Where We Go | Book Three

40. My Dead Body

Ben snapped his body to the man, turning on him in an instant. While he was still facing the bushes, he kicked hard against the back of his knees and the man dropped to the grass. The puddle beneath him splashed up onto his already filthy clothes. Swinging his arm up in one smooth motion, Ben held the gun to his head.

I hurled open the door of the truck. "Ben, don't!"

"There's five of you?" the man laughed, turning to me. "Did you do this?" he looked again at Simon's body on the ground.

I said nothing.

He leant his head back, narrowing his stare. "Or are you the one he told us about..." His snakelike eyes wandered my body in a single blink and his tongue ran across his bottom lip. "Em?" He flinched as Ben nudged the gun against his forehead. A warning. "I'll take that as a yes," he smirked.

"What did he tell you?" Donut said, now standing on the other side of him, his gun ready.

The man looked around us, seeming to enjoy the moment. "He told us there's been a cure..." His serpent stare fixed on me. "That someone's been cured."

"You believed him?" Tom cocked his head.

The man shrugged, feigning ignorance to the gun pointing at him. "I had my doubts but information like that doesn't come around very often so we take it seriously."

"What else?" Tom pressed.

He smirked, not shifting his stare from my face. "He said she's at Land's End, and her name is Em."

Rain poured down his face, dripping from his hair and onto his skin. It mixed with the blood that formed from his fresh wounds. His eyes grew darker when he looked at me, the deep seething hatred rooted in his irises.

"What do you think is going to happen when you kill me?" he spat, his voice fighting against the rain. "This doesn't end with my dead body."

"It buys us more time," I replied.

"When Simon told us about you, he made you sound almost... normal. I didn't think you could kill a human in cold blood," he continued. "I didn't think the Infection would take away all your emotion."

"Please stop talking."

"I thought you'd be more forgiving, given all the things that you've done, the lives you've taken..." My stare grew sharper, threatening to cut him with another word. "I don't suppose you've told anyone here how you killed people... I expect Simon here is the tip of the iceberg. It makes sense you'd want to keep that hidden."

"Can I kill him yet?" Donut asked, raising his gun.

"Em, maybe you should wait in the truck," Ben suggested. His eyes were glassed with concern, his grip unwavering around the metal.

The man laughed at the comment. "Yeah, Em. Go and wait in the truck..." His eyes wandered to my stomach. "That will save you having to explain how you got all those scars."

"Stop." I stared at him with my jaw clenched.

I wanted him dead.

I wanted to see his body drop to the floor and the blood pour from his lips. 

I wanted to watch him turn white and the life leave his eyes as it had with Simon's. 

I wanted him to stop being right.

"Donut do it."

Donut aimed the gun, pressing it against the man's head.

"The rest of GUN will be so impressed when they find you..."

"Fucking do it!"

His body dropped, limp and lifeless to the ground. I shut my eyes, feeling the water against my skin. It was like heavy marbles all over my body, but I was already numb from it all.

"God, I thought he'd never stop talking," Donut said as he wiped the blood from his weapon and returned his grip to his arm.

I crouched, trying to quell my spinning head. Elbows on knees and face in hands, I slowed my breathing and focused on the rain hammering my skin.

"Shit," I whispered.

"Em?" Ben scowled. He crouched beside me and rested a hand against my back. "Are you okay?"

I looked up. "You heard what he said... GUN already knows. We're out of time."

"Shit," he mirrored. His bronze stare widened and the pressure of his hand against my back grew. "We have to go. Now."

*

We dragged the bodies further into the forest, covering them in the branches and undergrowth. Nobody would stumble across them accidentally. Nobody should've had a reason to come after us. We piled ourselves back into the truck and eventually found ourselves turning slowly into the base. The tyres crunched along the gravel, a harmony to the storm that still roared around us.

"This better be the right place," Donut muttered. "Otherwise, God knows what we've just driven into."

"It's the right place," Ben confirmed. "The guards always look like they're seconds away from shooting something."

"Aren't we all?" Tom raised a brow.

The weapons were trained on us when we stepped out of the truck. One of the guards cast a glimpse in my direction and all it took was a wave of his hand for the front door to unlock its heavy bolts keeping it locked. The heavy metal creaked, revealing the tall woman peering through the crack. She'd been called from our arrival.

"I told you not to come back here. We're nowhere near finished," Dr Lawson said with a stern voice. "It's not safe."

"We know," I replied. "We're not here by choice... Things have changed."

"Changed how?"

I glanced at Ben, then back to Dr Lawson. There was a heavy weight in my chest, refusing to shift. It was a weight of dread, of wanting everything about the situation to be over. I met the woman's eyes, holding down the sickening feeling in my stomach and the bile that rose in my throat.

"Someone found out," I said quietly. "And now GUN knows too."

She sighed and the guards standing behind her lowered their weapons. "You lot better come inside." She waved us in, flourishing her arm as we passed her. Before the door shut, she took a wary look outside, craning her neck as far as she could.

Inside the building, the fluorescents shone brightly. The cool night breeze had lessened but a draft still came from the outside. Dr Lawson motioned a hand to one of the tables in the lab, gesturing for us to sit.

"You guys have a lot of nerve coming back here, especially now," she said, taking a seat. "GUN is crawling all over this place. We can't keep their noses out for much longer."

"Do they know?" Ben asked, anxiety lacing each word.

"They know there are survivors here, not what we're doing," she replied. "The stupid bastards just think that we're paranoid and won't let anyone in."

"They bought that?"

"I sold that." She looked between us, giving the stern glare I'd become so familiar with. "Now," she exhaled, resting her elbows on the table between us. "I think you've got some explaining to do."