The Withered Series (Book 1): Wither Read online

  “You bitch!” He staggers back, his shoulder taking the brunt of the doorframe.

  His livid glare doesn’t still my anger as I jab him in the chest. “Have you no empathy? No emotion? How can you call yourself any better than the beasts that walk these streets if you feel nothing for that poor girl? A girl who you’re supposed to protect!”

  “There’s no need to overreact—” Victoria says. but cuts off when I turn to glare at her.

  “Overreact? You’re too blind to even notice that she’s been in labor for hours! All you care about are your stupid potatoes.” I’m sure that my shouts can be heard to the far reaches of the building but I don’t care. Maybe someone with some common sense might hear me and come to our aid.

  I round on Sal as he steps into the doorway behind Devon. His frame is smaller, his shoulders not nearly so broad or strong. He stands a couple of inches taller than me, and in the gap I see that he is not alone. Alex follows my gaze as I shift past him to the two people sitting on the floor off to the side.

  “Who the hell is that?” I storm forward, brushing Sal aside.

  Sal recovers and shoves the paunch of his stomach into me, forcing me to back away. Alex quickly steps up behind him and together they walk me backward so they can close the door. “None of your concern.”

  “There is a man and woman in there. I saw them.” Their faces were pale, their eyes wide with terror. They looked filthy, hair matted, clothes several days worn. I glimpsed enough in that brief moment to know that they are not here by choice.

  Devon tugs on his shirt, visibly pulling himself together. His shoulders square as he pushes back off from the wall. Alex gives him a brief nod and I see his countenance change. Gone are the laugh lines I’ve come to know when Alex tells stories of distant places to Eva late at night. Gone is the friendly smile. He is all business now.

  I cross my arms over my chest and scowl, standing my ground. Victoria begins her staccato pacing and I have to force myself not to scream at her. “I want to know what is going on in that room.”

  Devon exchanges a loaded glance with Alex, who nods and approaches, taking the lead. “Those people in there are no one. Just a couple of stragglers we picked up a couple days before you came. They were sick so we kept them separated. That’s all.”

  “They didn’t look sick. They looked terrified,” I counter.

  “Looks can be deceiving,” Devon says in a deep baritone voice. I watch his muscles flex as he crosses his arms over his chest to match my combative stance. He’s a heck of a lot more imposing in this position. I was right to not underestimate him.

  That’s when I notice a dot of blood on the inner flesh of the crook of his arm for the first time. It is barely noticeable against his dark skin but the shine of moisture catches in the light.

  “Oh, God.” I step back, sickened as the truth sinks in. “You’re no better than those people on the streets!”

  Alex holds up his hands as I begin to back away. The bruising scattered along his forearm is suddenly a stark contrast from the pale flesh of his inner arm. “Now hold on just a minute. It’s not what you think.”

  “No?” Hysteria rises in my voice. “You gonna stand there and tell me that you’re not stealing blood from them? That you haven’t created your own mini blood bank? How did you even know to do that? Was it Eva’s radio? Were you spying on the military?”

  Devon stiffens as Victoria’s head snaps around. “You never told me that’s why those people were in there.”

  “Oh, come off it, Victoria.” I yank at my hair, feeling as if madness is only a step ahead of me. “Are you really that dense? Did you not hear their screams or did you just not want to?”

  She steps back, her face blanching at my attack. Her hand flutters at her throat before she turns and sinks onto a chair, beginning to rock slowly.

  “You all act like you have a freakin’ clue what is happening out there, but the truth is, you don’t. None of us do.”

  “Isn’t that the point?” I turn to look at Alex. “We don’t know how this thing spreads. We don’t know how to stop it or protect ourselves against it. So we do what we can with the little knowledge we possess.”

  “That message was cryptic. You don’t even know what or if blood has anything to do with a cure or prevention. The message was cut off before they could say why or even how it could be used. How can you allow yourselves to jump to such extremes without the facts to back it up?”

  “Because we want to live,” Sal says without emotion.

  “And what about them?” I point to the closed door. “Don’t they have that same right? “I retreat as Devon and Sal approach, shifting backward until my spine is pressed against the door on the opposite side of the room. The one door that leads to the stairs and the factory beyond. The one Victoria came through only a short while ago with her bucket of vegetables. Please let it still be unlocked. That rotten woman has a terrible memory.

  As Devon and Victoria’s voices begin to rise in a dance of angry accusations, I grip the door handle and test it. I nearly cry in relief when it gives way.

  “Enough!” Alex’s shout echoes off the walls. Eva moans and curls in on herself. My grip on the door wavers at the sound of her pain. I can’t just leave her with these people.

  “Now that I have your attention,” Alex says, smoothing his hair back from his face, “I think it’s time we all had a chat about reality.”

  He motions for me to move away from the door and sit down. The urge to throw open the door and bolt is so strong I nearly give in, but another moan rises from Eva. Her back arches and I know that I have no choice. I can’t turn my back on her. If I do she’s as good as dead.

  I sink down beside her, placing a hand on her arm. The muscles in her neck cord, her teeth gritted against the pain. Her screams build deep within in her throat. It’s only a matter of time before she lets go.

  “I realize this may come as a bit of a shock to you,” Alex begins, waiting for me to turn and look at him, “but bad things happen to good people, including those two in that room. Reality tells us that not everyone is going to survive. I, for one, am not willing to just roll over and die. Are you?”

  He stares at me long and hard but I fight to show no emotion beyond the flaring of my nostrils in repressed anger. Devon nods in agreement when Alex glances at him and for the first time I realize that I was mistaken. Devon isn’t the one in charge. Alex is.

  When the pilot turns to look at Victoria I almost feel sorry for the ashen woman. She looks faint and trembly. I can almost see the moral dilemma waging in her eyes but she cowers under Alex’s stern gaze and nods.

  “What we do is for the good of the group. You all need food and water. A safe place to sleep. How can we provide that for you if we become infected? If Eva needs blood and we can’t give it to her, then what? We just let her die because we didn’t prepare?”

  Bile rises in my throat at the sound of Alex’s justification. “You think that makes it ok?”

  “Yes.” I flinch as Devon closes the gap between us. His button down dress shirt is soiled and the pocket torn away. His pants are filthy, as if he has been rolling in the mud. I can’t help but wonder what he’s been up to behind that closed door. “You know those gangs are stealing blood. Why? Because it’s the only way to survive. If that’s what it takes, then so be it. I can sleep at night knowing that I did what it took.”

  “We aren’t stealing their blood, Avery,” Alex says in a softer tone. “We’re borrowing it.”

  “Borrow?” I snort and shake my head. “How exactly are you planning on giving back to those people?”

  “By allowing them to live.”

  The cold insensitivity of his statement sends chills down my spine. “And Eva? What if she has complications beyond her need for blood? Will you just let her die for the betterment of everyone?”

  Alex’s adams apple bobs as Devon looks to him with indecision. “She is part of the group.”

  “So are they.” I point
toward the closed door.

  “No. They are outsiders.”

  I am rocked by Alex’s blatant callousness. Maybe I didn’t know him as well as I thought. I rise to my feet. “So am I.”

  “Not anymore.”

  “Why not?” I press, stepping forward. “Isn’t that why you brought me here? To use me as a blood donor, too?”

  His hesitation doesn’t go unnoticed by everyone in the room. Even Eva has rolled onto her side to listen as she pants between contractions. I want to go to her, to ease her fears but this needs to be dealt with.

  “I’m right, aren’t I? You grabbed me off the street in the hopes that I could be a match for someone here.” I whirl around, looking each person in the eye. “Well, who is it then? I must be a match otherwise I wouldn’t be here right now.”

  Alex averts his gaze. Devon remains stony faced. Victoria looks bewildered. A look of hurt betrayal tints her grimace. She may be an idiot but at least of this crime she’s innocent.

  “You’re a universal donor,” Sal speaks up from the back of the room where he lounges against the wall.

  “I see.” Lifting my finger, I run my thumb over the healing slit that I noticed when I first woke. “You tested my blood while I was unconscious. Clever. I’ll give you that much.”

  “It’s not like that--” Alex starts but falters under my damning glare.

  “Oh, no.” I shake my head, my hands quaking at my sides. My pulse beats like a bass drum in my ears as I turn on him. “It’s exactly like that.”

  Devon bears his teeth as he towers over me. I don’t back down. Alex pushes Devon aside with far more ease than I would have liked and steps between us. “Yes, you’re useful, dammit but that’s not why I kept you.”

  “Then why?” I press into his face, forcing him to look at me as he spins his lies. Although I’m several inches shorter than him, he reacts instantly to the animalistic growl that bursts from my throat as he tries to grab my hand. I whip my hand away and crack it across his cheek hard enough to make my palm sting.

  A vein pulses down his forehead as he steps back. A red patch grows along his cheek. I wait for the return hit, preparing myself for the pain, but he doesn't move. Doesn’t speak. After a moment of tense silence his hardened gaze softens and the lines along his forehead disappear. His shoulders sag as his head dips low. “Because you remind me of someone. Someone I once cared very much for,” he whispers.

  Devon glances over at him. His displeasure is clearly written in the tensing of his stance. He starts to speak when a terrible howl from behind me makes my heart plummet into my stomach. I whip around to find Eva curled tightly into a ball, her mouth gaped open as tears spill from her eyes.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Victoria shouts, covering her ears against Eva’s shrieks.

  Glancing down at the mattress, my throat clenches at the sight of a small trickle of blood seeping out from beneath the folds of her dress. “Oh, god! She’s hemorrhaging.”

  “What do we do, Avery?”

  I cast an incredulous look at Alex. “Why the hell are you asking me? I don’t have a clue!”

  Eva’s screams mount as she thrashes, curling inward then arching back. Her stomach heaves and sweat begins to dampen her hair.

  “But you’ve done this before. Eva told me about your kid.”

  I press my palm to my forehead, trying to think around Eva’s screams. “I was in a hospital with people who knew what the hell they were doing!”

  From the corner of my eye I see Devon backing away. Sal slouches against the far wall, looking indifferent to the scene before him.

  “Victoria?” The older woman glances at me as I shout her name to be heard. “You’re the group know-it-all. What do we do?”

  She presses a hand to her hair, patting it as if lost in thought. She looks down at Eva but says nothing. Does nothing. She just shakes her head and clams up.

  “God!” I yell and rush toward Eva’s side. “You are all useless!”

  I grab my blanket and roll it up beneath the Eva’s head. Her eyes clench tight, lost to the pain. “Someone get me something for her to bite on so she doesn’t sever her own tongue.”

  Alex is the only one to react. He rushes toward a stack of boxes and begins digging, tossing packing peanuts and bits of tape over the side. Victoria watches from a distance as I brush Eva’s hair back from her face. She is pale. Blood has begun to slowly stain through the front of her dress.

  “That’s a lot of blood.” Alex says as he drops beside me. He hands over a long thick wooden stick and I realize it’s a snapped broom handle.

  “Something’s wrong.” I gently pry open Eva’s mouth between screams and place the handle between her teeth. “Bite down on this. It will help.”

  Her head moves but I’m not sure she’s coherent. Grabbing the end of her skirts, I begin tearing them, casting them aside. Blood coats my hands as I ease her legs apart. My stomach lurches at the sight but I force myself to remain focused. Devon backs away, his head shaking rapidly as he fumbles back over a stack of crates that fall far too close to Eva’s head for comfort.

  “Leave,” I shout, pointing a bloody finger back toward the room with the cowering couple. Devon rises and rushes on the door.

  “Do you have any needles?” I ask Alex. “ Tubing? Something to start an IV so I can transfer blood to her?”

  Alex shakes his head. “Nothing. Someone tripped over the one line we had left and snapped the needle. Sal’s doing, I’d say. That’s why I went in there to check. I knew Eva might need it sooner or later. We’ve been collecting blood in bowls and trying to cover them with pieces of cardboard but even that’s useless now.”

  My hands clench against Eva’s knees as I bite my tongue at their stupidity. They aren’t even preserving the blood they are stealing!

  Eva moans and rocks to the side, her knees trapping my hand. A steady trickle escapes between her legs. “Someone throw me a towel.”

  From the corner of my eye I glimpse Sal a moment before the door closes behind him. Victoria begins her frantic pacing, right past a small stack of clean cloths. I watch her, waiting for her to hand them to me but she doesn’t. The squeaking of her shoes drives me over the edge.

  “Get out!” She jumps at my scream, her eyes wide behind her red-rimmed glasses. “If you aren’t going to help then get the hell out of here so I can think.”

  Victoria sniffs indignantly, hesitates as if she might actually consider helping, then hurries toward the door.

  “Coward,” Alex mutters under his breath beside me.

  As I scoot closer blood soaks into my pant legs, warm and sticky. “She’s a science teacher. She must know how to stop this bleeding. She’s dissected animals, for pete’s sake!”

  “She’s scared.”

  “I don’t give a shit, Alex. Go in there and force her to focus. Eva’s life depends on it.”

  I wipe my hands on my shirt and prepare to try to search for the baby’s head but pause when I feel him staring at me. “What?”

  “How are we going to do this?”

  I’ve been asking myself that same thing over and over since I first noticed Eva’s contractions. “I don’t know, but we are going to. Somehow. I won’t let her die.”

  SIX

  Exhaustion weighs down on me as I fight to keep Eva with us. My knees bruise from kneeling on the floor. The sound of her screams makes my ears ring. The worst part is not knowing if it’s from labor pains or something worse, something internal. My hands tremble as I sink back, pressing my bloodied hands against my thigh as I use my arm to wipe my brow.

  I’m worried about how much blood she has lost. Eva is barely conscious and she hasn’t begun to push yet.

  The hairs on Alex’s arms are matted with blood. The shirt in his hand, pressed against Eva to slow the bleeding has begun to soak through. We ran out of towels fifteen minutes ago and began using clothes. Alex gave the shirt off his own back to help. It’s not sterile but if we don't do something she’s going t
o bleed out and it won't matter.

  “She’s not going to make it, is she?” Alex says beside me. It is not really a question and we both know it. Without help Eva will not last much longer.

  The towel I wipe my hands with is soaked through and just as sticky as my hands. Victoria finally got her head out of her backside and managed to scrounge up some minor supplies from the warehouse. A small first aid kit, a couple moving pads that are stained with oil, a mop bucket to hold water to clean our hands in and some unused mop heads to soak up some of the mess on the floor.

  As Alex pulls his shirt away, I spread Eva’s legs and cry out. The crown of the baby’s head is within sight. At least I think that’s what it is. The idea of grasping this tiny life makes me nauseous but I’m the only chance Eva’s baby has. But what happens after that? What if we can’t stop the bleeding? How do we care for the baby if Eva dies? What if…I have a million of those questions going through my mind right now.

  Pushing back off my knees I rise. Eva’s head has rolled to the side. She stares blankly at the wall. “I’m going for help.”

  “No.” Alex struggles to rise. His own legs must be suffering from the same pain that mine are.

  “She’s going to die. We both know it, Alex. You have to let me try to find help.”

  He shakes his head. “Sal could go. Or Devon. I can’t let you be the one to go. I have no clue what I’m doing here.”

  I reach out and grab his arm, digging my cracked nails into his flesh just enough to get his rising panic to subside. “You told me earlier that Eva is part of your group. That she is yours to take care of. I’m asking that you let me help you do that.”

  He glances back down at Evangeline. “We both know Sal and Devon don’t care about her like we do. If you want her to make it you have to let me go.”

  I realize, staring at him now, just how deep the extent of his feelings of responsibility for her goes. He has proven that he is willing to do whatever it takes to protect his own, even stealing blood from an outsider. Now I need to lean heavily on that need if Eva has any chance.