Find Me (Life After the Outbreak, Book 2) (6 page)

Janet snorted. “Like you handled it when you popped Donna in the mouth?”

I looked up at her and smirked. “It was a nice shot though, wasn’t it?”

Janet and I both laughed at the same time.
 

Hadley noticed us walking out of the supply shack and waved.

“What about her?” Janet nodded her head in the direction of Hadley.

“What about her?”

“She seems to like you. You hang out with her?”

“Not really, but she keeps asking me to come by and check out her collections.”

“Why haven’t you?” Janet locked up the shack and glanced back in Hadley’s direction.
 
“Everyone needs friends, Andi.”

I clamped both hands together over my heart with dramatic flair “You mean you’re not my friend? I’m wounded.”

Janet rolled her eyes. “Even though most days I’d like to staple you to a wall, douse you with gasoline, and set you on fire, yes, I’m your friend. Which also means if some bitch is giving you a hard time, you can come to me. There are other ways to deal with bullies than calling them out on it.”

“Such as?”

Janet smiled. “I’m the one who decides how much work they do around here, remember?”

I nudged her in the side with my elbow. “Janet, I like the way you think.”

Hadley skipped her way over and stopped a few feet away, twirling a dandelion back and forth between her fingers.
 

“Don’t be late for our one-on-one session.” Janet nodded a hello to Hadley, and left in the direction of the dining hall.
 

Hadley’s mouth curved up into a huge grin, and she took a few steps toward me. “Hello, Andi. Would you like to have lunch together today?”

“Sure.”

“Oh, most wonderful.” She swung her satchel around and opened it to reveal some sandwiches wrapped in napkins and fresh fruit.

“Is that a banana?” I pushed the sandwiches aside to get a better look. “And grapes?”

“Hadley beamed. “It most certainly is.”

“How did you get that? Is that what they’re serving for lunch?” Fresh fruit was rare and at the base. There were too many mouths to feed to ever have enough of anything that good.

Hadley laughed and shook her head.
 
“Oh, no. Most definitely not. This is a special treat.” She held out her arm for me to take. “Shall we go find an enjoyable spot to dine?”

Oh, what the hell.

I shrugged, looped my arm into Hadley’s, and went to find a place for lunch. It would be good not to sit alone in the dining hall for a change. Even when Will wasn’t gone, he often had to work and ended up taking lunch with his squad later in the day, so most days, I ate alone.

We found a nice spot toward the bottom of the hill where Hadley often sat during the mornings. She never seemed to do anything out there, but she spent a lot of time just sitting in the grass. Sometimes people would stop by and talk to her for a few minutes, but no one ever stayed long. It didn’t seem like she had many friends, either.
 

“So Hadley, how did you get this food?”

“I did someone a favor. When is Will due back from his mission? I hear that he is gone quite often.” She pulled out one of the sandwiches and handed it to me with a clump of the grapes.

“He should have already been back a couple days ago.”

She set her food down on the grass and carefully unwrapped the napkin. “Are you not worried?”

“I’m definitely worried, but there’s not much I can do about it.” Inside the napkin was a turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce and stuffing, dripping with gravy. It was like a thanksgiving meal between two thick slices of bread. My mouth watered at the sight of it. I opened my mouth wide and took a huge bite. “Mmmm.”

Hadley smiled and took a small nibble from her sandwich. “I am glad that you are enjoying the food. You deserve a good meal after working so hard.”

Hadley continued to nibble at her sandwich while I stuffed enormous bites of deliciousness into my mouth, not able to get enough. My stomach ached as I forced the last bit down my throat. It was the best meal I’d had in longer than I could remember.
 

“That was amazing, Hadley. Thank you so much.” I laid back in the grass and looked up at the clouds floating by. It was almost like everything was normal again. Just two girls hanging out and having some lunch.
 

“You are very welcome, Andi. Would you like the rest of mine?”

I groaned. “My stomach will explode.” But if I could have fit it, I would have gladly accepted.

Hadley giggled a little. “Let us hope not.”

The lunch bell blurted its double ring, signaling the end of lunch. I had no more than ten minutes to meet Janet for our one-on-one session, and my over indulgence during lunch left me ready for a nap. I was going to pay the price for my gluttony, but it was so worth every bite.

“I better get going, Hadley. Again, thanks for the awesome food.”

“You will come and visit with me soon?” Hadley jumped to her feet and brushed grass from her skirt.
 

“Yeah. Maybe tomorrow when I don’t have training, if that’s okay?”

Hadley clapped her hands together and bounced up and down. “Yes, that will be most wonderful!”

I cleaned up my lunch trash and left Hadley to finish. By the time I got up the hill with my overfull stomach, my feet were dragging, and Janet was standing with her hand on her hip giving me an impatient look. I knew it was going to be a long day.

“Let’s get a move on, Andi.”

“Sorry, Janet. I might need a few minutes to digest. Hadley gave me the most amazing sandwich. You wouldn’t believe what she—”

“Are you kidding me? You’re struggling up the hill like a sloth because you ate too much?”

“Hey, you encouraged me to hang out with her.”

“I didn’t tell you to make a pig out of yourself. We have work to do.”

“I know. I’m really sorry, but if you saw that sandwich. It was like a thanksgiving feast.”

Janet rolled her eyes. “I hope you don’t think I’m going easy on you.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” I blew her a kiss and dropped my gear to get ready. “Any news on Will?”

Janet shook her head. “Try not to worry. I’m sure he’s fine. You need to focus on training right now.” She pulled out the sparring gear, and I knew I was in trouble. No matter how much training I did, I was never going to be a match for Janet. Especially not with a half pound of turkey sloshing around in my stomach. “Ready?” She tossed me some headgear, and I knew it didn’t matter if I was or not. I was getting my ass kicked.
 

Three hours later, I was face first in the grass, panting, and begging Janet to release my arm from behind my back. I managed to only puke up half of the turkey sandwich, but it was still worth every bite. Somehow I made it through my time at the infirmary and back to my room before I collapsed from exhaustion. At least it kept me from worrying about Will too much, but that didn’t stop the nightmares. I was grateful to have the next day off from training so I could sleep in and recover from the day.
 

"Three days, Will. You were supposed to be gone
one
." My arms slid around his neck and held tightly.
 

"I'm really sorry. We got cut off and had to take a much longer route to be safe. We lost Dave." His eyes dropped.

Will always took it hard when someone on his team didn't make it. "I'm so sorry. Is Dave the one with the new baby?"

"No. That's Mark. Dave was the redhead." He pulled away and sat down on the bed.

I sat down next to him and leaned my head against his arm. "I was really worried about you."

He put his arm around me and nuzzled his face into my hair. "I know. Things will be different soon."

I was trying to find the right moment to have a real conversation with him about our future and possibly leaving the base, but the time never seemed right. Or he didn’t want to discuss it.
 

I started to open my mouth, figuring there was never going to be a better time anyway, when he caught me off guard.

He turned, put his hands around my hips, and lifted me onto his lap. "Now show me how much you missed me."

Will's waiting lips took precedence over talking, and just about anything else for that matter. I brought my mouth down on his, hard and needy. All the stress and worry over the last three days without him bubbled to the surface. My hands came up to his hair and tangled in his silky strands.
 

He pulled me closer, taking my frenzied assault with matched desperation, as if the kiss could wipe away everything bad from the past three days. We separated only when the need to breathe refused to be ignored. Both of us sat panting and stared into each other's eyes.

Finally catching his breath, Will was the first to break the silence. "That was a long three days without you." His voice was a low growl.
 

He looked at me in that way that was becoming common after we kissed. We both knew where things were heading, but neither of us took the leap to take it further.
 

I hopped off his lap and went to put my training gear in the small closet we shared.

Will came up behind me and rested his hand on my shoulder. "Andi …”

"So, you're back for a while, then?" I pretended to rearrange a few things that were perfectly fine where they had been.

He took my wrist and gently pulled me around to face him. "You're changing the subject."

"What subject?"

"You know exactly what subject." He pulled me against him. His eyes bore into me, seeing down to my core.

"Will … I—“

He pushed my overgrown bangs away from my eyes. "Baby, I don't want to push you into something you're not ready for, but I do think we need to at least talk about it."

He was right. We did need to talk about it, but every time I opened my mouth to try, I froze.
 

"I think we should leave." I blurted out the words and waited for his brain to catch up with what I said.

He furrowed his eyebrows and loosened his hold on me. "Okay, that’s so not what I thought we were talking about."

I pulled away from him and went to sit on the dresser across the room. "I was … thinking, that maybe it's time for us to … uh, leave."

"Andi, you were the one who wanted to stay. Actually, you begged me to stay. You said it would be good for us to try living in a community, that we could have a normal life."

"I know I did, but maybe it wasn't the right choice."

He walked over and stood in front of me. "Did something happen?"

“No, Will. Nothing happened."
 

"This isn't the kind of decision you make impulsively."

"It's not impulsive."

"Andi, you are the most impulsive person I've ever met. We can't just risk our lives on a whim."

I turned to glare at him. "I didn't just come up with this now, Will. I’ve been trying to talk to you about this for the last two weeks"

He took a deep breath and sat down on the bed. "Okay. If you've been thinking about it, you must have reasons for wanting to go."

"It's hard to explain. This place … something just doesn't feel right about it." I shook my head, not having the words I needed to explain how I felt.

"Babe, I know it's been difficult for you here. Janet has been kicking your ass in training, and you haven't made many friends but maybe if you just give it awhile, things will get better."

I sighed. He wasn't getting it. "It's not that, Will. Janet hasn't been a problem. She's taught me a lot and I'm grateful to her. And I have made friends.” As long as Jack and Hadley counted. “It’s just … I mean … I’m not sure we can trust everything here. I’ve heard rumors about weird things happening, and …”

Will dropped his face into his hands and scrubbed over it a few times. "Okay, but we really haven't been given a reason
not
to trust anyone here. Have we?"

"Well, no, but—"

"Then, maybe we should give it a chance, like
you
told
me
when we got here." He looked up at me wearily. I could tell he was too tired and emotionally drained from the trip to be having that conversation.

"Wait, actually, yes. I was talking to Jack—"

"Who's Jack?"

"The old guy at the infirmary I told you about."

"Okay." He moved back on the bed and settled in for the rest of the story.

"Jack told me they are doing human experiments in the lab over on the north end of the compound."

"And how does he know?" Will looked more amused than anything.

"He was there. He said he could hear the screaming. Will, this is serious. They did experiments on him too."

Will sat up and leaned forward toward me. "Why is Jack in the clinic? Is it possibly for mental health reasons?"

"He has an infection. Will, this isn't a joke. Did you know that if you get bit on your arm or leg, cutting off the limb right away can stop the virus from spreading? That's what Jack did. Hacking his leg off saved him. He lived through a bite, Will. He actually survived. They know this, and aren't telling people."

"How do you know that's what happened?"

"Are you serious? Why would he lie?" I couldn't believe he wasn't taking this seriously.

"I don't know, to impress a pretty girl?"

"Don't be stupid. He's like seventy-five years old. He isn't just making up stories."

"Ah, well that explains it."

"No, it doesn't. He's not senile, or crazy, or making up fantasies. I believe him, Will. That should be enough for you too."

Will sighed. "You're right. I'm sorry. If that really worked, why would they keep it from us?"

"I don't know. Jack said they told him it only worked about twenty percent of the time, but still, that's an awful lot of lives that could be saved. He said they threatened him to keep quiet."

"I don't know, Andi. It all sounds like some crazy conspiracy garbage. What makes you believe this guy?"

"I talked to him. I saw the way he looked when he told the story, Will. He wasn't lying. And, he's not the only one who thinks weird stuff is going on in that lab. People talk about stuff that goes on in that place. Are you telling me you never heard anything?"