PODs (44 page)

Then David was on me. Squeezing me hard against him. Whispering in my ear.

“Don’t ever do something so wildly stupid again, Eva!” David whispered. “Why would you do that?”

You needed me
.

“I love you, Evangelina Mae. More than anything.” His lips were on mine before I could answer him, so I let my kiss answer for me.

I love you, too
.

“Are you okay?” I scanned him with my eyes, ran over his body with my hands, making sure he was all right.

“Yeah. I’m fine. Let’s get you cleaned up.” David grabbed some towels from the kitchen. He wet one and quickly wiped the infected’s blood off my arm, drying me with the second.

“That stuff really stings.” I bit my bottom lip while David wiped the blood away.

“Yeah, it does. I think I got all it off.” David threw the towels on the floor. “We can’t stay here, Eva. If this group found the PODs, there’ll be others. We have to move.”

We raced up the emergency ladder toward the hatch leading outside. David reached up to push it open; I laid my hand on his arm. He looked at me, raising an eyebrow.

“Are you sure?”

“No,” he said with a crooked grin.

“Well, that makes me feel better,” I said, letting my hand fall from his arm.

He started to lift the hatch. “Wait!” I whispered.

“What?”

“Kiss me,” I said, looking in his silvery-gray eyes.

His hand fell from the hatch and threaded through my hair, pulling my head gently back. He angled his mouth over mine and grazed my lips with his. I moaned when his tongue dipped between my lips, caressing mine. He lifted his head too soon and studied my face so long I felt a blush creep across it.

“My beautiful Evangelina.”

I smiled and kissed him in answer. If we opened the hatch and found another group of infected waiting, I wanted the last thing I remembered to be the feel of David’s lips against mine, his hands on my body.

Pulling my mouth from his, I smiled up at him. “Ready.”

“I’ll go up first. If there are any infected, you close and lock the hatch behind me.”

“No.”

“Hell’s bells, Eva!”

“If there are infected up there, you know as well as I do that they’ll wait for me to surface. I can’t stay down here indefinitely, David. We go up together.”

“Another camp might move through. You could join up with them.”

“They’d never make it through. You know that. We go up together.”

“You’re so stubborn,” he huffed.

He pushed the hatch open, the hinges groaning in protest. It hit the ground hard. Sand billowed around us, smacking us in the face and cutting off our vision.

The dust cloud began to clear and I saw feet standing just yards from the hatch. I listened for the groans and growls of the infected, and braced myself for their attack.

As the dust cloud rose above the people, I gasped. David and I slowly raised our hands above our heads. The two dozen ominous black barrels aimed at our heads were even scarier than the infected I’d expected to see.

“Lower your weapons,” a man’s voice boomed through a megaphone.

We watched the men dressed in military fatigues slowly lower the guns.

“Step out of the POD,” Megaphone Man ordered.

David and I slowly climbed out of the hatch. Three soldiers rushed forward, pushing us to our knees.

“Open your mouth,” one yelled.

Shaking, I opened my mouth, careful to show my gums. I saw David do the same.

“They’re clean,” one of the soldiers called out.

“Of course they are, you idiot. Look at her arm. It’s bleeding all over the place. If he was infected, he’d have gnawed it off by now,” another soldier called out, motioning toward David.

“Where are the group of infected we saw enter the POD, the ones we’ve been tracking?”

“Crushed in a sub-POD corridor,” David said.

“You were able to take down more than a dozen infected by yourselves?”

“Well, they weren’t the smartest kids in class. It was easy to trick them,” I said, wrapping my arms around myself to cover the fact that I was standing in the middle of the desert, in nothing but my bra and jeans, with an army looking at me. David held out an arm and pushed me gently behind him.

The soldier closest to me pursed his lips to hide a grin.

“Let’s go. Load them in the back of the truck.”

“Here.” A soldier threw a shirt at David, who caught it one-handed. “Figure she’ll want that.”

“Thanks.” David turned and held it while I slipped my arms in; he then pulled it gently over my head before kissing my forehead gently.

“Let’s go!” Megaphone Man yelled, breaking the moment.

“Where are we going?” I asked the soldier—the name on his chest read “Perkins”—when he helped me into the back of the truck. While a medic cleaned and wrapped my arm in a bandage, Perkins handed David an extra shirt to wear.

“The compound. You’ll receive your inoculation and do some time in quarantine.”

“Inoculation?” David and I asked in unison.

“Yeah. Haven’t you heard? There’s an immunization. As long as a person gets it before they’re infected, they’re good to go.”

I looked up at David. The billowing sand stuck to his face and hair. He smiled at me, his white teeth gleaming against his dirty face.

“We made it,” he whispered.

The bumps and ruts in the road made the truck lurch. I slid from one side of the bench to the other, bumping into David and the guy sitting next to me.

We drove for hours. The heat in the back of the truck was stifling. Sweat covered my face and dripped from my hair. The shirt Perkins had given me stuck to my back.

When we finally pulled up to the compound gates, I was exhausted. I was actually looking forward to the cool quarantine room.

A soldier opened the back of the vehicle. “Welcome to Area Twenty-Three, Sector Two.”

“Home sweet home,” I whispered.

We were herded through the back entrance of the clinic, past the same green dumpster I’d seen the last time I’d been quarantined. It still reeked of rotting food, and flies and bees buzzed around it.

We were silent as we followed the soldiers through the door of the clinic. The metal door swung shut with a loud clang. We stood at the same sign-in desk that I had seen so many weeks before. But the same girl wasn’t sitting behind it.

“George!”

“Hey ya, Eva. Back for more?”

“Yeah, I couldn’t stay away.”

“Hey, man,” George said to David. “Glad to see you’re safe.”

“Hey, George.”

“Okay, let’s get you guys showered off and into your rooms.”

David followed George to his sanitizing shower, and I followed a young female nurse to mine. The cold water felt good after the long, hot truck ride. I didn’t even mind the stinging spray or foam disinfectant that poured over me.

After the shower I dressed in the standard white pajama bottoms and t-shirt. A young doctor stitched the cut on my arm before I followed the nurse to get the required immunizations. No one had mentioned that the inoculation wasn’t one shot, but three. Like most people, I still didn’t much like getting shots. But I’d never been more happy feeling the needles break my skin and slide inside, pushing in the serum that would protect me—and those around me—from the brain-altering virus that had claimed so many.

After the immunizations were administered, the nurse told me all the possible side effects and complications that might arise, which included nausea, vomiting, bleeding gums, diarrhea and debilitating headaches.

Sounds like a bucketload of fun
.

I followed the young nurse into the hall of quarantine rooms and saw George standing next to an empty room.

“Here you go, Eva. Your master suite.”

“Gee, thanks, George. How long do I have the pleasure of staying at the Hotel Quarantine?”

“Six weeks.”

I groaned.

“But I think I have something that may cheer you up.” George pointed to the room next to mine.

“David,” I whispered, placing my hand against the glass. He placed his over mine on the other side of the glass wall separating us.

“Here. I managed to pilfer these for you two lovebirds.” George handed me a pen and note pad. “The glass is too thick to hear each other without screaming, but you can use those to write love notes back and forth.” He grinned.

“Thank you. Speaking of love notes…?”

His grin widened. “Yeah. I’ve seen Tiffany. She arrived seven weeks ago—just finished her quarantine. And you won’t believe how big Faith has gotten.”

“They’re good?” I asked around a lump in my throat. Hot tears pressed against the backs of my eyes.

“They’re great, Eva. She’ll be waiting to see you when you’re outta here.”

“I can’t wait to see them. What about Katie and the others?” I wiped my tears on the back of my hand. George handed me a tissue.

“Seth is still here. I haven’t heard about anyone else.”

“Miss?” the nurse said, motioning me into the room.

“I’ll stop by when I can,” George said. “Enjoy your stay.” He chuckled as he walked away.

I looked at David through the glass. He was writing something in his notebook. When he’d finished, he held it up to the glass.

I love you.

“I love you, too
, I answered.

Will you marry me?

I stared at the question. He had to ask? I’d risked everything to be with him and he had to ask if I’d spend the rest of my life with him?
What a dolt
.

Yes,
I wrote.
But I want a big diamond. I hear they’re free now, you know.

I watched him laugh. He held his note pad to the window.
Always joking.

I smiled.

Acknowledgements

After writing a novel, editing, revising and rewriting that novel, writing the acknowledgements page should be easy. That isn’t the case, however. While writing is a solitary process, the business of producing a book is a collaborative effort.

First, to my husband, thank you for understanding my need to write and for sharing me with my imaginary friends. Your support, encouragement, and praise have been instrumental. Without your unending support I wouldn’t be able to do what I love. Thank you for being my sounding board. I love you.

To my kids, thank you for helping me remember how to play and visit the wonderful places and people of my imagination. Evan, your monsters, zombies, and weapons are wicked! Thank you for your many ideas and drawings to help me visualize them. Aleigha and Alana, thank you for telling everyone your mommy is a writer. You are the best publicists I could have. In the world of words there will never be enough to express how much the three of you are loved.

To my parents, thank you for teaching me to go after my dreams. Dad, I wish you were here to share this with me. I hope I made you proud. You were a wonderful man and a better dad. I am proud to be your Mac—you’re forever in my heart. Thank you for instilling your work ethic in me. Mom, you’re the best critique partner I could have—brutally honest, but always with enough praise to ease the sting, you’re exactly what I need. I love you both and am so thankful that you are my parents.

Kate Kaynak, it’s hard to find words to express how grateful I am for you. Thank you for taking a chance on me and PODs. You always made me feel as though PODs was as important to you as it was to me. You poured your time and talent into
our
project, making it shine. You are an editor extraordinaire! Warm, thoughtful, and always encouraging, you make working with you a joy. With everything you do, I swear you’re superhuman! It’s been an honor calling you my publisher and editor and I hope I’m blessed enough to work with you again and again in the future. Your dedication, hard work and encouragement have helped so many authors realize their dream of publication. I’m proud to say I’m a Spencer Hill Press author.