Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
“Idon’t know why you bothered grabbing that thing?”
Franklin turned his face away from the seriously bumpy dirt road he was driving us down to glare at the camera in my hands.
“I don’t go anywhere without it,” I told him.
That was a lie, of course.
I hardly ever left home with my workhorse DSLR camera slung around my neck. After all, who needed to fire off snapshots at the gas station or grocery store? And even if I did, that’s what phone cameras were for.
But horny-boy Franklin didn’t need to know that.
The truth was I’d rushed up the stairs to grab my camera bag before leaving with him because I liked the idea of using it as a buffer between us once we were out of Goldwood.
Sorry. I don’t have time for your stupid pickup lines. I’m too busy capturing shots of the night sky over the Timberland Wall. You know, for the exhibition that’s completely real and totally happening.
It was the same reason why, even though the overfilled tires of Franklin’s Jeep had us bouncing like a beach ball in our seats with every pebble and pothole, I was still fiddling with the camera’s settings and lenses.
Somehow, I’d hoped that if I focused enough time and energy on my camera, he’d take the hint.
And for a moment there, it seemed like my plan had actually worked.
Right after giving an irritated sigh, he gestured toward an upcoming bend in the road. “Well, you might as well get the stupid thing ready.”
“Why?” I asked.
He didn’t answer.
He didn’t need to.
Because the second he took the corner, the line of trees that had been blocking my view fell away, and the towering Wall of the Wilds came into view.
My jaw dropped as Franklin stopped the Jeep right there in the middle of the road, letting me take in the sight.
So this was the infamous Wall that separated the ferus world from our civilized one—a flat, grey, seemingly endlessly long slab of concrete towering at least three stories tall.
It was an intimidating sight.
But I suppose that was the point of it.
There were no doors or slats. No cracks to see through. From this far away, the thick crown of spiraling razor wire running along the top was barely visible.
It was an expertly engineered, perfectly constructed, utterly impenetrable barrier built to keep the wild things at bay. The whole structure practically screamed Don’t even try.
“Pretty cool, right?” Franklin said.
I wanted to shake my head. To tell this overgrown kid that a structure of this scale wasn’t cool. It was mind-blowing. Staggering. Almost unbelievable.
Just like every kid growing up in the civilized world, I knew the Wall was big, running unbroken for thousands of miles. All the way from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic.
A modern marvel unlike anything the world had ever seen before. A manifestation of the human desire to cut off half the world in order to keep civilization safe.
“Go ahead and take as many pictures as you want,” Franklin said.
I slowly stood up in my seat, my head and torso rising out of the top of the Jeep, my hands shaking slightly as I looked at the view screen.
Even in the low light of night, the picture came out as dramatic as reality—the light grey concrete of the Wall practically shining under a sky painted thick with glistening stars.
Cold shivers raced down my spine as I fired off several shots in a row.
It was an awe-inspiring sight.
And a terrifying one.
I’m sure the sheer size of the Wall was meant to be reassuring. After all, there was no way a man could scale a wall that high. And even if he did, the swirls of wire at the top would slice him to ribbons. Then the three-story fall to the hard ground below would finish him off.
Still, I couldn’t help but worry.
“You’re sure we’re safe out here?” I asked, my voice trembling more than I would’ve liked.
“Totally,” Franklin answered.
“And you’re positive that one of them can get through the Wall? Maybe through a crack or gap?”
“Don’t be stupid. That thing is indestructible,” he said. “And even if one of those brainless beasts did manage to find its way over to our side, they’d only find themselves looking down the barrel of one of these.”
Franklin patted the combat rifle at his side—a nasty killing machine that looked like it had been created with no other purpose than pumping out the most amount of bullets in the least amount of time.
“That can kill a ferus?”
“Baby, one shot from this is enough to bring down a charging bull elephant,” he laughed. What a strange thing to brag about. And did he just call me baby? “It would turn one of those cavemen into nothing more than red mist. Even one of their so-called alphas.”
Maybe so, but apparently that wasn’t the kind of reassurance I needed. Goosebumps still lined my arms when, a minute later, I sat back down in the passenger’s seat.
“I’d like to go back to town now,” I said.
Suddenly, I didn’t care about fending off clumsy advances inside a dusty old bar. I just wanted to be around other people. I wanted thick walls around me. And doors with locks.
And windows that looked out on something other than that cold, bleak wall.
But Franklin just laughed again.
Except the sound was different now. Hard. Bitter.
“Don’t wimp out on me now, baby,” he said, releasing the emergency brake and shifting into first gear. “We’re almost at that spot I was telling you about. You’re going to love it.”
No, I wasn’t.
“I said I want to go back to Goldwood,” I repeated firmly.
“And I said not yet.”
He hit the gas.
A brand new set of shivers ran through me at the sudden sharpness in Franklin’s tone.
I’d clearly underestimated the man, misjudging him as a baby face when he was really a ticking time bomb.
All pretense of sweetness or boyish charm was gone.
Now that we were alone in the middle of nowhere, he was quickly starting to shed that nice guy mask.
Oh God, what had I gotten myself into? I knew better than to jump into cars with strangers. Especially not ones who were combat-trained and armed with a loaded assault rifle.
I watched as the signs of Franklin’s frustrated anger started to show. His grinding jaw. The slight twitch at the corner of his eyes. The white spots on his knuckles as he gripped the steering wheel tight.
“Don’t give me that look. I’m a good guy. And I’m going to show you a good time,” he seethed. “I just don’t like being told what to do.”
Then joining the military was a really stupid choice, I wanted to scream.
But deep down, I knew that wasn’t the real issue. What he really meant was that he couldn’t stand rejection. Especially not from a woman.
In his mind, he’d already plucked the prize from the bottom of the cereal box, and nothing was going to stand in the way of playing with it.
Shit.
For a second, I honestly considered jumping out the side of the Jeep, but one look at the speedometer killed that idea. Franklin’s foot was pushing the accelerator all the way down to the floor, and the Jeep was already hurtling along at forty-five miles an hour.
At this speed, I wouldn’t just break my arms and legs; I’d probably break my damn neck.
Which left me with only one other choice—try to talk my way out.
By the time Franklin pulled into the deforested spot he’d been telling me about a few minutes later, every muscle in my body was painfully tense and ready to fight. I clutched my camera like a life preserver, the tips of my fingernails already cracking against the hard plastic shell.
The Jeep’s headlights illuminated the flattened earth next to the Wall, allowing me to get a good look at the desolate landscape. Not that there was much to look at.
Extending a good half mile out was a clear-cut no man’s land. There was no grass. No animals. No signs of life at all.
Nothing worth pointing my camera at.
Just defensible space.
The only sign that there used to be a forest here was the occasional giant round tree stumps that dotted the land.
The ones that had clearly been too large and heavy for the loggers to clear from the ground.
So they’d been left behind like the stubby remains of ancient marble pillars, protruding up just a few feet above the ground.
“I…I’d like to take some pictures first before we, um…stargaze,” I said, already reaching for the door handle.
Franklin laughed, clapping his hand over my shoulder before I could swing the door open. His fingers were surprisingly strong, freezing me in place. “You already took pictures.”
“Some.” I tried to sound calm and reasonable, despite the fear rapidly building inside me. “But I need more.”
I tried for the door again, but Franklin’s fingers bit deep into my shoulder, pinning me firmly against my seat.
“No, you don’t.”
His voice had taken on a blood-chilling edge. Now that we were alone, miles from anyone else, it was as if he’d become a different person. One who could shrug off manners and social niceties. One who gave the orders instead of taking them.
With his free hand, Franklin grabbed my camera and thoughtlessly tossed it into the back of the vehicle.
“No!” I waited to hear its delicate parts shatter as it hit the floor, but miraculously, it landed on something soft.
“I don’t think you understand. We don’t get many pretty visitors in this lonely place.” The greasy sound of his voice made my stomach churn. “So sometimes a man has to do whatever it takes to enjoy a girl’s company, if you know what I mean.”
I had a horrible feeling I understood perfectly.
Reaching over my lap, Franklin wrapped his hand around something near the floor and yanked it hard. Suddenly, the chair behind me collapsed, falling flat into the back of the Jeep. I went with it.
“Franklin, stop!” I shouted, trying to pull myself back up. “Get off me!”
But now that he was above me, he could use the full force of his weight to keep me down. Terrified and panicked, I squirmed like an insect pinned against a board, my efforts not doing anything, but bringing me more pain.