The Truth is Contagious (The Contagium Series Book 4) (17 page)

“We start canning stuff?” I tried.

Hayden shook his head. “We could do that and
have enough for the winter. And not have anything now. There are
just too many people.”

Being hungry and not knowing where the next
meal was coming from was awful. I had to endure it for several
weeks before Hayden saved me. I crossed my arms. Goosebumps broke
out along my skin. “And Sally—Sarah maybe—I don’t know her name, is
due in a few weeks. What if Alex can’t get enough formula or baby
food?”

“Breastfeed?” I said seriously. “It’s
healthier anyway, right?”

Hayden looked at me like he hadn’t even
thought about it. “Oh, right. And yeah.” He nodded and crossed
something off his list. I looked at it. He had messy handwriting.
Ink was smeared over the paper. Words were scrawled across the
page, some scratched out with the correction written above it. He
had arrows going to the side of the page, pointing to more notes.
It was nothing like the insanely organized and neat lists I was
used to seeing from Raeya.

“I don’t want to be the one to say we can’t
take in more people.” He turned his head up to me. “Fuller never
would have turned anyone away.”

“That’s why he picked you,” I said carefully.
“He knew you would do whatever it takes to keep this place
safe.”

Hayden’s eyebrows pushed together. “Think of
it Riss: we go out on a mission and find people. We help them, save
them from zombies. And then leave them? No.” He put his hands on
the desk and shook his head. “No. I couldn’t do it.”

“Then we will bring them back.”

“Back here to starve.”

“Hey,” I said gently and moved behind him. I
put my hands on his shoulders. “No one is going to starve. We’ll
figure it out. We always have.”

He put his hand on mine and then swiveled the
chair around, reaching for me. His hands settled on the curves in
my waist. “What would I do without you?”

“You’ll never have to know.” I stepped in
closer.

“Get a room,” Hannah mumbled, lifting her
head off her arms. Crease marks indented her face. She leaned back,
running her hands over her hair. It struck me just how much she
looked like her brother.

“This
is
my room,” Hayden said and let
his hands fall onto his lap. He spun the chair around. “You can go
to bed,” he told her.

She shook her head. “I said I’d help
you.”

Hayden put his elbows on the desk and cupped
his face in his hands. “I think I’m done for the night.”

She stood. Argos got up from where he had
settled to sniff her. Hannah bent down to pet him. “I met all the
dogs,” she said, flicking her eyes to me. “I like that people are
allowed to bring their pets here.” Then her face broke, tears
welling in her eyes. “I miss Snowball.”

Hayden rushed over to his sister and
awkwardly put an arm around her. “Me too,” he said softly, his
hazel eyes going misty.

“Who’s Snowball?” I asked.

“Our dog,” Hayden told me. “Hannah, what
happened to him?”

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Heather brought him with and…and…” she started crying and turned
to Hayden, wrapping her arms around him. Hayden hesitated for a
split second then hugged his sister, pulling her close. “After
she…” Hannah couldn’t say it, but I knew what she meant. Their
sister had died from the virus. “Zombies got him.”

I closed my eyes, abhorrence making me dizzy.
I crossed the room and knelt down next to Hayden and Hannah. Argos
moved to lick my face. “I’m really sorry,” I said to both of
them.

“Hayden got Snowball for our mom on Mother’s
Day,” Hannah said between sobs. I put my hand on Hannah’s shoulder.
She let go of Hayden and turned to me. “He was really old. He
didn’t stand a chance against them.”

Hayden rocked back and sat on the tile floor.
His eyebrows pushed together and he ground his teeth, trying so
hard to remain stoic. Keeping her broken arm close to her body,
Hannah gave Argos a one armed hug.

“Hayden put him in a box,” she said. “It was
a surprise so we kept him hidden.” A smile crept onto her face. “We
tried to get our mom downstairs to open her presents, but it took
her forever, remember?”

Hayden nodded. “What was she doing? Her
makeup or hair or something.” He put his arm around his sister’s
shoulders. She leaned on him. He looked past her to me. “By the
time she came downstairs, Snowball was covered in poop.”

Hannah laughed. “It smelled so bad! I can
still see the look on Mom’s face when she took the lid off the
box.”

Hayden smiled. “And I was the one who had to
clean him up. It took days to get the brown out of his fur,” he
laughed.

My heart broke for them. I hated seeing
Hayden upset; seeing him hurt was even worse. I put my hand on
Hayden’s thigh. Argos, feeling left out, weaseled his way onto my
lap. Careful not to bump his stitches, I lugged him onto my legs.
His nubby tail thumped against me.

“What happened to your family?” Hannah asked
me.

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

“It sucks, doesn’t it?” She wiped her eyes
again, blinking hard to get rid of the tears. “It was like I didn’t
have a chance to be sad before, ya know? We were too busy running,
too busy being scared.”

I knew exactly what she meant. “Yeah.”

She inhaled. “And now that I’m here…” She
shook her head and turned to Hayden. “It still scares me that this
isn’t real, that you never found me.”

Hayden squeezed her hand. “It’s real,
Hannah.” Then guilt clouded his face. “I looked for you. You, Mom,
and Heather. I was there; I was home.”

“Hay,” she started, “we were gone before you
got there.”

He only nodded. I wanted to tell him that she
was right, that there was no way he could have saved everyone. He
shouldn’t blame himself. I kept my mouth shut because I felt the
same way. What if I had left the hospital sooner? Would I have
found Aunt Jenny? Maybe we could have gotten Raeya and gone to
Kentucky before my grandpa left.

But then I wouldn’t have met Hayden and
Padraic, Jason, and the rest of the people from the basement…would
they still be alive?

“So when are you two getting married?” Hannah
asked, changing the subject. Hayden’s eyes met mine and he
shrugged. “What, you haven’t picked a date yet?”

“It’s not like we have to reserve a venue,” I
told her.

“I know. But it’s something to look forward
to, ya know? And it would be fun to plan a wedding, like a happy
distraction for us.”

I looked at Hayden again. We were worried
about making it through the winter. I wanted to marry Hayden. I
didn’t need a special day or decorations to prove it. “Maybe,”
Hayden said to humor her. “You can start thinking about it.”

Hannah smiled. “Ok!” She looked at me. “I
don’t know you well enough—yet.”

Oh joy…she wanted to spend more time with me.
But I smiled anyway. One way or another Hannah would become my
family. “Just talk to my friend Raeya about it. She’s had my
wedding planned for years.”

“I will! Our mom was always worried Hayden
would never get married,” she whispered to me, loud enough for
Hayden to hear. “She was waiting for grandchildren. And let’s face
it, Hay, you weren’t getting any younger.”

“I’m twenty-eight. That’s not old,” he
balked.

Hannah rolled her eyes and put her hands on
Argos’s neck, scratching him.

Hayden’s stomach grumbled.

“Hungry?” I asked. He had skipped dinner and
I was confident he hadn’t gone into the cafeteria and gotten
himself a snack.

“Yeah,” he answered.

“I’ll get you something,” I offered.

“That’d be nice.” He stood and stretched
before holding out a hand to help Hannah to her feet.

I slowly got up, my muscles a bit sore from
working out.

“I’m going to finish here. I’ll meet you
upstairs,” Hayden said.

I nodded and went to the door, patting my leg
so Argos would follow. Hannah said goodnight to Hayden and left,
walking with me down the hall.

“I think that was the longest we’ve gone
without fighting,” she said softly.

I looked at her. “How come you two never got
along?”

She crossed her arms, pressing them into her
chest. “I don’t know.” She sighed. “Yes, I do. I do know why.
Hayden was always an overachiever. Looking back now, I know he
didn’t mean to be. He did whatever he could to help us. After our
dad left, Hayden took over. I never realized until pretty recently
how much he gave up for us. I’m six years younger than him. When we
were kids all I saw was my older brother bossing me around, telling
me what I can and can’t do. And he could do no wrong. Hayden got
away with murder and our mom was constantly bragging about him and
everything he did.”

Then she let her arms drop, her casted wrist
swinging at her side. “And then he left. As much as I thought I
hated him, I hated him being gone even more. I felt so…so abandoned
if that makes sense. I really regret being so mean to him. All he
ever did was try to help.”

Well, shit. Hannah and I were more alike than
I imagined. The way she felt about Hayden was pretty much the way I
felt about my stepdad, Ted, and my own mother. All they wanted was
to make my life better, to give me chances to help others and in
turn, myself. But in my youth all I saw was my mom leaving me for
someone she loved more, using mission trips as an excuse to get
away from her only daughter.

“Yeah,” I said. “I get it.”

“You do?” she asked incredulously. We turned
the corner.

“I do.”

“You’re not mad at me for being mean to
Hayden?”

I shook my head. “I haven’t seen you be mean
to him. The past is the past, right?”

Her hazel eyes were wide. “Yeah, gosh, you’re
right. I guess this mess gives me a clean slate somehow,
right?”

I wanted to think so. I regretted my past
too. “Why not?” We stopped at a corner. Hannah hugged me goodbye
and went down the hall to her room and I went the opposite way to
Padraic’s room.

* * *

Argos trotted ahead, knowing exactly where to
go. He pawed at the door and pressed his nose along the crack. I
leaned over him and knocked. Thirty seconds went by. I knocked
again. Maybe Padraic was asleep.

“Padraic?” I said softly, putting my face
near the door. “It’s Orissa. I brought Argos.”

Still, there was no answer. I put my fingers
around the door knob and twisted. It wasn’t locked and the door
slowly opened. Dim light from a small lamp spilled across the room.
And Padraic was nowhere in sight. His bed was still made; he was
still up.

Argos pushed past me and jumped onto the bed,
turning around in a circle before he lay down.

“Night, boy,” I whispered and closed the
door, wondering where Padraic was. I knew he wasn’t working tonight
and wouldn’t be in the hospital ward unless there was an emergency.
We needed to rescue another doctor. Poor Padraic was the only one
we had.

I turned to go to the cafeteria and find
something for Hayden to eat. Then I stopped. I had to check the
hospital ward…just in case. I hurried through the quiet hall,
stopping only when I pushed through the ward doors.

The B3 who was working tonight shot up from
the desk near the door. His eyes ran over my body. I was about to
tell him off for so blatantly checking me out when I realized he
was looking for injuries. I guess I couldn’t blame him…it wasn’t
uncommon for me to be bleeding.

“Is Padraic in here?” I asked.

“Yeah, he’s in the back,” he answered. I
didn’t remember his name, but I recalled his face. He had taken
care of Hayden when he was healing from being shot. I quickly
scanned him. He looked tired and bored. That was not the face of
someone who had dealt with an emergency. Still, I wanted to know
what Padraic was doing.

“Thanks,” I said and hurried through the row
of beds. There were two exam rooms, both with doors leading into
the lab. Beyond that was a large room Padraic had set up for
surgery, though I had heard him grumble about the non-sterile
environment more than once.

I entered the first exam room not expecting
to see Padraic. I crossed right through and opened the door to get
into the lab. Right away, I was hit with a nasty odor.

“You have got to be freaking kidding me,” I
said under my breath and held my hand over my nose. Disembodied
slices of zombie were set out on a table with a desk lamp pulled
overhead, warming them up. I looked them over. Most of the samples
were dissected to the point of being unrecognizable, though I was
sure that one chunck of gray was a brain slice.

I moved around the table, repulsed by the
smell. It was something I would never get used to no matter how
many times I was exposed to it. How could Dr. Cara work like this?
I suppose she had to…it wasn’t like we had bottles of formaldehyde
or anything.

I came to a sudden halt. Little speckles of
blood dotted the tile and a scalpel with blood and blobs of
thickened goo lay on the floor. A turned over tray lay on the
floor, its contents strewn everywhere.

My chest tightened with unease. I stepped
around the blood splatter. The harsh artificial light reflected off
of some sort of body slice. It was dark red and moist. A few
strands of Dr. Cara’s hair stuck to it, at least it looked like her
hair based on the texture, color, and length.

“What the…?” I shook my head. Maybe it was
nothing. Dr. Cara was always spilling food on herself—and then not
cleaning it up. Maybe that’s all this was: some sort of mishap
where she’d dropped a tray full of crazy entrails.

I went to the surgery room and stopped at the
door. People were in there, talking. Their voices were muffled, and
I couldn’t tell what was being said, but there was no mistaking
that Irish accent.

“Padraic,” I said and knocked.