3
Chapter Three
SIN
“She doesn’t love you.That is foolish,“ Mom says, leaning over me with her nose nearly pressed against mine. “What in God’s name were you thinking, Sinon?”
I laugh. Because what else is there to do right now? “Whatislove, Mom? Is it this?” I tilt my head toward my hands that are cuffed to the chair I’m sitting on here in the middle of Mom’s office. She has an office below the town I have been abused in—the town she abandoned me in. “You are a coward,” I tell her, saying anything I can to hit her where it hurts; although I’m pretty sure, nothing hurts this woman. Any woman who can ditch her child in a human zombie fest clearly doesn’t care much for anyone other than herself.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says, her voice stern and unbreakable.
“You left me to die. What does that make you? Mother of the year?”
“I left you so you could live,” she retorts. “If I took you with me—“
“I’d be living here with you underground, with a bunch of men walking around in military uniforms. Is this some kind of sick cult?”
“You honestly don’t know why, do you?” she asks.
I’m tired of the riddles. I’m tired of pretending I know all the answers, when in reality, I know none of them. I know what Chipley was made up with and I know why people were there, but the rest of it is unknown.
“I don’t care,” I say.But I do.
“How did you get to Chipley?” she quizzes me.
“No clue, Ma—we were drugged before being brought over, remember? Another stellar parenting move on your part. ‘Hey, let’s knock my kid out so he doesn’t know how to get to or from the place I’m making him live for the next eighteen months’,” I mock her.
“This bunker and Chipley are underground by about two miles,” she says, reaching for my face as if she plans to stroke my cheek.
I jerk away from her reach, narrowing my eyes at her. “No, we’re not. I was living under the sun and the stars until yesterday, so how about you try again.”
“Sinon, darling,” she says, endearingly. “Does it matter where you are when you see the sun and the stars? Do you ever truly know how far away you are from the sky? Because every part of this world is at a different distance from the sun, and you would never truly know the difference, especially a distance as minute as two miles.”
“Okay,” I tell her, sarcasm lacing my voice. Everything this woman has preached to me over the years is likely to be nothing more than a blatant lie. If I hadn’t seen the exchange of abuse from Dad, I probably wouldn’t believe her stories about him either. Swallowing my growing anger with a desperate need for a pause in this conversation, I look around the office we’re in, focusing on the computer showing maps and video footage of Chipley.
“I made sure you were brought back because things changed after I left—my original plan was the truth, but that was until—“
“You left me here. What else is there, Mom? Just spit it out.”
“The Centers for Disease Control contacted me after Mr. Crownwell had me removed from Chipley.”
“So?” They contacted her all of the time. She spent her adult life in science research for all medical conditions, which is why we were in Chipley.
“There was an outbreak of an experimental pathogen,” she says, expecting me to understand what she’s saying. The look on my face must tell her I do not comprehend because she follows her statement with, “Juliet Toxin.”
“I’m not following,” I say, leaning back in my chair, trying to get comfortable despite the handcuffs holding me hostage.
Mom grabs the chair from behind her desk and pulls it over, situating it inches from the end of my knees. She sits down, leaning forward and placing her hands on my knees. “It’s an infectious toxin being used as a form of terrorism against the United States. The intention was to wipe out the American population within forty-eight hours. There was no way to control the onset, as the toxin had already been released, so the only people in this country who remained safe were those contained from the outside environments. This meant that all government and military sites were locked down immediately; although some had already been infected, most were saved. Along with the government, the only other locations manageable for lockdown were a few prisons. Luckily you were in one of them, which is why you were brought back here.”
“Everyone outside of Chipley is dead now, I assume,” I say, trying hard not to believe my own words and thoughts. I can’t believe a word she says. I can’t believe anything at all right now. My head is spinning and I’m dizzy from trying to understand how there could be any truth to this.
“While many people couldn’t handle the toxin, others did—it merely altered their state of consciousness. I know this doesn’t make much sense right now, but the end result led to a split in population. Seventy percent of the American people died from the infection, fifteen percent are currently infected and living with it, and the other fifteen percent are hiding from it, most of whom are government officials. Those who have it and are alive, are incredibly dangerous to themselves and everyone else, which is why it was important that you were here, safe from out there.” She releases a sigh and looks up in thought, awkwardly pausing the explanation. As she looks back down at me, her stare goes cold and darkness pools in her eyes. “But that doesn’t matter now, does it?”
The oxygen coming and going through my lungs feels like lead, pressing against all of my organs, suffocating me from within. This can’t be true. My mind is racing a mile a minute with more questions than I can even conjure up in my brain, but only one of them means more to me than all of the other issues combined. “Why was Reese brought here?”
“Her mother made a deal with Jackson Crownwell. She knew what was happening, as all hospitals were informed immediately.”
All hospitals. I couldn’t even estimate the number of hospitals there are across the United States. Why that hospital? There are still too many loopholes that aren’t making sense. There’s a disconnect somewhere and I need to know what she isn’t telling me. “There is more to what you are telling me because Dad is the one who took Reese against her will,” I say, waiting for her to fill in the hole she is purposely keeping open.
