Thicker Than Blood (Thicker Than Blood #1)(13)
And then I was out the door and into the night, the cool fall air a welcome balm on my overheated skin. A slim pair of arms wrapped around my neck, a familiar scent enveloped me, and I let out an exhale filled with hope.
Until I saw the two dead bodies lying next to the Dumpster.
Evelyn squeezed me tightly, kissing my hair and cheeks. “It’s going to be okay, Lei, I promise.”
“One minute!” Jami hissed before pulling Evelyn off me. “We have to go now!”
With a final worried look from Evelyn, they took off running, and then Alex grabbed my hand, ripping me free once again of my dark thoughts and crippling fear.
We ran like the wind, like bats out of hell, toward the west end wall, toward our freedom, with only thirty seconds left before our escape would be discovered.
Chapter Six
Evelyn
If this had been a movie, an alarm would have been sounding right about now, blaring obnoxiously to let everyone know that something was wrong, that someone was trying to get out. Or worse, someone was trying to get in. Right then, I would have welcomed such a sound; at least then we’d know whether our impromptu escape had been noticed or not.
But in our world, such a noise was dangerous. A noise so loud would draw any and all infected from miles around straight to our walls. Insipid creatures with a one-track mind, hell-bent on tearing into anything and everything, but once they had a target, their one-track minds became even more deadly.
Jami glanced down at his watch, then looked at me. “Game time,” he whispered, his words half lost to the wind as we continued to run.
The next guard shift was due to report. Any second now they would discover the bodies, discover that Leisel was missing, and soon we’d be apprehended and probably executed on the spot. That thought alone drove me faster, pushed me to run as fast and as hard as my body would allow.
At the far end of our community was a path that split both left and right, and when we reached it, we looped to the left and around the back of the houses. Weaving between gardens, hopping over skillfully trimmed bushes, we passed blooming rosebushes, bright hanging baskets, and lawns with neatly cut grass.
As if we were trapped in some crazy over-pruned oriental garden maze, we ran to the left one second and then to the right the next. Finally, we left the housing district behind us and headed directly into the farming and cooking quarter. Above us, tree branches hung heavy with ripe fruit, and at our feet were row after row of fresh vegetables.
It was all so picture perfect and proper, as if we were part of one big happy Brady Bunch family. But it was nothing more than a facade. Sure, the fruit was juicy and the vegetables ripe, but there was no soul. So pretty on the outside, yet inside everything had died long ago and since rotted to nothing.
A noise sounded off in the distance, something I belatedly realized was men yelling. I glanced to Jami with fear in my eyes, but he was already tugging harder on my hand, urging me to run faster.
The food warehouses were on the opposite side of the road we were on, and as we approached them, Jami pulled me to a stop. Panting heavily, I glanced back the way we’d come, watching as the dark silhouettes of Leisel and Alex closed in fast. Her hair was flying out behind her, her pale face a beacon to me, something to cling to in the midst of this insanity. Pulling her to a stop alongside Jami and me, Alex released her. She came crashing into me, and I crushed her body to mine.
Leisel’s shoulders shuddered as she cried softly against my neck, her anguish painful to me as well. I held her against me for a moment, whispering reassuring things into her ear, promising her safety, promising her out of this nightmare, until eventually she calmed.
As she looked into my eyes, her own glistening with tears, I pressed a hard kiss to her lips. “We’ll be fine,” I said firmly, keeping our gazes locked. She tried to turn her head, to look away, to hide inside herself like she often did, but I refused to allow it, holding tight to both her body and her gaze. “Do you believe me?”
She said nothing, only nodded once, her chin trembling.
“Lei, I promise you.” Pushing her dark hair away from her face, I pressed another kiss to her forehead. “I promise you,” I whispered, pulling her in for another fierce hug.
Several more seconds passed while we caught our breath, trying to calm our nerves. I could no longer hear the shouts of the guards, and I had to believe that they’d moved away from us, instead of closer.
Finally relenting, I allowed Leisel to leave my arms. Pulling away, she lifted her hand, showing me her gun. Smiling, I showed her mine. It was almost exactly like hers, though I carried mine with more confidence. Before the infection, I’d loved going shooting at the local gun range. Even though it had been a while since I’d practiced, I hadn’t forgotten the basics.
“Eve.” Jami beckoned me toward him, gesturing at Alex to move toward Leisel, which he did immediately. Taking a moment, I watched as Alex sidled up beside her, his body language fiercely protective, and I marveled at how neither Leisel nor I had ever noticed the way he looked at her, the sheer intensity of it.
He was incredibly quiet, sometimes to the point of infuriating, yet the way he’d always stared at her, those deep brown eyes of his seeing all of her. She was blind to it—to him, hell, to anyone. She’d had enough of men to last her a lifetime, and she simply didn’t care anymore.
But then there was Alex, and the number of times he’d had to escort her to the clinic for treatment, some humiliating and some just damn painful. Other than the staff at the clinic and me, only Alex had seen most of the horrors Lawrence had put her through; only he knew the full extent of her pain.