Queen of Quarantine

by Caroline Peckham

  When we’d driven nearly a mile through the forest, I switched the headlights off and drove us up as near as I could get to the camp. My boys were close, I could practically sense them here and I wouldn’t be leaving without them.

  I glimpsed floodlights beyond the trees, illuminating a fence ringing the camp and the tents filling the whole place. It looked like something from an apocalypse movie and I didn’t like it one bit.

  I stopped the car and Niall laughed, slapping my arm. “That was fun. For a second there I thought you weren’t gonna take the wheel and we’d both die.”

  “That would not have been my fault,” I said in disbelief, opening his door and sliding out onto the ground, my legs still shaking with adrenaline. Fuck him for driving like he had a death wish, but I couldn’t deny I was feeling as high as a kite right now.

  “Liar,” he scoffed. “I wouldn’t let my nephew’s girl die. What kind of person do you think I am?” He opened the glove compartment, taking out a machete, a Zippo lighter with the words If you can’t fix it, burn it engraved on the side and a pair of night vision goggles.

  “I’m not going to dignify that question with an answer,” I said as I gave those items a pointed look and he smirked, walking around to the back of the car and opening the hatch to the trunk. He casually took out a box of fireworks and a gallon of gasoline then tossed me the goggles.

  “Here, you can watch our backs while I set up a decoy,” he said as he took out a green T-Rex mask and pulled it over his head.

  I took the gun from where it was wedged in my waistband and let him do his crazy thing as I followed him through the trees, putting the night vision goggles on so I could see the way forward.

  We made it close to the edge of the woods and Niall set about placing fireworks in a long row through the trees. He doused the whole lot in gasoline as I kept my gaze on the perimeter of the camp and the single watchtower in the distance. The soldiers wouldn’t be able to see us unless they managed to cast some light this way or were watching with goggles of their own, but we needed to be quiet all the same and I continually told Niall to shh as he broke into song, started whistling or cracking jokes. Thankfully, he listened and he soon had his decoy set up and ready to blow. He tugged his mask up, lighting a cigarette as he smiled at his work.

  I took out my phone, finding a reply from Kyan and my heart swelled.

  Koala:

  On our way, baby. See you soon for a *squid emoji* reunion.

  P.S. we might be running late

  Tigress:

  Looking forward to it.

  We’re on the north side of camp ready and waiting *octopus emoji*

  I sniggered and looked to Niall as he dragged on his cigarette, seeming lost to some daydream as sadness crossed his eyes. For a moment I found myself captured by that look on his face, like I was getting a glimpse beneath the mask he wore to the man who had lost his wife in such a horrifying way all those years ago. It sent a chill down my spine as I imagined living with grief like that and I was struck with the urge to hug him, but I held off on account of him being a beast of a man and a psychopath.

  “They’re coming,” I said and he nodded, his face immediately lighting up again.

  “Alright, I got a quick favour to ask though,” he said, holding out his hand. “This is the address to my house. If I die, can you make sure the girl in my basement is let out. You can leave the guy there to rot if you like, but the girl…” He pressed the folded piece of paper into my palm. “Don’t let that one die.”

  My lips opened and closed at his words, shock racing through me. “Is it that girl from Royaume D’élite?” I blurted. I’d thought of her a bunch of times since Niall had bought her and had often wondered what had become of her. Ending up as someone else’s prisoner didn’t seem like a much improved fate, but surely Niall wasn’t harming her, was he?

  “Maybe.” He shrugged. “What’s it to you?”

  “People don’t deserve to be kept in cages, Niall,” I growled, wondering if I’d gotten the guy all wrong. Sure, he was as nutty as a pistachio and was clearly used to killing people, but…

  I didn’t really know where I was going with that argument. It didn’t seem like it was gonna redeem Niall O’Brien.

  “It’s a nicer cage,” he said with a shrug like that made it okay. “Besides, she owes me. Can’t let her go without that debt being cleared now, can I?”

  He sounded so damn reasonable that it was hard to remember that we were discussing the fact that he was keeping prisoners in his damn basement.

  “A cage is a cage,” I replied firmly and he pursed his lips as he considered that then shrugged lightly.

  “Well, you’d best pray I die then so you can go set her free. Oh and if I survive, don’t look at that address and be sure to destroy it. No one gets to know where my home is and live to tell tales about it.” He winked and pulled his T-Rex mask down, leaving me to wonder if that last bit was a joke or not as he turned away, flicking his cigarette towards the fireworks. They went up with a whoosh as the gasoline caught light and my heart hammered as the fireworks started going off with loud bangs and colourful plumes of light.

  I tore the night vision goggles off as the whole world lit up in a giant bonfire before me and as fireworks started flying in every direction, I turned and ran the fuck away. I am not gonna die from a Big Banger to the face.

  I made it back to the Jeep, getting in and starting the engine, realising Niall hadn’t followed.

  He was still in front of the fire, shooting rounds off into the sky from his freshly reloaded pistol to cause as much noise as humanly possible.

  “Fucking idiot,” I hissed as bullets were fired in return from the watchtower.

  I pressed my foot to the gas, tearing toward him as he darted behind the fire like it was a shield that would protect him from a bullet, but it sure as shit wasn’t. The mud exploded at his feet where bullets hit the ground and I ducked my head lower as more bullets peppered the front of the car, my pulse pounding in my skull.

  I turned the wheel hard, pulling up beside Niall and shoving the door open, trying to call him inside. He let out a curse as a bullet hit him and he fell down in the mud as I gasped in horror.

  I dove out to help him up, frantic as my hand slid through hot blood on the top of his arm and more cursing came from within his T-Rex mask.

  “It’s just a scratch, lass,” he chuckled, letting me help him to his feet and he picked me up with his good arm, tossing me into the driver’s seat before climbing over me into the passenger side, nearly kicking me in the face with his dirty boot and crushing me beneath his huge body.

  I pressed my foot to the accelerator before I got the door closed, needing to get out of the light of the fire as I tore away, keeping parallel with the camp as I hunted for my boys in the dark.

  “Put pressure on it,” I commanded Niall as he tore his freaking dinosaur mask off and popped the glove compartment.

  “Yeah, yeah, I know what I’m doing. I know how to hack off every limb and keep a guy alive for days after, so I can get myself through this.” He tore off his shirt, revealing a fiercely muscular body painted in countless tattoos before taking out a bottle of white rum and pouring it over the wound. He followed that up by drinking a healthy shot of it then he wrapped his shirt around the wound, tying it off and kicking the glove compartment shut.

  “Where are they?” I said through my teeth, hunting for signs of my Night Keepers in the direction of the camp. Soldiers were going to be swarming the woods any minute and we didn’t have time to spare.

  Come on, come on.

  I gripped the steering wheel anxiously, determination coating my heart in steel. I was going to leave here with my Night Keepers. There was no alternative. Not one I would ever submit to. I was their ride or die, so they needed to get here and fucking ride.

  M y chest was heaving with the effort of running and hiding and being chased all over this fucking rabbit's warren of a camp and with every step I took, I
was terrified that we were about to get caught, dragged away, taken to some lab and used the way Tatum had been. I knew if that happened it would be the end of it. There wouldn't be anyone to come charging in to rescue us. We'd be buried. Locked away in some secret facility that no one would ever find even if they tried and if Tatum attempted to come for us, she'd end up caught too.

  Troy Memphis would get away with everything. Killing my family. Unleashing this virus. Running that sick club. Abusing his son. All of it and no doubt countless more atrocities too. The man was a fucking plague on our state, our country - hell, the entire world. We had him to thank for the mess we were all in with the Hades Virus and I was going to take him down if it was the last fucking thing I did.

  I looked between the others as I pressed my back to a huge metal storage unit and we waited while the searchlights swept past. The entire camp was abuzz now, soldiers darting left and right, flashing our photographs at people and hunting for us. They knew we were running from them and no doubt the security around the fences would be insane, but we had no choice. We had to take our chance and hope for the best.

  The scent of smoke blew over us on the wind and I strained my ears to listen as the shouts of the soldiers turned harsher, the chain of command snapping into place as orders were barked and uniformed men and women ran past us, all of them heading in the same direction.

  Something new was happening.

  I chanced a look out of our hiding place as a unit ran by, my eyebrows rising as I spotted an orange glow lighting up the sky in the distance.

  "Do you think your uncle might have anything to do with that?" I murmured, ducking back out of sight and looking at Kyan.

  "He does enjoy a bonfire," he agreed just as a high-pitched whistle cut through the air and I tipped my head back in time to see a huge red firework explode across the sky.

  "What the hell?" Blake murmured but Kyan just laughed.

  "Yeah - that's Niall alright. Time we got the fuck out of here."

  "Come on then," Saint barked, pushing past me as he peeked out of our hiding place then took off down the pathway outside it.

  I sprang into motion, chasing after him with the others right beside me as more and more fireworks lit the sky overhead.

  There was so much noise coming from the soldiers as they tried to get the situation under control that I didn't even notice the sound of footsteps ahead of us until we rounded the corner right before the fence.

  We skidded to a halt in the mud as we came face to face with the three soldiers who stared at us in surprise for a beat before seeming to recognise us as the guys they'd been searching for.

  The one in the centre of the group opened his mouth to say something but Kyan roared as he charged forward, tackling him into the mud without so much as missing a beat.

  The briefest thought of how fucking insane this was crashed through my mind, but as the soldier closest to me went for his sidearm, I slammed my fist into his elbow to stop him, my shoulder connecting with his abdomen a moment later as I took him to the ground too.

  Saint and Blake dove on the third soldier and I was lost in a tangle of flying fists, freezing mud and desperation as we fought with all we had to overpower them.

  This wasn't like fighting some random dude in a street brawl, these men had training and they knew how to fight. But they had also been taken unawares and were encumbered by their bulky uniforms while we had the advantage of fighting for our damn lives. Desperation was a powerful tool when it was put to good use and there was no greater motivation than the need in us to escape this place and get back to our girl.

  My ribs flared with pain as the guy beneath me punched and kicked, his blows heavy and meant to wound, but I was a big motherfucker who had spent years training to fight. I had the edge on him and we both realised it in the same moment.

  I punched him hard then managed to hook an arm around his neck, flipping him onto his front and exerting pressure as I drove my knee into his spine.

  A glance to my right revealed one of the other soldiers lying unconscious in the mud and a beat later, Saint had a gun pressed to the head of the guy beneath me.

  He stopped struggling instantly and I pulled back, relieving him of his weapon as I got to my feet, finding Kyan holding onto the other soldier with a pistol pointed at his head too.

  "You're going to make sure we walk out of here," Saint snarled, indicating for me to take hold of the soldier pinned beneath me and I jerked his arms behind him, holding them tightly as the taste of blood coated my tongue from my busted lip.

  "You can't seriously believe you'll escape this place?" the soldier coughed out.

  "I can and we will," Saint assured him. "You're the ones who are delusional if you honestly believe that we would just allow you to lock us up in some lab to experiment on."

  "I'm sure it isn't like that," said the soldier Kyan was restraining. "They just want to question you about your antibodies."

  "Thanks, but no thanks," Blake said, stooping down to take the unconscious soldier's weapons.

  "Let's go," Saint added, ending this pointless discussion.

  I couldn't help but glance over at the closest watchtower as we stepped out into the open space before the fence and we all clustered together, forcing the soldiers to walk between us and it. If anyone up there spotted us, they'd have to shoot their own men to stop us and I knew there was no chance of them doing that.

  We jogged across the muddy ground to the fence, the soldiers giving in to the inevitable as we made them run with us and my heart was thundering by the time we reached the metal wire panels which penned us in.

  Fireworks continued to explode overhead and as I turned to look to our left, I spotted them shooting out of an enormous fire that was blazing in the trees just outside the fence at the edge of the trees.

  The blast of a car horn beeping twice drew my attention back to the thick trees ahead of us and my heart soared as I spotted two people sitting in a huge black Jeep Wrangler, waiting for us. Tatum's long, golden hair was unmistakable even from this distance and a mixture of excitement and fear filled me at the sight of her here. I just wanted to bundle her up and get her the hell away from this place, which meant we needed to hurry the hell up.

  Blake managed to shove the metal fence hard enough to create a gap in it between two of the metal panels just as the blaring spotlight from the watchtower swung around to us. I ducked down behind the soldier I still held, making sure there was no chance of them getting a clear shot at me.

  "Stop!" a voice roared from the tower, but there was no fucking chance of that.

  "Like fuck we will!" Kyan yelled back as he ducked through the gap in the fence, dragging his human shield with him to protect him and Blake.

  The soldier I was holding tried to jerk free of my grip, but Saint took hold of him too, forcing him to follow us as we awkwardly shifted through the gap in the fence.

  One of the guards in the tower fired a shot into the ground a few meters from us in warning as he continued to yell at us to stop and my heart leapt for a moment before we started running.

  More shots were fired and lumps of grass sprayed into the air, but I ignored them, keeping the soldier between us and his friends as we raced into the safety of the trees and none of them came anywhere close to hitting us.

  Tatum scrambled over her seat and flung the back door of the car open as we raced for it, a man's wild laughter sailing to us over the sounds of gunshots and fireworks and Blake dove into the car while Kyan kept hold of his soldier.

  Niall climbed into the driver’s seat and Tatum clambered into the front passenger seat to make room for us as Blake scooted right over in the back.

  I stopped beside Kyan, letting Saint jump in before we shoved the soldiers away and leapt in too.

  The wheels spun in the dirt as Niall hit the gas and I half fell into the footwell as Kyan sprawled on top of Blake and Saint.

  We bounced over the rough ground and I smacked my head on the side of the door before
managing to scramble upright and look out at the dark forest speeding by outside.

  "Hold onto your asses boys!" Niall yelled. "We're going off road."

  I managed to force my way onto a seat, half sitting in Blake's lap as I reached around the chair in front of me to grasp Tatum's hand.

  She looked back at me with a wide smile, her eyes sweeping over all of us like she was making absolutely certain we were all okay and I found myself laughing as I realised we were.

  “You almost gave me a damn heart attack making me wait like that,” she said, trying for a pout but unable to keep the grin away for long.

  “Sorry about that,” I replied.

  "They'll be chasing us," Saint said, his voice stern like he was warning all of us not to get over excited about our escape.

  "Good point, lad," Niall said, flicking the headlights off and plunging us into darkness.

  My gut plummeted as he continued to accelerate, driving deeper into the forest with hardly any light to show him if there was a tree coming up ahead of us.

  "Are you insane?" I asked him, gripping hold of the headrest in front of me as I took in Kyan's uncle. Niall was grinning as he drove, his dirty blonde hair pushed back out of his eyes and a collection of tattoos crawling over his bare chest and up the side of his neck. He had tattoos coating his hands where they clasped the wheel too and he flexed his fingers like he was brimming with energy that was desperate for an outlet.

  “Some people say I am,” he replied with a nonchalant shrug which said he didn’t care. Or maybe that he wasn’t sure.

  I turned around to look out the back of the car, finding nothing but darkness and trees all around us as we drove further and further into the forest.

  "Where are we heading?" Saint demanded.

  "Don't know," Niall announced with a smile. "No one can predict yer movements if you don't have a plan to follow."

  "You have no plan?" Saint blanched, looking like someone had just taken a shit on his pet cat and styled its fur into a poohawk.