After The World Ends: Turn (Book 7): After The World Ends, #7

By Jamie Thornton

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jamie Thornton.

 

EVERYTHING FALLS APART.

 

Separated from her friends, Dessa is desperate to reunite everyone and make Sanctuary safe again.

 

But Sanctuary reveals surprise plans for Dessa and Cole that undermine everything she thought she knew.

 

And when strangers show up at Sanctuary's front gate, demanding to trade, she must race to uncover the real reason for their arrival before it's too late.

 

********

The seventh installment in AFTER THE WORLD ENDS. Young Adult. Zombie Apocalypse. Dystopian. A thrilling survival adventure awaits.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jamie Thornton
• Release date: Dec 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215605004

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After the World Ends 7

T U R N

Jamie Thornton

1

Dessa and Tiana held onto each other like they had been shipwrecked and the other was their lifeboat. The air smelled like iron, like a butcher shop, like death.

The field of bodies—over a hundred mutineers murdered by people still loyal to Krause and Schofield—lay on the gravel in front of Sanctuary’s entrance like debris.

Tiana shook from exhaustion, fear, and grief. The boys aren’t in there.

Dessa knew if not for Tiana, she would have fallen to the ground, weeping. That means they’re still alive. They have to be.

She had feared the worst and now her body and mind were trying to adjust to this new hope amongst all the horror.

Sanctuary had ripped itself apart through a series of monstrous lab leaks, a mutiny, and then a civil war among the staff.

The scientists, and those on Sanctuary’s staff who remained loyal to their mission to save the world from the Lyssa virus, had accidentally created the Super V’s. They had been developing additional treatments for people infected with the Lyssa virus who had also been given the bacterial antidote—what Dessa and her friends called the combo cure. This combo cure held back the ravenous rage of the V’s, but came with its own mind and body side effects.

When the Super V’s had escaped from the lab and overrun several of Sanctuary’s underground levels, over half the staff—led by Coordinator Grove and Security Officer Mondo—had used the chaos as an opportunity to mutiny. The scientists had fought back, triggering a failsafe gas in the ventilation system that exterminated all the Super V’s, which kept the monsters from reaching the surface and wreaking havoc on the world, but also pushed out all the mutineers.

Dessa and Tiana had feared the boys might be inside Sanctuary, and so they had disobeyed the scientists in order to warn everyone still inside Sanctuary to get out before the gas was released.

Their warning had worked.

But all the survivors had gathered outside Sanctuary’s entrance at Ground level. It was just a gravel road that led to the guard shack and chain-link gate once used to welcome trucks for processing by the landfill. The landfill’s maze covered acres and acres of recycling and trash, and allowed Sanctuary to hide in plain sight before the world fell apart.

But now, Grove and Mondo and everyone who mutinied, had failed, and lay gunned down on the gravel.

I just don’t think I can do this anymore. Dessa didn’t even know exactly what this was. She was so tired, physically, yes, but tired in her bones, in her heart, and her soul.

Tiana’s combo cured skin was ashy and extra pale underneath all the grime, cement dust, and dried blood that streaked it. The wrinkles around her eyes aged her a few years older than her eighteen years. I… I know. Me too.

They had picked through this field of dead bodies in search of their friends. They had checked everyone, over a hundred, turning over their still warm bodies with minds racing and fear in their hearts.

But they hadn’t found the boys.

Amos, Cole, Egg.

Amos, built like a football player with broad shoulders, dark hair, a strong chin, and a gentle heart. Egg, built like a stick, tall, lanky, angular, goofy and obsessed with footwear. Cole, built for the shadows, with dark hair and a dark scowl he’d tried to hide all these months while living under Sanctuary’s rules.

They hadn’t found Delmar either, now the leader of the combo cured people from Farm. Delmar had been with them at the group home before all this started. He’d transformed from a bully who always hunched his shoulders like he was anticipating a slap into something else, something far more formidable.

Some of Sanctuary’s Security staff, wearing their typical eggshell blue uniforms, cleared away rubble and brought in supplies from who knew where. With the Super V’s exterminated and the mutineers dead, there was now free access to all the food, water, and other supplies that would last years, especially now with half the number of people to feed.

The blue suits took up the wheelbarrows that Dessa, Cole, and Riley—Riley, dead from Dessa’s own knife when she’d been infected by a Super V—had used to bring produce back and forth from Farm. Now, the blue suits used those wheelbarrows to form a train that removed the bodies.

The three-story fence that rimmed Sanctuary and the landfill shimmered in the distance. The V mob that had congregated all along it was now gone. She didn’t know if that was evidence of Delmar or not. He had helped Mondo and Grove with the initial mutiny, then promised to provide a distraction that would draw the V mob away from the fences, but then he and the rest of the combo cured had vanished and not been seen for over a day.

Dessa tried to force herself to take a step toward Sanctuary. Ms. Winters and all the scientists were setting up the upper three stories for their new lab. She had never been allowed up there, but now this would be the new home of Project Polus. Would they let her back in? She had defied Ms. Winters’ orders. But Ms. Winters had desperately wanted Dessa to come with them. Dessa could only hope that was still true. In spite of all the monstrous things Ms. Winters had done and participated in, she was in charge of Project Polus. She was the reason Dessa’s brother, Ivan, was still alive and unturned.

Now only four kids in Project Polus remained out of the original ten. Claire, who was even younger than her brother. The twins, Angela and Angelina, who were thirteen years old now. And Ivan. Project Polus was the reason for all of Sanctuary to exist. The kids had been bitten and infected with the Lyssa virus, but Ms. Winters had been able to save them—to make them immune.

Someday—though Dessa had no idea when and secretly feared it might be never—Ms. Winters would share the Project Polus treatment with others. With Dessa. With Cole. With everyone still uninfected.

Dessa took a deep breath. I should try to see my brother and the other kids.

Yeah. See how they’re holding up, Tiana said, voice quiet like a mouse. Get away from all this.

But neither of them moved. The shock of everything was still so raw.

Dessa told herself to take a step. Just one step.

But her body refused. It wasn’t even a fight. It was a shutting down, like her battery had died. She wouldn’t mind if the ground swallowed her up and she could let everyone do whatever they wanted to each other because she was never going to stop any of it and it was never going to end.

But her brother was inside.

And there was Riley, too. Dessa owed it to Riley to make sure they honored her last wish. Riley had made Dessa promise to burn her body. To burn it all up.

Remembering that promise finally allowed Dessa to take a step, and then another. I need to make sure Riley is….

Tiana came with her, mostly because if Dessa let go, she knew they would both fall to the ground and might never get up again.

They headed for the entrance, skirting the bodies, the wheelbarrows, the stench of blood. Her knees shook, maybe from climbing up almost eight floors of Sanctuary’s wrecked stairwell, maybe because she was just so sick of all this death and destruction.

A blue suit stood at the entrance, blocking their way in. This woman wore one of the full bubble hazard suits with the hood pushed back. The outside temperature was hot enough on this spring day that Dessa suspected the hazard suit acted like a sauna blanket. Sweat plastered the woman’s hair to her head and more sweat dripped down her neck.

You can’t go in there, the blue suit said almost automatically. Maybe she felt bad about what she’d done. Maybe she realized she could never take back what had happened today. And now, in the aftermath, now maybe she wished it hadn’t happened.

I want to check on my brother, Dessa said, her voice emotionless. And our friend…. Her body is in there. We need to take care of her.

No, I’m sorry. No one is allowed inside without permission.

Maybe before, Dessa would’ve gotten angry. Part of Dessa knew she was experiencing shock, also exhaustion, hunger, thirst. A part of her wondered if she would ever be anything other than an outsider. It’s all she had ever been since the day both her parents died in a car accident. Maybe that had been true even before the accident. Her family had immigrated to California so long ago she couldn’t even remember what it was like anywhere else, but she had still never felt like she belonged. She had never fit in. Staring at the woman, Dessa felt dead inside. She needed to rest and think and plan. But right now, feeling empty of emotion was the best she got—was the only way to get through the next few minutes.

Then radio whoever you need to radio, Dessa said, hoping she wasn’t wrong about this. She had refused to go with Ms. Winters and the kids. Not doing what the adults said always came with consequences. Ms. Winters? Coordinator Schofield? We’ll wait.

As the sun beat down on their necks, the blue suit unclipped a radio and turned around.

After a long minute, the radio squawked back. Facing them again, she said, You may go in.

But when Dessa and Tiana moved, the blue suit blocked them.

There was the faintest spark that ignited in Dessa. You just said—

The blue suit nodded at Tiana. She’s not allowed in. You know the rules.

Dessa closed her eyes and thought about burning the whole place down. After everything? They were going to treat Tiana like they were better than her because she had the combo cure? After they had just finished massacring so many people?

Tiana stepped back, the gravel crunching under her shoes. It doesn’t matter. Take care of Riley. Check on the kids. That’s what’s important right now. I’ll wait here for you.

Dessa blinked her eyes open. She didn’t want to go into Sanctuary alone, but there was no choice. I’ll be quick.

The blue suit stepped out of the way as Dessa passed into the building’s shadow and across its threshold. The sunlight dimmed as she entered the doom and gloom of Ground level, partially destroyed from the explosives the mutineers had set off to seal the elevators. The safety Sanctuary had offered always more than balanced out the darkness. But not anymore.

Ground level was set up as a large open warehouse space and bustled with activity. To her left, a cheap looking desk that had been there since before the Lyssa virus destroyed the world welcomed everyone. Blue suits and even a few scientists in their now dusty white lab coats worked to clear rubble from the stairwells built along the walls on either side of the room. The intercom machine was just a pile of rubble. At the far end of the warehouse was a partitioned space that led to Sanctuary’s incinerator, and to Riley.

Dessa headed across the floor, the cold sinking into her skin. Small windows lined the top of this level where the walls met the ceiling. After working in Sanctuary’s underground levels, she had always found relief from that bit of natural light on Ground, but now she couldn’t bear to be inside any longer than was necessary.

She reached the door that led to the incinerator. It was open and revealed the garbage elevator had sort of imploded on itself, and then her eyes fell on the too-still lump of canvas cloth. With all the care she could manage, she asked for help from one of the blue suits, and they brought Riley to the incinerator already working double time, taking care of everything else Sanctuary was trying to burn up. Maybe cover up was a better word for it.

As they helped her lift Riley gently into place, Dessa could so easily picture the sixteen-year-old’s blonde hair, sharp blue eyes, and stuck up attitude, her lip curled in a half-smile.

I’m sorry this happened. I wish I’d been nicer to you. You were one of the bravest people I’d ever met.

As if Riley was still alive, Dessa could picture exactly what she would have said.

Yeah, well, suck it up, buttercup. You’ve got to pull it together and stop feeling sorry for yourself. At least you’re not dead—yet. Try to keep it that way, okay?

And then it was done.

Riley was gone. Dessa had kept her promise.

But there was so much more to do, and though Dessa tried to take Riley’s imagined last words to heart, she was not at all sure she had it in her to do it.

2

Dessa left the incinerator room, but didn’t get more than a few steps before she was stopped in her tracks.

With their backs to Dessa, two white lab coats marked the presence of Ms. Winters and Coordinator Schofield. They were deep in conversation and hadn’t noticed her presence. It seemed the truce she had witnessed between them, as they walked hand in hand back inside Sanctuary after the massacre, had not lasted long.

The scanning equipment is not up to specifications. Ms. Winters’ voice was laced with disdain. It is not what was promised. It is not at all redundant to the caliber of—

It is what we have. There was a hint of steel in Coordinator Schofield’s voice. The cuff of his lab coat sleeve revealed his gold watch, dusty, but still glinting in the pale light. We must confirm complete eradication of the Lyssa virus within the deep tissue and organs. If more invasive procedures are required, so be it.

Ms. Winters’ spine stiffened, but Dessa couldn’t read her expression to know what emotion had produced it. She took a step closer to better hear. The two scientists hadn’t noticed her yet and though there were plenty of others working on Ground level, everyone ignored her. The smells of burnt rubber, cement dust, and cold filled the air.

You cannot possibly expect me to sacrifice the long-term data we are only beginning to collect—

Not all, Coordinator Schofield interrupted. Only two. We must progress. We must do whatever it takes.

You do not need to remind me, Ms. Winters replied. Yet there is no need for such a step. Not yet.

I disagree with such an assessment, Coordinator Schofield said. What is the point of additional experimental participants if we cannot confirm whether the first round of treatment has resolved the encrustation of the viral protein coat at the deep tissue and cellular—

Ms. Winters interrupted. We would learn far more by applying the refined Project Polus treatment protocol to new participants—

Dessa drew in a sharp breath as the thought made her dizzy.

New members? Dessa’s mind burst with the possibilities. She couldn’t understand most of what they were saying, but she caught that part, at least.

The noise brought both Ms. Winters and Coordinator Schofield whirling around.

For an instant, they looked like two kids caught doing something naughty. Then the moment vanished and Coordinator Schofield’s expression resumed his default arrogance. He glanced at Ms. Winters with raised eyebrows. I am going upstairs. Please join me when you are finished down here. There is still much to debate and determine. His eyes slid over Dessa and away again. Turning around, he walked across Ground level to the stairs.

The brilliant Ms. Winters had managed to fix her hair and clean the large lenses of her glasses so that they shined. She was old enough to be someone’s grandmother and was the most prestigious scientist working inside Sanctuary. Only Coordinator Schofield had more authority than her, but he wasn’t nearly as popular among the scientists.

Dessa, Ms. Winters began, carefully feeling out the words. I’ve made a space for you with the other children. She looked beyond Dessa and into the incinerator room. Was that…?

Yes, Dessa said, her voice clipped.

I’m so sorry for your loss. I didn’t know Riley well, but she seemed— Ms. Winters trailed off, maybe unsure of how to finish that sentence.

Riley had always been completely herself, which meant totally uninterested in scientific experiments.

You’ll need to get cleaned up first, of course, Ms. Winters continued with no hint of rebuke in her voice.

It made Dessa uneasy how nicely Ms. Winters spoke. She used the same voice with Dessa as she used with the kids. Grandmotherly and sweet. Which was a total act