Whiteout (Book 5): The Feeding Read online

  And we had already been through so much together, not to mention Stone had been through so much on his own with the car accident, the loss of his parents, and the near-complete loss of his ability to walk. But Stone shook such hardships off. He persevered when most people would give up. That’s not to say he didn’t consider it. I remember him after the accident. I’m sure I’ve told you before. He barely moved, barely ate, barely talked, barely left the basement room my father allowed him to move into. It was beyond tough to watch, like seeing a loved one slowly deteriorate from a type of organ-eating cancer. But then one day he snapped out of it. He saw the light at the end of the tunnel and returned to his old self, more or less.

  That’s the thing about wounds. I know it’s a cliché, but I believe time really does heal them, both big and small. The memory of the pain will fade, yes, but not completely. A scar is left behind, and that scar is there to remind you of where you came from, because you’re not supposed to forget. Stone understood that, and he embraced it.

  For him to have it all end because of a random gunshot? I know life isn’t fair, but that is the very definition of unfairness.

  No longer able to stand and hold him, I lowered myself to the floor. I was kneeling in my best friend’s blood, thinking he was already dead, thinking it was all over.

  But I was wrong.

  Stone’s eyes opened to slits. He twisted his lips and bared his teeth. The shock of the situation must’ve been wearing off, and now the terrible pain was settling in.

  A string of wispy words escaped his mouth. I leaned closer, unable to hear him. How many times had I been in this situation since the snow fell? I couldn’t even tell you. All I know was that I was with Jonas when he died, with Helga when she sacrificed herself, with Mikey when he bled out, his ankles twisted and broken. I wasn’t sure I could handle it again.

  Part of me wanted to let Stone go, leave him, run away as far as I could. That part of me thought if I distanced myself, then the pain wouldn’t be as severe. Another part of me, the stronger part, thankfully said that I’d never leave him.

  These two sides didn’t matter in the end, because I couldn’t move. Shock and fear and exhaustion rendered my muscles useless.

  “What’d you say, man?” I whispered. The tears in my eyes blurred Stone’s face. They also blurred the steady flow of blood and the growing pool spreading beneath us, but I knew it was there.

  “I-I s-s-said…if y-you’re gonna grab my ass, b-buy me a drink first.”

  The haggard look on his face relaxed. His twisted lips turned into a slight smile. He closed his eyes and let out a deep, ragged breath.

  I wasn’t sure whether to sob or bust out laughing. In the end, I did a mixture of both, and I probably sounded like an emotional donkey.

  Getting myself under control took a few moments, but once I did, I shook Stone again. “Keep talking, buddy. Keep talking. Don’t go to sleep.”

  “I-I can’t,” he wheezed. “I’m s-so tired.”

  “Tell me about the time you got kicked out of the homecoming dance freshman year. Remember that? C’mon, Stone, tell me!”

  He mumbled something I couldn’t understand. This time, I didn’t think he was cracking a joke. If he closed his eyes for too long, I knew they might close for good. So I had to pull out all the stops. Every last trick in my bag.

  “Stone, tell me about your comedy award in middle school. You know, I thought a couple others deserved it more, but…”

  The paling flesh of his brow rose, wrinkled. That was a good sign. “You’re l-lucky I’m hurt, G-Grady.”

  “Uh-huh, stay with me, Stone. Just stay with me.”

  It was another two long minutes before help came. Eleanor’s steps stormed down the corridor. Lee followed her, looking like he’d seen a ghost.

  “Is he okay?” Ell asked.

  “Hanging in there,” I said.

  “Doc Hart’s on her way. Nina too.” Ell bent down with Lee.

  “Shit,” Lee mumbled. “Stone, brother, you’re lookin’ mighty rough.”

  “I-I know,” Stone croaked. “Per u-usual, right?” A ghost of a smile crossed his face. Another good sign; I began thinking that things were going to be okay. That was, if the crazy people outside got handled and the power was turned back on.

  Together Lee and Ell took Stone from my bloody lap and into the hospital. I stumbled behind them. They entered the nearest room and set him on the bed. Ell unzipped Stone’s jacket, and then lifted his shirt. Gently, Ell wiped some of the mess away. With her other hand she shined a flashlight on Stone’s chest. The bullet wound was tiny, and it was closer to his shoulder than his heart, thank God.

  He exclaimed in pain. Suddenly, a newfound strength filled him and he gripped my arm, his nails digging into my flesh. I felt this, but only slightly. The whole scene had a way of making me forget about everything else.

  “I think it went all the way through,” Ell said.

  Lee had his back turned to us. He was chewing his nails. Through his fingers, he mumbled, “Yeah? It’s clean?”

  “I-I think so,” Ell answered. ”From what I can see.” She pushed on Stone’s shoulder, making him turn a bit, and pointed to the exit wound. “See?”

  I peered at the bloody mess. Stone’s fingers were still digging into my skin. He was shaking now. For the life of me, I couldn’t make heads or tails of what I was seeing. Ell was trained in that regard, I guess, but not so much me.

  “There may be fragments inside,” Ell said. “Doc Hart’ll know better.”

  Lee risked a glance. He shuddered at the sight and clamped a hand over his mouth, as if he was about to hurl.

  The door to the room opened and in came Doc Hart and Nina. The doctor was timid, but when the time came for her to don the rubber gloves and white coat, she pretty much transformed into a different person.

  “Everyone out!” she barked.

  Lee bolted, and Ell sidled out of Doc Hart’s path, but I stood my ground.

  “No way,” I said, but I could tell by how her bright green eyes glared at me that there was no winning this argument.

  “Grady, he’s going to be okay,” Doc Hart said. “I’ll fix him up, but I need space, okay? You hovering around here will do him no favors. We need all hands on deck elsewhere, or else the City will be breached. Go to the gym and see how you can help out there, okay?”

  It pained me, but I nodded. I was holding Stone’s hand, and I gave it a squeeze. He looked up and smiled a good, strong smile.

  “I’ll be o-okay, m-man.”

  “You better be. Or else I’m gonna kick your ass.”

  The smile widened. “Yeah, fat chance.”

  Tears stinging my eyes and unsure of my best friend’s fate, I left.

  4

  New Love

  I didn’t immediately head to the hub. I was too worried about Stone, so I hung around outside, hearing his terrible screams as Doc Hart did whatever it was she did to fix him up.

  Each scream raked blades down my heart. My knees were weak, shaky; I was cold—freezing cold, in fact—but a steady stream of sweat trickled down my back. Eleanor stayed with me, squeezing my hand. She kept saying everything was going to be okay. The Scavs had handled the attack by the gate, and no one who’d been inside the City had been hurt. Mia, Monica, and Chewy were safe in the hub with everyone else.

  All seven crazies were dead, but among them were also two dead Scavs: Ayden and Stu Whitmore. It took a while for their losses to sink in, but when they did my heart grew heavy. They died trying to protect us. The remaining Scavs were hurt, and so was Nick Rider, although their wounds were minor, nothing fatal. But all wounds in the apocalypse carried the risk of infection and eventual death if not treated properly.

  About an hour after I’d left Stone in the care of Sharon Hart, Lee and Nick called my name. Lee waved me toward them at the far end of the corridor.

  “Now,” Nick said, “he’s gonna be fine, Grady. Don’t you worry.” His head had been bandaged where
a few splinters from a shot wood beam had burrowed into his cheek. He seemed defeated, and that was a first I’d seen from him.

  “Just a flesh wound,” Lee added. “He’s a tough cookie.”

  “I know he is,” I said. “Everything okay with you?”

  “Also just a flesh wound.” Nick pointed to his cheek and offered a smile. His eyes were still heavy, however.

  “What?” I prodded.

  Nick’s posture crumbled. He hunched over like he was about to pass out, and then leaned against the wall. No answer came from him, but Lee, in a low voice, told me. “They hit a couple of generators, those crazy assholes. But that ain’t all. They also hit the garage where we keep the fuel. Spilled damn near everything.”

  Nick rubbed and kneaded his chest. He was looking down at his feet and shaking his head.

  “We probably got a month, maybe two, of fuel left before we run out,” Lee continued.

  I was at a loss for words. Not only had my bubble of safety been popped that night, but it didn’t look like it’d ever inflate again.

  “What do we do? Can we get more?” I asked.

  Lee turned to Nick. Nick raised a hand as if to say it was all right, but his face told another story. “We’ll be okay.” And that was the end of that conversation. Nick straightened, placed a bony hand on one of my shoulders, and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “But sitting around and waiting isn’t gonna help us. Getting the power back on will. Two sectors need attending to. The north end got hit pretty hard. A fire broke out. Nothing catastrophic, I put it out with an extinguisher, but the generator needs a thorough checking. And right now, we’re spread pretty thin. Everyone’s scared as hell. I hate to ask you, Grady, but you don’t seem to fear much of anything.”

  This was wrong, of course. I feared a lot. I guessed I just did a better job of hiding it. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? I wondered.

  “Can you lend us a hand?” Nick’s eyes were pleading.

  I looked back over my shoulder at the hospital door. I could hear the frantic conversation behind the walls, the rushed orders, the words I couldn’t understand.

  “He’ll be okay,” Nick said again. “Trust me.”

  I nodded. “Okay, I’ll help.”

  Because I needed to get my mind off all of this.

  Wendy also agreed to help us. Her and Nick went down to the south end generators, while Lee and I went north to the generators housed just outside the kitchen/cafeteria area. You got to it via an access tunnel, which was accessible from the outside, where a trench had been dug in the snow.

  The outer walls were charred black, and the smell of smoke was strong enough to sting the insides of my nostrils and make me momentarily forget I was trudging through a winter hellscape.

  At the entrance, Lee stopped and looked at me. I raised my eyebrows, wondering what he was waiting for.

  “Uh, yeah, ladies first, Miller.” He motioned a hand toward the tunnel.

  I rolled my eyes. “Seriously?”

  “Hey, you don’t fear nothin’, right?”

  I rolled my eyes again, and then stepped over the threshold. My ears strained for any slight sound. Outside, the wind whistled but the sound was dull and barely audible, as if far in the distance. Other than that, I heard nothing. This was both good and a bit unsettling. I had gotten used to the low thrumming that the generators made. Those sounds meant we would be warm, we would have light, we would have safety. They were sounds of comfort. Now that they were gone, their silence nearly burst my eardrums, which had already taken a heck of a lot of damage from the gunfight.

  “How far ahead is it?” I asked, turning toward Lee.

  The white glow from the lantern accentuated the lines on his face. He looked ghostly, eerie, almost sick. Early wrinkles, because Lee was barely in his mid-thirties, and although I didn’t know too much about him, I knew he liked the bottle. He wasn’t a drunk—not the slobbering, violent type, at least—but he was rarely without his booze. A shot of Baileys in his morning coffee, beer at lunch, a bit of gin at dinner. I imagined the apocalypse might’ve slowed him down, but not by much. I’m not knocking him, believe me. We all have our vices.

  “Should be just about a hundred feet or so down,” Lee said. “At the end of the corridor.”

  “You coming?”

  “Uh…” Lee hesitated. “Yeah, I am.” Then I heard him mumbling, “Where’s my goddamn flask?” This brought a slight grin to my own face. If ever there was time for a nip of Jack, it was now.

  We went down the hall. Our footsteps shuffled across the painted concrete floor. The scuffing of our soles echoed off the walls, grating like forks down a chalkboard.

  At the generator, Lee leaned over me and peered at it. “Easy fix,” he said. “All you gotta do is—”

  A soft rattling cut him off. He stepped back quickly and almost tripped over his feet. At the time I wasn’t concerned about the noise. In fact, I had barely heard it, and thought if it was anything, it was the dying whir of the generator’s internal machinery. It sounded natural, not sinister. I was more concerned with Lee possibly busting his skull open, which he very well might have done had I not caught him by one shoulder.

  You have to remember I wasn’t in my right mind. I know I say that a lot, but it’s true. Rarely were we ever in our right minds. How could we be? The world had ended, and we were constantly fighting battles we had no business winning.

  My lack of concern over this strange sound didn’t last long, however.

  “You okay?” I asked Lee, still gripping his shoulder. His legs gave out on him. Unprepared, he slid from my grip and sat on the floor, his bony body clattering against the concrete. Not exactly as bad as busting your head open, but it couldn’t have felt very nice, that was for sure.

  His whole body was shaking. His face had completely drained of all color, so his cheeks looked almost translucent. Still trembling, he raised his arm and pointed at the generator.

  “S-s-scor—”

  What he was saying, I had not the slightest clue, but when I spun around and saw what crept out from behind the generator, I knew what it was.

  Scorpion.

  I held no previous fears of the animals before I saw that one. This fear solely belonged to Lee. It had come from the dark recesses of his mind. Later, he would tell me and the others how, when he was a boy in Texas, a scorpion had woke him up by crawling up his neck. It didn’t sting him, somehow, but the resulting nightmares from the experience haunted him for a long time after. And I got a front-row view to this nightmare right then.

  This thing, though, was more monster than scorpion. It was bigger than Chewy, closer to the size of a German shepherd. Its tail stretched nearly as high as I stood, curling toward its head. At the end of it hung a limp stinger easily as long as my middle finger, dripping with a putrid-smelling black poison. The lantern’s light glowed off its chitinous armor, which was a mixture of death colors: pale-gray, pus-yellow, blood-red.

  It clicked its claws together.

  Frozen, I stared into its lifeless black eyes as its mouth opened, revealing a set of fangs as long as human fingers and as sharp as icicles.

  I thrust the lantern forward, a mere dozen feet from it, and the monster began burning as it advanced…only instead of stopping or retreating, it sped up.

  It actually sped up.

  I wasn’t expecting this. I was expecting it to screech and turn into a puff of black smoke, or, at the very least, for it to run away.

  Lee let out a weak scream. I panicked and slammed the lantern across the scorpion’s head. The glass shattered, and darkness instantly swallowed the corridor. In hindsight, this wasn’t the smartest move, but like I said, I had panicked.

  It was in the darkness that these creatures thrived, and as soon as I lost sight, all hope was lost.

  We were defeated. The dark was their home, and now they had the advantage.

  This is what was going through my head when a sudden fire erupted across the scorpion’s body. It stood
on its back legs and screeched. The flame rippled, and each part it passed over began turning to dust. Before I realized it, I was on my ass, sliding backwards, and my flesh was dampening with sweat from the new heat. The heat felt nice, which was a strong contradiction to the fear twisting my insides.

  Twenty excruciatingly long seconds later, the monster was nothing more than ember-specked ash, and the dark took hold of the corridor once again. I scrambled to my feet.

  It’s true that relief flooded me in that moment, but I couldn’t help thinking about how brazen the wraith had been, how the light no longer scared it.

  “You okay?” I asked Lee, out of breath.

  He was babbling, saying words I couldn’t understand, but that was an answer enough. He wasn’t okay. I didn’t blame him; I wasn’t either.

  I offered him a hand. Once standing, he wobbled like he was plastered-drunk.

  “It’s gone, man. It’s okay,” I said.

  He swallowed, his Adam’s apple like a blade beneath his pallid flesh. “B-but how many more are inside?”

  That was the question, wasn’t it? I shook my head. “Let’s just fix this damn thing.”

  Lee closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. He nodded after a few moments, then walked on eggshells toward the generator, giving the monster’s remains a wide berth. It took him a few more moments to completely calm down, but once he did, we got to work and got it running again.

  There was no telling how many wraiths had gotten in without the surveillance systems online or anyone actively looking for them, which wasn’t something anyone wanted to do willingly. Our best bet was to get the lights back on. Stay vigilant and get the City in order again. After we told Nick of our experience in the north section, he ordered those without injuries back into the hub until it was sorted.