CHAPTER 50

Later that afternoon, after lunch, Billy Kline was making his way through a crowd of people returning to their work when he saw Kyra Talbot slipping around the corner of the office building. He hustled after her.

But when he rounded the corner, she was gone.

He stood there, confused, looking around.

He saw her again as she came around the far side of the office. She was wearing a red blouse and blue jeans, her hair down over her face, not her usual ponytail. It looked like she was in a hurry not to be seen.

“Kyra,” he called after her.

She ducked her head and walked faster, feeling the wall with her fingertips for guidance.

“Kyra?”

Their last conversation had left him eager for more, and he broke into a trot and went after her.

“Kyra, wait up,” he said. He was coming up behind her now. “It’s me, Billy.”

She wouldn’t let him see her face.

“Kyra?”

He put a hand on her shoulder and she flinched.

“Sorry,” he said, pulling his hand away. “Kyra, it’s me, Billy. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I’ve got to go, Billy.”

“Hey, wait,” he said. He put his hand on her shoulder, and though she flinched again, he left it there. He turned her gently around to face him. “What’s wrong?”

But he could see what was wrong. She had her hair down over her left eye and cheek, but he could still the shiner and the busted lip. The wounds stood out on her pale and slender face.

“What happened?”

“Nothing,” she said. She touched the wall and turned away.

“Wait,” he said. “Who did this to you?”

“Nobody. I fell.”

“Bullshit,” he said. She flinched again, this time at the anger in his voice. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Kyra, please, who did this to you?”

Then it came to him.

“It was Colin, wasn’t it?”

She didn’t speak, but she gave a quick, almost imperceptible nod of her head.

“That bastard. Where is he?”

“Billy, please, you’ve done enough.”

“Me?”

“He heard us talking. I told him it wasn’t nothing, but he got so mad. The more I tried to make him understand, the madder he got.”

“Oh, God,” Billy said. “When did this happen?”

“This morning.”

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them again, Kyra’s sightless eyes were pointed right at him. They were shining, but no tears had fallen.

She was scared. He could tell that. Surviving Van Horn had brought her out of her shell. That was what he had seen in her that first night in Emporia, Kansas, and that had attracted him to her. But her first attempt to trust somebody had gotten her this, and the injustice of it made him want to kick something.

“I think your eye’s gonna be okay,” he said. “But we need to put something on that lip. If I go get some ice, will you let me help you?”

She nodded her head slightly, and her hair fell down over her face again.

“I’ll be right back,” he said. “Will you wait for me here? I promise I’ll be right back.”

She nodded.

Kyra listened to his footsteps fading away in the grass and thought of running. She could probably make it back to her dormitory before he caught up with her, and she could spend the rest of the day in bed. If Aaron came looking for her, she could tell him she wasn’t feeling well. She had a stomachache. Her eyes were hurting. Hell, she could tell him any damn thing, just so long as they would leave her alone.

She hadn’t felt this helpless in a long time. It was worse than walking the highway after escaping Van Horn. Even, in a way, worse than losing Uncle Reggie. Since coming to the Grasslands, the world had grown brighter. She was contributing to the effort. She was making a difference. And then this, two hard slaps from someone she had trusted, from someone she had given her virginity to, and suddenly she was that scared and isolated four-year-old little girl all over again, alone in her head and alone in the world.

“It went smoothly,” she heard a man say. “Just like I said it would.”

The voice came from around the corner to her right. As quickly as she could, she ducked back around the corner to her left and pressed her back into the wall.

“That’s good, Michael. Very good. You did good work, getting the bodies out of here.”

Jasper’s voice! Kyra sucked in a breath.

“It wasn’t hard. We put ’em with the zombies we shot this morning and burned them.”

“Good.”

“But Jasper, our house isn’t clean yet.”

“Yes, I know. Those men had help.”

“That seems pretty plain, yeah.”

“Do you know who?” Jasper asked.

“Not yet.”

“But you’ll find them out.”

“Yes.”

“I cannot abide a traitor, Michael. Even that man who sins in his mind against me has betrayed me, and I will not abide a traitor.”

“No, of course not.”

“You’ll begin searching the village for the missing radios?”

“Immediately.”

“Very good,” Jasper said. “I’ll see you this afternoon then.”

Kyra heard the door to the office creak open, then slam shut. The second man’s footsteps faded away in the opposite direction. She stood absolutely still against the wall, listening, unable to catch her breath. She felt like the ground beneath her feet was shaking.

The whole world, it seemed, was shaking.