Live Another Day by Baileigh Higgins (reading in the dark .txt) 📗

“I'm here, alive,” Donya replied. “No thanks to you, of course.”

“What do you mean?” The words were like a physical blow, and Nadia backed up a step.

“You know what I mean.” Donya's eyes narrowed to slits. “It was you. You were the one who infected Brandon. You were the one who murdered us all. Even Joshua who took you in when you had nowhere else to go. He was good to you. We all were.”

“I’m sorry,” Nadia whispered as guilt rose to envelop her entire being. It was a futile gesture made more from a sense of despair than true denial. “I didn't know.”

“You should have guessed,” Donya said, one finger pointed at Nadia in accusation. “You should have known you'd be infectious. You and that stupid boyfriend of yours.”

“But I didn't. How could I know something like that?” Even as she uttered the words, Nadia felt disgusted at the wheedling tone in her voice. She hated being on the defensive. It went against the grain. “How did you find out?”

“It wasn't all that hard to figure it out. You were the only link between Brandon and the virus, after all.” Donya leaned back on her heels and folded her arms across her chest. “Besides, after you bailed, I stumbled upon Elias. He told me what you said.”

“Elias,” Nadia whispered. She remembered again the night it all happened, the memories as sharp and intrusive as a knife. The screams, the blood, Elias's hand dragging her through the house and then out into the night. He saved her life that night, and she repaid him by leaving him alone to die. “He told me to leave. He was bitten.”

“Oh, I know. We found him toward the end, just before he turned.”

“We?”

“Harry and I. We made it out, both of us.”

“You did?” Hope blossomed inside Nadia's chest.

Donya nodded, and her features softened by a small degree. “He saved me.”

“Where is he?” Nadia asked, looking over the other girl's shoulder.

“He's gone.” Donya's expression hardened once more. “He died about a week ago. Zoms got him. Ripped him to pieces right in front of my eyes.”

“Oh.” Disappointment crushed the fragile hope that had sprouted for a brief moment in Nadia's chest. “I'm sorry.”

Donya's mouth twisted. “Because of you, I lost everything. We lost everything. He could still be alive today.”

“Try to understand,” Nadia pleaded. “If I'd known, I never would have let it happen.”

Donya chuckled. “Yet, here you are. Once more keeping dangerous secrets from innocent people. I can't say I'm surprised.”

Nadia's mouth worked, but she couldn't summon up the energy to fight back, to deny the other girl's accusations. While a part of her knew Donya was unfair, another part whispered that she was right. “You'd tell them?”

“In a heartbeat.” Donya gestured around her. “These are good people. They deserve better than you.”

“I’d never hurt them,” Nadia whispered.

“Nice look you've got going there, by the way. I'm getting a real wolf in sheep's clothing vibe there. Trying to fool everyone, huh?”

Nadia sucked in a breath, and her hands curled into fists. “It's not like that.”

Donya snorted. “Uh huh.”

“You'll see.”

Donya stared at her for several seconds, a bitter smile hovering on her lips. Finally, she turned away. “Well, this was nice, but I've got other business to attend to. See you later.”

Once more, Nadia was left alone and bereft. On numb legs, she turned away and stumbled further down the hill. Her feet carried her to the edge of the dunes, and she looked for a sheltered spot to sit. She found it between a stunted tree and a weathered boulder.

With her legs folded beneath her, she sat on the grassy knoll and stared at the surf below. The waves rolled onto the shore, the water pushing up the sand as the tide came in only to retreat again in a pattern as old as time. Never ending.

Her fingers plucked at the grass with restless energy while her mind looped in endless circles. The guilt she'd fought so hard to bury was back in full force. It seared through her veins like battery acid. Grief for Brandon and the others burned like a bright flame inside her.

Her past, never very far away, came tumbling back as her defenses crumbled to dust. Hot tears raced down her cheeks and dripped onto her jersey. “All my fault. It was all my fault.”

Her hand encountered a shell, the jagged remnants of an abalone. Its pearl edges were razor sharp. Without thinking, she rolled back her sleeve and cut into the tender flesh of her forearm. The skin split like rotten fruit, precious blood spilling out onto the ground. The cut brought sweet relief as the tension flowed out of her the same way the waves flowed onto the sand. She sighed and closed her eyes.

“Nadia? What are you doing?”

Martin's sharp voice caused her to whirl. She dropped the shell onto the grass and clamped her hand across the wound. “What are you doing here?”

“I came looking for you.”

His tall shadow fell across her face, and she blinked up into his somber face. “Why?”

“I spoke to Donya. She told me everything.”

Nadia's heart sank. “She did?”

He nodded. “She came in this morning with Josh and Dirk. They found her holed up in an old farmhouse and brought her in. She overheard Thys and I discussing the expedition, right after we welcomed her. She recognized your name and asked about you. That's when she told us everything.”

“I see,” Nadia whispered. Now that Martin knew, she was sure he'd kick her out of St. Francis. So much for making my own decisions. Will he even let me go with them on the expedition?

“That’s it? That's all you've got to say?”

“No...I...does Thys knows too?”

“He does.”

Nadia looked down at her hands. “Then everyone knows.”

“Not yet. I told Donya to keep her knowledge to herself for now. I don't need a widespread panic in the town.”

“Smart.”

“Yes. Not that you've been very clever about this whole thing.” He fixed