I swallow back the emotions surging through my chest but Erwin and I share one last look and even his dark mutated eyes can’t hide the truth. He’s isolating me from the rest of the soldiers. From my friends, family, and Wyatt, my partner.
I brush past the Mutt standing guard. Erwin wants me out of this game. But I’m not ready to fold yet.
Chapter Nineteen
The first thing I notice back at the apartment is that Wyatt’s backpack is gone. I thought maybe Erwin was just trying to manipulate me. Or that maybe Wyatt would stick around but no, if the bag is gone, he’s gone too.
I look around the tiny apartment—lost and uneasy. The bed we shared the night before has been made. He must have done that before he left and it surprises me. Did he do it to cover our tracks? Or is it a holdover from his military days? Maybe his mother instilled the value of a tidy bed in him as a child. It’s possible I’ll never know.
I stand in the middle of the room and my eyes land on the couch. My pack is propped against a pillow, hatchet sticking out of the compartment for water bottles on the side.
“O
h Wyatt,” I say to myself. A smile breaks across my face and I feel silly at the level of happiness seeing it brings back to me. I rush over and sit on the couch and start to dig through it. Immediately, I can tell it’s been sorted and repacked. It’s been so long since I was separated from it back at the farm that I can’t remember what food I had packed, but I do feel a swell of emotion seeing my photos and useless cell phone and the books I’d been reading when I was captured.
I find the sewing kit I used to stitch Wyatt up on the boat. I touch an arrowhead Cole discovered in a creek when we stopped to clean up just outside the Tennessee state line. A package of candy is stuffed in the outside pocket and it reminds me of Devin, Kori, and Garrett. I hope they’re alive. Wyatt never told me if he asked Jude or Paul about the family. Just in case.
I push my fingers deep in the pockets, looking for something specific, but come up empty. When I can’t find my mother’s ring I dump the whole bag, scattering my neatly organized plastic bags of underwear and socks on the floor. I pick through the smaller pockets, look between the pages of my book and bite back despair.
I’m about to tear the whole thing apart when a knock at the door interrupts my obsessive breakdown.
“Yeah?” I call, getting my voice under control. “Come in.”
To my surprise, Jude stands behind the open door. He smiles wide at the sight of me and I break down into ugly tears.
“Holy shit, you that sad to see me?” he says, approaching me on the floor.
I wipe my cheeks and nose with the hem of my shirt. “Just a little breakdown.”
“Yeah, I get it.” He picks up the arrowhead, surely remembering where and when Cole fished it out of the water, happily passing it around. It wasn’t until later, when we had a moment alone, that he pressed it into my hand.
“I’ll be okay.”
He laughs. “No doubt about that.”
“What are you doing here?”
His eyes light up. “I just wanted to check on you. I know Wyatt was sent ahead.”
I lift my chin, unwilling to concede I’m hurt that he knew that possibly before I did. “He’s the best.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty good too and Erwin didn’t pick me.”
“You think there’s a reason he sent him early?”
Jude sighs. “I think Erwin is aware of how close you are and doesn’t want distractions.”
“Yeah, he mentioned the fact that I’m a distraction to everyone in this battle. Chloe, Cole…I guess Wyatt counts too.”
He looks at my pile of belongings on the floor and says, “You want to take a walk? Get some fresh air?”
I scrunch my nose. “I’m not sure I’m good company right now.”
“Alex, we’re probably all going to die tomorrow. At least all of us non-mutated, still-human types. We shouldn’t spend it alone.” He nudges my foot. “Let’s get some air.”
I can’t help but laugh because he’s right. So very, very right.
“Too bad you don’t have any muscadine wine?” That’s what we drank the last night we were together.