Free Born to Fight by Tara Brown Page B

and open the door wider. I freeze as a woman in a white coat walks past the door away from me. I hear Anna suck air against my back.
    The lady doesn’t notice us or turn around. Her long, dark hair is shiny and pulled back in a ponytail. She walks away into another door and closes it. I take a deep breath and open the door, enough to peek my head in and look about the hallway. The light is on full power here. It's weird that it's so clean and there are no infected here. There aren’t a lot of them left, but there are enough that they should at least come near here. We didn’t see anything after we left the city. Why haven’t the military firebombed the cities to kill the infected? It doesn’t even make sense, except the creepy thing Vincent said about experiments.
    I just want to get back to the borderlands. I want the feel of a bow in my hands and the wind on my face.
    We slip out into the empty hall.  Every step feels like I'm wading through mud. My body is exhausted and weak, but my need for him drives me forward. I'm running on sheer hatred and stubbornness. I got it from Lenny. I don’t care what Vincent said, Lenny was my dad. I don’t care what any of them say.
    I grip the gun tighter and try to control my breathing and heartbeat. I round a corner to find a door with a glass window. I look through to see cages and desks. A man mills in front of one of the cages and writes something down. He looks only a little older than I am. They're more than likely expecting us. I know they are. I open the door and point my gun at his face.
    He glances up with a smile that drops as quickly as the thing he's writing on.
    "What are you doing in here?" he asks nervously.
    I walk through the door. Anna closes it but maintains her gun on him.
    "Don't move," I say quietly. I'm actually listening to the rest of the room behind him that I can't see.
    He shakes his head, "The food and medicine are on the other floor. There's loads of it."
    As amazing as that sounds, I shake my head, "We just want the place where the animals are held."
    He swallows hard, "What animals?" His eyes dart nervously.
    I growl, "I will not hesitate to kill you."
    He looks defiantly at me and shakes his head, "The gunshot will bring down a whole lot of military people."
    I sling it over my shoulder and pull my sparkly clean knife out, "I know."
    He flinches and steps back, "Please, don’t kill me."
    Anna moves forward, "She said not to move."
    I don’t need to look back to see the hardened look on her face. I know that look well enough. His eyes show the loss of strength and courage. He slumps and shakes his head, "Which animal?"
    I pause and look at Anna. She shrugs and says, "All of them."
    He raises his head and his eyebrows, "What? All?"
    I nod and realize what she's doing, "Yes, all."
    "Behind me, around a corner and through a steel door. The cages are back there." His voice is soft and defeated, but I see something in his eyes.
    "Do you have any rope or anything?" I ask.
    He shakes his head.
    I see clear plastic tape on the counter and nod my head at it, "Pass me the tape."
    He frowns, pauses and does it. He passes it to me but still doesn’t make eye contact. Something is wrong. He's planning.
    I grab his arms and tie them behind his back. He doesn’t fight me. I walk him around the corner to the steel door. I open it but his feet stop the door. He is backpedaling and fighting me.
    "N-n-not this d-d-door."
    I glance back at Anna. Her eyes narrow. She shoves the gun in his back, "What's in this room?"
    He looks back, his face is flushed from scrambling, but I have his arms up his back. "The wild cats. They caught them eating the infected. They're immune. Most animals are."
    I see movement behind the door and drag him out. I close the door, just as an angry mountain lion stalks up.
    Her eyes are savage and vicious.
    He nods his head, "The dogs, wolves and bears are that way."
    Anna shoves the gun in his back again, "You were going to let us go in