The Truth is Contagious (The Contagium Series Book 4) (27 page)

Hayden gunned it over the few remaining
bodies. They were dead, hardly even human anymore. Still, feeling
the tires bump over torsos and limbs didn’t sit well in my stomach.
I let out a breath when the pile disappeared into the dark.

We were getting close. I wrapped my hand
around Hayden’s dog tags, moving them along the chain. I could feel
Hayden’s eyes on me. He didn’t say anything, just put his hand on
my thigh to let me know he was aware of my nerves.

“It’s the next driveway,” I told him. It had
come up faster than I anticipated. I leaned forward. The truck
slowed.

There it was, sitting far back from the road.
No soft yellow glow spilled onto the overgrown yard. My grandpa’s
new Ford truck wasn’t in the driveway. The house was empty and
dark.

But it was home.

Hayden turned onto the driveway. The
headlights illuminated the front of the house. I strained my eyes,
looking over every window and door that I could see. It looked just
as it did the day we left except the yard was exceptionally
overgrown. My grandma would have thrown a fit to see it this
way.

The driveway was almost hard to find since it
was so overtaken by weeds. Granted, it was a mix of grass and
gravel to begin with, even when my grandma was alive. The truck
bumped along it, wheels dipping in the many potholes.

Hayden put the truck in park and waited. The
low rumble of the engine drowned out the familiar sounds of
wildlife.

“It doesn’t look like anyone’s been here,” he
said and I nodded. “Let’s check it out.”

I moved my hand to the release button of the
seat belt, hesitating. I took a breath and pushed it. It was stupid
to be nervous. It was a house—just a fucking house. I got out of
the truck and slipped the quiver over my head, adjusting the strap
so it rested in just the right position on my back, allowing me to
grab arrows with ease. I flicked off the safety to the M9 that was
strapped to my thigh and clipped a knife to my belt. Holding the
bow against my side, I quietly closed the truck door and waited for
the others.

“Just how I remembered it,” Jason said
quietly.

“Let’s hope,” I said. Hayden turned on his
flashlight, holding it under his pistol. He and I stepped forward,
pushing our way through the overgrown yard. Jason and Wade held
back, keeping an eye on our surroundings.

I put my foot on the first step of the porch,
knowing the wooden plank would creak as soon as my weight pressed
down. Hayden shined the light across the wraparound porch.

“You guys weren’t kidding about this place.”
Hayden turned his flashlight on the windows, the light reflecting
off the metal bars. I shook my head. We hadn’t been, not one bit.
Hayden moved next to me, stopping when the beam of light
illuminated a large spiderweb. “Ladies first,” he said with a
smile.

I raised my eyebrows. There was no way I was
walking through that thing. It stretched from one post to another,
blocking the entrance to the covered porch. I leaned in close. The
web was new; the intricate system of lines and spirals was intact,
each string glistening.

A large spider hid in the upper corner. I
grimaced more than I liked when I saw it and took a step back.

“Really, Hayden, you should go first to make
sure the coast is clear.” I smiled innocently.

He pressed his lips together and raised an
eyebrow. “No way. Not if I don’t have to.”

“You are such a baby,” I teased and reached
behind me, pulling an arrow from the quiver. I grabbed Hayden’s
wrist, moving the flashlight over the spider. “Great, it’s one of
those jumping spiders.” Hayden moved away from the porch.

“You got this,” he said encouragingly. I
extended my arm, putting as much distance as possible between the
web and my body and contemplated my next move. After deciding that
throwing the arrow into the web and letting gravity do the dirty
work was the best course of action, I tossed the arrow up and
jumped back, scrambling away from the falling spider. The arrow
clattered to the porch.

“Zombie?” Jason asked, springing around the
truck, gun raised.

“No,” Hayden said, turning around.
“Spider.”

“Just as bad,” Wade muttered, shaking his
head.

I nudged the arrow with my foot. I’d pick it
up later…when the spider was long gone. I moved up the porch steps,
my heart thumping in my chest. Hand prints—an indiscernible mix of
dirt and blood—were smeared over the wood. Nails had scratched
trails across the door. Zombies had tried to get in.

My fingers wrapped around the metal doorknob,
slick with dew. I cast my eyes aside, looking at Hayden. He raised
the flashlight, holding his knife out with the other hand.

“On three,” I told him. One. My fingers
tightened. Two. I flexed my wrist. Three. I turned the knob. And it
was locked. “Well, shit,” I said and let my hand fall, slapping
against my thigh. There was no way anyone stopped to lock the
deadbolt while we were running for our lives. Not even Raeya. Who
had locked it?

“Can you pick it?” Hayden asked, moving down
the porch. Siding along the front window had been pried loose. He
shined the light into the house, looking in for a few seconds
before turning back to me.

“No. Not this kind of lock.” I turned around.
“There’s a hide-a-key.” Or at least there used to be. I used it to
get into the house when we first arrived from Indy. After that, I
used the house key that was attached to the ring the truck keys
were on.

Jason walked up the sidewalk, counting his
steps as he went. “Seven,” he said out loud and bent down, running
his fingers over a loose piece of cement. To anyone else, the crack
would have looked like it happened naturally. Jason had paid more
attention that I thought he had the last time we were here. He knew
exactly what he was doing. He pulled a knife from his pocket and
slid the blade into the crack, slowly pushing the knife down.

The piece of cement came up and Jason grabbed
the key. He stood and brought it over to me.

“Good hiding place,” Wade said, still eyeing
the sidewalk.

I rubbed the key against my pants, brushing
the dirt off. “I wasn’t sure if it would be there.”

“Raeya put it back.” Jason wiped his hands on
his shirt.

“Of course she would,” I said and stuck the
key in the lock. Hayden moved close, ready just in case. Wade stood
at the bottom of the steps, using the light on his high powered
rifle to look around the yard.

I pushed the door open and stepped
inside.

* * *

There was a chance something had come in
through the back. I strung an arrow on the bow to be ready. Hayden
stepped in behind me, shining the light around.

Jason entered the house next, running his
hand up and down the wall to feel for the light switch.

“The generator’s empty,” I said quietly. I
knew not even Raeya took the time to turn it off. I wondered if it
would still work. It was kept out of the elements so I didn’t see
why it wouldn’t, especially since all the gas had been used up and
there was nothing in it to get sticky or corroded.

My eyes settled on the base of the stairs. I
looked away, not wanting to think about it, not wanting to remember
the shuffling thumps as Zoe tumbled down the stairs.

“How many exits?” Hayden asked.

“Two,” I said. “That are operable. So the
front door and then one in the kitchen. The sliding glass doors in
the family room are completely boarded up.” I was glad; those glass
doors had creeped me out when I was a kid. There was something
about them that made the house feel so vulnerable. The two big
glass panes were easy to break and allowed anyone to see in. “Check
the living room,” I said to Jason and Wade. “We’ll go in through
the kitchen and meet in the breakfast nook, ok?”

Jason nodded and took the lead. Hayden and I
went to the left, passing by the stairs. The breakfast table was
still in the dining room, pushed up against the large dining room
table. It was the only way our entire rag-tag group could fit. A
thick layer of dust covered the dark oak surface of the tables. I
swiped my finger across it. A plate speckled with hardened crumbs
had been left out with a fork and knife alongside it.

We moved into the kitchen and I pointed to
the door. Hayden shined the light across the room. A ball of
tension eased—just a bit—when I saw that the door was still
locked.

Dishes filled the kitchen sink. The floor was
a filthy mess crumbs and dirt. Had it been that way before we left?
I didn’t think so. I looked at the floor, next to the fridge.
Argo’s food and water bowls were gone. A chill ran through me. I
whirled around, opening a drawer that we had stocked full of
candles and flashlights. It was empty.

“Someone’s been here,” I said quietly. My
heart sped up. “This isn’t how we left it.”

Hayden tensed, moving his finger over the
trigger.

“First level is clear,” Jason said when he
walked through the family room and into the breakfast nook. “Let’s
check the upstairs.”

I looked at him, mouth slightly open and eyes
wide. “Did you notice anything different from the last time?”

“Uh, not really.” He looked around him. “It’s
kinda dark.”

I breezed past. “The firewood’s gone,” I
called from the living room. The guys hurried in behind me.

“We would stay here,” Wade said. “On a
mission. This place is perfect. It’s not out of the question for
someone else to do the same.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “But how’d they lock the
doors?”

No one had an answer for that. We moved on,
checking the upstairs. I stopped at the top of the landing, looking
down the hall. All of the bedroom doors were closed.

“S1s could be behind those doors,” Hayden
whispered. “Literally behind every door, waiting for us.”

I swallowed and nodded, stringing an arrow
along the bow. To the left was my old room and the bathroom. To our
right were the other two bedrooms. The air was stale and thick,
giving the entire house a dry musky smell.

“You two check down there,” Wade suggested
looking to the left. “We’ll stay here and watch the other side of
the hall.”

I moved to the bathroom door. Hayden moved to
the other side, putting his hand over the knob. I pulled back the
arrow.

Hayden threw open the door. I moved into the
doorway just as Hayden swept the room with his light.

It was empty.

We crept down the hall, stopping outside my
old room. Nothing jumped out when Hayden opened the door. I stepped
inside, needing to check the closet. I pointed at it with the
arrow. Hayden nodded and went past me and pulled the sliding door
to the side.

It was just how we’d left it. I wasn’t sure
exactly how long my old group had stayed in this farmhouse, but
over the weeks we had gone out on runs, bringing back food and
supplies. On one of the trips into a nearby town, Raeya and I
raided a fancy clothing boutique. I had never been able to afford
anything in that stupid store before the depression hit. Given the
huge clearance sale signs plastered all over the place, I guessed
not too many other people could either. We had fun taking
everything we could grab.

When I turned to leave, I noticed the bed had
been made. I knew for a fact that we hadn’t done it. My last memory
of my bed was waking up next to Zoe who was cold and lifeless. We
wrapped her up in the sheets and carried her outside.

We moved down the hall and looked in the
other two rooms. When the coast was clear, we went down stairs and
checked the basement.

I turned at the bottom of the stairs. The
footsteps from my boots softly echoed off the cement walls. I
stopped in front of a wide set of shelves. I could barely smell the
scent of pine from under the dust.

“A train collection?” Jason asked, raising
his eyebrow.

I smiled. “Didn’t you ever wonder where all
the weapons came from?” I asked him, running my fingers over a red
boxcar.

“I figured you had a secret hiding place
somewhere in the house.” His eyes went from mine to the shelves.
“No freaking way.”

“Way.” I flipped the boxcar up, revealing the
hidden latch. I pulled the shelf away from the wall and opened the
door to the secret room. Hayden held up the light. The guys looked
around, salivating.

While they took in the guns still hanging on
the wall, I looked at the empty spots. Half of the weapons were
gone. While some had been missing from the start, I didn’t think we
had taken that many. Padraic had come down here during our frantic
escape to collect more weapons. I couldn’t be sure exactly what he
had taken out and what had made it to the cars.

“I am so utterly confused by you,” Wade said
and picked up a box of bullets. “All that bullshit Jason made up
about you being a government agent makes sense now.” He shook the
box, realized it was full, and set it down. “You’re not, are you?”
He ran his finger over a disassembled M2 Browning machine gun.

Hayden stepped forward. “How…” He shook his
head, turning around to face me. “How the hell did your grandpa get
some of these?”

“I can honestly tell you that I have no
idea.” I twisted the end of my braid between my fingers. “My
grandpa had some
interesting
friends.”

Wade raised an eyebrow. “Yeah.
Interesting
friends that can get you this beast.” He patted
the M2.

I knew my grandpa had dealt with shady people
just as well as I knew he had done more than a handful of illegal
things that could have earned him years in prison. But he had done
everything with the intention of protecting his family. There was
nothing wrong with that.

“People used to think he was crazy for
believing the government was out to get us and sometimes I did
too,” I confessed. I shook my head, eyes focusing on an M4 Carbine.
“But he was right all along.” Hayden took my hand, his touch gently
and comforting. He knew I was feeling guilty. I squeezed his
fingers. I loved that he knew me well enough to sense even the
smallest things.