Zero Trilogy (Book 2): Day One (8 page)

The climb went slow. At last, she reached the top of the cliff. She paused…waiting. There were faint voices, and she knew that she would have to do this
quickly. The granite summit had a shelf of earth and grass. Manzanita bushes grew on the edge of the cliff. Elle pulled herself up, level with the ground, peering through the bushes, her legs a hundred and fifty feet above the road below.

By the time she reached the top, her arms ached. She felt deprived of oxygen. Or maybe she was just anxious. She didn’t care. She tied the rope around the base of a small tree, keeping low. She dropped the rest of the rope over the side of the cliff. It fell almost to the bottom.

Her next item of business was the corral. She could see Jay sitting with his knees against his chest inside the barbed wire fencing. He looked cold and hungry. Dark hollow rings had sunk into his skin, beneath his eyes.

“Jay,” she said, low.

He looked up.
His face was one of utter disbelief.
“Elle?”
Elle gestured for him to be silent. She clipped through the barbed wire one piece at a time, balancing on the balls of her feet, keeping her head down. The wire was tough. Her hands ached from forcing the blades
through the metal. The guards roamed between the fencing, masked shadows of the night.

Elle was determined to escape unnoticed.

“You’re here?” Jay rasped. “That’s impossible! How the
hell
could you
possibly
find us here?”

“Shut up!” she hissed, casting a wary glance over her shoulder. Nothing but bushes and a sheer cliff were behind her, but everywhere else was danger. She clipped through the last piece of wiring.

“Come on, move,” she whispered.

Jay stared at her, shocked. It was as if his brain wouldn’t process the fact that Elle was crouched before him, offering him a route to freedom. Elle reached through the slice of fencing and grabbed his collar.

“
Move!
” she commanded. “We will
all
die if you don’t get it together!”

Jay blinked. Something shifted in his eyes, and suddenly he was moving, slipping through the crack. He was weak, dehydrated and starved, by the looks of it. He struggled to get out, holding his head in his hands.

Most of the prisoners were asleep. Flash was lying in the dirt with his eyes closed. Georgia’s arm
was around his small shoulders in a protective position, trying to shield him from the chill. Elle crawled into the corral, keeping her belly to the dirt, her head down. She slowly shook Georgia’s shoulders. The girl didn’t stir. She was probably used to being jostled and poked in living quarters like these.

“Georgia,” Elle whispered. “Wake up. Come on. We’re on a schedule.”

Georgia stirred, opening her bleary eyes.

She focused on Elle’s face, gasping with surprise. Elle slapped her hand over her mouth, pressing her palm against Georgia’s lips.

“Shhh,” she said. “Get Flash. Just move.”

Georgia hesitated for only a moment, getting a bearing on her surroundings, then gently woke Flash. Elle crawled out of the corral, Georgia and Flash following. They remained silent, staring at Elle like she was a ghost. Georgia touched Elle’s arm, as if trying to convince herself that the girl was real.

“You have to trust me for this next part,” Elle whispered.

She stayed low, gesturing for them to follow. She returned to the cliff, showing them the rope. “Use this,” she explained. “Climb down. Move fast.
Be quiet
.” Georgia stared at the rope.

“I can’t…no way. That’s a huge cliff. That’s a freaking mile!” She looked up, frantically gripping the ground. “No, Elle. There’s got to be another way.”

“Sure, you can go back through the camp and get killed by the guards,” Elle replied. “Seriously. Climb. It’s only a little over a hundred feet. Wrap the rope between your legs and over your shoulder. The friction will burn, but it will get you down to the bottom.”

“I’m going,” Jay said.

He didn’t wait for anyone’s response. He grabbed the rope, secured it over his shoulder and between his legs, slid his body down, and began descending, slipping below the encampment, using the rope as a way to steady himself. Elle peeked her head over the edge of the cliff, watching the shadow of his body get farther and farther away.

“Your turn, Flash,” Elle commanded.

Flash swallowed. His hands trembled. He was sweating.

“Don’t look back,” Elle warned. “Stay focused on what you’re doing, do you understand?”

Flash nodded.

“You’re going to be fine, I promise,” she said. “Go.”

Flash slowly lowered himself down to the granite shelf and took hold of the rope, using it to guide himself down the rock face. Jay was moving quickly. He was already halfway to the bottom. Good.

“Georgia?” Elle asked.

Georgia looked her with wide, glassy eyes.

“I can’t,” she said. “I just can’t.”

“Then you’re staying behind,” Elle stated, her voice firm. “Because I didn’t come all this way to get caught by Slavers.”

“I just—I can’t, Elle!”

Georgia’s voice pitched, echoing off the rocks. Elle froze. Georgia held her breath, covering her own mouth with her hand. She looked horrified. At first, there was nothing but silence. But a Slaver guard had caught the sound and wandered to the corner of the encampment to check on the prisoners. From his vantage point, the corral was intact and everything was silent. Elle was a creature of the
shadows, invisible. But Georgia was not. She was a head of bright yellow hair reflecting in the firelight. The guard’s face was impossible to see through the hood and mask, tilting his head, walking closer. He stared in their direction for several long, terrifying moments.

Elle didn’t dare breathe. She stared at the guard’s feet, knowing that if she stared at his eyes, he would somehow be drawn to her.

And then he sprinted forward. He was quiet, unspeaking. But he had seen them, and Elle’s heart dropped like a stone to the pit of her stomach. She turned to Georgia. “
Go now
!” she pleaded. Georgia shook her head, rooted to the spot.

The guard pulled his sword from the sheath hanging on his belt. It was a curved weapon, glinting like a crescent moon, sharp enough to split hairs. Elle moved forward and knelt down on one knee. She pulled out her katana and leaped forward, striking an overhead blow at the guard. Her blade collided with the guard’s curved sword.

Elle’s arm ached from the impact. Her body slid backward a few inches but she stayed balanced. The guard was strong and highly skilled – a better
swordsman than Elle. She realized this immediately. Elle and the guard whirled and struck, thrust and dodged. He dropped a powerful stroke at her head. She caught it, gritting her teeth. She pushed hard against the force of his blade, holding him there. It pulled her muscles.

Tears of effort sprang to her eyes from the strain. She locked gazes with the guard, his blue eyes glittering at her through the slit in the hood. He suddenly shoved her backward and Elle rolled, dangerously close to the edge of the cliff. She staggered to her feet. Georgia was standing on the edge of the cliff, staring at the drop. She looked at Elle.

Elle looked at the guard. He ran toward her. Elle darted to the side, narrowly avoiding him. She ducked left, seeing Georgia disappear over the side of the cliff. It all happened in a split second. The guard moved toward the rope tied to the tree, raising his sword. Elle saw what he was going to do. He was going cut the rope. Jay, Georgia and Flash would fall, and it would all be over.

Elle leaped forward, jamming her shoulder into the guard. The air rushed out of his lungs and he stumbled sideways. There was a long second where
Elle thought that he would somehow bob back up and slash her open with his sword, but that moment didn’t come. He lost his balance on the edge of the cliff, grabbed Elle’s arm, and they both tumbled down the side of the mountain.

Elle rolled over and over herself. Her face stung, her bones crashed against objects. It was a dark blur of pain and falling and weightlessness and then hitting the earth once again. Gravity was in control. She was tumbling head over heels alongside the guard, their swords clattering behind them, clanging against the rock.

It vaguely occurred to Elle that they hadn’t fallen off the sheer drop on the cliff. If they had, it would have been one long, airy drop with a short, sudden stop at the bottom. They would both be dead, and that would be the end of it.

But they were still rolling. They were tumbling at a sharp angle, finally coming to a shattering halt on level ground. Elle’s head swam. She tried to right herself, falling over and stumbling. She held her head in her hands, tasting something sour and metallic. Blood? She spit on her hand. Yes, lots of blood.

The guard was only ten or so feet away from her, barely a shape in the darkness. There were trees everywhere. Elle wished she could find her sword. The Smith and Wesson was still jammed into her pants, somehow, but she couldn’t use that. The sound of one shot would alert the entire encampment that there was an escape in progress. She couldn’t compromise the safety of the others to save herself. The guard slowly stood up. Elle was too tired – wracked with too much pain – to take him by surprise, to kill him.

“Please, just let me go,” she said softly. “I promise I’ll never come back.”
The guard tilted his head. Stifling silence. No answer.

He lunged forward. He grabbed Elle by the hair and slammed her face against the dirt, grinding her cheek into the ground. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. This was it. He was going to snap her neck – she was dead. She felt the pressure building on her spine. Her vision went starry.

There was a low scream and the pressure released. Elle wanted to scream. Was she paralyzed? Was this what it was like to lose sensation? The guard fell sideways and suddenly Elle’s vision brightened.
The blood returned to her head. She clawed the dirt and forced herself upright. There was a blur of white teeth and a menacing, guttural growl. Bravo had sunk his teeth into the guard’s forearm. The guard was crying out in pain.

Bravo ripped a chunk of his flesh out, tossing it away. He growled lower, lunging again, snapping at his neck. The guard ran backward, tripping over a bush in the darkness, sprawling on his back. Bravo jumped on top of the guard and growled in his face, blood dripping from his fangs.

“Bravo,” Elle said. “Bravo, down.”

The dog’s tail twitched.

“Leave him,” Elle commanded. “Out.”

Elle slowly stood, swaying. She was dizzy. She touched her cheek. It had been slashed open during the tumble down the mountain. It stung. She could feel her lip going numb.

At the base of the sloping hill, she saw the curved sword beside her katana. She picked up her weapon and sheathed it. The guard lay on the ground, trembling, bloody. Bravo backed away, never removing his laser-like gaze from the man.

“Remember that we let you live,” Elle said. “Come on, Bravo.”

They left the guard in the silence of the woods.

Chapter Nine

Elle ran quickly and quietly, dodging boulders and making her way through the pine trees. The smell of sugar pine and cedar was strong in the air. The morning was crisp and silent. Elle was little more than a shadow, sprinting through the forest. And beside her, Bravo ran, too. He was quieter than Elle, his hunter’s instincts making him fast and alert.

Elle’s heart raced.

There was no stopping now.

There were no more options. This was the last resort.
She had stopped during the night only to tend to the cut on her cheek. It wasn’t as bad as she had thought – surface level. Enough to leave a scar but not enough to kill her. She had a medical kit in her backpack. She swiped the wound with antiseptic – it had stung worse than anything in the world – and slapped a bandage over it. The rest of her wounds could wait. All she could do was run.

Since escaping the Slaver encampment last night, the Slavers had realized that one of their guards was missing about thirty minutes after Elle and Bravo had
left him at the bottom of the cliff. An alarm had rung through the stillness of the forest. They hadn’t stopped moving since then.

Elle was tracking the progress of Jay, Georgia and Flash. She had almost caught up with them. They were nearly out of the thickest part of the forest, moving toward the sloping, open mountains that led toward Palm Springs.

Dawn was just beginning to break over the hills. The desert was below Elle, and she could see three figures moving down the slope of the mountains. They were moving quickly, too. Elle’s heart lifted.

“Found them,” she panted.

About time
. Bravo hung his tongue out, tired and thirsty. Elle offered him a quick drink of water.
Humans move slow
.

“Don’t antagonize me, I’m not in the mood.”

I’m just stating a fact. Don’t be so touchy
.

Elle ignored Bravo and began her descent down the mountain. Bravo seemed to roll his eyes before following, allowing her to lead the way. Elle reached the bottom of the big hill at nearly the same time as the kids. They hadn’t yet looked behind them. They moved ahead, never stopping, never waiting.

“You know,” Elle commented, jogging. “We came all this way to rescue them and they didn’t even stop to see if the two of us were still alive. They just ran.”

What else did you expect
? Bravo pointed out.
They’re just children
.

“So am I!”

You were born older, Elle. We both were
.

Elle pondered this.

“Still,” she said. “It would have been nice.”

Yes
, Bravo agreed.
It would have been very nice
.

Niceness was for losers and dead people in the apocalypse. Only the tough survived. At least, that was Elle’s humble opinion.

At last, Elle and Bravo caught up with the kids.

“Hey,” Elle called. “Wait!”

Jay turned around. Georgia and Flash whipped their heads backward. Flash stumbled and fell on his face. Elle couldn’t help it what she did next.

She laughed. She laughed long and hard, clutching her stomach.