“You okay?” he asks.
“I guess… just a lot on my mind. Nothing new really.”
“I hear ya.”
“So what are we going to do about Sutton and Bruno?”
“Well, they’d never turn us in, that I’m sure of. But neither of them are fond of the idea of ‘us’… for good reason. The last thing they want is for us to be executed. Believe it or not, I’m not the only one around who cares about you.” He takes my face in his hand and reassures me. “So outside of these walls, we can’t stand each other.”
“This sucks.”
“Sure does,” he says.
“All right. Give me something to think about that would repulse me. So when I look at you, I can be totally disgusted.”
“Like what?” He contorts his face in confusion.
“I don’t know, anything. Want me to give you one?”
“Nope, I have one in mind already.”
“That’s so not right… It can’t be anything from my—”
“Oh, don’t worry, it’s not. All I have to do is picture you taking a dump, and I’ll be fine,” he says with a sly smile.
I playfully smack his arm. “Ew, seriously! Now that’s just wrong.”
“It works… Try it.”
“No. Come on, think of something else. There’s no way I can be around you if I know you’re thinking about me—”
“See, there you go.” The moonlight glints off his teeth as he smiles wide.
“What?”
“Now you’re disgusted that I’m thinking about you pooping. So it all works out.”
“Oh my God, I give up.” I scoot away and pretend frustration.
“Ha. Good, because we have to go back to the important stuff.”
“As in, Sutton seems to know a lot of stuff,” I say. “He warned me about the order to hunt down Keegan—well, not specifically, but he knew. I know he did.”
“Being that he’s a doctor, he sees and hears a lot from his patients and even the staff. And he might carry some weight with the commander as well, but of course, I don’t really know… just speculation, really.” He reaches up and plays with a lock of my hair, twisting it around his finger. “If he wanted to hurt us, he could’ve by now… so I’m not worried about him.”
“True,” I say. I lean against him and let him cuddle me. My thoughts are muddled from lack of sleep and being on constant overdrive. Zeus lies on my other side and pushes my hand with his nose so I pat his head between yawns.
*
The siren blares us awake, startling Cole. He jumps up and sprints back to his room, willing everything to be normal. Next thing, he has his uniform on, guns strapped into his holsters, and he’s shoving me out the door.
“Let’s go! We have to run today.”
“Why?”
“Bruno needed the Jeep.”
I follow behind him, past the tanks hogging the road and the guards at the checkpoint. The humidity chokes me as I struggle to keep up with his stride. Once in the alleyway, his shoulders relax a little and he turns to speak to me.
“That was edgy…”
“What?”
“The checkpoint. They’re making it permanent. Didn’t you notice the barricade they put up overnight?” he says.
“No.” What I don’t say is that I never look for fear of the guards.
He shakes his head and motions me forward. We cross the crowded street to the hospital and squeeze our way up to the eighth floor since the elevators are broken again.
Nurses breathe hard while lugging stretchers with marked patients up and down the staircase. I duck out of the way when a stretcher tips and an older man with a blue brand tumbles onto the cement stairs. His groaning, coupled with the cursing of those around him, grabs my attention.
I attempt to help, only for Cole to rip me away. His eyes give warning as a troop of guards march up the stairs.
“Move out of their way!” he orders under his breath.
I let the nurses struggle to roll the man’s body back on the stretcher without me. The eighth floor isn’t any better. The halls teem with bodies, nurses, and supplies. Cole signs me in and immediately the nurses beg me to help. By the end of the day, my hair is matted to my forehead from sweat. My slippers smell like upchuck from stepping in puddles of human waste. My knuckles bleed from washing my hands, and my lower back aches. Cole barely recognizes me when he picks me up. It takes him two glances to realize it’s me.
As we push through the exit, Wilson waits with his men. Cole stiffens by my side with his fingers steeled around my bicep.
“There you are!” Wilson says with a smirk. “I was beginning to wonder if we missed you.”
Cole salutes. The hair on my neck stands up with fear.
“She’s coming with me,” Wilson says to him.
Instantly, my body responds to his words and I start shaking uncontrollably. Cole releases his grip on my arm and steps in between Wilson and me.
“Sir?” Cole says. “My orders are—”
“To go back to your quarters and wait.”