Vicious Memories

Chapter 94

Our three-way hug was so fierce that a bystander might have thought we were trying to hurt each other. Cooper's shout drew more people forward, and one by one friendly figures emerged from the storm, bringing with them the familiar metallic tang of blood and sweat.

"We thought you were dead," Tana said. Her smile brought our attention to two rough bruises blooming on her jaw.

A hand gripped my shoulder, and I turned to see Scott. He looked from me to Alice, his red hair gleaming like a damp torch.

"Gabriel told us you'd gone to scout. When you didn't come back we thought the Strangers had gotten you."

Finn hobbled forward, one arm draped around Mads for support. He smiled and gave me the pistol-finger-point. Mads had lost her red bandana, and without it her blonde locks flowed free and wild. She planted a firm kiss on our cheeks.

"God was looking over you," Neema said. "I know it. Where did you go?"

Alice hugged her and stepped back.

"Seeing you all warms my heart." Her voice carried like silk floating down a river. "But we need to speak with Gabriel and Arun quickly. I promise we'll explain when there's more time."

I spotted the two of them standing near the entrance to the large cave where we'd held Neema's trial. They looked grim. Gabriel raised a dark hand to beckon us over and the four of us formed a tense circle out of the rain.

"Whatever you had to do," Gabriel asked, "did you do it?"

In the distance, beyond the barricades, we could just hear the Strangers shouting instructions to each other. We didn't have much time.

"Yes," I said, taking Alice's hand and squeezing it.

"Where's Bev?"

"You didn't see her before we got back?"

"No. She wasn't with us."

"You didn't see her anywhere else?" I pressed. "Not even with the Strangers?"

Gabriel's lips came together in a grim, sad line. "Shit," he said.

Arun cocked his head in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"It was her?" Gabriel asked me.

"What?" Arun looked angrily from face to face. "What's going on?"

"It was Bev," I said. "She killed Jessica and Perry. She made Felix kill Sirus and Shana. She gave him the razor he used to kill himself. This morning she kidnapped Alice."

"No." Arun's hands balled into fists. "No way. Not Bev. She was the village nurse. She was there for all of our conversations. She saved so many of our lives. I would have seen it. I would have known."

"But you didn't," Gabriel said sadly. "And neither did I."

I watched as Arun went through the same sequence of thoughts as I had through over the past two days. She'd been in our midst the whole time, one of the few people we thought we could trust, just casually walking around the village with her braid bouncing and her concerned eyes poring over our injuries and ailments.

"Trust no one," he muttered. "How could I forget?"

"She'll get what's coming to her," Alice said. "Everyone does, eventually. Right now we have to survive the rest of the day."

"We should still stick to the plan," I said. "There are more of us than them, so if we can use the barricades to make them comes to us, we might be able to—"

"You."

The word was pronounced with such loathing and animosity that I pulled up short. Arun's shoulders squared toward me, breaking the perfect geometry of our circle.