Radiation Point

Twenty Three

"You're a girl," Bubba said, looking lost at the sight of a crying child. "Go fix that thing."

I rolled my eyes, "That thing? Don't tell me you've never seen a little girl?"
I pushed past Tyler,who looked equally as lost, and knelt in front of the girl. I took her hands in mine. They felt warm and soft to the touch.
"It's okay, sweetheart. Where did you see your mommy last?"
The question seemed to release a dam of tears. Her face was sopping wet as she hiccuped, "In the woods. Mommy said to run and don't stop."
My heart seized at her words. Her mom was dead then. How could I tell the child that though? I turned back to Tyler, looking for answers. He was still looking a little lost, but he shrugged.
"Tell her," he mouthed.

I stared at him incredulously. Like it would be that easy. Instead, I turned back to the child, "What's your name, honey?"
"Miracle."
"Your name is Miracle?" I said, a small laugh slipping out of my lips.
Her face scrunched up and she put her hands on hips, making her look like an angry teenager instead of the small child she was.
"I'm V," I hurried on, giving the girl a big smile. "The three of us are on our way somewhere safe. Would like to come with us?"
Bubba snorted behind me.
Miracle's eyes shot to Bubba, then back to me. She shook her head side to side.
"We can't just leave you here, honey."
"Not without Mommy," she said, her voice almost in a whisper. She looked up at me from beneath her thick lashes and my heart squeezed again.
"I'm sure we'll--" I started to lie to the girl, when Tyler interrupted me abruptly.
"Miracle, your mom is gone."
She let out a small squeak, her eyes growing wider.
"Tyler," I said, turning around to glare at him. "You can't just tell her that way."
He ignored me. Instead, he stepped closer to Miracle, locking his hard eyes on her. "Your mom is dead, but we can keep you safe. That's what your mom wanted us to do."
"She said that?"
"Yes," he lied easily.
Miracle hiccuped, tears streaming down her face. I expected her to stomp and throw a tantrum. That's what the kids I used to babysit would do. There was no way that at five they would understand life and death choices. Instead, Miracle surprised me. She stepped closer to Tyler with her arms outstretched.
He looked equally surprised, hesitating a moment, before handing me his bow and hoisting the girl in his arms. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, still crying softly. Tyler cleared his throat uneasily and glanced at the rest of us.
"Let's head out then. If we don't stop, I'm sure we can make it back to the camp before nightfall."
With that, we headed in silent procession back into the woods; the somber sounds of Miracle's tears the only noise.

"You sure we should have brought the kid?" Bubba asked, finally breaking the silence.
Miracle was asleep, cradled in Tyler's arms. I had thought we would have moved slower with the girl, instead we kept up a swift pace. Perhaps everyone had that same itching fear of being attacked with such a small child with us. It was one thing to protect ourselves. It was something entirely different to take on the responsibility of a child's safety.
Tyler shot Bubba a sideways glance, "What are you saying? That we should have left her there-alone?" His words were angry, but he spoke in almost a whisper. He was taking efforts to keep from waking Miracle, thought he didn't have to worry. She was sound asleep, her breathing deep and rhythmic.
" 'Ey, I'm just asking what everybody else is thinking."
Tyler didn't answer. He simply stared out into the woods with a strange look on his face.
"He's right," Jackson chimed in. "Whose going to take care of her? We can't just drop her off at the camp and expect someone else to step up and take her."
"Why not?" Tyler asked, almost in a growl. "Why is it so much to ask that someone-anyone-just step up and help a child?"
"Man, you've gone soft," Jackson said, putting his hand on Tyler's shoulder to stop him. "We need a leader who will do what's right for all of us. Not just one person." He stared pointedly at Miracle a moment, before shaking his head and walking ahead.
The silence was explosive. No one spoke, but heavy feelings hung in the air around us-suffocating us. When I was beginning to feel that I couldn't stand another moment of the silence, the camp came into view.
I let out a huge sigh of relief. I never felt so happy to get back to a camp I hated.
"Here," Tyler said handing me Miracle, who was still fast asleep. "I want to do a quick scout around the camp before we go in."
I started to argue. The other renegades should have it under control, I thought in irritation. We just needed to get back in the camp and get Mia her antibiotics. But yelling from the camp stopped me short.

Tyler sprinted towards the yelling, jerking up his bow up as he ran. Bubba and Jackson hurried behind him, leaving me scrambling after them, clutching Miracle close to me.
I stopped abruptly in front of the familiar metal fence around the camp. The same fence that almost nightly I climbed to leave the camp.
It was completely overrun with contaminated, pushing against it and gnashing their teeth threateningly. The fence creaked under the pressure of their bodies.
"What the hell?" Tyler asked, from ahead of me. He loosed his arrows in steady procession, picking off contaminated one by one. "Not a single contaminated on the walk back and now all of them are here?"
He didn't look back from his shooting, simply kept up a steady thwapt, thwapt, as he killed them. Even with Tyler and his men on one side of the fence and the rest of the renegades on the other side killing contaminated, it looked like the camp would be overrun.
"Nessa, you're gonna have to help. There's no way they can hold them off."
"What about Miracle?"
She was clinging tightly to my neck, whimpering at the sight of the contaminated.
"Leave her here," he ordered.
I lowered Miracle to the ground, though she kept her hands firmly around my neck. "No," she begged me, her eyes tear filled.
"I'll be back for you, I promise," I whispered, giving her a quick hug. "If any of those monsters come near you, I want you to run. Do you understand?"
She nodded silently and finally loosened her grip on my neck. With one last look at her tiny frame, I turned and ran into the fray, pulling out my gun as I did.
I shot round after round, drawing the contaminated towards me with the sound of each gunshot. They groaned and lurched towards me, their wild eyes unseeing. I shot until I was out of ammo, tossing the gun to the side, and pulling out my knife. The steel felt familiar in my hand. It felt like a dance of sorts, lunging at the contaminated and slashing their throats.
The world around me fell away and it was only me and them in battle. A battle that I would win, I knew from experience. Though they neared me, their sickening, rotting flesh inches from mine, I wasn't afraid. I simply allowed my body to move fluidly, dropping them one after another at my feet.
Finally, the horde of contaminated ceased. I wiped the sweat from my brow and looked at amazement at the sheer number of corpses at my feet. I had never killed so many contaminated. In fact, the only time I had seen so many contaminated in one place was the day my parents had been killed.
But this was different. This time, I wasn't the victim. They were, I thought with an odd sense of pride. I pushed my mass of sweaty red hair way from my neck and turned to find Tyler. He had hurried forward through the bodies and was talking to a tough looking renegade on the other side of the fence.
"What happened? What brought so many of them?" Tyler asked, looking bewildered.
"Not what," the man replied. "Who. The commissioner herded them here. He said he'll keep bringing them unless we surrender the camp to him."

Though his words chilled me, it was the scream behind me that made me freeze.