Free Suspending Reality by Chrissy Peebles Page A

it was a chance worth taking. I had to save her, no matter what, and I could only hope my parents would understand.
    My plan was bold, daring, and sneaky, as a proper rescue mission should always be. I knew that getting her out of the clinic fast, before anyone noticed, was the key to success. I smoothed my hands down my crisp white scrubs, smirking beneath my “borrowed” surgical mask as I adjusted it. I knew I would need a good disguise in order to get past the soldiers, and I was proud of myself for so easily snatching the medical uniform from the linen room.
    Lucas, a friend of mine, laughed at the sight of me in the baggy cotton get-up. “I thought this was some kind of James Bond mission, not a pajama party.”
    “Ha-ha. Very funny,” I muffled out from beneath the mask.
    He eyed me up and down. “Well, you look ridiculous, but you definitely fit the part.”
    “Well, secret agents have to hide their identity somehow, right?” I punched him in the arm, and he grinned. Lucky for me, Lucas had the security clearance to sneak me into the isolation area of the clinic, and he’d owed me a favor for a while. It’s about time he paid up , I thought, and I knew I could always count on Lucas. He was a fitness buff with huge arms, and he was the one who fit the part: He made for a perfect soldier with his camouflage uniform, Army boots, and buzzed head.
    “This is a huge risk you’re taking, but I completely understand.” Lucas swiped a card over a control panel, and the door opened with a loud click . “Be careful, though, and whatever you do, don’t underestimate her. That virus is flooding through her veins. They have good reasons for putting her in quarantine.”
    “Don’t worry. I don’t plan on joining Bite Club any time soon, I promise.” With a last glance back, I walked in through the heavy steel door. As soon as the door closed behind me, it hit me: There is no turning back now. I took a sharp breath and focused my gaze ahead.
    The room looked just like any other sickbed, complete with sterile-looking white walls and the strong, bleach-like aroma of a plethora of medicines. On the far right was a huge lamp that cast an unnatural glow on the tiled floor. On the far left, a narrow bed with white sheets that were arranged around a frail woman told me I had the right room. I took a hesitant step forward, then stopped, suddenly unsure of whether or not I really was doing the right thing. What if she’s already turned? What if it’s too late to help her and I’m risking my safety for nothing? Fighting with myself, I took a step back.
    Suddenly, Val rose to her feet. Her fists were clenched, and her eyes were wide with terror.
    I pulled down my mask before she got the chance to pound me. “Hey! It’s me.”
    “Dean!” she said. “You know I’ve been…bitten. But why are you…? Look, you shouldn’t be in here. You know being anywhere near me is a death sentence.”
    I slowly unwrapped the bandages from her arm and cringed. The zombie bite looked worse—far, far worse—than I had anticipated. Green pus drained from the open wound on her lower arm, and it reeked of dead, rotting flesh.
    “That bad, huh?” Val asked when she saw my ghastly expression, her voice echoing off the white walls in the confined isolation room. She brushed back her disheveled, long brown hair. “It’s funny how fate works. I spent so long trying to find you…” Her voice quivered as tears welled up in her blue eyes. “And now that I have, we won’t even get to spend one day together.”
    I let out a long breath. “Don’t talk like that. We’ll have plenty of time together—so much time that you’ll probably get sick of me.”
    “How do you figure that? And for the record, I don’t think I’d ever…I would never get sick of you.”
    “Because I have a possible cure?”
    She cocked a brow. “You mean the experimental serum?”
    “Yeah, I snatched a bag of vials from the lab.”
    She gasped. “Do you know