Deathly Contagious (47 page)

I shifted my weight and mentally rolled my eyes. Of course…an additional twenty-four hours of lock up. I shouldn’t complain; it was damn worth it and I knew it.

“Since there are so many of you, you will be tested in alphabetical order to keep the medical staff organized. Then you will clean up and report back for quarantine instructions,” Fuller informed us. As soon as he was done explaining that we were to stay up here to avoid freaking out the residents, Hayden slunk away to talk to him, no doubt giving report of everything that happened on the mission.

I sat on the ground in the hallway. I wanted to go to sleep, wake up, and realize the attack on the farm was only a nightmare. I didn’t want to believe we had lost three of our soldiers. I hated that we had to worry about an attack. I hated that we were forced into hiding, hated that we had to get blood tests and worry about infection, running out of food, medicine, and supplies.

I wanted to find the person who created the virus—I was certain
someone
had—and hit them over the head until their skull cracked and brain and blood leaked out. Maybe I should see if they had a cure first. I shook my head. It was pointless to think like that. Whoever created the virus was probably dead anyway.

Gabby’s father, Hector, emerged from the basement with a list. He read off the first five names and told them to follow him into the medical unit to be tested. I felt a little bad for Doctor Cara and really bad for Padraic for having to get up to test our blood again.

I put my head in my hands and exhaled. I heard the scuffling of feet and someone sit down next to me. I looked up, expecting to see Hayden.

“You doing alright?” Rider asked, his eyes filled with stress.

“Yea, I guess. You?”

“Yea,” he repeated. “I hope that doesn’t happen again.”

“You’re telling me. Our cows are getting close to mating season. Once they pop out a few we can have hamburgers again.”

“That sounds good. Well, not really right now. I don’t have much of an appetite at the moment.”

“Me neither,” I agreed and hoped he wouldn’t bring up the fact three people lost their lives. I wasn’t sure if I could emotionally handle that stoically right now. Luckily Rider closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall. Slowly, the soft murmur of hushed voices filled the living room.

 I too closed my eyes and let my head fall until it was resting on Rider’s shoulder. He linked his arm through mine and laced our fingers. I gave his hand a squeeze, thanking him for his silent comfort and understanding.

I caught bits and pieces of what the others were saying. Most were talking about what had happened. A few wished they had done things differently. Muffled sobs were heard after the mention of the names of the deceased.

I tried so hard to not focus on what they were saying that I felt as if I wasn’t really there. Everything seemed surreal; the talking about zombies, the huge house, and the shiny hardwood floor I was sitting on. My body screamed at me to move out of the uncomfortable position I was sitting in but I ignored it. Within a few minutes, the throbbing pain in my legs turned to numbness as the blood flow continuously decreased.

I felt like I was spinning, getting sucked into an evil, black maelstrom of blood and violence.

“Orissa,” a familiar and soothing voice called.

I snapped my head up to stare into the pretty blue eyes of Padraic.

“What are you doing?” I blurted since I assumed he was supposed to be downstairs looking at samples of our blood under a microscope. He smiled and knelt down next to me.

“I wanted to make sure you were alright.”

I nodded. “I’m alright,” I lied. Rider removed his hand.

“Glad to hear that,” he said, not convinced. “Come on, I’ll get you tested so you can get cleaned up and rest.”

“My last name starts with a ‘P’,” I obviously stated.

Padraic winked at me. “That’s where being friends with the head doctor comes in handy.” He stood and extended a hand for me. I took it and let Padraic help me to his feet. I had forgotten how soft his skin was. He had gotten his hair cut since I’d last seen him; the shorter style looked good on him. Even at the crack of dawn, Padraic looked put together and handsome as he always did.

“I’ll see you in the quarantine,” I said to Rider, feeling as if I was betraying him somehow by leaving.

“Yea, see ya,” Rider said to me. I followed Padraic through the hall and down the basement stairs. We stopped in front of the steel doors that required a hand scan and a pass code. I had to pick crusted blood from my fingertips before the scanner recognized me.

Once through the first set of doors, Padraic turned and put his hand on my shoulder.

“You have no idea how terrified I was for you,” he confessed.

“Did you know what was going on?”

“Yea. I hadn’t gone back to bed since we did your first blood test. I heard running and people giving orders. You had gone out by the time I found Fuller.” He stepped closer. “I wanted to go out there too, Riss. I wanted to help.”

Surprised, I took a step back. “Padraic, no! You could get hurt!”

“I know the risks, Orissa.”

“Then why the hell would you want to go out there?”

“Why do you?” he asked.

“Because!” I dumbly spat. “You can do so much here—inside. Where it’s safe. We need you
here
Padraic! Without you…I don’t even know. But a lot of people would be dead without you.”

Padraic chuckled. “Don’t worry. Fuller said the same thing. While I don’t particularly like the guy, he does a good job running this place so I will respect his wishes.”

“Good,” I said and punched in the security code to get through the second set of doors.

“They don’t know; Fuller is going to tell them later,” Padraic whispered to me and I knew that he meant the residents. It was still early, too early for me to get up without a reason, but many of the residents were waking up to start their boring day stuck underground. I hoped they stayed in their rooms so I wouldn’t have to come up with a lie to tell them.

We quickly jogged down the stairs to the B level and made a bee line for the hospital ward. Ivan and Brock sat in an exam room with three other A’s, waiting for their results.

“How did you manage to cut in line?” Ivan teased as we walked past.

“Good behavior,” I joked causing Ivan and Brock to laugh. Padraic and I went into the small laboratory that had been set up. Dressed in a long, yellow denim skirt and a lime green and purple stripped turtle neck sweater, Doctor Cara was bent over a microscope. She didn’t so much as blink an eye at us when we walked into the room.

Padraic put on gloves and grabbed an alcohol wipe to disinfect my skin.

“Oh my,” he said when he looked at my filthy arm. “Uh, I can you wash your arm with soap and water first? I didn’t realize just how covered in…blood, I assume, you are.”

“Sure,” I obliged and went to the sink. The water was cold but I didn’t care. A river of brown and scarlet bubbles swirled around the stainless steel drain. I patted my arm dry with a scratchy, white towel and went back over to the counter.

“Do you want to sit?” Padraic asked.

I shook my head. “I’m fine. I’m used to it by now.”

“I’m sure you are,” he agreed grimly. He tied a rubber band around my arm, ran the alcohol pad over the bend in my elbow and uncapped a needle. “You know,” he said as he stuck the needle into my vein, “I wouldn’t have called myself experienced at drawing blood before.”

“That’s reassuring, says the guy who has a needle in my arm.”

Padraic laughed. “If my patients needed blood work, I’d order it and someone else would do it.”

“Glad to be your test subject,” I said sarcastically.   

“I’m not that bad, am I?” he asked, his blue eyes flicked up from my arm to look into mine.

“No. I would have thought you’d been doing this your whole life,” I told him honestly. “You’re very…very gentle.”

“Thanks,” he said almost shyly. He extracted enough blood, pulled the needle out of my vein and pressed a piece of gauze over the wound. “Hold this,” he instructed. I put my fingers over his and pressed the gauze down.  Padraic turned his back to me, doing something with the blood and a microscope slide. I waited, curiously watching him working.

“Am I good?” I asked after Padraic had spent a few minutes looking into the microscope.

“Far from it,” he teased. “But I don’t see any traces of the virus in your blood.” The glass slide scraped against the microscope as Padraic removed it. He rinsed the blood off and dropped the slide in a bucket full of bleach water. Removing his gloves he strode over. “You can go gets some sleep now; I’m sure you’re exhausted.”

“I am,” I agreed. Though, truth be told, I was a little nervous to sleep. I didn’t want the disturbing images of what had just happened flashing through my brain while I tried to sleep. “You must be too.”

“I’ll manage. I wasn’t out on a mission like you were.”

“True,” I stated and walked to the door, which Padraic opened for me. We were alone in the hospital ward hall. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever,” I confessed, suddenly realizing how much I missed not only Padraic but Raeya, Sonja, Olivia, and Lisa.

“It has been a few days. Does time go by fast when you’re on missions?”

“Usually, though this last one just felt long. And tiring, very tiring.”

“What happened?” he asked quietly as we walked down the hall to the stairs.

I shrugged and winced at the pain the movement caused.

“What?” Padraic asked immediately. “What’s wrong?”

I tried rolling my shoulder only to find it hurt even worse. “Nothing. I think I pulled a muscle in my shoulder or something.”

“You are pretty banged up,” he reminded me and gently touched the scab on my forehead. “What is this from?”

“A crazy threw a rock at me,” I said after a moment’s recall. “And this,” I began and lifted up the hem of my tank top to show off the bruises on my left side. “Is from falling down a flight of stairs in a parking garage while running away from a herd of zombies during a tornado.”

“Holy shit, Orissa!” Padraic exclaimed. “That looks horrible!”

“You should see this then, too.” I turned around so he could see the layers of skin that had been scraped off by my gun. Padraic’s face was so horrified I laughed. “It’s not that bad. I’ll be better after a couple of days. I’ve been worse, you know.”

“Unfortunately, you have. You’re lucky you haven’t been seriously hurt.”

“Luck has nothing to do with it,” I said. The moment the words escaped my mouth I realized that I was lucky. All of the at-the-last-minute getaways, finding a car that just so happens to start…was that luck and not skill?

“Get some rest,” Padraic instructed. “Doctor’s orders.”

“I will. Can you tell Ray I said hi and that I’m fine? I won’t get to see her until tomorrow morning.”

“Of course. Sleep well, Orissa.”

“You too.” I smiled at Padraic before going as quickly up the stairs and into my room as my sore body would let me. Someone was in the shower; I impatiently gathered up new pajamas to change into and waited in the hall, not wanting someone to snag the bathroom before I got the chance to get in.

A few minutes later, Ivan—dressed on only a towel—opened the door. He looked at me with surprise.

“I didn’t expect to see you up here so soon,” he confessed.

“My blood was clean,” I told him.

“Good.” He stepped past me. “There should still be plenty of hot water. See ya downstairs.”

I stripped out of my ruined pajamas and turned the shower on. Already warmed, I stepped into the water and began scrubbing the dirt, blood, and zombie ooze from my body. I quickly shampooed and conditioned my hair and washed my face. Satisfied I had washed away all of the grossness, I turned the water off and grabbed my towel.

I hadn’t realized just how badly bruised I really was until I inspected my naked body in the mirror. I shook my head at my reflection before flipping my head upside down and rubbing my hair with the towel. I got dressed and brushed my teeth, trying to move as fast as possible so the next in line could get in the shower.

Once I was back in my room I moved as slow as possible since I didn’t want to sit downstairs and wait. Unless Fuller pushed Hayden ahead in line, he would be one of the last of the soldiers to get their blood tested.

I laid down in my bed. The sun was shining and birds were merrily singing, unaware of the danger that surrounded us or the stain of death the day was marked with. I must have drifted off to sleep because it seemed like only a few minutes had passed when the mattress sunk down.

I opened my eyes to see Hayden; showered and clean, wearing nothing but a pair of pajama pants.

“Do we have to go to the quarantine room?” I asked, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. My throat was incredibly dry but I felt too bogged down by sleep to do anything about it.

“Nope,” Hayden said and laid down next to me. “The A2 and 3’s are going in there since there are more of them than there are of us.”

“So where are we going?”

He wrapped his arms around me. I wormed closer to him, pressing my face against his firm chest. “We get to be locked in our rooms.”

“Seriously?”

“Yea. The door at the top of the stairs is closed and locked. Someone will bring up breakfast soon and we’ll be checked on every few hours.”

I closed my eyes again. “I love you, Hayden,” I whispered, feeling that was something that needed to be said. Maybe Padraic was right; maybe we were only still alive because of luck. As long as I had it on my side, I was going to use it to my advantage.

But luck runs out and not everyone gets lucky. If things were to take a turn for the worst, I wanted to make damn sure the people I cared about knew exactly how much they meant to me.

“I love you, too,” he whispered back and pressed his lips to mine.

“Do you think we’re still alive only because we’re lucky?” I asked, unable to help myself.

“No,” he answered right away. “We’re alive because we’re smart. We know what we’re doing. We don’t take unnecessary risks…well, not too often. We’ve been more or less trained, we usually have a plan. And we have each other. And I don’t mean just me and you. All of us; any of us. We all bring something different to the table. We can draw off each other’s strengths. We have each other’s backs. We’re still alive because we are fighters; we’re still alive because we want to live.”