DEAD: Blood & Betrayal: Book 11 of the DEAD Series (6 page)

I knew about how zombies could be distracted by sound; everybody did. It was Zombie 101 stuff. So, why hadn’t our group come up with something like this? Also, now that I thought about it, those noisemakers had to be pretty damn loud for me to hear them at the volumes that I was still getting from as far away as they had to be.

Eventually I recognized the area of camp that must be their detention section. My eyes scanned for signs of anything that might be important. I could not help but feel a lump grow in my throat as I spied the metal boxes. Inside one of them was Jackson; it was easy to identify by the fact that two men were stationed outside of it instead of just one. I also realized that this indicated there might be three more of those boxes with somebody inside. That was worth noting.

At last we came to a stop and Hunter kicked the top of the grate with his booted foot. “Hey, Jim, you have a visitor.

“And me without a thing to wear,” a voice that sounded sort of like Jim but not quite came from the pit.

I edged closer and peeked over the side. I was hit with a mixture of relief, confusion, and annoyance. Jim was right where I’d left him. If anything, he looked worse. One of his eyes was either very dirty or completely swollen shut; I was willing to bet on the latter. He showed no signs of having been allowed to clean up since the last time I’d been here with Suzi. And if Jim was this bad off…my mind shoved aside images of what Jackson must look like by now.

“Jim,” I finally managed to gasp.

“Hey there, cupcake,” Jim said around a mouth that was obscenely swollen. “You come here to tell me that I need to cooperate? If so, that is a dirty thing that these people are trying to make you do. I want you to forget all about me and focus on yourself and keeping your mouth shut.”

I felt sick. Not only had I been somewhat cooperative, not only was I prepared to give these people more information, but I had actually considered Jim to be the most likely person to be a possible mole.

In my defense, he was often going out unaccompanied despite that being a big no-no. He had a way about him that made it impossible to really know him as a person. Unless, of course, he was really this much of a nut.

“You okay, kiddo?” Jim’s voice cut through my growing wave of self-pity. “If they are doing anything to you, then I will make it my life’s work to level this place around them and litter the ground with their burning corpses.”

“Your friend has guts, I’ll give him that much,” Hunter muttered.

“And I will rip yours out first, you freak,” Jim said in the coldest, level tone that I’d ever heard come from his mouth. In that instant, I could not remember my Jim, the clown and joker who never lacked a dirty joke or funny story when things got a bit too serious.

“Take it easy, hero,” Hunter warned as he stepped up beside me and stared down at Jim. “You getting all emotional isn’t going to help Thalia here at all. She has not been harmed in any way since her arrival.”

“Arrival? You make it sound like we just strolled in here on our own for a little coffee and cookies,” Jim scoffed. “Your people attacked a pair of innocent kids and would have killed us if we hadn’t done what we needed to do to protect ourselves.”

“We did no such thing,” Hunter said, but his voice was a tight whisper like he did not want anybody to hear him except for me and Jim.

“So…what? You saying some other goon squad came in and roughed up that couple?”

“I’m saying that it wasn’t us,” Hunter insisted as if he were the one being held in the pit.

This struck me as odd. Why would Hunter just give Jim information like that?

“Jim…” I started, trying to work up the courage to tell him why I’d just insisted on seeing him. As I struggled for the next words, Hunter took me by the arm.

“You’ve seen him, now we have to go. I already put my ass on the line by bringing you here without permission.”

As the man led me away, I now turned over all of the stuff bouncing around in my brain. Nothing was making sense. Nothing added up to give me any answers. I was still trying to sort things when I realized where Hunter had brought me.

“We need to see Suzi,” was all the man said as he pushed past the pair of sentries and through the tent flap to the relative gloom beyond.

“This better be very important, Hunter,” the woman said through clenched teeth when she looked up from her desk.

“I believe that the prisoner is ready to talk.”

“Is that right?” And just that fast, the dark-haired woman’s features smoothed, returning her to the exotic beauty that I bet she used almost as much as her apparent ability to be ruthless. “And what would bring on this sudden desire to be cooperative?”

“I think there is more going on around here than what you or my people might be aware,” I suggested.

“Is that right?” Suzi answered with a bemused smile.

“Figure out who those men were that Jim, Jackson, and I had to deal with yet? Or how about that young couple that we rescued?”

Suzi just stared at me. I could not tell if she was interested, bored, or annoyed. I wanted to hit her with a few more questions, but I decided that I would try something else. If I was wrong, then this would be a disaster all of my own doing.

“You supposedly know about my people up in the hills. You know about Billy Haynes.” I felt Hunter stiffen beside me; that confirmed my suspicions that he was not free to divulge that information. I could worry about that later. “You say that you are here on some mission of peace? Fine, then let Jim and Jackson free. Send a team with us and we will escort them back to our place. They can meet with Billy and give him whatever message that you want to have delivered.”

“And why would I send a small team of my people to your community? Then they end up captured and—” Suzi began to argue, but I was feeling bold and cut her off.

“You have us seriously outmanned. We wouldn’t stand a chance and you know it if your intel is correct. And do I need to mention the whole thing about you obviously not being afraid to use the infection as a weapon?”

Suzi was silent for several seconds, and I was pretty sure that I was going back to my tent if I was lucky. It was entirely possible that I would be in a pit beside Jim before the day was done.

“Jim Sagar goes with you. The other gentleman stays as collateral,” Suzi finally said, leaning back in her chair with a smile. “And if I don’t hear from your people within…” she paused as if considering things. “Three weeks sound good?”

It took me a few seconds to realize that that was an actual question and not a rhetorical one. I nodded and eventually remembered how to use my words. “Yeah, that should be plenty of time.”

“I am pretty sure you are being straight with me, but I haven’t survived this long by being hasty or foolish.” Suzi stood up and walked over to me, sitting on the edge of her desk. “I saw how fond you are of those men. I bet it would absolutely kill you to imagine one of them being injected with our serum that induces contamination and then maybe led to your doorstep.”

I just stared at the woman. I had no doubt that she was being completely honest. If we did anything other than what was agreed, she would have Jackson injected and escorted to our gates. After that, she probably rolls in with her army and wipes us out like she did the folks of Island City.

“What if I offered to stay and you sent Jim and Jackson?” I asked.

“No, I think it best if we send you.” Suzi shot a look at Hunter before she added. “And I believe Hunter should come along as a…” she paused and her voice got sort of creepy, “escort? No, that’s not it. He will be coming with you, let’s leave it at that.”

She said that like it should upset me, but I was actually happy about it. At least there would be one face in the crowd that I felt I could trust a little bit—excluding Jim of course.

“When should we leave?’ Hunter asked with way more stiffness in his tone than I expected.

“Why wait?” Suzi turned her back and went to her desk. “I will have the team assigned and assembled by morning. That should also give your friend a chance to get cleaned up for the trip. Plus I have one thing to handle first.”

“Yeah,” I sniffed, “wouldn’t want folks to think we’d been mistreated.” Honestly, I thought I had kept that remark to myself, or at least quiet enough that she couldn’t hear me as we exited the tent.

“Oh, Thalia, you have no idea what real mistreatment is like, but if you fail to return with my people, I assure you that your friend Jackson will be able to act as a shining example.”

I shuddered at her words and followed Hunter back to my tent. I wasn’t surprised that he did not say a word to me on the way there. I was a little surprised when he deposited me and left in silence. I don’t know what I had expected him to say, but I was at least hoping that he would let me know things were going to be okay and that I’d made the right decision.

I sat in my tent the rest of that day with my mind turning over everything. I was no closer to figuring out anything when morning came. I was shaken awake by a woman with a crewcut and a nasty scar down the left side of her face. The woman did not offer her name and I didn’t ask. She told me to get dressed and be ready to move out in an hour. I could tell when she left that it was still dark.

I was a little surprised to discover most of the gear that I’d had with me when we got nabbed. The obvious and notable exception was the lack of a bow. However, an equal surprise came when I discovered my machete in a sheath of hard leather.

I put on my gear and headed outside. The detail was already forming up. When I saw Jim, I had to keep myself from running to him and wrapping him up in the biggest hug. Besides not wanting to put on such a public display of affection, I also had my doubts as to if he would be able to withstand such a thing. Now that he was out of that pit, I got a really good look at his condition.

It was clear that he’d taken more than a few beatings. With the dirt washed away, I had to assume all those dark splotches were bruises. He was limping enough that I wondered if he would actually be able to make the trip. When he saw me, he gave a wave and that huge grin just about split his face. He hobbled over to me, making no effort to skirt our escorts. That was fine except for the fact that his bumping into them was obviously having a worse effect on him that it was on those he careened off of as he waded through the assembled group of Suzi’s goon squad.

As I waited for Jim to reach me, I took in and appraised the people that would be accompanying us on this journey. My assessment of “goon squad” seemed pretty accurate. Besides the woman who woke me, there were two other females in the group. Neither looked very womanly. They all sported the same sort of high and tight hair style. They had hard expressions and faces that looked as if they might shatter if something as foreign as a genuine and happy smile dared to try and creep across their lips.

The men—there were ten of them—all had basically the same expressions as their female counterparts. I did notice that the genders stayed pretty separate and in their own little sub-group of goons. It was almost as if they were afraid of each other. The only thing missing now was Hunter. I did not see any sign of him.

“Hey, cupcake,” Jim greeted me. I let him instigate the hug, and then I sort of used his own response as my personal gauge for the degree in which I returned the gesture.

“Glad to be leaving this place?” I tried to make myself say that with a laugh, but I think it just sounded strained, tired, and fake.

“I take it they ain’t letting the big man go with us?” Jim asked as he studied the people gathered around.

“Nope, I even asked if they would let you two go and me be the one to stay behind, but Suzi shot it down.”

“So what did you have to do to broker this little deal? What are the conditions?”

I gave him the full rundown. I also told him about the zombie herd and the noisemakers. I tried to be as detailed as possible. The one thing I left out was my suspicion that he might be somehow involved and how that had been the reason for my visit yesterday. As I spoke, I continued to watch our escorts. They were obviously waiting for something.

To add to my apprehension, Hunter was still a no-show. That, from what I could guess, had to be the reason that we had not started off for home. Apparently Jim picked up on my emotions.

“What’s the problem, Thalia?” he whispered.

“Hunter.” I glanced up and realized that Jim had no idea who or what I was talking about. “The guy that brought me to you? His name is Hunter, and Suzi was adamant that he come with us.”

We stood around for another stretch of time that seemed to last an eternity. I did not have any idea what might be the reason for the delay, but the longer it went on, the worse my apprehension became. I heard a few gasps and that is what caused me to jerk my head up.

“Greetings, team,” Suzi crowed. “Sorry about the hold up, but some things can’t be rushed.”

She stepped fully into the light of the big fire. She had two men with her and they were each holding what looked like a length of chain. My eyes followed the length slowly, unable to make sense of things at first. Hunter was shackled and manacled!

A split second later, the whole picture came into focus. His head turned in a jerky fashion that told me what he was before I could see his eyes. When I was finally able to look at his face, I was not surprised by the white film and dark tracers.