Writing on the Wall (14 page)

I scowl at him.
“Are you quoting Christmas songs at me?”

“It’s that time of year.”
he says with a smile.

“Ugh, don’t remind me.”

He chuckles. “Not a fan of Christmas?”

“No. I hate it.”

“What if I promise to get you something pretty this year? Something shiny? Will that get you in the holiday spirit?”

“Just don’t get me a Cabbage Patch doll and we’re all good.”

“Deal.”

The next day I take one for the team; I tell Melissa I’ve found my calling in the sewing room. She’s genuinely excited, smiling at me like I just told her I found Jesus when what I’ve actually committed to is learning to make socks. Have you ever made a sock? From scratch? Don’t, it sucks. But it guarantees me time with my future best friend, Lexy, so I do it.

“You have to pull the thread through tightly but not so tightly that it snaps or bunches the material.” Lexy drones.

“We think a Pod was overrun with Risen because the population exploded over night.” I tell her quietly, touching the sock as though I’m examining it. As though I give a crap about it. “One day there was barely a zombie in sight, the next it was like the old days. A fallen Pod is the only thing that makes sense.”

I listen to the sound of her breathing evenly but I watch as her hands stumble with her work. “It could have been one of your gangs.”

“Not possible. There’s only one gang in the area big enough and it’s still intact. Also, there were children.”

“You don’t have children on the outside?”

“Some of the gangs do, the ones who keep women, but not this many. Why aren’t there children here?”

“
This Pod was abandoned for a while. We just reclaimed it. They selected groups of us from other Pods to come and build this new one up again. It was a lot of hard work with long hours and tough labor. And there are so many Risen here. It’s too dangerous for children.”

“
Why was it abandoned?”

“They said there was a plumbing problem.”

I stare at her in amazement. “A plumbing problem.”

“Yeah.”

“And you believed that?”

Lexy looks at me, her face offended. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because it’s dumb. It’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Thanks a lot.” she grumbles, playing with her sock.

“Look, just think about that. They cleared out this entire place over a plumbing issue? Who even has plumbing to have an issue with anymore? It’s ridiculous.”

“If this entire place was flooding with sewage, you would stay?” she asks sharply. “With children and everything. You would tell everyone to stick it out?”

“Not the children, no, but someone would have stayed with the animals and the farming and greenhouse. All of that is way too precious to bail on over a little bit of shit.”

“I don’t think it was just a little bit.”

“Whatever, it’s too much to lose.” I insist. “The whole place couldn’t have been abandoned over that.”

“Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe some people stuck around to keep it functioning while it was cleaned up. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. Can we make this sock now?”

I look at the directions and shake my head. “You probably can, but I can’t. Wait, so if you’re all from different Pods how do you not know how many there are? Can’t you get together and say ‘Hi, my name is Lexy and I’ve been held prisoner in Safeco.’ Then somebody else does the same and eventually you find out how many there are. Easy.”

She looks up
at me, her eyes annoyed. Still, she hands me a roll of thread and glances behind me at the other women in the room.

“
Some of us have talked.” she whispers. “We’ve tried to get an idea of how many there are but it’s tough. They name the Pods with numbers and letters, nothing sequential.”

“What
’s this one?”

“Pod A-63. I came from Pod C-92
which is the football stadium, some others are from G-11, Safeco, and G-35 is farther south on the eastern shore. So far we’ve counted groups from 4 different Pods but the names are all over the place. They can’t be sequential because even if each letter stopped at 100 Pods, that would mean there are at least 700 of them out there each with over 200 people inside almost every one.”

I frown. “There aren’t 200 people here.”

“186.” Lexy says without hesitation. “I’ve counted. Think of the rotations. We’re never all in the same place at the same time so of course it doesn’t feel like that many.”

“
If there were that many Pods with 200 people each, you’d be looking at a population of 140,000 people in this area. That’s impossible.”

She shakes her head firmly. “I don’t think there are that many. I think they label them like that to throw us off. If they called them Pods 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, then we’d all know how many there were or at least have an idea. This way, we have no clue. Maybe there are only 4. Maybe there are 15.  We can’t know.”

“Shady. But what does any of this have to do with me? You wanted information from the outside world but what exactly are you looking for?”

Her eyes dart around the room and I imagine she’s taking in every face before speaking. S
he’s quick, I’ll give her that. It keeps me wondering if I should even be talking to her.

“You know about the gangs, right?”

“Some things, yeah. Not their secret handshakes or anything, but I’ve picked up some stuff.”

“Is it true about The Hive? Is it the largest gang?”

“By far, yeah.”

“Can the hornet be trusted?” she whispers.

“Vin?” I chuckle. “No.”

She frowns. “He’s your friend, though, right? You trust him.”

“Yes and no. It depends what you’re trusting him with.”

She squares her shoulders
and sits back from me. “That’s between him and I.”

I laugh. I don’t mean to laugh in her face, but it’s funny to me somehow. This mild mannered girl trying to teach me how to sew is playing tough guy and demanding a private audience with my buddy the pimp. Vin will eat her alive and spit her back out.

“Why are you laughing?” she asks indignantly.

I put m
y hand over my eyes briefly, shaking my head. “I don’t know. It’s not particularly funny. It’s also not going to happen.”

“Why not?”

I lower my hand and look her in the eyes. “I’ll ask you again; what do you want to talk to Vin about?”

She doesn’t answer.

“That right there is why.” I tell her. “I’m not going to take you to him. What if you say something ridiculous and he never lets me hear the end of it? I can’t live with that, Lexy.”

“It’s not
ridiculous.” she says hotly. “It’s actually very important.”

I shake my head. “I have zero faith in humanity. You need to prove it or go to him yourself. Or are you scared to do that?”

When she looks away I know that’s what it is. All of the rumors they tell these people about the gangs has her terrified to speak to him alone. She won’t go near him without me and that’s a huge problem for her because I don’t trust her enough to take her anywhere near him with ‘very important’ topics.

***

“You cock blocking me, Kitten?”

I sigh. “Given the chance, yes I would. But I don’t think she wants that kind of conversation with you.”

“One never knows what lies in the interiors of a woman’s heart.” he muses, swirling his hand elegantly through the air, looking at me with half-lidded eyes. “What desires reside within.”

I look at Nats. S
he’s smiling and shaking her head over her eggs.

“What is this?” I ask her. “What is he doing?”

“Pressing your buttons.” she chuckles. “Give her a break, Vin.”

“Fine.” he groans, sitting forward. “What do you think she wants?”

“I don’t know yet, but whatever it is, she wants it from you and only you.”

“Gotta be something to do with The Hive. We’re all from the outside but if she’s looking for me specifically, it’s the only thing that sets
me apart.”

“Is there anything she could want that they’d actually be willing to give her?”

“Not likely.” he laughs. “And it doesn’t matter. Once I’m outta here, I’m never coming back so whatever she wants, I’m not the guy to deliver.”

“
We’re
never coming back.” Nats corrects, glaring at him.

“Right, yeah. Sorry. Once
we’re
out,
we’re
never coming back.”

I
look to Nats. “Is he going to…”

“Double cross us? Probably.”

I shake my head at him. “Nice.”

“Nothing’s been decided yet.” he says dismissively.

“That’s your defense?”

Nats shrugs. “At least he’s honest.”

“Don’t give him points for that.” I jab my finger in his grinning face. “No points!”

“Is there a problem here?”

Caroline. That woman’s voice could give me a cavity. She’s standing directly behind me and tell me that’s not intentional on her part. She knows about my issues with personal space and right now she’s crowding it hard, her hands taking hold of the back of my chair and brushing my back. I suppress a shiver.

“We’re fine, Caroline.” Vin says, looking at her hard.

“Are you sure?” She leans her weight on her hands on the back of my chair. I can feel her body closing in on mine. I have to grit my teeth to keep from screaming. “It was getting awful loud over here.”

“It was a lively discussion.” Vin stands and comes around the table to face her. He pushes into her space, forcing her off my back. “It’s nothing to worry about.”

Caroline laughs falsely. “I never worry about you.”

“Good. I think your girls are looking for you.”

“Hmm. Will you be looking for me later?”

“Ugh.” I groan.

Vin puts his hand on my shoulder and squeezes hard. I shut my trap.

“No.” he says firmly.

The silence coming from behind me is deafening. I look to Nats but she’s carefully pretending she doesn’t hear or see any of this so I try to do the same. It’s hard though with Vin’s Kung Fu grip on my shoulder.

“Are you sure about that?”

Vin doesn’t answer.

“Interesting choice.” Caroline w
hispers.

I feel fingers thread thr
ough my hair, pulling it gently. Vin’s hand tightens on my shoulder. It would probably hurt if I weren’t a statue made of solid stone, frozen in place. Seconds pass and I feel it when Caroline leaves, even before Vin loosens his hold on me. I take a deep breath. Some of the tension leaves me but there’s so much, too much, and I don’t know how long it will be until I come down entirely.

“Vin.” Nats says softly.

“I know.” He puts his free hand on my other shoulder so he’s holding both of them. He rubs them gently like a massage but I don’t even think he knows he’s doing it. “I made a mistake.”

“Sleeping with Satan?” I mumble.

“For starters.” Nats answers. “You should probably take your hands off her. You’ll only make it worse.”

Vin jerks his hands off my shoulders as though I’d burned him. “You’re right. Hell. Sorry, Kitten.”

“It’s alright.” I turn around to look up at him. His face is dark, troubled. “What mistake did you make?”

“I touched you to shut you up but she took it wrong.”

“She thinks you’re the reason she won’t be seeing him tonight. You’re back on her radar.”

“Oh come on.” I moan.

“I said I was sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

“Fat lot of good that will do me when there’s a knife in my neck.”

His troubled expression shifts to angry. “If you’d kept your mouth shut it wouldn’t have happened.”

“
That chick makes me ill, okay? I couldn’t keep quiet. You’re lucky I didn’t lose my dinner all over the table. And don’t blame me. If you’d keep it in your pants this wouldn’t be a problem in the first place.”

“She’s right, Vin.”

“Shut up, both of you.” he barks. “I apologized twice already, what do you want?”

“No,” I correct him. “You said you
were sorry and you referenced the sorry, but you did not apologize twice. I’ll take extra groveling. Let’s have it.”

“Not gonna happen.” he says dryly, walking away. “You only get one.”

“No points!”

A week goes by and I have no problems with Caroline. That actually
bothers me. She’s sitting back, waiting for something, but for what I’m not sure. If she’s waiting for me to drop my guard, she’s testing the wrong girl. I’ve lived the majority of my life on the outside where everyone and everything is trying to kill me all day every day. My guard doesn’t know how to drop.

Lexy starts avoiding me so
I work with some of the other women in the sewing room. They’re alright, but Lexy bothers me. I guess whatever she wanted wasn’t so important or she’d be pushing the issue. I’m left feeling kind of disappointed and very annoyed. I’m locked in here now because of her and she doesn’t even want to play ball anymore.

“Joss.”

I hear my name whispered as I’m leaving the cafeteria to start my work shift. When I glance around, I find Amber in a dark doorway to the kitchen waving me to her.

“Hey, what’s up?” I say, walking over.

“Shh.” she whispers, glancing around. “Come on, hurry. Before someone sees.”

I follow obediently into the kitchen to find the whole crew there tucked in the back corner around a small table. The previous work crew is still buzzing around like their shift isn’t ending.

“Joss.” Steven beams, though I do note he does it quietly. There’s a hushed air in the kitchen that sets me on edge. Even the girl washing dishes is doing it softly.

“Hi.” I reply, my tone guarded.

“We’ve missed you in here.”

“Really?”

He smiles. “Yes, of course. And we have a surprise for you.”

I stop a few steps from them. “I don’t really do well with surprises.”

Everyone chuckles quietly.

“Understood.” Steven replies.

Amber approaches me slowly with a plate clearly presented before her. “He made a pie.”

And there it is. Pumpkin, shiny, creamy, beautiful. I almost bury my face in the plate in her hands like a rabid dog seeing its first meal in days but I’m able to hold it together. I drool a little, that’s all. That’s respectable, right?

“Seriously? A real pie?”

“
With contraband sugar and everything.”

“Don’t tell anyone though.” Steven reminds me as I take the plate reverently from Amber’s outstretched hands. “It’s a forbidden pie.”

“Even better.” I dip the fork into the smooth, orange wonder and bring it slowly to my mouth. It dissolves on my tongue almost immediately and my legs go weak. “Oh God.”

“Right?”
Crystal says with a smile. “You should sit down.”

I smile in return, taking
an offered seat. “I think I have to. Steven, this is amazing.”

“Thank you.”

“What’s the occasion?” I ask, devouring another bite. The Colonies have never been so tempting.

Steven exchanges a look with Amber
and Crystal. I instantly go back on alert. But I don’t stop eating the pie. Priorities.

“We have an important question to ask you.”
he says.

I chuckle. “Everything here is so important.
What’s up? What do you need from me?”

“Why won’t the hornet talk to Lexy?”

I freeze, my fork nearly in my mouth. I carefully glance around the room checking to see who is listening.

“It’s alright.” Steve
n says confidently. “They’re fine.”

I put my fork down. “
Fine in what way exactly?”

“In the sense that you don’t have to censor yourself here.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You don’t
have to play coy with us.” He pats my hand reassuringly. It makes me squirm. “We all know everything about it.”

I pull my hand away.
“Then you know more than I do. What exactly are we talking about here?”

Steven looks unsure for a moment. “Lexy approached you, correct?”

“She attacked me in my sleep one night, yeah.”

“We heard about that.” Amber says. “That was
a bad choice.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“But she has explained to you why she did it, yes?’ Steven presses.

I shake my head. “No. I mean, I know she wants to talk to Vin but she won’t say what it’s about. Doesn’t really make me want to take her to him, you know?”

Steven sighs as he removes his hat to rub his bald head. He mutters, “She’s excessive with the cloak and dagger routine.”

“She doesn’t know her like we do.”
Crystal insists.

“Then they should have had us do this in the first place.”

“You know why they couldn’t. Why we shouldn’t be doing this now.”

“I thought everyone in here was cool.” I interrupt, getting annoyed.

“They are.” Steven replies defensively.

“Then what’s with all the vaguery.”

Amber frowns. “That’s not a word.”

“Do you understand what I mean by it?”

“Yes.”

“Then it’s a word, isn’t it? Answer the question. What do you guys want from Vin? And who am I talking about when I say ‘you guys’?”

Steven shifts uncomfortably in his seat.
“We weren’t supposed to talk to you about this.”

“Vaguery!”

“Shh, alright.” Crystal says, sounding annoyed. “There’s a group of us, a rather large group, who are not especially happy with our current situation.”

“Your situation with the Colonies?”

“Our situation at
this
Colony.” Steven corrects.

“How is this one different than any others?”

“The first Colony was incredible. It was a lifesaver. People joined up willingly and it grew and grew until we had to branch out. New Colonies were formed, new Pods created. We traded with each other, we visited one another. You were allowed to go outside the gates and be in the world. It was dangerous but it was nice to walk free, to swim in the Sound, to visit the city. But as the Colonies expanded more and more the tone of things changed. They stopped talking about surviving and being a community. It became more about keeping the sickness out and maintaining the purity within. The doors were locked, people were assigned permanently to Pods and we lost contact with everyone else. Then the roundups started. They went into the city and gathered people, saying we were saving them from themselves and the illness. They were put to work. If they refused, they were taken away. People would disappear for days, sometimes weeks, and they’d come out looking broken. But they’d get right to work. It’s been going on this way for years.”

“That’s a generalization of all Colonies.” I say, feeling annoyed. “You said you’re unhappy with this one specifically. So you’re okay with all of that stuff? With being locked in and the roundups and us from the outside being taken prisoner?”

“It’s a posh prison compared to outside.”

“It’s still a prison.
” I tell him hotly. “Just because you don’t want out doesn’t mean it’s not a cage.”

“But you see, we do want out.
Or at least to go back home. When they brought all of us here to fix this place up they broke up families, something they’d never done before. They pulled parents from children, husbands from wives, sisters from brothers. They say the selection system is a lottery, that it’s random, but it’s not. It’s very specific.”

“
Separating you from your families keeps you in line doesn’t it? It gives you the incentive to keep your head down.”

He nods grimly.
When I glance at the others I can the tension in their faces. They’re all missing someone. “It’s a very good incentive, yes. One that we believe they felt the need to implement only recently. You see, Lexy told us your theory about the fallen Pod. We think you’re right.”

“Really? Because she didn’t seem to believe me. Or she didn’t want to.
”

“She’s skeptical of everything.”
Crystal says with distaste. “That’s why she’s dropped the ball with you.”

“What does that mean?”

“She was supposed to convince you to let her speak to the hornet a week ago. She’s not even trying anymore, is she?”

“No, she’s avoiding me actually.”

Crystal shakes her head, disgusted.

“Why didn’t you guys approach me?
” I ask. “I would have taken any one of you to him immediately.”

“We were told not to talk to you about it.
”

“By who? The Team Leaders?”

Steven chuckles. “No. By the others. Others like us.”

“Others who are unhappy?” I ask, picking up on what we’re not saying.

He nods. “But we got on with you too well too fast. It’s why Melissa pulled you out of here. She likes your relationship with Lexy because you don’t like each other. You obviously don’t trust each other.”

“And Melissa knows all of this how?”

“We’re watched very closely. This right now is actually very dangerous which is why any further communication will have to be with Lexy.”

“How can you go along with this?” I ask exasperated. “If you know they’re manipulating you and kidnapping people like me, how can you still be in favor of the Colonies?”

“We’re not in favor of it. Not exactly. We’re not ready to go out and live in the wild like you do, none of us would last a day, but we do want the old days of the Colonies. Back when it was a community all about survival and not—“

“A prison? A slave trade?”

Steven’s mouth drops into a grim line but he nods. “Yes, exactly.”

“As long as you’re in favor of people like me being allowed to live their life as they choose—“

“We are.”

“Then we’re
good. I’m on board. But you still haven’t answered me, though I think I know the answer already. What does Lexy want to talk to Vin about?”

Steven
meets my eyes with a sad smile. “Freedom.”

I nod. “I think that’s a conversation Vin would be willing to have.”

***

“Are you for real?” Vin asks Lexy, staring at her in amazement.

“Don’t be a dick.” I mutter to him.

I would rather he didn’t burn this bridge just as I built it up. It took days to get Lexy talking to me. Days of sitting beside her working on seams and never saying anything about my conversation in the kitchen. They told me
to wait, to let her come to me. To let her take her time until she was ready. Steven and the rest of the kitchen crew promised to talk to Lexy and explain my willingness to bring her to Vin now that I knew what was what, at least a little. Still she made me wait.

Finally, on day four of the silent treatment, she broke down and asked again to speak to the hornet. I wanted to tell her no, just to watch her head explode. But I was too frustrated to bother so I told her I would make it happen.

The wild is very straightforward. All of this intrigue and drama here on the inside is giving me hives.

“No, really, I need to know.
” Vin demands, having listened to her tell him the story the kitchen crew told me. “Is she being serious? Am I insane or am I getting this right? Because she isn’t actually saying what she wants.”

“I’ve made myself very clear.” Lexy says
angrily.

I put my hand up to stop her. “Don’t fight fire with fire where Vin is concerned. You’ll only get burned.” I turn
to face Vin, trying to be patient. “She hasn’t been clear, no, but you get the idea.”

He ignores me and glares at Lexy. “Say it in plain English or go away.”

I watch her grit her teeth but she doesn’t walk. I’m a little shocked by that. “We want help from The Hive.”

“Help with what?”

“With our release.” She takes a breath and her voice softens. “You’re not the only prisoners here.”

Vin chuckles darkly. “Honey, they won’t even help with my release. They don’t care anything about yours.”

“Why not?
Your people hate the Colonies. I’d think they’d jump at the chance to take one down.”

Vin snorts. “Not badly enough to risk the lives of everyone in The Hive. If they come here and you don’t succeed, they’ll all be taken prisoner as well. It’s not worth it. Not by a long shot.” He leans forward and folds his hands on the table, looking her
hard in the eye with his charming smile. “Now, if you want to free me, I’m all for that. I’ll go ask them to come rushing back here, but don’t be surprised when no one shows.”

“Not even you?” Lexy asks, glancing at Nats and I sitting on either side of Vin. “Not even for them?”

“Not for anyone.” he replies, no hesitation.

She shakes her head. “I can’t believe that.”

“Believe it.” I tell her. “It’s how it is in the wild. It’s how you survive.”

“Kitten’s right. You can’t value anyone or anything too much.”