The Truth is Contagious (The Contagium Series Book 4) (9 page)

Hayden moved a few paces away and picked up a
stick and came back over and poked at the bag full of human
remains. Liquid swished around. We both gagged at the smell.

“Yeah…don’t need to see it to know that the
crazies are keeping snacks for later.” Hayden dropped the stick and
covered his nose with his arm. “What the hell are they doing,
making a nest like this?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t like it.” I
shuddered. I pulled my shoulders back and blew a loose strand of
hair out of my face.

“Grouping together…carrying weapons…nesting.”
I shook my head. “Are they getting smarter?” Hayden asked.

“They have to be.”

We hurried away from the merry-go-round,
taking shelter behind what was left of a food stand. Hayden wiped
sweat from his face and leaned against the rotting wood. Though he
would never admit it, I knew he was in pain. I put the end of the
arrow against the bow string, took a breath, and leaned forward,
looking out at the theme park.

The rusty remains of a roller coaster were
behind us. Tall, browning grass grew through cracks in the pavement
and dilapidated buildings surrounded the section of the park.

Something moved inside the nearest one. I
ducked back, out of sight. I looked at Hayden, silently telling him
that we weren’t alone. He put his finger over the trigger and
nodded.

“On three,” he mouthed.
One
. I strung
the arrow.
Two
. I pulled the string back.
Three
.
Together, we jumped around the corner. The crazy from inside the
building burst through the door. He screamed and charged at us,
holding a broken board above his head.

My arrow hit him in the shoulder. Completely
unfazed, he kept running. When Hayden didn’t fire, I knew he was
waiting for me to grab another arrow so we could avoid the very
loud gunshot that would give away our location.

Then another crazy appeared out of nowhere.
He barreled down the pavement, spitting and growling and was joined
by two others. All three ran toward us, eyes set on a kill. Hayden
had no choice but to fire.

As soon as we took down those four, Hayden
and I sprinted down the lot. We passed the first building, which
was an old restaurant. A crazy inside lunged forward, banging on
the dust covered glass windows of a gift shop. I turned, reaching
behind me for an arrow at the same time.

Her eyes met mine. The vividness of the green
struck me, brought out by the bright red blood that covered her
face. Her teeth pulled back in a snarling smile, taunting, as if
she knew she would rip me to shreds.

“Riss, look out!” Hayden yelled and reached
for me.

But he was a second too late. I whipped my
head around just in time to see the trip wire. I tried to jump over
it but didn’t make it. The bow flew from my hands and I fell. The
heels of my palms bit into the pavement, and I caught myself just
inches before my chin hit the hard ground.

Reeling in pain, I pushed up onto my knees.
Hayden rushed over, swinging the rifle back around. He grabbed me
under the arms. The crazy girl from inside the shop laughed. I put
my hands on Hayden’s arms and stood as he pulled me to my feet.

The girl was in the lot with us…as well as a
dozen of her friends. Hayden held onto me as I stepped over the
wire. Where was my bow? I knew I had dropped it. My heart pounded
and the muscles in my legs ached. We needed to run. We needed to
get the hell out of here as fast as we possibly could.

Hayden jumped forward but I didn’t move just
yet. I needed the bow. Without it, I only had the knife and a gun
with limited ammo.

“Leave it!” he shouted over the growling. The
crazies were inching toward us. He swung the rifle around and
started firing. “Riss, come on!”

The bow was several feet away. I hesitated
for a second and then dove for it. My fingers wrapped around the
grip. And a crazy took a swing at me. I leaned back and he
missed.

I brought the bow up hard, hitting him under
the chin. Pain did nothing to hinder his attack. He curled his
fingers into fists and let out a harrowing growl. The gun fired and
he fell.

“Orissa!” Hayden yelled. “Now!”

I turned on my heel and sprinted away. As
soon as I was by his side Hayden picked up the pace. Another crazy
stood in the entrance to another ruined building that was labeled
the Honey House. She was young, with once pretty curls and big,
blue eyes.

She hissed when she caught sight of us.
Hunched over with fresh blood streaming down her front, the crazy
girl turned away, hiding her stomach—one that she had plucked from
a dead or infected body—from view as if she was afraid we would
take it.

“This way,” Hayden called and dodged off the
pavement and back into the weeds. Sweat dripped down my back. We
pressed on, racing through the overgrown grass. A patchy area of
trees was several yards in front of us. I stole a glance behind me.
The crazies were still on our ass and growing in number.

We had to get to the truck. That was the only
way out of this. Hayden and I were in excellent shape, but we were
human, after all. Noninfected, healthy humans. We would get tired
and winded. Would the crazies?

They had to! They fucking had to. They might
not feel it, but their bodies would react to the physical exertion
on this hot day. Maybe they would just collapse. It would make for
an easy kill.

The weeds gave way to the trees. Once we were
in, we would be out of sight of the crazies. It could give us a few
yards advantage…I hoped. If not—no, I wasn’t going to think about
it. Getting caught by crazies would be worse than zombies. Zombies
ate you—all of you. You’d be ripped apart and dead in seconds.
Crazies, on the other hand, liked organs and other meat. You’d stay
alive and feel every bit of agony as they shoved their hands into
your abdomen.

I jumped over a dead tree. Prickers caught on
the thighs of my jeans. They ripped off, tearing into my flesh
before I even realized they were there. I didn’t have time to let
the pain register. We had to keep moving. Underbrush loudly
crunched under our feet as we tore through the trees.

Suddenly, I skidded to a stop. Hayden halted
next to me. Panting, we looked at each other, then at the old
broken down train. The engine was separated from the open passenger
cars. Spiderwebs and moss wove along the rusted metal bars and the
smell of animal droppings was heavy in the air. Taking a deep
breath, I took off again, going down and around the train. I had
just pushed into a run when the air left me.

The zombie’s head was down. Crusty black
curls hung in her face. The long dress she had on at the time of
death was tattered and filthy. Something mental jangled with every
shaky step.

A low moan escaped her when she heard the
crashing of trees and leaves as Hayden and I came to an abrupt
stop. Her movements were jerky and it seemed to take all of her
remaining energy to lift her drooping head. Half of her face was
gone, eaten away by the maggots that crawled and wriggled around
her empty eye socket. Her jaw hung loose, and her tongue flopped
out of her mouth.

I didn’t consider gummies much of a threat.
They were too far gone, too slow to get you in situations like
this. But she wasn’t alone.

I snapped my head up. My eyes widened.
Zombies staggered through the trees. Heart racing, I grabbed an
arrow without even thinking about it. Then it hit me. Hayden and I
were stuck in between two herds: zombies and crazies.

I whipped around to Hayden. I didn’t have to
say anything. His wide eyes and blank face said it all. We were
royally fucked.

* * *

I curled my fingers around the arrow and
struggled to take in air.

One of the zombies let out a gargling growl.
His rotting arms were held out in front of him. Not yet in the
gummy stage, he was able to quicken his pace when he saw us. His
increase in speed caught the others’ attention and the whole herd
hurried to us.

A crazy climbed through the train, jumping
over benches. I backed away, breathing hard. Hayden flicked his
eyes at me and swallowed. I moved my head up and down. Then we
started running, following the tracks of the train ride. It would
lead back into the theme park eventually, but for right now it was
the only direction we could go without running into infected human
beings who wanted to kill and eat us.

When the tracks started to curve back into
the park, we kept going straight, running for our lives.

A zombie, separated from the herd, stumbled
toward us. Its body had been burned. Charred flesh flaked off,
revealing rotting muscle underneath.

His teeth clicked together as he chomped the
air. I slowed, tightening my grip on the arrow. It pushed into his
head with ease. I yanked it back and kept going.

The sight of the road was beautiful. Hayden
and I stopped, panting. I put my hands on my knees and took a
breath before standing and pushing my shoulders back. I slowly
walked forward.

“I have no fucking clue where we are,” Hayden
said, his voice breathy.

I closed my eyes for a second, remembering
the position of the sun when we stepped out of the truck. I pointed
to my left. “We have to go this way. I don’t know how far.”

Hayden nodded. “Let’s not waste any time.” He
took a deep breath and pushed into a jog. We didn’t stop until the
truck came into view.

“Hello, beautiful,” Hayden breathed and dug
the keys from his pocket. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?”

For the first time I couldn’t fault Hayden
for being so happy to see his truck, since I wanted to hug it
too.

* * *

“You’re late,” Raeya said and leaned against
the frame of the open door. Hannah and Ivan stood beside her.
Hannah crossed her arms, trying to glower at her brother, but I
could see the relief on her face.

“We ran into a few complications,” I sighed
and trudged toward the front of the compound. It was nearing
midnight. After narrowly escaping the crazies, Hayden and I put
several miles between us and the amusement park before we felt safe
enough to get out and try hunting again. And then it took the rest
of the day to bag two deer.

“You could have let us know,” Raeya said and
pushed off the door frame.

“And how would we have done that?” Hayden
asked and shrugged off the rifle. He sounded as tired as I felt.
Hannah pushed past Raeya and flung her arms around him.

Raeya crossed her arms. “I don’t know,” she
said and shook her head causing her thick brown hair to fall out of
place. She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes, doing her best to
look angry. “But that’s two nights in a row you made us worry about
you,” she added pointedly. “At least you’re home.” She stepped
forward, opening her arms for a hug.

I put the bow and quiver down and moved in to
embrace her. Raeya wrinkled her nose and jumped back.

“Ew, Rissy. You’re absolutely
disgusting!”

“You are always covered in blood, Penwell.”
Ivan smiled, flashing perfectly straight white teeth. His eyes
darted to Hayden. “You too, Underwood.”

Hannah dropped her arms when she realized
Hayden was dirty. She made a face and stepped back. “Just when I’m
finally clean for the first time in months you have to go and get
me dirty.”

“Uh, you hugged me,” Hayden sighed.

Hannah shook her head. “So typical. What
happened?”

Hayden held up his left arm. “Riss shot
me.”

I turned, scowling at him. “Thanks.”

He shrugged. “Well, you did.”

“Do I want to ask?” Raeya said and held the
door open for us to come through. She closed it, checking the locks
twice.

“She didn’t mean to,” Hayden explained. “So
I’ll let her off easy. This time.” He smiled at me. Even with dirt
smeared on his cheek and splatters of blood dotting his face,
Hayden could be charming when he wanted.

We stopped in the foyer where Hayden and I
shrugged off our weapons, leaving them with the A3 who was on duty
that night. Everything needed to be disinfected before it went back
into the weapons room. I told him about the two dead deer in the
bed of the truck. I wasn’t the only one who knew how to skin and
gut a deer, but I was one of the few who was able to go outside,
especially in the dark. I internally cringed. Tonight was going to
be a long ass night.

“You said you ran into complications. What
kind of complications are we talking about?” Ivan asked
quietly.

I raised my eyebrows and shook my head. “I
would say you wouldn’t believe me if I told you, but at this point
I think anything is fair game.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Oh yeah.” I took a deep breath and flicked
my eyes to Hannah. Ivan gave me a small nod, understanding my
silent request to wait until she was gone to talk freely about what
had just happened.

“Hannah,” Hayden began, also wanting to talk
to Ivan without his sister around. “It’s been a really long
day—”

“No!” she interrupted. “I’m not stupid, Hay.”
She leaned away from him. “And I’m not going to my room. You might
be the boss of this place, but you’re not the boss of me.”

The color drained from Raeya’s face. She
blinked and smiled. I narrowed my eyes. That girl was covering
something up.

“I’m not the boss of this place,” Hayden
said. “Not really anyway.” He scratched his face. Dried blood had a
tendency to make you itchy. “But I
do
have something
important to discuss, ok? Go downstairs.”

“No.” Hannah crossed her arms.

I could feel the annoyance rising in me. I
pushed it down, reminding myself that she was Hayden’s baby
sister.

“Hannah,” Hayden said, rubbing his eyes.
“Please?”

Her face softened when she caught the
desperation in his voice. She let out a breath. “Should I be
worried?”