by AJ Sinclair
His fingers curled into his palm and he stepped back.
Indie opened the door. Her mother’s bed was empty, the sheets rumpled as if she’d just gotten up. Dallas, her sister, lay stretched out on the floor, eyes fixed and glassy, blood pooled under her. Her father, Emerson, sat in a chair beside the bed, head tipped back, jaw slack. Indie stared at them for a long time, waiting for them to breathe, hoping for the rise and fall of a chest, a sign of life. Nothing. She should’ve known. But she’d known all along.
Someone screamed. A woman needs help! Austin’s hand clapped down on her shoulder. Oh God, that’s me.
Austin and Jack caught her as she surged forward. “Daddy! Dallas!” She twisted in their hold, but she couldn’t break free. “I’ve got to help them!”
“There’s nothing you can do,” Jack growled as they hauled her back.
Cody and Eli were already running down the hallway, slipping in blood and tripping over bodies.
Indie skidded and clawed, fighting to get away. “No. Please!”
Jack hefted her over his shoulder and set off down the hall. Indie struggled, pressing her hands on his back and pushing up to see Austin shut the door and run after them.
“Wait!” Indie squirmed and Jack tightened his grip. “I have to find Montgomery.” Her brother hadn’t been in the room.
Austin yanked the stairwell door open and shoved Jack and his wriggling burden inside. “We have to get out. There’s no one alive here.”
But her brother might be alive somewhere else. “Put me down!”
Jack ignored her and sprinted down the stairs.
Indie pounded on his back, hurting her fists more than she hurt him, no doubt. The man absolutely refused to let go of her until they got to the car where he dumped her in the back seat and crawled in after her.
Austin jumped behind the wheel and tore out of the parking lot while Cody leaped in the passenger side. Eli had made it in the back, clutching his ribs and moaning beside Indie.
She sat up and slapped Jack square on the jaw. “Why did you make me leave?”
He didn’t even flinch. “Why did you want to stay?”
Hot tears streamed down her cheeks. “They’re all I have. Even though they’re gone…” She wiped her face on her sleeve.
Eli grunted and sat up. “You have us now.” He took her hand and squeezed it.
Them. Four lost soldiers she’d met only yesterday. They’d been through at least four circles of Hell since then, becoming closer than family. They’d become…hers. She leaned against his warm, solid shoulder and from the corner of her eye, spotted Jack wincing as he rubbed his chin. A little smile stole across her lips at that.
Austin stomped on the gas. “I’m sorry we dragged you out of there, Indie.” His gaze met hers in the rearview mirror.
“No.” She sat up and ran her hands through her hair. “I’d still be standing there screaming if you didn’t.”
Jack slid his hand over her leg to lace his fingers with hers. “That was your entire family?”
“My mother.” Indie frowned. “They must have taken her body away shortly after she died.” So why were Dallas and her father still there? Her sister had been lying on the floor next to the bed. Had they put her in it when she got sick? “My father and sister were in the room, but my brother wasn’t. I don’t know where he is.”
Cody turned in the front passenger seat. “Do you want to go find him?”
Was Montgomery somewhere in the hospital, or had he gotten out? Had he gotten sick and survived? Or could he be immune too? If that were true, he could be anywhere. He could’ve gone to his home, to their parents’ house, or even left town before the quarantine was ordered. “I don’t know where to look.” She’d failed. She’d wanted to find her family and save them, but she’d been too late. For the hundredth time, she questioned her decision to leave the hospital and go to her lab. Could she have found the cure in the hospital lab? She could’ve saved everyone there. Damn it!
“We need a new objective.” Austin’s sharp tone sliced through her guilt. “We’ve tested your cure.” He glanced in the mirror at Indie. “We found your family. What next?”
What next, indeed? What else could she screw up in this godforsaken quarantine zone?
“We need to get to a safe place,” Jack muttered even as a gunshot rang out.
A bullet struck the car with a deafening bang, followed quickly by another. Eli bent over Indie, pushing her toward the floor while Austin gripped the wheel and fought to keep the vehicle under control. Jack and Cody returned fire out the passenger side windows.
Indie’s stomach lurched with the car. Tires screeched. Guns popped. A loud boom rang in her ears, and the car spun. Metal sheared and glass shattered. Her entire world came to a grinding halt.
Chapter 7
ELI
Pain seared through Eli’s ribs as Indie squirmed under him, but he gritted his teeth and ignored it. He’d meant what he said. She belonged with them now. He hadn’t spent as much time with her as the other guys had, but he’d felt their bond and made it his own. A little thing like a couple of cracked ribs wouldn’t stop him from guarding this woman with his life.
The gunfire had stopped, both the shots at them and their return fire. Something under the hood hissed, and something else dripped. The smell of gas, oil, and heat burned his eyes. Eli sat up too quickly, sending dizzying pain straight to his head. “We need to get out.”
Indie groaned as he helped her up. Smoke spilled from the engine.
“Now!” Eli gathered the little strength he had left and pulled Indie from the car. Jack tumbled out behind her, and Cody crawled out his window and over the roof. They both wrenched the driver’s door open, and Jack cracked the bent steering column with the butt of his rifle. Cody dragged Austin to his feet, and all three of them ran as flames erupted from the dashboard.
Austin collapsed on the pavement, breathing hard. “Shit, that was close.”
“Get out, Army!” Someone yelled as if taking the major’s words as a challenge, and then bullets whizzed by again.
“Take cover!” Austin grabbed Indie’s arm, and he and Eli sprinted toward a building as Jack and Cody covered them.
They scrambled inside, and Eli pushed Indie down behind some metal shelves then stood and helped Austin fire over Cody and Jack as they ran into the store.
“Go!” Austin guided Indie, keeping low as they all wove deeper into the store, through long aisles of bare shelves.
Eli shuffled along behind them, groaning and wincing with every step. Darkness seemed to be overtaking him. Shit, am I dying?
Indie turned and put her hand on his heaving chest. “We need to stop. Eli can’t take much more of this.”
Austin scowled at them. The shooting had ceased, but the danger remained. “Is that your professional opinion, Doctor?”
“I’m not a medical doctor,” she shot back at him. “But I don’t need to be one to see he’s hurting and needs rest. We all do. Now.”
Austin acknowledged her with a nod. “All right. We’ll make camp here for the night.”
“That’s not enough.” She jammed her hands on her hips.
“Longer, if necessary. You’re in charge, Doctor. You outrank me in this case.”
“Fine.” She scratched her head and glanced at their stark surroundings. “Make camp.”
They had little to make a comfortable camp with. Even if they had brought the coffee maker along, the building had no electricity to run it. Four mini donuts remained in the bag Cody had pilfered earlier, and a small amount of the Lucky Charms rattled around the box. Sugar and refined carbs. Just what I need.
Light flashed, and then a rumbling boom sounded. Everyone stared toward the front windows as rain pelted the glass. Storm clouds had blocked the sun, casting a gloom over the store’s interior.
Eli breathed deep. I’m not dying. Is that a good thing?
“I’ll take first watch.” He winced as he hefted his rifle, but smiled throug
h the pain, hoping Austin wouldn’t notice.
But the major scowled. “The hell you will. I’ll take first watch. You get some sleep. That’s an order.”
Eli sat on the cold, hard tile floor and leaned back against the empty metal shelves. Tension seeped from his limbs, and his eyes drifted closed. But sleep didn’t come.
Cody and Jack curled up on the floor, holding their weapons close and using their backpacks as pillows. Austin patrolled the perimeter, silent and steady as soft snores emanated from the men across the aisle. Eli envied their ability to go to sleep anywhere in a matter of seconds. He’d been able to do it once, but now he knew too much.
Indie lay beside him, curling her arm under her head at an odd angle. She rolled over and tried the other arm, but that didn’t appear to be much better.
Eli patted his thigh. “I’ll be your pillow.”
She glanced up at him, blinking softly, then inched closer and rested her head in his lap. Her hair spilled across his legs, and her warmth eased his pain.
“How did you find the cure?” He allowed his fingers to toy with her hair while she explained her experimental process. He spoke multiple languages, but he barely understood a word of her science speak. Pain, exhaustion, and lack of food no doubt fried his brain.
“I never gave up.” She sighed. “Not that it did any good. I couldn’t save my family.” A sob choked her words.
Eli kept talking so she wouldn’t dwell on her perceived failure. “But now you know how to do it, right? You can save the rest of us.”
“How can I save anyone when we’re stuck here?” She slapped the cold floor. “Maybe someone on the outside will figure it out.”
“Don’t hold your breath.”
She leaned up on her elbow and gave him a questioning look. “Why wouldn’t the government scientists or the CDC be able to do it?”
He didn’t trust the government to do anything. “Do you think they’re even trying?”
“It’s in their best interest. If this spreads to the rest of the country, they’ve got to be able to fight it.”
“Or maybe they’re hoping it’ll die in here with us.” Contain it like a wildfire and let it burn itself out, destroying everything inside. He’d studied such tactics, knew it could work.
She flopped on her back, her head bouncing on his thigh. “Quite the cynic, aren’t you?”
“I know too much.” Books had been his best friend. They’d taught him things no man should ever know.
“What does that mean?” She blinked up at him.
Eli had a hard time believing Indie would ever play dumb. His remark must’ve been too cryptic, so he turned the question back to her. “You’re as smart as I am, probably more. What does that mean to you?”
She pressed her lips together and wound a curl around her finger. “That I lie awake at night, imagining all the possible scenarios and outcomes.”
Just like him. Just as he’d imagined. “Worst-case scenarios.”
“Not always.”
“I do. Hit fear head-on.”
She sat up to face him, sliding her butt across the cold, hard floor until it rested warm against his leg. “What are you afraid of?”
Everything. He didn’t have time to go through the whole list, so he named the top three. “Death. Getting sick. Never seeing my family again.”
“Wife and kids?” Her fingertip idly traced his thigh while she peeked at him hopefully.
He shook his head. “My mom and two younger sisters. My dad died when I was twelve. Cancer. I watched him fight it for three years. I watched the doctors treat him every way they knew how, but nothing worked. He looked like an old man the day he died right in front of me. He didn’t go quietly.”
“They never do.” Her aimless finger stilled, and her shoulders slumped. “My mother. The coughing. I could see how much pain she was in, but I couldn’t do anything.”
“Cody coughed, and I nearly blew his head off.” Was that just yesterday?
That story snapped her out of her melancholy, just as he’d hoped, and she focused her sharp eyes on him. “Does he have any other symptoms?”
“None that I’ve noticed.” He’d become an expert on every one of them. As each of the one hundred forty-six men fell sick, Eli’d identified the stages.
She nodded and resumed her exploration of his leg. “I became a virologist because I’m afraid of things I can’t see.”
He understood that. He never once saw the poison that killed his dad, couldn’t see the bug killing everyone, but the terror haunted his sleep. “I joined the Army to conquer my fear.”
“Did it work?” Hope filled her eyes.
“Nope.” He hated disappointing her. “I just learned various ways to kill things.”
A little smile twisted her lips. “Me too.”
“You learned to do something.” He sucked in a breath as her hand slid up his chest. “You’re doing something to me.”
She drew back. “Oh, sorry, did I hurt you?”
“No, it’s not that.” He caught her hand in his and pulled it back to him, flattening her palm over his racing heart. Something he hadn’t felt in a long time—comfort?—filled him at her touch. He wasn’t alone in this hell, neither the quarantine nor his countless fears. She dwelled there with him.
“Is it this?” She leaned forward and touched her lips to his, softly at first, hesitating as if afraid she really might hurt him.
He couldn’t let this kiss be ruled by fear. Eli pulled her close, ignoring the pain in his ribs and sweeping his tongue across the seam of her lips until they parted to let him in. She moaned into his mouth, and he imagined doing a little somthin’-somthin’ right here, right now. God, this woman made him ache, and not just his ribs—a little farther down.
Footsteps sounded close by, and Eli peeked over Indie’s shoulder without breaking their kiss. Austin strolled past, giving him a nod and a wink. Cody and Jack appeared to be asleep, but their snoring had gotten strangely quiet.
Forget about them. Eli leaned back against the shelf, pulling Indie across his lap. She curled into him, drawing her knees up and bumping his injured side. He gasped. “Okay, that did hurt.”
“Oops.” She scooted back a fraction and rested her head on his chest. “We should get some sleep.”
“We should, but I haven’t slept in…” He’d lost count of the days.
She looked up at him and frowned. “Can’t turn off your brain?”
“Exactly.”
“It happens to me too. At some point exhaustion takes over and shuts your body down.”
“You’d think so, but…” He shrugged and wrapped his arms around her waist.
She kissed his cheek. “Think about something you don’t have to think about.”
“That makes no sense.”
She sat up and fixed a glare on him. “Close your eyes. Breathe deep.”
He arched an eyebrow.
“Do it.”
Eli sighed and obeyed her instructions.
“Now, picture a fluffy warm bed. Imagine sinking into it.”
One eye opened and he peeked at her. “With you?”
“If it helps.” She smiled.
He closed his eyes again and pictured her shiny black hair fanned across a fat white pillow while he crawled on top of her.
“Now keep that image in your mind and don’t let any other thoughts in. Don’t think, just feel.”
“Wise words from Dr. Indiana Jones.”
“Hush. No talking, just sleeping.” She curled up against him again and closed her eyes.
Eli sighed and held her tight. He doubted the comfy scenario would do him any good, but at least it gave him something else to think about. Exhaustion seeped into his bones, weighing his body down and fuzzing his brain. The mission to get the doctor to the hospital and save her family had failed. What the hell would they do next? Don’t think. Feel. Fluffy bed, warm woman, shiny black hair fanned across a fat white pillow. Blood pooling in her eyes.
Chapter 8
JACK
Something hard and heavy thumped the top of Jack’s head. He rolled over and spotted Cody yawning. “Did you just kick me?”
“Sorry.” Cody pulled back his outstretched foot. “Didn’t know you were that close.”
Jack groaned and sat up, the entire right side of his body cold and sore. He stood and stretched.
Cody stood beside him. “I’ve got watch.”
“I know, but I gotta get off that floor.” He rubbed the aching hip he’d been lying on. “My body can’t take punishment like that anymore.”
“I hadn’t noticed.” Cody swept his fingers across his lips as if wiping the words away.
A smile lit Indie’s eyes as she slid off Eli’s lap and stood, careful not to wake him.
“Is he sleeping?” Austin appeared beside Cody.
She pressed a single finger to her lips and shushed them.
Cody shrugged. “I guess so.” He picked up his rifle and got a briefing from Austin. Nothing immediate to worry about. Just stand guard so the others could sleep. Austin curled up in the spot where Cody’d been sleeping while Eli continued to sit up against the shelves, snoring like a buzzsaw.
Jack doubted he’d get back to sleep. He briefly considered accompanying Cody, keeping the troublemaker out of trouble, but the doctor had wandered down to the end of the aisle, so he decided to entertain her. More or less.
He crept up behind her, focusing on the sweet curve of her ass and not realizing he’d kept his footsteps silent until she caught a glimpse of him and jumped.
“Jack!” She gasped, clapping her hand over her heart. “You appeared out of nowhere.”
“Sorry.” He winced. “Habit.”
She inhaled deeply, appearing to calm herself. “I usually notice you noticing things we don’t. Threats, opportunities.”
“That’s my job. Stay in the background and assess the situation. Speak up when necessary. Act before others can speak, if needed.” Shadows shifted behind her, and Jack tightened his grip on his weapon, following the movement to its source. A flock of birds flapped around a streetlight. His finger slid off the trigger.