Part 28 (1/2)
”Dejah!” a man's voice cried.
Dejah turned toward the sound of her name. Her heart pounded. Thomas? A man pushed though the crowd toward the stall where she, David, and Lauren sat. It was Thomas.
”G.o.d in heaven,” she whispered. ”Thomas.”
David eyed the approaching man warily.
Thomas was gaunt and unshaven, his eyes mere sockets blackened with pain. Dejah barely recognized him, but it was him. He approached her, not with outstretched arms, but with a strange look, like he had something to hide.
”Oh G.o.d, Thomas. Selah...where is she? Tell me she's with you, Thomas.”
He looked at the dirty straw-strewn ground, his face reflecting a struggle of emotions.
Dejah's hopes sank. ”Where is she? Where's my baby?” Lauren sidled up to her, softly touching her elbow, comforting her. Dejah trembled.
Thomas only stood there, blinking.
”Thomas, d.a.m.n you! Where is she?” Dejah stood and grabbed him, violently shaking him. David reached from behind and grabbed her arms. She whirled around, burying her face in David's chest.
Thomas and David exchanged loaded looks.
”I-I don't know where she is, Dejah.” Thomas wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. ”I think she might be with Bal Shem. There are rumors that there's a child that's healing the people being eaten. I G.o.d Dejah, they took me a couple of nights ago, and they....” He choked on a deep sob that wracked his body. He pulled himself together and looked at her with eyes so red they might bleed. ”My G.o.d, Dejah, they ate me. I still remember the teeth, the blood, screaming and then... I-I was out. I blacked out. And then, when I woke up again, I was in a tent. I didn't see Selah or anyone else other than the infected guards and the others...the other people who were eaten with me. We'd been healed. But I don't know if she's up there. I don't remember seeing her...and I don't know where she went.” His voice broke again and his anguish was laid bare for all to see.
Dejah gasped, and looked at Thomas. ”How can you not know? Didn't you stay with her?”
”We got separated during the uprising. I told her to stay at our tent when I had to go help dig graves for the dead. There were guards. I thought she'd be safe, but, well, you know Selah. She had her own ideas and went looking for my mom. That's the last anyone saw of her.”
”She has to be the child everyone is talking about. The healer. You know that, don't you?”
Thomas nodded slowly, reluctantly. He sniffled and blinked away tears. ”I don't want to believe it but...it makes sense. I just-”
”Of course it makes sense!” Dejah's voice grew louder. ”Do you seriously mean to tell me that you completely lost track of her, and now you suspect that she's up there in that trailer with that monster, and you haven't done a G.o.dd.a.m.n thing about it?”
”I don't know if you've looked around at what's happening here, sweetheart,” Thomas's voice took on a sudden edge that turned the term of endearment into an expression of loathing. ”But we're pretty much sitting-f.u.c.king-ducks around here. They're armed, they're feral; we're surrounded. We are completely at their mercy, Dejah. Do you understand that? There's nothing we can do.”
Dejah separated herself from David, yanking her arms free. Her cheeks flushed red as she moved closer to Thomas. ”Nothing we can do about it? Have you even tried? Have you done anything at all, Thomas? Or have you just sat in here wallowing in self-pity, while your daughter, your flesh and blood, is being used as some kind of sick p.a.w.n in this Bal Shem's game? G.o.d only knows what else is being done to her!”
They were attracting a crowd. They blinked at the altercation like gathered birds on a wire. ”And the rest of you. How long are you just going to cower in here like sheep? Getting eaten and revived and thrown back for another day? How long are you willing to let the infected treat you like f.u.c.king hamburger?”
”If we try anything, they'll kill us,” one bookwormish woman said. Her tone of voice a.s.sumed she was dead already.
”Would you rather go on living like this for the rest of your lives? Waiting, day in and day out, for one of those freaks to come haul you out of here and eat you? Is that how you want to live?” Dejah was shouting.
”Ssh,” Lauren said, ”They'll hear us and come in to investigate.”
”I've got an idea,” said Dr. Robbins. He pushed through the huddled group, a figure of strength in a crowd of the defeated.
Dejah turned to him, hopeful.
”I'm a doctor. Working with a few members of the military, I've been trying to come up with a toxin-antidote serum to neutralize the infection. The serum, when injected into the body of an infected, promotes antibodies to neutralize viral cells present in the body. It's worked in almost all of our test cases at the hospital. We were bringing this batch out here for Josh Dr. Gutierrez. Unfortunately, we were too late to help him, and his crew and...the rest of you. But we're here now,” Dr. Robbins said. ”And I have some syringes of the serum.”
”How the h.e.l.l did you manage to get in here with that bag?” David asked.
”They may be able to talk, and they do appear more advanced than the average infected, but in the end it seems they ain't too bright, son,” Robbins said. ”It wasn't a gun, and I didn't fight against them, so they didn't bother me much. I had it strapped to my back. They threw me in here, medical supplies and all.”
”How much of that stuff do you have with you, doc?” David asked. ”Is it in the bag?”
”I have about twenty doses. Some of my supply got destroyed in the scuffle before they brought us here.”
”This is crazy!” Thomas said. ”You-you're talking about getting close enough to Bal Shem to inject him?”
”What are you willing to do for your daughter, Thomas? How far are you willing to go?” Dejah said with angry resolve. ”Because, for me, I'm willing to die for her. I'll gladly give my life if she can go free.”
”Easy for you to say, lady,” someone in the crowd said. ”You come back to life when you get eaten.”
Thomas looked at her inquisitively. ”What does he mean?”
She shook her head. She took a deep breath and tried to calm down. She was coming at Thomas tooth and nail, and it wasn't fair to him, no matter how much of a jerk he'd been to her in the past. If it hadn't been for him deciding to take Selah with him for their agreed-upon break from each other, none of this would have happened to them. But it didn't matter now. It was done, and she had to back off. The energy she'd bottled inside, all the anxiety worrying about Selah, was coming out as blasts of anger at Thomas when they needed composure. She needed to relax. Breathe, Dejah. Just breathe. ”It's a long story.”
David looked around at the people standing elbow to elbow. ”We have to act together. If some of us revolt, everyone will face reprisals anyway, so it's best if we put on a unified front and act as one cohesive unit.”
”No f.u.c.king way,” someone said, voice trailing away.
”I'm not getting involved!” a woman screeched from the back of the group.
Thomas shook his head. ”It's just not a good idea.”
”I'll help,” Lauren said, voice eager, a look of determination on her face. ”I'll fight. I'd rather be dead than keep on being their prisoner.”
Private Brooks joined the group. ”I've got hand-to-hand combat skills, so does Abbott and the doc. He served too. Anyone else here have any special skills, maybe served in one of the branches of the military?”
Tired faces stared at the young private, but no one spoke up. The crowd began to disperse. No one wanted to discuss a rebellion.
Thomas wouldn't look Dejah in the eye. A tense moment pa.s.sed between them in which she felt a growing sense of revulsion for the man before her. What were petty thoughts in the face of their challenges rushed back to her...all the times he turned away from her when she needed him, the long nights he left her alone and aching for the sound of his voice. How many years had it been since he'd spoken to her with a word of kindness, or given her an affectionate touch in pa.s.sing? She couldn't remember. She couldn't recall him ever being concerned for her or for anything other than himself, and occasionally Selah. Yes, they were petty thoughts, but she couldn't help having them. Feeling the hurt of his neglect, and the rage that now filled her to realize that when she needed him the most, when Selah needed him most, he was content to hide in the shadows and save his own a.s.s rather than stand at her side and risk it all for their daughter. The situation that now faced them all revealed the true nature of all of their characters, and his was cowardly, self-centered, pitiful.
Easy, girl. Easy. There's too much at stake. Remember to breathe. These things aren't important now.
Still, she turned her back to Thomas and willed him to go away.
David stood in the horse stall, talking to Dr. Robbins and the private. He looked over at her, his eyes reflecting the tumult of emotions he must be feeling inside. She ached for him, for them, for their uncertain future, but most of all, her immediate concern was for Selah. She still dared to hope.
One way or the other she would set her child free from the clutches of Bal Shem.