Page 38 of Born Savage

I had no idea who’d taught her such a thing, but hearing her sweet voice insisting that was the truth, I knew I wanted to believe her. Very much. Yet with everything I’d seen and all that occurred every day, the horrors inflicted and the people tortured merely for speaking out and wanting a better life, I’d lost any hope of the afterlife.

Jake placed his head on my knee as if offering his own support. Seeing his tail wagging, I was surprised how close I felt to the two of them.

“You’re right. Come on. Why don’t you and Jake spread a little love.”

She nodded with a little more emphasis than usual. I took and held a deep breath before walking inside. There was nothing that could ever prepare anyone for seeing someone you loved down to skin and bones, the life in their eyes fading to little more than hopeless imagination.

Yet my mother’s eyes lit up the moment I walked closer.

“I was so worried.” Her voice seemed more fragile than when I’d left, full of exhaustion from fighting the horrible disease.

“Mama. I’m fine. I just had something to do.” I moved closer to the bed, nodding at my father. Where he’d once been so robust, fighting off Dwellers with his bare hands, my mother’s condition had fractured his strength. Their love had withstood so much. I could see his adoration even now every time he looked at her.

How often I’d wished that I could discover that kind of intense, deep, and everlasting love.

A fool’s dream.

“I didn’t mean to worry you,” I added and pulled Wren closer.

“She’s fine, baby girl. Just missing you. Who do we have here?” My father’s voice was more gravelly than normal, exhaustion highlighted in his eyes.

My father adored children. He’d once told me they’d been planning on adopting several but had never been given the chance. That was why they’d had no issue taking me in as their own.

From whom, I had no clue and I’d stopped asking the circumstances a few years before. For whatever reason, they’d been told not to say anything. In truth, the reason didn’t matter.

All that did was that I’d been gifted parents when thousands had lost theirs.

“This is Wren and Jake. I found them in the city.”

“The city. A dangerous place. You shouldn’t have gone there,” Mama said and immediately started coughing.

“I was fine. I had my weapons.” And before I’d left the camp where the Savages had taken me, I rounded up every one of them. No one took my prized sword and lived to tell the tale. “Plus I found medicine. So many medications. And there’s more and I’ll go back when necessary. You won’t believe what I found. Alkylating agents.”

My parents looked at me blankly.

“Used in chemotherapy. I’ve done a lot of research and I think this will help. A drink for three hours every two weeks. Plus, I found some drugs for nausea and antitumor antibiotics. I know these will work. I’ll set up the IV. Okay? I’ve already told Maggie. She’ll know what to do.”

As my parents had done for years when trying to determine how best to tell me a horrible piece of news, they glanced at each other. The look was knowing, words not needed between them.

“Honey, we love you so much, but there is nothing that can be done. Maggie will tell you the same thing.”

My mother was so damn strong, so to hear her giving in was too much for me to bear.

“No. No! Now we’re going to try this.” I stretched my neck as I looked over my shoulder, hopeful Maggie was still in the hallway. She wasn’t.

For whatever reason, suddenly I couldn’t keep tears from falling. I’d never been an emotional kid. I’d believed anyone who cried should be deemed weak, but I couldn’t wipe them from my face fast enough. Death wasn’t unusual within the village nor was it new.

As a child, I’d witnessed dozens of people initially believed to be completely healthy succumb to the latent effects of radiation, their bodies rotting from the inside out. I’d witnessed some appearing healthy one day and the next with a fever so high delirium had set in. It had been as terrifying as the Pavilla virus ravaging survivors for over a decade.

Then there were the murders I’d witnessed firsthand, people you’d never suspect daring to smash someone’s head in for a can of beans.

That’s why being trained in the art of slaughtering Night Dwellers, fighting Savages until they surrendered, and even taking on Freedom Hunters had never bothered me.

But my mother had to live forever.

“Oh, honey. I didn’t mean to upset you. I love how you care about me and would do anything. You have no idea how much that means to me, but I know my body. All that might happen is you’ll prolong my life. I would give anything to be with you, but you have a life to live.”

I couldn’t understand what she was getting at. “You and Daddy are my life. You’re my family.”