“Daisy, wait!” Benjamin shouted.
But before anyone could move forward and stop her, Daisy brought her bat down atop the man’s head, crushing his skull with the baseball bat. Benjamin cringed.
With a smile, Daisy swung the bat over her shoulder and turned around to see her horrified audience. “What?” she asked. “You act like you’ve never seen someone kill a Ted before.”
“Daisy…” Sara trailed off.
“We can’t tell her,” Amber whispered. “She’ll be so upset.”
“Son of a gun,” Alex whispered. “What do we do?”
“We can’t tell her,” Elijah said.
“Tell me what?” Daisy asked. “You guys are all acting really funny. What’s wrong? I didn’t even make this much of a mess.”
“Daisy,” Benjamin said slowly, “That man wasn’t a Ted.”
“What do you mean?” Daisy asked.
“I mean, I’m fairly sure that was just a drunk man waking up,” Benjamin replied. “I don’t think he was infected.”
Everyone was quiet, waiting for Daisy to crumble in guilt and horror. She looked back at the man. Then, at her friends. Abruptly, Daisy burst into laughter. “Well, he would have been in the morning, so no foul. Don’t panic.”
Benjamin shivered when she strode past him, idly swinging her bat at her side. It was a little frightening just how blasé Daisy was about bashing a man’s skull in. He gulped. Daisy was definitely one person that Benjamin didn’t want to make angry.
Elijah whistled between his teeth. “Dude,” he muttered.
“Anyone—uh—want to play darts?” Amber asked.
“I’m game!” Daisy exclaimed. “Let’s go for it!”
As long as Daisy wasn’t pointing them at him, Benjamin supposed that wasn’t the worst idea. He was good at darts and didn’t often get to show off his skills. “That might be fun,” Benjamin said.
Elijah crossed the room and grabbed the darts from their place on the bar.
“Well, we might as well enjoy the night,” Amber said, “As best as we can.”
“Yeah,” Sara said. “Hopefully, the Teds will have left in the morning.”
“Right?” Amber asked. “It would be nice to just have a hangover to worry about.”
Benjamin winced. A hangover, indeed. When he woke up in the morning, he would probably really regret all of those cocktails, but really, what better way was there to deal with an epidemic than to drink it away and try not to think about it?
There were dozens of better ways to deal with it, actually, but Benjamin didn’t have the resources to do anything more. He was a scientist, and he felt like he ought to be out in the world, trying to end the epidemic and trying to save people, but he was away from his lab and his plant samples and colleagues. At this point, he didn’t even know if he’d be able to make it back to his new apartment, much less capable of going anywhere helpful.
Benjamin sighed and picked up a dart, testing the weight between his fingers.
“Are you any good, bro?” Elijah asked.
“I’m very good,” Benjamin replied.
“Really?” Daisy asked, sizing him up. “I’ll have you know that I could probably kill a man with a dart.”
She probably could.
“I don’t know if I could kill someone with a dart,” Benjamin replied, carefully flinging the dart forward.
Bull’s eye.
Daisy’s face brightened. “You’ve got game,” she said, tossing her dart.
She hit the center, too.
“You guys are really good,” Sara said, taking a seat and sipping out of a blue margarita.
“It’s basic aerodynamics,” Benjamin replied, “And a bit of practice. That’s all.”
“It’s better than I would do,” Sara said.
Amber sat beside Sara, who offered her a sip of her margarita.
“Do you want in on this, Alex?” Elijah asked.
Alex rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t think so,” he replied. “Last time I played darts here, I ended up breaking some sort of fancy decanter. I thought Darnell might be seriously about to kill me.”
“How many times have you almost ruined Darnell’s pub?” Benjamin asked.
“Oh God. I’ve lost count,” Alex replied.
“Me, too,” Elijah admitted, “But at this point, I figure I might as well press my luck. He hasn’t killed me yet!”
“But there’s a first time for everything, and he’d only have to kill you once,” Benjamin pointed out.
Elijah wrinkled his nose and mouthed the words. “Oh!” he exclaimed. “Right. Crap. That would suck.”
Elijah took a dart and tossed it towards the dartboard; it missed entirely and instead smashed into a framed picture of Queen Victoria. Glass shattered, and Elijah went as pale as a ghost. Abruptly, he sat. “On second thought, maybe I should just sit down.”
Benjamin snorted.
“Looks like it’s the two of us,” Daisy said, smirking. “Ready to taste defeat?”
“You’re on,” Benjamin said.
He tested the weight of another dart and then threw. It flew straight and true, striking the dartboard with a dull thud. Bull’s eye!
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Hey guys, Hayley here,
I hope you enjoyed Lock In; I came up with the idea from remembering back to my early twenties when me and my husband would go to a pub in England called the Queen Vic. We used to have a blast! There was even a fire extinguisher fight, which was hilarious and messy.
If you could bite anyone and turn them into a Ted, who would you bite?
Add your answer along with your review (smiley face) I love reading reviews, and they are really great for other readers to learn about awesome stories, like The Fog Series.
Off to work on book four in The Fog series, Hangover! Nothing could go wrong, right? A Hangover, with Ted’s all around.
Thank you
Hayley
MORE FROM HAYLEY LAWSON
If you loved, The Fog try out, Contamination.
Humanity has one option.
Evacuate Earth.
After a wave of fear crashes over the world in response to a deadly virus. Fear intensifies when it's discovered that the virus is the first wave of attack by an alien race that wants Earth for themselves.
It's one day before Paige's twenty-first birthday, and the world is turning into the walking dead! Zombie-like people are seeking her out.
What the hell! Just Paige's luck.
Can Paige rescue her family and get off the planet before The Wave captures her?
BOOKS BY HAYLEY LAWSON
INVASION SURVIVOR
Contamination (1)
Inhabitable (2)
Stowaway (3)
LIVE FREE OR DIE
Madness Unleashed (1)
Madness Rising (2)
Escaping Madness (3)
THEY ARE ZILLIONS
Zapacolypse (1)
Zurrounded (2)
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The Fog (Book 3): Lock In Page 4