CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

“What are you doing?” Elle shrieked as she ran to the jail door and tried to lock the mangled piece of metal that wouldn’t hold.

“Saving you,” I said aghast.

“Saving me?” her voice pitched up an octave. “I was safe in here. I could have waited until they came.”

“Who came?”

“The EA!”

I tried not to roll my eyes. Half the staff here most likely had been Vice President Declan’s lunch or his new companions. “Elle, we have to get out of here while we can. I need to find Kaden, too. I don’t know where he is.”

She spun in a circle, then pointed to the dead woman. “Give me her belt.”

“Elle, stop this.”

“Give me her belt!”

I took one look at her mangled corpse and shook my head. “If you want it, you get it.”

“She’s contaminated. I can’t… touch her.”

I sighed, staring at my bloodied hands, wishing I could wash them off. “We’re all contaminated at this point.”

Footsteps sounded from down the hall. Elle grabbed the sheet from her bed and tried to rip off a section. Anxious shrieks kept escaping from her lips as she pulled and then tried to fasten the torn fabric around the door to hold it shut.

I lifted my gun and held it outward towards the zombie approaching.

“Whoa!” Landon held up his hands as soon as he rounded the corner. “Abby? Is that you?”

I blew out a breath and lowered the gun. Then anger coursed through me. “You son of a bitch.” I retrained the gun on Landon.

“Whoa, Abby. It’s okay; it’s me. Landon.”

“I know who you are, you coward. Get the hell out of here!” I demanded.

He blinked at me in shock. “Okay, if that’s what you want. I’ll leave, but not without Elle.”

Elle burst into tears again and I lowered the gun.

“Landon,” she whimpered. “What is going on?”

“I’m here, Elle. It’ll be okay.” He stepped slowly into the cell and Elle ran to embrace him. She cried on his shoulder and pity for him took ahold.

He smoothed her hair. “I never meant for this to happen. They were onto you, and the last thing I wanted was for them to find out what you and Abby were up to, so I hoped if they found you with a muff, they’d just give you a slap on the wrist—but I was wrong.”

He glanced at me and instead of a genuine look of relief; he gave me a sexy up and down that said, “Look at you, all bad ass.” In the past, I would have been weak in the knees over his approval. The new me was pissed. “Some savior you turned out to be.”

“What does that mean?” Landon’s forehead creased.

“Oh let me see…” I placed my hand on my heart. “I think I remember you saying, ‘I’ll monitor you 24-7 and if you so much as remove your DOD, I’ll be all over you…’ or something pathetic like that.”

“I was.”

“No,” I corrected, “You were probably busy doing what’s-her-name while I was being carried off against my will, and my DOD lay smashed to smithereens in front of my house.”

Elle gasped.

“I came immediately, Abby. First on the scene. First to the wall. First to round up a search party. Believe me; whoever took you knew exactly what they were doing. You vanished into thin air.”

I lowered my hand to my side and bit my lip, amazed I’d basically called him a man-whore to his face. He’d come to rescue me? The night flashed through my thoughts. Kaden was pretty amazing when it came to stealthy stuff.

“He’s right,” Elle chimed in.

I swallowed down my joy and centered myself. Landon would need to prove he was on our side. “Okay, then. That doesn’t mean I trust you.”

“That’s fine.” He lead his sister from her cell. “But this place is in lockdown and they’ll have no qualms exterminating us if we don’t get out of here right now.”

“What? No, Landon.” Elle clutched his arm.

“It’s okay, sis. I’ve got it under control.” He held his hand toward me. “Give me the gun.”

I snapped my head up. “No.”

“Abby, this is serious. I need it.”

I let out a gust of air. After what I went through to get it, there wasn’t any way I’d hand it over freely. “Find your own gun.”

“Stop being stubborn. You don’t even know how to use it.” He stepped forward.

I gestured to the bleeding corpse on the ground. “Yeah, I think I do. But I don’t have time to argue.”

“You’ve got somewhere to be?” His eyes crinkled.

“I need to save the guy who eluded you. Got a problem with it?”

I smirked, then moved past him.

“Wait.” He grabbed my wrist. “We should stick together.”

Yanking hard, I pulled my arm away. “Unless you know where Kaden is, you’re on your own.”

My stomach clenched at my bluff. Whatever Landon’s loyalties, I didn’t want him to abandon me, but I didn’t want him to take my gun either.

Landon’s face hardened. “Abby, he’s on the other side of the compound. And they’re going to gas this place any minute. We have to get out.”

“Abby, come with us.” Elle begged.

Her shrill voice annoyed me. She’d wished her entire life to see a zombie and now that they were here, she shriveled up into a pathetic mess.

“I can’t. I’m sorry. I’ll be fine. See you outside.” I turned to run, shaking off my fear. “I’m not leaving without Kaden!”

“You’re so stubborn.” Landon caught up to me with Elle close behind.

I wanted to smack him, and I would have, if we had time to waste.

“The catwalk is this way.” He directed us to the right.

“That’s not part of your protocol,” a voice crackled on Landon’s DOD watch. He quickly clicked it off.

“Who was that?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

The same voice crackled from the speakers overhead. “Lieutenant Robinson, you need to turn your group around and take the exit behind you.”

Landon continued on as if he didn’t hear anything.

“Landon—” the voice started.

“I can’t, Austin,” he said, angered.

“What is going on?” I hissed.

Landon gave me a look of warning before turning the corner. He skidded to a stop. An iron wall blocked the hallway.

“What’s this?” Landon yelled, looking around until he spotted a camera hanging from the ceiling.

“We had to seal it off,” Austin said through the speakers. “We’ll talk about this when you get to the decontamination room.”

“I’m not leaving without Abby and she’s not leaving without the prisoner.”

A heavy sigh filtered from the speakers. “Then leave her.”

Landon gritted his teeth. “That’s a death sentence and you know it.”

I studied walls, looking for a control panel. “You said you had the keys.”

Landon’s chest rose and fell dramatically. “Figuratively, yes.” He glared at the camera. “Come on, Austin. Let me in.”

“No doing, Landon. You’ll thank me later.”

I swallowed down the lump forming in my throat. We didn’t have time for this. Groans and scratching on the other side of the doors momentarily stole my concentration. Without thinking, I aimed at the barrier.

Landon lunged for my hands, but I’d already pulled the trigger. A blast rung out again, deafening me, but I’d missed the doors entirely and hit the wall instead. The floor rattled and like magic, the iron panel slid upward, disappearing into the ceiling.

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 686