Fragments (50 page)

As if on cue there was a soft knock on the door, and Calix opened it to reveal a short
young man with a broad face and a wicked grin. His arms were full of thick plastic
cups and a hefty jug of water. “Thanks, Cal. Hey, guys, I’m Phan.”

“Hey,” said Kira. Her stomach growled audibly, and she grimaced in embarrassment.
“Sorry. We haven’t had real food in months—this looks delicious.”

Phan laughed. “No problem, dig in.” He unscrewed the jug and started pouring cups
of water. Kira realized that despite his height he was about her same age. “Sorry
to barge in on your breakfast, but you’re kind of the most amazingly interesting thing
that’s ever happened here in the history of ever.”

Kira chuckled. “I could say the same about you. We’ve always hoped there were more
survivors, but we’d never been able to contact any.”

“Sit down and eat,” said Calix, guiding Samm to the table with a light touch on his
arm. “Don’t worry about us, we already ate.”

“Take turns eating so one of you can talk,” said Phan, passing out the water. “Start
with how on earth you were able to cross the wasteland—none of us has even made it
as far as Kansas. We figured if we ever found a settlement it would be west, across
the mountains.”

Kira swallowed her bite of potatoes—incredibly spicy, but nothing Nandita’s cooking
hadn’t prepared her for—and asked a question of her own. “Has anyone crossed them?”

“They’ve never come back if they have,” said Calix. “We’ve gone far enough to know
that the toxic wastes don’t go very far west. The mountains stop the wind, keeping
most of the bad stuff out here on the plains, but even without the acid storms, the
mountains are pretty dangerous. You’ve got to cross some pretty high passes to get
over them, and a lot of the roads have washed away.”

“The best bet would be an excursion up north,” said Phan, “through Wyoming and around
the tip of the range, but Vale won’t approve it. It’s as empty up there, and there’s
no good place to hide from the storms. He has to make rules like this, since people
like Calix are dumb enough to try it.”

“Shut up,” said Calix, throwing a wadded sock in Phan’s face.

“Do you always have to do what Vale says?” asked Kira. “I thought Laura was the mayor.”

“I didn’t become a hunter by ignoring good advice,” said Phan. “Vale, Laura, the other
adults, they’re all just trying to keep us alive.”

Samm popped a thick slice of pepper in his mouth, apparently unfazed by the heat.
“You’re a hunter, too?”

“I taught him everything he knows,” said Calix.

“And then I improved on it,” said Phan with a grin. He nodded toward Samm. “How about
you?”

“We don’t really have hunters,” said Samm, “at least not as a caste. I’m a soldier.”

Calix frowned. “Is it really that bad? With the Partials, I mean—do they attack you
so often you need full-time soldiers?”

“We have to maintain some sort of defensive force,” said Kira, jumping in, “but most
of us are other things—farmers and medics and stuff like that. We don’t have the cure,
like you do, so a pretty big chunk of everything we do is dedicated to finding one.”

“How are you alive if you don’t have the cure?” asked Phan.

“Same as you,” said Kira, “we’re just immune. It’s the newborns who need the cure.”

“You’re just automatically immune?” asked Calix. “Just like that?”

Kira frowned. “You’re not?”

“Everyone in the Preserve was inoculated twelve years ago,” said Calix, “right after
the Break. We’ve never heard of a . . . natural immunity. I though RM just killed
everybody.”

It still boggled Kira’s mind that the people here had had a cure for so long—not that
there’d been any way to get it from them, but just knowing that it was out there,
that all the infants she’d watched die could have been saved, nearly broke her heart
all over again.

“If people are naturally immune, there could be survivors everywhere,” said Phan.
“We could bring people in from all over the continent—all over the world.”

Kira stole a glance at Samm, then looked back. “Would you let new people in? If we
could bring people here?”

“Are you kidding?” asked Phan. “That’s like a dream come true. We’d probably make
a red carpet just so we could roll it out for you.”

“They never let us explore too far, though,” said Calix. Her face and voice were more
somber, suddenly, and she looked at Kira as she spoke—the first time she’d addressed
her instead of Samm practically since they’d arrived. “We keep pushing for more expeditions
into the Badlands, the younger generation especially, but the leaders don’t like it—they
want us to stay close, where it’s safe. They say the Preserve has everything, but
. . .” She gestured at Samm and Kira. “You’re the proof that it doesn’t. That’s why
you need to tell us what’s out there, and who’s out there, so we can convince them
to let us explore. Paradise or not, we can’t stay here forever.”

“That sounds like someone else I know,” said Samm, though Kira didn’t respond. It
would take more than a mistrust of authority for Calix to earn her trust.

“Tell us about the Partials,” said Phan. “We were told stories about them when we
were kids, hiding here after the Break. Can a Partial really throw a car?”

M
arcus and the soldiers flew as far as they could in the stolen Rotor, but the rioting
Partial army was hot on their trail. A lucky shot clipped their left wing somewhere
over New Rochelle, and Woolf managed to coax another few miles out of the flier before
an antiaircraft emplacement on the coast forced them into an emergency landing in
Pelham Bay. Vinci wanted to head southwest, crossing the Throgs Neck Bridge to Long
Island, but Woolf said it was too dangerous—the bridges were covered with traps and
explosives, and there was no way they could cross them safely. Instead they found
a motorboat on City Island, filled it with as much good gas as they could find, and
made the crossing that way; Partial pursuers fired at them from shore as they raced
across the water, but nothing hit. They landed in Queens near the ruins of the Defense
Grid base.

It was a blackened husk, bombed to oblivion and burned to the ground.

“Welcome to the last human refuge,” said Woolf. “As you can see, we’re not really
equipped for visitors.”

“Great,” said Galen. “We got away from one Partial army just to end up behind the
lines of another.”

“But at least we got away,” said Marcus. “What’s the next move?”

“It seems like a fair guess to say that the pro-Morgan faction won the civil war back
there,” said Vinci. “With Trimble gone, Morgan’s cemented herself as the single greatest
power in the region, but there are other factions, and they might be sympathetic—even
if they didn’t take a side before, Morgan’s actions may have tipped them in our favor.”

“Enough to mount a resistance?” asked Woolf.

“Maybe, maybe not,” said Vinci. “It depends on how quickly we could unite all the
remaining factions—and if any of them have already joined Morgan outright. I’m afraid
I don’t have any reliable intelligence on that.”

“Then we need to get back there,” said Marcus. “We need to find them all, and we need
to recruit them.”

“If they still oppose Morgan,” said Woolf. He looked Vinci. “Twelve years ago your
people nearly exterminated our race in a rebellion. Do you really think they’d ally
with humans now? Against their own people?”

Vinci paused a moment before speaking. “I have recently learned to make my allies
along ideological, rather than racial lines. That was a lesson you taught me. I do
not agree with Dr. Morgan, and I don’t know if I’ll agree with whoever wins the civil
war in White Plains, but I agree with you. You said you wanted to work together and
cure us—our expiration date and your disease. Is that still correct?”

Woolf didn’t answer, but Marcus nodded firmly. “Absolutely. We’ll do everything we
can.”

“Then I’m with you for now,” said Vinci. He looked at Woolf. “We started a war but
never intended to end the world—the virus did not come from us. We’ve been struggling
with the guilt of what happened for twelve years. There are many Partials left who
might just be looking for a reason to trust humans again, or at least a reason to
live in peace. The hell we just escaped from should be proof enough of that.” He held
out his hand. “I can’t speak for every Partial, but if you’re ready to trust me, I’m
ready to trust you.”

Woolf hesitated, staring at the Partial’s hand. Marcus watched the old soldier’s eyes,
guessing at the battle of memories and hatreds and hopes that must be going on behind
them. Finally Woolf reached out and grasped Vinci’s hand. “I never thought I’d see
the day.” He looked in the Partial’s eyes. “As commander of the Defense Grid and a
senator of the last human nation, consider this an official treaty.”

“You have my support,” said Vinci, “and the support of any other Partials we can recruit.”

“I want to kiss you both,” said Marcus, “but this touching moment doesn’t mean anything
until we get some more people behind it. Where to next?”

Woolf looked around at the devastated ruin. “Before we try to raise a Partial army,
we should at least check in with the human forces—we’ve been gone long enough we don’t
even know what’s going on here. Even if we could find a radio, though, I don’t know
how much we can share. Morgan’s forces are monitoring all frequencies, and the last
thing we want is to let Dr. Morgan know we’re raising a combined army of Partials
and humans.”

“Where to, then?” asked Vinci. “Do you still have a base of operations Morgan hasn’t
conquered?”

“I honestly don’t know,” said Woolf. “The Senate fled to an old outlaw hideout, but
if I had to guess, I’d say Morgan’s already taken it. Our best bet is a guerrilla
named Delarosa.”

“You’re sure about that?” asked Marcus. “She might not take kindly to a Partial in
the ranks.”

Vinci looked at Woolf. “You want to ally with a racist?”

“More of an extremist,” said Woolf. “After the invasion, her extreme methods made
her one of our most effective forces in the field. She knows the island better than
the invaders do, and if anyone’s managed to stay free, it’s her.”

“And you’re sure you can trust her? That she won’t just shoot me on sight?”

“She’s a pragmatist,” said Woolf. “She’ll use the weapons she has, and she’ll use
them as effectively as possible.” He slapped Vinci on the back. “What better weapon
could she want than a Partial?”

C
alix spread her arms wide, gesturing toward the entirety of the Preserve. “What do
you want to see first?”

“Dr. Vale,” said Kira.

“Not till this afternoon,” said Calix. “I checked with the hospital, and he’s got
a birth this morning.”

Kira’s heart soared at the thought of a birth, and she longed to see the cure administered
firsthand, but she forced herself to stay focused. They had a lot of other things
to investigate. “That big black spire in the middle,” she said.

“Too dangerous,” said Phan. “That was ParaGen’s main building, and the Partials blasted
the shiz out of it during the rebellion. I’m amazed it’s still standing.”

It was worth a shot,
thought Kira.
But if Heron hasn’t been captured, that’s got to be where she is.

Samm bent down to examine the grass, probing it gingerly with one finger before pressing
his whole hand down to touch it. “How does this survive the rain?”

“Engineered microbes in the soil,” said Calix. “It absorbs the poison too fast for
it to do any real damage to the plants.”

Kira knelt down as well, running her fingers through the soft, lush grass. “They’re
not even discolored. The microbes must come right up into the leaves.”

“Maybe,” said Calix. “I’m not a scientist, I wouldn’t know.”

“But they do teach you science,” said Kira, standing up. “I mean, they have a school
here, right?”

“Sure,” said Calix. “You want to see it?”

Kira shot another glance at the central spire, towering over the Preserve like a blackened
tombstone. That was where she wanted to go, but they’d have to wait until the time
was right. She felt ready to explode with frustration, but took a deep breath and
hoped Calix and Phan couldn’t see how stressed she was.
The time will come,
she told herself.
We need to earn their trust first.
“Sure, let’s see the school.”

“The school’s great,” said Phan, falling into step beside Kira as they walked. He
had more energy than anyone Kira had ever met, ranging back and forth as they walked,
smiling and waving at everyone while inspecting each tree and wall they passed, all
while carrying on a conversation. “You learn all the basics first, like reading and
writing and math and all that. Vale saved a bunch of schoolteachers, so they know
what they’re doing. I was actually with the teachers during the Break. I was in kindergarten,
and we were all hiding in a bomb shelter after a Partial attack during the first wave
of the war. They hit so fast they didn’t even have a chance to cancel school, so I
don’t know what happened to my family, but I guess that’s the only reason I’m still
alive. Sucks to be my parents, obviously, since they weren’t at school and we could
never find them afterward, but you say some people are just naturally immune, so for
all I know, they’re still alive. That’s awesome; that’s like the best news ever.”

Kira couldn’t help but smile, struggling to keep up with the dizzying pace of his
conversation. “I’m sorry you lost your parents.”

Phan looked at her quizzically. “You still have your parents?”

Kira shook her head. “Good point—I guess none of us have our parents anymore.”

“Some do,” said Phan with a shrug. “Families Vale was able to find and inoculate all
in one bunch. Doesn’t bother me, though—I never would have made it twelve years if
I’d spent all my time missing dead people. You gotta move on.”