Free Amplified by Alexia Purdy Page B

across from me. Rye was dead asleep, his soft breaths barely noticeable in the dim room.
    I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, careful to not make any noise , and pulled my boots on. I’d slept in my clothes, like I always did. Nothing beats being ready to go at a second’s notice. Patting down the matted mess my ponytail had turned into, I frowned and decided to let it be. No sense in trying to impress anyone there. I slipped my travel pack on and was ready to go.
    Sneaking into the hall , I glanced down the way toward the lab. It wasn’t far but wasn’t close enough to give me the heebie jeebies thinking about all the distorted things lingering in the tanks in there. It sent a shudder down my spine, but I let out a slow breath and decided to head down there anyway. I glanced around each door but only found empty bunks. It had me wondering where Rick was sleeping. Why did he make me feel that he was hiding so much more under that nerdy exterior of his? My gut feelings were usually dead on, and this one was screaming for me to talk more with him, alone. It wasn’t that he’d given me any hints or anything like that, it was just a feeling that he didn’t want to speak around the hybrid vampires, not about certain things. If I could find him, maybe I could squeeze out every little secret he held inside.
    I followed the circumference of the lab, finding the place deserted. There were more bunks on this side of the lab , but no one filled the empty mattresses within, and I wondered where the hell everyone had gone. There were more bunks farther down the hall where Rye and I had slept, but I hadn’t bothered backtracking to check them out. Maybe everyone was over there, and I’d missed them.
    It wasn ’t a problem. I didn’t really want to see any of them at the moment. I didn’t want to explain my midnight stroll through this oppressive place.
    I stopped, my heart drumming under my chest like frightened butterfly, warning me of something. Rick was nearby, and I didn ’t even know how I knew it. It was as if it was just a fact I’d been told somehow. I tiptoed farther down until I reached the last door of the hall of bunks. It was slightly ajar, and the darkness within told me he was probably asleep. I wiggled my fingers. They itched to reach in there and surprise the son of a gun.
    Barg e in or sneak in? I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but I crept in anyway, making sure the door didn’t squeak as I focused my eyes into the darkness of the room.
    “Are you going to kill me now?” Rick’s disembodied voice hit me like an arctic wind. I swallowed but focused on the body lying in the bottom bunk.
    My eyes adjusted, and I could make out his back turned toward me and his face hidden as he stared at the wall. Vulnerable. He was a pompous man if he felt he was safe within my reach. I realized I had the upper hand and slipped in, turning the small bedside lamp on as I sat down on the opposite bunk. He shifted and turned to face me, his eyes shiny under the reading light.
    “No. I ’m not going to kill you… yet.” I didn’t mean to sound so ominous, but I was tired of games. “I know there’s a lot more about what’s going on out there in the world, about this virus and why everyone is infected. I want to know everything, and you’re going to tell me.”
    His nose flared as he studied me across the narrow void between us. His eyes squinted just a bit. His glasses were sitting on the bedside table. Still, he took me in as if he’d just met me and had to memorize each detail of this potential specimen before he could splay it open or let it sit in a tank of overpowering formaldehyde, posed like a precious work of art.
    “I know a lot of things, April.” My name on hi s tongue made me uncomfortable as I remembered how he’d used his telekinesis on me earlier. “Why should I tell you anything? And what specifically do you really want to know? Some of it matters, some of it doesn’t. Your mother