The Truth is Contagious (The Contagium Series Book 4) (11 page)

“Hey, Orissa,” she said shyly.

“Hey, Liv,” I said and put the plastic tray
on the stack of dirty dishes. I was
very
glad I didn’t have
to wash the dishes of over 300 people. “How are you?”

Her green eyes sparkled and her cheeks
flushed. “I’m good…for real. But can I talk to you?”

“Of course you can.” I waved goodbye to my
friends and followed Olivia out of the cafeteria. The hall was
buzzing with people. I had to turn my shoulders and shimmy my way
through.

When we pushed past the bulk of the crowd,
Olivia turned, looking up at me. She pressed her full lips together
and smiled. “My birthday is in two days,” she blurted, avoiding the
subject. “I can legally drive…not that it matters, right?” she said
with a laugh.

“I know you didn’t come to me for driving
lessons,” I said.

She let out a nervous laugh. “No. But if you
wanted to give them to me you can. I’d love to get out of here.”
Her smile instantly faded. “Maybe not. Not when there’s still
zombies and bad people out there.”

“I’d keep ya safe.”

Her smile returned “I know you would. I trust
you.” A group of teenage girls passed us. They waved and said hello
to Olivia. “Can we go somewhere less crowded?”

I nodded and led her toward the staircase
that took us down to the B level. The air conditioner rattled as it
kicked on. “What’s going on?” I asked her and slowed my pace.

“Remember how I told you that I kinda liked
someone?”

“I do. Did you tell him?”

Her cheeks flushed. “No.” She shook her head.
“Not yet,” she corrected, looking up at me. She stopped and ran her
hand over her hair, which was in a side braid. “I’m pretty sure he
likes me too.”

I smiled. “That’s great. But, uh, how do you
know?”

“His sister—”

“Jason,” I interrupted.

Her eyes widened and the slight red in her
cheeks brightened. “How did you know?”

I raised an eyebrow. “How many guys in your
age group have sisters you’re friends with?”

“Damn you’re good.” She took a breath.
“Anyway. Sonja thinks that—”

“Wait,” I interrupted again.
Did
I
just
hear
...? I tipped my head, listening.
Yes, there was definitely something going on below us. I sprang
forward, moving down the hall. I heard it again…a high pitched
scream followed by a long, harrowing growl.

I pushed into a run, skidding to a stop at
the top of the stairs. The scream resonated off the cement
walls.

“Go get Hayden!” I called to Olivia before I
realized she had no idea he was in Fuller’s office. I threw the
door open and jumped down the stairs, taking two at a time.
Something metal clattered to the floor. I rounded the landing, my
feet flying as I ran. I burst through the door, heart racing.

The screaming got louder. I ran down the
hall, pushing past a small crowd of people who had come out of
their rooms to dumbly stare in the direction of the commotion.
Suddenly, someone burst through the hospital ward doors.

The crazy was sputtering, madly pulling at
his arms, which were in restraints behind his back. He saw me,
snarled, and took off. I slowed and pulled my shoulders back,
ready. He pitched forward, opening his mouth as he prepared to sink
his teeth into my flesh.

I brought my arm back, sending my fist into
his throat. While the pain did nothing, the inability to breathe
caused the crazy to stop and take in a rattling breath. I reached
out, planting my hands on his head. I closed my eyes and
twisted.

His body collapsed onto the floor, face
first, head loudly thumping on the tile. His nose was broken and
blood splattered out.

“Son of a bitch,” I muttered. I stepped away
from the body and looked up. The few residents who had watched the
exchange stared at me in awe and horror. I swallowed and shrugged
before shaking myself. “Everyone all right?” I asked.

Hands slapped the glass of the hospital ward
door, leaving a bloody streak. My heart skipped a beat and I
jumped. At first I thought it was another crazy.

“Don’t kill him,” Dr. Cara panted, pushing
through the doors. Blood slowly dripped from a gash on her
forehead, above her right eyebrow. She looked at me then eyed the
lifeless body at my feet. Her eyes widened and the color drained
from her face. She stared at the dead crazy looking heartbroken and
terrified at the same time.

What the fuck was going on?

“Are there any more?” I demanded.

She blinked and tipped her head up, her eyes
settling on me. She tucked her left arm close to her body. “No. He
was the only one.” She reached up, gently touching the cut on her
forehead with her fingers. She flinched then wiped the blood
away.

“Did he get anyone in there?” I asked.

Dr. Cara wiped her hands on her shirt,
smearing red over a preexisting stain. She shook her head, and I
stared daggers at her. “What the fuck were you doing with that
thing?”

If looks could kill, Dr. Cara would also be
dead on the floor.

She turned her head up, blinking. “I was
close to a breakthrough,” she said.

Footsteps pounded on the stairs, and Ivan and
Brock burst through the doors and into the hall. Ivan’s dark eyes
were wide. “What’s going on?” he panted.

“That’s a good question,” I spat, whirling
around to glare at Dr. Cara again.

“Shit!” Brock said when he saw the body on
the floor.

“It’s a crazy,” I said quickly before he
raced over and dropped to the floor to perform CPR on what looked
like a resident. His eyes lingered on the blood that was seeping
from the crazy’s nose. Then he turned, squaring his shoulders.

“Is anyone hurt?” he asked, scanning the
crowd. He and Ivan moved down the hall, stopping at the body. Brock
nudged it with the toe of his boot. I realized I was clenching my
hands into fists. I flattened my palms against my thighs, and tried
to let go of the anger.

“Go back to your rooms and close the doors,”
Ivan calmly ordered. “We will deal with this.” He stood over the
body while the dozen or so compound residents scattered. The
closing doors echoed down the long hall. “What the fuck?” Ivan
asked, looking at me.

I shook my head. “She’s freaking lucky I was
here. He could have gotten anyone—really. None of us are armed and
it’s the
last
thing I expect to happen.”

Brock knelt down, rolling the crazy over. “We
need to get this cleaned up. Now.”

I nodded, taking another breath to calm my
temper. The door flew open again, hitting the wall with force.
Hayden rush down, eyes open wide. He looked at the three of us then
at the crazy, taking in the zip-tie handcuffs that were tightly
wrapped around the crazy’s wrists.

“What is going on?” he finally asked.

“Heard screams and came down here to find
this guy running through the hall,” I explained.

“You killed him?”

I nodded. “Snapped his neck. Then Dr. Cara
comes out asking me to spare him.”

Hayden opened his mouth to say something but
stopped, shaking his head. He closed his eyes in a long blink. “Is
everyone ok?”

“It appears so,” Ivan said, looking around.
“But she’s bleeding.”

Dr. Cara put her hand over the cut. “It isn’t
a deep wound,” she stated.

“Did he bite you?” Hayden asked as he strode
over.

Dr. Cara pressed her arm into her stomach.
“No. He pushed me and I hit my head on the counter. You can look at
the blood splatter if you’d like.”

Hayden shook his head “I believe you.” He
turned away from her. “Uh, we should take the body out and away
from here before burning it. Then bleach the hell out of the
floor.

“Wait,” Dr. Cara said suddenly. Her face,
which was usually blank, showed fear. “Can you bring him into the
lab?” She closed her eyes and bit her lip, looking vulnerable and
as if she actually was capable of feeling emotions. “I need to test
something.”

All eyes fell on Hayden. He swallowed, looked
at the body, and then at me.

“Hell no,” I said, anger rising again. “That
thing
is bleeding. It’s a huge infection risk.”

“I at least need the head,” she stated,
earning incredulous stares from the four of us. “For research.”

Hayden held up his hand to keep me from
protesting. “It’s dead and isn’t posing a threat anymore. However,
he’s still full of all his, uh, juices so he needs to go.”

“But my—” Dr. Cara started.

“Just the head, right?” Hayden asked.

“Yes.”

Hayden looked and shook his head, as if he
couldn’t believe what he was about to say. “Fine. Take him outside
first. Then remove the head.”

Dr. Cara relaxed. “Thank you.”

Hayden’s lips pressed into a tight line. “We
need to have a word.”

Dr. Cara nodded.

“In Fuller’s—my office. Now.” Leaving Ivan
and Brock to clean up the mess, Hayden, Dr. Cara, and I went down
the hall.

“What the hell?” Hayden asked before I could
even close the door.

Dr. Cara stood in the middle of the room,
slightly dejected.

“You brought an S1
inside
! What were
you thinking? It could have bitten someone!” His hands flew around
when he spoke. “They are dangerous. The virus is doing something to
their brains, something different—which you would have found out if
you didn’t bring that thing in here and we were having the meeting
like I planned.” He stopped, chest rapidly rising and falling.

I knew Hayden and understood that he was
shouldering some of the responsibility for what had happened. He
felt that since he was in charge, anything that went wrong fell on
him.

“How did you sneak it in?” I asked and
crossed the room to be next to Hayden. My ears were hot and my
temper was rising again.

“Drugged it. Had it carried in,” she stated
and cast her eyes to the ground. She kept her arm close to her
body. It was obvious she was hurt; maybe she twisted her wrist when
the crazy pushed her. I figured it wasn’t that bad since she hadn’t
mentioned it.

“Why?” Hayden asked, completely exasperated.
His eyebrows pushed together and little lines of worry formed
around his mouth.

“Research,” she stated as if it was
obvious.

“Oh good, Hayden,” I said sarcastically. “It
was in the name of research. Which makes endangering
every-fucking-one totally worth it!”

“He wasn’t supposed to get away,” she told
me, her voice level.

“I would hope not!” I spat back. I shook my
head.

Hayden put his hand on my shoulder. He took a
step in between Dr. Cara and me. “Cara,” he said directly. “You
cannot bring the infected inside. It’s enough of a risk bringing in
blood and tissue samples. You know I support your research, but I
can’t allow this.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What about your crazies
in the barn? Why not go out there and inject them with whatever the
hell you’ve come up with?”

She pressed her lips together. “I wasn’t
going to inject that particular subject with anything.”

“Then what, pray tell, the hell were you
going to do with your
subject
?” I crossed my arms.

“Open his skull and dissect his brain.” Her
eyes met mine.

“You—” I cut off, eyebrows furrowing.
Typically, dissecting happened on
dead
subjects. And that
crazy was very much alive until I snapped his neck. “You wanted to
poke at his brain while he was still alive?”

Hayden twisted his head to look at me. He
blinked, realized the truth in my statement and turned to Dr. Cara.
“Is that true?”

Her eyes flew to the floor for a second. Then
she looked straight at Hayden. “Yes.”

Hayden leaned back. “Doesn’t that seem, uh, a
little crude?”

“You kill them.”

I shook my head. “Yeah but we don’t strap
them down to a table and slice open their skulls.” I didn’t want to
admit it, but the thought made me curious. It wasn’t like the crazy
could feel pain, anyway. “What good would that do, being
alive?”

She turned her face to me. “I want to
stimulate parts of the brain to see if it has an effect.”

“Like a cure?”

“No. You cannot reverse permanent brain
damage.”

I waited for her to explain what exactly she
was hoping to accomplish by stimulating parts of the brain, but Dr.
Cara wasn’t one for conversation. Her direct, to-the-point answer
usually didn’t bother me. But now I wanted information.

Hayden ran his hand over the back of his
head. “From now on I need you to run all experiments and research
by me.” He sighed. “And never,
ever
are you to bring in
anything that’s infected. Got that?”

Dr. Cara nodded.

“Now,” Hayden said. “I need the names of the
people who helped you bring it in. We need to have a lesson on
safety.”

“Safety?” I scoffed. “How about fucking
common sense?”

Hayden cast his eyes in my direction. His
forehead wrinkled and his shoulders were tense. He scribbled down
the names Dr. Cara gave him. He told her to get her forehead
cleaned up before the meeting.

“One hell of a first day on the job,” he said
once Dr. Cara left the room. He leaned against the desk. I moved
over to him, putting my hands on his waist.

“You’re doing fine.” I stepped closer so that
my hips brushed against his.

“She said something about the traps. And I
forgot to look into it.” Hayden wrapped his arms around me. I
pressed my lips to his.

“There was a lot going on,” I whispered and
moved my mouth to his neck. He exhaled when I sucked at his skin.
His hands went under the fabric of my shirt. And then he suddenly
spun us around, bending me over the desk. He put himself in between
my legs. My arms moved to his neck, pulling him onto me. He leaned
forward, kissing me and pushing his hardness against my core. Warm
desire pulsed and I wanted Hayden. Now.