A small line forms on his forehead. “Then why don’t we ambush him? Take him captive? Use him for information.”
I finish the knot, securing it in place. “Who says I’m not?”
*
The moon is high and bright, making the walk to the bridge feel like I’ve got a spotlight on my back. I leave Paul under the awning at a smashed and looted convenience store a half a mile down the road. It’s hard not to feel like the last man on earth in moments like this. Deep in the country, no buildings or even abandoned vehicles. Just miles and miles of nothing. A cool wind blows as I approach the overpass, but the hairs on my neck lay flat. The night seems peaceful. I hope I’m right.
Cole’s blond hair reveals his position, leaning casually against the metal guardrails. His wide shoulders are relaxed, I see no weapons in his hand. Mine are safely within reach but tucked away. Once we fought side-by-side and until twenty-four hours ago, I didn’t know any different. Cole and I survived the early days of the apocalypse together, held together by one thing—one person. As I draw near I wonder if her being gone is the reason he wears those stripes on his shoulder. If that’s true then any hope of Alex being alive evaporates.
“Thanks for coming,” he says. “I understand this situation is a little unconventional.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “I’m not going to lie, Cole. I don’t exactly know what angle you’re playing.”
He smiles and points to the bars on his shoulder that signifies he’s part of the Hybrid army. “Because of these?”
“Partially.”
“Would it help if I explained it to you?”
I exhale and move to the railing and sit next to him. “I’m all ears.”
“That night you showed up at the antique store in north Georgia while we were traveling toward the Vaccine Center and told Alex that Chloe was waiting to ambush us, something in me snapped. I was out of my mind with anger and rage toward my sister. I was tired of her hurting people—particularly the ones I cared about. I needed to get away from everyone and deal with her on my own terms.”
“You thought you could take her down alone?” I ask.
“I thought maybe I could get to her first and talk some sense into her. But Erwin’s units had her surrounded and the Hybrids were on high alert. I had to wait until the Resistance broke down the walls before I could sneak in.”
“I was pretty out of it,” I tell him. “Hayes wanted to kill me—but he also wanted to do it in front of an audience. By the time you got there I was only half conscious.”
“You looked like shit. Like, I actually thought you were dead, or at least dying.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Thanks. But yeah, I was close.”
“It fueled my rage, but I was a human and I knew that unless my sister took mercy on me when she escaped, her Hybrids would kill me. Thankfully, some bonds go even deeper than genetic manipulation.” He turns and looks over the bridge. There’s nothing but a deserted train track below, weeds already snaking across in an attempt to reclaim the space to nature. “She didn’t kill me. She saved me just like I hoped, and when I woke up in a medical bed at The Fort, I asked her to do something for me.”
I have a feeling I already know, but I ask anyway. “What was that?”
“I asked her to inject me with the Hybrid vaccine.”
I turn now to look at him. The bright moonlight allows me to take in his darker eyes that used to blaze blue just like his sister’s, and all of the other visible attributes he gained with his transformation. Beyond that I see the compassion on his face and the friendliness that has existed between us for the last year. I feel confident when I ask, “So why aren’t you like the others?”
His eyes light up and a smile breaks on his face. Laughing he says, “So you noticed?”
“I noticed you’re not a robotic, mind-controlled, killing machine like the other Hybrids I’ve run up against.”
“The night Alex’s father met with her to give her the vaccines we brought home a survivor we met on the road. Her name was Josie. You killed her partner, Trucker, in the house.”
I recall a big guy coming after me. He was strong and determined. Unfortunately, I had a mission to complete. “Yeah, I remember him.”
“She and her crew had been victims of Jane’s extensive vaccine tests before they escaped.”
“Like Paul.”
He nods. “Exactly, like Paul. I’d suspected from the beginning that something was going on with him. I mean, obviously, but when Josie came back with us she agreed to let me do some continued research and I had something to compare.” An owl hoots overhead and the wind rustles in the trees. “I discovered layers of the vaccine in their systems, but Paul had something different. He had the markers from EVI-1 in his system as well as EVI-2.”
“They gave him both.”
“They gave everyone in that building both.” Cole wasn’t with us when we rescued Paul from the bombed-out school, but Alex filled him in later. We thought the school was a basic evacuation center from the early days of the original Crisis. It was actually a testing facility for Jane’s vaccination trials. The subjects, like Paul, had been dosed with several varieties of the vaccine before an outbreak occurred and the entire place was overrun by Eaters from inside the facility. Jane’s forces attempted to put down the infected by bombing the hell out of the building. Jane is a brilliant scientist but not the most skilled at warfare. The bomb released a horde of Eaters into the wild where we found and followed their trail back.