Chapter Forty-Nine
~Now~
The door to our room has barely shut when I turn to face Cole. The man who has maintained his composure through all of this crumbles in front of me. I step forward and wrap my arms around his hard, lean body and say, “I’ll give them the information. Everything I know.”
“You can’t,” he replies, tightening his arms around my back. “There has to be another way.”
“There is no other way!” I shout into his chest. “And Erwin knows it. That’s your sister, Cole. I mean, I don’t know any of you that well but I know you better than anyone else left in this crazy world. She’s your sister. I can’t let this happen to her. Or to Wyatt.”
Wyatt. The sight of his face when they took the hood off. The absolute anger and tension coiled tight beneath the surface. I wonder if he has any idea what they have in store for him. That he’s caught in a lose-lose game of chance.
I tilt my head up and say, “He saved my ass more than once. So did Chloe. I have to do something and the only thing I can do is tell them what they want to know.”
“Do you think Erwin will stop just because you give him the information?”
“No.” I release Cole and step back. We both sit on the edge of the lower bunk. “Think. How do we get them out of there?”
“Everything is locked down—particularly that room. Richardson and Walker have their guns ready any time either of us step out of line. There’s no way into that room and even if there was, there’s no way out.”
We were in the pit of the base. No windows. No exits that we know of.
“Think outside the box,” I say. “What can we do?”
“Short of overpowering Walker
and
Richardson we’re screwed.”
“Then that’s what we should do.”
He looks at me with both eyebrows raised. “Are you kidding? We’ll get killed. We have no weapons. No real physical skills that match up to their guns. You’re dizzy all the time from blood loss…”
“Maybe there’s another way to overpower them,” I suggest.
“Like what?”
I study his unruly blond hair and deep blue eyes. The sharp curve of his cheekbones and shadowy stubble on his chin. “You’re cute—maybe Walker thinks so too.”
He laughs. “Yeah right.”
“I’m serious.”
“I could tell you to do the same with Richardson,” he says eyeing me. I shift uncomfortably and the mattress moves beneath us.
I take a breath and admit. “Already planning on it. I’m not sure he’ll be swayed but maybe I can throw him off for a minute.”
After a moment of silence Cole says, “This is a bad idea.”
“Do you have a better one?”
He looks away devastated. We’re screwed and we both know it.
***
The plan is set for the morning. We’ll divide and conquer—get one or both to lower their guard and then make our move. From there things get sketchy. Grab a gun. Incapacitate them. Free Wyatt and Chloe.
It sounds like a fantasy—but what about the last two months doesn’t? Neither of us has been on a rescue mission before. Neither of us had something so important to lose. I haven’t told Cole, but I’m putting my eggs in his basket.
“Tell me about Africa,” I whisper after lights out. We’re huddled on the lower bunk, backs pressed against the wall. Normally we keep our distance but not tonight.
“Africa was hard. And beautiful. And scary,” he replies. I can only see the outline of his face from the small light in the bathroom.
“Sounds familiar.”
“Yeah, it really does. I worked mostly at a clinic on the border of several small villages. They had been ravaged by the disease.”
“Did anyone get better?”
“A couple of patients made it through but it was rare. There was so much distrust between the locals and the medical community. Rumors that we’d brought the disease to them. The cultural differences in how to care for the dead—it added a layer of complication to our jobs.”
“You’ve been surrounded by death for a long time then.”
He leans his leg into mine and we’re joined. I like the feel of it. The feel of him being so close. “I have to assume now that’s why your dad hired me. I guess maybe he thought I could handle what was coming. Little did he know I’d get his daughter captured by the very people he warned me against and now she’s talking about seducing a soldier to get us out of here.”
“Cole,” I say fighting back a laugh. The absurdity is too much.
“It’s not funny, Alex. I am an absolute failure in the apocalypse.”
“I’m not laughing at you…just, I mean, we’re all pretty screwed here. We all got caught. Chloe and Wyatt had a head start and they still tracked them down. These guys have been on our tail since the beginning. And if anyone is going to fail my father it will be me. I’ve got no choice but to give Erwin what he wants.”
“You can’t,” he says. “Our plan will work.”
“What plan? We don’t really have a plan, Cole, and you know it. That seduction talk was ridiculous. There’s no way in hell I could pull it off.”
Cole moves beside me and I feel his hands on my neck, under my chin. His hands are warm and tentative. A strange feeling burns in my stomach. “What are you doing?”
“Never underestimate yourself, Alex. You’re strong and capable. Powerful.” His voice drops a level and I feel his breath on my face. “You’re beautiful. Fearless. Your father sent you on this mission for a reason. He trusts you. Believes in you.”
“What if he was wrong?” I reply in a shaky voice.
He rests his forehead against mine. “He’s not. You’ll make the right decision.”
The way my heart hammers in my chest and the tingly, electric feeling in my fingers and toes doesn’t give me confidence in making good decisions. Not at the moment, at least. All I want right now is for Cole to be closer—to push my fingers into his unruly hair. I succumb to this desire, feeling the soft curls in my hands and even in the dark I sense how close his mouth is to mine.
Cole’s hands grip my face but he hesitates…just a beat, just enough. I twist my burning face away and he moves his hands to my shoulders pulling me into his side. I rest my hand on his stomach and close my eyes, willing my heart to slow down.
“We’ll make the right decision,” he says again, close to my ear. “We have to.”
Chapter Fifty
~Before~
? Days Ago
“Damn.”
My mom never curses but the apocalypse changes things. And the SUV running out of gas, nowhere near anything, warrants at least one swear word.
“Well, at least we put some miles between us and that…whatever the hell that was,” I reply. I have no problem with cursing. This may be why we’re a good team.
“What do we do now?”
“Look for somewhere safe,” I say.
She searches the area and she doesn’t have to say what I know she’s going to say. Where? How? We’re in the middle of god forsaken nowhere. Population two.
I’m really starting to hate North Carolina. Once you leave the city you’re SOL. That’s why less than twenty-four hours after we found a vehicle and driving around in circles, we start walking across the wet, soggy fields.
“At least it stopped raining,” she says.
“At least we escaped those redneck, monster truck driving crazy people.”
“At least we got to sit for a while,” she counters. “And at least we’re not trapped in a laundry room with hundreds of cat eyes creeping us out.”
“At least I didn’t have to kill anyone today…”
My mom stops abruptly and her shoulders hunch. “Mom?” I ask, thinking maybe I’ve gone too far. I approach her and put a hand on her shaking shoulder. “That was horrible I’m sorr—”
Then I see her face. She’s crying, but it’s the good kind, followed by laughter. She laughs and laughs and I catch the bug and start laughing too. It’s the ugly kind of laugh, where her face scrunches up and I can’t breathe and oh hell, I think I may have wet myself.
She giggles like a madwoman, reaching out to a tree for support. She stumbles and I lunge for her, but she topples over anyway.
“Ow!” she howls, landing in the mud. I fall next to her, my face still wet with tears.
“Are you okay? What happened?”
A sudden seriousness takes over. She lifts her foot and her nose wrinkles. “I think I twisted my ankle.”
I touch the skin and sure enough it’s already swelling.
“Lift it up,” I tell her, pushing my bag beneath her leg to elevate her foot. I find my water bottle and open the cap, offering her some.
She shakes her head and says quietly, “I guess that’s what we get.”
I don’t reply. She’s right. We shouldn’t be joking. We shouldn’t even be out here. We’re one step from certain death all the time and acting like fools isn’t going to keep us alive.
Chapter Fifty-One
~Now~
“Up or down?” I ask, showing Cole the options. He tugs the gray t-shirt over his head and I try to keep my eyes from wandering over his exposed skin. He’s not built like Wyatt but still very fit. Not bulky but lean muscle. I point to the wad of hair in my hand. “My hair, which way should I wear it?”
“Uh, up?”
“I don’t know.” I drop the ponytail feeling like an idiot. “Richardson’s tough. It probably doesn’t matter.”
“Well, you should probably do the one.” He pauses and rubs the back of his neck. “You know, the school girl one.”
“The pigtails?” I haven’t worn them since we’d been locked up in here. A shower and access to a mirror allowed for alternatives.
“Yeah, that one.” I pretend the tips of his ears aren’t red and fix my hair. He’s revealed a lot of about his feelings for me. I haven’t done the same. I don’t know how I feel. I’m not even sure I can feel anything other than exhaustion and fear.
We’re both fidgety when the lock shifts and clicks, echoing off the hallway. Breakfast time—our only shot. Cole nods. He’s ready. It’s now or never.
Per usual, Walker enters the room first while Richardson waits outside. She’s not carrying trays of food.
I frown. “No food?”
“You’ve been summoned to the viewing room.”
“Now? Why so early?” I swallow the lump in the back of my throat. Well, I try. It doesn’t budge, although my stomach twists into knots.
“Get outside.” I don’t wait for Cole, who is adjusting his shoe laces as planned, moving past her to the hall. Richardson waits with his standard bored expression on his face. It’s now or never.
“Good morning,” I say offering him a smile. He shifts his eyes down at me but doesn’t respond.
“I figured if we’re going to see each other all day maybe we should become a little more familiar with one another. How long have you been stationed here?”
Before Richardson can laugh in my face Walker’s voice carries into the hallway. “Get your ass in the hall and never, ever do that again.”
Cole comes running out, an amused look on his face, that is, until Richardson moves forward, hand on his gun. Cole holds his hands up and says, “Nothing going on, you can put that away. Everything is fine.”
“What the hell did you do?” I whisper. When he stands next to me I see him working his jaw and the start of a purplish bruise rising on the corner of his mouth. “No seriously, what the hell did you do?”
“Quiet,” Richardson commands. Walker storms out of the room, her cheeks red and her eyes furious.
I expect her to take off down the hall but she stops in front of us both and eyes us. In the most terrifying voice I’ve ever heard she says, “Do not fuck with me today. Not today. Not after everything we’ve been through to get to this point. Both of you keep your stupid mouths shut and follow directions. Every. Single. Direction you’re given. Do you understand?”
Not one bit, I want to say.
“Yes, ma’am,” Cole replies, while I nod vigorously.
“And if either of you ever touches me again, I will break every bone in your body and
then
toss it in the cage with an E-TR to finish off.”
“Got it,” I say with a wince.
Operation Seduction is officially dead before it even started.
***
The Drones are silent as we walk through the lab. Surely, by now the whole place is aware of the death matches in the adjoining room.
“Can I ask a question,” I ask quietly once Walker punches in the code and we enter the viewing room.
She eyes Cole suspiciously but gives me a curt nod, “Yes.”
“Did the guy from yesterday, 1029, get infected? Did the antivirus work?” It’s the last bit of hope I have.
“The antivirus did not work. He’s infected.”
“Oh,” I say, feeling a crashing sense of responsibility. Shouldn’t I? I could help and I haven’t out of a sense of loyalty to my father. Wyatt and Chloe will die. It will be my fault. And to what end? I’m not even sure who the bad guys are here. I take a deep breath. “I think I’m ready to talk to Colonel—”
“Shut up,” Walker says cutting me off.
“What?” I ask.
“Don’t you dare. Not now.”
Cole jumps in and says, “Isn’t this what you wanted?”
“You have no idea what we want,” Richardson replies. “Which makes you two the luckiest bastards ever.”
“What?” I ask completely confused. “What are you talking about?”
“Alex, for once in your life, shut up. For real,” she says, eyes slipping from me to the door. The lock disengages and Erwin walks in brushing past Richardson. His shoulders are back and a smug look on his face. God, I hate him.
He smiles and it’s all I can do not to rush over and kick him in the gut.
“Glad to see you so early—thought this may not be a good idea on a full stomach…” He stops mid-sentence and grits his teeth, moving his hand to his neck. Richardson’s hulking figure steps out from behind him and he drops an empty syringe on the floor.
“Son of a…” Erwin says gripping his neck. His eyes turn unfocused and glassy before he falls with a thud to the floor.
“Quick,” Richardson says, his expression more lively than I thought it could get. He bends to lift Erwin off the ground. Walker follows suit pulling black zip ties from her pocket. Cole and I watch, stunned, as they secure his arms and ankles.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“What did I tell you?” Walker snaps.
“Shut up?”
“Bingo.”
The two soldiers struggle with Erwin’s limp body, eventually shoving him in a small closet at the back of the room. I have no idea how long he’ll be out. If it’s the same drugs they used on me when I was captured it could be hours.
Richardson rams his shoulder against the closet door, pushing back against Erwin’s weight in the tight space. Cole sighs and quickly thrusts his own body against the door and the door snaps closed with a click.
“Thanks,” Richardson says straightening his uniform.
Cole shrugs. “No problem.”
Walker tucks a stray piece of red hair behind her ear. That one loose hair is the most flustered I’ve seen her. It humanizes her. I grab her arm. “What is going on here?”
“We’re breaking you out—and your friends.”
“You’re kidding,” Cole says. Richardson nods. “How? Why?”
“Why?” Walker says checking her watch. “We’ll discuss later. We’ve got fifteen minutes before Erwin’s next meeting and we’ve got to be off the base before then. How? Follow directions. All of them.”
“Fifteen minutes?” I croak, trying to absorb everything.
Richardson removes two guns from his back and hands each of us one. “Take these but try not to kill anyone, okay?” he says.
While Walker latches the viewing room door back to the lab from the inside, Richardson removes the shade on the window. Wyatt and Chloe are both sitting silently in their clear cages. A Drone hovers around his station. The dark rings under her eyes make it clear she hasn’t slept. Similar signs point to Wyatt being exhausted as well, but he’s also hyper alert. There’s no way he won’t get out of this without a fight.
“Have they been injected yet?” Cole asks.
“We won’t know until we’ve got them out of there,” Walker replies. She moves to the opposite door and punches in a code as well as scans her fingerprints.
“So we’re just going to take a liability out of here?” I ask. “What if they infect us all before we figure it out? Wyatt is lethal without the amped up Eater juice.”
“The risk will be worth the reward, Ramsey,” Richardson says before turning on his heel. “Follow me.”
We file through the door into a narrow hallway. Richardson leads this time, motioning for us to follow. Three doorways line the wall and he stops in front of them. They’re marked A, B and Tech Only: Do Not Enter.
“Obviously we aren’t following these rules?” Cole asks.
“A and B lead to the confinement area Wyatt and Chloe are being held. The Tech room is our problem. If they’re alerted that this is going on they’ll call down to security.”
“So how do we deal with that?” I ask. “Zip tie him too?”
A door opens further down the hall. My hand reaches instinctively for my gun and I see the others have also moved to a defensive position. The person has the slender build of a woman, dressed head to toe in the standard blue lab outfit. A black backpack hangs off her shoulder. I’m still concerned until she says, “You bitches ready?”
Walker’s shoulders relax and she reaches for the bag, looping it over her shoulders. “This is how we deal with it. Meet Miranda. Our undercover tech.”
“Our?” Cole asks incredulously. “Who exactly do you all work for?”
“Not Erwin,” Walker says, again checking her watch. “Ten minutes.”
“The truck is ready,” Miranda says slipping past us. She signs in her code to enter the tech room and disappears without another word.
Walker turns to face us. “She’s going to manage the room from the inside. If necessary she’ll overpower the other tech. We have to get those two out while we can.”
I’m more anxious than I’ve been in months—even before the whole world-falling-apart thing started. How did I get to this place? I’ve got a gun in my hand and I’m rescuing people I don’t know very well along with people I don’t trust at all. Oh, and we’re trying to escape the relative safety of the base to go back out into a world filled with cannibalistic monsters.
Nothing about this life makes sense.
“Ramsey, you’re with me,” Richardson says. He nods at Cole. “You go with Walker.”
“Got it.”
Richardson opens door A and we duck inside. It’s really just the back of the cage. Wyatt jumps to his feet when he spies Richardson, hands and feet poised to fight.
“Thank God,” he says, relief washing over his features. He quickly performs some sort of complicated bro-handshake with Richardson. “I thought I was going to have to break out of here on my own.”
I peek out from behind the soldiers hulking frame. “You know each other?”
Wyatt breaks out a wide smile when he sees me, eyes roaming over my body, like he’s checking me out. I squirm but notice he stops on the bruised insides of my arms. He takes my hand and rubs his fingers over the swollen flesh. With a sharp shake of his head he mutters, “Assholes. Using you as their personal pin cushion.”
Movement behind Wyatt catches my eye and through the clear box I spot Miranda. She shouts at the Drone—her words indistinguishable through the thick plastic cage. He makes a move, tipping over a tray of instruments blocking Miranda’s path. Diving over the mess, she races across the room, chasing the Drone. She’s not fast enough and he manages to pull a lever near the door. A shrill alarm tears through the base.
“Holy shit,” I cry covering my ears. The sound echoes off the cinderblock walls.
“Run!” Richardson yells and we all rush out the door and back into the hallway. The twins and Walker are impatiently waiting but break into a run when they spot us. Everyone quickly outpaces me and I feel Walker’s hand on my back, shoving me along.
“The Drone pulled the alarm,” I shout to Walker trying to keep up. The days of blood loss have depleted my energy, but one look at Chloe’s thin arms and legs tells me they were at least feeding me better.
“No shit, Sherlock,” Walker yells over the alarm. She glances over my shoulder and curses under her breath. I start to look back but it’s not necessary. I hear the heavy boots, scuffling against the cement floor. Security has arrived.
Richardson gets us through the next door, which leads directly into a narrow stairwell—the only direction is up. My suspicions about being underground this whole time hit home. Of course with the world falling apart underground may be the safest place to be.
“Move it,” Walker screams, slamming the door, with at least five soldiers behind it. We scramble up the metal stairs, feet slamming like my heart in my chest.
“I hope you have a plan,” I say to Walker.
Wyatt turns his head and says, “Always.”
Walker laughs and nudges me hard in the butt. Stairs have always been my weakness. Running five miles? I can push through…slowly. An endless flight of stairs. I don’t know how long my legs can last.
“How much…”
“Do not even ask how much further we have to go, Ramsey. It’s the stairs or your life. Figure out which is your priority,” Richardson barks from the front of the group. The sirens are less loud in here, giving my ears a break.
We’re two flights up when I hear them behind us.
“Shit,” Walker says and I feel her stop moving. She jumps into it with the first soldier, a massive guy who looks like he could snap her neck. Walker reaches for her baton and swipes it in his direction. He stumbles backwards to avoid it and crashes into another soldier–this time a female.
Wyatt pushes past me and says, “Go! I’ve got this,” but I’m frozen in my spot. An hour ago Walker was my captor. Now she’s something different. And working with Wyatt? What the hell was going on? “Go!” he screams so close to my face he spits on me. It’s enough to shake me from my spot and I race after the others only glancing down when I reach the landing.