Disarming (10 page)

I pushed her to eat, and she forced down a bite or two into her fragile, thin mouth. She was skinnier now, thinner than I’d ever seen her. Her lips were a light pale pink and slimmer. I gulped my breakfast down, my focus wavering as I watched her move her food around the plate, making it seem like she had eaten more than she had. “Mom, eat some more.”

“I’m full.”

“No, you’re not. Eat some more, you’re too thin.” I urged her on.

“So what?” She hissed, dropping her fork and letting it clatter to the floor. “What’s it to you?” Helen snapped−her eyes wide and wild. Was that a snarl slipping from her throat? “I’m. Not. Hungry!”

I held my hands up as if to tell her that it was okay. “Alright, just saying.” I stood up slowly, backing away until I reached the sink to wash my dishes, turning to hide the tears forming in my eyes. Jeremy’s face was frozen in surprise, shocked to see his mother react the way she had. His food was half gone, but he stared hard at his plate, as though he wanted to split it into pieces. My pain shifted to anger as I gripped the sponge to wash my dishes.

This was Helen now. Mom. A woman who had always been calm and confident. Helen, who never yelled but spoken firmly, like you’d expect from a mother. This wasn’t her. I didn’t know who this was anymore. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know her anymore, not like this.

I gulped back my sorrow and watched the water swirl down the drain, taking the small soap suds with it. The huge lump forming in my throat made it hard to swallow, knowing my mother wouldn’t care anymore if I did cry. But I wouldn’t cry. I didn’t want to see her apathy toward me anymore. The water spiraled around the sink, and I wanted to join it, down the drain, away from this place, away from it all forever.

“I’m going into town today, Jer. Do you want to come with me and hang out with Rye’s people? Or….” I carefully formed each word, afraid my voice would crack if I didn’t. I didn’t want to offer the alternative. At least if he came with me, Helen could roam around the bunker freely, without fear of harming someone.

“Yeah, that’s fine. It’d be nice to see Rye and Miranda again,” he muttered, obviously having already lost his appetite as he shoved the food around on his plate, too. “Maybe Rye will be up for a rematch on Halo.” He pushed away from the table and brought his dishes to the sink. I nodded to him and let him finish cleaning up. We knew our chores and did them without any protesting.

“Okay, well, it should be fun. Do you need anything, Mom?” I spoke softly, afraid to bring her wrath out again. She shook her head without looking at me, still lost in a distant thought, staring across the room and humming softly to herself. “Alright, just make sure you take a shower and put some clean clothes on. And your sheets need washing, wash day remember?” Biting my lip, I realized just how much I sounded like her, which made me cringe. Like the old her.

I saw the slightest of nods from her and I accepted that it was all I was going to get. Heading over to grab my gear, I loaded up my weapons and a bag of snacks and water. Never knew when one might need some back up food. Shoving some small LED flashlights into the pack, I turned to wait for Jeremy to finish dressing. He hooked his knife sheath to his belt and stuffed a metal zippo into his pocket. He had his own little emergency supply bag that he belted onto his hips before joining me to leave. Walking out the door, I called out a goodbye to Mom, who was still sitting at the table silently.

“Love you,” I called out to her. I didn’t hear the words returned before I closed and locked the bunker door.

“When do you think she’ll be fully turned?” Jeremy inquired softly. I jerked my eyes toward him, studying his face as we walked over to our car. The rain had all but disappeared. The sun shone brightly behind the trees this early in the morning. Still slightly cool from the moisture in the air, the higher the sun hung in the sky, the faster it would all dry up. That’s how it was here: pouring, grey and gloomy one day, then bright sunny blue sky the next, like nothing had happened.

“She won’t turn.”

“Yes she will, and you know that better than I do.” His beady little eyes glared at me as I hopped into the driver’s seat. I sighed heavily, letting my breath ease out slowly, giving me time to contemplate what I would say. I was still shaking from Mom’s outburst.

“I don’t know that, but it seems that it could happen soon if it does. It might not though, so don’t hold your breath, Jer.” I turned the engine, letting its welcomed hum break up the air between us. I was done speculating. If it happened, it would happen. If it didn’t, then there was a God.

“That’s why you don’t leave me alone with her anymore, isn’t it?” A small quiver lined his words. “It’s not ‘if’ it will happen, it’s ‘
when
.’” He turned his gaze to stare at the passing scenery, now done with his complaints. I wished so badly that I could comfort him. But I wasn’t the comforting kind, not all the time at least. I hoped that when the time came, I could be comforting enough. Seeing him this way broke my heart into a billion little pieces.

“Well, don’t be so negative. We do what we must. For today, you hang out with Rye. I have to get a map of the Wynn, just for future reference, and it could be in a couple different places. Let him win a few rounds, K?” I heard him chuckle at the last statement, making the tense knot in my shoulders relax just a bit. “Oh, and Jer? Don’t tell Rye what I’m doing. You know how antsy he gets.”

He nodded. His anticipation of playing against with a real person had won over any suspicions he might have had about what I was going to do. I knew with that, he was hooked and eager to go. Who could turn down a video game challenge? Definitely not Jeremy.

Chapter Eleven

Last One

April

“
WHY DO YOU
always have to do things alone?” Rye’s eyes narrowed as he took in the words I had just spoken. Leaving him behind to babysit Jeremy was not his idea of fun. He didn’t mind hanging out with him, it was just that knowing I wanted to go searching for some hunting gear at my usual haunts sounded suspicious to him, especially the part where I wanted to go alone, even though that wasn’t unusual for me.

I couldn’t tell him the truth, if he knew I was going to search through the dark buildings of the government offices for blueprints of the Wynn Casino, it would make him furious. He would want to come then, and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Instead I had told him I needed some alone time to breath and think about stuff. He accepted this reason, though quite reluctantly. I could tell.

“Don’t be a nag. I know the risks as much as you do. I do this alone, like I always have. I don’t need you or anyone to babysit me. Unlike Jeremy, I’m already an adult.” My own teeth were gritting, holding back words I might regret. I wasn’t used to working with another person or even answering to someone other than my mother. Though Rye was easy going and a comfort at times, I hunted alone. Period. Even with my mother, she had learned quickly that it was better to leave me to my own devices. He had to learn this soon or be tormented by my quirks.

“I’m not a nag,” he sighed, rubbing his face and looking somewhat tired. “It’s not safe. You know that. Why do you always leave me out of things? Is it because I told you Blaze doesn’t want us to search for the human city, if there even is one?”

“
I
leave you out?” I huffed, almost laughing at the irony of it all. “I’m not the one making plans to exterminate feral hives and inadvertently joining the human genocide that is already happening. I’m not the one making plans to infiltrate an underground human facility without consulting a
human
!” I turned, already marching down the hall before I lost my temper. I could tell my words stung like salt to a wound, but I couldn’t help lashing out.

“I need to get away from everything for a bit. If you have a problem with that, so be it,” I hollered back to him. My patience was gone, and it wasn’t even late morning yet. I was running out of daylight though, with every minute that ticked by, and I didn’t want to spend it arguing with Rye.

Surprisingly, he didn’t follow me. Maybe he knew me better than to continue to probe at the issue. He must have been getting to know me pretty well if he gave up so soon. Satisfied, I jumped into my car, gripping the steering wheel as I made sure Rye had returned to the hive’s underground residence and had not followed me out. I was going to head back down to the other side of The Strip, toward downtown Fremont Street to get the blueprints of the Wynn Hotel & Casino. I had yet to find the right place where they kept the blueprint hardcopies. It was grating on my nerves not to have found it yet.

It sucked up my time so much, I had lost track of the days since I had seen Elijah. The Palms stared at me from every angle of The Strip, even from here, at the airport. He must have known I was searching for something. He had probably seen me once or twice sneaking around the Las Vegas Strip. His vantage point was pretty good from his penthouse. But if he knew what I was looking for, maybe he would understand. Of all people, he just might join me.

However, I had avoided his apartment since he had threatened me. He had made it pretty clear that he did not want me to return. Maybe when I found the underground city, I could approach him again. Maybe with evidence of others, he would be more forthcoming and less likely to stab me in the heart. Not that I didn’t want to snap his neck myself for telling me to leave the way he had. It’s just that I didn’t think killing another human would be worth the trouble.

“Wait up!” Miranda’s voice bounced into the car as she pulled open the door to the car and jumped onto the seat.

“Oh no, not you too!” I groaned, giving her a scowl.

“Hey, I’m so in when it comes to exploring. I need out of the hive sometimes, too. Too much testosterone, if you know what I mean.” She winked, her dark eyes twinkling in the blinding light of the day. She threw on the shades she had hoisted on top of her head and wore a long-sleeved hoodie despite the growing heat, to cover her sensitive vampire skin. She fastened her seatbelt and waited for me to get going. An immortal that cared about safety. It was sort of ironic in a way, and it made me chuckle as I gave in and started the car, too grumpy to try to talk her out of coming along.

“Okay, just do me a favor: don’t tell Rye what I’m—I mean,
we’re
—doing, alright?”

“Oky doky.” Miranda smiled at me then turned to look out the window without questioning me further. Sometimes I liked her no-nonsense style.

I loved Downtown. It used to be bustling with life before the outbreak. Small souvenir shops, island retail kiosks, zip line riders above our heads while the lightshow danced with multicolored LED lights, creating a unique experience. I’d never been anywhere else besides Las Vegas, but it was enough to escape the everyday mundane routine, escape to The Strip, escape to Downtown. A perfect place to blend in and disappear in the crowds. Loads of candy shops, ice cream and arcades to keep any teen busy. I knew because it had been a favorite hangout of mine and my best friend, Sarah.

But that was then. The memory faded from my eyes, and I no longer saw the twinkling lights or heard the dinging of slot machines as I approached the neglected city blocks. It was devastated. Some of the old shack-like houses looked even worse for wear, having been vandalized and wrecked during the initial outbreak. Longstanding motels sat with their windows smashed and the dirt caking them until you could no long glance inside. Celebrated wedding chapels stood with doors ripped from their hinges, and old arches were strewn across the yards where white picket fences were no long standing.

Weeds grew everywhere, the one thriving life form after the death of so many. They grew out of cracks and snaked through the edges of brown, dead lawns, stretching their fingers across the concrete, cracking it with snarling roots and littering the city with its dead cousins. Abandoned, neglected. Without order, the wild things ran rampant.

Reaching the government center off Main Street and past the casinos, I parked in the asphalt lot, unusually empty of cars. It must have been one of the first places to shut down during the outbreak. Most had sent people to emergency centers or shooed them away to their homes. Or maybe they had all left on their own accord, worried for their families, desperate to make it out of the city.

But none made it out. No one had made it. Or maybe they had. Maybe they all had gone to the underground sanctuary I was so desperately seeking. I crossed my fingers, praying the maps were inside.

Entering the building was easy. The glass that lined the roof still let in plenty of light, letting rays of sunshine stream down into the dusty corridor where the two floors stood dark and gaping down at me. I could see desks and shelves of books and paperwork lining this semicircular room. It was a shame there were so many windows; this would have been ideal for a hive of feral vampires. It was cool inside with thick rock and concrete walls. I shivered from the cool air. Miranda and I found the stairs behind the elevators. The stairwell was a bit dark, so we flashed our beams of light and sprinted up the steps three at a time until we reached the dimly-lit second floor. Only two floors to this place and no ferals in sight, my lucky day!

Finding the blueprints was the harder part. After telling Miranda what to look for, I checked each row of files on one side of the room and Miranda took the other. The place was nothing but file cabinets, rows and rows of them. I finally found the right area, but it was still tedious work, balancing a flashlight in my hand as I ran my fingers through each stack. Over and over I flipped through papers until my fingers were growing dried and sore with tiny paper cuts from the thousands of dusty files. I was thankful to not have to worry about any ferals jumping out at me; the place was abandoned. The short rays of sunshine were a welcome break in the wavering darkness.