Free Infection Z (Book 2) by Ryan Casey Page B

your plans.”
    “Then—then you’ll understand. Why we couldn’t trust you,” Hayden said. “You’ll get that. None of us can trust each other anymore. And … and we weren’t going to take all the food—”
    “Just the fucking car,” the woman said. “Just a few tins, and the fucking car. Hardly anything. Right? Now—now get on your knees and … and put your hands on the back of your heads.”
    Hayden saw the woman pull out some thick looking tape and he realised this was the end. There was no bargaining with these people. They were going to tie him and his friends up. They were going to execute them, right here in the hallway of the cottage.
    They were going to slaughter them.
    Hayden crouched onto his knees but he couldn’t give up. He couldn’t let himself. “I … We weren’t going to stay here. We heard a transmission. We were going to—to a safe place—”
    “Better if you just keep quiet,” the man said. He pressed Newbie down and made sure he was on his knees. He didn’t make proper eye contact with Hayden or any of the others, like he wasn’t comfortable with what he was about to do. “Just—just keep quiet and put your hands behind your backs. All of you.”
    He wrapped the tape around Newbie’s back. Defeat filled Newbie’s face. Defeat and acceptance of that defeat.
    No. It couldn’t end this way. This wasn’t how it ended.
    The woman stood in front of Hayden. Hayden had to do something. He had to act. He had to get out of here. He wasn’t giving up hope. He couldn’t give up hope. His life depended on it. His sister’s life depended on it.
    “Hands behind your back,” the woman said.
    “We’re just like you,” Hayden said, as he heard the man wrap tape around his sister’s wrists. “We … we’re just like you. Just doing our best to survive. And if we’d known you were here, we wouldn’t have bothered you. We wouldn’t have—”
    “Then you … you aren’t a thing like us,” the woman said. And this time, she looked right into Hayden’s eyes. “You have no idea what we’ve done so far to survive. You … you have no idea of the things we have to do to survive even longer.”
    Hayden saw a wateriness to the woman’s eyes. A glimmer of regret, of fear.
    In the distance, he knew the three men would be getting closer. Soon, it would be five on three.
    But right now, the odds were in their favour.
    “I’ve had to do bad things too,” Hayden said.
    The woman blinked and her eyes twitched away again.
    Hayden held his breath.
    Lunged for the can of tuna he’d dropped to the floor.
    Grabbed it and swung it at the gun in the woman’s hand.
    She dropped it right away and Hayden grabbed it, stood up, wrapped his arms around her neck and held the gun to her temple. The man turned and pointed his gun at Hayden as the woman struggled, trying to wriggle free as Hayden pressed the gun harder and harder.
    “Don’t … don’t you dare shoot,” Hayden shouted. It didn’t feel right. It felt like somebody was shouting through him, using him as a vessel. “Don’t shoot or I’ll … I’ll shoot her. I swear I’ll shoot her.”
    The man kept on pointing his gun at Hayden, his cheeks growing red. Newbie looked on with wide eyes, and Clarice turned from Hayden to Newbie to the man, like it was all some kind of confusing nightmare.
    “You … you wouldn’t dare,” the woman said.
    Hayden pressed his gun harder into the soft cushion of the woman’s temple and he heard her wince. “I’ll shoot her. If you don’t lower your gun and let us—let us leave here with these cans and your car, I’ll shoot her.”
    There was silence between the five of them for some time. Hayden stared into the man’s eyes, and the man stared back at him, gun flailing. The woman breathed deeply, tried to struggle free, but Hayden just kept on holding the cold edge of the trigger and pressing the gun closer to the woman’s head.
    “Let us go,” Hayden said. “Untie my friend, my sister,