N87 Virus | Book 1 | After the Outbreak Kadin, Karri (booksvooks TXT) 📖

Chapter Eighteen Allison

Allison stayed busy spending the days training with Trevor. After countless hours of having her ass handed to her and struggling to control her inner burn, she now had a new perspective on superheroes. Having abilities beyond the normal person came with its own set of problems. But thanks to Trevor, she felt more capable than she ever had. She could escape holds more often than not and without breaking someone’s arm. She could dodge punches and throw some back. It was a struggle to not use all of her strength when her body was beaten and bloody, but she was learning to control it. She wanted as few people as possible to know she had been infected to avoid the pity stares, disgusted glances, and whispers as she walked by. Here she was normal, and she liked it.

“Gotcha!” Allison leaned into her knee, pushing it into Trevor’s back as she twisted his arm behind him, pinning him to the ground. Trevor tapped out with his free hand.

“I surrender!” he shouted. Allison released Trevor. “Man, you’re getting good at that. You’re much stronger than you look. I’m still surprised by it.” Trevor stood up and wiped the blades of grass from his clothes. Allison ran her hands down his back, helping him clean off. “Thanks,” he said.

“No problem. It’s the least I could do after kicking your ass.” Allison grinned and stepped backward away from him, knowing what would come next.

“Oh yeah? You call that an ass-kicking? I’ll show you an ass-kicking!” Trevor lunged for her. Her high-pitched laughter filled the air as she dodged and ran. He gave chase, snatching her up at the waist and spinning her around. Allison’s skin tingled beneath his hands. She bit her lip to suppress the electric shiver running down her spine. He laid her on a bench, tickling her mercilessly as he smiled down at her.

“Okay! Okay! You win!” Allison shrieked. Trevor stopped his tickle assault, brushing her hair from her face as he stood.

“I need to go help at the community center, but I’ll see you in a few hours for another round.” Trevor waved as he walked off the football field. Her stomach fluttered, and heat filled her cheeks. Allison watched him until he was out of view, then gathered her things to head home. She needed a nap and some lunch before their afternoon lesson.

Most evenings she played board games, watched movies, or participated in town activities with the twins and sometimes Trevor. Tonight was board game night with Morgan and Matt. She pulled Monopoly and Candyland from the closet and set them on the table. She’d let Morgan pick the game tonight. Allison used the friend-bonding time as a distraction from her worries. Every day there was constant concern that Nurse Catherine or some other of Dr. Neff’s goonies would find her.

Dr. Neff wasn’t her only cause for unrest. The longer she stayed, the further away redemption seemed. How can you make amends with people if you never find them? When she was alone, the guilt weighed her down until she was a pile of tears and snot. She wrote to clear her mind, but it didn’t clear her conscience. She added her thoughts to the notes detailing her flashbacks, trying to make sense of the troubled mess in her head. Piece together her sick years one jagged memory at a time. Bits and pieces were becoming clearer day by day. She had to find the cabin. The memory of her killing the man in the cabin played over and over again in her dreams. His blood splattered across the white sink, his cries, and something else she couldn’t quite remember. It was important, she just didn’t know why. To find her answers, she needed to leave New Harbor and her new friends. She couldn’t keep putting it off.

She sat on the couch with her journal, scarfing down her sandwich. She was relieved that she never saw a Collector in New Harbor; in fact, no one new had come to the town since she arrived. Allison knew this wouldn’t last. She couldn’t bear the thought of what would happen to this town, to the people who called it home, or to her friends if a Collector found her here. Her just being here put everyone in the town in danger, and that was the last thing she wanted. The less everyone knew, the better. She wanted everyone to have plausible deniability in case Dr. Neff came knocking at their gate one day. She flipped to her bookmarked section dedicated to the cabin. Her fingers danced over the worn pages as she traced her own words, rereading things she had read so many times before that she knew them by heart. The cabin was etched in her brain now, with or without the journal to help anchor the memory. She shut the journal before stretching out across the couch for a cat nap.

Allison hadn’t opened her journal in a week as she avoided facing the inevitable. Her time at New Harbor was coming to a close. She knew it was the right thing to do but the idea of leaving her friends just about broke her. She couldn’t fathom being alone again, but she also couldn’t think of any other way to keep the people she cared about safe or to find her redemption.

One evening Allison curled up on the porch, leaning against the house and watched as dusk settled across the town. She held her knees to her chest and watched as her neighbors returned to their homes. She had tried to trade for gas to fill Old Blue and her reserves three times since arriving in New Harbor. Each time her trade was rejected. Gas was far too hard to come by and no one wanted to part with it without getting something as equally valuable in return. Allison had nothing of real value.

The last few scavenger trips the town security took