Chapter 25
"We are going to the areas where the least Souls are present first."
Burns says as he drives the van. Melanie, Rachel, Rob, Marcus, Daniel and I are sitting in the back. Nick is standing up, signaling for different cars to go different ways. When a car is sent into a street, they know to divide up the humans and go into the houses with the lights on.
We're about half way through the town when Burns sees someone running in the streets. I recognize the person before Burns does.
As Burns stops the van, Nick and I get out instantly, running after the Soul who's leaving. Jared must have stopped his car as well, I hear him asking Burns what is going on. Seconds later Jared's car and all the other cars following have already left to go further. Burns is sending the rest of our group assigned to this street into the houses.
Nick seems to have caught up with the running Soul – Will.
"What the hell are you doing!" He shouts at him.
"I'm looking for Wanda! I need to make sure she's safe." He doesn't even stop to answer, but keeps running.
"You don't even know where she is Will."
"Nick! Ian!" Melanie is shouting both of our names, the urgency in her voice apparent. Will has to wait, I turn around to see what's going on.
New humans who just woke up come running outside, shouting that they are searching for Souls. Melanie and the others from our group try to stop them.
"I'll go after Will." Nick is already taking off.
"Take Burns with you!"
I want Burns and Nick away from here.
"Stop, stop!" Mel shouts but they aren't listening to her, trying to get past us.
The door from the other house opens, three more people come walking out. I get in the van and drive it to the front of where the group is standing, only stopping at the last minute.
Shocked by the sight of the van coming that close to them, the humans finally stand still. That brief moment is all Melanie needs. She jumps in front of the van and starts explaining the situation. After some urging from Mel they calm down and are willing to come with us. Rob and I both go into one of the houses to check.
The coat rack is tumbled over, I don't bother picking it up either. In the living room I see two bodies. One of them is still breathing, it's a body where a Soul was extracted from, she hasn't woken up yet. The other one is not breathing, it must be the Soul who did the extracting, Will left him alone.
I stand there, looking around, fuming with anger because of Will leaving. This Soul could still be alive had he stayed. But I doubt my own thoughts. It would have been two kind peaceful Souls against three humans who clearly wanted to see blood.
I remember the extracted Souls and look around the room for tanks. After a quick search I find them in the kitchen, luckily all of them are still closed. Either the humans waking up didn't find them or didn't figure out how to open them.
I gently lift the body, taking her to the van, we will have to take her back to the bunker.
Rob comes walking out of the other house with two Souls following him.
"I found them in the bedroom."
They both seem scared.
"We saw the humans outside and we heard them shouting. Instead of waiting to see if the bodies were going to wake up, we went to hide."
"Very smart." Mel states.
"Are there anymore people inside?"
Rob shakes his head.
"They all woke up."
Melanie and I decide to deviate from the plan. It's just six of us from the bunker here. It seems smartest to get the new humans and the Souls separated and then the tanks and the body not yet woken up need to get to the bunker. There are enough cars for us to take in this street.
We don't want to keep the new humans with us, what if we managed to stop them but they still don't see our way yet? There isn't time to explain everything to them right now.
Marcus will take the body and the new humans to the bunker with the van. The two Souls from the house get in the car with Rachel and go to the bunker as well. We're trusting that Doc and the others still there will keep them safe.
Rob, Daniel, Melanie and I will take another car and go see if help is needed somewhere else.
We don't even make it one street in before we see another group of people. At the center are Burns and Nick, they are holding back two more people. Daniel stops the car right in front of the group, the same way I did in the other street with the van. It works again, everyone there is so startled that they stop talking and moving long enough for Melanie to explain things.
I'm really impressed with Mel. I have only seen her with Jared for the last few months and I assumed that Jared was the commanding power between the two of them. But Melanie sure can hold her own, she gets everyone to listen to her without much effort. She's a leader on her own as well.
Burns and Nick were desperately trying to protect two other Souls and getting the humans see. Nick claims we came at the exact right time, the humans had just turned to them.
"Will is over there."
"Hiding?" Rob asks.
"No, he's dead." Nick's eyes glisten, but the other two Souls are openly crying.
I guide the four of them to the car we just brought, then Rob and I go and look for Will's body.
We return to Mel already taking charge of the situation.
"Ian, get them back to the bunker, we can't let them drive alone. Rob, take everyone else" She gestures to all the humans, "back to the bunker as well. Daniel and I will go further."
"Mel, no."
No matter how impressed I am by what she just did, I'm not letting her go alone with Daniel. She raises an eyebrow at me and opens her mouth but I speak first.
"Jared sent me with you to keep an eye on you. The two of you going out alone? That's too dangerous. I think we should get the tanks and leave all together."
"I'm not leaving if I can still help. They might need more help."
"Fine. But I'm going with you. Daniel can take them to the bunker."
Daniel doesn't object to this idea and Melanie goes to find us another car.
"Why are these streets so quiet?"
We have passed six streets already. We see plenty of people – both new humans and people from our group. We stopped at the first two groups, but everything was under control so we kept going.
"There's Kyle!"
"He can come with us, but I'm not stopping!" Mel warns.
Kyle quickly gets in the car and talks us through what happened.
"Jared got the cars going again and signaled for different groups to go into the streets, just like the plan was. But seeing what had happened where you two got out of the car, most of them got scared. They refused to just go in the small groups of four. Instead they went in with double the amount of people at certain spots. Jared got quite annoyed by it." He grins. "But since time was of importance, he didn't want to go and discuss it with anyone."
"Where are they now?" Melanie asks him.
"Oh, they went back to the bunker."
Mel steps down on the brakes, the car coming to an abrupt halt.
"You don't think you could've told us that sooner?"
"I assumed you had somewhere to go."
Mel shoots him a murderous glare, it's a look Wanda never would have worn on that face.
You wouldn't be able to tell that there's a bunker underneath this house. It isn't a big house, it just seems like a regular one in this street. Someday I would like to hear from Burns and Nick how they found this.
The house is full of humans, Jeb is standing by the garage, directing people on where to go. His eyes narrow as he sees me.
"You'll want to go to Doc's place."
As I take off I hear Melanie asking why, but I don't need to ask. It can't be for any other reason than Wanda.
Most of the people here are Souls, I see very few human, I assume they are gathering up in the house. Jared and Doc are standing next to a bed, Wanda lying on it unconscious. It's shocking to see how horrible she looks. Half of her face is bleeding, all of it is covered in dust, tear trails clearly running down her cheeks. Both of her wrists are heavily bruised and she's missing a shoe. I doubt any foot should ever be angled that way. Seeing her hurt in Melanie's body was awful. Seeing her hurt in this – her – body is devastating.
Doc seems to already have checked her over, he's looking for the right medicine to help her.
"I'll be upstairs." Jared says as he takes off.
"Wait up!" I yell after him, he stops right outside the door.
"What happened to her? You said she'd be safe."
"Linda left her alone with the humans. The humans woke up, attacking her."
Just like the humans on my side of town did.
"I knew she should have stayed down here."
"Oh, relax, O'Shea, she'll be fine." He snaps at me.
Seriously?
"You should have sent me to her! I should have been there!"
"Be reasonable, it would have made both of you a target."
I can see in his eyes that he's trying to stay calm.
"I would have kept her safe."
"You would have tried." he retorts, "But with the way things blew up, they would've taken care of you as well. You know that, you realize that. You're letting your emotions cloud your judgment, which is why you weren't there."
"You sent me to the other side of town, where I couldn't help her. How would you have felt if it were Mel?"
"First of all, I wasn't with Mel, she was on your side of town. Second of all, you can't compare that, Mel is not a Soul."
And he thinks that speaks for his decision?
"Exactly! Mel was safe! Wanda wasn't!"
It gives me a tiny bit of satisfaction that Jared is beginning to mirror my anger now.
"And neither would you have been, had you been with her!"
"Do you think I care?!"
Melanie comes walking in, the obvious relief on Jared's face upon seeing her somehow angers me even more.
"Life without Wanda wouldn't be worth it. It's not important that I'm safe, if she wasn't safe to begin with."
Ignoring both me and Jared as she walks by, Mel takes a look inside the improvised hospital.
"Well, she woke up now, so you better get in there, instead of standing here shouting at my man."
Without looking back I go to Wanda, sitting next to her bed. My eyes are swimming with tears. She's safe. She's okay. Doc already treated her, apart from the dirt on her body and her torn clothes there is no indication that she was hurt at all.
I only have eyes for Wanda, I don't pay attention to anything that's going around us. Jared clearly wants to talk to her – or us – but I refuse him and Melanie pulls him away.
For now we're both just happy to be seeing each other again.