I’M SICK WITH FEAR. These people—I know what they do to survivors. And I know there is something I could do to strike out right now into their auras—to kill, the way Shay and Xander have done before. But I can’t bring myself to do that. I just can’t.
I can’t hurt anyone. I’m sorry, I whisper to Kai inside his head, and his grip on my hand tightens.
“Kai, isn’t it?” one of them says, the one who told the others what to do. “But your friend I don’t know.”
He nods at one of the soldiers, who then grabs my arm, starts to pull me away from Kai.
“Leave her alone!” Despite the guns still trained on us, Kai strikes at the soldier who grabbed me. But two more are there, and one hits Kai. I scream, struggle. He falls to the ground.
One of them holds me while another grabs my left hand. He holds it out to the one calling the shots for inspection.
“No immune tattoo, I see,” he says. “What is your name?”
“Freja. Freja Eriksen,” I say, so scared I give my real name without stopping to think to give a false one.
“Freja, it is a pleasure to meet you, even under such circumstances. I’m Lieutenant Kirkland-Smith. Now. Would you care to explain why you are inside the zone, alive, but without a tattoo or a suit?”
I stare back at him, silent, mind racing. They don’t know what I am. But what do I say?
“Well, I’ll tell you what I know, and perhaps you can fill in the missing details.” He gestures to another soldier, who pulls Kai to his feet and holds him with an arm around his neck. Kai groans, his eyes only half-open. Another soldier holds a gun to Kai’s head—and in that moment, I almost think I could do it: I could strike out at them to stop them from hurting Kai any more.
But wait. Are they trying to provoke that reaction? Is this a test?
Instead, I let the fear show on my face, and a tear trickles down my cheek. “Please don’t hurt him, please…”
“That is up to you, Freja. Now listen. This is what I know. We were at Alexander Cross’s house when you and Kai arrived. There were a number of survivors there; there were a few…altercations. Some of them got away. We followed, but they took off in a plane in a heavy storm. We tracked you from that airfield and find ourselves at this moment. Is that correct so far?”
I swallow, find my voice. “Yes.”
“Why were you there with Kai?”
My eyes move to Kai; his are drooping closed. Does he hear what I say? “Kai was looking for his girlfriend.”
“Shay McAllister; a survivor.”
“Yes.”
“Was she there?”
Should I answer? They must know she was there: it’s another test.
I nod. “She chose to leave with the others and Xander. Alexander Cross, I mean.”
“And why didn’t the two of you go with them? Wouldn’t it have been easier to get away in the plane?”
“Maybe. Xander used to be Kai’s stepfather; they don’t get along. We didn’t want to go with them.”
“I see. And where did they go?”
“They didn’t tell us.”
He stares back at me in silence, and I resist the urge to say anything else.
“Are you immune?” he asks, finally.
“I must be,” I lie. “I haven’t caught it.”
He’s looking back at me, considering what I said. Finally he nods at the soldier with the gun to Kai’s head, and my heart almost stops—but then the soldier moves it away from Kai.
“That’ll do. For now. But know this: we will take you back to the old zone boundary where we can test you to find out if you are a survivor. So, Freja, is there anything else you want to tell me now?”
My stomach lurches with fear when he mentions being tested: have they got the scan that detects survivors? I struggle to keep it from my face. I shake my head. “No. Let us go. We haven’t done anything!”
“Oh? Survivors are a threat to public health and must be reported to the authorities. Did you attempt to report them?” He doesn’t wait for an answer. “And the man you call Xander—well, let’s just say he has a lot to answer for regarding the start of the epidemic. I ask you again. Do you know where they went?”
“They never said! I told you: he and Kai hate each other. He was hardly going to tell us where they were going.”
“You say you haven’t done anything. Yet when we followed to ask you these reasonable questions, you ran away. You crashed your car down a cliff to try to evade us. These are not the actions of the innocent.”
They take us to the back of the truck and lock us inside.