Breathless City Read online

  Stella shook her head slowly, biting her lip as if she were nervous. “You don’t know what you have gotten yourself into here. It’s really not that simple.”

  “Just give me a little bit of time. Maybe I’ll find a way to change your mind.” Gavin returned to the machine, checking the last few connections before closing the lid, hearing it snap shut. “It’s ready. Do you want to see if it works?”

  Stella stared at the machine curiously and nodded.

  Gavin flipped the switch to the little machine and listened as it hummed into life, softly churning out a constant stream of sound when before there was only quiet. The purification machine worked as he knew it would work. But that wasn’t the moment of truth. He knew the real test was what was to come.

  It had never been done before. No one had ever tried to create oxygen pills above ground. But at the same time, as soon as Xander had asked him, Gavin couldn’t help but be intrigued. That was one of the last projects he had been working on in the oxygen factory before ending up here—planting the seaweed that could survive in the open ocean outside of the oxygen factory. He held up the vial he had brought with him. There was so little of it left. If he was wrong, if he had made a mistake, there was no backup plan.

  Gavin grasped the apple from the ledge surrounding the edge of the pool, undisturbed for the last few days. He had run tests on all the fruits and found that this one would work. He only had one chance; he had to make it count.

  Gavin concentrated, steadying himself as he placed the apple on the ground and covered it with a thin layer of soil. He had calculated it carefully, purifying water earlier in the day and drenching the soil with just the right amount. He took a look at the vial in his pocket that had a handful of drops stubbornly clinging to the bottom of the glass. Why hadn’t he bothered to bring more with him that day? Why had he used so much of it? What would he do if it didn’t work? It wasn’t as if it would be easy to convince them to let him take a stroll into the shipment station and place his supply request. He flicked at the chemical compound in the vial, watching the solid green liquid swirl about in the glass.

  Gavin dropped to his knee and carefully hovered right over the spot where he had lightly buried the apple. With steady hands, Gavin dropped two fat green drops right over the spot. Then he got to his feet quick, stoppering the vial as he went. Gavin leaned away, staring as those drops beaded on top of the soil, until the surface tension broke and they sank down into the dirt.

  He knew it worked the moment the sturdy little bud poked its way through the dirt, unwinding upward toward the light. He tried to stop himself from smiling at the little bud, trying to be scientific and professional about the whole thing, while inside he wanted to scream and holler that they had done it, they had done it. The compound he had created didn’t work just on seaweed after all.

  Stella leaned in for a closer look. Gavin collected her in his arms carefully and pulled her out of the way. They weren’t done here, not by a long shot.

  For a moment, the little green sprout remained a tiny bud on the ground as it gathered nutrients and soaked up the rest of the chemicals from the vial. Then slowly, almost cautiously, the bud began to writhe its way upward. It thickened and darkened as its outside became coated in bark.

  Then, rushing upward, the tree took form. It rose high, the branches spreading skywards. All they could hear was the rustling of growing and the rumbling under their feet as roots snaked through the earth, spreading under the dirt as the tree pushed its way higher.

  Dots of green beaded across the branches before uncoiling and emerging as leaves. All around the leaves, pink-tipped, pale flowers blossomed into a brief existence until the petals began to fall, one by one to the ground, plump red fruit swelling up in their place. Within a couple of minutes, the bud was gone, and what stood in its place was a full-fledged apple tree.

  Gavin reached up and picked one of the apples from a lower branch of the tree, handing it to her. As Stella took the apple, her fingers brushed against his wrist—the warmth of her touch spread through him. She smiled as she lifted the red fruit to her lips. Tasting it in one big bite, her eyes never left his.

  15

  The leaves rustled in the light breeze of the air purifier. Standing under the newly grown apple tree that had been seeds and dirt moments before, Stella could hardly remember why she’d stayed away.

  Gavin released three of the little hummingbird machines and they flitted about the room, harvesting oxygen pills into a little pile at the base of the tree. She had expected him to be angry with her, and she had been ready to tell him the truth—that getting close to Xander was the best way she could think to protect him, maybe even to get him home. She hadn’t expected his calm questions, his kindness. She hadn’t expected this.

  She bit into the apple again and tasted why Gavin had had to hide all of those repulsed faces whenever he was given anything to eat that had ever been frozen or stored in a can. The fruit was sweet and crisp. Stella hadn’t known food could be so good.

  Stella finished the apple with a few more bites, savoring each one. She looked up when she was done to find Gavin watching her with a half-smile on his face, almost like he was trying to hide it.

  “I’ll take that,” he said, gesturing to the core. “Seeds and stuff.”

  Right. Stella handed him the core and he placed it on a table, watching her all the while. She looked up at the tree, fighting laughter. It had been so long since she’d seen any kind of plant that wasn’t dead or dying, and this was a far cry from that. This was life, beyond any of her wildest expectations.

  “This is what you do?” she said in wonder. “Back at the factory?”

  “Kind of.” Gavin raked a hand through his hair. “But this… This is a first.”

  A damn good first. And, judging by the oxygen pills piling up, it was working.

  Light streamed down, striking the leaves into a radiant overlapping pattern of green. Brimming with life. There was nothing else like it out here. Nothing like that texture of delicate veins, nothing like the red promise of the apples that hung in clusters, all plump and round.

  Xander wouldn’t see it that way. Stella could emulate that same cool calculation, that same desire for rules and order, which dominated Xander’s thoughts and colored his perception. This tree wouldn’t be just a tree for Xander. It was power. What was more, keeping its creator wrapped under his little thumb would be another source of power. Stella had run out of time to think about this. She left Gavin, with an explanation that wasn’t an explanation. “There’s something that I have to do.”

  Stella always knew where Xander was staying. In the beginning, Xander would take rooms on the middle floors, following the precautions her father had laid out. But after years of safety, building up the most powerful and feared gang outside the underground city, Xander now took rooms in the penthouse suite.

  Stella rapped her knuckles lightly against the door and listened to the quiet stride of his footsteps as he opened the door. He didn’t look surprised to see her. No one else would stop by so late. Most of the other gang members avoided him; they hadn’t spent years knowing him before he took charge and set out the rules, before he became driven with the need to survive out here.

  “Hey, there,” Xander said in a quiet voice he used just when he was talking to her. Xander reached out for her, brushing one of his hands against her cheek. “What’s wrong, couldn’t sleep again?”

  “I just wanted to see you, to thank you.” Stella let his hand linger and let him get distracted. “I never thanked you before. You saved me again.”

  “You know that I always look out for you.”

  “I know,” Stella replied with a faint trace of a smile hiding behind her serious expression.

  “I care about you,” Xander said.

  It was true. Even if she was the only person in the entire world that Xander cared about, it was true.

  “So what happens next?” Stella placed her hand on top of Xander’s.
/>   “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve never done anything like this before,” Stella murmured, leaning her head against Xander’s palm. “It seems like that machine will be finished soon. Once he’s gone, it’ll just be you and me again.”

  “He’s a fast worker,” Xander mused. “Just imagine it. With that machine, we’ll never have to worry about oxygen pills again. I get it now, why you brought him here.”

  “Yes, he’s done a lot for us.”

  “Maybe he wouldn’t mind doing just one more project. Maybe you could ask him.”

  “I’ll talk to him,” Stella said, the smile frozen on her face as she fought to keep her tone calm and collected.

  “You’ve been a good friend to him. He might even want to stick around for you, at least a little while longer,” Xander added with a smirk as he bent down closer to her. Stella realized he was about to kiss her at the same moment she knew she didn’t want him to.

  Stella pulled away, looking down at her feet shyly. “It’s getting late,” she whispered. She kept her head down so she wouldn’t have to see the disappointed look he would try to hide from her as she wished him goodnight.

  Stella calmly left Xander’s apartment, but as soon as she was out of earshot, she began to jog. It seemed like after all he had said, Xander was going back on his word. With each step she took away from Xander’s room, the more times she turned the idea around and around in her head, the more certain she grew. Xander was never going to let him go.

  So now what? How was she going to get him home?

  Stella could picture Gavin, the best person she had ever known, being manipulated and used. He might as well have just died out there in the desert sand for all the good she had done him. Every day of the rest of Gavin’s life, Xander would quietly increase the security, until he became little more than a prisoner. Would she be able to live with herself, knowing that she had let it happen?

  Her time for indecision was over. Her quick footsteps took her back to the swimming room, and her mind had to make time to catch up.

  There was only Ben, the guard on duty, who stood between her and Gavin. Ben was looking his age tonight, with deep lines around the eyes he strained to keep open. Even now, Ben eased against the hallway wall until he was leaning against it in comfort, close to drifting off. Stella didn’t want to take any risks.

  “Hey, Ben,” she said quietly.

  His eyes snapped open and his hands darted to his holster at his side before he realized who was speaking.

  “Stella.” Ben returned the greeting with a nod.

  Stella approached him slowly, idly sliding her fingers along the hallway panels until her hand came to a rest by the fire extinguisher. “You aren’t one I’d picture out here so late.”

  “I have to wait for the scientist,” Ben said, straining to keep his voice from sounding tired.

  “How’s he doing with that machine?” Stella asked him.

  “Not sure.” Ben rubbed a knuckle under his eye, trying to wake himself.

  “Why’s that?”

  “Xander gave me specific instructions not to disturb him while he’s working,” Ben replied dutifully. Stella guessed he was stating the procedures word for word.

  “That’s perfect,” she murmured.

  Before Ben’s sleep-fogged mind could process what Stella just said, she gripped the fire extinguisher and swung it in a clean arc. She felt the clang reverberate throughout the hollow metal canister as it hit Ben in the side of his head. Ben dropped to the ground.

  Stella returned the extinguisher to its place on the wall. She pressed lightly against the crook of Ben’s neck and felt the pulsing of his heartbeat. She dragged him around the corner, arranging his unconscious body comfortably. He would probably wake up with the worst headache of his life, but he would wake. He would get some rest for now, at least. But Xander was going to give him hell for what she was about to do.

  Stella drummed her fist against the door to get Gavin’s attention, and when she opened it, there he was. All he did was stare straight into her eyes, which must have looked half crazed with determination.

  “Come with me,” Stella said. She didn’t have to say anything more.

  It wasn’t until they were in the front lobby with Stella gripping the doorknob, hesitating, that Gavin finally questioned her. “What are we doing?”

  “Something crazy,” she answered, hoping that it was just crazy enough to work.

  On sleepless nights, she would watch them, staring out from behind the safety of the window. She would watch their typical movements and their kill patterns. It was all just knowledge she never thought she would actually use.

  Stella could remember some of those nights where she had stood watching the infected tear their prey, eating at it until there was nothing left. From the time when they were young, Xander would only be able to look out the window at night for a few minutes before he had to turn away again to hide his fear. Stella knew Xander would never risk going out in the darkness. She knew it might be their only chance to escape.

  “We’re going out there,” Stella said. “I’ll do what I can to get you back home.”

  Gavin didn’t back down, though he had seen up close what the infected were capable of when they came out at night. “Do you think we have a chance?”

  “Back before all the survivors moved to the underground, I couldn’t tell you how many people got killed at night. It was the panic that did it, the screaming. We have a chance to make it if we stay silent.”

  “Is this like the rules for surviving in the city? If we see an infected, we kill them silently?” Gavin asked, with no trace of indecision.

  “Too dangerous to kill them in the dark. The best you can hope for is to be quiet enough that they don’t notice you. No talking, no noise at all. We’re stepping into their world now.” Stella tightened her grip on the doorknob as she spoke. She embraced the tight press of metal, needing that solid contact. She knew it was her last safe moment until it was all over, and it was hard to let go.

  She twisted it open, and they left.

  Outside, she could hear them immediately, too many to pick out where exactly they all were. Gavin’s footsteps fell silent behind her as he heard them, too. She reached behind her and slipped her fingers in between his, letting the warmth of those calloused hands reassure her that they were together and they were alive.

  Gavin gripped her hand tight when one of the infected shrieked out its hunting cry, but he managed to restrain from any audible reaction. Stella could hear the pounding of bare feet running against sand, but she couldn’t tell if they were approaching or running off into the distance.

  She forced herself to keep at an easy pace and not to panic. She walked straight ahead, visualizing their path as her eyes slowly adjusted to the deep darkness. She forced herself to maintain that slow pace, even as she could make out their shapes around them, those darker patches drifting through the night.

  The infected held her full attention. The best chance they had depended on her being able to watch the infected and avoid them. It was useless to wish they had those shirts now. She had pulled shirts off dead infected so it would hide their scent. It would do them no good to think about what would happen if the infected caught their human scent and closed ranks around them. The best Stella could do was to keep her calm and influence Gavin to do the same.

  Stella squeezed Gavin’s hand back hard as she felt a tremor under their feet. That faint rumbling grew into a steady beat, and this sound was too heavy to be footfalls made by human bodies. But then the rumbling grew distinct enough for Stella to know that it was coming straight at them. The sound grew clearer until she could hear the clatter of hooves biting into the sand. This couldn’t be happening.

  Stella tugged on Gavin’s hand to get his attention before she gripped down on his hand hard and began to sprint. Adrenaline flooded through her as they ran, until she could barely feel her muscles strain or her heart pound. In the rush of movement, Stella fel
t a magnified awareness, as if all the details had sharpened into crisp points. All she could see was each dark outline of the infected around them and how many of them seemed to turn their way.

  Their path should have been clear, would have been clear, but out of all the empty spaces, they had to come to this one.

  Stella saw the animals from time to time on their mad dash to escape through the hordes of infected, on their constant routes to the black grasses that barely had time to poke their spiked leaves through desert sand before they were eaten back down.

  Running behind Gavin and Stella was the deer herd. Seen in the light, some of them had four legs, while others had five or more. Most of them were covered in boils and claw marks from the infected. Now all Stella knew was their approaching bodies as the faster ones overtook them. In spite of Stella and Gavin’s mad dash, the herd had begun to close in around them.

  Stella didn’t dare say a word to Gavin, not out here, not in the darkness. All she could do was clench on to his hand and keep up their furious pace and hope that he understood. They had to keep running. They had to stay silent, hidden in the center of the herd. All those warm, running bodies would draw the infected from miles around, and there was nothing else to do but run amidst them. They ran even as she felt grime-encrusted fur brush against her arm.

  Stella felt a new jolt of adrenaline surge through her body at the first sounds of the shrieks. These shrieks quickly turned into the sounds of struggling and dying bellows as a doe was dragged away from the others. The sound would draw in any infected that couldn’t already hear the sharp patter of hundreds of hooves on the run.

  Stella could see hands reaching out all around them: pale five-fingered flesh equipped with the ragged edges of never-filed nails and smudged with the grime of previous hunts. Stella maneuvered them the best she could into the center of the running herd, cringing inside each time she saw another hand reach out toward them.