“You killed her, Holliston,” Pam said. “You may as well have shot her yourself.”
“I know it. I’m sorry. I live with it every single day” It was all I could say.
“Why didn’t you leave? Why didn’t you get her out of here?”
“Because I was afraid. As bad as the riots got, as bad as the orders I was given were, I was more afraid of what was outside the fence.”
“There’s nothing outside the fence,” she sneered.
“Exactly. I’d have to make my own way. I was too afraid of that. So I hung onto something that I knew wasn’t right.” I coughed up a little blood on myself.
She saw where I was going with that. She snapped, “I have built something here. Safety. Society.” She seemed oblivious to her two compatriots trading gunfire out the windows not ten feet away.
“I know about the vault, Pam. That’s the only reason you’re here.”
“It could be the last sample of – -”
“You’re not gonna win a prize for curing the plague, Pam. It’s time to let it go. There’s nothing outside the fence. I know you’ve kept the vault hidden for a long time. But I saw the power lines, Pam. You didn’t hide those nearly so well. And of course Stanford’s followed them in just like you knew he would.”
“I have to end this. The Hunters’ constant threats, constant circling. It has to end,” she screamed.
