The Truth is Contagious (The Contagium Series Book 4) (47 page)

I took in a ragged breath. “You hit the same
side not that long ago when Hannah drove off the road.”

“Yeah, so?”

“I’m no doctor, but even I know repeated head
trauma is bad.” I finished cleaning the wound to the best of my
ability then wiped down his remaining cuts, using most of the
alcohol swabs.

Hayden took my hands in his. “Let me take
care of you.”

I took my hands out of his and put them on
his cheeks. I pressed my lips to his. My heart finally took a
moment to stop racing. My eyes closed, and a second of warmth
passed through me, calming my mind. Then I opened my eyes and was
terrified again.

“No. You need to lay down. I got a bad
concussion not that long ago and it took me days to get better.
Start resting now.” I stood, helping him up. The movement made
Hayden sick again. My chest tightened. Hayden was going to be all
right. He had to be.

I removed his weapons and helped him lay
down, loosely draping the sleeping bag over his body. I wanted to
collapse onto the mattress, curl up next to him, and cry. Instead,
I bent down and unclasped his watch, pressing a button to light up
the screen to tell me the time. “I’m going to wake you up every
hour,” I told him. That’s what Padraic had done for me, right?
Maybe it was every half hour? I doubted I’d be able to wait that
long. Every ten minutes seemed more likely. I’d worry too much if
more time passed.

“Ok,” he mumbled and reached for me. I
squeezed his hand and got up, moving the broken table in front of
the door. It did little good since the frame had been damaged. The
door didn’t even latch. Still, it made me feel better. And the only
way up was from the fire escape. The chances of someone else being
in here were slim to none…well, anyone being in here that posed a
threat. Any zombie would be a melted gummy by now.

I put a cushion on the floor and sat, the
bottom of my pants soaking up the moisture that was locked inside
the old padding. I got up, tossing it to the side and sat on the
edge of the mattress, quietly going through the pack.

We both needed to eat. The thought of chewing
food seemed too tiring, but I forced myself to eat a banana and
granola bar anyway. The fruit was bruised from being jostled around
in the pack. I set some aside for Hayden and downed half a water
bottle.

I checked on Hayden before going out in the
hall to look through the other door. I couldn’t open it. The frame
had been smashed down, pinning the door to the floor. I sighed,
relieved. Unless something came up the fire escape, we were safe
for the night. I went back into our small shelter and sat at the
end of the mattress again.

“Hayden?” I whispered. I didn’t want to fully
wake him since he needed sleep. A simple response was enough…I
hoped. “Hayden.”

“Mmh,” he groaned and lifted his head. “I’m
ok, Riss.”

I nodded, forgetting he couldn’t see me in
the dark. “Ok.” I checked the time, watching each minute tick by
until I could check on Hayden again. My heart never stopped racing.
As soon as I’d start to relax, the wind would blow through the open
window, causing debris to noisily blow throughout the building.
Crazies moved throughout the city, their calls floating up here in
the most chilling echoes.

I wrapped my arms around myself. I had
already put my button up on and was still cold. Exhaustion tugged
at me, begging my eyelids to close. I checked on Hayden and bent my
legs up, resting my arms and head on my knees.

Anxiety consumed me and I couldn’t turn off
my mind. Had Ivan and the Brians made it back to the compound with
the food all right? And what about Brock? I could easily rattle off
ways his trip back home could go wrong. Then there was Jason…the
detox from whatever the hell he was given had to be awful. If he
went into withdrawal before he got back to Padraic…I shook my
head.

“No,” I whispered. Brock would get him back
in time. Somehow, someway, he would. And if anyone could, it was
Brock. He was always prepared for anything and everything.

I pressed my trembling hands into my legs,
trying to take slow, steady breaths. When the anxiety pulled me
under, I got up and went out of the room, crawling through the
broken door onto the fire escape.

I bit my lip and looked down, unable to see
much in the dark. I inhaled and looked up, blinking back tears. I
stared at the Regency until my vision blurred. How in the hell were
we going to get on that island? I couldn’t tell from this far away
just how well guarded it was. It looked like a palace, shining
bright in a sea of evil, offering safety and shelter. I imagined it
to have a large steel drawbridge of some sort.

A feeling of foreboding bubbled inside me.
The wind blew and goosebumps broke out over my arms. I pulled the
button up closed, my fingers catching on the scratch marks on my
chest from Jason. The tears I was holding back spilled over,
running down my cheeks. Pulling on the scabs hurt, but I wasn’t
crying from the pain. I sniffled, shaking my head. Crying didn’t
help. It wasn’t going to solve anything or make this mess of a
journey any easier.

I wiped my eyes and went back inside, rousing
Hayden every twenty minutes to make sure he was ok. Around 4:00 AM
I sat near the broken window, leaning against the wall. I bent my
legs up, wrapping my arms around them and resting my forehead on my
knees. I only meant to close my eyes for a little while.

I woke up over an hour later to the loud
chatter of birds flying around in the twilight haze that held the
city in a suspended state between night and day. I gasped when my
eyes went to the window. It was the first thing I saw when I woke
and had forgotten how high up we were.

Then I jerked my head to the other side,
stiffly scrambling to my feet. “Hayden,” I whispered. He didn’t
move. “Hayden,” I said louder. He still didn’t move. I hurried to
him, dropping to my knees. I stuck my hand out, grabbing his arm.
He was cold and stiff.

“Hayden!” I screamed, my fingers pressing
into his skin. He took a shaky, labored breath and moved his arm,
his muscles trembling. The sleeping bag had fallen off of him.
“Fuck. You’re freezing!”

I yanked both shirts over my head and kicked
off my boots, struggling to yank my feet out without unlacing them.
I unbuttoned my jeans and hastily pulled them down, almost tripping
when I stepped out. I lay down next to Hayden, pressing my body to
his, and pulled the sleeping bag over our heads.

“Hayden,” I whispered, wrapping my legs over
his. I pulled up his shirt so our skin touched. “Can you hear me?”
He wasn’t shivering. That was bad…very bad. This was my fault. I
had fallen asleep and didn’t check on him. Hayden got injured
saving me.
Again
. I ran my hands up and down his arms.
“Hayden,” I cried, unable to hold back my tears any longer.

“Riss,” he mumbled.

I swallowed a sob and stopped moving.
“Hayden?”

He inhaled and moved his arms. “You’re warm,”
he said.

“I’m so sorry,” I said and started
crying.

Hayden embraced me, pressing his head against
my neck. “Don’t cry. It’s ok.”

“No, it’s not ok. I fell asleep and didn’t
check on you and now you’re cold and hypothermic along with the
concussion.”

“I’m not hypothermic,” he said, his voice
thick with sleep. “And you needed sleep. You didn’t have to—are you
naked?” His hands ran over my bare back.

“Not completely. You need body heat.”

Hayden softly laughed. “It’s not cold enough
to be hypothermic, is it?”

I shook my head. “It’s windy up here.”

Hayden hugged me tighter, keeping the
sleeping bag over our heads in a cocoon of warmth. “It is. But I’m
not freezing to death. One life threatening injury at a time, I
promise.”

“That’s not funny.”

He kissed my forehead. “I feel a little
better, not so sick anymore.”

“Good,” I said. “But you still need to rest.
You need your strength for whatever the hell we run into and of
course I want you better.” I pressed my hand over his chest,
feeling his heartbeat. “I really thought you were dead,” I said and
felt emotional all over again.

“I’m sorry, Riss. I know how scary it was
when I thought you were dead before. It’s the worst feeling.”

“It is,” I said, sliding my hand up his chest
and over his shoulder. I gently ran my fingers over the bullet
wound scar. “Don’t ever leave me.”

“I won’t. I promise, Orissa. I never want to
live a day without you.” He kissed me again then put his head down,
quickly getting sucked back into a deep sleep. We stayed there,
wrapped in each other’s arms. I finally fell asleep myself, not
waking for several hours.

I gently shook Hayden; he opened his eyes and
said my name then went back to sleep. Sunlight poured in through
the broken window. I got dressed, ate breakfast, and went out onto
the fire escape, bringing a pair of binoculars with me.

The Regency had to be well guarded. I held
the binoculars up to my face as my mind whirled with the
possibilities. They were on an island, so the perimeters wouldn’t
have to be as closely watched as ours were at the compound, but
they would be fools not to have some sort of lookout.

It was hard to see around buildings; we had
to get closer to get a better look. How would we do it? Pretend to
be crazy and hope not to get shot? Judging by the amount of crazies
left in the city, I didn’t think whoever was at the Regency cared.
They probably felt untouchable. I hoped it had gone to their
heads.

I went back in, waking Hayden for breakfast.
Despite his protests, we stayed in that cruddy apartment for
another day. Hayden had gotten hurt badly and needed the time to
heal. His movements were slow and jerky at best. There was no way
he could fight yet.

We sat on the fire escape that night, each
eating an apple. We had just enough food to last us one more meal
since we hadn’t planned on a delay like this. Hayden felt bad about
it. I argued it gave us more time to come up with a plan though
really, until we were closer to the Regency, we didn’t know what we
were dealing with.

The wind brought in rain, blowing a cool mist
in through the broken window. We moved as far back as we could,
putting the mattress behind the couch which blocked some of the
wind and rain.

In the middle of the night, the rain turned
into a thunderstorm. We huddled together under the sleeping bag,
watching clouds swirl around when the lightning flashed. The
building groaned and swayed in the gusty wind. My stomach was in
knots and we both feared another tornado.

Hayden rolled over, covering most of my body
with his. “Are you cold?” he asked.

“I’m ok,” I told him, running my hand up
under his shirt. “You?”

“No, I’m good.” Thunder boomed; the crackles
resonated against the ruined building. “I’ll be glad when this is
over.” He pushed up, looking over the couch. “I never minded storms
before this.”

I sighed. “Me neither.”

Hayden laid back down, resting his head
against me. “As long as this doesn’t turn into a zomnado, we’ll be
ok.”

“Ugh. Flying zombies. Thanks for the
nightmares, Hayden.”

He chuckled. “I’ll wake you up.”

“You better.” I stretched my legs, sore from
being crammed together on the tiny mattress. I didn’t dream about
zombies being hurled through the air from wind. Instead, they came
out of the water surrounding Wards Island and pulled us down,
ripping us apart under water.

We were woken by a stentorian chopping.
Hayden stiffened, his eyes glazing over the way they did when he
had a flashback. The deafening noise shook me. I hadn’t heard it in
months, but I was able to quickly identify it as a helicopter.

“Hayden,” I said over the chopper. “It’s ok!”
But was it ok?

Wide eyed, Hayden stared at me. Then he
blinked. We stayed hidden behind the couch until the chopper was
gone. “I know I’m going to sound like your grandpa,” Hayden began.
“But I really hope they didn’t have thermal imaging on that
thing.”

“We could be crazy for all they know,” I
added quickly. Hayden nodded. We went to the window, looking out at
the sky.

“It makes sense they’d have one,” Hayden
said, peeling the bandage off his head. The wound had scabbed over
nicely. “How else would they get out of the city? The roads aren’t
drivable.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I hadn’t even thought
about it.”

“I bet they’re going to look for those guys
at the greenhouses, wondering what happened.”

“At least it will just look like zombies,” I
said.

“Ready?” he asked me.

“If you are.”

He stretched his arms over his head. “I am. I
feel back to normal.”

I nodded. We moved away from the window to
pack up our stuff. Then I turned and swung at Hayden. He caught my
fist, twisting my arm away. I pulled back and came at him
again.

“See?” he said when he deflected my blow.
“I’m fine.”

I smiled at him. “Ok. I believe you now.”

We brought only what we needed. If we hadn’t
gotten in by nightfall, we were coming back here to hide out the
dark. We carefully picked our way down the fire escape, keeping an
eye out for crazies. We made it one block before we ran into
company.

Hayden and I stopped, watching the zombies
that had followed us out of Central Park struggle to get over the
debris in the street. One caught sight and reached forward,
blundering into a mess of pipes and broken walls. He impaled
himself on a rusted piece of metal. Stuck, he wiggled his arms in
the air, growling and groaning. We sidestepped around him, crossing
to another less occupied street.

Wards Island loomed ahead. If we wanted to
look like real crazies, then we couldn’t carry so many weapons. I
took the quiver from my shoulder and carefully stashed it along
with the bow in a nook of demolished cement. I covered my gun with
my shirt and held my knife flat against my thigh.