The Risks

October: Chapter 40

After assuring us that it was safe, Raleigh snuck us into his small, square "dwelling". He plopped down on the sofa in the middle of the limited living area while Parker and I lingered near the doorway.

"I know what you guys must have thought today," Raleigh said. "I'm a traitor, right?"

Well... he wasn't wrong.

"Pretty much," Parker said, his arms crossed.

"Look," he sighed, leaning forward. "I was gonna fight him, I really was, but when they showed up... there were too many of them. Deacon and Lyons and at least fifteen soldiers." My ears perked at George's name. "Let's be real. I wasn't gonna make a dent. So I thought, how can I do the most damage? Shooting off a couple rounds then wasn't gonna do anyone any good. But what if I were to join them? I could be like... like a spy on the inside. And when the day came that he went after you guys, I could do something. I could mess up all their plans. I could ruin them.

"So I waved my little white flag and they brought me here. I did the whole trial thing, which is like-"

Parker was nodding. "I know about the trial. In the cells."

"Yeah. So did that. They asked me all these questions. What you guys said about them, what you did to Rebecca, where you guys went. Lucky for me, I really had no clue on that last one, but I really played the part. Said I wanted to get you guys back for killing Rebecca. Did my best to make them trust me.

"And they let me join. Worked some dirty jobs until they let me go with on some raids. That's what they call them. Raids. And that's when I realized just how bad these people are. Watching them kill innocent people -kids even! Stealing every little thing from people then burning it all, people and everything." He shook his head sharply, as if just shake away the memories. "So I started sneaking around, talking to different people in the Zone. And you know what I found out? A lot of people didn't even know this kind of stuff was going on. And the ones that did had wanted to do something, but were too scared. There's a lot of bad people here... but they're not all bad."

"When we were here last, I tried explaining to them that Deacon created the virus," Parker told him. "No one seemed to want to listen."

"Well yeah. You know what Deacon would do to them if they tried to stand up to him?"

We didn't answer. We didn't need to.

Raleigh sighed, lowered his head and studied his hands in his lap. "I should've started with this, but, uh... all that stuff that happened before? The Rebecca stuff. I should've listened to you. Cuz you were right. She wasn't one of the good ones."

Parker hesitated a moment, then gave him a forgiving nod.

"And Claire?"

I met his eyes -a little reluctantly- and they were sad. Honestly regretful.

He blew out a breath of air through loose lips. "I shouldn't have said all that stuff to you about Andi. I've been thinking about it a lot, reading the note she left me and... I get that it must've been really hard. But... it was the right thing to do."

I swallowed back the lump in my throat. I hadn't thought about Andi in a while and the sudden memories of her and his sharp words brought along an old wave of sorrow. But there was a sincerity in his expression that I couldn't dismiss, and I felt resolution settle comfortably between us.

I took a deep breath, then nodded quickly. "We're good."

Parker took my hand and gave it a light squeeze, smiling softly down at me. Then he moved to sit beside Raleigh on the couch.