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  Miguel went to shoot it, but I slammed my hand into the butt of the gun to make his shot miss. It did and he scowled. "You want him to drop to the ground from that height? Not me. Let's go."

  We made our way down the ladder and followed the Marker with Franklin out into the parking lot. I knew we would probably draw the attention of the trucks full of Enforcers, but what else could we do? I'd just told Eli and Laura that I'd watch out for Frank.

  Miguel and I stopped under them and waited for the Marker to make his move. Miguel once again grabbed at his leg and groaned a little, his scratch burning from being near the Marker. A blaze of fire flew passed us to the tree near us. Calvin. A large burning branch fell from the top and came plummeting toward the ground, toward the Marker. He lowered to keep from getting hit. I braced myself and took my one chance. I jumped on its back, knocking it sideways and making it release its hold on Franklin. We all slammed to the ground, but we were alive.

  I felt my body writhing and my teeth gritting as the Marker's skin made contact with mine. The searing pain wasn't something I ever wanted to feel again, but I'd do again to save him. Just like I'd done for Sherry and that memory played behind my eyes. I felt my breath return slowly as his venom receded.

  He screeched and made a huge fit over it before Miguel ran him through with the barrel of his shotgun through the Marker's chest while he was down. He burned up and I groaned as I sat up. "We've got to get outta here," I told him through a wheeze.

  "Mate, what-" he was cut off by Franklin's screams.

  I turned to him, a prayer on my tongue that he hadn't been scratched by the Marker. No answered prayers this time. His eyes were glazing as he groaned. The scratch on his wrist was small, but powerful.

  I wanted to curse and scream. Sherry was right. There were no breaks for us.

  Ryan hauled him up into his arms and then hoisted him over his shoulder. We all ran to the warehouse and climbed the ladder. When we reached it, I'd forgotten one thing.

  The dog.

  It waited patiently there, at a loss of what to do with it. We couldn't afford to give it food. We could barely feed ourselves. Calvin gripped my arm. "Just bring it with us and stop trying to find a reason not to. Franklin wanted it."

  "That doesn't mean we should keep it," I said low, biting back a groan at the pain in my neck from the Marker's touch.

  "Yes, it does! It's the reason he got taken by that thing. If he woke up and saw that the dog wasn’t there after all that trouble, he'll flip his lid, man."

  "Whatever," Miguel said and gingerly picked up the dog around his middle like a soiled baby. "Nice doggy."

  "It's a Jack Russell, Miguel, not a Doberman."

  "Does it have teeth?" Miguel asked as he held it to his chest and grimaced as he climbed the ladder. "Then it's a Doberman for all I care."

  Billings laughed as he climbed and I wanted to punch him. There was no time to laugh. He had no idea the hell that boy was about to go through. Only two people really understood what it was like. Sherry and Miguel.

  Sherry…she was going to be devastated and pissed and angry. I growled and groaned as I jumped from the edge and wobbled to the elevator.

  "What's up with you, mate?" Miguel asked.

  "I jumped on the Marker to get him off Franklin."

  He hissed through his teeth. "Oi, I heard about that from Ann. She said it sucks balls. That true?"

  "Dude," I complained and chuckled in pain at the same time. "Shut up."

  We emerged and I held my breath at the chaos about to erupt.

  "Laura!" Ryan yelled. Franklin was out for the count still and Laura's eyes bugged. She ran toward us.

  "What happened?"

  As Ryan explained to her what exactly had happened…and what had to be done, Sherry ran to us, too. She covered her mouth shaking her head and glanced at me. I nodded and she squeezed her eyes shut tight for a second before standing straight. She took a deep breath and then yelled, "Marissa!"

  Marissa, who'd been standing back giving them space, rushed to Sherry's side. She gasped at the dog, calling Sherry's attention to it. She balked at it, but shook it away and focused. Sherry grasped Laura's arm and said, "Laura, go with Marissa."

  Laura shook her head, but Sherry stood her ground. "Laura, I know, ok? I know. But you don't need to be here right now. What they have to do him, you won't want to see, trust me."

  She looked at her funny. "Why?"

  "I had this done to me," Sherry whispered. "He'll be ok, I promise, but we need to help him now and you need to go so as soon as we're done, you can be there for him."

  Laura looked at Eli and he shrugged, wiping his face to remove the look of anguish. He failed though. Marissa took Eli and Laura to the back. There was no way to remove them from the room, but they didn't need to see it at least. I took Sherry's hand. She jolted at my touch and I realized how worried and focused she was.

  The girl who had taken Mrs. Trudy's place, and then in the past few days had lost her way a little, was back. She was back big time. I squeezed her hand and we pushed everyone aside. "Miguel, Jeff, Ryan, come on. Let's take him to the makeshift bathroom."

  "I'm coming!" Calvin yelled and fought against Ryan's back. "I'm coming, too!"

  "No, you're not," Ryan told him harshly. "This isn't your fault, Cal, no matter how much you want to believe it is. I'm not letting you come and torture yourself. We'll be done in a little bit and then you can sit with him."

  "It was my fault. He wanted to come along because you let me help last time and I bragged about how cool it was. He didn't want to be left behind again."

  The dog barked and yelped at Calvin's screaming.

  Ryan sighed and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know, Cal, but you can't come. I'm sorry."

  Calvin huffed and sat down right there in the middle of the floor, his stake laid across his lap. The dog licking at his ear and arm.

  We all gathered around Franklin, who had yet to wake up, and knelt at his side. Ryan pulled the sheets together so we'd have visual privacy, but no one was safe from the screams that were about to come from the kid.

  "Where's Jeff?" Sherry asked.

  "Right here," he answered and pushed the sheet away with his back as he came in. He had a knife in his hand and he was getting the blade red with a Zippo. Sherry grunted as she put her hand on Franklin's forehead. "It's going to be ok, big guy. Hopefully he stays asleep."

  "No one can sleep through this, love," Miguel said and looked her in the eyes. "Right?"

  She nodded, her tears begging to be released, but she refused them. Miguel reached over and took her hand. "His scratch is so small. It'll hurt, but there's not much area to cover. It'll be quick for him." He leaned back. "He's a big boy. Let's get on with it, Jeff."

  Jeff took steps of a man that wanted no part in what he was about to do. I agreed with him. Sherry held Franklin's head. I took his shoulders to stay near Sherry. Though I was worried about Franklin, I hoped this wouldn't cause problems for Sherry, flashbacks or whatever.

  "All right," Jeff said and leaned close and he pulled the Zippo off the blade. "Here we go."

  What's This Life For?

  Chapter 11

  Sherry

  I cleaned the wound and maneuvered around Laura as she gripped his hand and sat there in the chair. It creaked every time she moved, making me want to sigh with the bleakness of it all.

  Franklin had woken up doing our…procedure. Oh, yes, he had. And it had been agonizing and ugly. I hadn't thought about using Lily's gift until that moment. But she told us that she couldn't 'fix' that kind of wound. That she only fixed human inflicted wounds, not supernatural ones. I thought back and realized that was true.

  I could hear Marissa trying to stop Franklin's parents from coming in. I could hear Calvin saying, "Ah, man, ah, man," over and over and over again.

  As soon as we were done, I left to tell Frank's parents to come in and then went straight to Calvin. He was huddled against a wall with Lana and that dog. She
had her arm around his shoulders and his head was resting on his dirty jeaned knees. I sat on his other side and took his hand. He lifted his head. "He ok?"

  "Yep. He'll be just fine."

  "He was screaming," he whispered.

  "It hurts to fix what happened."

  "They did that to you, didn't they? When you were scratched. I remember hearing you scream like that."

  I turned to see his dirty face, his fingernails caked with grime underneath, his neck lined with sweat and dust. The dog was asleep on his lap. "Yeah, they did that to me, too. I'd have had them do it to me again if I could have kept Frank from having to have it done to him."

  "I know you would. I would, too. I feel really guilty."

  "Don't. Frank can make his own decisions."

  He twisted his lips. "Can I see him now?"

  "You can, but he's asleep. Miguel is using the last of our medicine that we stole from the hospital on him, so he'll be asleep for a few days." I sighed and said more to myself than him, "We're going to have to make another run for medicine, too."

  "Can I come?"

  "Not this time, Calvin," I told him, a bit harshly. "It's too soon. We need to all make a few hard decisions and figure out what we're going to do, but we need to be smart about it. We need to use strategy, not revenge, if we want to keep surviving and beat them one day."

  He nodded, "Yeah, ok. I'm gonna go see him now."

  "Ok." He laid the dog on the floor and I watched him go, before turning to Lana and signing, 'Poor guy. I wish things were different, Lana. I wish he could be safe.'

  She signed back and smiled, 'No one's safe anymore. Even if the Lighters left tomorrow, we still wouldn't be safe. The world will never be the same. All those desperate people will have to try to get their lives back together, like they are trying to do now. Desperation brings out many emotions in people.'

  I nodded remembering those people who tried to rob us on the road.

  I told her I needed to see about making some dinner and went to do so. There had been no schedules made yet or lists. We really didn't even know how some things were going to be done yet. Like laundry. I guess we were hand washing them in tubs now.

  And the food. There was no kitchen, no stove, no sink. We had to cook everything over a fire in a brick pit the guys had made of debris and leftover building supplies. We had a few things to burn, but soon enough, we'd have to start going out to get firewood. And with it being so hot at the moment, it made it pretty toasty in there when I cranked the fire up.

  It was an endless cycle of suck.

  But we'd get through it. We always did and I had no inclinations to start giving up now. I even managed to snag Mrs. Trudy's apron in the getaway. Wistful was one word to describe my mood as I slipped it on and looked at the five large cans of beans I was about to open and cook. We were all going to turn into beans if we kept this up. Why had Piper gotten rid of the good stuff? Of all the things to leave behind, beans?

  I gripped the old metal handheld can opener and went to cranking. Beans and beans and people dying and kids being attacked and beans… Merrick came up behind me and took it from me. "I've got it."

  I refused to let go. "No, I've got it."

  He put both arms around me from behind. "Baby, let go."

  I did and he set it on the counter. I knew what he was doing. I didn't want to be consoled right now. I wanted to stew and be mad. I wanted to throw the can opener across the room and curse and yell.

  His arms went around my stomach and he rested his chin on my shoulder. We just sat there for a minute like that, not saying anything. My anger began to melt away and it turned into something else as his skin pulsed electricity through mine. It became calm. Not peace by any means, but calm.

  I turned and let him engulf me in his warmth that was warmer than normal, but comforting to me. I let my sigh escape against his chest and his arms tightened. "Better?"

  "Yeah," I answered and leaned back a bit. "How did you know?"

  He smirked. "That poor can opener was sure getting a workout." He nodded to the can I'd been desecrating. I had kept on going after the top was off and began ripping the liner and grating into the can rim.

  I grimaced and felt my nose wrinkle. He ran his finger down the length of it and tapped the end gently. I just let him hold me for a long time. He murmured something about us being ok. I knew it was true.

  I had to believe that to be true.

  For the next two weeks, we pressed repeat on the days and waited for something. Anything. Our existence had become trivial and innate, primitive and surviving at all costs. We ate our stupid beans, we took our lame bowl baths, we slept in our sleeping bags on the concrete in our little makeshift rooms, we were bored beyond measure.

  But we were alive.

  Franklin was better and up, but still sore. Calvin never left his side.

  The dog was a conundrum. We had no idea how he'd survived when all of the other animals had killed themselves or been killed. Franklin got to name him since he was the one who 'found' him. The dog was aptly titled, Bones, because he was pretty much skin and bones anyway.

  The constant noise of the place was…well, constant. It never ended. There was no escaping Pap and Margaret's yelling, or Miguel and Rylee's fighting, or the kids playing with the dog or groaning about being bored, or Danny and Celeste's canoodling because they had no shame. But there really weren't places to canoodle anymore.

  I was going through some serious Merrick withdrawals. Serious.

  And judging from the way his eyes followed me around, I assumed he was missing our alone time as well. I raised my eyebrows at him when I caught him staring again. He smiled at being caught and shrugged. I laughed and turned back to working in the 'kitchen area' we'd blocked off with Marissa and Lana when Cain came in and plopped two large cans of beans on the counter. "I know you don't want to hear this," he started.

  "Oh, Lord! What now?" I asked and laughed.

  "We only have 10 cans of beans left, 2 bags of rice, a couple cans of cream corn, all those green beans in the crates and one box of brownie mix."

  I chuckled, almost hysterically. "But there's no grease or butter or eggs, so that does us absolutely no good." He shrugged. I wrenched my necklace violently. "Great. No more shampoo, no soap, no toothpaste, nothing to wash our clothes with, no medicine." I sighed. "We're screwed."

  "We'll just have to make a run." He came and put his hands on my shoulders. "There's nothing else to do. We just didn't know how good we had it before."

  "We had to leave so much stuff behind," I mused. "I wonder if we could go back and-"

  "Nix on that. There are watching the store, I'm sure of it."

  "Ok, fine." I stood taller and felt the dog bumping my leg with its tail. I glanced at him and back to Cain. "Why don't we have a meeting and let them know that we'll be going on a run then."

  "We? As in you and me?"

  "Yep. I can tell if they're lying and you can blast 'em if they come after us."

  "You know Merrick's not gonna like-"

  "We have to!" I gave him a look to tell him I was done playing. "We have to. This isn't about shampoo anymore, this is getting scary. You can't survive on beans alone. We have to do something!"

  He thought, playing with his lip ring with his tongue, and then nodded. "Ok. Let's go, shorty."

  "Really?" I said stunned. I glanced at Marissa who was giving us the 'You’re gonna get it' look. "That easy?"

  "Yep. You're right. There's nothing else to talk about. It's not like we can go hunting for food. Unless the dog is some indication that the animals are coming back. I doubt that." He reached down and rubbed the dog behind the ears. "I think this guy just got really lucky."

  "Yeah. Well I'm sure the Keepers have something cooked up. Merrick's been doing that Keeper talk thing a lot so they probably have a plan of some sort."

  "Oh, they do," he said. "Simon's been plotting all sorts of things with his new face." He grimaced. "He seems to have forgotten that they c
an still sense a Keeper regardless of what face he's wearing."

  "My ears are burning," Simon said. He was perched at the edge of the 'kitchen area' with arms crossed and brow bunched like the sneaky man he was.

  "It's true, is it not?" Cain rebutted. "Don't you have something planned?"

  "Maybe," he said and turned away.

  "Showtime," Cain said and grabbed my hand as he bolted out of the kitchen, dragging me along. Simon must've called the Keepers in his mind because they were all present and accounted for.

  Cain crossed his arms once more and studied them. "We know you've all got something planned, but it's not going to work."

  "We don't have anything planned," Merrick said and nodded to Jeff. "Some of us still have our heads screwed on right."

  "I know they can detect me!" Simon yelled. "Are you just going to let your charges die of starvation?"

  "Of. Course. Not," Merrick growled. I left Cain and went to his side. He smiled at me a little and then went back to glaring at Simon. "But running out there all cocky because you've got a brand new body isn't going to solve the problem. We've done runs before. We know what has to be done."

  "And what has to be done," Cain cut in, "is that Sherry and I are going on the run."

  Merrick stiffened, his arms tight and angry, and looked down at me. "What? Now who's plotting?"

  "I wasn't plotting," I insisted, but backtracked, "I mean technically I was plotting, but not all sinister like. We just need me to go and you know it. If Cain and I go, I can lie detect and he can blast them if we run into trouble."

  Silence engulfed the room like the smell of stale coffee.

  I knew they were all waiting for Merrick to blow up. So was I for that matter. His eyes were tight and calculating. It wasn't hard to notice as we all stood around how scruffy and unkempt everyone looked. The girls' hair was a mess of ponytails. The guys had beards and shags. Everyone was so thin and...unhealthy looking. We needed to do this.

  I raised my eyebrows at Merrick in contest when he remained silent. He let a breath out through his nose and said, "We were planning to send Miguel and Simon - though Simon was completely against what we wanted - to get food, supplies and medicine. They were going to be gone for two days to get everything. We hadn't said anything to anyone yet because for one, we don't think Simon should go-"