Soneschen.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, heartbroken that Bowen’s only surviving family member is locked up, leaving him completely alone.
“You’re sorry? He would have killed you. He’s where he deserves to be.”
“But he’s your only family,” I say.
He’s quiet for a minute before answering. “No. You’re my family now, Fiona.”
Tears flood my eyes and spill down my cheeks.
“Tears? For me?” he asks, his voice a hungry whisper. I turn and look into his eyes. They’re ravenous, almost like a beast’s, and they devour mine. He puts his warm hand against my face. “I love you,” he whispers. “I didn’t know if I’d ever get to tell you that again.”
“I love you, too,” I say, clinging to him like he might disappear.
And then his lips are on mine and my body seems to meld precisely into his. Cautiously, so I don’t bump any of my injuries, I slip my good hand behind his neck. Inside his mouth, pressed to his palate, I taste something slick and smooth. I’m curious what it is, but not curious enough to stop kissing him in order to ask. I tighten my hand in his hair and kiss him deeper.
It feels like mere seconds have passed when a door opens, feet walk quietly into the room, and someone clears her throat.
“Time to go,” Lis says.
Bowen pulls his mouth from mine and scowls at her. “She’s helping me heal, though,” he says.
Lis grins at Bowen. “Nice try, buddy. It’s been ten minutes! I talked the doctor into giving you extra time already! I don’t think he’ll approve if you kill her because you can’t control your hormones.”
He sighs and looks into my eyes.
“What’s in your mouth?” I ask.
He opens his mouth wide, tilting his head up so I have a good view. Pressed to its roof is a small silver chip that catches the light.
“What is that?”
“A little something I stole from the pit commentator,” he says with a gleam of mischief in his green eyes. “I have a present for you. And you,” he adds, looking at Lis again. “Don’t medicate Fo yet. Turn the television on in fifteen minutes.” He kisses me once more, fast and gentle, and then he climbs from the bed and strides out of the room.
Lis raises one eyebrow and gives me a look that makes me duck my head under the covers and giggle. Very thirteen-year-old. But I don’t care.
Chapter 38
Fifteen minutes later, Lis brings a small flat screen into my room and sets it in my lap. She hovers behind the head of my bed, watching with me. The words Being Broadcast Live scroll endlessly across the bottom of the screen.
The television shows the walled city just before sunset, from the high view of a helicopter—green fields, houses, buildings, people. In the distance, a man is standing on the wall, arms raised, voice booming above the throb of the helicopter. It circles closer to the man, and the camera focuses on his face.
My heart starts pounding as I stare at the screen, mesmerized.
“… a cure!” Bowen shouts. The setting sun glows orange on his skin, frames him with light and hope and salvation. “I repeat! We have found a cure for the beasts, and for the Fecs,” he yells, voice as loud and strong as thunder, thanks to the chip he stole from the commentator.
The helicopter crosses the boundary of the wall. In the distance loom Mile High Stadium and the Pepsi Center. The camera dips and bobs and focuses on the dead, dusty world just outside the wall—buildings with broken windows, trash-strewn streets, cracked pavement. And, surprisingly, people. They are creeping out of buildings, climbing up from sewer grates, skulking on rooftops, leaning out of windows, and they all have their faces turned up toward Bowen.
“I repeat,” Bowen calls, “we have found a cure! There is hope. There is an end! A new beginning!”
The camera zooms in on the people outside the wall, on their gaunt, dirty, haggard faces. Scared faces. Weeping faces, with tear-streaked cheeks. Laughing faces, eyes full of hope. Shocked faces, mouths hanging open. People start jumping up and down. Clapping. Dancing. Embracing. They start calling out the news, passing the words to others farther down the street, who pass it on to more people farther down the street. And then they dance, until as far as the camera can see, people are dancing in the streets.
I can literally see the news spreading through them, wiping away despair like a physical wave, and I understand what is happening.
For the first time in four years, they have been given hope.
Epilogue
WARNING: FUGITIVE
FORMER GOVERNOR JACOBY SONESCHEN
HAS ESCAPED FROM PRISON
Age: 48
Height: 5’9”
Weight: 150
Hair: Brown with gray temples
Other: Recent bullet wound to chest
Possibly running for Wyoming
Reward: 8 oz honey for any information
leading to his recapture
Acknowledgments
I must first thank my husband, Jaime, because without my picking his brain about possible plot scenarios, this book never would have made it past page one hundred. Also, he turned this book’s dedication into something beautiful.
As for the sleep-destroying nightmare that became chapter 1—thank you!
Marlene Stringer, my dear agent, you rock. Enough said.
Emily Easton, Nicole Gastonguay, Laura Whitaker, Melissa Kavonic, Regina Roff, Donna Mark, Patricia McHugh, and everyone else at Walker Books who has put time, thought, effort, and sweat into this book, thank you! It amazes me what a group effort book publishing is, and I am eternally grateful for your professional expertise.
Bonny Anderson and Kristin Wester, you are the best critique buddies a girl could hope for. On that note—Elana Johnson, thank you for reading the first ten pages and asking a hundred questions. You opened my eyes to endless possibilities.
Last of all, thank you to Mom and Dad, Tiffiny, Brittany, Natalie, Matt and Ashlee, Ashlee’s mom and sister, Jennifer, Michelle, and Eamonn for reading this in manuscript form and loving it. Your enthusiasm is what makes me love to write.
Also By Bethany Wiggins
Shifting
Copyright © 2013 by Bethany Wiggins
All rights reserved
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or
by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or
otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
First published in the United States of America in April 2013
by Walker Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, Inc.
E-book edition published in April 2013
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, Walker BFYR, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wiggins, Bethany.
Stung / Bethany Wiggins.
pages cm
Summary: When a vaccine to save endangered bees causes their sting to turn children into
ferocious killer beasts, the uninfected build a wall to keep the beasts out, but Fiona wakes
up on the wrong side.
ISBN 978-0-8027-3418-1
[1. Survival—fiction. 2. Science fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.W6382St 2013 [Fic]—dc23 2012027183
eISBN 978-0-8027-3419-8
Table of Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Also By Bethany Wiggins
eCopyright
Table of Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Also By Bethany Wiggins
eCopyright