Fever by Selina Brinkmann (readict TXT) 📕

After a second of wait Roxanne approached Bratt and clapped him on the back. “The picture was good but next time I cannot simply turn an eye on that. We might not like her but she is still one of us!”

Bratt had the sense to lower is eyes and mumble ‘sorry’.

“Just don’t do it again. Or at least not in her office! Cause I know you and your friends and there are probably more pictures where that came from!” and with a look at Amy Roxanne thanked her and put the clothes into a bag.

Evy who had followed the encounter between Bratt and Roxanne turned around and hugged Amy.

“Thank you so much for the clothes. I am sure that I now have anything I need. And I can happily return this peach coloured shirt to Roxanne.”

“Hey it’s not my fault that you don’t like that type of colour! A bit more respect please, without that stuff you would have walked around naked for the past two days.”

Laughing Evy shook her head and took the bag Roxanne gave her. With a last wave to the twins the two of them left the room to drop by at Charleen’s. The office was in the same state as the day before maybe even worse. Some of the folders now lay on the floor and Charleen was busy running through two at once.

“Heya, how are you doing?” Roxanne didn’t bother to put the other folders nicely on the floor or shelf when she approached a seat but simply lifted the chair and let them fall down to the floor. She suggested to Evy that this would do and the two pulled the chairs closer to the main desk.

“Pretty busy. Our chef is allowing some people to come to sanctuary and I have got the task to find space for all of them!”

Roxanne frowned. “Are you sure that this was his decision?” she doubted that her talk with him yesterday had changed that much.

“Yeah, apparently the other sanctuaries requested assistance and as Roan’s is the oldest and most secure they wanted him to lower his defences.”

“He can’t be too happy with that!”

Charleen cackled, “Trust me, he was everything but not happy. I think our gates would have been closed until next year at least f he hadn’t seen how hard the other two struggled. As far as I know he has got a conference later to clear everything with Tamara and George.”

Evy was confused by the last two names and asked the two women about it. Having learnt that there were three sanctuaries in total she realized how lucky she had been to find New Terra. Both of the others weren’t located within a radius of 1,000 miles.

“So how many of us are living here by now?”

Charleen pushed her glasses up and tugged out a list underneath the folders. “We are reaching 300 soon. Of course not all of them are living here” she added with a look at Evy’s surprised face, “there are some living in the wilder area as Roxanne probably already explained and we also need people to guard New Terra and work in the fields surrounding the hill or produce goods!”

More interested in learning how the sanctuary was run Evy leaned forward and put her elbows on the desk.

“But the clothes and the food from the cafeteria, it can’t all be produced here!”

“You are right. Some of the stuff comes from what we brought with us when we arrived, others have relatives who support them or are leading their businesses and bring in money to buy some products. In addition” Charleen stopped abruptly when she realized her slip.

Only the older members were supposed to know about the other ways they gained resources to support themselves.

“Yeah what else?”,Evy hadn’t realized the disruption and was waiting for more explanation.

“O I don’t want to bore you! I wouldn’t mind to have a little break now. Been working for a long time now!” she explained while getting up and stretching her limbs. Distracted by Charleen’s sudden departure Evy soon forgot about the last part in their resourcing and followed the other two women to the cafeteria.

Having been woken up by Liam in the morning hours after falling asleep in his office Roan was in a bad mood. The dream had let him restless and harder than ever did he have to fight the urge to seek out Evy. In addition he still didn’t know if his mind has played him or if the dream had been kind of real. And he was still bothered by her fighting the attraction and claiming to not be interested in him however the fear in her eyes seconds before she left had raised fury inside him.

Not being able to get back to sleep he had worked out a system to ensure that everybody wanting to join New Terra was tested and proven reliable. Only the pure exhaustion had let him fall asleep as it dampened the beast and its needs in him.

“So do you know how many people have come here in the last few months to seek shelter?”, he asked Liam who sat on the chair in front of his office.

“As far as I know there have been fifteen attempts but Brian should now the actual figures and I have no idea how many of them found shelter in the Refug or Libertat. I doubt that all of them waited two months to gain entrance.”

Roan nodded his head in agreement. Those figures were similar to the ones he knew. “I will have to speak with Brian, Taylor and you soon about the changes in our system. I think tomorrow should be fast enough as I will pass the changes out to Tamara and George today and see if they agree.”

“I set up the conference with Tam and George. They are expecting your call around two. Is there anything else I can do cause otherwise I will inform Taylor and Brian about our meeting tomorrow.”

Resting his head on his hand Roan crumbled the paper that lay underneath his hand. The whole night he had thought if he should launch a mission to find out more about the place Evy has escaped from.

“Yes, there is one more thing I would like you to arrange. I will have to ask Evy about her past and I didn’t really have time yesterday!”

– Maybe because you were too interested in her than her past! Roan ignored that and concentrated on Liam once more.

“If Evy was able to reach us the place where she came from cannot be far away. I want to find out everything about this place!”

- and her added the beast in him.

Liam narrowed his eyes at his best friend. “Are you sure that this is your sole interest? The last time I saw your beast so agitated was short before we broke free.”

Roan’s face hardened and the black eyes former filled with emotion were blank like dark stones once more. “I am sure. If we want to stay safe we better find this place soon.”

Liam knew that he had pushed too far but couldn’t resist to add before he left, “You can try as hard as you want Roan but deep within you aren’t out of stone. Even someone with your control has to give up sometimes!”

Roan groaned as he knew that his best friend was right and loosened his fist around the paper. Being in his office for far too long he soon followed Liam out and made for the alcove. From here he could oversee almost all of New Terra and enjoy the freedom he craved.

Having escaped from the camps he and Liam had persuaded the others to not go into hiding but to stay strong and united. They built New Terra in the cave system deep within the Rocky Mountains western from Denver. It took them more than three months to connect the biggest caves with each other and form tunnels between them. But it was safe and theirs.

After a few more months others began to arrive. Each of them with talents some similar but others totally different. They all worked together and started to provide for themselves as more and more of the villages in their nearer surroundings heard about their plans and started to withdraw from them. By the time the government declared that they weren’t longer considered citizens the hills were a new home for the survivors and became known as a sanctuary for those who were still seeking help.

Roan had done his best to give his friends and fellow victims a safe place to stay and if that meant to sell his soul to the government over and over again he was glad that he could do that. He knew that Liam already suspected something and he would have to tell him soon what he was doing if he wanted to keep their friendship. For now however there was no reason to let Liam get involved into something that could open up old wounds again.
To him it didn’t really matter. The camp had already destroyed so much of his humanity. Roan could feel it with every step the beast in him gained and he lost.

The beep of his phone interrupted his thoughts. Taking the call he got up and leaned against the wall. The green of the trees under him calmed him and the breeze that played in his hair reminded him of the time he had stood here and watched Evy taking in his territory.

“Yes?”

“God forbid you are nice on the phone!”, joked Taylor on the other end of the line.

“I am a busy man. What do you want?”

He heard her chuckle, “I just wanted to remind you about the conference. It will start in 15 minutes. And I thought you might want to be in the control room and not run into it.”

Combing with his fingers through his hair he just replied “Yes”, ended the call and headed down to the conference room which was deep within the hill and the centre of New Terra. Everything was controlled from here, the gates, their defences and their communication.

Entering the room through the main door Roan looked out for the red coloured head. Taylor had been one of the first who joined their forces after having escaped from the camps. She was one of the best hackers he had ever met and had just finished high school when the fever broke out.

Over the years they have become close like brother and sister as she had lost her family and he couldn’t remember his past before the camp due to their tests. If she wasn’t working or helping out in New Terra Taylor would search for clues about his past or her family as there were no records about their deaths.

Having found Taylor he swiftly made his way through the other operators working in the room. The conference room employed 20 people however as many were working shifts or outdoor to check upon their connection and updating programs it was relatively empty. He greeted Ralph an elder member of their group and a genius for developing codes and set down next to Taylor.

Without even looking up she explained the situation.

“You have got five minutes until we are online. Both of them want you to agree to open the gates as their sanctuaries are far smaller than ours. In addition they want our help to develop further. They can hold 200 each but their area is smaller than ours and open to attacks as they don’t have the natural protection through the hills.”

Roan nodded going over the notes and layouts he had.

“Is anybody of us stationed at their sanctuaries at the moment?”

“Not anymore. You withdrew them after the incident with the mors. But I think it is time to send some back. They kept us updated and we had the ability to monitor their growth and movement.”

He nodded again and accepted the headphones she gave him.

“To give you some privacy!” she looked at the countdown on her desktop, “Ok, five, four, three, two, one, you