Alive Like Us Read online

  The Alpha’s claws wrapped around Gretchen’s head like a vise and lifted her. She thrashed, shredding the Alpha’s arms to ribbons, but the monster held firm, unphased.

  Black motes clouded Sanna’s vision. She cried out, the pressure around her head mounting. The Alpha was going to kill Gretchen—she was going to kill them both. I’m sorry. I said you’d be free.

  Gretchen’s skull gave with a wet crack. A curtain of darkness tumbled over Sanna’s eyes and she sagged over the mare, lifeless as a corpse.

  KAI LEANED OVER THE mare’s neck, giving the animal her head as they galloped through the forest. She needed no encouragement. Death chased them, nipping at their heels with a hundred hungry mouths.

  He didn’t remember mounting the horse or charging through the gate like an idiot with a death wish. It had all happened so fast once he realized that there was something terribly wrong with Sanna and she wouldn’t make it to the rope her mother had flung out to her.

  Now they were almost certainly going to die.

  The horse couldn’t run forever, especially with two riders. He risked a glance behind him. The horde had thinned but was still one of the largest he’d ever seen, crushing small trees and bushes into splinters beneath their bare feet. If the mare stumbled or slowed, they’d all be torn to pieces.

  Sanna’s body hung limp over her withers, and he held onto her as they leapt over a fallen tree. The land sloped downward, and the trees thinned, replaced by large boulders. They barreled past them at breakneck speed. The Alpha’s shadow glided over the stones; her body silhouetted by the fiery sunset.

  They had to get deeper into the forest, where the dense canopy would serve as a shield.

  The Alpha dove in front of them, blocking their path. The mare shrieked, skidding to a stop, and reared. Kai’s heart caught in his throat as he teetered back, into the horde’s waiting mouths.

  He recovered, gripping the mare’s mane and urging her onward. The Alpha made a swipe as they passed, her claws raking through Kai’s thick coat and tearing his flesh. He gritted his teeth as pain ripped across his forearm. On his periphery he saw the horde was gaining on them, their cackles and weird whoops growing louder in excitement.

  At last the forest enveloped them, blocking the Alpha’s attack and further winnowing the horde.

  The mare slowed to a canter. Her nostrils steamed. Foam flecked her chest and neck.

  A figure in black shot onto their path, waving a crude wooden crutch. The mare spooked. Kai and Sanna tumbled off, landing in a pile of bruised flesh as she galloped away with a burst of newfound energy, leaving them to their deaths.

  “Sorry about that,” The young man said, hauling Kai up with tattooed fingers. His hood obscured his face. “Is she dead?”

  “Unconscious,” Kai said. He doubted the other guy would believe the truth—that Sanna had achieved some sort of mental link with two Infected before passing out.

  “Leave her,” the stranger ordered, hobbling through the dense forest. Frankie followed him.

  Kai pulled Sanna’s body over his shoulder, his wounded arm throbbing and hurried after the stranger. Infected crashed through the forest in the distance, urging him on. He caught up to the other man. “How far is this place?”

  “Your gonna have a hard time getting her up the ladder.”

  “Ladder?”

  The man pointed to an old deer stand that balanced on long, stilt-like legs, nearly lost in the pines. A rope ladder descended from its belly, ending in a tangle of underbrush.

  “Go. You’ll be faster. There’s a rope attached to a pulley inside. Throw it down. I’ll tie it around her—if there’s time.” The stranger steadied the ladder. “Hurry. We gotta get up there before the Alpha sees us.”

  Kai set Sanna down and picked up Frankie, zipping him into his coat. The dog squirmed. Kai swore if he jumped that would be the end of him. He ascended the ladder, praying the horde had gone after the horse instead of following their scent.

  Frankie scrabbled out the moment Kai reached the underside of the building. Kai found the rope hanging from the ceiling and fed it down to the stranger.

  Gray skin flickered through the dark trees.

  Kai whistled, pointing to the Infected emerging from the forest, twenty yards away.

  The stranger knotted the rope around Sanna and scurried up the ladder. Kai started pulling her up. The system creaked, and he hoped it was strong enough to hold her.

  The Infected pooled beneath Sanna and the stranger, reaching for them with long, gangly arms. One even managed to drunkenly climb the ladder. The stranger kicked him off with his good leg and kept ascending.

  Beads of sweat popped along Kai’s brow. Blood soaked his arm. The stranger emerged from the opening and rushed to help. Sanna inched into view, still unconscious, and Kai hauled her onto the floor. He collapsed beside her.

  The stranger yanked up the ladder and sealed the opening. His hood had fallen to his shoulders in the commotion, revealing a shaved head covered in macabre tattoos. A brain covered the back of his skull, supported by a column of vertebrae that started at the base of his neck and disappeared into his collar.

  A Bone Boy.

  “Damn, that was close,” The Bone Boy collapsed on the other side of the opening, breathless. “What’d you do to make them so mad?” He glanced at Sanna, and his eyes rounded. They were unusual—one green, the other silvery gray. “Wait a minute—is that...who I think it is?”

  Kai gritted his teeth and prepared to fight.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Sanna awoke to the sound of male laughter and muffled words. Kai’s voice was one of them, though he sounded more relaxed than he’d been in a while. A woolen blanket was tucked tight around her, and Frankie’s furry weight pressed against her spine. She sat up, the world spinning.

  “Hey, you’re finally awake. You’ve hit a record, though. Three days,” Kai said.

  She blinked; her vision blurry. He was seated at a round table on the other side of a room. The remnants of a coarse meal were strewn on top, along with two half-finished glasses of ale. Across from him sat a skeleton in a black coat, who tilted his chair back until it was balanced on two legs. A sketchbook was open on his lap, and an ink pen was held loose in his hands. His attention shifted to Sanna, his lips pulling into a smirk made grotesque by the teeth and gums tattooed around them.

  Recognition shot through her. “What are you doing here?”

  “It’s my house.”

  “Since when do Bone Boys have houses? Aren’t you supposed to be out robbing caravans?”

  “I would be, if it weren’t for this,” he shifted his coat, revealing a bandage wrapped around his thigh. “Thanks to you, I’m stuck in this dump until it heals.”

  Sanna wouldn’t call this place a dump. The area was small but impeccably neat. Two large windows looked out onto a night sky studded with stars and a door led to what looked like a narrow porch. Shelves crammed with foodstuffs and random goods lined one of the walls, while an open counter stretched across the other. A small stove was tucked into the far corner. The table and sleeping pallets took up much of the interior space, though the rug spread out beneath them was plush and richly colored. The place was surprisingly homey. Not at all what she expected from a Bone Boy.

  And then there were the drawings. Countless sketches papered the walls. Some were colored, others shaded in ink. Infected were noticeably absent. Many were of tattoos on various body parts—bones along an arm, a rib cage displayed across a bare chest, vertebrae marching up a neck. All were precisely executed, with a level of detail that reminded Sanna of looking through Theo’s microscope. Each one must have taken ages.

  “Are you wondering how I stole the paper?” Zane drawled.

  Sanna glared at the man who’d tried to kidnap her a lifetime ago. “Why’d you help us?”

  “To be fair, I didn’t know it was you.” He flung his sketchbook on the table, the beginnings of Kai’s image partially scrawled across the page. “
If I had, I might not have found the time.”

  Kai shot Zane a sidelong look. “We’d be dead by now, without him.”

  Zane studied her, his two-tone eyes glittering with hate. “Kai tells me you’re some sort of savior.”

  “I’m not.”

  “Lucas sure thought so. He believed in you and look where that got him.”

  “He shouldn’t have lied.”

  “You don’t even remember him, do you?” Zane sneered. “Just another body you left behind. Though it turns out you destroyed a whole town this time, huh? Erling is not even on the map anymore.”

  Sanna’s blood ran cold. “What are you talking about?”

  “Hey, man, she just woke up—” Kai began.

  “The Alpha and the horde destroyed everything, while you slept like a baby. We saw it with our own eyes yesterday. They’re all gone. Either dead or on their way to Sorenson, I bet. Who knows how many of them will make it, though. There’s a lot of teeth in this forest, at the moment. All thanks to you.”

  “You’re lying—"

  “He’s telling the truth,” Kai said softly.

  Erling is...gone? Sanna sat back on the pallet, staring sightlessly at the wall. She couldn’t fathom a world without it. The spring and fall festivals, the weddings and babies, communal dinners, and summer bonfires. Her mother and Haven chatting over pots of tea. It hadn’t always been easy, or perfect, but it was home. Her home.

  And it was gone. Forever.

  “I have to go back,” Sanna surged up. “I have to help them.”

  “There’s nothing to go back to,” Kai said calmly. “The survivors have already left. It’s a ghost town.”

  “Too bad it wasn’t children who attacked, right?” Zane sneered. “Then you guys would have no problem killing them.”

  “We didn’t hurt that kid.” Sanna jammed a finger into his chest. “He fell because you idiots sent him up our wall for nothing. There was no way he wouldn’t get caught. His death is on your hands.”

  “If that’s the case, then you have an entire village on yours—”

  “Lay off you two,” Kai cut in. “Nothing good will come from being at each other’s throats.”

  Zane rose, meeting Sanna’s glare with one of his own. “You’re not a savior. You’re a curse.”

  He brushed past her and hobbled out onto the porch, shutting the door behind him.

  “Don’t listen to—” Kai began.

  “I don’t care what a Bone Boy thinks.” Sanna spun around and sat back down on her pallet, her hands squeezed into fists.

  Was Zane’s limp permanent? She pushed the thought away. She shouldn’t feel guilty. Wounding him had been self-defense. End of story.

  It didn’t matter that he’d been Nico’s friend, or that she knew the holes friends’ deaths could leave behind.

  She flopped onto the pallet. A male scent wafted up from the fabric. It wasn’t Kai’s—his was more evergreen and this...this had a spring smell. Rain dampened earth and fresh green life.

  She scowled. It was his smell.

  Why had he let her sleep in his bed if he hated her so much? Perhaps Kai had made him, though Sanna doubted anyone could make that Bone Boy do anything. Especially in his own home.

  “Are you hungry?” Kai asked.

  “No,” Sanna stared at the dusty rafters, her stomach growling. “So Erling is really gone? I thought the Alpha would’ve followed us.”

  “She did. For awhile. Then I think she went back.”

  “Because she couldn’t find me.”

  “It’s the voice’s fault—or whatever is controlling her. Once we get to Iris, maybe she can help us find him.”

  “Yeah. Maybe.” Sanna rolled over onto her side, her back to him. Her stomach felt hollow, as if she could reach right through it. How could she lose so much in so little time? First Nico, then Ivan, and now...everything.

  She hoped her grandmother and Haven made it out.

  The floor creaked as Kai padded across the room to his cot.

  “Raj was stealing from Erling’s tithe. When I touched that stage two in the basement, I saw her last moments as a human. Raj was there. He gave the Lieutenant a vial of the virus in exchange for his cooperation.”

  “I thought so,” Kai yawned. “I broke into the Lieutenant’s house the first night I was there to look for my warrant. He chased after me, thinking I was Raj, and wanted me to unlock something.”

  “My grandparents trusted Raj. My grandfather loved him like a brother. I guess none of it matters now.”

  Kai’s snore was her only answer, leaving her alone with her thoughts. She tucked her arm under her head and tried to sleep, but Zane’s words haunted her.

  Maybe she was cursed. How else could one explain the deaths that spiraled around her? Erling wouldn’t have fallen if she hadn’t been there. Her grandfather would still be alive, along with all the other people who had died in the siege.

  She might’ve been a curse to Erling, but that was because she hadn’t understood her power. She’d managed to get the Infected from the Lieutenant’s basement to fight on her behalf. She’d saved lives. If she got better at controlling the Infected, like the voice, she could help even more people.

  Sanna rose from her bed, careful not to wake Kai, and slipped out onto the porch. Zane was sitting on the edge, his long legs dangling through the slats. The ground below teamed with Infected, their long arms outstretched like ardent worshippers.

  “If you came to apologize—” he began, refusing to look at her.

  “I didn’t. I wanted to tell you you’re wrong. About everything.”

  Zane’s skeletal mouth quirked.

  “I still think about him—Nico—Lucas—whatever his name was. He lied and made me feel like such an idiot,” She sat down beside Zane; her legs folded. “But what I hate most—what makes me furious—is that in the end, he left me doubting how much I hate him. He tried his best to help me, and I truly believe he didn’t want me to be hurt. God,” she shook her head and gazed up at the star-washed sky. “Why did he have to make things so complicated?”

  “It was my fault Lucas joined the Bone Boys,” Zane said after a long while. “I found him selling used crap outside of New Hope last summer and I convinced him to tag along with us. Then the whole thing with the kid happened, and Slicer, our boss, was furious. He sent Lucas after you and...” Zane swept some snow off the deck, into the Infected's waiting mouths. “I should’ve told him the Infected got Lucas after he missed our first check-in. Maybe he would’ve laid off. But hey, at least you got Bear, that bastard. Man, I thought about doing him in a hundred times.”

  “You mean the big guy?” Sanna recalled the large man she’d used as bait so everyone else could escape.

  Zane nodded. “He was bad. Twisted. The gang is better without him.”

  “God, that feels like a lifetime ago.”

  “It was—for Nico. It still feels like yesterday to me.” He motioned to his wounded leg.

  She felt the smallest twinge of guilt.

  “I understand what you mean—about people being complicated. Sometimes I wish we were more like them.” Zane lifted his chin to the Infected. “All they want to do is feed. They’re easy to understand and easy to predict, unlike people. Unlike you. I never would’ve guessed you’d come out here tonight after what I said and yet here you are, making things complicated.” He shifted his attention to her. “So, what are you, anyway?”

  “I’m not sure. I got two infected to fight alongside me during the siege. I felt it every time they were wounded. When they were both killed, I blacked out.”

  “Sounds like you’re connected somehow and when their plug gets pulled it’s lights out for you too.”

  She’d come to the same conclusion. “We’re on our way to someone like me, a woman named Iris. Hopefully, she can explain what I am, and how I got this way.”

  “Are you sure it’s not a trap?”

  The thought hadn’t crossed Sanna’s mind. She didn’t kn
ow Iris’s motivations for wanting to meet her. She’d assumed it had something to do with her parents, or at least her mother. “Even if it is, Kai’s sister is with her. She’s all he cares about.”

  Zane shifted his attention to the seething horde. A few snarled in response. “You should get some rest. I bet he’ll want to leave tomorrow—he’s been itching to go since you guys got here.”

  “Thanks.” Sanna rose. “For everything.”

  Zane shrugged. “It’s what Nico would’ve done. He was too good to ever be a Bone Boy.”

  Sanna turned to the door, feeling better than when she’d first stepped outside. She didn’t know if they were friends, but at the moment, she also didn’t think they were sworn enemies. A definite improvement.

  Later on, as sleep crept over her, she recalled how Zane’s macabre tattoos had seemed to fade as they spoke, revealing the lonely young man beneath.

  SANNA ROSE EARLY THE next morning, her breath forming clouds of vapor. The fire must have gone out. Haven had been in charge of banking them back home to make sure they lasted all night. More than once, Sanna had caught her staring into the dancing flames, lost in her memories. But whenever Sanna mustered the courage to ask what she was thinking, she’d dash away like a spooked alley cat.

  Strange girl. Then again, Sanna wasn’t really one to talk anymore.

  Sanna nursed the fire into a healthy blaze, then rummaged through the remains of last night’s meal, munching on crackers and nubs of cheese. Still hungry, she poked through the baskets and bins on the shelf, following her newly sensitive nose.

  Bingo.

  Smoked fish. A whole bundle. She devoured them, tossing a few filets to Frankie, who stared at her with pure adoration. The meat assuaged the emptiness inside her. She licked her fingers clean, then set out to make tea with the dried leaves she’d also found. She placed the kettle on the stove, then shook some dried debris into the teapot.

  “You should warm the pot first.” Kai sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “Tea is all about temperature and timing.”