Free V-Day: (M-Day #4) by D.T. Dyllin Page A

invisible and it ’ s —”
    “ We need to track down Doctor Greensley. We need to use all available resources to find him. He ’ s our only hope. ”
    Emilio didn ’ t question me — didn ’ t look at me with suspicion. No one but me knew that I ’ d let Doctor Greensley set all of this into motion. I should have stopped him using force of any means. I should have immediately reported his erratic behavior to my commanding officers back when I ’ d first noticed it. Instead I ’ d kept his secret — instead I ’ d let the apocalypse happen.
    It ’ s my fault all those people are dead.
     

 

Chapter 11
     

    Present~
    I sat there for what felt like hours, the words spilling from my mouth, me holding nothing back, censuring nothing. Finally I took a break, exhaustion pulling at my resolve.
    “ I remember hearing reports on the news about people getting sick and dying, ” Nyx whispered, her face paling. “ I can ’ t believe I never connected the two. ”
    Max stood, pacing. “ How could you? It was a couple reports, something akin to the bird flu or some shit. And it was all of a sudden, like ‘ earlier today, a bunch of people got sick ’… The next thing I knew —” She swallowed hard, her gaze glazing over. “ I was waking up next to an infected Ricki and the rest is history. ”
    “ I guess it was the same for all of us. M-Day seemed to come out of nowhere. ” Evo narrowed her eyes at me. “ Well, maybe not for all of us. ”
    Zee stood, his face blank. “ Communication broke down everywhere on the 21 st . We ’ d been made aware about the illness, we were preparing to mobilize when —”
    “ Yeah, us too, ” Ty interrupted. “ There were no casualties like Vi is talking about for our base. We ’ d been notified that we might have to enforce some local quarantines, and then nothing. ”
    “ Everybody had their own theories. But nobody knew. It was different everywhere, except for the men eventually being infected. ” I was trembling, waiting for hatred to be directed my way. I ’ d just acknowledged, for the first time out loud, that I could have stopped the apocalypse. Not even Emilio and Tony knew about the guilt that was constantly eating away at me. All I ’ d admitted to was having some knowledge because of Doctor Greensley. But I couldn ’ t lie to my brothers. Or maybe a part of me wanted to be hated and punished for my crimes. Maybe deep down I even thought I deserved what that I-Man had done to me on the bathroom floor … or much, much worse.
    Max met my gaze. “ So all those empty cars, all those —”
    “ All those people are dead — literal dust in the wind. ”
    “ Fuck. ” Ty sat right where he was, hitting the floor hard. “ I kept thinking people had to have been evacuated. I kept thinking we just had to find the answers and we could escape this hell. ”
    I snorted. “ My brother, the eternal optimist. ” I wrapped my arms around my middle, trying to stop shaking. “ But there ’ s more. ”
    “ Of course there fucking is, ” Evo grated. “ Well, lay it on us — what did you do, make a deal with the devil too? ”
    “ Hey! ” Ty growled. “ Leave my sister alone! ”
    “ She just told us she could have prevented all of this! ” Evo waved her hands around wildly. “ Sure, I love taking out I-Men but if I could go back …” Her gaze snagged on X. A silent conversation passed between them as he inched forward to intertwine Evo ’ s hand with his. When she looked back in my direction her expression had softened for some inexplicable reason. “ But I guess there ’ s no point to crying over spilt milk. We ’ re all here now and there ’ s no going back. Maybe I wouldn ’ t, even if I could. ”
    Huh. Evo made me wonder what kind of pre M-Day hell her and X had been living in. Did they even know each other or did they come together because of the apocalypse? I swept my gaze over both of my brothers and wondered if they would have met Max and