“You’re gonna die soon.” Vivienne’s head lowered, and she sang the words. “I am psychic and I know that to be true.”
He grimaced. “You stink.” When was the last time he’d allowed her to shower? Of course there was no running water, but they kept barrels in the garage. Soon they’d be out of water and would need to leave the desert.
Her head lagged, and she began to sing a Garth Brooks song an octave too high.
He sighed. “Where’s the Bunker?”
She stopped singing. “Under the ground, of course.”
His heartbeat picked up. “Where?”
She opened her mouth and started singing “Jingle Bells.”
Damn it. Drawing a key from his back pocket, he unlocked the shackle around her leg and jerked her over his shoulder.
She protested with an oomph, her legs dangling uselessly against his chest. He easily stood and stalked out of the small storage room. How much did she weigh, anyway? He hadn’t kept close track of feeding her, but she felt like a bag of bones. Another country song, one he thought was by Trisha Yearwood, mumbled from Vivienne’s lips as he crossed through the guest house to the sunlit yard outside.
She stopped singing and moaned as sun hit her legs. “Psychics don’t see what isn’t there,” she muttered.
The woman was losing her mind. He eyed the sparkling mermaids at the bottom of the now full pool. Pretty and shimmering. Without exerting much effort, he ducked and tossed Vivienne into the shallow end of the pool.
She hit with a splash and then screamed.
Interesting. Bret studied her. Pain creased into her face in harsh lines. Ah. The chlorine probably burned the raw flesh around her ankle where the shackle had been. He strode to a small table and grabbed a couple of hotel shampoo bottles. Vivienne could sit with her head above the water. Otherwise, with the drugs in her system, she’d probably drown.
He squirted shampoo into his hand and dropped it on her hair. “Wash yourself.”
She blinked, confusion filling her face.
Maybe he shouldn’t have given her another dosage today. He snarled. “Now.”
She shook her head, obviously trying to concentrate, and lifted her hands to her hair. “Where am I?”
Yep. Too many drugs. He sighed. “Vegas. Where is Lynne Harmony?”
“Dunno because you don’t dunno. Dumbass.” All of a sudden, Vivienne’s eyes focused. “I hope I’m there when you die.” She shrugged out of her stained jacket and slowly started scrubbing her hair back to blond.
He smiled. “I have a destiny to fulfill first. Believe me, you’ll die long before me.” He focused as Lake stepped out of the house. “What?”
“We reached a rival group in L.A. on the ham. They’re calling themselves Twenty. You’re going to want to hear this,” Lake said.
Chapter Twenty-Six
A shadow is a slice of reality combined with mystery.
—Dr. Franklin Xavier Harmony
Her knees still shaking from listening to Vice President Lake on the ham radio, Lynne followed Jax from the small office into the main war room. Someone had wheeled a whiteboard into the far corner, complete with markers. “Nice,” Lynne breathed.
Sami rubbed bloodshot eyes. “There was a school a few blocks away, and when we made our home here, we raided the place. Too bad there wasn’t more canned food.”
Lynne sat next to Sami. Tace sat on her other side, and Raze loped inside to sit next to Lynne.
Jax shut the door and stood by the whiteboard, grabbing a blue marker. “I’ve asked Lynne to sit in on this meeting because she’ll be going on the mission to Myriad tomorrow morning, which we think is in Century City, based on her calculations. My hope is she’ll see the documents we need to take as well as identify compounds and medical shit to bring back.”
Lynne clasped her hands on the table. Hopefully she’d find medical shit. Her life had gone crazy. Nobody protested her presence, so she sat back.
Jax drummed his fingers on the table. “I hope we’re back before the president calls, but if not, Ernie can make the arrangements for a meeting. I want the Myriad information in my hands before we meet.”
Lynne nodded. “I agree.”
Jax focused on his soldiers. “This morning I finished hearing reports from all the squadron leaders, so I’m well versed on what’s happening with the entire community. Let’s get your reports out of the way now, starting with Tace.”
Tace leaned forward, elbows on the table. “We have the one box of vitamin B, and that’ll last through another month. Then we’re in trouble. No current cases of Scorpius. Far as I can tell, and while most don’t admit it, we probably have many survivors of the fever and probably a few hundred who haven’t contracted it yet. The total number of folks in our little slice of heaven is just over five hundred, so I’m totally guessing about statistics.”
“All right. I’ve heard a couple of rumblings about folks wanting to separate into two communities, one for Scorpius survivors and one for the uninfected. How serious is it?” Jax asked.
“Not so much yet, because mainly nobody knows who’s been infected and who has not.” Tace shrugged. “That’s a worry for another day, if you ask me.”
Jax nodded. “Agreed. Is that it for your report?”
“No. We have several cases of what my doctors think are just colds, ten still wounded by the Twenty attack, and one pregnancy.”
Jax’s head jerked up. “Who’s pregnant?”
“Jill Sanderson,” Tace replied.
Jax frowned. “Which one is she?”
Tace’s lips turned down. “You should know that, leader. She’s sixteen and helps out with the orphans and the kitchen, very often in the headquarters kitchen right here.”
Jax went still. “Who knocked up a sixteen-year-old girl?”
Tace sighed. “A seventeen-year-old boy.”
“Well, fuck.” Jax scrubbed his whiskered jaw.
Lynne leaned forward, her heart beating faster. “Have either of them been infected with Scorpius?”
“I don’t think so,” Tace said, his gaze sharpening. “Why?”
Lynne swallowed. “We, ah, don’t know of any successful births since Scorpius spread.”
Jax sat back. “What?”
She nodded. “Any pregnant woman who contracted Scorpius died, as far as we could track.” She played idly with a pencil, her temples pounding. “Anybody becoming pregnant after surviving Scorpius lost the baby at some point . . . based on medical reports from all over the world.”
Sami shook her head. “But communications went down so quickly. There might be plenty of pregnant women out there due in a few months.”
Lynne nodded. “I know.” Scorpius had spread only six months before, so it was too early to really know if a recuperated woman could give birth. “The early results didn’t look good.”
Jax breathed out. “So you’re telling me Scorpius may kill us off no matter what.”
“Yes.” Sure, some folks hadn’t been infected, but the bacteria was strong and sturdy and would always be around. “Some of the research into vitamin B focused on successful births, and I’m hoping we find that at Myriad.”
“Your research just became more important than ever.” Jax glanced around. “For now, where are we on condoms?”
“Almost out.” Tace shrugged. “We’re almost out of all medical supplies. Hopefully we’ll find some on this mission.”
Lynne nodded. “We’re going into the heart of Century City, all workplaces and no residences, so it’s possible we’ll find supplies. When the fever hit, it all happened very quickly, and people flocked to their homes. Scavengers and Rippers haven’t been organized, so there are still many places untouched by humans after Scorpius spread.” Hopefully. She cleared her throat, her stomach aching. “Do either of the kids, the ones having the baby, have family here?”
Tace settled back in his chair. “No. Hardly anybody has family here.”
Made sense.
Jax twirled the marker in his hand. “Sami?”
Sami scratched her wrist. “April is doing a good job directing scavenging missions as well as providing some sort of organization for the civilians in Wyatt’s absence. She’s hurting but is throwing herself into action, which I guess helps.”