Deathly Contagious (26 page)

I grabbed my shower stuff and followed Hayden down the stairs. Jones, an A3 I hadn’t conversed with much, was bringing several of the dogs in. Argos broke away and raced over to me. I dropped everything I was carrying to greet the dog.

“Hi sweetheart,” I gushed, kneeling down to pet the Doberman. His stump of a tail wagged like crazy and he whined as he circled me, completely excited.

“I think he missed you,” Jones said with a smile.

“Where’s Greta?” Hayden asked, looking for his favorite dog of the bunch.

“She’s outside,” Jones told him. “You should see her in training. She’s getting good at finding people.”

“Awesome. When do you think she’ll be ready to go out?” Hayden inquired.

“Pretty soon. I can get her, if you’d like.”

“I would, but we have to get downstairs. Thanks for taking care of the dogs,” he said to Jones with a smile.

I hugged Argos. “Yea, thanks. He looks great,” I agreed. I petted him one more time, thinking that he was the best looking dog I’d ever seen. I supposed it was possible I was a
little
biased. We went into the quarantine room, dropping our stuff onto the couch.

“You can shower first,” Ivan said to me, having already settled it with Brock. “Once again, you’re the one covered in blood.”

I thanked the guys, smiled, and shrugged but was very eager to wash the crusty blood off my skin. I unlaced my boots and threw them by the door. My sock stuck to the cut on my heel and it hurt like a bitch when I yanked it off. I hobbled into the bathroom and striped out of my clothes. They definitely weren’t worth saving. I shoved them into the garbage and turned the shower on.

The bathroom door opened and I jumped, covering myself up with my hands.

“What the fuck?” I asked Hayden as he stepped in.

“We should save water,” he told me with a grin. “It’s the responsible thing to do.”

“I thought you didn’t want anyone to know?” I asked.

“Brock and Ivan already do.”

“The cameras,” I reminded him.

“Nobody’s watching
us
.” He pulled his shirt over his head, his dog tags getting stuck and coming off. They fell to the floor with a clink. I picked them up and held them up for Hayden. He kicked off his pants and took them from me. He raised his arms as if to put them back over his head but stopped and slipped the chain around my neck.

“I want you to wear them,” he said and kissed me. Warmth flowed from his lips, going though every inch of my body. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him close.

“Are you sure?” I asked, breaking away from Hayden. I closed my fingers around the metal tag.

“Yes,” he whispered and kissed me again. “I love you, Orissa.” Emotion surged through me. I closed my eyes, afraid tears might form. I removed the rest of Hayden’s clothes and stepped into the shower, bringing him with me.

This time we didn’t give a damn how loud we were. We sluggishly dried off and got dressed. We settled on the couch, stretching out and Hayden wrapped his arms around me. I leaned on him and smiled to myself, rubbing my fingers over the metal of the dog tags.

“If you used all the hot water I’m gonna be pissed,” Ivan said, the usual humor and charm back in his voice.  He flashed a white smile and went into the bathroom. Brock was in the kitchenette eating what smelled like vegetable soup. It smelled good and made my stomach rumble, however, I was too content in Hayden’s embrace to get up just yet.

It didn’t take long for both Hayden and me to fall asleep. When we woke up several hours later, my back was sore and I had a kink in my neck from the way I was laying.

“Morning, sunshine,” Brock teased.

I sat up, painfully rolling my neck. “How long was I asleep?” I asked, my voice dry and scratchy.

Brock looked at the clock. “About five hours.” He turned back to the movie he and Ivan were watching. “You still have a few more hours left to sleep,” he said, reminding me that we were taking shifts again.

“Ok,” I said and lay back down next to Hayden. Only a few seconds passed before I realized I wasn’t tired anymore. I got up, got a drink of water and opened a can of soup. I divided it into two bowls and stuck them in the microwave. I raked my fingers through my messy hair before attempting to use my brush. The timer on the microwave beeped before I got even half the tangles out. I put the bowls, two spoons and a glass of water on a tray and brought it over to the couch. Hayden woke up when I sat back down; he thanked me for the soup and devoured it in minutes.

I went into the bathroom to brush my hair. When I came out, Hayden was in one of the beds. I crawled in next to him, snuggling close to his side. The twin bed didn’t offer much more room than the couch and it was hard to get comfortable.  Stupidly, I was impatient to get out and talk to Raeya; I wanted to show her the new necklace I was wearing. I rested my head on Hayden’s firm chest, ignoring the fact that it was less than comfortable.

Ivan was tired and got into the other twin bed. I lounged around lazily for a while before joining Brock in a game of cards. Twenty minutes later, Hayden got up and sat at the table with us. We ate more soup, talked about past family gatherings (Brock’s family was so dysfunctional it made my own messed up family seem normal), and our school experiences.

“I never got why girls are so mean to each other,” Brock said as he absentmindedly shuffled the deck of cards. “I almost didn’t want to have a girlfriend for the longest time because of it. You can’t escape the damn drama.” He and Hayden looked at me as if I knew all the answers.

“What?” I asked them.

“Come on, Riss. Don’t you know some secret girl rules you can spill now that the world had gone to hell?” Brock asked.

“Not really,” I told him honestly. I sighed. “Well, it’s ‘cuz girls are always judging each other.”

“Why?” Hayden asked.

“Because we want to be the best.” I leaned forward. “It’s almost like we are hardwired to think we have to be the best or no one will like us. We try and try and if we find someone better than us—which we will—we insult her to make us feel better. Girls are jealous in nature. If another girl has better hair, a firmer ass, bigger boobs, more friends, whatever you could possibly compare, we are taught to hate her and come up with reasons to bring her down.”

“You really think so?” Hayden asked.

“I know so.”

 “I don’t see you as being the jealous type,” Brock stated.

I shrugged. “I don’t think I am either.”

“So you wouldn’t insult a girl who is better than you?” he asked.

I shook my head. “What’s the point? No matter what—if you do the dumbass comparing game—you will always find someone better than you.”

Brock made a face. “But you’re a competitive person.”

“Yea, I am. I like challenging myself. But I learned a long time ago it’s so much better if you just stop the comparing. I don’t want to be brought down by society’s fucking picture perfect image of what a woman should be. I’m me and if you don’t like me, well, fuck you. And when you’re constantly comparing and worrying about what other people think of you, they own you and you’re not your own person anymore.” I smiled and leaned back in the chair.

Hayden turned to Brock. “I think she’s a keeper,” he joked.

“And I’m sure guys do just as much comparing,” I said. Hayden and Brock immediately disagreed. “Oh come on, you so do.”

“Maybe we compare a little,” Hayden admitted. “But I don’t think we try to bring other dudes down.”

“Yea,” Brock agreed. “Like if I saw a guy at the gym who was more built than me, I’d jealously wish I was bigger but I wouldn’t call him a whore like girls do to each other.”

“Makes sense,” I said and took the cards from Brock. I shuffled and dealt and started another game of Rummy. Once twelve hours passed and Brock felt symptom free, he relaxed enough to sleep. Hayden and I cuddled up on the couch, watching movies and talking to pass the rest of the time.

I forgot to look at the clock when we first came into the quarantine. I knew we got back in the afternoon; it was currently one-thirty. I ended up falling asleep while Hayden and Ivan kept an eye on Brock, though at this point we were sure he was fine. Hayden woke me up when our time was up.  

Just in time for dinner, we showered and changed before going downstairs. Raeya, Sonja and Olivia raced over to me. I threw my arms around my best friend, hugging her so tightly I picked her up off the ground.

“Riss!” she exclaimed. “I missed you!”

“I missed you too,” I told her and took a step back. “And see, I told you I’d only be gone for a day or two.” I got my tray and joined Ray at her table filled with the people from my old group: Lisa, Sonja, Jason, and Padraic. Olivia and another teenage girl I didn’t know crowded in with them.  There was only one seat left. I looked at Hayden, who smiled and nodded.

Since I had just spent an entire twenty-four hours by his side, not sitting next to him for one meal wasn’t going to hurt his feelings. I sat down, happy to spend time with my friends. Raeya told me that she came up with a safe system for getting everyone outside in the open air. She had come up with a ‘recess timesheet’ for them to follow. Fuller agreed to pull two A3’s to stand guard around the dog’s fenced in area while the residents were enjoying the sunshine.

“Tension is growing,” she warned me. “It’s almost like the gratitude for being safe is wearing off and people are becoming restless.” She pushed mashed potatoes around on her plate. “Some of us have been here for months; we’ve grown comfortable. And with that, people seem to think they can do what they want.”

“That’s not good,” I dumbly stated and forced myself to eat a forkful of tuna casserole. There was a time I used to enjoy that dish; having to choke it down at least once a week made me detest it with a passion.

“No, it’s not. I’m afraid people are feeling like they are waiting for something that will never come.”

“And what are we waiting for?” Sonja asked, having overheard us.

“For all the zombies to die,” her brother pointed out as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“But then what?” she questioned.

Padraic took a drink of water and answered. “We start again.”

“How?” Sonja pressed. “We barely have anything.”

“It’s been done before,” I told her, Hayden’s speech echoing in my mind. “Hundreds of years ago. We’re smarter now; we can do it again.”

“Smarter, but not tougher,” Lisa said and we all laughed.

After dinner Hayden went upstairs to play video games with the other A1’s. I stayed downstairs and followed Raeya into the game room. We played a board game with Lisa, Sonja, and Olivia and then I snuck Raeya upstairs and outside into the dogs’ area. We found Argos and threw a tennis ball for him.

“The stars are so bright!” Raeya said, wrapping her arms around herself. Her breath clouded around her face and a cool, late winter wind blew through her hair.

“Yea, there’s no light pollution anymore.” I threw the ball as far as I could and looked up. “I never realized how much there was until it was gone. Remember how dark it was when we were on the run?”

“Yea, it was impossible to see.”

“Thank God for our night vision scopes,” I said with a half smile. I shivered; without the sun, the nighttime air was chilly. Raeya sat on an overturned bucket.

“I can’t wait until we can spend more time out here,” she sighed. “It’s pretty safe, right?”

“I think so,” I told her honestly. “Though, I think we’ve been lucky no zombies have wandered close enough to realize that there are hundreds of tasty people underground.”

“They can’t get to us,” she reminded me, but I was able to sense the question in her voice.

“Right. Not downstairs at least. And the windows are bullet proof, the doors are all steel and the walls are reinforced. It would be hard for them to get inside the estate and impossible for them to get into the lower levels.”

“What would we do if we were attacked?”

“Wait it out. That’s what Fuller said anyway. Our livestock would be gone though. Hopefully the A2’s out there would be able to get to safety. And we—the A1’s—would be sent out to kill them.”

“What about the A3’s?”

“The watch towers they are in are high enough and sturdy enough they’d be fine. They’d just have to wait it out too.”

“How long do you think that would be?”

“I have no idea. The zombies would move on eventually…I think.”

She nodded and looked around the dimly lit fenced in area, no doubt planning a route of escape. “Would we know?”

“Know what?”

“If zombies surrounded the compound. Would you tell us?”

“I’d tell you,” I said honestly. “But I don’t think you would know as it was happening. It would create panic.”

“Right, it would. And it’s not like us knowing would even make a difference.” She sighed heavily. “Maybe the cabins aren’t a good idea after all.”

“Hey,” I said gently. “What’s wrong?” I questioned her never faltering sense of optimism.

She shook her head. “Nothing. I-I guess I’m getting cabin fever too.” She looked into my eyes. “There’s just so much I miss.”

“Me too,” I agreed. “This dead world fucking sucks ass, but we’re here and we have to make the most of it, no matter how shitty it is. I’ll admit there was a time I didn’t think it was worth living.”

“Really?”

I nodded. “I thought I had nothing left to live for. But I have you and the others and now Hayden…I’m not good at this, Ray, but you can’t give up hope. You taught me that. We’re strong, we’re survivors. If we’ve made it this far, then I think we’re some pretty tough bitches who can keep going.”

She smiled. “I don’t think anyone but you can say so many bad words in an inspirational speech and still have it make me feel better,” she laughed. “But you’re right. Life isn’t what it used to be, but we are alive, we can’t forget that.”

One of the dogs barked. I whirled around, my eyes scanning the property. Another barked and ran over to the fence. Then I heard the familiar hissing of raccoons.  I let out the breath I didn’t know I was holding and turned back to Ray, my hands absentmindedly fiddling with the chain around my neck.