CHAPTER SEVEN

After Elle put our watches into the box again, this time with a loop of us laughing and playing ball in the park, a dull sense of dread crept deep into my belly, pulsing a warning we were going too far.

I walked up the path to the front door, when Elle whistled and pointed to the gate.

“What?” I whispered. “Isn’t Landon home?”

“No,” she said. “He’s at work.”

As we slipped through the gate and rounded the backside of his house, I wondered how she’d get inside. My stomach sunk when she motioned to the cat door.

I shook my head. “No way am I going to fit.”

“Sure you will,” she said before getting on all fours. “I do it all the time.”

“All the time?” And before I could finish my statement, she’d disappeared inside.

I followed her lead, sucked in my gut, and shimmied in. Crossing into Landon’s domain, uninvited, sent a quiver down my thighs. This was wrong on so many levels; one, at how angry he’d be, and two, for the mere fact that he was a notorious bad boy. How he ever landed and kept his job at the EA was beyond me.

“What about cameras and bugs?” I whispered in Elle’s ear.

“He doesn’t have any,” she said softly. “Believe me. He doesn’t want the EA to know what he’s up to on a regular basis.”

Girls. Landon’s charm and smile, not to mention his position in the government, was his golden ticket to all the women he wanted.

I glanced around his flat, amazed he kept the place spotless. Bonus points, for you, Mr. Robinson. The scent of garlic lingered in the air. There was something sexy about a guy who could cook. But I refused to like him. I couldn’t like him.

Stop making me like you, Landon!

Elle motioned for me to follow her down the hall. His place was decorated in dark greens and browns, with a splash of red in various places—throw pillows and rug accents. On his wall was a black and white collage of various nature scenes—forest trees, the beach at the ocean, the desert. Pictures were technically paper, so to have them was ostentatious, to say the least.

Elle led me down the hall to a room. I tiptoed over the threshold and my eyes fell on the rumpled sheets of a king-sized bed; Landon’s bed. My mind wandered to the many women he’d most likely been with there, what he’d do to me if I let him. The thought of fooling around made my stomach flip. Did he let the EA listen in? Or did he use his muff over his watch to run a different track, like Elle and I had just done. He did seem like the guy who relished in voyeurs.

Even still, a part of me wanted to sniff his pillow. Painted on the wall opposite his bed was a woman—silhouetted against the sun, with waves crashing over her bare legs. My eyes darted away as my cheeks flushed. Seeing this felt so personal.

Elle laughed. “That’s new.”

I played with my nails, pretending I didn’t find it sexy. “I didn’t know he could paint old school.”

“Well, working for the EA, you get access to stuff normal people don’t… like this.” She lightly dragged her fingers over the shiny sleek screen sitting on his desk and slid into the chair. She pulled her flat screen from her bag and attached a cord before fastening the other end into a port on the computer.

“Password,” the computer asked.

The silver screen of her laptop flickered on and at once, her fingers brushed over the keyboard like lightning.

“What are you doing?” I whispered, reaching to cover my DOD watch that wasn’t there. Wouldn’t the EA be logging keystrokes, or monitoring bandwidth?

“I’m looking for your friend.”

Friend? I bit my lip. Friend wasn’t how I’d classify Blue Eyes, knowing he’d fit the criminal’s description. But his eyes, deep blue and tranquil, had somehow pierced me. It was more like we’d shared a secret. And by telling Elle, I felt I’d betrayed him, and now, especially using the EA top secret computer to investigate him, I’d completely disregarded his trust.

“Stop!” I said quickly.

“What?”

“I don’t want him to get caught. He didn’t do anything, but try to warn me.”

“Where’s your faith in me, A? Don’t you know I can get in and out without a trace?” She winked. “It’s all good.”

Good? None of this was good. First, I had no idea what she was looking for. And second, did she forget we’d be dead if Landon caught us? Maybe this was why my Complement warned me to stay away from Elle.

On her screen, four windows popped up and the movies began rolling. From the differing angles, I watched myself reach to catch the ball, then tumble like a bumbling idiot into the bushes and disappear out of sight. My cheeks burned.

“Can’t we fast forward this part?”

Elle snorted in laughter as she zoomed in on the aerial shot. For the briefest of moments, there was a shadow of something. And of course, no glowing green energy radiated from his wrist to depict he wore an EA issued watch. Only my name shone on the left corner of the screen.

Elle rewound and slowly advanced until we could see his brief appearance on the scene. “Well, he’s definitely off grid, or didn’t want to wear his watch that day.”

“Guess not.” I wanted to tell her he wore older styled clothes of the pre-zombie millennia, but I wasn’t all that confident our conversation wasn’t being recorded by bugs hiding in Landon’s house.

“Let’s see where he goes.” She hit something else and another view clicked on. It looked nothing like the creek bed I’d tumbled into. I frowned, unsure what we were looking at until I noted the camera panned down the rock wall at a dried creek bed.

“Is this inside or outside the wall?”

“Outside.” Her voice was low and dangerous.

I gripped the back of the chair with white knuckles. “Holy crap. Will we see— zombies?”

Elle laughed. “I highly doubt it. I’ve sat here for hours, going through hundreds of hours of footage without a single blip. The EA doesn’t record everything, just shots with movement. But I’ve seen enough bears and other weird creatures for a lifetime, but no walking dead, darn it.”

I stared at the screen, anxious to see where Blue Eyes went. Besides the occasional rustle of a bush from the breeze, or skittering animal, there was nothing. “Why is he taking so long?”

Elle yawned. “Maybe he does live in Brighton?”

“How?” I whispered, exasperated. “They would find him eventually. Especially with those eyes—” that melt my soul and haunt my dreams.

“True.” Elle shrugged and hit the fast forward button. A clump of leaves slowly shimmied like a snake across the ground and out of view.

Elle gasped. “Did you see that?”

“Uh-huh,” I said, afraid to agree with her.

Elle swiveled around and grabbed my arm. “Do you know what this means?”

I gulped and looked at her. A plethora of things zipped through my brain, but the biggest one was that I was right. Blue Eyes had come from the zombie zone and somehow knew about my meeting. Terrified, I nodded.

She kept plunking away, rewinding and fast forwarding through the frames, studying each part. Eventually, she rewound far enough to catch the gun being hit with my grand slam ball. I smiled, amazed at the distance when a quick blur of something large flew past.

“What was that?” I asked.

She rewound and played the clip in slow motion. We watched in silence as a large hairy figure that looked like a bear ambled into the frame and looked up when my grand slam ball hit the gun turret. Then it stood on two legs and ran out of sight. Elle rewound the footage and froze the tape on the body of the hairy man. We both gasped.

“What is that?” I asked, my voice trembling.

“I don’t know,” Elle said, “but it’s definitely not human.”

“Zombie?”

“No… I don’t think so.”

At the same moment, somewhere inside a door slammed.

My heart practically leapt out of my chest. Elle and I stared at one another. Then she scrambled to unplug her flat screen and hit the power button on the computer. I sat gawking, to which she whispered, “Hide!”

Somewhere, the signal to move finally hit my frozen limbs and I clambered to find my things. Unable to think, I headed for the first place of shelter available: Landon’s closet.

In the dark, Landon’s scent overwhelmed me as I shimmied behind his hanging clothes, waiting for Elle to join me. My heart pounded and I instinctively reached for my DOD watch, remembering I’d left it in the car. I knew once I’d put it back on, the spikes in my timeline would tip off the EA for sure.

I peeked through the crack. Where was Elle?

She looked back at me from the bathroom, motioning for me to follow. A woman’s giggle in the hall froze me in panic. Then, in a twisted ball of limbs and moans, Landon and the girl flopped onto the bed. Slobbery kisses punctuated the air and my stomach dropped. I slowly slid the pocket door shut, in disbelief this was happening. Hell, I was in hell.

I smashed my hands to my ears and pressed my eyes shut, trying to block out what I knew they were about to do, when a fluffy, black ball of fur brushed past my leg. I stifled a yelp.

The cat sniffed at the closet door, then to my horror began scratching at the wood. I reached forward and attempted to help kitty escape, when the noises in the room stopped.

“Wait, wait, wait…” the girl said, out of breath. “What’s that?”

“Huh?” Landon said.

The cat scratched at the door again, letting out a soft meow.

“It’s just Charlie. Hold on.”

I heard the bedsprings squeak and the girl’s voice pitch. “It better be. I’m terrified of mice.”

Landon laughed and the closet door opened. I pushed back into the clothes, but couldn’t be hidden from him. Squinting up at him only wearing boxers, I waited, petrified he would haul me out by the scruff of my shirt.

“Oh,” he said, before cracking a mischievous grin. “What do we have here?”

“Is it?” the girl shrieked. “Is it a mouse?”

“It’s small and petrified, that’s for sure.”

“Oh shit!” she shrieked. “I can’t do this, Lanny. Get it out of here. Please!”

He laughed and closed the closet door. “I think I need a broom,” then I heard a loud, “oof.”

“Get off me, Cheryl.”

“No. I refuse to walk on the floor. Take me to the kitchen. Now!”

Landon huffed and grunted, his voice trailing down the hall. Within seconds Cheryl’s tirade of cuss words preceded the slamming of the front door. Scrambling up onto my feet, I lunged for the bathroom. The flutter of the curtains highlighted Elle’s earlier escape. Before I could think, I hurled myself out of the window, practically killing myself in the process, and hobbled to the oleanders.

Peeking between the wooden slats of the fence, I watched Cheryl drive off. Then I snuck down the side of Landon’s driveway and ran across the street towards Elle’s car in the parking lot as she feverishly motioned I hurry. Pulling open the car door, I catapulted myself inside.

“Holy dead walkers,” Elle said, out of breath. “What took you so long?” She tore out of the parking spot, before I could buckle up.

“Wait!” I yelled, hand outstretched, anxious for my DOD watch. “This is going to screw up the GPS and everything.”

“You’re driving too fast and I detect too much stress. Overriding manual drive,” the car said, interrupting our freak out.

“No!” Elle yelled to the car. “Stay in manual.” She hit the steering wheel with the heel of her hand as the car slowed. “Stupid car!”

I piled into the backseat and grabbed both our watches.

“I cannot comply, Eleanor Robinson. Your heart rate is 180 beats per minute. Blood pressure elevated. Take a deep breath. I will drive you once all passengers have seatbelts on. Where to, Eleanor Robinson?”

Elle leaned onto the steering wheel, continuing to argue with the car as I crawled back to the front seat and handed her her DOD watch.

“We have to put these on,” I said, still breathless.

“Fine.” Upon opening the box, an electromagnetic charge was emitted over the watches to create a temporary hiccup while we put them back on.

“Whoa, what was that?” she asked me with a smirk.

“I don’t know.” I acted along, but didn’t think we’d fool whoever could be listening. “So what were you saying?”

“Car. Take us home,” Elle said, then chimed in a, “oh, yeah… crazy coincidence to run into what’s-his-name, huh?” without missing a beat.

I rolled my eyes and collapsed into the seat, wiping sweat from my brow. “I didn’t think he was going to be here, but I guess we were wrong.”

“No big.” Elle’s eyes gleamed. “He never saw us.”

I’d wanted so badly to say he did because the next time I did see him, he wasn’t going to let me live it down.

Just then, Elle’s DOD rang, illuminating the dashboard. She looked at me wide-eyed. “It’s my brother.”

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 559