Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) (140 page)

I hoped Cage knew what he was doing
in the way of a high-speed car chase or we would end up flipped
over in a ditch. He seemed to be doing pretty well driving around
traffic cones and keeping control of the truck. I wasn’t sure what
the police were blocking us from. Cage seemed to have a destination
in mind and it required losing the cop cars. His jaw was firm and
his eyes were glued to the road.

I didn’t think they would just give
up, so we would have to actually outdrive them. There were still
two behind us at this point. I was thinking the other one went to
get back-up. Cage suddenly jerked the truck off the road and we
were driving through a cornfield. The green stalks were slapping
the windows and Rose, from I could tell by her disgruntled
yelling.

He drove in a zigzag pattern. I could
hear the sirens, but I couldn’t see the cars. Maybe this crazy plan
would work. I held on to the door handle as the truck violently
bounced along. Cage hooked to the left and we went into the
woods.

Now branches were slapping against
the truck windows and a very angry Rose. I was afraid she would
fall off, but the chains still did their job.

He drove through the trees the best
he could. We were sliding in the mud. At one point he had to change
direction when the trees got too thick to drive through. We,
finally, made it back onto the road in one piece. I didn’t see any
police officers behind us. I had to admit I was
impressed.

He cringed as he looked in the
rearview mirror and saw Rose standing in the bed of the truck. She
was covered in whip marks from the branches. Some of them were
bloody and one had struck her in the face. She was seething and the
look on her face was terrifying.

“
Sorry, Rose.” Cage opened
the little window in the back of the truck so she could hear him.
“At least we got away.”

After I let my heart slow down and
could think again, I asked the question I had been dying to know.
“Where are we going, Cage?”

“
We are going to the
Centera Factory. Dad would have wanted us to continue. Don’t you
think? We have to keep trying to cure ourselves, don’t
we?”

“
Yeah, I guess. Do you
know where it is?”

“
I do. I just don’t know
what to expect when we get there.” Our plan was careless. We didn’t
know if they would have a cure at the factory, we also didn’t know
if they would give it to us if they did. Desperate times called for
desperate measures, and Cage told me how cliché that was when I
told him.

Cage was right; there was no telling
the type of security they would have on a building like that. I
assumed it was our only shot, and there really wasn’t another
plan.

“
Alright, so, we are going
to the Centera Factory place to control our disease.” I smiled even
though that sounded ridiculous.

Cage reached over to take my hand
again. It was comforting to hold on to him, and know he was there
to protect me. He estimated that we were around four hours from our
destination and told me to take a nap if I wanted. I was really
tired, so I nodded off. I spent the next couple of hours nodding
off.

I awoke to the sound of glass
breaking and sat straight up.

Rose had busted the glass on the
driver’s side of the back window and was trying to strangle
Cage.

“
Rose, stop it.” She was
freakishly strong and prying her fingers from Cage’s neck took all
that I had. I, finally, got them free. He pulled over and she
grabbed my arm, pulling it through and cutting me on the glass. I
screamed in pain, as a piece of the sharp edge bit through my
skin.

Cage jumped in the truck bed with
her, but didn’t know what to do because of the position she had me
in. Finally, he decided to hit her in the head with the shovel I
had tossed back there. She let go of my arm and lunged at him. I
scrambled from the truck and jumped in with him. He grabbed her
good arm as she gnashed her teeth at him. I pulled the chains up
that were still attached to the truck and wrapped them twice around
her throat. When I pulled the chains, she went down to her knees.
Cage held her only arm to her side as I wrapped it to her
body.

“
No, Rose!” I was
disappointed in her. What could she have accomplished by choking
the driver? She struggled against the chains, but I had tied her
down well. Cage took a cinder block from the back of the truck and
put it on her chest. It looked painful, but he wasn’t taking any
chances. I assumed it was a lot like the zombies in the barn; she
had decided any form of food would have to do.

“
You’re bleeding, Cassie!”
He ripped the bottom of his shirt off and, quickly, tied it around
my arm. The pain was bad, but I had gotten used to it with the way
my bite wound had been stinging.

I smiled up at him. “Thanks,
Cage.”

He smiled back. “Thank you for
helping me wrangle rowdy Rosie.”

I laughed. “Say that three times
fast.” He tried and failed miserably. We laughed again as we got
back into the truck. I was glad that he was with me through
this.

I was preparing to buckle my seatbelt
when Cage surprised me with a kiss. He leaned over and pressed his
lips to mine, putting his hands on my shoulders. It lasted for
seconds, but it set my whole body on fire. It was a sweet kiss, and
he smiled as he went back to his side of the truck. “In case I
don’t get another chance.”

I blushed and touched my lips as he
pulled off again. I really liked Cage; in another universe, we
could have been something special.

Chapter 19

The Centera Factory

We arrived at the Centera Factory a
little before dark. The building was lit up and there were cars in
the parking lot. I took this to be a good sign. We parked the truck
and decided that we would come back for Rose after we figured out
what was going on. She couldn’t be trusted to act normal, anyway. I
looked down at her, under the cinder block, and she growled at me.
She reminded me of a scolded dog who had been chained and was mad
at her owner.

“
We’ll be back,
Rose.”

Cage took my hand and we walked,
together, across the parking lot and up to the building. I wasn’t
sure what to expect and my nerves were getting the best of me. The
building was lit up on the outside, and I could see what looked
like a lobby through the glass. I didn’t see any people behind it.
We moved slowly in case another explosion was set to go off. When
we had almost reached the door without incident, I thought we were
actually going to catch a break.

Just then, the red light of doom came
on over the doorway and scanned us. As we prepared to run away, an
alarm rang out all over the building and I could see red lights
flashing inside. About ten people, in white from head to toe, came
running at us.

They surrounded us before we had time
to move, and asked us if we could speak.

“
Yes, I can speak. We both
can. We are looking for help. Please.”

They seemed to take it we were not a
threat because they backed off. Some of them retreated back to
where they had come from. Three stayed with us.

“
Come on back; we can
offer you some medical assistance.”

I looked down at the bloody rag
covering my wound and thought that sounded like a great idea. They
didn’t take down their masks. I assumed it was because the red
light had told them we were infected. They didn’t offer their names
or ask for ours. We followed them down the hallway. One of them
opened a door and pointed at me.

“
You go in
here.”

I looked at Cage because I didn’t
feel comfortable being separated from him. He nodded at me and put
his arm around my waist.

“
If you don’t mind, we
would like to stay together. We have been through a lot
already.”

The people that were leading us
exchanged quick glances.

They must have decided it wasn’t
worth arguing because they ushered us both in the same
room.

We were in there for a while by
ourselves. When two nurses entered the room, I noticed that instead
of the masks, they had a full see-through helmet over their faces.
The only reason I thought they might be nurses was that they had
red crosses on their white clothes. This could also be a wing of
the factory where they had kept their test subjects, and
decontaminated themselves after a long day of creating zombie virus
cells. I try not to think about it as I look at their plastic
covered faces.

Seeing their faces helped me to relax
a little, and I realized that this must have been the reason for
them.

“
I’m Nancy, and this is
Jane.” One of them gestured to the other. “We are going to treat
your wounds and get you to feeling better.” She plastered a smile
on her face. The nurses busied themselves cleaning our cuts and
scrapes. They put wraps and bandages on us and disinfected
everything. I was thinking I would kill for a shower.

I noticed that they didn’t treat our
bite wounds. They stayed completely away from Cage’s shoulder and
my hand. Maybe they didn’t want to be infected.

They waited then gave us both robes
and left the room so we could change. I went to the back of the
room and cleared my throat when Cage didn’t turn away immediately.
He chuckled and turned his head back to the door. I heard him
mumbling. “It was worth a shot.”

I smiled to myself as I got out of my
shirt. I hadn’t really realized how dirty it was until I pulled it
over my head. It was so coated with dirt and blood that it held its
form after the shirt came off. I tried not to think about it as I
snuggled myself into the nice robe. When I turned around, Cage had
already stripped and changed into his.

I walked back over, thinking it felt
good to be out of those clothes, but a shower would be the best
thing ever. It was like they read my mind. The two nurses returned
with some of the white clothes like they were wearing, towels, and
soap. They directed us to a bathroom and pointed out the showers in
the back. I was too tired or I would have sprinted to the
shower.

As the water cascaded over me, I felt
a hundred times better. All the cuts they had treated and the
bandages were getting soaked, but I was in heaven. I found it
strange they would fix us up nicely just to have us get all their
first aid efforts soaking wet. I just decided that, perhaps, they
didn’t think about it.

When I turned the shower off, I felt
a sense of loss. Who knew when I would have another shower? I
started to hope that they would let us stay in this part of the
factory. I didn’t know plants like this had a need for a nursing
station, but I guessed that if one of the machines injured someone
they would have to go there. As far as I could tell, the only
people there were the ones that worked for the center. As I dried
off, I noticed that my wound had spread since that morning. The tip
of it was past my wrist now. How long was it going to
get?

When we got back into the room, we
both sat up on the examination table in our new all- white garb.
The two nurses came back into the room. They begin to ask us lots
of questions. They wanted to know when we had been bitten, how old
we were, the number of gray-skinned people we had been in contact
with, and lots of things about us that I thought were none of their
business. When they were finally done with the questioning, they
left the room again. When they returned, they had an interesting
kit of tools, along with some very big needles.

Chapter 20

We Have to Get Out of Here

The nurses checked our blood
pressure, took our blood very carefully, and checked our eyes with
little lights. I felt like I was being given a regular
physical.

When they filled up a couple of
needles, I thought it might be the cure. I looked at Cage, who also
had hope in his eyes.

“
How did you discover the
cure for the disease?” I wanted to know how they figured out how to
reverse something that seemed so aggressive.

The nurse turned to me as she walked
my way with a needle.

“
We haven’t found the
cure, yet. This is just going to help you relax a bit.”

Something was wrong. I started to
panic. I couldn’t tell if Cage could tell that this was weird or
not. It was then that I really took in my surroundings. There was a
jar on the countertop that appeared to have a heart in it. Beside
this, there were various tools that looked like they should be in a
torture chamber, not a nurses’ office in a factory. On the wall,
there was a poster with a very detailed look at the inside of a
zombie.

They were not going to help
us.

As the nurse got closer, I planned my
attack. The other nurse was still standing on the other side of the
room. If I planned it just right, I could get to both of
them.

Without warning, I kicked the nurse
approaching me in the stomach as hard as I could. The needle fell
from her hand and I grabbed it. The other nurse looked alarmed and
ready to flee.

“
Cage, get
her.”

He came out of whatever daydream he
had been in and realized what was happening around us. He wasted no
time getting to the other nurse and wrapping his arms around her
from behind.