Free THEM (Season 1): Episode 2 by M.D. Massey Page B

something about heading out west. Are you, like, talking about heading out to the settlements?”
    Unbelievable. I was starting to think that I didn’t rescue Teen Wolf after all, but Forrest Gump. “Yes, Bobby—that’s what I’ve been saying all day long, that I need to get back to my people in the safe zone and warn them about all the wolf activity here in the Corridor.”
    He nodded, and then his hand crept up again. He waited for a look of acknowledgement from me to speak. “Um, that’s what I thought you said.” He winced and shrunk back in on himself just a bit. “See, before you helped me get away, I overheard those punters talking about how Van was planning a big raid on the settlements west of here.”
    I lunged over to him and grabbed him by the front of his T-shirt. “When—how soon?” I was practically yelling, and he shied away from me because of it.
    “Well, tonight.” He winced visibly from me as he said it.
    “Shit!” I let him go and started gathering all my gear. “Is that horse still out there?”
    Captain Perez nodded. “Yes, I kept him locked up so no zombies could get to him. But listen—you can’t help these people now, not without the treatments. I’m telling you, I studied these creatures.” She paused and spared Bobby a look of contempt, then continued in almost a whisper. “You won’t stand a chance.”
    “I can’t wait. It may already be too late. Gabby!”
    She came down the hall at a trot. “I’m coming with you.”
    Bobby raised a hand again, this time with much more enthusiasm. “Me too!”
    “No, you’re not.” Bobby looked hurt. “No, I meant her, not you.” I pointed at Bobby. “You—you can come with me, and you owe me anyway.”
    He immediately perked up. “Hell yes—road trip!”
    Gabby gave me a steely look. “I’m coming with you, no matter what you say. Look, you’ll need me, trust me on this. I was sandbagging on you, after the trailer. I’m a lot more useful than you think.”
    Bobby nodded like a bobblehead riding a roller coaster. “I think you should let her go, chief.”
    She looked me dead in the eye. “You can’t stop me.”
    Captain Perez put a hand on my arm. “Scratch, you’re going to need her with you anyway. I’m going to have to head back to the research facility and lock it down. Gabby knows where it is—she can take you there, once you warn the settlement.”
    “Is it secure?”
    “Well, yes—I mean, secure once we’re locked in. There are security protocols that will lock the place down in an emergency, but they have to be activated from inside.”
    “Will it hold all my people—say, fifty souls?”
    I could see the conflict, all over the doc’s face. She was torn between earning my trust, and potentially endangering her research by exposing unknown elements to her secrets. “Yes—yes it can house them. But you absolutely, under no circumstances, should tell anyone what the facility is for or what we’re doing there.”
    I leaned in and grabbed her on both sides of her face and kissed her on top of the head. “I knew you weren’t a complete coldhearted bitch.”
    As I pulled back, she smiled, and then punched me right across the chest. It was aimed for my face, but I leaned away in time to make her miss, just barely. Still, it was going to leave a hell of a bruise.
    She squinted at me and pursed her lips in anger. “Call me a bitch again, and you’re going to find out why they call me La Araña .” She turned to Gabby. “After he’s warned the settlers in the safe zone, make sure they know how to get to the facility.” Gabby nodded and ran off to gather her gear.
    The captain was walking off down the hall before I could reply. I yelled at her back, “I didn’t mean ‘bitch’—I just meant that you aren’t completely bitchy!” She turned and threw a metal emesis pan at me that whizzed right past my head. I hardly noticed, because I was already headed out the door at a run. It was going to be a