The Truth is Contagious (The Contagium Series Book 4) (13 page)

“Jason!” I cried and dropped to the ground,
hurting my knees. He was perfectly still with his hands clamped
around his neck. “Jason!”

I reached for him with shaky hands. My
fingers wrapped around his wrist and pulled his hand away. There
was no blood. He turned, his face grinding against the rough
pavement. His lip had split open and his cheek and forehead were
scratched to all hell.

I put my hand on his neck and felt a bubble
of laughter rise in me. Teeth marks were scored into the leather
strap of his rifle. The laugh that had escaped as relief rapidly
changed my emotions. He was ok. I jumped to my feet and helped
Jason up.

He moved his hand to his neck, rubbing the
skin in disbelief. His eyes, wide with fear, turned from me to the
dead crazy. He swallowed hard and shook his head.

“We need to get out of here,” Brock said as
he reloaded his gun. He stretched out his arm and fired, hitting a
crazy that was running at full speed toward us. I snatched my gun
and pulled the trigger.

It was empty. Shit. I didn’t have time to
reload. I grabbed Jason’s arm and ran. We raced over dry weeds, our
boots pounding on the sun-warmed pavement. With the bow in one hand
and my empty M9 in the other, I had no way to shoot at the crazies
that charged at us. A young crazy jumped from a patch of tall
weeds. His hands were out to his sides, fingers curled in.

A gun blasted next to me. The crazy looked
down at his stomach, confused at why his shirt was getting soaked
in blood. He pressed his hand to his abdomen and then brought it to
his face. He sniffed the blood and then licked it.

“Come on!” I shouted to Jason, who had slowed
to shoot the crazy. He lowered his rifle and ran after me. We
jumped into tall grass. The smell of pond scum mixed with the
metallic scent of blood. Soggy earth gave way. I threw out my arms
to keep my balance. Shit, I had led us into a swamp.

We crossed through several inches of murky
water. I turned around to make sure everyone was ok, but I only saw
Jason. Had we gotten separated? Or were we the only ones who got
away?

Something grabbed my ankle. My body tensed
and I yanked my foot up, careful not to knock myself off balance. A
zombie lay hidden in the weeds and water. His lower body had been
torn away. Intestines spilled out, strewn across the swamp. What
was left of the skin on his face was transparent.

Too weak to hold on, his fingers slipped off
my boot. I wrinkled my nose. No wonder it smelled horrible. Swamp
water was bad enough on its own. A decaying zombie soaking in it
was even worse. I stomped my heel on its face. His weak skull
cracked easily and browning brain matter oozed out.

Jason and I ran without slowing until we were
out of the swamp. An old roller coaster loomed ahead. Jason looked
at me in question; I nodded and we pressed on, stopping when we
were under the rickety frame. Parts of the wooden tracks were
rotted and covered in moss. Broken tree limbs balanced dangerously
above us.

Panting, I put the gun under my arm and
pressed it to the side of my body and grabbed a loaded clip from my
pocket. I changed it out in just seconds, shoved the weapon into
the holster, and picked up the walkie-talkie.

“Guys?” I asked.

Jason moved closer, gasping in air.

“Guys?” I asked again but heard nothing but
silence. My heart thumped and I felt dizzy. We needed to go back
and help them.

“Riss, you ok?” Brock’s voice came over the
radio. I cradled the walkie and closed my eyes for a long blink.
Thank God.

“Yeah. Jason is with me. You?”

“We got away. Wade got sliced pretty
bad.”

“Sliced?” I backed under the shadows. My
heart plummeted again.

“An S1 had a saw blade. Got his arm. Ivan’s
stopping the bleeding now. I saw Jason get bitten. Is he…”

“Didn’t break the skin,” I answered and
exhaled. Sweat rolled down my face. “Where are you guys?”

“In the woods. You?”

“By the roller coaster.”

“All right. We will—” he abruptly cut off and
loud gunfire sounded over the radio. My heart sped up. I held the
radio closer to my face. My fingers tightened around the
plastic.

“Brock?” I said into it.

Jason leaned in, his arm brushing mine. Heat
radiated off of him.

“Brock?” I said again, desperate. All I heard
was static.

I clipped the walkie back to my belt and
turned up the volume. “We have to go to them,” I said and looked at
Jason. I cringed. His face was a bloody mess with bits of pavement
and dirt stuck inside the cuts. The scab that had formed over the
spot where the bullet grazed his forehead hung limply on his
face.

“You look horrible,” I said.

Jason gave me a half smile and shrugged.
“It’s nothing.”

“Bullshit.”

His smiled faded. “Yes. It hurts like hell
and I feel sick from swallowing blood.” He dabbed at his lip with
the back of his hand. “But this beats a crazy bite any day,
right?”

I nodded and hooked the bow over my shoulder.
I opened my leather bag and pulled out two glass bottles and handed
one to Jason. “Time to start blowing shit up.”

A broad smile broke out on his face, flashing
bloody teeth. He patted his pocket, checking for his lighter. I
loosened the cap on my bottle just enough to make it easy to remove
in case of an emergency…which we were more than likely to run
into.

“What’s our plan?”

“No fucking clue,” I sighed. “I don’t know
this place. Hayden and I ran through so fast I didn’t get a chance
to remember the lay out. Ugh! I wish I had a way to look…” my eyes
went to the old roller coaster. “…around.” I couldn’t help the
smile that pulled my lips up.

Jason grabbed my arm. “Orissa, no. No way.
That thing is one splinter away from falling!”

“It’s fine,” I said and put my hand on a
board. I gave it a tug and it snapped in half. “Damn it.”

“Riss, it’s suicide.”

“It’s kind of my style.”

He shook his head. Jason wasn’t going to
argue with me, not the way Hayden would have.

“If I can get up there, I can see where the
guys are
and
where the crazies are hiding out.” I moved down
and tested another board. “Cover me. And watch your own ass. If
anything happens, get out of here, ok?”

“Riss, I can’t.”

“Jason,” I said sternly. “You have family!
You’re going back to the compound alive, got it?”

“Got it.” He stuck his finger over the
trigger on his rifle and turned around. “You have family too, you
know. Just ‘cuz they’re not related doesn’t mean they’re not
family.”

I hesitated, my foot hovering a few feet from
the ground. “I know.” I hoisted myself up. The frame creaked under
my weight. “That’s why I have to do this. You guys are my family
now.” I moved up another few feet.

“You’ll have a husband soon,” Jason said. I
could tell he was smiling.

“Shut up.” I pushed the bow back and edged
over, finding a board strong enough to hold me.

“Can I ask you something, Riss?”

“Sure,” I called and kept going, resisting
the urge to look down and see how high I was. I kept my eyes
focused on what was in front of me, calculating my next move.

“You and Hayden…how did it start?”

“What?” My hair stuck to my sweaty neck. I
moved my hand, sticking it in a spiderweb. I instantly recoiled and
lost my balance. My foot slipped and I thrashed my arms, wrapping
my hands around a soft board. I swallowed my pounding heart. Holy
shit that was close.

“I mean starting a relationship after so much
bad stuff has happened. It makes some things seem unimportant, ya
know?”

I steadied myself and moved up. “I thought
that too,” I called. “That it was pointless. But being with him
makes the bad stuff not seem so bad.”

A cloud rolled over the sun. The air seemed
staler the higher I climbed, but it was probably just the wooden
roller coaster. The boards had some serious weather damage from
years of neglect.

“So things started like normal?” he
called.

“Can we talk about this later? This really
isn’t the time to talk about this.” I flicked my eyes down. Fuck.
The ground was far away. I hadn’t realized how high I’d gotten. My
hands still hurt from falling on the ground yesterday, but I didn’t
stop.

I ducked under a railing and stepped onto the
tracks. I bent down, keeping a hold of the metal, and climbed my
way up an incline. The coaster swayed in the wind. The boards
creaked and groaned with each step I took. Maybe this was a bad
idea. A plank rattled, threatening to give way. Yes. This was a
horrible idea.

But it worked. I was above the trees. I
straightened, clinging to the railing for dear life. I hated wooden
roller coasters even when they were in good condition. There was
just something about them…something too old fashioned that made me
think the beams would snap and break.

Across from the swamp was a cluster of shops
and buildings. That was where Hayden and I encountered the bulk of
the herd. The river curved along it. I traced my eyes over the
water until I found the bridge we had crossed, the one that
Hayden’s foot fell through.

Static came through the radio.
Apprehensively, I let go of the railing and unclipped it from my
belt.

“Brock?” I spoke into the radio. It was hard
to make out what he was saying, but I knew I heard my name. “I
can’t hear you,” I said. “But we are fine. I’m scouting out the
area. Hang on.” I scanned the park, memorizing the layout. It
looked so small from way up here. “Crazies. I see them.” I watched
as little bodies zoomed in and out of the buildings. What the hell
were they doing? “They are in the center of the park,” I said and
then realized that the guys had no idea what the center of the park
was.

“Where are you?” Brock’s voice came through
clear as day.

“On the roller coaster.”

The breeze picked up again. My stomach
dropped when the old coaster swayed. A group of crazies went into
one of the buildings.

“On it?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“How can you…shit, you’re literally on
it.”

“It’s a great vantage point,” I said and
stole a glance down at Jason. Fuck. I shouldn’t have done that. I
wanted down, off this godforsaken piece-of-crap ride. “I can’t see
you.”

“We’re in the building that’s at the end of
what used to be a tram…if that helps.”

I slowly turned. “See it. Stay there if you
can and we will meet you.” I turned around and eyed the cluster of
shops. “The crazies went inside. I think we can come up with some
sort of plan and attack the nest from the outside.”

“Sounds good to me, though I say we set this
place on fire.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Deal.”

“Be safe, Riss.”

“I will. You too.” I clipped the walkie back
onto my belt. I pulled on my braid while looking down. It was going
to take a while to safely descend this thing. .I pushed the bow up
and ducked under the railing. I concentrated on my breathing as I
climbed down. When I finally dared to look, I was twenty feet or so
from the ground. Relief flooded over me. I took a few seconds to
look around. Jason held his weapon up, looking through the scope. I
moved down another section of scaffolding. Then I smelled him.

“Jason, zombie!” I shouted. Jason turned,
still holding his rifle up. The end of his gun smacked against the
zombie, pushing the scope back into his face. Already injured,
Jason reeled from pain. He stepped back and tripped over his own
feet.

I hooked my legs over a plank and leaned
forward, removing the bow from my shoulder. I grabbed an arrow,
pulled it back, and let it go. The arrow went right through the
zombie’s head and it fell just feet away from Jason.

“Thanks, Hawkeye,” he breathed and pushed
himself up.

“Don’t mention it.” I stuck my arm through
the bow and hurried down. I recapped what I had talked about with
Brock. After Jason reloaded his rifle, we took off, silently
slipping through the weeds that surrounded the swamp.

“There,” I mouthed and pointed to a small
building. We dropped to our knees to stay hidden. I picked up the
radio and told the guys we were just yards away.

On the count of three, Jason and I dashed
across an open section of pavement and into the building. It was
nothing more than a break room for the workers who manned the tram.
A table with a broken leg was pushed into a corner and the floor
was covered in old papers and garbage.

“I’m glad to see you, Penwell,” Ivan
said.

“Same here.” I took the bow off my shoulder
and rubbed at my skin. It was sore from the string rubbing against
it. “You ok?” I asked Wade. A makeshift bandage had been tied
around his left arm. Blood seeped through the material.

“Good enough,” he said and held up his arm to
show me he was still capable of fighting. “You seriously climbed
that old roller coaster?”

“She did,” Jason answered for me.

“I’m telling Hayden,” Wade teased.

“Good,” I shot back with a smile. “Maybe
he’ll spank me.”

“Tell us what you saw,” Ivan said, looking
through a dirty window.

“There’s a narrow river that cuts through the
middle of this place. It’s shallow from the drought. It was only
waist high in one part that we saw. There’s a bridge behind that
office. Hayden and I went over a bridge before and it wasn’t strong
enough to hold his weight.” I shook my head. “I have no idea if the
other bridge will be strong enough either. But we need to get
across somehow. There’s a building shaped like a T. I saw the
crazies going into it. They didn’t come out.”

“Yet,” Brock added. “There’s no guarantee
they’re still there.”

“It’s worth a shot,” Ivan said. “If we can
attack the nest from the outside, it’s our best—and
easiest—bet.”

“How are we gonna do it?” Jason asked.