Dread Nation (Dread Nation #1)(80)

I freeze, every muscle in my body tensing. My back tingles with phantom pains as I remember the kiss of the whip along it, and I know that this time there’s no way there will be mercy. Not for me, or Katherine, either.

“Kate!” I whisper-yell, as loud as I dare. The boot steps are getting closer, deliberate in their plodding pace. In just a few seconds someone is going to walk in on us, catch us red-handed in our snooping.

Katherine comes out of the room, irritation on her face. “Jane, I found the most interesting map—” She stops talking. “Someone’s coming.”

“Yep. Now stand there and look out of sorts. Shouldn’t be too hard for you.” I pluck a pearl hairpin from her hair and fall to my knees, crawling around the floor.

Behind me the door opens, and the person stops short in the doorway. My heart pounds in my chest, loud enough that I’m sure our unexpected guest can hear it. Katherine inhales sharply, and my stomach just about falls out, every last drop of dread and fear settling right where it used to be.

“Well, if that ain’t a sight for sore eyes I don’t know what is.”

I close my eyes and start to pray, because there is no way I am hearing what I think I hear.

Either Red Jack is behind me scandalously taking stock of my derriere, or I have finally lost my mind.





Some nights I lie in my bed and wonder if it was all a dream, if I really ever had a beloved baby girl. But then I remember your smile, and I know that the good parts truly happened, and that one day we shall read Shakespeare together again.





Chapter 30


In Which I Get a Visit from the Dead


The voice cuts through my burgeoning terror and sends me springing to my feet. I turn around, heart beating out a staccato rhythm against my ribs—not from fright, but from a wild kind of hope that I ain’t never felt before. There, standing in the doorway, grinning like the cat that got into the cream, is Jackson.

Before my good sense can get a word in edgewise I’m running across the room, throwing my arms around him in an embrace to beat all embraces. He laughs and picks me up, swinging me in a circle. When he sets me down he leans in and steals a quick kiss, and I’m just as quick to slap him.

“Just because I’m happy you ain’t dead doesn’t mean you get to kiss me.”

“Ah, Janey-Jane. When have I ever passed up the opportunity to steal a little sugar?”

Jackson moves over to Katherine and bows over her hand like a true swain, murmuring pleasantries. I close the door to make sure we don’t have any more guests, then I turn to Jackson, arms crossed.

“So you ain’t dead.”

He grins, a full on Red Jack smile. “Nope. Your friend made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

“Oh?”

Jackson nods, propping up a hip on the corner of the desk. “Seems that Daniel Redfern ain’t the loyal follower of the mayor that he pretends to be. After you two went off, the sheriff told Daniel to take me out back and put me down like a rabid dog. Lucky for me, Daniel handed me a knife and a canteen, led me to a side of the town’s boundary that is a bit lighter on shamblers, and told me to walk north for two days. I did and ended up in Nicodemus, a town founded by a bunch of Egalitarians.”

“Wait, hold on a minute now. Mr. Redfern helped you? And there are Egalitarians here?” I’m trying to put Jackson’s words into the context of what I’ve learned over the past few weeks and I’m failing miserably.

Jackson nods and shifts his weight. “Yep. Daniel ain’t a murderer like the rest of these folks, he’s just a man trying to play the hand that life dealt him.”

Katherine’s eyes go wide. “Well, there you go! We just have to get them to help us get rid of the sheriff and his father.”

Jackson shakes his head. “The Egalitarians got no interest in interfering with Summerland. They’re happy to give any of us refuge, but don’t expect them to take part in any sort of fight. They’re pacifists.”

I shake my head sadly. “Well, so much for that idea. So, if you’re all cozy in the next town over, what are you doing here?”

“Stealing some bullets. Pacifists apparently don’t own guns and are terrifyingly light on ammunition. And searching for Lily. I didn’t want to risk being seen again for fear of dooming both me and Daniel, and I was only barely able to climb over the wall between patrols and keep my head down as I made my way to town, terrified I’d be recognized. But if she’s here, I need to find her.”

He stands up and stretches, and I watch him greedily. I feel like I can’t get enough of looking at him, of knowing that he’s alive and still out there, up to no good. I turn as I feel Katherine’s gaze land on me. She’s giving me a look like she’s seeing something for the first time, and I school my expression to blankness, worried that I somehow gave too much away.

“She’s safe,” I say finally. “Lily. She’s over in the fancy part of town. I talked to her the other night, before things went south.”

Jackson grins. “Lily’s alive? Ha, I knew it!” He pauses and the smile melts into a frown. “Wait, what do you mean ‘went south’?”

I quickly outline what’s happened to me and Katherine since we arrived in Summerland. Jackson’s expression darkens.