The Truth is Contagious (The Contagium Series Book 4) (6 page)

“Then I’d be happy he was home safe,” I said
and looked at Ivan. “Right?”

His brown eyes clouded with worry. “Yeah, I’m
with Penwell on this.” He looked at the floor.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he said quickly.

“Bullshit.”

He took a breath, his muscular shoulders
rising. “What if he, uh, freaked out again and is seeing things
that aren’t really there?”

My stomach dropped. I hadn’t even thought
about Hayden’s PTSD and how it could affect him. I swung my legs
over the bed. “We have to look.”

“No need,” Brock said from the hall and held
up a walkie-talkie.

“He’s back.”

The biggest wave of relief washed over me.
And then I felt anger. Brock stepped aside. “Tell that future
husband of yours he’s an ass for leaving like that.”

“Trust me,” I said and shoved my feet into
boots. “I will.” I stormed out of the room and jogged down the
hall, flying down the stairs. I had just burst through the front
doors of the brick estate when Hayden turned off his truck. I broke
into a run. Hayden opened the driver’s side door and got out.

His eyes met mine, sending a jolt right
through me. I stopped just inches from him, not knowing if I should
slap him or kiss him. I chose the latter and pressed my lips to
his. Hayden wrapped his arms around me, crushing me against his
sweaty body. My hands flew to his waist. He dipped me back and
pushed his tongue into my mouth. His lips were salty and warm and
felt good. So good. My body went rigid. I moved my hands onto his
chest, pushing him off of me.

“What the hell, Hayden?” I twisted out of his
embrace. “You take off and are gone all day and don’t have the
decency to fucking tell me a damn thing!”

He extended his arm, reaching for me. “Riss,
I—”

I ducked out of the way “No! I don’t want to
hear it! I can’t believe you did that to me—to all of us! Do you
have any idea how worried I was?” My hands flew out in front of me
as I spoke. “Your sister is freaking out, Ivan thinks you went
crazy and we’re not even married yet, and you’re already pissing me
off!”

Hayden took a step back from my seething
anger. Dark purple circles hung under his hazel eyes. A line formed
between his eyebrows and he pressed his lips together.

I dropped my hands to the side and sighed,
shaking my head. “Why did you do that?” My voice cracked at the end
of my question, the emotion I was holding back spilling out.

Hayden looked at the ground. “I’m sorry,
Orissa.” He took a small step forward, hesitating as he reached for
me. When I didn’t flinch away he put his arms back around me. “I’m
really sorry. As soon as I got out there I realized what I jerk I
was for leaving.”

“Then why didn’t you come home?” I rested my
head against his chest. His shirt was slightly damp from sweat.

“I didn’t think it would take me so
long.”

“What?” I looked up at him.

He tipped his head behind him, motioning to
the truck. “I fixed the window.”

“Oh my God.” I pushed him away again. “All
this was over your stupid truck?” My hands balled into fists and my
ears were hot.

“The truck’s not stupid,” he said calmly. “It
has the—”

“Machine gun, I know. I fucking know.” I
wanted to hit something. Repeatedly. The hood of the truck seemed
like a good punching bag. I whirled around and started to storm off
before I lost control. Hayden grabbed my wrist.

“Riss, wait, I’m really sorry.”

I pulled my arm out of his grasp. “Do not
talk to me right now. I am so mad at you!”

“You have every right to be. And I really am
sorry, ok?”

I kept walking.

“Would it help if you took out your anger
sexually?”

I turned around and glowered at my fiancé.
Though throwing Hayden down and slapping him more than once sounded
very appealing.

“Riss,” he said, his face softening. “It
kills me to know I upset you. I didn’t want you to worry.”

“Then why did you take off like that?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know… I just
needed some time away from everything.” He moved closer. “I was
wrong. I’m sorry.” He outstretched his arms. “I won’t do it
again.”

I stepped into his embrace. My anger melted
almost instantly when his arms wrapped around my body. “That was
easy,” I said with a smile and hugged him.

Hayden kissed my neck. “I don’t want to fight
with you. I need you. I wished you were with me the whole
time.”

“I would have come.”

“I know.” He rested his head against
mine.

“You smell,” I told him, breathing in the
scent of sweat and dirt. “And you have blood on your face.”

He loosened his hold on me and wiped his
face. “Oh. It’s not mine.”

“I can tell. It’s brown. How many zombies did
you kill?”

He shrugged. “A dozen, maybe. I didn’t count
this time.”

I nodded and stepped back. “Really. You need
to shower.”

“Will you shower with me this time?”

“Of course.”

* * *

“I hate bothering you,” Raeya said quietly as
she sat across the table from Hayden. “But we need supplies.” She
pushed her lunch to the side and opened a notebook. “Babies need an
alarming amount of stuff.”

Hayden finished chewing. “Do you have a
list?”

Raeya looked at me, amusement sparkling in
her eyes. “A list? Do
I
have a list?” She carefully tore out
a piece of paper from the notebook. “There’s a printed copy in
Fuller’s office. Well, your office now. I slid it under the door.”
She gave the paper to Hayden. I leaned over his shoulder, staring
at the list. “That’s what I did before if he wasn’t in there.
There’s a binder on the shelf behind his desk, third one in,
labeled ‘supplies.’ You can’t miss it. Fuller kept the lists of
everything we needed, crossing off anything you guys brought
back.”

“Thanks,” Hayden said and set the list on the
table in front of him. I took my eyes away from the paper to study
Hayden. After his excursion yesterday, Hayden was a lot calmer. The
dark circles under his eyes had faded but were still there, though
it wasn’t exactly like we went straight to bed last night. Well, we
had gone to bed. We just didn’t get much sleep.

“You’re not going out, right?” Raeya asked
and flipped a page in the notebook. She pulled a pen out of the
metal spiral and clicked it. “Since your group was out last. It’s
the others’ turn.”

“Yeah,” I told her. “They’ll go out.” I took
the list from Hayden. “Text books?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“How’s that gonna help us survive?”

“It won’t, not entirely,” she answered. “But
it will help keep things normal. There are a lot of kids here. Kids
who need some sort of school.”

I hadn’t thought of that before. “Shouldn’t
we be teaching them survival skills? Learning American History
isn’t going to help us.” I eyed the last book on the list.

“Someday this will be in a history book,”
Hayden said. He looked up from his plate of tuna casserole.

“That’s assuming we make it through this,” I
mumbled and pushed noodles around on my plate.

“We will,” Hayden and Raeya said at the same
time.

Raeya nervously clicked her pen. “It’s an odd
thought, isn’t it? That we are living history.”

“We were always living history,” I told
her.

“Well, yeah, technically. But before our
lives weren’t book-worthy. Now they are. We are trailblazers in a
sea of undead. Oh! Maybe my name will be in there once or
twice.”

Hayden chuckled. “I’m sure you’ll have a
paragraph or two. Raeya Kingsley: the woman who kept us
organized.”

Raeya smiled. She set the pen down and leaned
forward. “Maybe there will be questions about me on a history
test!”

I laughed, shaking my head. “I’m sure there
will be, Ray. We couldn’t run this place without you.”

“Thanks, Rissy. Same goes for you guys.
Really, everyone here is important.” She put her hands on the
table. “So, Hayden, do you approve the list?”

Hayden picked up his cup of water. “Uh,
sure.”

“Great!”

I stabbed a noodle with my fork. “You mean he
could not approve something?”

“Yeah. That’s how it worked before. You do
want to keep things the same, right?”

Hayden flicked his eyes to mine. I pressed my
lips together and tipped my head in Raeya’s direction. “Actually…”
Hayden began, trailing off when Ivan and Brock took their seats.
Ivan winked at me and sat next to Raeya.

“What?” Raeya asked, picking up the pen
again.

Hayden sighed and straightened up. “I might
as well tell everyone.” I put my hand on his thigh for reassurance.
“Riss and I talked and…” He shook his head. “I don’t want to run
the compound. It’s not fair to just have someone be appointed the
new leader. We,” he looked at me, “thought it would be better to
let everyone vote.”

Ivan nodded. “Very democratic. I like
it.”

“Me too,” Brock agreed. “But what if someone
wins who would really suck at running this place?”

Raeya flipped to a new page. “Technically
Hayden is in charge now. He gets final veto power.”

“Should we let people campaign?” he asked
her.

Raeya shook her head. “No. That’s too
political. I say we make up forms tonight and have everyone vote
tomorrow. Ya know, give them some time to think about it but not
enough time to be persuaded.”

“That’s a brilliant idea,” Brock said,
smiling.

“Thanks.” She started jotting down notes.
Hayden put his hand on mine and let out a breath. His shoulders
relaxed. I looked around the cafeteria, wondering who would want to
run the place. Whoever it was needed to be level headed and fair.
Though Fuller and I never saw eye to eye, he did a good job. When
the world was falling apart all around us, he provided stability
and safety. Granted he felt a huge amount of guilt for knowing the
truth, but he didn’t have to do this. He didn’t have to unearth
this old bomb shelter and fill it with survivors.

* * *

After lunch, Hayden and I went upstairs and
into our room. A warm breeze blew in from the open windows. I
kicked off my boots and lay down on my bed, stretching my arms over
my head. Hayden turned on the TV and pressed ‘play,’ starting the
same movie we had watched last night. He grabbed the remote, turned
the volume down, and climbed into bed with me.

We resituated, cuddling together. I turned on
my side and wiggled close to him, resting my head on his chest. I
draped my leg over his. Hayden enveloped me in his arms.

“Love you,” I whispered.

“Love you too.” He turned his head and kissed
me. I closed my eyes. I was tired and wanted to nap. Listening to
Hayden’s steady heartbeat was comforting and lulled me to sleep in
no time.

My dream twisted into a nightmare. I was back
at Eastmoore, running through billowing black smoke, frantically
searching for Hayden. A zombie staggered from the rubble. I reached
behind me to grab an arrow but my fingers touched nothing but air.
My quiver was empty.

Suddenly the zombie was in front of me,
pushing me down. My limbs were too heavy to move. I couldn’t fight
back. And then I saw his face, wrinkled and decaying. Yellow teeth
snapped at me and rancid breath burned my nose. Dre moved over me,
brown saliva dripping onto my neck.

“Riss.” Hayden shook me. “You ok?”

I opened my eyes. I was on the edge of the
bed. My hair was a messy web over my face and cold sweat had
dampened my skin. “Yeah,” I breathed. I pushed my hair out of my
face and sat up. “Just a nightmare.”

Hayden gave me a wry smile “I know how those
go.” He put his arms around me. “What was it about?”

“Eastmoore.”

“Oh.” He picked me up, setting me back down
on his lap. “Riss,” he said gently. “We never talked about what
happened back there.”

He didn’t have to explain any further. I knew
what he was referring to. Both he and Wade warned me about it. I
knew what I was getting myself into. “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? You killed people, Riss.
People who weren’t infected.”

I looked up into his eyes. “We did what we
had to do. I didn’t kill anybody innocent.”

He turned away, looking out the window. “It’s
ok, Riss, to admit you’re not fine.”

I rested my head against him. “I know it is.
And you’ll be the first person to know I’m not. It’s just…I don’t
know. It’s like I haven’t even had time to process it all, ya
know?”

“I do. And a lot of shit happened.”

“Yeah. I need a fucking vacation,” I
laughed.

“Seriously. Me too.” He sighed and leaned
back against the pillows, bringing me with him. “We deserve one,
that’s for sure.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Then let’s take one.”

I looked up, raising an eyebrow. “And go
where?”

“Anywhere.” He flipped me over so that his
body was on top of mine. He propped himself up on his elbows and
kissed me. “Anywhere away from here. Just for a day.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck. “We will
never get away with it.”

“I’m in charge now.” Hayden grinned. “What I
say goes.” He lowered his head until our nose touched. “And I say
tomorrow morning we go on a hunting trip.”

“We could actually use some meat too.”

He pressed his lips to mine. “Exactly.”

“We have shit to take care of,” I reminded
him. “We should do it now if you want to leave in the morning.”

“Dammit. I promised Hannah I’d hang out with
her.”

“Go. I’ll go over everything with Raeya and
talk to Alex.”

“No, you don’t have to, Riss,” he said.

“I know I don’t. But Hannah is your sister
and family is important now more than ever. Think of all the
families that have been torn apart.” My mind wandered to my grandpa
and Aunt Jenny. I’d give anything to know what had happened to
them. “It’s more than a little amazing you found Hannah.”