Z 2135 (25 page)

Children played games in the middle of the square, rosy
cheeked and waiting their turns. Jonah wondered if they were in school. He
tried to remember what day it was, and realized he had no idea. He wondered if
maybe it wasn’t a school day because City 1 children didn’t attend. It was
certainly possible in a world that was upside down.

“You’re the Hydrangea landscaper?” Jonah heard from behind
him. That must’ve been the code.

He turned. A kind-looking man was smiling, his face
expectant.

“That’s me,” Jonah said, the bag in his hand seeming to take
on extra weight.

“Excellent,” the man said. “Let’s get started.”

He started walking. Jonah fell in step behind him, wondering
what else he had yet to see in this strange city.

It was hard to believe that just a few days ago Ana had been
begging for death. Now she was close to a reunion with her father in Hydrangea.
If
they could find
the place.

Ana didn’t just feel better. Impossibly, she felt better
than she could ever remember feeling before. Healthy, strong, eager.

Liam, on the other hand was exhausted, running on fumes. He
had carried her, and her burden, setting aside his own needs for too long. Now
it was catching up to him. Ana wasn’t sure how much longer Liam could keep up.
It was only midafternoon, but he already looked ready to find a camp for the
night.

Liam was too proud to admit needing rest. She knew he might
also have been scared that if they risked sleeping in The Barrens another
night, their luck would run dry and they’d rise in the morning to another Band
waiting to attack them. Either way, they marched on, confused.

“It should be here,” Ana said. “Are you sure we’re in the
right place? Maybe we should’ve turned left at the river instead of right?”

“Positive,” Liam looked bothered, casting his glance around
them at rolling acres of wild hydrangea. “I mean, the flowers are here, so it
has to be close, right?”

They had been searching for a wall, or sentry towers, or
something
to indicate the
village they were looking for. Two hours later, they’d crossed the entire plot
three times each way, hunting for the “patch of brightest blue” they were told
to look for while being given their oral map before leaving Paradise.

“It all looks like the brightest fucking blue,” said Liam.

He was growing more agitated by the minute. About a month
before Ana had suggested that he try cursing less. He had, and the change was
immediate and rather remarkable. Ana didn’t know if Liam’s instant shift was an
indication that he was capable of shaping habit quickly, or if he cared about
her feelings that much. He barely swore through their encounter with The Band,
even on the rooftop. But now he was back to spitting curses like sunflower
seeds.

“There is no brightest blue,” came a female voice from them.

They turned. A striking woman walked toward them, a rifle
slung over her back, accessible but not aimed. She wore thick, metal armored
bracelets, bulky but not decorative. Ana figured they had some sort of weapon
inside them. Although Liam tensed beside Ana, he left his weapon undrawn—maybe
because they were in a field of hydrangea, or maybe because the woman
approached with the rifle still at her back.

Ana whispered, “Think she’s a bandit?”

“You ever known one to jabber about the pretty flowers?”

“No, I guess not.”

The woman said, “Looking for the brightest blue keeps you in
the patch until you’re spotted.”

“Then what took you so long?” Liam said. “We’ve been out
here for hours.”

“Barely two,” she said. “We didn’t come out because we couldn’t.
There are patrols you cannot see. They monitor The Barrens; we monitor them.
When it’s safe we show ourselves.”

To Liam she said, “I’m not a bandit, nor an enemy.” She
turned to Ana. “We are friends, now met.”

She bowed her head.

The woman might not have been bandit or enemy, but she was
intimidating to Ana, with, jet-black short, spiky hair like a man’s, and
blazing eyes that looked like they knew how to kill and might even like it. She
seemed almost placid, but with serenity just one layer deep, seconds from
turning rabid. Ana thought that if the woman had ever been in The Games, then
no one else—male or female—could possibly have stood a chance against her.

Liam stepped in front of Ana, shielding her body with his.
Only after he was fully in front of her, did she realize that Liam wasn’t
protecting her from the woman; he was keeping Ana from revealing her wrist.

Ana appreciated his concern, but was feeling better, and
didn’t want to hide meekly behind him like a timid child.

She stepped out from behind Liam, bandage on full display.

“My name is Anastasia Lovecraft. Sutherland sent for me. I’m
supposed to meet my father at Hydrangea.”

“Yes, I know who you are, Anastasia. I watched you in The
Games.” The woman turned to Liam, her eyes expectant. “And you?”

“Liam Harrow, you missed me in The Games, did ya? And who
the hell are you?”

“Are you infected?” the woman asked, ignoring Liam. She
looked down at Ana’s wrist, then back up into her eyes, concerned.

Ana nodded.

Liam said, “She’s getting better, though.”

The woman looked surprised. “
Better?
”

“Yes, she was in terrible shape when we left Paradise, close
to death just a few nights ago. Then, after an especially awful night, she woke
feeling—and looking—better. The infection, which had spread almost to her
shoulder, has retreated, and now most of her arm looks normal. It’s like she’s
healing or something.”

“
Healing?
Impossible. Are you sure she was infected?”

“Yes, I think so,” Ana said, not sure if she wanted to risk
being turned away before getting into Hydrangea. Oli said Hydrangea was more
tolerant of the infected, but she couldn’t be sure. “I was bitten by a man we
had been traveling with; he turned rather quickly. But I think I’m OK. At least
for now. Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it. We’ve come a long way, and I
don’t know where else to go. We were told Mr. Sutherland wanted to see me, and
that my dad is waiting.”

“Of course,” the woman said. “You have nothing to worry
about, Anastasia. Please follow me.”

Ana was surprised that the woman didn’t ask for their
weapons. She didn’t see them as a threat, trusted them, or was ordered to bring
them unmolested. The woman didn’t look like the type to trust someone at a
blush, so it was likely some combination of the first and last.

They followed her to the far edge of the hydrangeas, where
blooms were the dullest blue, then into a small clearing. The woman dipped a
hand into her pocket. She must’ve pressed something, because a second later the
ground began to shake as a horrible grinding rattled the earth. A thousand tiny
pebbles quivered, then a seam appeared in a long circle around them. The ground
rumbled in descent, as it had under Duncan when he saved them from The Games.

Ana stared, awed as the platform lowered them past sewers
and tunnels and even deeper underground. She and Liam looked out together as
they passed the first level, then the second. The first had a wide opening that
spilled into a long and empty corridor with warm lighting. The second opened
onto a sprawling warehouse where many people worked at long tables, some at
machines and some with what looked like hand tools. Others walked the floor in
hurried lines. Ana couldn’t tell what anyone was doing specifically; they were
too far away, but she wanted to know and thought it was probably mechanical
work—perhaps fixing orbs.

The room seemed neat and sterile.

“By the way,” the woman said, “I’m Katrina.”

“Hi, Katrina,” Ana said uncomfortably. “It’s nice to meet
you. Thanks for helping.” She shifted on her feet, wondering when they would
stop. “Are you taking us to see my dad?”

“First thing’s first,” Katrina said. “And meeting Sutherland
is the first thing anyone does in Hydrangea.”

The platform stopped on the third level down—it seemed to
take as long as it would if they had gone 10 levels—where they stepped into a
tunnel. Katrina pressed a button as she stepped off the platform and sent it
grinding back to the top.

“This way,” Katrina said, leading them down a long hallway
toward a lit door at the end. In front of the door stood a man in a dark-blue
uniform. Like Katrina’s, it looked more like armor than fabric, and reminded
Ana of City Watch.

Katrina nodded at the armored man with a holstered blaster,
but she said nothing about Liam or Ana or who they were. He nodded back and
opened the door, then stood to the side and waited for them to step through.

They continued down another hallway, passing many doors. Ana
wondered how big Hydrangea was, and what secrets the many doors had hidden
behind them.

“We’re here,” Katrina said, then turned a knob on her right,
not at the hallway’s end or in any way marked from the others—a door that would
have been described as “one that didn’t seem special at all.”

Beyond the door was the opposite of that.

The room was the most extraordinary thing Ana had ever seen,
filled with mostly with furniture and textiles in reds and golds, and in more
shades than she could have imagined. There were plush chairs and sofas,
including what looked to be a throne at the center of the room. A man stood in
front of the throne, if it was indeed such a thing.

He smiled when he saw them, and his large shoulders relaxed.
He wore reddish scruff on his face and had red hair, piled onto the top of his
head in a top facing bun. He was the oddest man she had ever seen, even without
the guns at his chest or the sword on his back.

Liam whispered, “He looks so familiar.”

Ana wanted to whisper back and ask Liam to clarify, but the
man said, “Ana Lovecraft and Liam Harrow. I am Sutherland. Welcome to
Hydrangea.”

He held his hands out as he approached them.

Ana had no idea what she expected from Sutherland, but the
man she met was nowhere close. Despite his heaving bulk, he broadcast more
elegance than any man she had ever met. He oozed charm and manners, but not in
a phony way like The Games announcer, Kirk Kirkman. Sutherland’s charm seemed
genuine, and kind.

Despite their arduous journey, disorientation, and the
armored Katrina standing by Sutherland’s side as if she were his personal
bodyguard, Ana felt an overwhelming sense of relief to have finally arrived.

She was about to ask where her father was, but Sutherland
distracted her when he looked down and gasped at her arm.

“Oh my! What’s this?”

He picked up Ana’s arm at the wrist and inspected her
bandage, then looked up and caught her eyes. “Do you mind?” He gestured toward
her bandage.

Ana shook her head. “Of course not,” she said, even though
she was terrified.

She had no idea what he would do once he found out she was
infected, and that she had come into camp knowing it. If he was at all like
Oli, this could be bad.

Sutherland gingerly unwrapped the bandage, allowing the
dirty wrapping to fall to the ground, then peered at her wrist, furrowing his
brown and scrunching his nose.

This was the first time Ana had seen her wrist since it was
bandaged. It was dark, and the bite wounds were still visible, but her skin
seemed to be healing. Above her elbow, the skin looked normal, save for her
most recent sunburn.

Sutherland studied it a while, maybe a minute, before
dropping her wrist and looking back at Ana, eyes full of sorrow. “I’m so sorry
my dear, about your bite. That is a tragedy. But please don’t worry. You’re in
no danger of reprisals. We’ll take excellent care of you here, and make sure
your final days are restful.”

“No,” Liam said, surprising Ana with defiance in his voice.
“These aren’t her last days. She’s getting better. She’s healing!”

Sutherland arched his eyebrows, smiling in a condescending
manner. Liam looked as if he wanted to punch him. “Oh? And how’s that?”

Liam resisted violence and explained how Ana had been on the
brink of death, begging him to kill her. He confessed that he was too much of
coward, which hit Ana with a hard wave of sadness.

After rehashing the ordeal, Liam turned to Ana. “Did I get
it all right?”

She nodded.

Sutherland looked … interested.

“Fascinating,” he said. “This could be truly excellent news,
and as these things go, remarkable timing. We’re working on what we hope could
be a cure to the virus that causes the zombie infection. We’ll have Dr. Oswald
and Dr. Liza take a look. Come on, we may as well go meet them now. Katrina,
please lead our new friends to the lab. I’d like to talk on the way.”

Sutherland sounded so happy, Ana could picture him jumping
up in the air and clicking his heels. She was excited about the cure, but more
excited to see her father. She wanted to go to the lab, and wanted to meet Drs.
Oswald and Liza, whoever they were, but she wanted to see her dad more.

“Where’s my father?” Ana asked, forcing the question out,
even though she felt pushy doing so.

Katrina left the room of reds and golds, and walked out into
the hallway. They followed.

Sutherland said, “Oh, your father will be here soon. He’s on
assignment right now.”

“On assignment,” Liam said, his voice sharper than Ana cared
for. Liam didn’t always have to treat everyone as an enemy, particularly when
Sutherland was being so kind. “Doing what?”

“I’m afraid that’s confidential, but I can promise you’ll be
proud, especially you, Ana.” Sutherland beamed. “Jonah Lovecraft is doing
things to change the world, making history as we speak. Even so, he can’t wait
to see you. The man lives for nothing else. We’ll have a celebration when he
gets back. There’s so much to be happy about.”

It was hard to believe Sutherland’s message, and of course
Liam still seemed skeptical. But Ana felt good. She didn’t know if it was
because her life seemed to have been spared from Duncan’s fate, at least
temporarily, or because they were finally below The Barrens and somewhere safe,
but she didn’t mind that her father wasn’t there.

Ana was confident she would see him in time. Perhaps the
delay was best. She still wasn’t sure how she could look him in the eyes after
being the one to testify and send him to jail. She hadn’t yet known the evils
of City Watch, or that they had messed with her memories.

Ana hoped her father could forgive her.