Black River Falls (6 page)

I was half a block away when she saw me. Her exhaustion vanished in a flash. There was a softball-size chunk of rock sitting by the wall. She grabbed it and jumped to her feet.

“It's okay! I'm not with them. My name's Cardinal. Cardinal Cassidy.”

“You called that man by
name,
” she shouted. “I heard you.”

I took a step toward her and she hoisted the rock, ready to swing at my head. I stopped and raised my hands in front of me.

“I know his name. That's all. I promise. I was trying to help you.”

The girl kept the rock hoisted, ready to swing, as she put more distance between us and searched the surrounding streets.

“Where am I?”

“A town called Black River.”

“How did I get here?”

“You live here,” I said. “I know. It sounds crazy. Just listen. This town has been quarantined for months because of a virus called Lassiter's. It makes people lose their memories. That's what happened to you.”

“Those men said I was going to get sicker. They said—”

“They were lying. The virus makes you lose your memory, that's all. I promise.”

There was a snap behind me. I whirled around, one hand dropping to the hilt of my knife, but no one was there. I told myself it was a branch knocked loose by the storm, nothing else.

“Look,” I said, trying to keep the nerves out of my voice. “There's a National Guard shelter just a few blocks from here. I can take you there. They'll let you stay with them while they figure out who you are and where your family is.”

The girl considered. Her fingers had gone white on the rock. She searched the park and the hill above it.

“But those men who attacked us, they live here too. Don't they?”

“There are people running the shelter. Soldiers. They can protect you.”

“So I'll be safe there.”

The voice in my head said yes, but I couldn't get the words out. In the first weeks of the quarantine the Guard had hundreds of men, but their numbers had gradually dwindled until there were only forty or fifty for the whole town. There were never enough of them to keep an eye on everything, not even at their own shelter. If I left the girl there, it would only be a matter of time before Tommasulo and his friends found her. And then, as soon as one of the guardsmen turned his back . . .

I scrambled for options, but they all came to dead ends. All except for one. I drew in a shaky breath.

“No,” I said. “You won't. But I think I know somewhere you will be.”

I nodded toward Lucy's Promise.

“Me and my friends live up there. In a camp on the mountain. You can stay with us until we find out where you belong.”

By then the girl's arm had started shaking. She was having trouble holding up the rock. Having trouble standing, it seemed. Still, she didn't say anything and she didn't move. Who could blame her? Minutes earlier she'd nearly been kidnapped by two strangers, and now another one wanted to take her away to an isolated mountaintop. As far as she knew, Tommasulo and I were just using slightly different versions of the same con.

Voices came from somewhere in the neighborhood. Men's voices. Three or four of them, shouting to one another. Tommasulo's friends, no doubt. They were a few blocks away, but closing in fast. I did the only thing I could think of.

The girl jumped back when I pulled my knife from its sheath. She was about to run, but I flipped it so the blade was in my palm and the hilt was facing her.

“Take it,” I said. “This way you'll be the only one who's armed.”

She didn't make a move. I set the knife on the ground and backed away.

“If I try anything, you have my permission to stab me.” I forced a nervous laugh. “You can even kick me a few times while I bleed out on the trail. Okay?”

Footsteps and shouts echoed among the houses, growing louder as they closed in. The girl dropped the rock and snatched up the knife, holding it out between us. The key around her neck glistened. She nodded toward the mountain without taking her eyes off me.

“You first.”

The tip of the knife hovered near the base of my spine the whole way up the mountain. We never slowed down and the girl never spoke. When we came around the final bend in the trail, Greer's voice boomed through the trees.

“Throw, DeShaun! Throw the ball! No! To Carrie!”

He was watching the kids crash into one another in the space between the cabins. DeShaun threw the football to Carrie, who was brutally tackled by Makela. A whistle blew.

“Okay, everybody! That was an awesome first half! Let's all go get hydrated. Astrid, your team is in the lead, so when we get back, you'll start the dance-off.”

We'd stopped at the edge of the camp. “That's Greer,” I said over my shoulder. “The halftime dance-off is one of his innovations. Funny thing is, we actually have a rule book. He just thinks it's more fun to—”

I turned around, but the girl was gone. I thought maybe she'd run off, but then I caught a flicker of movement in the trees. While I'd been watching the game, she'd slipped into the woods and hidden herself behind a boulder.

“It's all right,” I said. “You don't have to hide. We—”

“Yo! Cassidy! Where the hell have you been, man? The kids were about to send out a search party.” Greer was jogging toward me.

“Sorry. I, uh—I got sidetracked.”

“Sidetracked? Dude, you left before the big announcement!”

“What announcement?”

“The one about the Marvins.”

“What? Who are the Marvins?”

“Those guys we saw with the blue hazmat suits,” said Greer. “Martinson Vine? Mar Vin? The Marvins? Kids all thought it was pretty inspired. Anyway, the Guard announced that they're going to—”

He cut himself off.

“What?” I asked. “The Guard is going to what?”

Something had caught Greer's eye, and he was looking into the woods behind me. “Uh, buddy? Is it just me or is there a green-haired girl with a big knife hiding behind that rock?”

I turned and called back through the trees. “You can come out. Greer's a friend.”

There was a pause, and then she came out from behind the boulder. The knife was at her side, but she was gripping it tightly enough to make the tendons in her hand stand out in sharp ridges.

“I found her on my way back,” I said. “She's just been infected. A couple guys were running the lost wife scam on her.”

Greer leaned to the side to address the girl. “Hi. Welcome.” He held up one finger. “Can you excuse us for just one tiny second?”

“Greer, I . . .”

He marched off. I motioned for the girl to wait where she was, and then I followed him.

“Look, Greer—”

“You know what's weird?” he said when we were a safe distance away. “I keep having crazy flashbacks to a conversation you and I were having just this morning.”

“What was I supposed to do? You know what those guys would have done to her.”

“What did Gonzalez say about it?”

My stomach flipped. “I, uh, I didn't see him.”

“You didn't
see
him? That was the whole point of you—what about how bringing anyone else up here jeopardizes all of us?”

“And what about
you
not giving a crap about that?”

“I care,” Greer said. “But if we're going to ignore the rules, I'd kinda rather do it for a couple six-year-olds starving to death in a swamp than for some girl who looks like she'd like to knife us all in our sleep.”

“She's just scared! And I get that you're pissed. But all we have to do is hide her until we figure out who her family is, and then we hand her over.”

“Oh! Is that all? Well, if we can hide
her,
then I'm sure a couple little kids won't be a problem.”

“Greer!”

“Either you want to help them or you don't.”

“You know I do, but we can't—”

“I'm not asking anymore,” he snapped. “I'm taking Ren and Makela, and I'm going after them first thing tomorrow morning.”

“You can't just—”

But he was already moving away from me and toward the girl. She jumped back as he approached.

“That's Astrid's cabin,” he said, stabbing a finger in the direction of the camp. “There's an extra cot in the back. If you want it, it's yours.” He pointed across the field to the main lodge. “Bathrooms are over there, and so is the kitchen. There's running water, but the state only provides electricity from seven p.m. to twelve midnight. Ask Card if you need anything else.”

He stomped off toward the playing field. “Wait!” I shouted. “Greer! What about the Guard? What was the big announcement?”

Greer spun around. “They're pulling out.”

“What? Pulling out? Why?”

“Because they're handing control of the QZ over to the Marvins.”

I stood there dumbstruck, my mouth hanging open, as Greer rejoined the kids.

“Okay, people! It's mambo time. Astrid, your team's up! Eliot! Let's get some music going!”

Eliot pressed play on the radio, but I could barely hear it. It was as if I were a mile underwater. The Guard was pulling out? Gonzalez was leaving? It didn't seem possible. He would have said something. He would have warned us. Greer must have misunderstood.

There was a rustle of tree branches as the green-haired girl left the woods and hurried past me toward the cabins.

“Hey, if you want some help getting settled, I can—”

Halfway there, she veered away and started up the trail that led into the woods above the camp. My knife was still in her hand, slicing at the air as her arm swung back and forth. A second later, she was gone.

Astrid called out over the music. “Ready, everybody? Let's go!”

The dance started. Greer had pulled Ren and Makela off to the side by the dining hall. He was down on one knee explaining something as the two kids nodded. When he was done, he sent them back to the game and looked at me across the camp. His gray eyes were icy.

S
OMETIMES, WHEN
I didn't know what else to do, I ran.

The first few weeks after the outbreak I felt like my head was going to explode right off my shoulders. But then I remembered something you said about being on the cross-country team. I'd asked if running that far hurt, and you said that was the point—that the pain wiped every other thought out of your head. Every worry. Every doubt. Every fear. As if the whole world fell away, and all that was left was you and the course.

It was three o'clock in the morning the first time I tried it. I grabbed a flashlight and left camp, running until my legs ached and my lungs burned. It was just like you said. The outbreak. Mom and Dad. You. It all left me in a rush. It was nearly dawn when I came back to my tent and collapsed, feet bleeding and body drenched in sweat. I slept through the night for the first time in weeks.

The night I brought the green-haired girl to camp I ran until the muscles in my legs felt like they were filled with broken glass. But no matter how hard I drove my feet into the ground, I couldn't knock everything that had happened that day out of my head. It was too much. Seeing Mom. Finding the girl. Fighting with Greer. The Guard leaving—actually
leaving
—and handing the QZ over to a bunch of strangers.

I pushed double hard up the last incline and made it to the reservoir, where I collapsed. Once I caught my breath, I cupped my hands and splashed water on my face and through my hair, then sat back on my heels. The reservoir was vast, with shimmers of moonlight skating across its surface. A fire from one of our neighbors' camps flickered on the opposite shore. The only sounds were the chittering of crickets and the lap of the water.

I swear to God, Tenn,
I thought.
There isn't a single day, a single second, when I don't wish you were here. You'd know what to say to Greer, and what to do about the green-haired girl and the Guard and the kids at Joseph's Point.

I picked up a rock and threw it out into the water. There was a soft splash and then quiet.

You'd know what to do about Mom.

I saw her standing in that alleyway again, the sunlight on her skin. I wondered where she was right then. It didn't look like anybody had been staying at our place. Was she at the Guard shelter, jammed together with men like Tommasulo? Squatting in some abandoned house? Wherever she was, could it be possible that she was staring into the dark and wondering about me, just like I was about her?

I threw another rock, harder this time. Even if she was, I thought, it wouldn't make any difference. The truth—the truth we all pretended not to know—was that Lassiter's was fatal in all cases. The woman I saw in that alley looked like Mom and sounded like Mom, but Mom was dead and gone. Even if she went to the Guard and got her name back, it wouldn't mean a damn thing to her.

The moon fell behind some clouds, turning the surface of the lake into a black plain. I thought about how cold it must be at the bottom, and how dark. I wondered what it would be like to be down there.

Would it be like that winter night in Brooklyn when the heat went out in our building? Remember? Mom and Dad dressed us in every stitch of clothing we owned and then buried us in blankets and quilts and old sweaters. At the bottom of all of that, there wasn't any sound and there wasn't any light, just this warm darkness wrapping itself around us. Would sinking to the bottom of the reservoir be like that? Peaceful and still?

An owl hooted, then flew from tree to tree. The moon had arced over my head and was starting to fall. How long had I been there? I took a last look at the water and then made my way through the dark to my tent.

When I got back, Greer was waiting for me.

“W
HAT'S GOING ON?
Is everything okay?” I asked.