Contagious (33 page)

“
A vaccine?” I echoed incredulously.

“
Yeah.”

“
Can she do it?”

“
I don’t know.” Hayden took his hand away. “We don’t know anyone else who had been bitten and not infected so it’s not easy. She told me she needs to test it on people but there’s no way we can do that.”

“
But why does she keep taking your blood?”

“
She—and your friend Padraic now, by the way—are trying to figure out what’s different about my blood.”

“
Have they found anything?” I asked. It hurt just a little to know Padraic kept a secret like that from me. He had no obligation to tell me, and I’ve avoided him like the plague, so it made little sense to care.

“
Nothing substantial. I guess I have more white blood cells. But not too many, like in cancer patients. I’ve always had a good immune system. Padraic thinks we need more than blood samples.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
I don’t speak doctor, but he said something about needing to do neurological testing. Obviously, we can’t do that here.”

“
Or ever,” I spat, also surprised at the emotion it sparked in me. “What if they fuck up your brain?”

“
It’s already pretty fucked up,” he said dryly. “You can’t tell anyone though, alright? Only Cara, Padraic, and Fuller know about this.”

“
I won’t tell,” I promised.

“
We don’t want anyone knowing because it will be disappointing if it doesn’t work,” he explained.

“
I understand.”

He leaned in close. Gently, he touched a scar on my forehead. “How did you get this?” he asked quietly, his face only inches away from mine.

“
Car accident. Well, kind of. I stole a truck from a crazy and there was a zombie in the backseat.”

“
Now that’s an interesting story.”

“
Sadly, it’s true.”

He smiled and pushed a loose strand of hair out of my eyes. A knock at our door made him jerk away. It was Fuller. With a grave look on his face, he pulled Hayden out of the room. I did my best to eavesdrop. From the bits and pieces I was able to gather, the group of A1s that were on the mission hadn’t come back yet…as they were supposed to that morning.

They could have run into complications, Hayden reminded him. One more day and they’d be here, Hayden was sure. I could tell by the worry he hid behind his hazel eyes he didn’t believe a word of what he had said.

-Chapter12-

The heater had completely stopped working. My hands and feet were almost numb with cold. I put on two layers of socks and pulled a hooded sweatshirt over my pajama top. I lay in bed shivering, trying to sleep and not notice the cold. At about one in the morning, a scuffling woke me up. I begrudgingly sat up, not wanting to escape what little body heat was trapped under my blankets. Then I heard it again. It was coming from Hayden’s bed. His breathing was heavy.

“
Hayden,” I whispered. “Wake up.” He didn’t respond. “Hayden! You’re having a nightmare. Wake up.” When he thrashed again, I got out of bed, instantly shivering. Hayden had thrown his blankets off of him. I gathered them up; he had to be freezing.

“
Hayden!” I said again, gently shaking him. He woke up with a start, grabbing my arms forcefully. “Hayden!”

He stiffened, still breathing heavy. “Orissa?”

“
Yeah.”

“
Oh. Sorry.” He let his hands run down my arms. “Your hands are like ice!”

“
Yeah, it’s cold in here.”

“
Oh.” He didn’t let me go.

“
You ok?” I whispered.

“
I-I, uh. Yeah.” I could barely see the silhouette of his head shake. “I have this dream sometimes. About Ben.”

“
Ben?”

“
My best friend. He joined the Marines with me. He died when an IED went off.”

I didn’t know what that was but my heart ached for him. I couldn’t imagine losing Raeya. I sat on the edge of his bed.

“
Here,” he said and pulled the blankets up over us. “It’s so real. Everything just replays. I saw it happen…” he trailed off.

“
Hayden, I’m so sorry.” I twisted and put my hand on his shoulder.

“
Then, Ben came back as a zombie. That part was new.” He put his hand over mine. “You’re still cold.”

“
I am.”

He took my hands in his to warm them up. “And I have to kill him, again and again, ‘cuz he won’t die. It feels like I’m really doing it.” Still holding my hand, he laid back down. “It’s just a stupid dream, I know that.”

I lay next to him, pulling the comforter up to my chin. “My mom used to be an alcoholic. I don’t know how many times I found her passed out in her own vomit. I still have nightmares about going to wake her up and she’s stiff and cold and dead.”

Hayden took his hand off mine and shyly put it on my waist. His body was so warm. I snuggled close to him, not wanting to acknowledge his presence brought me more than physical comfort. “What did you do? When you had the dreams, I mean?” he asked.

“
If I was home, I’d go check on her. If I wasn’t, I’d get up. I’d tell myself it was just a dream and do something else. Or sing. I sang myself to sleep many times.”

“
You have a beautiful voice,” he complimented.

“
Thanks.”

He held onto me a little tighter so that his lips brushed against the back of my neck. The feeling that gave me could only be described as butterflies, something I hadn’t felt since the seventh grade when Bobby Warner took me on my first real date.

“
You can stay here until you warm up,” he whispered.

“
Ok,” I said back.

Hayden’s arms were still around me when I woke up the next morning. I got up slowly, not wanting to wake him, and padded my way to the bathroom to shower. He was in the processes of getting dressed when I came back into the room. He smiled at me, his eyes sparking a bit. I let my eyes linger on his muscular torso when his shirt came off. My eyes traced over his tattoos and something inside me stirred.

I forced it away, concentrating on braiding my hair. The last to arrive at breakfast that morning, we sat at a table in the back by ourselves. Hayden was telling me about the crazy stuff he and Ben used to do back in their podunk, small town in North Dakota. Like me, Hayden had broken quite a few laws. Unlike me, he never got caught.

We had the day off from training and working out. Hayden told me that the C’s liked it when the soldiers interacted with them. And, he added, there were some really interesting people in the shelter. We were deep in conversation with a guy who used to be a lawyer. Since he had no oaths to abide by anymore, he spilled the beans on some well known clients.

“
There you are!” Raeya shouted and rushed over. “When will the results be posted?” she asked, her face strained.

“
The results?” I asked.

“
I took the test three days ago.”

“
What test?”

“
Riss! The skills test,” she exasperated.

“
Oh,” I looked at Hayden.

“
Uh, should be soon,” he said.

Raeya nodded. I patted the couch next to me, signaling her to sit. We socialized until lunch. I took my tray and sat down at the table. I was hungry but had no motivation to eat.

“
What’s wrong?” Hayden asked.

“
I’m sick of potatoes,” I complained. “I’m thankful for food, but this,” I plopped a spoonful of bland mashed potatoes on my plate, “is getting hard to eat.”

“
Yeah,” Raeya agreed. “Do you remember when we used to eat for fun?”

“
Hardly,” I sighed and shoved a spoonful into my mouth. What I wouldn’t give for some butter! The cooks did their best to add flavor to the food with spices and herbs, though, it was still obvious most of our diet came from a can.

Since it was freezing upstairs, most of the A1s stayed in the common rooms until it was time to go to bed. The cold air slapped me in the face when I opened our door.

“
Orissa,” Hayden said, sounding guilty. “Do you promise not to get mad if I show you something?”

“
Uh, no.”

He made a face. “Then maybe I won’t show you.”

“
Tell me or I’ll beat it out of you.”

“
Well, in that case, my lips are sealed.” He smiled deviously. I picked up a pillow and threw it at him. He caught it, threw it back, and jumped out of the way before I could retaliate. He opened the closet and moved his clothes aside, pulling a concealed cardboard box out.

“
You asshole!” I swore when I saw what was in the box. “How you could keep that from me?”

“
I’m selfish, I know.” He kicked the box in my direction. I lunged at it, grabbing a bag of chocolate.

“
Not selfish, evil. Hiding a box of junk food and candy while I’m choking down butterless potatoes and green beans.”

Hayden sat on the floor, getting himself a bag of chips. “Want to watch a movie?” he asked. He suggested I sit next to him on his bed, since the TV was closer. I didn’t have a measuring tape, but I’d bet my life that the TV was only an inch or two closer to his bed than mine.

In a sugar coma, I leaned my sleepy head on Hayden’s shoulder. He put his arm around me. Warm, full, and enjoying each others’ closeness more than either was willing to admit, we fell asleep snuggled together.

The missing A1s had come back yesterday, like Hayden predicted. They were quarantined and given one day to rest. Then another group would be set out. And that group consisted of Hayden, Ivan, Brock…and me.

I was excited for my first mission. It was a supplies run, as Ivan called it. We had a list of needed items. If a town was overrun with infected, we were to leave. If we spotted signs of human life, we were ‘encouraged’ to check it out, though, Fuller reminded us, that the main purpose was to bring back what was necessary to keep the shelter running.

We ate breakfast with the Bs and Cs before leaving. Raeya didn’t want me to leave. She and Sonja hugged me goodbye and told me that I better come back or else. I smiled, promised we’d be back after our allotted four days and left.

We headed to Louisiana. Ivan and Brock led the way, not stopping until we crossed the border. The first big town we drove through was overrun. And so was the next, and the one after that. Daylight was running out.

“
We’re not going to find one that’s clean,” Hayden spoke over the walkie. Ivan agreed. We sped along a country road, bumping our way into a smaller town with considerably less zombies. We circled around, getting to know the area. Following the movement, the zombies chased after us. “Teams or single?” Hayden asked over the walkie.

“
Teams,” Ivan’s voice said after a moment’s consideration. His truck lurched forward and hit a zombie. “And I believe we are in a two point lead.”

“
It’s not dead. And, if it was, that was an S3. One point,” Hayden argued.

“
You keep score?” I asked.

“
Yeah. S1s, the most dangerous, get three points. Two points for an S2 and one for an S3.”

“
Gotcha. We will win.” I smiled. I was a competitive person and this was the perfect contest for me. Ivan swerved and hit another zombie.

“
Kicking your ass is easy!” he teased over the walkie. “I haven’t even broken a sweat!”

“
There’s one,” I pointed out, thinking Hayden would run it over. He gripped the steering wheel and didn’t say anything. “What?”

“
The truck. I-I don’t want to hit anything.”

“
You are such a typical man.” I rolled my eyes. We drove a few miles away from the town in search of a place to set up camp for the night. A hayloft proved a good hideout before. A new barn with a sturdy loft would be even better. We hauled our heavy gear up the ladder. This loft was three times the size of the last one I bunkered down in. We pulled apart several fresh bales of hay, making an almost comfortable bed. We ate, checked over our weapons, and settled down for the night.

Hayden and I slept first. Though we had gone south, it was still freaking cold. I moved closer to Hayden solely for warmth this time. I felt vulnerable away from the protection of the shelter. Though this time, I was with three people who could take care of themselves and actually cover me. I wasn’t tired but I closed my eyes and tried to force myself to sleep.

“
Mmhh,” I mumbled when Hayden gripped my side. “You’re hurting me.” His fingers dug into me. “What are you doing?” He didn’t answer. My eyes flew open in fear. Before I could turn, the crazy grabbed me.

Stupid, fucking sleeping bag. I flailed around trying to get out of the way. I screamed for Hayden. He sprung up once he saw what was happening. Brock and Ivan raced over just as Hayden kicked the crazy off of me. I scrambled up, snatching a knife, and sank it into the crazy’s eye.

“
What the hell?” Hayden said, clenching his fists in anger. “Who was keeping watch?”

“
We were,” Ivan said flatly, not able to take his eye off the crazy. “We were just over here.” He looked at Brock. “Two minutes ago. We’ve been going back and forth from that side to the windows.”

“
It either had impeccable timing or it waited,” Brock said. “S1s can’t think. They’re not supposed to be able to think.”

“
They can, and they can talk,” I said, remembering the guy in the fancy neighborhood back in Indy.

“
No they can’t.” Brock’s voice faltered, turning his argument into a cry of hope.

“
We came across one. He had been bitten and knew it. He was confused but still able to carry on a conversation.”