Queen of Quarantine

by Caroline Peckham

  I took a calming breath as I waited, keeping my eyes on the soldiers up ahead as I remained in the shadows of a doorway. I pocketed the key and the grenade, unsettled by the thought of Niall not making it out of this.

  The seconds ticked by so slowly, I could almost hear them ticking in my head.

  Come on Niall. Hurry up.

  He suddenly started yodelling from the top of the roof and my lips popped open at the sound. The two soldiers on the ground looked up at the roof in alarm and ran forward into the front entrance of the building. I guessed that was the freaking signal, so I ran out of my hiding place, tearing up the street toward the truck. I slipped behind it, finding the gap in the barricade and looking behind me up at the roof. Niall was standing there yodelling at the top of his lungs and he suddenly threw himself over the edge.

  A strangled scream left me just before a rope I hadn’t noticed snapped taught and he started rappelling down the side of the building. Jesus fucking Christ. He almost gave me a heart attack.

  “Hey!” a soldier appeared on the roof, moving to lean over the edge and point a gun at Niall. “Stop or I’ll open fire!”

  Niall let go of the rope six feet from the street, grabbing his pistol as he fell and shooting like a mad man as he hit the ground on his back. The soldier was forced to retreat, but Niall only had so many bullets and there was no way he was going to make it to where I was after that gun rang empty.

  I cursed, making a decision as I pulled the pin on the grenade and aiming for the side of the building. It was either gonna blow a hole in it or offer Niall some cover. Either way, it might just buy him enough time to run. I threw it with a growl of effort and it hit the wall before exploding in a growing cloud of pink gas and glitter which filled the air fast.

  Niall leapt to his feet just as his pistol ran out of bullets and gunfire tore through the air a beat later. But he was already in the growing cloud of smoke, running toward me, just a shadow in the fog. He burst out of it and half knocked me over as he shoved me through the gap, his hand latching around my waist so I didn’t fall.

  I turned and ran with him down the street beyond the barricade and he let go of me so we could sprint, taking a hard right down another road between a row of houses. We didn’t stop running until our lungs burned and we literally couldn’t go a step further, my heart thundering against my ribs.

  I buckled over as we hid behind a large van, dragging down heavy breaths. “Holy shit,” I panted, laughing wildly.

  “That was fucking beautiful, Tatum. You really are Kyan’s girl,” Niall chuckled, clapping me on the shoulder before taking out his phone and opening the map.

  “And you sure as hell are his uncle.” I grinned and his mouth hooked up with pride.

  “We’re only two blocks away from my car, come on.” He jogged away and I headed after him, ignoring the burning stitch in my side as the desperation to put as much distance between us and those soldiers as possible took over every other instinct in my body.

  We finally made it to Niall’s car which was parked up in a quiet suburban street and my brows arched at the huge black Jeep Wrangler.

  I climbed into the passenger seat as Niall started it up and tossed his phone in the cupholder with directions loaded into the map.

  “Kyan shared his location with me.” He smirked, pushing his tattooed hand through his blonde hair to shove it out of his face.

  I beamed with joy, my heart pounding excitedly. “Let’s go swoop in and save their asses.”

  He grinned like a demon. “That’s the fucking spirit.”

  O ur tent was laid out with basic bunks, each with a blanket, pillow and little else. It was big enough to house ten, but Kyan had made quick work of scaring off the other people who had been in here, affording us some level of privacy while we waited for Niall to get here and cause enough of a distraction for us to escape.

  I was sitting on my bunk with Nash beside me and Kyan sitting on his opposite us, his knees brushing mine with how closely packed the beds were. Saint stood ramrod straight between the bunks, arms folded, contempt burning hot in his dark eyes and an aura of 'I shall die before I so much as touch one of those so-called beds' hanging about him.

  I mean, he had a point. These things were uncomfortable and beyond basic, but I wasn't really keen on staying on my feet for hours on end rather than just taking a perch. It must have been damn hard work being inside that dude's head all the time.

  "Have you heard anything since you shared your location?" Monroe asked and Kyan took his phone from his boot, checking it and shrugging.

  "Nope. But the service here is next to fucking nothing so for all I know they can't get a message out to me or I can't get one to come in. Either way this thing is starting to run seriously low on juice and at this rate the battery will die without us even knowing what's happening out there."

  "You will substantially lessen the amount of time the battery will last if you keep on illuminating the screen," Saint growled, reaching out to take the phone from Kyan who gave it up easily. "I'll close down any apps which don't need to be running and put it on low power mode, then for the love of all that's holy to you, stop looking at the fucking thing until it goes off."

  "Sure thing," Kyan agreed, not even bothering to argue as he took it back and slid it into his boot once more.

  Saint wasn't the only one of us on edge, but we weren't about to turn on each other. We might have bickered and fought when we were on our own time, but when shit mattered, we were a unit. The Night Keepers. All in and no turning back.

  We'd already discussed as many plans as possible for how we were going to get ourselves out of here but when it came down to it, it was simple. There was a fence surrounding this place and we needed to get the fuck over it. Or under it. Through it. Whatever way, beyond the fence was where we needed to be at.

  Our brief amount of planning with Niall had drawn us all to the decision that he needed to be in position to the north of the camp to be in with the best chance of avoiding the notice of the armed forces who were all coming and going from the south. But even that was a bit of a shot in the dark, the military weren’t idiots. They'd have eyes watching in every direction surrounding this place. We were just counting on being able to lose them in the forest and then figuring out the rest from there.

  "Which one is it?" a female voice came from somewhere beyond the tent.

  "Sixteen-eighty," a man replied. "All four of them came in together - said they were brothers but that sure as fuck ain't true by the looks of their faces and the names on their documentation."

  "Maybe they went through the foster system together?" the woman replied.

  "Who knows? All we know for certain is that their blood samples have raised the interest of the people at the top. Something about their levels of immunity being off the charts in comparison to everyone else. So let's just concentrate on securing them and hope that this could be a good thing for all of us."

  "Fuck," I breathed, looking around as the voices drew closer to the entrance to the dark, green tent but when my eyes fell on the space where Saint had just been, I found him already half way outside beneath the bottom of the canvas.

  Kyan grabbed my arm and gave me a shove to make me follow and I did so instantly, dropping down onto my belly and army crawling out beneath the tightly pegged canvas.

  Saint caught my hand and hauled me upright, pressing a finger to his lips as we crouched in the narrow gap between our tent and the one beside it. The front of his clothes were smothered in mud and I glanced down to find myself in the same condition.

  The moon hung low beneath a fine haze of clouds above us and my breath fogged in the cold air as I looked up at the dark sky, thankful for the cover it offered as my pulse raced with the thought of getting caught.

  Monroe was right on my heels and I heaved him up beside me before Kyan scrambled out.

  We'd had to abandon our bags, but there wasn't anything in them aside from a few clothes and toiletries anyway, so who g
ave a fuck?

  We didn't dare move, nothing passing between us but ragged breaths and silence as we hid in the shadows and waited for the soldiers to draw closer.

  "Dammit, they're not here," the man huffed from inside the canvas.

  "Of course they're not. Nothing is ever that simple, is it?" the woman sighed. "I'll put an alert out, send their photos around the rest of the unit and make sure someone rounds them up."

  "Go and ask around the neighbouring tents to see if anyone knows where they went," the man snapped and there was a chorus of ‘yes sirs’ that made it clear a whole squad had just come looking for us. Shit, this was bad.

  "I'm not gonna end up as a guinea pig in some lab," Kyan growled in a low voice as his hands curled into fists and I agreed with him wholeheartedly on that.

  "Niall or not, we need to get the fuck out of here," I hissed and the others all nodded as a group of soldiers hurried past the gap we were hiding in, splitting off to ask the people in the surrounding tents about us.

  We looked between each other as we tried to decide whether to stay hidden here until they left or take this chance to run and Saint jerked his head towards the rear of the tent.

  I nodded my agreement, wanting to run rather than wait here like sitting ducks and we all started creeping along after him.

  Saint hesitated when he reached the end of the line of tents then leapt out of the gap and darted across a muddy walkway before slipping into a gap between the next row of tents.

  I raced after him with Kyan and Nash right behind me and we hurried down another narrow gap, my back brushing one of the tents as I was forced to move along sideways to fit through.

  The sounds of more soldiers calling out to each other and jogging in formation kept reaching us. I couldn't decide if there were more of them about than earlier or if it just seemed that way to me because I knew we were being hunted.

  As we made it to another pathway, a huge floodlight suddenly came on from a watchtower to our right and my pulse thundered as I ducked down quickly, taking cover from its penetrating gaze behind one of the tents as I looked between my brothers in fear.

  "How the fuck are we supposed to get out of here?" Nash hissed, his blue eyes wide with concern.

  "We focus on what matters to us," Saint growled. "What matters more than anything else. The one thing we have to get back to. You put her to the front of your mind, and you don't fucking stop until she's in your arms again. Got it?"

  "Hell yes," Kyan agreed, the crazy motherfucker actually grinning like this was some great game we were playing.

  "Alright then. I think we need to run like hell," Saint said. "The next time that searchlight sweeps away from us, we go and we don't stop until we're at the northern fence."

  "We don't stop," I agreed.

  "If we have to go through those soldiers to get out of here, so be it," Kyan added, a hungry glint to his eyes that said he was almost hoping for that.

  "Let's get the fuck out of here then," Nash agreed.

  My blood was pumping like it did before a competition and I let a smile bite into my cheeks as I zeroed in on that feeling. I always performed best under pressure. It was where I shone.

  "First one to the fence gets a night alone with Tatum," I challenged.

  "Prepare to lose in that case, Bowman," Nash teased.

  "Don't be dumb. And don't fucking stop," Saint growled.

  The light swept by and we dove out onto the path. Instead of heading for another narrow gap, Saint turned left and started running. In all honesty, I had no fucking idea which direction north was, but Saint probably had built in GPS in his goddamn head so if he'd chosen that direction then I was all for it.

  We charged down the muddy pathway as fast as we could, leaving the watchtower and the spotlight behind us, powering on in hopes of outrunning it before it was turned this way again.

  My lungs expanded and contracted as my muscles laboured to power me along as fast as I could go and when the path hit a fork, I was the first one there.

  "Right," Saint barked from just behind me and I turned that way, my heart leaping as I spotted a group of soldiers at the far end of the path.

  Luckily for me, they were passing by, not looking our way and I managed to leap into a gap between two tents again to avoid them.

  The others followed as I moved as fast as I could, adrenaline singing in my veins as I shimmied along the tight space.

  There were shouts from within one of the tents as someone in there noticed us forcing our way by. Then all of a sudden, soldiers were barking orders and as I spilled out onto another path, I spotted a squadron of them turning our way.

  "Oh, fuck," I gasped as they yelled instructions for us to stop where we were and the others all scrambled out of the gap to join me too.

  "Run!" Monroe barked and I didn’t need telling twice.

  I took off away from the soldiers, unable to focus on where north was and just keeping my gaze fixed on the path ahead as I led my brothers away from the danger behind us.

  We ran like our lives depended on it and I was pretty fucking certain they did. Saint's dad would hear about these kids with the super immunity, he'd see the photos and the fake passports. He'd know exactly who the fuck we were and precisely why we had such amazing antibodies. We couldn't get caught. No fucking way.

  The shouts of the soldiers behind us were loud and demanding, but none of us slowed for so much as a beat.

  We ducked and dived between the maze of tents then found ourselves outside the mess tent where they'd been offering dinner hours ago. It was quiet now and the open space surrounding it gave us the chance to really sprint, putting some distance between us and the soldiers following.

  We rounded the side of the huge tent then ducked behind a toilet block and managed to wedge ourselves into a gap behind it where nothing but shadows lingered.

  I held my breath as the sounds of the chasing soldiers reached us and they started shouting orders to split up and search the place high and low.

  "How far to the fence?" Monroe breathed when we were sure none of them were close enough to overhear us.

  Saint's brow furrowed and I knew he didn't like the answer he was about to give. "We've gone west," he breathed. “So it's far enough."

  "Shit," Kyan murmured, and I thought it was in response to our situation, but he ducked down and pulled the phone from his boot instead, showing us the message on the screen from Tatum.

  Tigress:

  Twenty minutes and counting *squid emoji*

  My eyes widened at that, especially as Kyan pointed out that the thing had been sent ten minutes ago even though it had only just been delivered.

  "Tatum's with Niall," I breathed, worried about her now that I knew he hadn’t taken her back to Kyan’s grandpa’s place. But I wasn’t sure what else I’d expected; that girl wasn’t the type to wait somewhere just so that we would feel better about her being safe away from here. Though I seriously would have been happier if she had.

  "It's going to take us more than ten minutes to make it to the north fence," Saint said in a low voice. "And that's assuming we’re able to stop hiding like this any time soon."

  "You don't think we can make it?" I asked.

  "I can't get a message to send back to them," Kyan growled. "So it’s either now or never. Niall won't hold back on the plan unless he is specifically called off."

  "And when he goes through with it, all eyes will be drawn in that direction - towards our girl," Nash pointed out, his eyes flaring with determination to make it there before that happened.

  "Then let's make sure we get there in time," Saint commanded, like he could make it happen through will alone. And this was Saint Memphis, so he probably could. "And once we are safely out of here, one of you is going to explain the fucking squid emoji to me."

  N iall drove like a fucking maniac and I had to press one hand to the door to brace myself as he took turnings at speed. I’d been kinda relieved when he pulled onto the highway so I wasn’t jerk
ed around in my seat anymore. But then he started driving at nearly a hundred miles an hour and I wasn’t sure it was an improvement at all.

  “Um, Niall, I know we’re in a rush, but is there any chance you could drive at a speed we won’t fucking die at?” I demanded.

  “We won’t die, lass,” he laughed. “The Grim Reaper’s not after me today.”

  “That’s not a comforting answer.”

  “He’s had more than enough chances to take me,” he assured me. “But he prefers to keep me doing his job for him instead. I haven’t yet decided if it’s because he likes me or if he just enjoys making my suffering go on and on in payment for my failures.”

  My lips parted at his words but his smile didn’t falter and he laughed harder as we sped along, eating up the road as we closed in on the location of the camp. My heart beat wildly when Niall finally exited the highway and tore along a winding road surrounded by woodland, hardly slowing for the bends as he raced on, singing Godzilla by Eminem feat. Juice WRLD and knowing every damn word. He was a freaking good rapper too.

  “Ah, here we go.” He turned off the road and I yelled in alarm as we practically nose dived down into the trees and the wheels slammed into the mud. He pumped the gas and carved a path through the woods while I winced every time he narrowly missed a tree trunk.

  “I’m not gonna crash,” he insisted as he caught sight of my expression. “Do you think I’d let Kyan’s girl get crushed up in this vehicle like a tin can?”

  “Watch where you’re going!” I screamed as the car sailed toward a huge oak and he cursed, twisting the wheel hard so we went careening past it and my heart rate went through the roof.

  “See?” he laughed. “I could do this with my hands tied behind my back and my eyes shut.” He shut his eyes to make that point and I lunged at him, forcing them open with a snarl.

  “You either drive properly or I’m taking over,” I growled.

  “Be my guest.” He let go of the wheel and I gasped, unclipping my seatbelt and diving into his lap as I regained control of the vehicle. He slid his feet off of the pedals and I put mine in their place as I slowed the car to a reasonable speed and glanced at the map on Niall’s phone.