by Dana Fredsti
“I have my reasons for staying where I am.”
“Good reasons?”
“As good as yours for sneaking out in the first place.”
I couldn't argue with that.
He turned onto a narrow road overgrown with hanging branches. Even the truck's suspension and shocks couldn't ease the jolting as the wheels hit numerous ruts and potholes.
I winced after we hit a particularly deep pothole. I felt the jolt up through my tailbone. “Jeez Louise, guess our tax dollars haven't made it this far.”
“This road hasn't been used for logging since they built Big Red,” said our rescuer. “No need to keep up repairs.”
“Glad you knew about it.”
“It always pays to know how to get in and out of places.”
“Paranoid much?” Okay, it just slipped out.
Surprisingly he laughed. “Yeah, you could say that. Now let's see if my paranoia can get you back into the college without getting caught.”
Chapter Eighteen
Mystery Man stopped the truck at the edge of the tree line after turning off the headlights to avoid any possible detection. How he managed not to drive into a tree I do not know, unless he had extra super special night vision.
Lil and I hauled cats, litter, and food out of the truck. Nope, the cats had not gotten any lighter during the trip here. They had, thankfully, fallen silent over the last ten minutes, probably shell-shocked from the rough ride up the logging road.
“It's about a hundred yards to the back of the Admin building. I'm not seeing any dead heads between here and there so you should be okay.”
Yeah, if we didn't collapse under the weight of Binkey, Doodle, and all of their shit. I hefted the bag of litter, wondering why the hell we thought it was a good idea to bring it. Lil lifted the cat carrier, but I could tell she was near the end of her physical resources.
Our rescuer looked at us for a beat, then reached into the bed of the truck and pulled out a folding dolly complete with straps. “This should help.”
“You were a Boy Scout, weren't you?”
“Close enough.” He pulled the dolly open. “Litter first, carrier next, then the bag of food.” We followed his direction, watching gratefully as he then strapped everything securely in place. “Wait a sec.” He reached into the back of the cab this time and pulled out a pair of sturdy leather and canvas gardening gloves. “Ought to help you hold the razor wire out of the way enough to get inside the perimeter.”
I took the gloves. “Thanks.” The word felt inadequate. I stuck out a hand; he shook it solemnly.
Lil started to put out her hand, then threw her arms around him in an impulsive hug. I saw his eyes widen with surprise as he stiffened, then soften just a little. He gave her a quick squeeze, then gently set her away from him, hands on her shoulders. “You take care of those cats of yours.”
Lil nodded solemnly. “I will.”
He looked at me. “And you take care of this one.”
I nodded equally solemnly. “I will. Better than I did tonight. Thanks again.”
“I'll wait until you're inside before I leave.”
“Gee, kind of like a date.” So much for solemnity.
He snorted and got back in the truck.
“Who was that masked man?” I said to myself. “Come on, Lil.”
She nodded wearily. I wondered if she had enough juice left to get back to DBP Hall. “Just a little further and we'll be in our beds. I'll take the dolly, okay? You just keep an eye out for zombies and soldiers.”
“How about zombie soldiers?” Just a little ghost of a smile with her words, but it was enough to let me know she'd make it back.
“Those too.”
No zombies harassed us between the trees and the Admin building. I slipped on the gloves, several sizes too big, but thick enough to allow me to pull a section of wire up far enough for Lil to crawl under, dragging the dolly on its back behind her. The cats stayed miraculously quiet.
It was a little trickier to hold the wire up and crawl under without having it snap back down on me, but I managed by going through feet first, getting all of me through before finally letting go and snatching my hands out, literally right under the wire. Heh. Never too tired for a bad pun.
I stood up and gave a thumbs-up in the direction of the woods. The man had to have better night vision than a Wild Card ‘cause the lights blinked on, then off again and I heard the engine turn over and the sound of the truck receding back down the old logging road.
“We've cleared this building, right?” Lil stood by a nearby closed window.
“I think Team B cleared it. Hang on a sec, I'll check.” I pulled out my LCD light and a map of the college. Buildings were marked with A or B, and those that had been cleared were crossed out. The Admin building was checked off. “Yup, it's clear. We're pretty much done with the campus after tomorrow. Only a few buildings left.”
“Then we can start on the town.”
We pried open a window, one of those that has an upper panel that swings out like an awning. Lil boosted me up, interlaced fingers under one of my feet, and I wriggled through the window, landing with an ungraceful thump inside. I opened the lower panel from the inside, then Lil hoisted the dolly through and crawled in after it. We shut the window again, locking it for good measure. No sense leaving an opening for any opportunistic zombies that might manage to get through the death slinky.
The building was quiet and sterile, with an antiseptic smell; bleach and faux citrus that told us the cleanup team had taken care of the blood stains, viscera, and body parts.
The trip back to DBP Hall was pretty much anticlimactic after our near-death experience in Redwood Grove. No zombies, no fuss, no bother.
There were two soldiers on guard duty at the front of DBP Hall. We quietly pulled the dolly up the handicapped ramp, then did just about the most cliché trick in the book to sneak back in: I threw a medium-sized rock as far as possible on the other side of the front doors where it landed in the bushes with a satisfying thump. And by golly, it worked. Both soldiers immediately trained their firearms in that direction and went over to investigate.
Lil and I hurried the rest of the way up the ramp and inside DPB Hall, stifling laughter the whole way. Not that it would have been funny if they'd heard us and opened fire.
The lobby was empty, not too surprising considering it had to be around one or two in the morning. I hit the down button on the elevator; the doors slid open immediately. Lil pushed the dolly in and I got in after her and pressed the button for the basement level and our quarters.
We both leaned against the back of the elevator, quivering from exhaustion and the sudden weakness brought on by the aftermath of what had been basically a three-hour adrenaline rush. We stared at our reflection on the inside of the shiny metal doors.
“You have brain on your face,” observed Lil.
I snorted. “You've got blood on yours. And bits of skin.”
“We both look pretty gross.”
That we did. And our clothes were disgusting, covered in tacky drying blood and that black fluid that ran out of zombie orifices.
Then it hit me.
Infected blood and fluid.
“Shit.” I pushed myself away from the wall.
“What?”
“We need to get decontaminated.”
Lil looked confused. “We can just put our clothes in the Hazmat bags, right? Take hot showers.”
I shook my head. We can't afford to take the chance of any infected blood or crap getting into the common areas. We can't get sick, but a lot of other people could.”
“Shit!” Lil hit the elevator wall with the flat of one hand. “Can't we just use lots of soap? I mean, we went through so much to sneak in without anyone finding out we've been gone.”
“I know. But we can't risk someone else getting sick because of us.”
Lil didn't look entirely convinced by my argument, which made me worry about her ethical/moral priorities jus
t a little. I wrote it off to exhaustion and not thinking straight. The girl just risked life and limb to rescue her cats. Not exactly the actions of a morally or ethically deficient person.
The doors opened, letting us out right next to our room. “Let's put the cats and their stuff in our room, then go get hosed off. That way at least we can say we were out on campus and ran into a couple of stray zoms out there. We'll still get in some trouble, but not nearly as much as we will if they find out we went into town. We'll bring some bleach back and clean off the carrier.”
Lil nodded, looking slightly less unhappy at the thought of stowing the cats first.
“Just make sure to wipe up any blood you get on anything, okay?”
“Yeah, I will.” Her tone was definitely snappish, like a kid up way past her bedtime. Which, in a way, is exactly what she was at the moment. Almost immediately she turned to me, stricken. “I'm sorry. I'm just so tired.”
I patted her arm. “I know, honey. I am too.”
“Yeah, but you're the last person I should be snapping at … without you, Binkey and Doodle would've died.”
“Without us, you mean.” I gave her a brief one-armed hug. “We make a good team.”
We put the cat carrier in the bathroom, leaving the cats inside so we wouldn't get any goo on them. I don't think the zombie virus crosses species, but no way would contaminated blood or rotten flesh be good for them.
“We'll be back in just a little bit, babies,” Lil cooed to the two irate felines behind bars. “Then you can come out and we'll feed you.”
“Yeah, like they really need the food. They're total chubby bundles.”
The halls were quiet, most people sensibly asleep, at least on this level. We had to go down one level for the decontamination area. It was quiet down there too. Maybe, just maybe, we'd get away with this.
The decon was a revamped bathroom with several portable shower stalls hooked up to tanks full of Super Lysol or whatever the hell they used to spray us off. Ten minutes later we were both hosed down and wrapped in white towels, weapons wiped down with bleach and slung over our shoulders. We padded in bare feet back to the elevator, breathing a mutual sigh of relief when the doors slid shut and the car began its one-floor journey upwards.
“Shit,” I said for the umpteenth time that night. “We forget to bring bleach with us.” I heaved another huge sigh, this one in frustration, as the doors slid open. “You go get your shower and I'll go back down and get the bleach.”
“Are you sure?” Lil asked, obviously hoping I was.
“Yeah.” Can you take this?” I handed her my M4. “I'll be right back.”
I grabbed a bottle of bleach and some paper towels from the decontamination area and hightailed it back to the elevator, feeling a bit like a human yoyo as I rode it up yet again and stepped out into the hallway—right into Gabriel.
I yelped in surprise and dropped the bottle of bleach. It bounced painfully off my bare foot and rolled against the far wall, lid still in place.
Gabriel and I stared at one another, me clutching my suddenly way-too-small towel to my bosom like a Victorian maiden. He wore nothing but a pair of sweatpants, six-pack abs and well-defined chest bare to the world. My face flushed with heat, both at being caught out and at the proximity to his half-naked self.
“Ashley, what are you doing?”
How to answer that? I thought quickly if not wisely. “I wanted to clean our bathroom.” Yeah, I know, it sounded lame even to my ears. Nothing to do but brazen it out, however. “So I … I got some bleach. From downstairs where the bleach is.” Going on the old adage that the best defense is a good offense I added, “What are you doing here?”
“I heard someone in the hallway and wanted to check it out. Guess it was you.” He looked me up and down. “Why are you wearing a towel and carrying weapons?”
“I feel safer with them.” Lamer and lamer. “So if you'll excuse me…” I tried to step around him to retrieve the bleach, but he wasn't having any of it. The elevator doors shut behind me as Gabriel blocked my attempted end run with his arm. There wasn't a lot of space between our bodies.
He sniffed the air. “You smell like disinfectant.”
“One of the hazards of being a Wild Card, right?” I made another attempt to scoot to the other side, but he boxed me in with his other arm, not quite touching me with his body. I could feel the heat rise between us and wished I had my body armor back on.
Gabriel glared down at me. “Ashley, what the hell have you been up to?”
“Nothing!” I snapped, fed up with being attracted to someone who pissed me off so much. “At least, nothing that's any of your business. So you can stop the strong-arm tactics and let me go back to my room, okay?”
“And clean your bathroom.” You could cut the sarcasm in his voice with a tanto. Good thing I had one on me.
“Yeah, and clean my bathroom.” My towel slipped down an inch and his gaze dropped involuntarily to my chest, where the towel barely clung to the top of my very stiff nipples. His eyes darkened and the heat level between us ramped up a notch.
“It's cold,” I said weakly. “I want to get some clothes on, okay? Besides, we've been here before and it didn't end well, remember?”
Ooh, score one for me. Gabriel looked like I'd slapped him or thrown a metaphorical bucket of cold water over his head. He dropped his arms and stepped backwards, letting me move past him and pick up the bottle of bleach.
I might have brazened my way out of this had Lil not chosen that moment to open our room door, stuck her freshly showered head out and say, “Ashley? I let the cats out of the carrier so watch the door—” She saw Gabriel, gave a gasp of horror and slammed the door shut.
“Cats?”
“Er…” I had nothing to say.
Comprehension dawned on Gabriel's face, along with slow-burning anger. “You two went into town, didn't you?”
“I…”
“You two idiots risked your lives and the security of this campus by going after a couple of cats?” He grabbed my upper arm and shook me. So much for slow-burning anger; he'd ramped up to full-on scary rage.
A door opened down the hall and Tony stuck his head out, bleary-eyed. “Sleeping down here. Or trying to.” He vanished back inside his room, slamming the door shut.
Gabriel hauled me by my arm to a nearby stairwell door, pushed me onto the stairwell, and shut the door behind us. He dropped his voice, but the level of barely contained fury in his eyes went up by way of compensation. “Do you have any idea of how stupid you are?”
“We didn't risk the security,” I protested, wincing as his fingers pressed deep into the flesh of my bicep. “We jumped over the barrier and the razor wire to get out, then crawled under the wire and got in through an unlocked window in the Admin building. We locked the window.”
Gabriel grabbed my other arm and dragged me close, face glaring down into mine. “This is a military operation. You're a civilian member of a military team.”
I glared back. “A civilian volunteer, remember?”
“Volunteer or not, you do not do anything without a direct order from your team leader, which happens to be me.” Every word was clipped as if bitten off between clenched teeth.
“Look,” I said, trying desperately not to let him intimidate me, “Lil has been miserable. Her mom might be dead, her boyfriend was ripped to pieces in front of her. As far as she knows, all she has left of her old life are those two cats. She's been making herself sick worrying that they might have starved to death or worse, been eaten alive. She hasn't been able to think about anything else, and sooner or later her concentration would've gone at the wrong moment and she would have gotten herself or someone else killed.”
“That was not your decision to make!” He shook me again, eyes blazing hot blue fury. “You. Could. Have. Been. Killed!” He emphasized each word with another shake. On “killed” he threw me away from him, the back of my head smacking into the wall hard enough to rattle my teeth. I barely
managed to catch my towel before it slipped all the way off my body.
I'd had enough. I wrapped the towel around my upper chest, tucking it securely in place as I stared defiantly at Gabriel, silently daring him to touch me again. I was angry enough to hit him if he tried. “Maybe it's not enough for all of us just to survive. Who the hell are you to place a value judgment on the worth of Lil's cats? Lil has to be able to live with herself and if she'd left them to die, she might not have been able to do that. She needs something to love and something worth fighting for. And neither you nor the military have the right to decide what that is. And if you don't get that, you can just go to hell!”
“Ashley—” He took a step towards me.
I held a hand up in warning. “Don't. Just don't.”
He stopped and took a few deep breaths. “Why didn't you just tell me you were worried about her?”
I rolled my eyes. “Because you would have said no.”
He ran his fingers through his hair, making it stand on end in places. “Jesus, Ashley…” He dropped his hand by his side, shook his head and repeated, “You could have been killed.”
“But we weren't.”
I swayed on my feet, ready to collapse where I stood. This second emotionally charged adrenaline rush and subsequent crash left me even more drained than the first. And this one had lasted only a fraction of the time in comparison.
“Is your head okay?” The anger had left Gabriel's voice to be replaced by concern and, if I wasn't mistaken, remorse.
“Sure,” I lied. I actually had the beginnings of a headache. “I just really want to shower and get the smell of disinfectant out of my skin, okay?”
He took another deep breath. “Okay.”
I turned away from him towards the door and felt his hand on my shoulder.
“Ashley…”
Something in his voice made me look back at him. The raw pain in his eyes startled me. “You could have been killed…” Suddenly he'd pulled me into his arms, holding me tightly against him as he kissed the top of my head and whispered fiercely, “Jesus, you could have been killed.”