Until We End (22 page)

“I never wanted to leave you and Coby,” Dad said to me. I focused on the familiar lines of his face. “That was the hardest thing I've ever done, and I hope you can forgive me for it one day. But they would've come looking for me if I hadn't left. I'm lucky I got as much time as I did.” His voice turned intent, passionate. “This is why I spent so much time making sure you could take care of yourself. This is why I spent years building the stockpile and the greenhouse.”

“Coby,” I said, coming to the realization I'd been missing before. “Dad, you were talking about him earlier. Do you know where he is? What happened to him?”

Dad leaned back into the couch cushions. “He's safe,” he said carefully.

“Safe?
Safe?
They took him.
Is he here? On the base? Are they testing on him, too?” My heart beat so fast I couldn't feel it. I realized I was standing over my dad, but I didn't remember crossing the room to him.
“Where is Coby?”

Dad looked up at me, eyes wide, and then his gaze slowly drifted to the space behind me.

I heard a voice I feared I never would again.

“Cora?”

I turned.

At the top of the staircase behind me, wearing an oversized shirt, his hair sleep-tousled and eyes bleary, stood Coby.

Everything else dropped away.

“Cora?” Coby repeated. His childlike voice sounded so small in the boxy house, tiny compared to the conversation I'd just had.

But it was the only thing that mattered.

My muscles tightened before going loose. A rushing ocean of sound filled my ears as my eyes locked onto his face. When he looked at me, I knew with absolutely no doubt he was real. He was the only one who had ever looked at me like that. Like I was Superwoman and his hero.

I ran forward. Someone behind me shouted my name, shouted something else. I only saw Coby. He took one step down the stairs, the beginnings of a smile curving his mouth; he was missing both of his front teeth now; his hair was longer; he was paler. His birthday was soon. We could celebrate together, the three of us.

But just as I reached the stairs, I was jerked to a stop and the breath was ripped from my lungs. I fell. My back hit the floor, my vision flashing white, and the chaos of noise in my ears cleared. And I realized what happened.

The front door was open, and in its threshold stood a SWAT team in full combat gear. I somehow missed their entrance entirely — I'd been so focused on Coby's face — but now they were screaming over each other at us to drop our weapons.

Dad stood over me, arms extended, facing the door. Shielding me with his body. Brooks was taking the stairs two at a time toward Coby.

I leapt to my feet and faced the intruders — there were three of them, their faces covered by black hoods with ovals cut out for the eyes, in full combat gear complete with bulletproof vests.

My eyes locked onto the back of Dad's head.

He was valuable. Our only way out.

I grabbed his shoulder, pulled him back, and put my pistol to his head. The SWAT team froze. I widened my eyes to clear my peripheral vision. Brooks was a statue rooted to the top of the stairs with Coby in his arms.

I clenched my abs to steady my voice. “Brooks,” I said. “Get him down here.”

He started down the stairs and I turned my focus onto the intruders. “You're going to let us leave. You won't follow us. If you do,” I rammed the barrel of my pistol even harder against Dad's forehead, making him grunt. “He dies. Got it?”

Dad's hands, bony and thin, clenched my arm. “Cora—”

“Quiet.”

One of the people in SWAT gear chuckled and I gasped, looking closer at her eyes. Dark black-brown, almond shaped, elegantly slanted. The laugh that had come from behind the mask was deep, but still feminine. Her figure was slight.

Brooks had begun to walk across the room toward me, but at the sound of that laugh, he stopped. “Lu?”

Lu's hand twitched and I flinched, clenching my gun tighter. She held her palms out in surrender.

“Easy,” she said. She swept her mask off in one motion, white-blond hair tumbling around her shoulders. The two standing behind her followed suit.

I wish I'd been surprised. If I was, then it'd be easier to pity Brooks for the betrayal. But it didn't surprise me in the slightest.

Standing behind Lu were Jackson and Briggs. The last two members of Brooks' brigade, his family, had betrayed him.

I grabbed Coby's shoulder with my free hand and started inching toward the door, dragging Dad with me. His grip on my arm loosened once he realized what I was trying to do. Coby huddled closer to me.

“How are you alive?” Brooks choked out. Whether he was choking from rage or sadness or maybe even happiness at seeing Jackson and Lu alive, I didn't know. I couldn't see his face from where I was standing, and I was glad of it.

“They offered us a deal when they came to get Briggs,” Jackson said. “Seems they were a bit short-staffed. We get a clean slate in return for going back to the barracks. Not a bad bargain, if you ask me.”

“Even with the things you'll have to do?” Brooks asked. “Even with this?”

“This ain't so bad,” Briggs said, his eyes on me. A burning hatred lived there. My stomach flipped and feet froze. The image of Briggs strapped to that chair in the brigade's cellar flashed through my mind. How he'd looked kneeling beside Corrine's body. In the sight of my pistol.

“You could come with us,” Lu said to Brooks. “Briggs is right. It isn't that bad anymore. There aren't many civilians left, so they don't even send out patrols much.” Her eyes landed on me. “Unless the surveillance cameras see something.”

I looked from Lu to Brooks. He couldn't
– wouldn't
do that. Not now that he knew about the virus. That Lu, Jackson and Briggs were working for the people who'd created the virus and were keeping the vaccine from the people. And there was more that Dad said — or didn't say — that we still needed to figure out.

Stay with me
, Brooks had said. Surely he wouldn't leave me?

When Brooks shook his head and backed away from them, my knees almost buckled in relief. “
You're
the ones who need to come with us. You guys aren't getting the whole story,” he said. “There's a lot you don't know. A lot you need to know.” He was getting close to me now, so close I could hear his breathing, fast and labored, like he'd just run a marathon.

Lu held out her forearm. Under the skin, a small green light blinked. I would've missed it if I hadn't been staring. “Not an option. Romeo was right about the chipping. It's how they found Briggs and how they'd find us if we left.”

“Shit, Lu,” Brooks ran a hand over his face.

Jackson jerked his chin in my direction. “She's listed as armed and dangerous. Wanted dead or alive. And she's got a gun to her dad's head. What more do we need to know?” Jackson laughed once, a sound like dry leaves rustling across concrete.

Damn right I was armed and dangerous. Very dangerous. All that mattered was getting Brooks and my family out of this alive. I still had questions for Dad and I intended to have them answered.

“They're chipping you like dogs and now you're playing fetch?” I laughed. “Thought you guys couldn't get any more pathetic. Clearly I was wrong.”

“Fuck you,” Briggs said.

I ignored him and looked at Lu. “How'd you know he's my dad?”

“It wasn't very difficult, Cora,” Lu said with a condescending smile. “Unless you expected Brother Charlie to believe what you told him. He called us in to identify you, and once we did the rest was easy.

“It didn't take long to connect the dots, especially once we found out there was a doctor named Neil Delaney living with his son, Coby, on base.”

I closed my eyes, willing myself away. This couldn't be happening. Not when I'd just found them. Coby. Dad. We were finally all together again. I wouldn't let them take this from us.

“We went to your cell, Cora Jane Delaney, and when we found it empty, we knew where'd you go,” Lu continued. “And when we bring you in, there won't be any question of our loyalties.” Lu's gaze flitted back to Brooks. “Though I do regret you, Brooks. You were a good soldier. Strong. You could have a future if you came back with us.”

“None of you will have a future,” Brooks said, his voice and eyes fierce. “They're keeping it from you. The vaccine. They've kept it from everyone. You're still all going to die. This changes nothing.”

Briggs stepped forward, raising his rifle. “Bullshit,” he said. “They're just trying to save their own skins. You are outgunned and outmanned. Drop the pistol and back away from the hostage.”

Every muscle in my body went stiff. Briggs began to smile.

Lu was shaking her head. “Brooks, last chance.” She shot me an acidic glare. “I don't know what the hell she's been telling you, but you have a real chance here. Don't throw it away.”

I risked a glance in his direction. Brooks' face was set, but I think I saw a glimmer of regret in his eyes. “I'm sorry,” he said, and before I knew what he was doing, he'd pulled a gun out from nowhere and fired off three shots.

Lu and Jackson both went down, her clutching her arm and him holding his leg. Brooks hadn't gone for the kill shot. Briggs had lunged to the side just in time to avoid the shot meant for him.

Coby screamed at the sound of gunfire, and every instinct in my body made me forget Dad and turn to him. Then the air exploded with gunshots, the sound of fireworks on the fourth of July, and Brooks tackled me and Coby to the ground. I fell flat on my back and the wind was knocked from my lungs in a single gust, but as soon as I was able to move I pushed Brooks off and scrambled to my feet. And almost collapsed.

Lying in front of me, flooding the floor with his blood, eyes open and blank, was Dad.

My head snapped up. Briggs was standing with his rifle still raised in Dad's direction.

I squeezed the trigger of my Glock. And again. My feet carried me forward until I was standing over Briggs — he fell, when did he fall?

The sound of gunshots saturated my world. When the gun clicked empty, it still wasn't enough. I dropped to my knees and brought the butt of my gun crashing against his skull in an arc, over and over, his blood peppering my face, until a pair of hands pulled me away.

I turned on the person and raised the butt of my gun, ready to keep lashing out. If I stopped, then I'd have to feel. I'd have to accept that Dad was dead.

The bones of my arm locked against their joints. It was Brooks. Of course it was Brooks. And when I focused on his face, the echo of gunshots in my head quieted a little.

Just enough for me to hear the screaming sobs of my brother, sitting beside my father's body and covered in his blood.

I rushed toward him, but when he saw me coming he stumbled back. “No!” he screamed. “Stay away!”

My heart shattered into a million glass shards that flowed into my veins, cutting me from the inside. I stopped walking and dropped my gun. It fell to the floor with a clatter, empty and harmless.

I held my hands out to him. “It's gonna be alright, Coby. Come on. Come here.” But I couldn't keep my voice from shaking, and how would he believe me if I didn't believe myself? “We're going to get out of here, okay?”

Coby ignored me.
“Dad,”
he wailed, tugging on Dad's blood-soaked sleeve. His head lolled lifelessly and Coby screamed. “
Please
get up.
Daddy, please!”

I started walking toward him again, slowly, trying not to look at Dad and scream, or fall to my knees and touch him, lay my head on his chest and cry. Trying not to collapse next to Coby and beg with him for Dad to come back.

But when my heel came down I slipped on the slick, thick blood flooding the tile floor. I fell onto all fours and came face-to-face with my father.

His blue eyes were open in surprise, showing whites all around. Lips parted as if to whisper. From the neck up, he looked normal. The skin of his face hadn't even paled yet.

I reached up, wanting to touch him. My fingertips hovered over his skin.

Coby sobbed louder.

I dropped my hand. Pushed myself to my feet.

Gathering Coby into my arms, I looked back for Brooks. He was standing in the living room with his gun trained on Lu and Jackson. Giving us cover.

“Brooks?” I said.

“I'm coming,” he said. “Wait outside for me?”

Coby sobbed into my shoulder as I carried him out the back door. I rocked him and made what I'd hoped were reassuring whispers in his ear. But I didn't know how I'd be able to calm him when I couldn't stop crying, either.

I didn't know if I could fix it this time.

Brooks came outside holding Dad's car keys and mentioned a loading exit of the base that was left unguarded. I nodded and got into the jeep's passenger seat with Coby in my lap. His small body shook as he cried and his cheek, wet with tears and Dad's blood, rested on my arm.

Brooks didn't say where we were going. I didn't ask. I stared at the clock while he drove and tried to bury myself. Every time I blinked, a different picture flashed behind my lids.

Blink.
Dad's glasses crooked and cracked, blue eyes wide and unseeing.

Blink.
Coby crying in an ocean of blood.

Blink.
The butt of my pistol smashing Briggs' face.

Coby cried himself to sleep in my lap.

Brooks said that once we got inside the city limits, he'd find someplace secluded and pull over for the night. Then, in the morning, we'd have to abandon the jeep. I didn't want to — it was the last thing I had of my dad's, and it still smelled like him, like new paper and peppermint. But I knew it was too risky to keep. I searched the glove compartments, desperate for something, anything, of his to take with me.