Deathly Contagious (27 page)

Prepared to tell her about Brock getting bitten and the shootings, I pulled nervously on the chain.

“What is that?” she asked, unable to see it in the dark.

A smile broke out on my face. “Hayden’s dog tags,” I attempted to say casually but failed at keeping the happiness out of my voice.

“He gave you his tags?”

“No, I stole them while he was sleeping. Of course he gave them to me, Ray.”

“Aren’t soldiers supposed to wear them all the time?”

“In war yes, that’s how the bodies get ID’d.”

“Oh,” she said but still looked at me quizzically. “So he doesn’t need them anymore, right?”

“I guess not,” I said, not liking the thought of needing to identify Hayden’s body. I tugged on the tags, biting my lip.

“Wait,” Raeya said and shot up. “Does it mean the same thing as giving someone a fraternity pin?”

I nodded.

“Ohmigod, Rissy!” she squeaked. “That is so sweet!”

I waved my hand, wanting to downplay the romance. “Yea, I guess”

“I sense a ‘but’ coming on.”

“A butt?”

She nodded. “It is sweet
but
…”

“Oh,
that
kind of but. And yea.” I let my hand fall. “Sweet, yes, but what’s the purpose? Why give me something that symbolizes wanting to be together forever when tomorrow might be as far as we get?”

“You don’t know that,” she told me. “And besides, you love him, don’t you?” I nodded. “And obviously he loves you; why not hope for forever together?”

“Even if there weren’t zombies, I have low expectations of forever,” I reminded her.

“I know. Your parents’ divorce made you have huge doubts on lasting, functional relationships,” she said bluntly. “But it didn’t to Hayden. It’s not fair to him if you don’t at least give him the chance to prove it.”

I nodded again. “You make too much sense, Ray.”

“That,” she said with a smile. “Is something I can live with. And I’m glad I’m back to giving you advice. Inspirational speeches from you are weird.”

I laughed. The wind blew again and we both shivered. Deciding to take the dogs in with us, Ray and I clipped leashes on seven big dogs and scooped up the two little ones that were currently outside with us. We brought them downstairs; Raeya knew who most of the dogs belonged to.

I brought Argos up to my room with me. He trotted ahead, happy to be somewhere new. I assumed he slept with the German Shepherds that were being trained to aid us on our missions; I was sure he’d be happy to spend the night with us tonight.

Argos nosed his way into Wade and Rider’s room, having heard multiple voices. Excitedly, he greeted the guys and then jumped up onto the bed, laying down behind Hayden. Along with Wade and Rider, Hayden, Brock and Ivan crowded into the room and were playing video games. My hand flew to the dog tags, ready to stuff them down my shirt and out of sight.

Hayden’s hazel eyes met mine and he smiled, sending something through me. I let the tags bounce onto my chest. I said hi to the guys and strode over to Hayden, who was sitting on the edge of the bed. With no hesitation, I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him.

When I pulled away, everyone was staring at me, Hayden included.

“I don’t like keeping it a secret,” I told him quietly. I turned around to face Wade and Rider. “We’re together. We have been for a while and I’m tired of sneaking around.”

“I so called it,” Rider said to Wade.

“You could have just told us instead of showing us,” Wade teased. He smiled, blinked and turned back to his game.

“Are you gonna tell everyone?” Ivan asked, not looking away from the TV.

“No,” Hayden said at the same time I said ‘yes’.

“Why not?” I asked him.

“You know why,” he responded, sounding a little annoyed.

I rolled my eyes and got off of him, resituating at his side. I stayed, petting Argos, until I got bored watching the guys play games. Knowing Hayden preferred things neat and orderly, I gathered up my dirty laundry and carried it into the laundry room.

“Hey, Orissa,” Gabby said. She bent down and transferred her clothes from the dyer into her laundry basket.

“Hey, Gabby.”

“How are you tonight?” she asked.

“I’m good,” I told her honestly. “As good as you can be anymore.”

“I understand. Since all the guys are gonna play video games tonight, do you want to watch a movie with me and Jess?”

I didn’t want to. I set my basket down. “Sure.”

“Great. We decided to watch
Night of the Living Dead
,” she said with a laugh. She tightened her blonde ponytail and picked up her basket. She could be really pretty, I thought, if she wore makeup and did something with her naturally curly and frizzy hair. “We’ll start it soon, see you in a bit!”

I turned the washing machine on, grumbling to myself about having to suffer through an hour and a half of girl time watching a stupid black and white movie. Without measuring the detergent, I dumped it in and shoved my clothes inside the washing machine. I changed into pajama pants and a sweatshirt and went into Gabby and Jessica’s room.

All of the rooms were set up in the same way: a bed and nightstands on either side of the door, a dresser centered on the opposite wall with a window above it, a bookcase and a closet on the sides. One of the shelves on their bookcase held little glass figurines and a picture of a once happy family. It was strange to see a smile that big on Jessica’s face.

Gabby patted the spot next to her. I sat on her bed, fluffing a pillow behind me.

“Have you seen this?” she asked, pressing play.

“A long time ago,” I told her. “You?”

“Nope. Zombie movies used to scare me. Now the real thing is so much worse.”

“Yea. They don’t cover all the bases in the movies.”

“Ugh. Not at all. It’s all running and action and doesn’t show that you still have to go on living.”

Jessica came into the room carrying a bowl of popcorn. Somewhat to my surprise, she squeezed onto the bed next to me.

“At least we have an endless supply of microwave popcorn,” Gabby said and grabbed a handful. We watched the movie, eating popcorn and occasionally talking. The more I got to know Gabby the more I liked her. The more I spoke with Jessica, the more I pitied her.

She was at work the day the first crazy attacked someone in her small town. As a cop, she was the first to respond. He had bitten the waitress at Sue’s Diner. Another patron hit him over the head, knocking him out for only a few seconds. Then he was up again, attacking anyone who was near. He killed one person, and, by the time Jessica got there, he was feasting on his organs.

Jessica shot him on the spot.

When she came home that night, she said she knew something wasn’t right with Jacob, her five year old son. He kept telling her his head hurt. Thinking it was a normal headache she gave him aspirin, a kiss, and tucked him in bed.

He never woke up.

Then chaos broke out. While she and her husband were grieving the death of their child, the people of the town turned on each other. Jessica was frantically gathering weapons and supplies to make a getaway. She left her husband in the house and ran out to the garage to put a bag in the car.

When she went back to the house, the door was locked. She closed her eyes as she told me how she banged on the door, begging him to let her in. But he didn’t. Finally, she gave up and broke the window in the door and reached through, cutting her arm on the broken glass.

Her husband was sitting calmly at the kitchen table. She said she yelled at him for ignoring her but he didn’t even look up. She remembered it clearly, the blood dripping on the floor. She grabbed a towel to put on her wound and raced over to check on her bleeding husband.

He had a vegetable peeler in one hand, shaving the skin off his other. Once he got a strip off, he ate it.

Gabby shivered. “Sorry,” she whispered. “No matter how many times I hear it, it still gives me chills.” She put her hand on Jessica’s. “I wish I could go back in time,” she told her. “And save them. Save everyone.”

“What about you, Orissa?” Jessica asked, blinking back tears. “How did you discover everything? Did it happen all of the sudden too?”

“I think so,” I told her. “I’ll have to ask Padraic; I don’t really know.”

“Padraic?” Gabby questioned.

“Yea. I was at the hospital; I got attacked, put in an exam room and then got knocked out by some sort of gas. Padraic found me and brought me downstairs. We stayed in the hospital basement with close to fifty people for, shit, two weeks probably.”

“So you never saw the news?” Gabby asked. I shook my head. “There weren’t any stories at first, as if not talking about the violence made it not real. My dad told me that he thinks the news reporters weren’t allowed to talk about it. He thought it has something to do with not creating panic, but I don’t agree. I mean, I don’t agree with the reason being to delay the panic. I fully agree with the reporters not being allowed to talk about it. And it was almost like the news reporters knew what was going on the whole time.”

“I guess we’ll never know,” Jessica said. We turned our attention back to the movie. I was feeling a little dejected, my mind pondering the virus and the outbreak, then I said goodnight and went to retrieve Argos from the guys.

I didn’t realize how tired I was until I got into bed. I was asleep before Hayden came back into the room.  We got up on time for breakfast the next day then did absolutely nothing the rest of the day besides lay in bed, watch movies and eat.

Hayden woke up from an afternoon nap to find me flipping through the pages of an old notebook.

“What is that?” he asked, running his hands over his face.

“A notebook,” I told him.

“No shit, Orissa.” He waited for me to continue. When I didn’t he said, “Didn’t you bring that with you? I remember seeing it in your bag when I got that cat out.”

“Yea,” I said shortly. I didn’t like remembering the stuffed cat or who it belonged to.

“What’s with the attitude?”

“I don’t have an attitude,” I snapped.

“Really?” Hayden asked incredulously.

“No,” I said and flipped a page.

“So you’re not going to tell me what that is?”

“What does it matter?” I asked him, feeling hurt by the memory of Zoe.

“It doesn’t. Forget it; sorry I asked,” he huffed.

I sighed. “It’s a notebook. When I moved to Indy, Raeya got it so we could write each other notes and mail it back and forth.”

“Oh.” He sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. “Why didn’t you just email each other?”

“We did.”

“And you mailed that thing? Seems like a hassle.”

“Yea, I guess it was,” I admitted.

“Then why do it? Wasn’t it a waste of time and money on stamps?”

“Yes, it was a stupid waste of time and money,” I spat.

“Why are you in a bad mood?”

“I’m not!” I yelled. I shook my head and composed myself. “I’m not,” I said with an effort to keep my voice calm.

“Mmm,” Hayden mumbled and laid back down. “Want to lay down with me?”

“I’m feeling kinda restless,” I told him honestly. “But there’s nothing to do,” I sighed.

“You could clean,” he suggested as he resituated his pillow and picked up the remote.

“Hah,” I replied.

“Really, you could. Look at your side of the closet.”

I did and mentally acknowledged the fact that my clothing was jumbled and unorganized.

“Later,” I told him.

“You won’t want to do it later,” he said.

“I won’t
want
to do it ever,” I retorted.

“Exactly. Why don’t you do it now?”

“I don’t feel like it,” I reminded him and got up. I sat on the edge of his bed and stuck my feet under the covers. I wiggled my way next to him and rested my head on his shoulder.

“That’s not comfortable,” he said and moved away.

“You just said you wanted me to lay down with you,” I said.

“Yea but that doesn’t mean you have to be
on
me.”

“Fine,” I said and got out of bed. I moved to the closet and yanked my clothes off the shelves and started folding. Fifteen minutes later, my sweaters were neatly stacked and my pants hung evenly on their hangers.

“Now you can clean the bathroom,” Hayden said seriously.

“Uh, no,” I said.

“It’s your turn,” he told me, sitting up enough to look me in the eye. “When was the last time you cleaned it?”

I didn’t answer.

“Never, right? I always do it. Well, I’m not going to. You can clean it.”

“We share it with four other people,” I pointed out. “They can clean it.”

“Stop being lazy and just do it,” he advised.

“I am
not
lazy,” emphasized.

“You are when it comes to cleaning. Thank God zombies aren’t attracted to your messes or they’d be banging on the door,” he said in a level voice.

I glared at him. “Why are you doing this?”

“Doing what?” he asked, not taking his eyes off the TV.

I waved my hand in the air. “This! Picking a fight!”

“I’m not picking a fight,” he said calmly, further pissing me off.

“Yes, you are,” I argued. “You said I’m lazy and a bad girlfriend.”

“Riss, I never said you were a bad girlfriend.”

“You implied it!” I crossed my arms.

“You’re being ridiculous.”

“Then I’m ridiculous,” I huffed, knowing it was true. I stormed out of the room and marching into the laundry room. I grabbed a spray bottle of bathroom cleaner and a rag. I’m an efficient cleaner when I’m angry. Raeya had figured that out back in high school and would purposely make me made to get me to clean my room.

When I returned to our room, Hayden was still in bed. He smiled weakly at me and waved me over. I sat on the edge again, making sure I didn’t dare touch him. Sensing my hostility, he sat up, wrapped his arms around me, and pulled me down with him.

“Sorry I called you lazy,” he told me.

“Sorry I overreacted,” I said, feeling a little ashamed of how childish I acted. “I was upset and I took it out on you.”

“What are you upset about?” he asked carefully.

“I was thinking about Zoe,” I whispered.