Mortality

Chapter 12: Savannah

The air in the house felt like ice when we woke up, so we wasted no time gathering supplies and preparing to head out. Alex conceded that there wasn’t much we’d be able to do on our own to help Zack, so we agreed to head west and find the others first.

Throughout the entire half hour discussion, Cole remained silent, although he seemed happy to help gather up food supplies. I half expected to turn around and find him gone, off to do his own thing, but he stayed with us.

We left the safe house after ensuring we’d locked it up and left no sign of the valuables we had to leave behind. Ten minutes later, as we walked down yet another string of identical houses, Cole and I fell behind the others as we made our way down the street, pulling all of our supplies behind us in wagons that had been at the house.

Up ahead, Alex and Pierce were checking any house that had a car in the driveway to see if we could find the keys. Belle stayed outside, but her eyes followed Pierce every time he left her side. The two of them had been dancing around each other for months, and there was no question they’d both noticed that they didn’t have a lot of options. One boy and one girl—the math was easy.

“I want you to come with me,” Cole said, interrupting my train of thought. “After we find your friends, you should come with me. You’re good at all of this.” He gestured toward Alex as he came out of another townhouse, shaking his head. Pierce followed behind him a moment later, wiping blood off of his machete and onto his jeans. There had obviously been a fight, but they were both okay and made their way up the street without saying anything to me.

“What? Why?” I was a little surprised he wanted me to tag along and that he thought I had time for any of this. “If you haven’t noticed, I have a lot on my plate already.”

“I know, I know,” he said, sounding tired rather than mocking. “It’s just… this is really important. If something happens to me, it would be good to have someone else working on this.”

“On what, exactly?” I raised my voice enough that Belle turned toward us, tilting her head in question. A moment later, she turned back toward the house Pierce and Alex were currently inside of. “You’ve barely told me anything, and now you expect me to just forget about my friends to run off and help you?” I lowered my voice again. “You can’t be serious.”

Cole stopped walking and turned to face me, so I stopped as well, letting my wagon bump into my calf. “If I tell you what’s going on, you’ll have to swear to keep it to yourself,” he said. His face mirrored my own uncertainty, yet his voice sounded determined.

“Fine. But that doesn’t mean I can help you. I’ve got too much at stake already.”

“I understand why all of this is important to you, but I can promise that the stakes are about to get a whole lot higher. Do I have your word?”

I couldn’t help myself at that point. “I swear. I won’t tell a soul. But we should probably keep walking if you don’t want everyone else asking questions.” We both started down the street again, and it was a moment before he spoke.

“My father was part of the team that developed the vaccine,” he started but didn’t continue right away. I wouldn’t have wanted to admit that either. While the vaccine seemed like a miracle drug at the time, we now know it had been the cause of a bad situation turning into hell on earth.

“Okay.”

“They were so sure they had managed to stop the virus. There were over a thousand people who signed up for the trial, despite the risks. After a few days, not one of them was showing signs of infection. It was a huge success.”

I didn’t want to hold any of this against him, but I couldn’t see how telling me that his father was responsible for so much suffering would convince me to help. I wasn’t sure what to say, so I let him continue.