Blight by Alexandra Duncan

Author:Alexandra Duncan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-06-08T04:00:00+00:00

.15.

MEADOW FOXTAIL

ALOPECURUS CAROLINIANUS

The fever hits Alder after sundown. The world has purpled into dusk, and the crickets and frogs have started up their pulsing song. I turn around and find him lagging several yards behind me on the road. His face is pale and slick. Heat still radiates from the blacktop, but he’s shivering.

“We should stop,” I say reluctantly. We need to keep moving if we’re going to find help, but Alder looks like he’ll collapse if he takes another step.

He doesn’t argue. He doesn’t say anything.

“I can try to make a fire,” I say.

Alder shakes his head. He points to the skeleton of an old billboard a quarter mile down the road, its silhouette barely visible against the darkening sky. “There.”

I nod. The sides of the road here have been cleared recently, all the green things between the highway and the tree line shriveled up and chemical-dry underfoot. Less chance of an ambush, but no cover, either. Someone—a guard or a clearer—has planted a whitewashed cross in the dirt to mark the spot where a team member fell. I touch the flimsy wood and remember the same symbol around Eden’s neck. I don’t want to have to make one of these for Alder.

We climb the billboard’s access ladder. Alder stops every few rungs to rest, but at last we reach the narrow platform below the board. A light wind ruffles the sweaty curls at the nape of my neck. I breathe in. The highway stretches behind us, running through the thick shadows of the trees. The blight is out there, hidden in the dark. Has it reached the pool where I soaked my burned fingers? The boathouse? The Red Hand compound? Ahead of us, the lights of Atlanta twinkle in the distance, skyline haloed in a pink glow, as if the sun has set there instead of along the western horizon.

I didn’t know I’d be able to see it from so far away. AgraStar is there. That means medicine. Civilization. Safety for me, a return to normal. Death or imprisonment for Alder. If he makes it.

“You want to go there, don’t you?”

I shake my head. “I’m just thinking they’d have medicine.”

He sits slowly, as if it pains him, and lets his legs dangle off the side of the platform. “They wouldn’t give it to me. Besides, I’d rather die out here.”

“No, you wouldn’t.” I drop down next to him and let my legs hang beside his in the open air.

“Rather than have them heal me, only to execute me later? Or make me into one of their cogs?” He leans back so he’s looking at the sky. “I think I would.”

My stomach twists. I look away.

“Tempest.”

I turn back to Alder.

His face is drawn, serious. “If we don’t find the vaccine—”

“Stop it.” I know what he’s going to say.

“No, listen. If it gets bad, if I’m too far gone, I want you to promise me something.”

I fold my arms tight across my chest and glare at him.

“Promise me you’ll end it.

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