Chapter 32
At Some Cost
Allie
As usual, Morrigan was floating above the ground, but this time, she was in an area Allie realized must be part of the Plant’s compound, with horses grazing on fenced-in hills to one side and greenhouses on the other.
The goddess faced away from Allie, Her red hair swirling and making patterns she could get lost in if she let herself.
She could have sworn she saw it move, impossibly, into a curling three-armed shape, a triskelion, before she turned her focus to what she should say.
“We’re here now at the Plant,” Allie said, hoping she sounded a proper combination of penitent and respectful. “Can you give me an idea of what’s going to happen?”
The humans here are beginning to understand. Morrigan sounded almost preoccupied. They gain but at some cost.
“That’s good, right?”
That remains to be seen. They have taken great risks to learn what they know.
Allie was about to delve deeper into the “risks” but stopped, remembering something important. “The other woman, Frankie—do you talk to her?”
So many questions. I would think you’d prefer to sleep after such enthusiastic coupling.
Ew, ew, ew. “I didn’t have much choice,” Allie said dryly.
Child, you called me.
Oh. That was new. “I did?”
Now Morrigan turned, her eyes bright green and unsettling, as always. You did.
“I... didn’t mean to.”
The goddess looked almost amused. Her Mona Lisa smile would make Her devastatingly beautiful if She didn’t look so terrifying. I was not far. Having two of mine together creates a powerful energy.
Well, that answers that question. At Morrigan’s mention of energy, Allie thought of Frankie’s aura. She pictured the woman in her head, much as she had fallen asleep thinking of Morrigan, wondering what was next. Allie formed the image then reached out with her mind and pulled.
Then the three of them stood on the grassy knoll beside the largest greenhouse.
Well, two stood. Morrigan still floated.
The goddess cocked her head at Allie. Impressive.
Whoa, did She compliment me? It was a Darth Vader-ish compliment, to be sure, but Allie still felt a glow of pride. “Hi, Frankie.”
Frankie, eyes wide, shook her head. “How did I...”
Your new friend pulled you here. Without permission. The hint of a smile was gone now as the goddess regarded Allie.
Whoops. Flew too close to the sun.
Frankie looked at Allie’s dream self, her expression scrunched in confusion. “I’m not even sure I was asleep.” She reached a hand up and touched her glasses. “Yup, I was definitely not asleep.”
“Shit,” Allie said. “I’m sorry. It was really an instinct more than a full-fledged thought.”
“I was in my room, reading, so it could be worse. Hang on.” Frankie faded a bit as she turned, looking toward something Allie couldn’t see.
“I’m currently asleep in my bed. All good.
” Frankie looked around her. “This is one of my favorite spots. You can see the edge of the forest from here, and there are usually deer running around. I’ve seen a few foxes, too, although the chicken keepers don’t like them hanging around. ”
“I always thought it was weird that the zombies never ate the animals,” Allie said. “I mean, I think they don’t. I’ve never seen them. And the animals seem to be thriving. We’ve never had problems finding game.”
Frankie nodded. “You hear a lot of ‘nature is healing itself’ around here. I guess that’s true.
I swear there was a cougar out there, which makes sense.
There’s a whole group of folks here on the naturalist side who are trying to track and catalog the increased biodiversity around here, and they keep track of the livestock that are loose and running wild from Before so they can be rounded up. ”
That seemed incredible to Allie. “How much livestock does the Plant have?”
Frankie made a face. “You’re asking the wrong gal. But we’ve got a lot, and one of the satellite settlements—well, it’s a little far south to be a satellite, but it’s part of the network—is devoted to raising dairy cattle. It’s where we get milk, cheese, yogurt, and all that.”
A sharp-eyed smoke gray cat sauntered past them. “I love that there are cats and dogs here,” Allie said, watching the feline.
“Me too,” Frankie said. “But there are still lots of dogs and cats—mostly feral—outside the boundaries. Witness what happened to poor Ginger and their family. Feral dog packs are a problem.” Her smile was sad. “I feel bad for the fur babies, but they’ve got to figure out how to live.”
“We’ve been careful on the road. You have to make enough noise to scare the animals but not enough to alert the Zs. It’s a hell of a balance.”
Frankie nodded. “You’ve talked to Mal by now, right?”
“Yup. Well, a little. It was mostly family stuff—he and Key had a lot to talk about.”
“So he didn’t tell you about his studies? Into all the woo-woo abilities?”
The term—and Frankie’s wiggling fingers when she said it—made Allie chuckle. “He said you were important in helping him understand that the dreams some people have are real. That there are other people with gifts.” She paused. “That you have one.”
“He calls it psychometry. It’s a good term. Better than ‘I touch things and learn about them,’ which was the best I could come up with.” She looked at Allie. “What can you do?”
“I can find things.”
“Wow. That’s handy.”
“Everybody says that.” Allie laughed. “I think I’d rather be able to tell whether a person is bad or good by touching them. It would have saved me some bad decisions in the long run.”
“Yeah.” Frankie shrugged. “I wish it were that simple.”
“Is it hard to use?”
“Hard to focus, more. Hard to find what you need—ironically.” She nodded at Allie.
“Frightening, most of the time, unless I’m ready.
” She paused. “I was a PA for a general practitioner’s office Before.
I was pretty new to the job, had only been there a year or so, but it’s weirdly a little like that.
There are symptoms, things you look for.
But there’s a whole lot you can see but not understand, and a whole lot more you can’t see because there’s so much to see. ”
Frankie looked down at the ground for a moment.
“When I’m checking people, I’m only looking for one thing, so it’s easier.
But I do tend to get a sense of a person’s core.
” She looked back at Allie and smiled. “Your group was mostly fine. The kid who’s doing his best to act like a forty-year-old man?
He’s got some dark spots.” She paused. “So does Keyshawna, but her darkness is already serving a different purpose, as I’m sure you know. Mal’s got it too.”
“Is that bad?”
“No.” Her expression shuttered, went cold. “I’ve felt real, soulless human darkness.”
Allie couldn’t hold back a horrified “Yikes.”
“It was in my original group, after everything went to hell. Liam joined our group for a while—I found out later he was scouting us—and we became friends. Kind of. The killer... Well, the killer must’ve realized what Liam was up to, and things began to escalate.
” Frankie looked away for a moment, her eyes a little haunted.
“That’s the worst part—the guy must’ve been a serial killer or something Before.
No one else in the group knew. I kept an eye on him, and he ended up dying not long after. ”
Dying. That sounded weirdly neutral. “Natural causes?”
Frankie’s mouth curled up on one side. “More or less.”
Allie gave her a fierce smile. “Well done.”
“I knew it was the right thing to do. Morrigan approved.”
You waited too long. He was preparing to kill you.
That startled Allie—she’d nearly forgotten Morrigan was with them.
“I’m sorry,” Frankie said with the air of someone who’d apologized over and over. She sighed. “And I know it needed to be done. It still felt... cold-blooded. ‘Do no harm,’ and all that.”
“A cold-blooded public service,” Allie corrected. “Did your group know?”
“No, and I didn’t tell them. It wasn’t until I got here that I met people I could tell—people I trusted enough.” Frankie shook her head. “Between Liam and Mal and James, I felt safe. I had to warn them of what was coming. And of course, that was part of what She wanted all along.”
Allie didn’t ask who She was. “Well, I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad I’m not the only one.”
“Me too.” Frankie smiled.
Allie felt more than saw movement far beyond the horses, back in the trees. More deer?
Frankie looked out in the same direction. “So, you pulled me here, huh? Why to this spot?”
“I don’t know,” Allie said. “I don’t remember seeing it before, really.”
“It’s the west end, on the opposite side of where you came in, so you wouldn’t have.” Frankie scanned the perimeter. “Morrigan?”
Her presence was no longer visible, but Her clear voice rang in her head. Their coming was inevitable. Wake now.
“Cam!” Allie jolted awake shouting his name.
“I’m here. Watch your head.” The next second, he pulled them both over so they were sitting on the edge of the bottom bunk where they’d slept, twined together. “What happened?”
She stood. “Zs are coming.”
Within seconds, they were dressed and heading down the hallway, waking up everyone along the way. The alarms began to sound, flashing red lights and emitting a low buzzing.
Cam and Allie looked at each other, and Allie said, “Frankie sounded the alert.”
Mal’s deep voice sounded from speakers above them. “Head down to the cafeteria for instructions. No running. The emergency defense rotation is already in place and monitoring.”
That announcement was reassuring enough.
When Key and Dette found them, Dette was ranting. “One goddamn night in a safe place. Is that too much to fucking ask?”
Key had her weapons in hand. “Let’s deal with this, baby, then you can bitch Malcolm out to your heart’s content. I’ll bring popcorn.”