The Truth is Contagious (The Contagium Series Book 4) (7 page)

He nuzzled his head against my breasts. “It’s
more than a little amazing I found you, too,” he mumbled and kept
his head down, as if he was embarrassed to say that out loud. I ran
my fingers through his hair.

“I’m glad you did. Mostly because I’m not
certain I would be alive.”

“I like that you’re alive,” he said with a
smile.

“Me too.” I dropped my hands onto the
mattress. “I’ll go get started on everything. I’m looking forward
to telling Alex what to do.”

Hayden rolled off of me and smiled. “You
still haven’t forgiven him for deserting you either?”

“No, I have. It’s a waste of time and energy
to hold that grudge. I generally don’t like him as a person.”

“That’s my girl,” he said with a smile.

I ran my hands over my hair in a lazy attempt
to smooth away the bed head. I put my boots back on and headed
downstairs to find Raeya.

I crossed paths with Dr. Cara on my way down
the stairs. She was wearing a pink Hello Kitty t-shirt and men’s
khaki shorts that were several sizes too big for her. Instead of a
belt, they were being held in place by a scarlet and gold scarf.
Her hair was in a tight bun at the very top of her head.

“Hello Orissa,” she said with a curt nod.
“Has Hayden’s semen infected you yet?”

My jaw dropped. There were few times when I
was left speechless, and this was one of them. “Uh…uh…no.” I
blinked and recovered, thankful no one was around to hear her. “I
think you’d know if I became infected.”

She smiled and shook her head. “Of course I
would.” She leaned close to me. “If you do get infected, can I
experiment on you?”

“Sure, have at it.” I smiled back, leaning
against the wall. “What are you doing with those crazies out
there?” I asked before she could scuttle off.

“Experimenting.”

“Obviously.”

“If it was obvious then why did you ask?”

I sighed. “What kind of experiment are you
doing? Why does one have decor and the other doesn’t?”

“The decor doesn’t matter so much.” She took
another step closer to me. “Not as much as the food. The younger
one with the food has been in there for several days. And she’s not
deteriorating.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. My current theory is that being
fed and staying generally healthy keeps the virus from taking over.
The weaker the body, the faster the transition from S1 to S2.”

It made sense. Rider was as weak as he could
be and turned into a zombie in just a day. “Does it help with your
vaccine research?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“Oh, ok.” We both turned at the same time and
walked in opposite directions down the hall.

* * *

Raeya was not happy to hear that Hayden and I
were leaving in the morning. When I reminded her that we would get
to eat anything I killed, she was rather agreeable. She then helped
me get everything together that was needed to brief the other group
of A1s about their mission.

Along with the list of supplies, Fuller had a
binder full of store names. Thanks to Raeya, it was extremely
organized and easy to look through. The list of stores coordinated
with a map that showed their location. That was also thanks to Ray.
Stores that we had previously been emptied were marked as ‘dead’ to
save us the hassle of going to empty places.

Alex was surprising professional when I went
over his mission with him. He took the list and guessed it would
take them four days to gather everything we needed. It was odd
being on the other end of things. Odd and kinda nice…I felt like I
was accomplishing something when really I didn’t have to do
anything other than hand someone a piece of paper.

I spent the rest of the day with my friends,
not seeing Hayden again until I went upstairs for bed. He was
packing a bag for our hunting trip tomorrow. We set everything out,
ready to grab and go, and climbed into bed. We needed our rest. Who
knew what tomorrow could bring?

“Where are we going?” I asked Hayden and
grabbed a lose strand of hair that was blowing in the breeze from
the open truck window. I tucked it behind my ear.

“I don’t have a destination in mind,” he said
and took his eyes off the road for a second. “I am curious to see
how much of Highway 7 is blocked. We’ve avoided it in the past.” He
reached for his iPod, shuffling through songs.

“On the way back we are
not
listening
to country,” I told him.

“Driver picks the music.”

“Then I’m driving.”

He laughed. “Uh, no.”

I looked out the window. Cars lined the side
of the road. Dust and dirt covered their windows, too thick to see
through.

“Does it matter where we stop?” Hayden
asked.

“I suppose not anymore. I think anywhere
around here is ok for hunting. Animals have free rein over the
land. Well, sort of. If we find a water source, it will up our
chances of finding deer.”

Hayden nodded. “I haven’t been hunting in
years.”

“You used to hunt?” I asked. He hadn’t told
me that.

He looked sideways at me. “I grew up in North
Dakota. You weren’t a man if you didn’t know how to hunt.”

I laughed. “Then should I let you be in
charge of this?”

He shook his head. “I hunted with guns.”

“Oh, you’re admitting I’m better with the bow
than you are.”

“Hardly.” He gripped the steering wheel and
stared straight ahead.

“Then how about a little friendly
competition? Winner gets a massage.”

“That’s lame.”

I turned toward Hayden. “You only think that
because you know you will be the one rubbing
my
back.”

“I did enough rubbing last night to make up
for the whole year.”

“Doesn’t count.” I put my hand on Hayden’s
thigh and leaned back in the seat. I closed my eyes, trying to
enjoy the breeze. I couldn’t relax, not when we were out here. The
morning was bright and warm. It was perfect. But I knew it would
soon be ruined by zombies.

I took my hand off of Hayden and leaned
forward in the seat, keeping my eyes peeled. I constantly looked
back and forth, inspecting everything we were passing. I noticed a
patch of weeds that were bent and stomped down. I straightened up
to get a better look.

“What?” Hayden asked and let off the gas.

“Nothing,” I said and shook my head. There
was no direction or order. The path was wide, as it would be from a
herd blundering through. “Just a zombie trail. An old one at
that.”

“Oh, ok.” Hayden sped up. Several miles went
by without us passing any cars and only a few zombies, which
enabled us to keep a steady pace and make good time down the
highway.

“Riss,” Hayden said and pointed out his
window. “What about that?”

I looked through the dense trees. Sunlight
reflected off of slow moving water. “Perfect.”

Hayden pulled the truck over on the side of
the road. We rolled up the windows and got out, going around to the
bed to get our weapons. I put my hand on the side of the truck only
to snatch it back. The black metal was hot from the sun already.
Hayden jumped in and handed me the quiver. I filled it with arrows
and put the strap over my shoulder, situating it evenly on my back
before buckling the strap around my waist. I tugged my shirt
down.

Along with my bow and arrows, I had a knife
on my ankle and a gun on my hip along with two extra clips filled
with ammo. Hayden had a rifle, a pistol, a knife, and extra ammo as
well. Though our plan was to avoid zombies, we wanted to be well
prepared.

“Want to take the food with us?” I asked.

“No. We can eat now and come back when we’re
hungry. I’ll just bring the water.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Hayden grabbed our bag of food and put the
tailgate down. The bullet holes along the back of the truck had
been smoothed over and polished. I climbed up in the bed and sat
next to Hayden and pulled out two peanut butter and jelly
sandwiches. We ate in silence, finishing off the sandwiches with a
can of peaches.

I pushed a jar of mixed nuts and two granola
bars out of the sun and closed the passenger door. I readjusted my
weapons and turned to Hayden. He was already wading through the
weeds, eager to start the hunt.

He turned, pausing to lock the truck. I
silently moved through the tall grass and lowered the bow. Keeping
it close to my body I slipped into the trees, ducking under a low
hanging branch. Hayden followed suit. I smiled to myself, happy
that I didn’t have to look back and worry that he would be too
noisy or get us seen…by anything.

The thick canopy of leaves blocked out the
sun. A fly buzzed around my face. I whipped my head to the side,
using my hair to swish it away. Crunchy leaves carpeted the ground,
covered up by fresh green growth. I couldn’t see all of the dry
leaves. If I didn’t move my feet carefully, each step would be a
dead giveaway of our location.

I shimmied around a tangle of weeds, not
making a sound. I stopped, looked back, and waited for Hayden. He
was only a few feet behind and was being just as quiet. I looked in
front of us, squinting my eyes at the sparkling water. Birds
fluttered overhead. We moved around a poison ivy-covered oak
tree.

I stopped short, inspecting the ground. It
was unnaturally uneven. I carefully kicked away a clump of weeds
and dirt.

“What the hell?” I traced my eyes over the
wood and metal. “Train tracks?”

Hayden knelt down and touched the rotting
wood. “No. Too narrow for a freight train. It looks like…” he
trailed off and shook his head.

“What?” I asked.

He stood up. “It looks like tracks for a
ride.”

My eyebrows pushed together. “A ride?” I
looked around. “We’re in the middle of the woods.”

Hayden shrugged and shook his head. “I have
no idea. Come on, let’s go.”

We edged through the trees and got caught by
a rusty chain-link fence. Instead of climbing it, we ventured down
a few yards until we found a break. Hayden pulled the metal up,
allowing me to pass through untouched. I took it from him, bending
the fence out of the way so he could slip through. We continued
on.

“That is creepy,” Hayden said.

I flicked my head back, expecting to see a
zombie or something else that was dead. “Shit,” I swore. I wasn’t
expecting that. “It is.” I took a quiet step toward the
merry-go-round. The paint on the four little animals was faded and
chipped. I walked around it, feeling like their black and white
eyes were following me with each step. I turned around. “If that
thing moves on its own, we’re leaving,” I only half joked. It
looked likes something straight from a horror movie.

“Agreed,” Hayden said and turned. We came to
the edge of the trees. There was a small overgrown field to cross
before we came to the water. Something snapped behind us.

I reached behind me, grabbing an arrow.
Hayden and I both whirled around at the same time, weapons raised.
But there was nothing there. We turned back around and moved to the
water’s edge.

“I don’t see any deer trails,” I told Hayden
as I looked over the water. Algae covered the surface for several
feet. “It’s kinda sludgy here.” I held my hand over my eyes and
wished I had remembered to bring sunglasses. “Maybe down there,
where the steam narrows. It looks clearer.”

We noticed something else out of place as we
walked along the small river. I eyed the slimy red plastic. It was
shaped like a pool inner tube but made out of hard plastic and with
rusting metal handles. I was curious, but it didn’t matter.

I hiked the bow up on my shoulder and swatted
away the swarm of mosquitoes. The grass gave way to cracked and
faded pavement. My gait slowed as I took it in. Where the hell were
we?

Hayden and I walked in sync, our boots
hitting the hot pavement together. I kept my eyes on the water,
looking for any sign that this would be a good place to set up and
wait for an unsuspecting animal to cross our path and become our
dinner.

Hayden’s feet scuffed as he came to a sudden
stop. He grabbed my arm. I tensed. If there was a zombie or crazy,
why didn’t he grab his gun?

“What the fuck?” he asked slowly. I followed
his eyes to two large stone statues. Faces had been carved into the
rock and each had its lips puckered as if about to offer a
kiss.

“What the fuck is right,” I muttered. “Those
are the ugliest things I’ve ever seen.”

“Yeah,” Hayden agreed. He shook his head and
looked around. His shoulders tensed. I bet he was feeling the same
unease that I was.

“There,” I said and used the arrow to point.
“We can set up by that bridge and wait.”

Hayden nodded and we picked up our pace. A
wooden bridge crossed the river. The planks were dark around the
edges from being soaked with water. The center was gray and
cracked, dried out from the sun. Since I was the lightest, I went
first. I hooked the bow around my arm and put my hand on the
splintering railing.

Hayden kept a constant vigil. I lifted my
foot, carefully moving it onto one of the worn boards. I put my
weight on the ball of my foot and slowly rocked my boot back,
distributing the weight.

The bridge creaked. I took another step. The
whole thing shook. But it didn’t crash into the water. I moved as
fast as I dared and finally jumped off onto the dry land. I reached
behind me for an arrow, stringing it on the bow just in case. I
stepped away from the bridge and watched the surrounding area as
Hayden made his way across.

He was roughly five inches taller than me and
at least fifty pounds heavier. The old bridge groaned under his
weight. I flicked my eyes to his feet, watching as he took a
tentative step.

Water lapped the bottom of the bridge. I had
always like the sound of running water. There was something calming
about it. The stream behind my grandparent’s farmhouse was the
deepest in the spring. On very quiet nights I could hear the rush
of water over rocks from my room.