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Every time Link delivered one of these updates to me, he left me shivering in a blanket of ice-cold terror. I couldn’t telepathically control the spiders and wondered how my daughter was meant to stop them.
I was alone in the bathroom, showering after a sweaty run and lost in all of these thoughts, when Michio slipped in and shut the door.
“When was the last time you went outside?” He reclined against the wall and gave me a narrowed look.
Evidently, this was a service call by Dr. Nealy. I would’ve preferred a booty call.
I rinsed out my hair and reached for a towel. “I was thinking about heading to the surface today.”
No I wasn’t. To be honest, I hadn’t been outside in a week or longer. Michio had extended his hours in the lab, his mission in figuring out my genetic oddities growing more desperate every day. Without his nagging and with the June temperatures sweltering into the triple digits, I’d eschewed my need for Vitamin D. The last time I went outside, I thought my skin was going to melt off.
He pushed away from the wall and grabbed my clothes from the sink. “Have you considered the possibility that we’ve been deliberately keeping you inside?”
My head kicked back. “What?” That hadn’t even crossed my mind. “Why? What’s going on?”
“There’s a lot of commotion out there.” He positioned my shorts in front of me, holding them open so I could step into them. “We finally have it contained.” He straightened, pulling my shorts in place and tenderly gliding his fingers over my big bump. “It’s time.”
“Time for what?” Suspicion rushed in around me, bristling my nerves. I pulled on the t-shirt, trying and failing to stretch it over my belly. “What is contained? Tell me!”
“I prefer to show you.”
In a blur of winding tunnels and metal stairs, Michio carried me to the surface of the dam at superhuman speeds. At least he didn’t leave me in suspense long. Within minutes, he stepped off the final elevator and onto the road that traveled the top of the wall. The desert heat zapped the moisture from my mouth, and sunlight blinded my eyes. But what crowded around the canyon stole my breath.
People.
Men and women as far as I could see. They lined the shores of the Colorado River. Gathered behind the barricades on both sides of the dam. Peered down from the surrounding cliffs. The density of their numbers strummed the air with a thunderous buzz. There must’ve been thousands congregated beneath the full glare of the sun.
The din of voices and the electricity radiating from so many lives evoked memories of going to baseball games with Joel and the kids, memories of the infectious emotional high that always hovered in a packed stadium. I hadn’t witnessed this many humans accumulated in one place since before the plague. Such a profound contrast to the barren desolation I’d grown accustomed to.
I couldn’t breathe in those first few moments as I eagerly scanned the crowds. They were too far away to derive expressions, but I could make out general details, such as the wide spectrum of ethnicities and the similarities in ages. Most were in their late twenties to early thirties. Some younger.
Men outnumbered women. Maybe ten to one? Many of the women were visibly pregnant. Perhaps all of them were with children.
Were they seeking sanctuary? Food? Medicine? I didn’t sense the threatening hum of spiders, but maybe they’d come for protection?
“Holy shit, Michio.” I gave him a questioning look. “What do they want?”
He set me down and laced our hands. The asphalt heated the soles of my feet as he wordlessly guided me to the guardrail where Jesse and Roark waited. Darwin, Link, Shea, our whole crew was there, standing along the railing and staring out over the river and the surrounding mob.
When I reached the half-wall, a sudden hush settled through the canyon, reminding me of how an entire stadium could fall completely quiet while a single person sang the National Anthem. I shivered despite the Nevada heat.
“Not too close.” Jesse barred an arm across my chest, forcing me away from the edge.
I stepped back, my breaths accelerating beneath the weight of countless eyes. The silence was so heavy my skin prickled with unease.
After a useless attempt to tug my shirt over my belly, I gave up. “Why are they here?”
Roark sidled behind me, his hands sliding around my waist and resting on my belly, as he brought his mouth to my ear. “They’re here for ye, love.”
“Why?” I couldn’t tell if they were angry, hurt, excited…
“We’ll let her tell you.” Michio nodded at the main gate, thirty yards away.
Her? I craned my neck, searching the female faces that stared through the vertical rungs of the barricade.
Armed men slid the twelve-foot tall gate to the side, opening it wide enough for a lanky pregnant woman to slip through. The crush of people from the outside tried to follow, but the guards pushed them back with firm shouting and raised crossbows. Dozens of our men stood inside and outside of the gate, bows and axes gripped tightly in their hands.
