t realize how precious this chance is to really have a life, but I will not steal it from you just so that I don’t have to be alone. And I don’t want to be alone. Please, don’t make this harder on me.”

She looked at me like I was betraying her somehow, and it killed another piece of me. She got up and walked in the house as if she couldn’t bear to speak to me anymore. Dax had been right about this too. I couldn’t have emotions and survive.

Chapter 35

I was sitting outside on the front porch where not as many people came and went. Upstairs, a bag was packed with all the things they’d given me plus a pile of food Fudge had shoved in. It was stashed in my room waiting for the dead of night, when Bookie would be asleep.

Not leaving this afternoon had nothing to do with having nowhere to go, even though I didn’t. Bookie wasn’t going to let me go alone and I wasn’t going to let him come.

Bookie had tried to talk me out of my decision for the last day, not knowing he was just making me want to leave sooner. He didn’t understand, just like Margo hadn’t. I was doing this for them and nothing would sway that.

Footsteps hit the wood beside me and I realized how much I loved the sound of this place, the screen door swinging shut and wind chimes tinkling in the breeze.

Dax walked down the steps beside me and then out a few feet into the yard.

“Margo left this morning with Tank,” he said.

I already knew this. I’d watched her leave from the upstairs bedroom window. She’d finally relented this morning and said goodbye then hugged me as she cried.

“He’ll get her there in one piece. It’ll be safe there. I know the people she’s going to live with and they’ll take good care of her, help her make a life.”

“Thank you for that.”

His back to me, he stared off at the forest. “I hear you’re planning on leaving soon, too?”

“I can’t stay here for the same reason I couldn’t go with her.” I took in the same view, trying to burn it into memory.

“Where you going to go?”

“I’m not sure yet. You know, you never really told me why you saved me.”

He turned and walked back to the steps, sat down a foot away and rested his forearms on his legs. “You don’t have to leave.”

“That’s not how I see it. They’re going to come for me.” I dropped my head in my hand. “I won’t do any more damage. If I stay here, sooner or later, they’ll destroy this place, Wilds or not. I’m not stupid enough to think I can beat them anymore. At least if I run, maybe I’ll lead them far away from here.”

“If you stay, I’ll help you.”

“Help me what? Get you all killed?”

“Help you become someone that they’ll be scared of.”

“How? Look at me. You were right—I was a fool walking around with these grandiose ideas of who I was, thinking I could be like some stupid made-up character from a book.”

“I
am
looking at you and I know exactly the person you could be.”

I wanted so much to believe he was right but I wasn’t that naive anymore. “I can’t stay. I won’t do that to the people here.”

“They’re going to come here anyway. It’s why I sent Margo to the other settlement.”

“Why would they?”

“They’ve been searching for me too. This place. They just haven’t figured it out yet.”

“What do you mean? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It will. You up for a walk?”

“Sure.”

I got up followed him through the gate and into the woods. We walked quietly together, and I realized as we did he was one of the biggest reasons I didn’t want to leave this place. Yes, I’d miss Fudge and Tiffy. I’d miss my talks with Bookie. I’d even miss Lucy’s misguided ways and Tank’s gruffness. But whether I wanted to admit it or not, I’d miss Dax most.

He didn’t stop until we got to the place where he’d buried the beast, the one we never spoke of.

He looked at the grave he’d made, just starting to grow some greenery but still obviously fresh.

“I know you didn’t understand why we stopped looking for Dark Walkers.” He pointed to the grave. “That’s why. I’d found what I was seeking.”

“The beast? I don’t understand.” We’d seen a beast after the bounty hunters and still kept going.

He stayed staring at the grave as he talked. “There used to be a story about the beasts in the Wilds known only to a few people. It said the beasts were once human, born from the very first Plaguers ever to survive in the early years, after the Bloody Death first started leaving a few alive. It was said that the beasts were born human babies and grew up like any other child, until one day they would disappear into the forests, never to be seen again. At first, the villagers and people thought their missing children had been eaten by bears or other animals.

“Then more people started disappearing, but carcasses were left behind, proof a large predator had fed on them. The sightings of the beasts started right around then.

“Still, no one made the connection until a farmer saw his son walk into the forest one afternoon. No matter how many times the man called to him, the son kept walking. Of course he followed him, worried something was wrong. That’s when he saw his son turn into a beast and they figured out what was happening. He tried to approach his son, now a beast, and it nearly killed him. It was completely wild. He never saw him again.

“That’s when they knew the children of the Plaguers were doomed to become these creatures. No one knew for sure if these children didn’t want to be human anymore or couldn’t. Maybe once they turned into the beast, they forgot they were human to begin with, or just preferred the animal to the man.”

Dax knelt down and grabbed a handful of dirt before letting it sift through his fingers. “The people who knew were scared of the world becoming filled with these beasts, so they started spreading rumors of how the sickness would never really go away and that all Plaguers should be killed.

“Then a woman from the village got sick. Her husband, afraid that the rest of the community would kill her, snuck her away in the middle of the night. She survived.

“They were afraid to return to their home after so many knew she had gotten sick, so he found them a grand old farmhouse to live in with plenty of land to work, and a cliff to help protect it. They didn’t know the story about the boy that turned into the beast until after they’d already birthed twin boys. An old relative who knew where they were found out about the children and told them the story when the twins were five.

“Every day from then on, the two of them wept for fear that their sons would turn.”

“Did they?” I asked, even as I tried to deny the pieces that were clicking into place—how many large farmhouses were there with cliffs behind them?

“They did, just past their eighteenth birthday. The forest seemed to call to them one day and they changed into beasts. The parents cried, even discussed hunting them down and killing them out of guilt for what they’d created, knowing the beasts would turn around and kill others.”

I took a couple steps back from where Dax was kneeling, fearing where this was going.

He continued, oblivious to my alarm or not caring. “A week later, their sons returned, looking as human as they ever had.”

He fell silent and I took a couple more steps away as the ramifications of everything he’d just told me sank in. The farmhouse, the brothers. He hadn’t killed that beast in the woods; he’d mourned it. And the next day, he’d changed plans abruptly as if his search was no longer a priority. He’d thought that the Dark Walkers had taken his brother.

When I finally looked up I didn't see Dax anymore. A chill had spread out along my skin as I finally confronted what he had said. “How do you know all of this?” I asked, looking for him by the grave he was no longer kneeling by.

Then I heard a low growl a foot behind me.

“Dax?” My voice was soft as I sensed the beast right behind me. I had to be crazy for even thinking the thoughts in my head. I was afraid to turn around and see him with my own eyes.

Then a wet tongue ran up the back of my neck, exactly how it had that first time I’d come in contact with one.

Dax was right. I did understand. I didn’t have to leave here because I wasn’t the only thing the Dark Walkers were hunting in this place.

They wanted a beast that could turn human.

They wanted Dax.

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