Thicker than Blood (6 page)

“Never thought I’d be so goddamn happy to not
have electricity,” Alex muttered, but he looked and sounded
anything but happy. He turned back to me and unexpectedly held out
his hand, the one currently holding his gun, and gestured for me to
take it.

My lips opened and closed, and for a moment I
could only stutter through several puffs of air. Finally finding my
voice, I cleared my throat and tried again. “I don’t know how,” I
whispered.

Panic was beginning to well inside of me.
Both Alex and Jami were here, attempting to rescue me. And if Jami
was here, that meant Evelyn was as well. Three people, three good
people, all who could end up killed alongside me if we were caught.
And two men were already dead?

True, there was no love lost between me and
the majority of the men who policed Fredericksville. Most were
self-centered, self-serving, violent men who were more than happy
to adhere to the tyrannical rules of this place. But dead? I’d only
ever wished one man dead before, and that wish had been granted by
my own hand last night.

“This is the safety. Make sure it’s off
before you pull the trigger. Hold it like this. Leisel…Leisel, are
you listening to me?”

I nodded dumbly at Alex, who was watching me
impatiently and with more than a little annoyance. Clearing my
throat again, I tentatively took the gun, clutching the thick
handle in my seemingly too small and shaking hand. Then with a deep
breath, I got to my feet. The weapon was heavy and awkward in my
grip, making me feel like a child playing dress-up.

“Eve’s watching the back,” Jami said to Alex.
“And we’ve got five…no…”—he paused, glancing down at his
watch—“three minutes to get the fuck out of here before the patrol
circles back around.”

“Let’s go,” Alex said, his voice deep, laden
with determination that I didn’t share. I might have been standing,
but it felt as if cement blocks had been strapped to my feet, my
fear keeping me locked in place.

“Leisel!” Jami admonished me in a harsh
whisper. “Eve is waiting for you! Risking her life for you! Move
it!”

Evelyn. Her fate was my fate, and my fate
would be hers. It was all I needed to propel me into motion. One
step in front of the other, until I was sandwiched between my two
unexpected saviors, and we were moving slowly but surely down the
dark and narrow hall.

It was a mindless march on my part. Consumed
by fear, the only thought that kept me going was that I would reach
Evelyn, that there was finally a chance we could be free of this
place and this life that wasn’t a life at all. At least, not one
that was worth living. Out there we might have a chance at some
sort of happiness, and at the very least, freedom. Freedom was
happiness, wasn’t it?

My thoughts took a turn then, thinking of the
infected, remembering how many there had been in the early days
after the infection had hit, how quickly they’d ripped our lives to
shreds. I quickly shook those thoughts away, knowing it would do me
no good to overload my mind with more horrors than were already
occupying it.

We hurried down a small flight of stairs and
took a quick detour through a damp and dusty basement, the only
light from a flashlight in Jami’s hand. Then up another flight of
stairs, through another corridor, fumbling in the dark until a
faded exit sign finally came into view.

And then I was out the door and into the
night, the cool fall air a welcome balm on my overheated skin. A
slim pair of arms wrapped around my neck, a familiar scent
enveloped me, and I let out an exhale filled with hope.

Until I saw the two dead bodies lying next to
the Dumpster.

Evelyn squeezed me tightly, kissing my hair
and cheeks. “It’s going to be okay, Lei, I promise.”

“One minute!” Jami hissed before pulling
Evelyn off me. “We have to go now!”

With a final worried look from Evelyn, they
took off running, and then Alex grabbed my hand, ripping me free
once again of my dark thoughts and crippling fear.

We ran like the wind, like bats out of hell,
toward the west end wall, toward our freedom, with only thirty
seconds left before our escape would be discovered.

Evelyn

If this had been a movie, an alarm would have been
sounding right about now, blaring obnoxiously to let everyone know
that something was wrong, that someone was trying to get out. Or
worse, someone was trying to get in. Right then, I would have
welcomed such a sound; at least then we’d know whether our
impromptu escape had been noticed or not.

But in our world, such a noise was dangerous.
A noise so loud would draw any and all infected from miles around
straight to our walls. Insipid creatures with a one-track mind,
hell-bent on tearing into anything and everything, but once they
had a target, their one-track minds became even more deadly.

Jami glanced down at his watch, then looked
at me. “Game time,” he whispered, his words half lost to the wind
as we continued to run.

The next guard shift was due to report. Any
second now they would discover the bodies, discover that Leisel was
missing, and soon we’d be apprehended and probably executed on the
spot. That thought alone drove me faster, pushed me to run as fast
and as hard as my body would allow.

At the far end of our community was a path
that split both left and right, and when we reached it, we looped
to the left and around the back of the houses. Weaving between
gardens, hopping over skillfully trimmed bushes, we passed blooming
rosebushes, bright hanging baskets, and lawns with neatly cut
grass.

As if we were trapped in some crazy
over-pruned oriental garden maze, we ran to the left one second and
then to the right the next. Finally, we left the housing district
behind us and headed directly into the farming and cooking quarter.
Above us, tree branches hung heavy with ripe fruit, and at our feet
were row after row of fresh vegetables.

It was all so picture perfect and proper, as
if we were part of one big happy Brady Bunch family. But it was
nothing more than a facade. Sure, the fruit was juicy and the
vegetables ripe, but there was no soul. So pretty on the outside,
yet inside everything had died long ago and since rotted to
nothing.

A noise sounded off in the distance,
something I belatedly realized was men yelling. I glanced to Jami
with fear in my eyes, but he was already tugging harder on my hand,
urging me to run faster.

The food warehouses were on the opposite side
of the road we were on, and as we approached them, Jami pulled me
to a stop. Panting heavily, I glanced back the way we’d come,
watching as the dark silhouettes of Leisel and Alex closed in fast.
Her hair was flying out behind her, her pale face a beacon to me,
something to cling to in the midst of this insanity. Pulling her to
a stop alongside Jami and me, Alex released her. She came crashing
into me, and I crushed her body to mine.

Leisel’s shoulders shuddered as she cried
softly against my neck, her anguish painful to me as well. I held
her against me for a moment, whispering reassuring things into her
ear, promising her safety, promising her out of this nightmare,
until eventually she calmed.

As she looked into my eyes, her own
glistening with tears, I pressed a hard kiss to her lips. “We’ll be
fine,” I said firmly, keeping our gazes locked. She tried to turn
her head, to look away, to hide inside herself like she often did,
but I refused to allow it, holding tight to both her body and her
gaze. “Do you believe me?”

She said nothing, only nodded once, her chin
trembling.

“Lei, I promise you.” Pushing her dark hair
away from her face, I pressed another kiss to her forehead. “I
promise you,” I whispered, pulling her in for another fierce
hug.

Several more seconds passed while we caught
our breath, trying to calm our nerves. I could no longer hear the
shouts of the guards, and I had to believe that they’d moved away
from us, instead of closer.

Finally relenting, I allowed Leisel to leave
my arms. Pulling away, she lifted her hand, showing me her gun.
Smiling, I showed her mine. It was almost exactly like hers, though
I carried mine with more confidence. Before the infection, I’d
loved going shooting at the local gun range. Even though it had
been a while since I’d practiced, I hadn’t forgotten the
basics.

“
Eve.” Jami beckoned me toward him,
gesturing at Alex to move toward Leisel, which he did immediately.
Taking a moment, I watched as Alex sidled up beside her, his body
language fiercely protective, and I marveled at how neither Leisel
nor I had ever noticed the way he looked at her, the sheer
intensity of it.

He was incredibly quiet, sometimes to the
point of infuriating, yet the way he’d always stared at her, those
deep brown eyes of his seeing all of her. She was blind to it—to
him, hell, to anyone. She’d had enough of men to last her a
lifetime, and she simply didn’t care anymore.

But then there was Alex, and the number of
times he’d had to escort her to the clinic for treatment, some
humiliating and some just damn painful. Other than the staff at the
clinic and me, only Alex had seen most of the horrors Lawrence had
put her through; only he knew the full extent of her pain.

Leisel’s pain, I surmised, and the threat of
losing her for good, must have been his turning point. The reason
why he was willing to risk his life to get us out of here. Knowing
what I knew, having seen what I’d seen, Alex’s behavior didn’t
really come as a surprise to me.

It was Jami who shocked me. Never
in
a million years would
I have expected him to aid in an escape plan, let alone already
have a plan of his own. He’d liked his job, this life, or I’d
always assumed so, and I’d never thought that I was more than a
passing distraction for him. But his willingness to help us, to
leave with us, was evidence of much more caring than he’d ever
admitted to me.

“I’m going across,” Jami announced, his face
hidden by shadows. “You wait here until you see my signal.”

The three of us watched as Jami took off
quickly across the street. Reaching the other side, he slipped
between two closely erected buildings and disappeared from sight.
Moments later, he reappeared and waved us across.

Shooting Leisel one last glance, I mouthed
the words,
I
promise
, right before
bolting out into the street. It was dark in this part of town, the
darkness our ally, but without the shadows of the buildings to hide
us, I felt overly exposed and vulnerable to anything or anyone that
might be lurking. Rattling in my own ears, my breath sounded overly
noisy, a neon sign to our whereabouts. But I stayed the path, never
faltering, not daring to look right or left. My footsteps were
quick, surefooted, until I’d reached the other side of the street,
slamming into Jami as he pulled me into the dark safety of another
shadowed alley.

Not bothering to catch my breath, I peered
around the corner, checking to be sure no one had spotted my mad
dash for safety. Flashing lights snagged my attention, a flickering
light from the lanterns that our guards carried, and though they
were off in the distance, they were headed in our direction.

When Jami waved Leisel and Alex across, she
hesitated. Thank God for Alex, because suddenly he pulled her
across the street, nearly carrying her since she suddenly couldn’t
seem to run without slipping and nearly falling.

Checking back up the street, I noticed the
lights were growing closer, the footfalls and quiet shouts sounding
nearer. As Alex and Leisel finally reached us, I pulled her to me
once again, noting that she was breathless and shaking with
fear.

“This way,” Jami said, already walking off.
We followed him, Leisel and me in the center, while Alex covered us
from behind.

We found the end of the alleyway heavily
barricaded, secured by rusty corrugated metal and reinforced by
wooden pallets and chicken wire. Seeing this, I started to panic,
thinking that we were trapped, until Alex pushed past me and Jami
bent down, slipping his backpack off his shoulders and pulling free
a thick blanket. After handing the blanket to Alex, Jami bent down
to give him a boost. Using Jami for support, Alex tossed the
blanket over the top of the barricade and hoisted himself over.

It was too noisy, metal scraping on metal,
and the sound echoed loudly in the dark. My heartbeat headed into
overdrive, but my will to survive—for us to survive—was firm. Even
as the voices grew louder, the heavy footsteps came closer, even
with the hopelessness of this entire situation, I refused to give
up. In fact, I damn well demanded that we would get through this
night.

The soft fall of Alex’s body thumping against
the ground signaled to us that he was on the other side. We waited,
the three of us, with bated breath, for what would come next.
“Clear,” he finally called out softly.

Jami gestured for me to go next. Shaking my
head, I pulled Leisel forward. “I’ll go once she’s over.”

Glancing up at the fence, her eyes as big and
wide as a doe’s, she swallowed hard and looked back at me. “I
can’t,” she whispered, and shook her head.

“You can do this, Lei,” I said to reassure
her. “This is our chance, and you can do this, you have to.”
Gently, I pushed her toward the fence.

Nodding halfheartedly, she reluctantly
climbed onto Jami’s back. Immediately he lifted her, allowing her
to reach higher so she could pull herself the rest of the way up.
She fumbled clumsily for her footing, finally finding it, then
heaved herself to the top. She soon straddled the wall and
scrambled awkwardly over the top, and just before she was about to
drop to the other side, she glanced down to give me a small,
nervous smile, and then she was gone.