Cole’s hand is firm on my back. Pressuring. He’s ready to go. The girl makes no move to get out of the way.

“They’ll be back when they see we’re missing,” I tell her. She still doesn’t move. “Josie?”

In the moonlight I see her face. The scar and the determination. I spot the weapon in her hand. It’s mine. It’s my hatchet. I’m about to ask for it back when she hands it over and says, “Can I come with you?”

Chapter 6

I expected it to take hours to get back to Davis, but to my surprise, he and Paul appear in the truck a mile or so away from the house. I’m dead on my feet when we get in the truck but I ask anyway, “How’d you know where to find us?”

He stares stonily ahea

d and asks back, “How did you get out of that alive?”

I guess we both have friends on the inside. I’m still reeling from the fact my father pulled this whole thing off. Of course he had Wyatt’s help, even though his motives are less clear. I don’t have a problem admitting, though, that it makes me feel better to have heard my father say he loves me.

I’m asleep before we get a mile away and wake only when we drive through the gates at Fort Arnold near dawn.

I ask for Erwin. The vaccine is heavy in my pocket. I haven’t told anyone about it. My team wanders off in search of food and beds. Josie is taken to quarantine. I jog toward Cole and tug his sleeve.

“Want to come with me to debrief the General?”

His eyes are dark. Hollow. Glancing at Josie’s retreating form he says, “I’ll go with her. Let them know what she went through. They may need to run additional tests.”

I nod and he hesitates, like he may reach out to me or say something else, but he smiles weakly and turns down toward the medical unit. A soldier waits at the hallway and escorts me down to the General’s office. I don’t wait for a greeting. I walk in and spy the coffee mug with steam rising out of the top. I lay the case on Erwin’s desk, swapping it for the mug. He lifts an eyebrow in reaction.

I take a sip. I take three. The liquid warms my belly. With the mug, I gesture to the case. “That’s the vaccine. Six vials. It’s all we’re getting.”

“So the mission was a success?”

I snort. Then laugh. A long, hysterical, exhausted laugh. He allows my small breakdown, and when I gain my composure I say, “Sure. We can call it successful.”

To my surprise he gives me a soft smile and says, “Thank you, Alexandra. I knew you could do it.”

The truth is that I didn’t do it. I’m just the cog in a complicated wheel that involves my family, their genius and the future of society. My father is working from the inside. So is the best solider Jane has in her army. Like a cartoon character with a light bulb over my head, something in me clicks about a suggestion Erwin made when he rescued us.

Erwin frowns. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, you know, I think I am,” I say, standing up to leave. “After I take a really long shower and a really, really long nap, I have an idea I’d like to share with you and my team.”

He watches me carefully as though I’ve had a mental break. Not that something like that would ever stop Erwin, anyway. Unsurprisingly he replies with confidence, “Good. I’m eager to hear your plans.”

*

I take the long way back from Erwin’s office to hit the cafeteria. Armed with a piece of bread slathered in peanut butter, I pass by the gym on the way up to the dormitories.

Although it’s late, it’s not surprising to find people in the training room lifting weights or punching the sand bag. Tonight, though, it sounds more like a bull rampaging through a china shop and I pause at the door before I peek inside.

I’ve got peanut butter stuck to the roof of my mouth, but it doesn’t matter. I’m stunned speechless. Paul is running some kind of manic circuit. When I walk in, he’s zipping back and forth, doing suicide sprints on the short, indoor track. Barely out of breath, he moves to the weight rack and starts lifting the heaviest hand weights they have. Fifty pounds, I think. He does two reps and then moves to the punching bag. He goes into a full assault. Kicks and hits fly through the air, landing perfectly on the bag. The only sound in the room is the echo of his grunts as he goes through the workout. His biceps bulge and his chest heaves. It’s like he’s transforming in front of me.

When he stands at the back of the room, pacing behind a barbell resting on the floor, I know I should go get Davis. Maybe even Erwin, but I’m mesmerized. Five disks are stacked on each end, starting with the biggest. I can’t tell the total weight but it has to be triple Paul’s physical weight.

Rubbing his hands together, he bends and grips the bar. His face strains and the veins in his neck bulge, but with more ease than I thought possible, he dead lifts the bar, holding it for a count of ten.

“Holy cow, dude,” I shout, although I’m not sure how much he caught with my mouth full of food. He hears me though and drops the weight on the ground, where it bounces an inch off the mat.

“Alex,” he says, looking uncomfortably at the massive weight. “That’s not what it…uh…”

“Looks like?” I step over to the water fountain and wash down the bread. “I saw you. You lifted that.”

Tags: Angel Lawson Death Fields Horror
Source: readsnovelonline.net