Autumn in the Dark Meadows (The Autumn Series) (18 page)

“Those are pretty flowers, Daniel.  Where’d you find them?”  I asked, trying not to smile too widely.

“The botanical garden at the Plantation House,” he replied.  This time I was certain I saw him blush.  His secret was out.  I couldn’t help but grin as he entered Connie’s room.

“Has he been to visit her before?”  I asked Grey after the door shut again.

“Yesterday, he came twice,” he said with a knowing face.  He took my arm and guided me down the hall to the clinic’s small kitchen.  It was empty, and he led me across the linoleum floor to a door, which he opened and gestured inside.

“It’s a pantry,” I said, not understanding.

He chuckled.  “Yes, it is.  And it’s also a good place to be
alone
,” he said, raising his eyebrows.

Did he really want to have a serious talk
now
?  Was this his way of putting off going to get Sarah, because he thought it was too dangerous?  I couldn’t let him say no again, but as I was opening my mouth to argue, he stepped into the darkness and pulled me after him.

“I’ve been thinking about what happened.  What we discovered last night at Hoover,” he whispered in the darkness.  My stomach immediately unclenched.  Of course, he was more concerned about the confirmation of traitors among us.  I should have known that’s what he was talking about, and not our relationship.  I was grateful for the blackness surrounding us, because a fresh blush crept up my cheeks.  Then I remembered he could see better in the dark than most humans and, mortified, I turned slightly away from him to hide my face.

“When we go back for Sarah, I want to see if we can eavesdrop on Karl, or one of his captains.  Maybe they’re in contact with their people in Hoover.”

“That sounds dangerous.”

“We’re not safe here, unless we can figure out who’s helping The Front.  I can go alone if you don’t want to...”

“No.  I’m coming.  You’ve only seen a few pictures of Sarah.  You might not recognize her.  We’ll do this together.”

“Do you remember the spot where we first met?  In the alley?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said, remembering the dark nook he tucked us into when Sam and her friends were chasing me.

“It’s close to the warehouse store.  We could see what kind of protection they have on the place from there.  May I?” he asked, and I felt a warm hand on my waist.

I nodded, and he wrapped his arms around me.  I touched my forehead to his chest, squeezing my eyes shut, not wanting to see the silent storm around me this time.  When I opened my eyes again, we were in the alley where we’d first met.

I stepped back and looked around.  It was empty, and much dirtier than I’d remembered.  Of course, I’d never seen it in daylight.  Grey looked down at a crusty window with an ancient air conditioning unit stuck in it.  I suddenly realized we’d been hiding in the nook under the low-hung unit the night when we first met.  Now I understood why he wouldn’t let me stand up, why he’d kept me down on the ground with him.  Not that I’d minded.  The ground was cold, but his body was warm to lean against.

I could almost see myself one year ago, tucked into the small space under the window and wrapped in the arms of a stranger.  I didn’t know anything yet.  The Plague only happened a few weeks earlier; I hadn’t met Ben or Rissi yet.  I wouldn’t meet Connie, Shad, Daniel and Todd for several months, and I would spend that time wondering about the boy who saved me in the alley.  I suddenly wished I could kneel down and whisper in my own ear.  Tell myself it would all be okay, that I’d have a new family soon, and people who loved me.  I would tell myself I was about to embark on the hardest year I’d ever experienced.  It would be sad, terrifying, exhilarating, rewarding and so much more real than my old life was.

“So this was where we first met,” I whispered.

“Well, I actually saw you earlier, at the warehouse store, when you were talking with Karl.”

I stared at him in surprise.  “You did?”

He nodded.  “I was inside.”

“Stealing?” I asked, smiling.

He shrugged, as if helpless.  “You looked terrified,” he said simply.  “I could tell Sam unnerved you by your body language, and your mood toward Karl changed the second he turned around to greet you.  I kept an eye on you after that...” his voice trailed off, and he looked away, as if embarrassed.

“I’m glad you stuck around to help me.  We might not have met, otherwise,” I said.

“We would’ve met,” he said, blue eyes glinting.  “After seeing you once, I would have made sure to find you again.”

Tingles broke out all over my body, and a breath caught in my throat.

“Come on, let’s go find Sarah,” he said, and ushered me forward.  We crept to the mouth of the long alley and looked toward the warehouse store.  Armed guards still surrounded it as they had a year ago, and The Front’s characteristic white flags fluttered brightly against the blue sky.

“Should we go closer?”  I asked.

“I have a better idea.”  He pointed up.  “Looks like the roof is unguarded.  How about we try entering from there?”

I agreed, and Grey wrapped his arms around me, this time not asking my permission, and projected us to the roof.  Before I even opened my eyes, the brightness brought tears to my eyes.  I held my hands over my face to block the sun beating down on us and reflecting off the white roof.

We tiptoed to the roof access door, which was unlocked, and entered the dimness inside.  After recovering from momentary blindness, we quietly made our way down a metal staircase leading to a walkway that snaked through the rafters of the large warehouse store.  The rhythm of my heart quickened, and I recalled the first time I set foot in this place and met Karl face to face.  If I hadn’t already known he was a psychopathic killer, I might have found him charming.  I shuddered at the thought.  I wondered if he smiled warmly at Sarah when she first arrived, or if he promised to take care of her, the way he did with Sam.  I was grateful Grey was here the day I met Karl, and I was grateful for him being here again today for Sarah.

Grey found a ladder shrouded in darkness in a back corner of the warehouse, and we silently slipped down to the ground floor.  He motioned for me to follow him.

We pushed through a heavy swinging door into a back storage room, which held only a meager store of supplies.  It looked like The Front’s supplies were stretched thin since we left the city.  There were also no guards to be seen.

“Where is everyone?” I whispered as we hunched down behind a pile of canned goods.

Grey looked around, his pinched brow casting a dark shadow over his eyes.  “I’m not sure,” he said in a low voice.  “Even counting all the guards outside, Karl should have more men than this.”

Grey’s unspoken concerns echoed in my mind, and uneasiness grew inside me.  Something was going on.

“I can’t believe he’s still here on the Westside,” I whispered.  Grey shrugged.

“This was their biggest stronghold six months ago.  Odds are, it still is.  I used to steal supplies from this place a lot.  I often heard Karl in an office not far down that hall.  My bet is that Sarah is somewhere down there, too.  Come on.”

We started down the long hallway he’d indicated.  Finally, Grey stopped short.  I froze.  He pressed his ear against a windowless door marked, “Manager.”  After a moment of listening, he turned his head back to me and nodded.  My blood went cold.  Did that mean Karl was in there right now?  Or Sarah?

I tried to control my breathing to keep from being heard.  Grey, on the other hand, was perfectly calm as he listened by the door.  I tried to do the same, but I couldn’t hear anything over the rushing in my ears.  Suddenly, someone loudly cleared his throat, and I jumped.  Grey reached a hand behind him and pulled me against his back.  I heard a muffled voice now.

“... all over now.  Paris has begun to unify.”  It was Karl.

Did he mean Paris, France?  There was a town named Perris southwest of Los Angeles.  That had to be it, I thought.  There was no way for him to communicate with anyone in France anymore.  Unless he was somehow using the cell phone towers like I was with Sarah.

Someone else in the room with Karl mumbled something, then Karl spoke again, his voice raised and irritated.  “We’re stretched thin enough as is!  I’m almost ready to abandon LA and come back when it’s all over.  What about Vegas?  Has our cardinal checked in?”

A slew of questions entered my mind but were immediately erased when the worst thing that could happen did.  Someone entered the hall and saw us.  We stared at each other for a stretched moment, both frozen to the floor.

The man was tall and broad and looked almost friendly until he slowly pulled a gun from his waistband and aimed it at us.

Grey instinctively reached his hands back, but before he could touch me, the man with the gun said, “Move another inch, and I’ll shoot.”

My stomach twisted as he moved closer to us.  Could Grey project us away fast enough?  That only worked if we could get enough contact between us.  But the man waved at us with his gun before my thoughts could go further.

“Now, get against the wall.  Put your hands behind your back.”

Grey, perfectly calm, said to him, “
Savez-vous qui nous sommes
?”
²
 Then he turned to me and said, “
Il ne sait pas qui nous sommes
?”
³

I stared at him.  What was he doing?  The man with the gun shook his head to show he didn’t understand.

Grey furrowed his brow as if he were trying to think, then in a heavy French accent said, “I apologize.  You must not know who we are.  We were summoned by Karl.  We are from Paris.  Surely, you have heard we were coming?”

The man lowered his gun, recognition in his eyes.  “Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard something about Paris, but Karl never tells me nothing.  How did you even get here from France?  You got some kind of plane?”

Grey shook his head.  “I am sorry, monsieur, but that is confidential information.”

The man looked disappointed.  “I’m from Brooklyn.  Was out here on business when The Plague hit, and I got stuck.  My sister is in New York City.  Was hoping to find a way home one day.”

With a glint in his eye, Grey continued in a friendly voice, “Perhaps something can be arranged.  Our return trip home might be more enjoyable with a stop in the Big Apple.”

I did my best to nod, and then for good measure, I murmured, “Oui.”

The man holstered his gun, and Grey moved forward to talk to him.  On the pretence of stooping to tie my shoelace, I stayed by the door.  I was relieved Grey had guessed Paris, France.  If it had been up to me, I would have chosen Perris, California, only because it made more sense.

Karl’s voice was low and muffled behind the door, but I could hear him clearly as I slowly tightened my shoelaces and retied the knot.  “Well, alert me as soon as you hear.  I want to go soon.  You know how patient a man I am, don’t you?”  There was a bark of laughter, followed by nervous laughter, obviously from whomever Karl was talking to.

I wanted to listen more, but there was a lengthy silence from inside, and I didn’t want to appear suspicious to the man talking to Grey, so I stood and made my way to them.

“This man has a very interesting job,” Grey said to me, his French accent as steady and convincing as before.  “He is in charge of all of the newcomers to The Reconstruction Front.  Like our own Etienne at home, non?”

I nodded and said, “Oui, Etienne.”

“You must be acquainted with everyone, non?”

“Pretty much.  Sounds like Karl has Paris set up just like Los Angeles.  It’s rumored he’s got Air Force One to travel on.”  The man chuckled, but looked at Grey as if hoping he might validate the rumor.

Grey just laughed along with him.  “You may be right, monsieur.”

“Really?  Wow, ain’t that crazy,” he said, then leaned in closer to Grey.  “Karl keeps telling me he’ll be able to let me go soon, so I can get back to New York to find my sis, but I dunno if I believe him.”

Grey looked at him evenly, no emotion on his face.  The man drew in a breath quickly and began to backtrack.

“Look, don’t get me wrong, Karl’s the boss, and I’m grateful to him and everything.  But family’s family, you know?  I’d be really grateful if you could work out some kind of arrangement with him, so I could hitch a ride, you know?  I’ll do anything for ya, in exchange, you know, anything reasonable, of course.”  The man’s eyes turned desperate, and I suddenly felt a profound regret for him.  He wanted to leave, but he was scared.  I wondered if we could help him.

“Of course,” Grey said, his tone understanding.  “Maybe you can help us find someone who we think might be here?  A girl named Sarah, about her age.”  Grey motioned to me.

My hands grew clammy as I waited for his answer.  But a strange look came into his eyes, and he looked from me to Grey and back, as if putting a puzzle together.

“Maybe, uh... maybe we should go somewhere else to talk?” he asked, his eyes fluttering to the door marked “Manager.”

“Why is that necessary?” Grey said, his voice still amicable.

A slight sheen of sweat appeared on the man’s forehead.  My stomach seized.  Something was wrong.  The man swallowed and glanced again at the door down the hall.  He turned to usher us down the hall.  “Please, let’s go somewhere else,” he said desperately.  “Follow me, and I’ll tell you everything.  I promise.”

“A promise is a very serious thing, Arnett,” a familiar cool voice said from behind us.

I knew who it was before I looked over my shoulder.  Karl stood in the hallway, tall and strangely handsome with his brown hair falling casually across his forehead.

“Karl, I was just coming to get you,” Arnett said, his hand straying to the holstered gun at his hip.

“Were you now?” Karl shook his head slightly.  “That’s not what it sounded like to me.”

Before another breath could be taken, Karl pulled a gun from the back of his belt.  The blast of gunfire shook the hallway and lifted Arnett off his feet.  In the same moment, Grey jerked me backward, slamming me against the wall so hard my breath whooshed out of me.

Grey started to pull me close to him to take us away, but Karl reacted first, and in one lightning fast motion, advanced on Grey and punched him squarely in the gut.  Grey doubled over, breathless.

“No!” I yelled.  Grey looked back at me, trying to suck in a breath.

“Run,” he wheezed between labored gasps.  As I turned, Grey reared up, surprising Karl, and slamming him roughly against the wall.  I threw a glance down at Arnett as I jumped over his body and was shocked to find his eyes open.  I screamed as something caught my foot, and I fell, smashing an elbow and kneecap on the floor.

I tried to scramble to my feet, but my foot was caught on something.  Arnett’s hand was wrapped around my foot, the pool of red beneath him spreading quickly across the cement floor.

“Please, take me with you,” he whispered, slowly pulling me back to him, dragging me into his pool of blood.  Gasping, I tried to grab on to anything to stop myself, but couldn’t find anything.  The warm liquid soaked the leg of my jeans.  The thickness of its smell filled my head, and I felt faint.

“Please,” he repeated, his other hand reaching above the first to clasp my calf, and dragged me closer still.  The warmth spread to my side, and suddenly I was face to face with him.  Tears wobbled in his blue eyes.  Blue eyes almost as light as Grey’s.

“I just want to go home,” he whimpered.  His red fingers touched my cheek.

“Autumn!”

I looked back at Grey.  One of Karl’s men had Grey’s arms pinned behind his back, and Karl turned toward me.

“Get out of here, Autumn!” Grey urged me.  I looked down at Arnett, but his eyes were closed.  I pulled myself easily from his now limp grasp.

“I’m sorry,” I cried at Arnett as I stood.  With one last look at Grey, I turned and sprinted back to the storeroom.  I flew through the swinging door as two shots rang out behind me.  One opened a small pit in the door; the other splintered the Plexiglas window above me.

I shoved a large box in front of the swinging door, flew to the dark corner of the room, and began climbing the ladder.  Everything in me screamed to go back for Grey, but I knew it took less concentration for him to project himself to safety if I wasn’t with him.  Right now, I needed to find a place to hide.

I made it to the top of the ladder, when someone grabbed my foot.  I looked back, astonished to see Karl clinging to the ladder beneath me.  How had he gotten so close so fast?  And what happened to Grey?  I kicked at him hard, but he didn’t let go of my foot.

“What’s your hurry?” he sneered.  “Didn’t you come here to rescue your BFF?  Are you going to abandon her so quickly just to save yourself?”

“What have you done with her?” I yelled, desperately kicking to free my foot.

“Calm down.  Come with me, and I’ll take you to her.”

“If you’ve hurt her, I’ll kill you!”

“Of course I haven’t hurt Sarah.  She’s waiting for you.”  His grip loosened.  It didn’t feel right.  He was manipulating me, like he did everyone else.

“You’re lying!”  I hooked my arm over the top rung of the ladder to support myself and, aiming for the nose I’d already broken once, briskly brought down my free foot into his face.

My heel connected solidly, and he reared back, dropping my foot to clutch his nose while still clinging to the metal ladder.  I pulled myself up onto the walkway.

I thundered down the catwalk and up the short set of stairs, and burst through the door into the bright sunlight.  I ran across the hot white roof and looked around, hoping Grey might have managed to get away to meet me here.  But the roof was empty, and there was no way down.  I was trapped.

The door slammed open again, and I turned to find Karl.  I was too apprehensive about how I was going to escape to be proud of the bloody mess I made of his face.  I ran to the ledge and looked down.  The parking lot looked like it was a mile down, even though it was only a few stories.  I knew if I jumped, I might live, but I’d probably break my legs.  I spun around, looking for other options.

“Autumn!” Karl called, walking toward me.  His brown hair waved in the wind, and his blood-speckled shirt fluttered around him like a flag in the breeze.  My feet itched to back up, but I knew the low wall was less than a foot behind me.  I had nowhere to go.

“You know, my nose is still sore from our last encounter,” he said, chuckling.  “I really wish you’d chosen another part of my body to maim this time.  Though, a crooked nose could make me appear more ruggedly handsome.  What do you think?”  He smiled, his teeth tinged with blood.

I looked beyond Karl at the open door leading inside.  It remained empty.  Where was Grey?  Why hadn’t he been able to get away?  What were they doing to him?

“Aw, don’t look away.  Is it really that bad?”  Karl wiped his mouth with his hand and shook his fingers at the ground.  Specks of blood appeared on the white roof.

Three people suddenly came out of the darkness of the doorway.  Two of Karl’s men and Grey.  The men held Grey between them, his feet dragging the ground beneath him.  The two men dropped him on the hot surface of the roof.  He was still.

“Did he bring you?” Karl asked, pointing to Grey.

“Where’s Sarah?” I demanded, nausea swirling in my stomach.

“Did he bring you?”  Karl stepped closer, his voice raised.

“Where’s Sarah?!” I shrieked at Karl, hot tears pooling in my eyes.

“Where do you think?” he yelled back, his calm demeanor abandoned.  “Rotting away up at UCLA Med Center, unless she was in the wing that burned to the ground in the chaos after The Plague.  Then I’d say she’s a bit more toasty now than when you guys got matching sunburns on your last trip to Palm Springs.”

My stomach turned over.  It was all a setup.  Sarah had been dead since The Plague.  My best friend was dead... had been for a very long time.  I swallowed several times to keep from throwing up.  How did he know about that trip?  Had he used Sarah to get to me?  To get to us?  I looked up at Grey, but he still seemed unconscious.

“Why?” I asked quietly, a tear slipping down my cheek.

“Because, one day, you and your boyfriend will want to be friends with me,” Karl said, his voice quiet and composed again.

“I’d rather die than be anything with you,” I said.

He paused, then said, “That’s a shame.”  He turned to the men standing above Grey.  “Throw him off the roof, and let’s see if Autumn has a change of heart.”

The two men picked Grey up and dragged him to the edge.

“Grey!”  I screamed.  I was certain I saw his head come up a fraction of an inch.  He was conscious, barely.

The men held him close to the edge, taunting me, and that’s when I saw his ocean blue eyes open, staring at me.  Something about them beckoned to me, giving me strength, and I knew what he wanted me to do.  I broke into a sprint.  I flew past Karl, arms pumping back and forth.  I saw the two men’s eyes widen when they saw me charging toward them.  One of them dropped his hold on Grey, and he swayed dangerously over the edge.  Both men reached for their guns, but it was too late.  I was nearly on them.
Fortiter.
⁴

I slammed into Grey, my momentum carrying us over the low edge.  I briefly heard Karl shout, before the wind filled my ears.  We were falling fast, and the pavement rushed up at us at an alarming speed.  Suddenly, everything shifted and we hit something solid.

My hands protected Grey’s head from hitting the ground, and my knuckles and elbows rapped hard against a cold floor.  I breathed heavily, my face buried in his shoulder, and I clutched him, my muscles refusing to relax.  Then I heard someone clear his throat above us, and I opened my eyes.

Shad was standing three feet from us, holding a tray loaded with food in his hands, an eyebrow raised in curiosity.  He looked at us, lying on the floor, and then up at the pantry we’d just fallen out of.  Then he grinned and began to nod in appreciation as he stepped around us.

“Glad to see you kids finally made up,” he said, leaving the kitchen.

I looked down at Grey.  He was conscious and staring up at me.  He brushed the hair back from my face and tucked it behind my ear.  Without thinking, I leaned down and kissed him deeply.  He kissed me back, his arms tightening around me.  I felt as though I’d been underwater for the past several weeks without him, and kissing him again was like coming up for air.  I wanted to breathe him in, fill my lungs with him.

“I never want to go back there again,” I mumbled.

He nodded.  “I’ll never make you go back.  I swear.”

I rested my forehead against Grey’s collarbone, until I remembered he’d been hurt.  I hurriedly pulled myself off him and helped him up.  He groaned as he got to his feet, one hand clutching his stomach, but fell silent when he noticed my blood-encrusted clothes.