Deathly Contagious (48 page)

“Good,” I said quietly.

“And maybe just a little lucky,” he added. “I’d rather be lucky than smart. If we got lucky every mission, everything would go our way and nothing bad would happen.”

“Wouldn’t that be nice?”

“It would.” He hugged me a little tighter. I ran my fingers up and down his arms. “I still feel lucky that we met.”

“Me too,” I agreed. “It’s one of the few good things that came out of all this.”

“It is.” He kissed me once more. “Speaking of luck, am I gonna get lucky today?”

I laughed and shook my head. “Maybe later.” Hayden resituated, resting his head on my chest. I ran my fingers through his hair which almost instantly makes him relax and fall asleep. Holding the soothing words Hayden had spoken close to my heart, I closed my eyes and was able to fall into a nightmare free sleep.

Well, that was until Fuller burst into our room.

Chapter 19

Hayden was a light sleeper. The sound of the door opening and someone coming into our room was enough to wake him up. When he quickly sat up, it pulled me from my sleep. At first all I noticed was the cold air that hit me from the absence of his warm body. Then he mumbled something and I became vaguely aware someone else was in the room.

I too shot up, thinking we were under another attack. Instead of looking composed and ready to give an order, Fuller’s face was stricken and I could tell he fought the urge to turn and leave.

“Sir, I can explain,” Hayden spat quickly and tried to jump out of bed. His foot got caught in the sheets and he desperately pulled on the blankets to get free.

To my surprise, Fuller laughed. “I think I can figure this one out, Underwood.”

Hayden picked up a shirt from the floor and put it on. “It’s not what it looks like,” he blurted.

“Oh, it’s not?” Fuller chuckled. “What is it then?”

Hayden looked back at me, knowing that denying our relationship hurt me. “Ok, it is what it looks like.”

 Fuller’s eyes met mine for a millisecond before flashing back to Hayden’s.

“Are you going to try and break us apart?” I asked, compelled to dispel Hayden’s fear.

“Why would I do that?” Fuller asked, seemingly baffled.

“Because we’re distracted by each other,” I went on to explain.

Fuller sat on the edge of Hayden’s bed and motioned for Hayden to sit back down as well. “How long has this been going on?” he asked.

“Since I got back from being abandoned,” I informed him.

“I haven’t noticed any drop in either of your performances,” Fuller promised, his eyes practically gleaming.  “And it’s about time, Underwood,” he said with a wink. It unnerved me to see him happy and creeped me out that his happiness steamed from seeing Hayden and I in bed together.

Hayden’s jaw dropped and he turned to me as if I had an answer to his unspoken question. “You knew?” he finally asked his superior.

Fuller laughed and I realized it was probably the first time I’d heard him laugh—ever. “Why else do you think I made the order not to tell you Orissa never came back from that mission? You weren’t healing as well as we hoped and I knew what the news would do to you.”

Hayden nodded and shrugged, agreeing that thinking I was dead would more than just upset him.

“So,” he said slowly. “You don’t care that we are together?”

“Why would I?” Fuller asked, his voice full of amusement.

“It’s unprofessional?” Hayden suggested.

Fuller crossed his arms and looked at Hayden with a very paternal I’m-going-to-give-you-advice expression. “Happiness is rare, if not extinct in this bleak world. If you find something that makes you smile, even if it’s just a little, you have to hold on to that.”

Fuller’s words sunk my previous revelation in even deeper. I felt tears bite at the corner of my eyes for some stupid reason. He smiled once more and turned to me.

“Do you love each other?” he asked so shamelessly it made blood rush to my cheeks.

“Of course,” I instantly answered at the same time Hayden said ‘yes’. I absently mindedly curled my fingers around the dog tags that hung from my neck. Fuller noticed the gesture and looked at Hayden somewhat incredulously. Hayden nodded, cast his eyes down, and smiled.

“Well,” Fuller said and stood. “I came up to check on my soldiers. Everyone is faring as well as I hoped. We are having a service for the fallen tomorrow,” he said and stepped toward the door. He paused. “Who knows?”

“Knows what, sir?” Hayden asked.

“Who knows about you two?”

“Our team,” Hayden replied. “And Orissa’s friend Raeya.”

Fuller pressed his lips together. “Maybe it should be kept that way—for now. You know how the gossip is in this place.” He smiled again. “Though it’s only a matter of time; you are pretty obvious, Underwood. But be prepared for the stories and questions when you two ‘come out’.”

Hayden laughed and walked Fuller to the door. The two stepped out in the hall and spoke in hushed voices for several minutes. When Hayden came back into the room, he was smiling.

“Well, that was weird,” I said.

“What do you mean?” Hayden closed the door and sat next to me.

“Seeing Fuller smiling and laughing and giving advice.” I shook my head. “It was almost uncomfortable it was so out of character.”

“Out of character? Fuller’s always like that.”

“No he’s not,” I said, raising my eyebrows.

“Yes he is. He’s a nice guy.”

“Are we talking about the same person here?”

“Orissa, Fuller is strict, I’ll give you that. But he has to be. If he was just a resident, I think you’d see it. But he’s not. He holds the weight of this place on his shoulders. It’s a big responsibility. I know you two haven’t exactly gotten along, and I think that’s because you’re not used to taking orders or respecting someone just because they are your superior. Really, he’s not a bad guy.”

“He freaking loves you, everybody knows that. Of course you’d sing his praises. And I’m not going to respect someone just because they have a fancy title at the beginning of their name. Respect is earned, not instantly granted.”

“Respecting someone and liking someone are two different things,” he countered.

“No, they’re not.”

He sighed. “You don’t get it. Maybe it’s a military thing.”

“Maybe. I don’t want to start an argument. I’m glad Fuller knows and isn’t gonna make us change rooms.”

“Me too. I feel so much better not having to hide it anymore.” His arms wrapped around me and we laid back down.

“Do you think they felt much pain?” I asked when an image of the fallen soldiers flashed through my mind.

“Who?”

“The three guys that died.”

“Yea, I’m sure they did.”

I glared at Hayden. “That’s not what you’re supposed to say.”

“I’m not going to lie, Riss. You know as well as I do that having someone bite you, pull back, and rip your skin off isn’t pleasant.”

“I hate that they died.”

He ran his fingers through my hair. “Me too. I keep thinking about how if we only got there sooner we could have saved them. But this is a war. People die in war.”

“I never thought of it that way.”

“In what way?”

“War.”

“Oh, it’s not what I’m used to,” he said with a slight smile. “Thankfully the zombies don’t shoot back. But they outnumber us. This isn’t just some battle. This is a war; it’s a fight for humanity.”

“It is.” I closed my eyes and was plagued with the image of the bloody pasture. I heavily exhaled and sat up, tracing Hayden’s tattoo with my finger. Feeling mentally worn, we decided to put in a funny, light hearted movie.

The next morning, we woke up on time and went down for breakfast. I eagerly looked around for my friends. When I didn’t see them, I figured I missed them.  Several residents thanked Hayden and me for risking our lives to keep the farm safe.

Hayden shook their hands, smiled, and thanked them for their appreciation all the while seeming so humble. He was so much better at interacting with people than I was.

I had just picked up my tray when she ran up behind me. I almost dropped my oatmeal when her arms wrapped around my body.

“Rissy!” Raeya cried. I set the tray back down and spun around.

“Ray!” I said in a stupid high pitched voice. I hugged my best friend. “I thought you already ate!”

“I did,” she told me, her voice muffled by my hair. “I’ve been waiting forever for you to come back down! It feels like you’ve been gone for ages!”

“It has,” I agreed. I relaxed my grip on her. “Come, sit with us.”

Hayden, Raeya, and I sat at our normal table in the back. Rider, Brock, Alex, and Jose were still finishing their breakfast. They smiled bleakly at us as we took our seats.

Raeya filled me in on everything I had missed while out on the mission. Everyone had finally been able to go outside at least once before a bad storm rolled in, the concepts of our fields had been put into action, and construction began on the first cabin. I knew she was itching to ask me about the details of the mission and even more so about what happened on the farm the other night. She knew better than to utter a word about it in mixed company.

After breakfast, I went with Raeya into her room.  Fashioned out of what looked like an old table cloth, Raeya had made curtains and hung them centered on the wall opposite the door, giving her underground room the feeling of having a window. She checked to make sure her recluse of a roommate wasn’t hiding under the covers of her bed before she shut the door and questioned me.

“How did the mission go? The weather hasn’t been too nice. Did you guys run into the storm?”

“Yea,” I replied honestly. “It wasn’t too bad though. We avoided it.” Maybe it was wrong to lie to my best friend. But maybe it was better to not upset her with something that already happened. “It just felt like a long ass mission for some reason.” I ran my hands through my messy hair. “We found a government set up quarantine.”

“Oh my God, really? Is that where the new people came from?”

I shook my head. “It was full of dead people. Well, except for a few crazies. It was bad, Ray. You don’t want to know the details.”

“Tell me about the fresh produce,” she practically gushed.

“It was weird, that’s for sure. You know those greenhouse things that replaced real farms a few years ago?”

She nodded.

“Well,” I continued. “We found a greenhouse farm.”

“No way,” she whispered in disbelief. “A
working
greenhouse farm?”

“No, a nonworking one full of fresh fruit and veggies,” I said sarcastically.

“Sorry, dumb question,” she said with a smile. “You know what I mean. Can those things work without people?”

“I don’t really know. It’s all run mechanically; the levels rotate on their own so as long as the tanks have water and the bulbs haven’t burned out, I suppose so. But the plants would be over grown. And those weren’t.”

“Who do you think was taking care of them?”

“We have no idea. We couldn’t find any obvious signs of anyone holing up nearby. I would assume that if you were taking care of the plants regularly, you’d stay close and not only to take care of them. I’d be very protective of my fresh fruit and vegetables. Obviously, it was easy to take.”

“It doesn’t make much sense,” she said, pushing her eyebrows together until a little line formed between them. “Were the greenhouses huge like the ones featured on TV?”

“Yea. It was kinda unnerving being in there.”

“You’d think, then, that a very large group would be behind that, right? A few people wouldn’t need that much.”

“I’d take it even if we were still in our small group at my grandpa’s. I’d try to dry or can most of it, but I wouldn’t pass up on an opportunity for food.”

“Yea, but you’d eventually run out of seeds,” she countered.

I shook my head. “You are a city girl, Ray. You can get the seeds from the plants.”

She laughed. “Right. The plants were in good shape?”

“Excellent shape. If I took a picture of what we saw and told you to distinguish the difference from that and a pic taken last year, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. And there were footprints in the dirt leading to the doors; that’s what tipped me off to look inside in the first place. Hayden didn’t think it was worth looking into but we’re glad we did. Someone had been there recently.”

“You are right that it is weird. I can’t make sense of it,” she said and exhaled. Her words brought a chill over me. For some reason, I didn’t like or trust the people who took care of the greenhouses. It made no sense since I didn’t have the slightest clue as to who they could be.

“I’m as thankful as I am confused,” I told her. “We might not ever know the truth behind it. And I don’t think we’ll be going back. Hayden was having a heart attack the whole time.”

“Why?”

“We went farther than Fuller wanted us to go. We’re not supposed to cross the Pennsylvania border; it’s too far or something like that. I didn’t see what the big deal was, but Hayden hates disobeying orders. I think he feels guilty.”

“He’s a good soldier.”

“Yea he is.” I gasped. “Oh, I can’t believe I didn’t tell you. Fuller caught us in bed together.”

“What? Like
together
together?”

“We were sleeping, literally.” I continued to tell her about the odd approval and encouragement Fuller gave us on being together. I summed up the rest of the mission and gave her the bare bones details of the attack on the farm. It was a bloody memory I would be happy to forget; Raeya didn’t need to know about it. I knew it would upset her later.

Like the amazing friend she’s always been, she could tell it struck a nerve with me too. I wasn’t quite sure exactly how she knew when something upset me. I was careful to keep my body still, my voice level, and my eyes focused.

She switched the subject to something safe and we talked about Scarlet still spreading gossip, how effective training the dogs to round up the cattle had been, and whether or not we should name the baby calves this summer when they would most likely become our dinner. We wandered upstairs and played with Argos; he raced over and nearly knocked me down in his ecstatic greeting.