I turned and found her in the spot she’d occupied for the past several hours. Her skin was pale—too pale—and her body shaky. Her eyes were glazed, as if she were in tremendous pain.
“Kat,” Reeve said, concerned.
“I look terrible, I know. I got myself a set of bad kidneys. Sorry I never told you.”
“What?” Reeve rushed to her side.
“What can I do?” I asked.
“I’m okay,” she assured me. “Really. I’m just so hungry I’m considering having Paula Deen tattooed on my stomach when this is all over. She makes these scallop sliders I’d stab my dad to have.”
She needed dialysis, like, now, and I knew it. From this point on, she was only going to get worse. And with kidneys, there was no recovering from the damage. I’d checked.
“This is my fault,” Reeve said with a trembling chin. “I never should have trusted Ethan.”
“We all made mistakes,” Kat said, and with a confident smile added, “But Frosty will come. He’ll save the day. He won’t let anything happen to me. Or us. Mostly me.”
Reeve played along, saying, “Maybe he’ll bring Bronx and I can beg for his forgiveness.”
“Beg while naked,” Kat suggested. “He’ll agree to anything then.”
I patted Kat’s hand. It was limp, cold. I couldn’t wait for Ethan to grow a conscience or a pair of balls. Couldn’t wait for the boys to find us, or food to strengthen me. I had to act now.
How?
I moved to Jaclyn’s side of the cage and studied the lab, searching for things I might have missed. Anyone coming or going had to flash an ID badge over the box on the door. There was a glass case on the far wall with several tranq guns inside. I’d seen the lab coats use those weapons on the collared zombies.
The guards had the keys to the cells. Maybe the lab coats did, maybe they didn’t, but I couldn’t see evidence either way. The guards were the sure thing.
I needed to steal a key the next time they came for me.
“What are you thinking?” Jaclyn asked.
“Probably the same thing you are.”
“Yeah. Blueberry pancakes would be awesome.”
I almost grinned. “No. I’m thinking it’s time to go.”
We both looked at Kat. She yawned and rested her head on Reeve’s shoulder.
“She shouldn’t be this bad this quickly,” Jaclyn whispered, unable to mask her worry.
“It’s the stress of the situation,” I replied. “It’s making everything worse.”
“I can hear you, you know,” Kat said. Then, “What are we going to do?”
“Let me worry about that.” I held Jaclyn’s stare until she nodded.
“I wish there was something I could do,” she said, “but they don’t even open my cage anymore. I could try, but they’re used to me, expect my tricks and just ignore me, whatever I say.”
I motioned Reeve over.
She eased Kat’s head to the floor and closed the distance. I put my mouth to her ear and whispered, “When the guards come for me, and they will, I want you to attack one. He might hit you, and I’m sorry for that, because it’s going to hurt, but I need him out of the way for just a few seconds. Can you do it? Can you remember what Veronica taught you?”
She gave a determined nod.
“Enough of that, you two,” a hard voice snapped. A stick was rubbed against the bars.
I looked over. One of the guards stood at the door of our cage.
“We’re hungry and thirsty,” I spat at him. “Why don’t you reduce the number of crimes you’ve committed against us and fix that?”
He looked us over, lingering a bit too long on Reeve, before pivoting on his booted heel. “Get them something to eat and drink,” he commanded one of the lab coats. “Now.”
We were each given a bag of peanut butter crackers and a bottle of water, even Jaclyn.
As hungry as I was, it was like a four-star meal. How sad was that?
“Protein isn’t good for me right now,” Kat mumbled. “Makes my kidneys have to work too hard.”