Free Emerge by Heather Sunseri Page A

time ago that we didn’t need to rehash every detail of our past—and I had decided that that included my intimate history with Bad Sam.
    “Caine doesn’t need you. If this is Bad Sam, we both know our best chance of survival is to leave the settlement. Caine will understand that.”
    Dax was right about one thing: his best chance of survival was to flee. Most of the people who had survived the initial Bad Sam outbreak did so only because they lived in isolated areas far away from the cities, away from the people who spread it. It wasn’t until after the virus had died out that settlements started popping up, formed by survivors who craved community.  
    But if the virus was back and the people dispersed, we’d be starting all over again.
    I knew I couldn’t promise to leave with Dax, but the look on his face was desperate. “Let’s at least let Caine test us to see if we have the virus now.”
    He nodded in agreement, though reluctantly.
    Footsteps thudded on the stairs below. Nina popped her head through the opening in the floor. “What’s happened? Where’s my dad?” She climbed up, and Dylan followed.
    “He’s at the hospital. It’s Key.”
    Nina gasped. Her hand flew to her mouth.
    “You don’t think—” Dylan grabbed Nina’s hand and pulled her closer. Exactly the way they shouldn’t react.
    I shook my head. “I don’t…” I crossed to the window and looked out over the south side of town. “I don’t know.” I faced them again. “The four of us need to get to the hospital. We were exposed to them more than anyone else. We have to think of the townspeople.”
    They all nodded silently. Nina moved toward the exit.
    I started to follow, but Dax put a hand on my arm. “Who is Christina Black?” he asked, and for a moment, it felt like the Earth stopped moving on its axis.
    Nina’s head snapped around to look directly at me, her eyes wide.
    I turned to look out the window again. There were times when Christina Black had been gone for so long, I wondered if she had ever existed at all. “Christina Black was a little girl who came down with the Samael Strain. She was twelve years old, already an orphan, and by some grace”— or curse —“she survived the unimaginable disease. She was forced to start her life over with no family, no friends, no one to care about, and no one who cared about her in return.”
    “She survived Bad Sam?” Dax asked. “I thought that was impossible. Where is she now? Why is this West looking for her?”
    “Christina disappeared a long time ago. Before you and Dylan came to town.” I spun around, not making eye contact with any of them. “We need to go. Caine is expecting us.”

chapter twelve
West

    Finally, Cricket returned to the hospital. She had not yet looked my way. On purpose? Maybe. I wouldn’t look at me, either, after what I did to her.
    The isolation unit I was in was obviously state-of-the-art, and I was impressed that Dr. Quinton had been able to keep it in such good shape. Pretty much every hospital in the country had built one of these units eight years ago, back when Bad Sam looked to kill everyone in its wake.  
    It was actually nine years ago when we first heard about the new deadly virus—one year before it reached our country. But it was across the ocean then, and no one thought for a second the disease would affect the privileged in a country with infinite power and money and the best health care in the world.
    But of course it did. And when the first cases popped up, our government dismissed fears and ignored concerns. Hospitals built small quarantine and decontamination centers like this one, but that was mostly to appease the Centers for Disease Control.
    And these small units proved to be not nearly enough.
    But before these decontamination centers were even built, the future people of New Caelum had already formed a secret society of sorts. Some of the most influential, powerful, and richest people in the country, led by my