The Truth is Contagious (The Contagium Series Book 4) (22 page)

Many residents were moved when they found out
about missions. Even more were scared, and rightly so. The notion
of leaving the compound generated a slew of responses. One thing
was clear: everyone wanted the compound to stay the way it was.

And that meant going out on missions.

At the end of our first day of A roundup, as
Raeya called it, we had over a dozen people to add to the A
category, allowing those who wanted to move up to do so. We now had
three new A1s.

We didn’t waste time getting them into
training. With our dwindling ammo, Hayden put an emphasis on
hand-to hand-combat and knife usage. If we could wrangle up more
bows, I would give everyone archery lessons.

Gabby was finally able to speak about what
had happened. Her group had gotten everything they needed with
little problems. They were on their way home, only forty-five
minutes or so from the compound when they came across two girls
trudging down the road.

The girls flagged them down, desperately
waving for help. They got out, of course. The youngest pointed to a
car off the side of the road and then burst into tears. Alex and
Mac went to check it out, leaving the others to comfort the
girls.

A crazy jumped out of the car, landing on
Alex. Gabby said Noah grabbed the girls, taking them to safety. But
they were crazy too. The whole thing was a set up. Gabby didn’t
remember getting out. One minute she was with José, holding his
hand, and then next he was dead on the ground. She just ran until I
found her.

The Jeep was still there, keys in the
ignition and full of supplies. Supplies we needed. Supplies four of
our soldiers had died for.

I turned around, wrapping my arms around
myself, chilled from the early morning breeze that blew through the
open window. Hayden lay sprawled out on his stomach with one leg
hanging off the bed. He had had another nightmare last night, one
that shook him so deep he woke up thinking he was back in the
desert during the war.

I carefully crawled over him, pulling the
sheet up to his waist. In his sleep, he reached out for me,
wrapping his arm around my side. I wiggled close to him, tracing
his tattoos with my finger until I drifted back to sleep.

* * *

“Riss,” Hayden said an hour later. “We need
to workout.” I pretended to be asleep. I was comfortable and didn’t
want to get up, let alone get up and do physical work. Not yet at
least. “Riss,” he repeated. The closet door closed. “Get up. We
have the new A1s with us today.”

Begrudgingly, I opened my eyes. Hayden stood
by the bed wearing black athletic shorts and a white t-shirt with
the sleeves cut off. He had an iPod in his hand. “I’m up,” I
grumbled and went to the closet, yanking a tank top off the hanger.
I grabbed a pair of shorts and slowly walked into the bathroom to
get dressed.

It was weird, being down in the training room
with only Hayden, Wade, and Jason. I didn’t have to wait to use any
equipment at least. Still, I missed Ivan and Brock and couldn’t
shake my worry about them.

I was only three miles into my run on the
treadmill when the new A1s came in. I recognized one as Brian, the
guy from the fields who hit on me when I was looking for Hayden. I
pushed my finger down on a button, decreasing the speed on the
treadmill. He seemed a bit nervous, standing next to the other new
recruit, an older man who I guessed to be in his late forties. His
gray hair was cropped close to his scalp. He looked familiar but I
couldn’t place his face. I mentally shook my head, Of course he
looked familiar. I had only been living with these people for how
long now?

The older man introduced himself as Bryan,
flipping his name badge over for us to see. Great. Brian and Bryan.
That wasn’t going to get confusing at all…

Hayden showed them around and suggested they
take it easy today, trying all the equipment while he evaluated
them to see what they needed the most improvement on.

Brian—with an ‘i’—followed me back to the
treadmill, getting on the one next to mine.

“I used to go to the gym six days a week,” he
said, hitting the speed button. “I miss feeling the burn.” He
smiled at me. I glanced over. Brian wasn’t bad looking, not at all.
He had dark blonde hair, cut short and deep blue eyes. And he was
tan, very tan. “I’m guessing you used to work out regularly before
this too. You don’t get those kind of muscles overnight.” He leaned
back, flicking his eyes to my behind.

I increased my speed, breaking into a jog.
“No, you don’t.” I kept my eyes straight ahead. I didn’t like to be
bothered when I was working out, not even by my friends. Brian was
getting off on the wrong foot already. He pushed his finger down,
matching his speed to mine.

“You should start out slow,” I said, looking
over.

He waved his hand at me and smiled broadly.
“I like to push myself. No pain no gain, right?”

“Right,” I said and increased my speed again.
“Unless that pain is zombie teeth ripping into your skin.”

His face turned a little green. He turned
forward, jogging a few paces before increasing his speed again.
With his hands moving at his sides he turned to me, watching my
breasts bounce as I ran.

Seriously? I tried to ignore him. I looked
out across the room. Hayden was busy helping the other Bryan with
free weights. Wade was doing pushups and Jason was on the leg
press. He caught my eye, looked at Brian, and snickered.

I rolled my eyes and smiled at him. He moved
his gaze to Hayden then back at me, raising his eyebrows in
question. I shook my head and shrugged then went back to
running.

Brian continued to flirt with me for the rest
of our workout, dropping lame pickup lines along the way. Hayden
finally noticed but instead of being bothered, he was amused by
it.

Wade, Jason, and I went with Hayden into his
office after our workout. I looked over the list of everyone in the
A group. My little speech worked and over thirty people offered to
do their part in protecting the compound…but only three wanted to
go out on missions with us.

Hayden and Hector had been busy talking with
everyone, figuring out their strengths and weaknesses and finding
the best place for them in our group. Raeya came up with a schedule
for us to follow, one that left little spare time. The next week or
two was going to be brutal…and that was true even if things went as
planned.

I pushed open the hospital ward doors. It was
around ten at night and the young B3 that sat at the desk had
fallen asleep. I hesitated, debating if I should wake her up. Not
seeing the point, I continued on.

Several of the beds were occupied. About a
week into our training with the new A’s, an upper respiratory
infection broke up. Over a dozen people were sick, Padraic
included. And yet here he was, working the midnight shift.

“You’re supposed to be in bed,” I said
quietly, opening the door to the exam room.

Padraic looked up, dark circles under his
pretty blue eyes. “Is everything ok, Riss?” He stood and rushed
over to me. That was just so
him
. He was sick, still
working, and concerned about me.

“I’m fine,” I told him. “But you’re not.”

Padraic waved his hand in the air. “Nah. I
have a slight cough.” His accent was heavier than normal. He was
tired.

“You’re just as bad of a liar as Ray.” I
closed the door behind me.

“What are you doing then?”

“I came to get that list.”

Padraic gave me a blank stare then blinked.
“Oh, right.” He stood from the stool and sifted though the
scattered papers on the counter. Due to the breakout of upper
respiratory infections, we were low on medicine. Really low.
Padraic had written up a very long list of medications we needed
along with various medical supplies.

“Here ya go,” Padraic said, extending his
arm. He quickly turned his head and coughed.

“Oh, yeah, just a little cough,” I said.
Concerned, I took the list and moved closer to Padraic and pressed
my hand on his forehead. “You feel feverish. Go to bed.”

He took my hand in his. “I’m all right,
Orissa. I gave Karen and Shante the night off anyway. One of us
should be here.”

“You can be on call, ya know.” It still
surprised me how soft his skin was. “It’s not like you’re leaving
the building. You’re what, thirty seconds away?”

He let go of my hand and sighed. “You’re
right.”

I leaned on the counter. “You need to take
care of yourself. What if it were me?”

“I’d tell you to rest before it gets worse,”
he admitted with a charming smile.

“Exactly.”

“But,” he countered. “I’m not working
physically hard like you do. I’m sitting, reading up on pediatric
medicine.”

“Sounds thrilling.” I raised my eyebrows. “As
first lady of this place, I command you to go to your room.”

“Command?” he questioned, laughing.

I set my face and crossed my arms. “Go. Now.
I will tuck you into bed myself if I have to.”

Padraic coughed again. “Yes, your highness.”
He bowed to me and we both laughed. “I will do rounds then go to
bed.”

“You better.”

He smiled. “Promise. Shouldn’t you be
sleeping too?”

I raised my shoulders in a shrug. “It’s hard
to sleep before missions. I’m all antsy.”

“I can only imagine.” Padraic ran his hand
through his dark hair. It had grown out since we first met and fell
into his face. On anyone else, it would look unkempt and messy. On
Padraic, it looked good. “I hate that you’re leaving again.”

My stomach flip flopped. I hated it too. “It
has to be done.”

He nodded. We walked out together. “I will
see you off in the morning then. Night, Riss.”

I gave him a side hug. “Night, Padraic.” I
left the hospital ward hoping that he really would get some sleep.
I hurried through the halls to Hayden’s office. He had been talking
with Ivan and Brock for over an hour.

“Dude, you’re making a bigger deal than you
need to,” Brock said. He sat in a chair facing the desk. Ivan stood
behind him, arms held behind his back. “We can handle it.”

“I know,” Hayden said, eyes flicking to me. I
closed the door and moved to him. Hayden put his arm out, wrapping
it around me when I stepped over.

“If it bothers you that much then stay here,”
Ivan said, his voice smooth and level.

Hayden shook his head. “I can’t…not again.”
He didn’t need to explain it. We all knew that he couldn’t stay
here if I were to leave. And I wouldn’t have left, not yet, if we
had more A1s. But right now our numbers were so low, every person
counted. Losing another A1 would be detrimental to our lacking
number of soldiers to carry out missions.

So I had no choice but to go out. Wade and
Jason would come with me. This was too important of a mission to
bring a noob along. Everything was mapped out: where we would go,
how long we’d be gone, the roads we’d take to get there.

I didn’t want to go without Hayden. He didn’t
want me to go without him even more. After much debate, he decided
he couldn’t stay behind. The anxiety would get to him and he’d be
distracted. I expected Hector to be surprised when he learned about
our relationship. He wasn’t, not at all. He said he had known for a
while. I guess Hayden and I weren’t as good at hiding our feelings
for each other as we thought.

“We can handle it,” Ivan assured him. Ivan,
Brock, and Hector would take over the role of leader while Hayden
was away. That was the backup plan if anything—God forbid—happened
to Hayden anyway.

“I know,” Hayden said. “Probably better than
I can.”

I put my hands on his shoulders. In a weird
way, I hoped going out on a mission would allow Hayden to let go of
the extra stress he was holding. He could forget about being in
charge and focus on…not dying. I rolled my eyes at myself. There
was nothing relaxing about a mission. We needed that beach.

“Want to go over everything again?” Brock
asked.

“No,” Hayden said with a sigh. “You got it.
You’re right. You can handle this.”

“We got this,” Ivan said with a smile. “Take
him upstairs,” he said to me. “Wear him out so he’ll get some
sleep.”

I massaged Hayden’s shoulders. “I think I can
do that,” I said with a grin.

* * *

“Ready?” Jason asked me as he crossed the
yard. The truck was already loaded and we had our lists. He
unlocked the Jeep that he and Wade would be taking.

“As ready as I can be,” I answered. “I’m
still waiting for Hayden, though.”

He nodded toward the house. “Wade’s still in
there too. He’s saying bye to Gabby.” He wiggled his eyebrows. Wade
and Gabby had spent a lot of time together over the last few weeks
and had finally confessed their feelings for each other just days
ago. Being with him pulled Gabby out of her depression.

“We’re gonna have to drag those two apart,” I
said, wrinkling my nose.

“Hey now.” Jason smiled. “You have no room to
talk.”

“We’re not that bad,” I said, feeling a
little embarrassed. Not wanting Jason to see me flush, I reached
into my bag, fishing around for my sunglasses. I put them on and
sat in the truck, pointing the air vents at me. I watched Wade
leave the house in the rearview mirror. He tossed his stuff into
the back of the Jeep and got in. Now we just needed Hayden.

I turned down the air and drummed my fingers
on the center console. A minute ticked by. I was bored. For the
hell of it, I turned on the radio. Static crackled through the
speakers. Not paying specific attention, I cycled through the
stations, all just as fuzzy as the last. Then I put my finger over
the icon for the satellite radio, expecting to hear the same
static.

I had been confused way back when this all
started as to why the satellite went out. There weren’t zombies in
space. It just didn’t make sense. I leaned back, holding my finger
on the screen, quickly flipping from station to station. Each was
fuzzy, with the static louder on some than others.