Summary:
ALICIA IS BACK.
"Okay, Blakey, subject A's got twenty pounds on slim, here. B's ten years his junior. Skinny turns first, you lose thirty-K."
"There's anomalies, pal."
"Those anomalies are exceptions that prove the rule."
Quinn was still in shock. Coming so close to dying seemed to have this effect on them. They only looked up from their hands when Travis spoke.
"Hey, what's up with the dead outside?" he asked the guards.
"Lowercase dead or capital "D" dead?" Willy asked back.
"The, um, the corpses, in the front yard."
"Force field," Blake answered.
"Troy discovered it."
"What? Really?" Travis asked.
"Yeah. See, the infected have senses: sight, smell, taste, we think." Willy was busy writing things down. Travis took a glance to the clock on the wall. "They won't eat anything that's dead, so smell dead, taste dead, they avoid you. Depot smells like death, ergo, they stay away."
"So, how many died for that little titbit?"
"It's for our betterment," Blake said.
"You're sick."
"Quiet in the cheap seats," Willy said.
"What you're doing is criminal, but it doesn't matter."
"It matters," Blake yelled. "Someone dies, it matters how long it takes to resurrect."
"Before you put a bullet in their dome?"
"How long you can sit with your loved ones—"
"You put steel in their brains?"
"—before they come back!"
"That's what you did, right?" Travis ploughed on. "Come on, what you're doing is pointless. You, you—" He pointed to Willy. "—you're pointless."
"Better to know than not," Blake said.
"Oh, yeah? Do the rest know?"
"What rest?"
"The ones who don't come down here. Do they know what you're doing?"
"They know, but it's on a volunteer basis."
"So, why? Why don't they volunteer?"
"'Cause they're afraid," Willy said, standing before them all now, "of what they don't know. Come on, it's the goddamn dark ages out there. We're just trying to shine a little light."
"They just don't get off on it," Travis spat.
"Shut up!" Blake yelled.
"Hey, why are you doing this, huh?"
"Science."
"Murder for science, huh?"
"Yes," Willy said, not skipping a beat. "Not a new concept."
Travis was so disgusted he laughed.
"Come on, be honest," Willy said. "Since this whole thing began, you haven't killed? You haven't murdered anybody?"
"No one who didn't deserve it," Travis said.
"Huh," Willy grinned. "You know what, Blake?" He checked his wrist, like checking the time only he had no watch and his eyes were fixed on Travis' face. "Yeah, this is taking too long. Let's do another one."
Blake stepped over to Nick.
"No, take me!" Travis groaned, twisting himself over to protect him. "Leave the boy."
"There's a line for a reason!" Willy said over him.
"Leave the boy!" Travis pleaded. "Come on, just take me. I volunteer, okay? I volunteer!" Nick struggled. Luci, too. Stephen had stood up. And Quinn was gripping tight into the hem of Nick's shirt. "You won't have to listen to my bullshit anymore," Travis went on. "I won't be in your ear."
"Travis."
"Shut up, Nick. Look, you haven't killed one of my kind, have you? My people, we're different, too, like Quinn's? We don't turn."
"Everyone turns," Willy said.
"Prove it. Kill me."
"Can't. If Troy wants the Korean he'll want you, too."
"Come on, you said it yourself, Troy doesn't care."
Willy looked at him.
"You wanna die?"
"Please," Travis said; like he meant it.
"Wow. This is a first. Okay." Willy walked around the island to the shower, pulling Travis with him. "What kind of Mexican you say you were?"
"Māori."
"Whoa-ho-ho-ho! Māori!"
Stephen was escaping his restraints—trying to. Nick followed suit. Didn't look good. Quinn tried with all their strength too but got nowhere except a few writs welts. Then began to sit up instead, bracing themselves into crouching positions while Blake and Willy weren't looking.
"Māori, yeah," Travis was saying, playing along. The Chinese guy had begun waking up, snarling. "See, you get to kill yourself your first Māori."
"This world is just exceptional, don't you think?" Willy asked, and Travis said, "Yeah," and then he threw both fists through Willy's face. There was a grunt, and then Travis hit Blake in time for Nick to spring up and shove Blake down into the Chinese guy's teeth. Blake screamed. Blood gushed. Quinn had Luci, helping her move to the exit while Travis and Nick quickly knocked Willy out of their way and dazed him.
They all left the shower room. Quinn asked about the other prisoners, but Nick grabbed them and told them to run, so they did. They ran for their life.
Outside, the sun was hot and cruel on Quinn's skin. Once they were able to cut their restraints on the sharp edges of a truck bumper, Quinn took under Luci's arm, and Nick took under her other.
"Get her safe," Travis instructed them, unbound now too. "Nick, I'll find your mother and sister."
"I can come with you," Quinn said.
"No." Gunshots sprayed over their heads and they had to run into a maze or cargo storage. "Run, go!" They had no choice. Travis stopped to fight, and Quinn had to help get Luci to the sewer grid.
Stephen tried to go down first.
"Hey, not you, asshole, her!" Nick said, yanking him back.
"Come on, come on, let's go," Stephen said.
"Hurry, you're okay," Nick said. Luci whimpered while she was lowered in, climbing down by herself.
"Hurry, we're not gonna make it," Stephen said. Quinn saw the armed men coming around the corner. "Hurry!"
"Go, go, go!" Nick all but shoved Quinn down before him.
"Come on, we're not gonna make it," Stephen said. "Hurry up." He was about to get in, but a spray of bullets were sent through his chest and he collapsed over the opening above, sending warm blood oozing down over them. Quinn staggered back, staring up at the wheezing man, helpless, and had time to wipe their face before Nick pulled them to their feet and urged them on.
Quinn heard Willy's voice: "Happy hunting..." before Stephen's body was thrown down into the sewer and the grid was shut behind him.
It wasn't long before Luci became too exhausted.
"Tengo que parar," she begged.
"No," Quinn grunted, limping from their junky hip. "We can't stop, Lu-Lu."
"No, not yet," Nick told her too. "I'm gonna get you safe. Both of you."
She gasped and shoved them both away, staggering back against the wall. "I'm slowing you down!" Nick took her face in his hands.
He said, "No te voy... dejaré!"
He put his palm to the centre of her chest and she cried.
"Nunca!" he said. And kissed her. "Okay? Okay. We gotta move." And they did.
The three of them followed the rats through the sewers until they got to another sewer grid opening above them, water dripping down from the rain that had started. It wasn't outside of the depot yet, they could tell from the helicopter sounding so close.
Luciana was panting. They kept walking, and after a turn right found an end gate, which was a hollow wall that with a few hard kicks and shoves from Nick and Quinn, toppled down easily. One problem. Outside the depot, there was nothing but the dead. Nick stared. Luci began heaving. Quinn grabbed Nick's arm and they ran back inside together, helpless, while they grabbed Luciana back up and dragged her further back inside the sewers.
Luci hobbled along for as long as she could, escaping the dead long enough to be clear for a few minutes, until she collapsed.
"I can't!"
"No, we can't stop. We can't stop."
But they had no choice. Rats squealed while Nick set Luci down on the ground. He and Quinn knew it wasn't a good place to rest, but had no better options. Luci couldn't go any further. She was sobbing.
"Shh," Quinn tried, while Nick went to check nothing had followed them. "Shh, shh." They saw a flash of Stephen's growling face, as Nick was dragged around the corner. He disappeared for a second. He screamed. Quinn got up but Luci pulled them back, and then Nick was stumbling back into view. Quinn ran to him. Stephen was on top of him, writhing, teeth snapping. Quinn tried to pull him off but he was too strong, so they had to look for a weapon instead.
"Nick!" Luci screamed.
"Nick?" a voice came from above. Quinn couldn't see who, their head was too full of terror and screaming and growling. "Nick!"
"Help us!" Luci screamed. "Help us! Help us!"
"Here!" Something clattered to Quinn's right. A butterfly knife. Quinn snatched it. They grabbed the geek by the hair, yanked it back, and drove the blade through the crown of its skull. It collapsed to the cement beside Nick and they both spent a second catching their breath.
"Nick!" Without so much noise now, the voice became more familiar. "Quinn!" she called — Alicia called. Quinn's breath caught alight inside their throat and they went up in flames, only on the outside they just forgot how to talk. And then the depot guys grabbed her.
"Alicia!" Nick screamed.
"No!" She fought. They could all hear her. "No, no, no, no!" Until they couldn't hear her at all anymore. Men were looking down on them, unscrewing the grid. They kept their guns on the three of them while they climbed up one by one, just in time before the rest of the dead would have found them. The reunion with Alicia was silent, with harsh breaths and firm hugs that were forced apart by the green guys, and then the four of them were taken to the outer edges of the depot, a place some guy referred to as 'the pits'.
Madison was there. Travis, too.
"Mom!"
"Oh, my God."
"Mom."
"Nick. Let him go."
She held her son, and her daughter, and Quinn stood there, feeling too small for all the feelings ricocheting around inside of them. Travis must have felt it too because he stepped over, slowly, and for a minute he just looked at Quinn very closely. Then, all at once, he put his arms around Quinn and held them like he might have held a young child, and Quinn held him back. They buried their face inside his denim jacket and the tears bombarded them both fast and hard and brutal.
"We're okay," they heard Madison say. "We're okay."
Once the other depot members were involved, everybody was let go and allowed their weapons back. All of them. Quinn was even given back their baseball bat, at Nick's very specific description of it; he got every detail from the slightly blood-stained tint to the small dog-shin-shaped dent.
It hit Quinn then that they had no idea where they were going now. They just knew it was with the others; Madison, Travis, Nick, Alicia and Luci.
Quinn stood with Alicia and Nick by the table Luci was being treated on—the depot owed them that much. Quinn hadn't said a lot. It was hard to shake the terrible feeling of loss from their shoulders. It was heavy, like the sky was falling on their back. Alicia hadn't spent a lot of time not holding their hand yet. Quinn appreciated it.
On the other side of the warehouse, they saw Madison comforting Travis over the same boy he and Quinn were mourning for. And as justified as it was to cry, Quinn didn't; not too much. A few tears would catch them off guard quickly enough that they wouldn't notice for a second, but it was easy to blame on the wind in their eyes or not blinking enough, or Alicia and Nick were polite enough not to draw attention to it.
"Come on," Alicia said finally, softly. Quinn had missed that, her softly. "We aren't needed here." She guided them across the room. "Sit." She pointed to another table.
"Why?" Quinn asked, obeying anyway.
"Your limp. Today?"
"No," Quinn said. "Happened before on the road, right after Celia's, actually. Some crazy lady... protecting her kid." Quinn didn't want to admit the rest of that story, so they stopped talking.
"It hasn't fixed itself yet?"
Quinn shrugged. It had gotten better at the Colonia, less painful, but after almost two weeks without the limp going away totally, Quinn had resigned them-self to the fact that a junky hip was something they were going to have to live with now.
Quinn was looking at their hands, their wrists, all sore and cut up from the zip-line restraints.
"I'm sorry," Alicia said then. She was talking about both Hye and Chris, and maybe she meant it for whoever else Quinn had lost. Maybe she just knew, all of it, all the Colonizadores like Dr. Nuñez and Josefina and Miguel and all the other orphans, and even those sacrificed to the wall. "I'm... I'm so sorry, Quinn."
"You say that too much," Quinn whispered, but grew cowardly, and said the rest in hope Alicia wouldn't understand: "para alguien que no tiene la culpa."
Alicia almost laughed, looking sort of taken aback too. She looked at her feet and bit her lip. "You, uh — You know I took Spanish, right?"
Quinn did not know this, and felt their face burn purple. Alicia didn't stop smiling at them, or looking at them, right in the eyes. Alicia had the kind of eyes that changed colour sometimes, depending on the light, hell, maybe depending on her mood. Quinn swore the last time they remembered her eyes, they were pale hazel, or, maybe blue, but now they were green. Quinn's favourite type of green.
Alicia still had their hand. Quinn held onto that. They gripped it tight. They tugged her closer, and—
Madison burst across the depot.
"We gotta go!" she shouted. "Travis! We gotta go. We gotta go now!" She rushed across to them. Quinn saw outside, flooded with geeks—they must have somehow escaped the sewers. They were off the table, Ally (the bat) in hand. "Nick," Madison went on, "behind you!"
They were coming in the other side. Nick took a crowbar. Travis told Quinn and Alicia to get Luci.
"Get her to the chopper," he instructed, and ran to help Madison. But Luci collapsed. Quinn tried to get her legs while Alicia took under her arms, but Quinn's junky hip couldn't take the weight and geeks were closing in too quickly.
"Travis!" Alicia screamed. "Travis!" Quinn fought off any impending geeks until Travis was able to come back. He scooped Luci up into his arms and carried her into the helicopter with Charlene and a guy called Jake—Troy's older brother; the guy who wasn't into killing for science, which Quinn viewed as a good thing. Travis shot down geeks until Quinn and Alicia climbed in too, then got inside and shut the door. Quinn could see outside, past the snapping teeth, Nick and Madison getting in the truck with Troy, who, hours before, she'd almost removed his eyeball with a spoon—this was probably less of a good thing.
The chopper rose rockily. Troy shot down the last few bodies clinging to the landing skids from his truck, and Jake and Charlene were able to get the hunk of metal moving more smoothly.
Quinn lost sight of Madison and Nick when they were made to sit back and buckle up. Over the helicopter blades, it was impossible to hear each other, but Quinn and Travis read Alicia's lips: "Travis, are they clear? Travis!"
"They're safe," Quinn lip-read him. "They made it. They're clear."
Notes
I'm so freaking excited for the next one, and the ranch, oh my dudes.
Happy reading.