All characters (except Emma Hhaze) belong to Stephenie Meyer

Chapter 2

As the sun beat down on me relentlessly, I knew I'd made a mistake. The mistake being getting out of that metal coffin I'd once called a car, not that I could change anything now. I was already too far away from the car to find it again.

Now that I was away from it I missed it. I missed its shade. I missed the protection from the sand strewn through the air by the wind. And most importantly I missed the shelter at night from the various creatures. It's strange how you can hate something so much, only to realize what it meant once you can never get it back. I guess people were a little like that too, no matter how much you dislike someone there comes a time when you wish that somebody, anybody, would be there for you. But I mustn't think of that now.

I continued to stumble along. Deprivation of food and water was beginning to take its toll. I had begun hallucinating I was sure of it. I kept imagining voices, all sorts of voices; young, old, male and female, but I could never quite hear what they were saying. They were always just out of reach. If I could just hear what they were saying I might find a way out, or, more likely, I'd just go insane from the ramblings of my mind. I'd always been paranoid, and I had to admit that it had gotten a lot worse since I'd found out about the souls, but it had never been this bad. I had never heard voices, I'd imagined conversations with people in my head, even talked back out-loud sometimes to break up the silence, but I had never actually heard voices as though they were next to me, unclear or otherwise.

My legs felt weak and oddly light, which was at odds with how much effort I had to put into moving them. My head hung as though my neck was rubber and my back ached. My stomach felt excruciatingly painful, and the little urine I passed was a dark brown. I remembered my mom once telling me it was dangerous to get to that point. I wonder what she would think now – if she wasn't a host.

By mid-afternoon I gave up. I'd never been a very positive person so giving up all hope didn't seem too strange to me. I didn't even know what I was looking for out here so what was the point. I'd already surpassed my expectations. I'd survived the Seekers for a year and lasted a few days in the middle of the desert with very little food and water, which was more than some could say. I remembered with dismay at those who had given themselves up in the hope they'd be allowed to keep their bodies. They were mistaken. At least now I could die on my own terms, the parasites would never use my body.

Not able to stand any longer I allowed my weary legs to finally collapse under me. I lay on the scorched ground and prayed that death would be quick, preferably while I was sleeping; it sure as hell beat being eaten by a coyote. I wasn't particularly fond of the patch of ground I'd fallen on, it was riddled with cracks and in some places were some ominous looking holes that seemed as though they just wanted to swallow you, but I was too fatigued to move. I lay there for hours with closed eyes until the sun set, and then I resigned myself to sleep.

I stretched out on my back, feeling my muscles pull from the time spent sleeping balled up in the back of the car. The ground was warm, I noticed, possibly a volcano. It would be just my luck to have a volcano explode while I was lying at the base of it.

I was almost drifting off into another fitful sleep when I heard it. A groan. Not a human groan, but the kind you hear when something usually stable begins to give way. Unrelenting objects scraping against each other in a bid for dominance. My eyes snapped open in fear. The rock! No sooner had the thought passed through my mind did the rock crumble away beneath me, and I was falling. I close my eyes and held in my scream, preparing for death once and for all. And I landed on… something. Death wasn't mean to be this painful was it? With a start I realized I was burning. Maybe I'd gone to Hell, I most certainly had never been a saint.

My eyes snapped open but rather than seeing the Devil's minions surrounding me like I had conjured in my mind, I was surrounded by people. Not just people, humans! And all of them were wearing the same expression: shock. Somewhere through the haze I was in I heard a scream. It sounded course and made my head pound harder. With a start I realized the scream was mine and the pain was brought into sharp focus. I couldn't stop screaming. Reality was back. My own screams deafened me as the room exploded into chaos.

"Get her off the coals!" A man with a thick grey beard was yelling to another tall, well-built man, both of their faces masked in shock and panic.

They started to clamber towards me through the rubble, slowed down as the stones slipped under them and they fell trying to find their footing. I continued to scream through the pain, my attempts at stopping my tears earlier seeming worthless now. My throat felt torn apart both from the dehydration and the screaming, my sobs intermingling with the screams. Others in the room started to come out of their shocked daze and began clearing the rubble away to make a clear path back to a hole in the opposite wall.

The two men had finally reached me and were attempting to pull me off of the coal which turned out to be more painful than the actual burning. One of the men grabbed a firm hold of my feet while the other took hold of my arms as close as he could get to my burning flesh. I flinched away from their touch as the skin was pulled off of my back. They shared a quick glance and then pulled me away swiftly. I wouldn't have believed I could have screamed any louder, yet I did. My back felt wet and stung as the air rushed against it, as they ran with me strung between them. We passed through a tunnel and a large room, so bright I had to screw my eyes shut, in a blur. I was carried through yet another tunnel, my screams now turning to hysterical sobs. I felt bile rise in my throat and I retched, but there was no worry to them of me vomiting on them; there had been nothing I my stomach for days.

It took about ten minutes to reach the next cave and a man, presumably a doctor, had heard us coming. I couldn't be surprised considering the racket I'd been making. I was on the edge of consciousness as they dumped me face down on the cot. The doctor gasped and cursed in quick succession and then went to work. He tried to remove my shirt to get to my burns but I screamed again and flinched away from him. He disappeared from my line of sight but was back a moment later, bottle in hand. He tried putting something that looked like a piece of tissue paper on my tongue, it lay there not doing anything and I continued to sob. He cursed again then came back with another bottle and a cloth which was wet with something. Panic was setting in again but there wasn't anything I could do in my current condition so I just lay there sobbing and as he covered my face with the cloth. I inhaled the fumes and everything went black.

I woke feeling comfortable and rested. The most comfortable I'd felt for as long as I could remember. I should really get up soon and prepare to move to my next location but I was just so comfortable, I could afford to wait a few minutes longer. I stretched my back throwing my arms above my head and felt my spine crack at the same time my hand brushed something cool and rough. That was odd, I was in an old wooden shack… wasn't I? The skin of my back felt tight – I sat upright, breathing heavily, panic setting in once again.

My heart went into overdrive as my memory flooded back to me and I closed my eyes in an attempt to regain control. First the Seeker and my journey into the desert, the feeling of desperation and resignation I'd felt at accepting death, yet I wasn't dead. Then the memory of leaving the car and wandering throughout the day before lying on that cracked rock that was riddled with holes. The rest of the memories hit me like a ton of bricks. Falling through the rock, landing on coals and being rushed to the man with the cloth.

What had he done to me? How bad was the injury that I couldn't feel a thing?

My eyes open reluctantly and I glanced around the cave. It was full of cots and there was makeshift desk piled with books and papers. A hospital I realized, raising my eyebrows in surprise.

Someone coughed. I started and looked to my left where a man was looking down at me with curiosity.

"Where am I?" My voice came out barely a whisper so I cleared my throat and tried again. It was a little louder but still so coarse that I was surprised he could understand me.

"Jeb's caves" he answered as though it was obvious. My eyebrows pulled in to meet each other as I frowned at him. "You're in Arizona" he clarified.

"Oh" I said simply, there wasn't much else to say. I'd already known I was in Arizona but in my confused haze nothing seemed to click into place in my mind. Thoughts drifted through my mind unconnected. Get it together, now! I scolded myself.

"You're safe now." He smiled at me and added, "You made quite an entrance."

"I guess I did…" I winced in embarrassment, I was mortified that I'd destroyed their shelter. I knew better than most how hard it was to find somewhere safe, "Can I have some water? Sorry." I felt bad for asking more of him when he'd apparently done so much for me; I wasn't dead after all. My mind was drawn back to my back. I wanted to see it, I couldn't feel any pain but I may be sedated still. That was the only explanation I could come up with.

"Yes, of course."

As he walked to pick up a canteen on his desk and fill a glass for me I sat up and looked around for a mirror, I couldn't see one so I carefully put my hand a few millimetres away from the skin on my back. It's strange how you can feel tenderness without even touching, almost like a sixth sense, but this time I felt no tenderness so I gently stoked a finger across the skin. It tingled, no pain. I was still pondering how this was possible when he handed me the water.

I wanted to gulp it down all at once but I refrained, remembering the time I had had heat stroke and made myself vomit by drinking too quickly. I sipped it and closed my eyes, it was the best thing I had ever tasted, life itself it seemed.

"What's your name?" he questioned. I could tell that he was trying to acclimatize me to his presence, he must have assumed I'd been alone for a while and he was right, I couldn't remember the last time I'd had a conversation with another person.

"Emma… Emma Hhaze" I replied. My thoughts were focused on my back once more. Why didn't it hurt anymore? I tried to voice this to the man, "Why…" I said touching my back gingerly. The skin was smooth and tight as though it was freshly healed, I couldn't understand it.

"I'm Doc. We healed you using soul medicine."

I choked on a sip of water. "What?" I said slowly, surely I misheard.

"Don't worry there's no one here that's going to hurt you. We collect the medicine on raids." He looked at me with sincerity, "You were very badly burned."

"So there are no souls here?" My heart was beating hard against my ribs in that dreaded flight or fight response again.

He hesitated, his smile faltering. "I never said there weren't souls here, but I promise you no one will hurt you." My heart stopped, the sudden change making my head spin.

I edged away from him quickly almost falling off the edge of the cot and dropping the canteen in the process. Precious water spilled and spread over the floor in a steadily growing pool. It was a trick it must be. These humans were sided with them and were messing with my head before they took my body away from me. How could they do something like this? Did they not understand that they weren't safe either? Were they like the others that thought they could be saved?

"They aren't like other souls I swear," He said quickly, retrieving the fallen canteen with a grim expression, "they've gone native so to speak." he added.

"Gone native?" I said incredulously. Now that the water had cleared my throat a bit I could hear my voice rising with anger. What kind of sick joke was he trying to pull?

"Yes, please just listen!"

I stopped moving away. I couldn't do anything but listen anyway; it wasn't like I knew a way out of here, wherever here was, I knew it was in the desert but that was the end of it. He visibly relaxed, he looked relieved.

"Wanda, the first soul -"

"The first soul?" I couldn't believe my ears.

"Yes, now let me explain" he said patiently, "Wanda, the first soul, came here to find her hosts brother and her lover. She wasn't a Seeker, she had grown to love them through Melanie's, the host's, memories. Melanie was still present and she had persuaded Wanda to find them again and she did. It took a long time to convince everyone she wasn't a threat.

"Eventually she came to love Melanie so much she wanted to give Mel her body back. She planned to let herself die in her soul form to be buried out here in the desert but didn't plan on having a man who had fallen in love with her, a human, to bring her a new host." He must have seen me stiffen as he continued on quicker. "This host was chosen after a thorough search, we knew the host wasn't present and there was no chance of the person coming back. It was likely the previous soul had been in that body since the host was extremely young. Wanda is still around and she's the reason we are able to get so much medicine… and remove some souls and give the hosts their lives back."He said the last part reluctantly as though he wasn't sure how much he should tell me.

I just stared at him incredulously. So if I was hearing this right, Wanda was a rebel soul who had fallen in love with a human. I didn't trust her in the slightest. Granted, the rest of them were still human but for how long? Souls could be cunning despite their holier than thou demeanor.

"You… you said she was the first, there's more?" I didn't want to let him in on my doubtful thinking.

"Yes, Sunny. She came here when Kyle was trying to bring back the host, his old girlfriend. The girl, Jodi, never came back though and we had to choose between letting the body starve to death or returning the soul who had been very kind and no threat to us at all. We chose the latter and Kyle and Sunny are now very happy together." he finished smiling at me.

I continued to stare in disbelief. If this wasn't the end of the world I'd think I was part of some elaborate prank. There were two mixed relationships here. Mixed in the way of soul and human. I tried to process this, it wasn't digesting easily. I kneaded my forehead with my knuckles and tried to get around my confusion.

"We need to get you some food."

I nodded at him numbly and tried to remember when I last ate. I couldn't, but I was sure it had been days. I followed him out of the room rather unsteadily, already regretting spilling the water I'd been given, and down what seemed like an endless tunnel. We entered into an incredibly bright room I dimly remembered passing through on the way to the hospital, and I noticed for the first time that it had a number of other tunnels branching off of it. I wondered vaguely how so much light got into the room without them allowing themselves to be noticed by the souls on the surface.

"We're cooking in the recreation room at the moment, seeing as you crashed through the ceiling of the kitchen." So that explained why I'd landed on hot coals, they had been cooking. I felt a tremendous burden of guilt at having ruined part of their way of life, at the same time as being amazed they had a kitchen in a place like this. I knew that if I was invited to stay here I would do all I could to help them fix it again despite the souls that lived here. Opportunities like this just didn't happen anymore and I felt a compulsion to stay. I would definitely be keeping an eye out for any non-humans however.

We exited the tunnel into a large room illuminated with dim blue light. I stopped dead. In front of me were people, tens of people. The biggest group of humans I'd seen post-apocalypse. And a soul.

It was a rebel organization.

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