I stayed alive by staying away from everyone.
Most people stayed in groups to try to survive, to wait it out and fight them together when they came. I did the opposite. I stayed away from people, and in the same way, stayed away from the Scrappers. I also didn't trust people with my own life. I couldn't sleep while someone else was keeping watch. I was constantly worried Scrappers would be attracted to a group of people, and when they came I would be with them. It was an undeniable fear of mine.
I could trust myself.
It was the one thing I could count on.
I kept thinking that as I ran behind Jude. I still had the urge to take myself out of the equation, to disappear before it was too late. My heart told me to stay with my cousin and Jude, but my mind told me to leave if I wanted to survive.
Our feet slid in the snow as we ran back up the hill towards the Jeep, and hopefully towards Kaileb and Elliot. We only heard the one gun shot, and nothing more to give us evidence of what was happening. The Jeep came into sight, silent and still, surrounded by the buildings reflecting the same. We came to a stop.
"Do you see them anywhere?" I asked.
"No . . . wait." He turned around, towards the direction they had gone earlier. "Do you hear that?"
I listened harder. "Voices. It sounds like them."
Jude nodded and we both started down the street, aware of everything around us and waiting for something to move. We went for a block before we finally caught sight of them. It was a department store on the corner of another intersection and the front window had been shattered. Glass lay across the sidewalk and into the street, but something else was among the sharp pieces. It was a body—crumpled and limp, laying twisted like a dummy that had been thrown from a crash test car. Even from where I stood, I could tell its spine had been broken. Kaileb and Elliot stood nearby, staring down at it like they couldn't believe what had happened.
We stopped on the other side of the body and looked down at the dead Scrapper with wary eyes. His eyes were open, one black, and the other steel, reflecting the soft sunlight coming through the clouds above us. I could never get used to being close to them.
"You shot it?" Jude asked, glancing up at Kaileb who still had his pistol in hand. He appeared to be slightly in shock.
"Yeah . . ." He trailed off but didn't elaborate.
Elliot pointed a thumb towards the department store. "We were in there trying to find Kaileb a new pair of boots, you know? We don't like to pass up an opportunity like that, so we went in and looked around. And then—"
Jude nodded. "And then?"
Elliot looked up briefly, like he had forgotten we were there. "He must have come from the back room while our backs were turned. Suddenly he was just there." His voice shook on the last word. "He already had his weapon out, you know, one of those the pistol ones? I didn't even have time to react. But before the thing could shoot me, Kaileb shot him."
"It didn't kill him, though," Kaileb muttered. He shoved his gun into his bag and swung it back around his shoulders. "He landed on a piece of glass . . . and was it."
I couldn't stand being near that thing one second longer.
As I moved past them and the body, I heard Jude ask, "Are you guys alright though?"
"Yeah, I think so," Kaileb answered. "Morgan, where are you going?"
I paused in the doorway. "Just taking a look around."
"You have to be careful. There's probably another Scrapper around here somewhere."
I allowed myself to show a bit of a smile. "No, it's dead already. I'm sure Jude can tell you about it." I looked away from Kaileb and caught Jude's eye. He nodded once and I knew he wouldn't tell them about what the Scrapper told us—nobody else needed to know about Jude's arm. His voice drifted in after me as I went inside, relaying what had happened.
I knew exactly what I was looking for.
The weapon lay across the room, near the back wall where an overturned rack had thrown its contents all over the floor. I crouched over the pistol, not ready to touch it. It looked exactly like something they would make—so out of this world it didn't belong in it. The silver metal was smooth and unblemished, identical to Jude's arm, like it was impossible to be scratched or broken.
Even though I saw the similarity between their weapons and machinery, both strange and foreign, there was still a resemblance to our guns here on Earth. Same shape and size; same purpose. Some of them kill, but some of them shoot out something else, making us immobile until they could restrain us. Just like the thing that was shot into my neck to paralyze me. Between their guns and nets, it was hard to escape once they had their eye on you.
I touched the muzzle of the pistol, where it widened more than it should, feeling the cold steel which sent a shiver down my spine.
I picked it up.
I stared at it.
The weight felt good in my hands—a feeling of being able to defend myself. A couple of small gears were connected to the trigger, next to a small switch. I looked closer and saw there were two options. I didn't recognize the symbols. Since the Scrapper obviously wanted to capture Elliot and Kaileb, I figured the switch was on the one that didn't kill.
The temptation to slip into my bag and use their weapon against them was strong. But I didn't want to become like them. Even using their weapons gave me a bad taste in my mouth. I hid it underneath a pile of boxes, hoping nobody would see it.
A soft kick thudded from the other side of the wall. I listened and heard another. The sound reminded me of Luke when he would throw a tennis ball against the other side of my wall. Mom would always yell upstairs for him to stop, and he would for about five minutes, then he would start back up again.
I stepped towards the door on my right—a storage closet by the looks of it—being careful to stay quiet. I pushed the door open, and when nothing moved towards me, I stepped into the darkness. When my eyes quickly adjusted to the change in light, I could see the room was small and orderly, and the only things out of place were two people sitting in the corner. The guy was slumped, as if unconscious, but the other—a girl—stared back at me with as much uncertainty as I did. She had long dark hair, pulled back into a ponytail that should've been fixed days ago. I guessed she was the same age as Jude and I. They were bound and gagged, unable to move from the place the Scrapper had left them.
I could hear myself calling for Jude, but I don't remember doing it. Closing the few feet between us, I kneeled down next to the girl and pulled the gag from her mouth. Her eyes were still wide with fear, and I knew if her hands weren't behind her back, they would've been shaking.
"Are they gone?" she asked, her words cracking. Her throat sounded dry.
"Yes, they're gone." I pulled a pocketknife from my coat and freed her ankles. I was leaning behind her, trying to get to her hands, when I heard Kaileb and Jude come into the room.
"Morgan, what—" Jude stopped talking.
"I don't know," I said. "I just found them." After the girl's hands were freed I stood up and faced him. "I'm guessing the Scrappers were waiting to capture more humans before transporting them to wherever they had in mind. Why else would they keep them in here and then set more traps?"
"It's true, they were," the girl said behind me. She was still leaning against the wall, but probably more out of fatigue than anything.
I heard Kaileb say, "Elliot, go get a few bottles of water, whatever we have left."
"How long have you been here?" I asked.
"Maybe a day or two." She shook her head. "I can't be sure."
I nodded and kneeled down near the guy to check his pulse. "He's just unconscious. Were you two traveling together, or did they catch him after you?"
"No, I was with a group of people, but they were able to escape." She looked at the guy. "They just caught him a few hours ago, but he hasn't woken up yet."
I stood and caught Kaileb's eye. "Maybe you should take him outside. The fresh air might help him wake up."
Elliot came back with a bottle of water, and after he handed it to the girl, he helped Kaileb with the guy's limp body. We waited until she had enough to drink before Jude asked her for her name.
"Kate."
"I'm Jude, and this is Morgan. The guy with the dreads is Kaileb, and shorter, dorkier one is Elliot." That last bit made her smile a little and she nodded. "Where were you and your group headed before you were separated?"
"Philadelphia, and then New York. We heard there were more people there. That's also where the army is supposed to be."
"The army?" Jude asked, a little tentative. "Where did you hear that?"
Kate shrugged. "That's just what we heard. I don't know if it's true or not."
"Well, we can figure that out later. For now, we should focus on getting out of this city before more Scrappers show up." He offered his hand—his human hand—down to her. When she grasped his, I felt a twinge in my stomach, feeling like something punched my insides. Now that I got a better look at her, she was pretty. She had a narrow face but a wide smile. I knew because she smiled at him once she was on her feet.
And he smiled back, right before leading her out the door, leaving me behind like something forgotten.
The guy's name was Silas. He was twenty-three years old from Colorado, and I didn't like him. At least, that's how I felt. Maybe I was the crazy one, because the rest of them treated him like he just as normal as everyone else. Something about him felt off.
When he had woken, he told us about the Scrapper's catching him outside of the city. He was alone after getting separated from his friends a few days prior, and since then, he had been trying to catch up with them. I stood outside of our growing group and watched as he told us this. I even watched as Kate inched towards Jude whenever she had the chance, and the fear of being caught became stronger and stronger. I didn't like anything about what was happening, Scrapper's or not.
But I kept my mouth shut.
It had been a day since our encounter with the them. Twenty-four hours since we left Louisville behind, and fourteen hundred and forty minutes since Kate and Silas began to travel with us. We couldn't all fit in one car—thank God—so Elliot joined them in a black Ford Escape, leaving me and Jude with Kaileb driving the Jeep. We raided a grocery store before leaving so our food supply was up to par.
Even though I hadn't seen Silas since early that morning, everything about him was still fresh in my mind—his cocky smile, his blue eyes too bright against his dark hair. Even the way he looked at me when everyone else's attention was elsewhere. That's what I couldn't stop seeing. It was something in his eyes. It was like he knew that I knew the truth about him. Like it was a fun game for him to play while I knew something was off.
I had been careful not to spend any time alone with him.
I tried to rid him from my mind while staring out the backseat window. Jude and Kaileb were talking with each other upfront about the last World Series.
Something else I tried to forget was the smile Jude gave Kate back in the department store. It made me feel sick inside.
"Morgan, where do you want to sleep tonight?" Kaileb asked, glancing at me in his rearview mirror.
"In a bed," I answered with a smirk.
"Ha, try again."
"No, I'm serious." I leaned forward and positioned myself between their seats. "Find an old motel. The kind that still uses real keys?" Jude nodded uncertainly. "All you have to do is take whatever keys are still on the peg-hooks. That way you know the room has been empty so there won't be any surprises."
I hated walking in on dead bodies. I learned the hard way to prevent things like that.
"Yeah, but the trick is finding a motel that hasn't been burned or blown up."
"It's easier if you get off the highway and go into some local town," I answered. "As you've probably noticed, most of the destruction is along the main highways and cities, where the most populated areas were." Except the last city we stopped in, but I didn't voice that part, wanting to forget everything about it.
They both looked at each other, questionably. Jude shrugged. "Might as well try it. When was the last time you slept on a bed?"
Instead of answering, Kaileb turned off the highway and threw me a grin.