Chapter Fourteen
Jax paused his furious ride. Something in the distance caught his eye. Something glittering and familiar. He rode close to it and realized that it was Layne’s backpack. The silver keychain she had always kept on it, a little tree stump with a smiling face, was glittering in the sunlight. It had drawn his attention to their gear, left casually on the ground as if they had been about to make camp.
“Urmph!”
It was Layne’s voice, in an unmistakable struggle. Jax’s heart leapt to his throat and he jumped off the bike, running with all his might to the scene. He reached Layne first and kicked the man off of her. The man’s eyes were gaunt and empty, and although he smiled, there was no sign of joy in his face. Jax kicked him again, hard enough that it broke his neck. The man fell with a nauseating snap and Jax bounded over to Sam, who was having a struggle of her own.
“Jax,” she choked, just as the man gripped her around the throat. She was losing air quickly, and Jax wasn’t sure if he would make it in time to save her.
He didn’t have to. The man suddenly howled in pain and released Sam’s neck, bringing his hands up to his forehead. Jax glanced back at Layne. She was holding her slingshot at the ready and already firing another round of ammo into the man’s head. He turned around and tried to flee, but Jax finally caught up to him and knifed him in the back. Nobody was going to get away with hurting anybody in his tribe. And that’s all there was to it.
Jax went to Layne, unable to find the words to tell her how angry he was that she had left or how much he had missed her while she was gone. They embraced tightly, only to break apart when Sam cried out in agony.
Jax whipped around, sure that something had come back to continue the attack. But she was looking down at a broken needle on the ground.
“We really needed that,” she whispered. Sam’s eyes filled with tears and Layne ran toward her. “Stop! It’s contaminated.”
“But…”
Just then, another heart-wrenching little sob rang out and the three of them stopped what they were doing and listened.
“It’s coming from over there,” Layne whispered, walking toward it.
“Wait!” Sam cried. “You don’t know what’s going to happen. Let me.”
Jax walked carefully behind Sam as they ventured into the brush, and Sam cried out in shock. She lifted a small girl from the weeds where she’d been hiding. She couldn’t have been more than three years old. Her skin was an olive green color, but her face was precious and pure. Layne hadn’t seen anything so innocent since she’d found Gilly as a puppy.
“My mommy’s gone,” the child hiccupped. “And-and daddy won’t get up.”
Sam followed the girl’s chubby finger to where the corpse that had attacked Layne was sprawled on the ground.
“It’s going to be okay,” Sam said, nuzzling the little girl to her chest. “We’ll take care of you now.”
***
When they finally arrived back at the settlement, Tobi ran out of the house and embraced Sam, shocked but undeterred to find the sleeping child in Sam’s arms.
“You know that little house we were going to make in the shed?” Tobi asked, leading them to the back yard.
“Yeah,” Sam replied.
“Well, I finished it up. There was nothing else to do with all you assholes running off without me.”
Jax and Layne followed them and everybody let out a soft cry of appreciation when Tobi opened the door.
“This is perfect,” Sam whispered, holding Tobi’s face close to hers.
“So what’s with the kid?” Tobi asked, finally acknowledging the sleeping three-year-old.
“I might be wrong, but she could very well be the key to curing the virus,” Sam finally said.
Everybody stared at her in stunned silence.
“I need to work closely with her in here and keep her out of the house, away from Layne until I’m sure,” Sam continued. “I told her we would take care of her and I intend to honor that promise. She doesn’t know what’s going on. If her mother was normal, with the immunity, and her father was part of the cursed ones, her blood might be the secret to making our formula a success. And if not, well, I still need living blood from the infected to fight the virus.”
“So you mean…” Layne whispered.
“Yes,” Tobi said. “You’re going to save the world after all.”