“Is it safe to assume Roger is not infected?”
“Correct. He is not infected. He would never allow it. We were his guinea pigs for this virus.” He tucked my hair behind my ears, and sat there smiling at me. “You do know that no matter what, I will love you always.”
“Even if I kick you in the tomatoes?”
“Hmm... That might be the deal breaker.” We laughed a little, and held one another while leaning back on the sofa.
“How did I manage life before all of this craziness?”
“That’s simple, my love…” He tapped me gently on the nose with his index finger. “You’re mental but, now, so is everybody else and no one notices it as much.”
“Henry!” I punched him in the shoulder. He jerked away and hissed. I had forgotten about his ribs. “Oh no! I’m so sorry!”
“No biggie. Just a bit of pain. Nothing I’m not used to,” he grumbled.
Chapter 26
S
ophie pulled out of the driveway as Claire was staring out the window at Nick waving goodbye. “Looks like Nick has a new crush.” Claire’s icy glare could have cooled a volcano.
“That’s none of your concern.” She wasn’t ready to give up any information about her and Nick yet.
“Right.” Sophie chuckled as she turned onto the main road, suddenly noticing something interesting. “Well, would you look at that?” She seemed excited. Thomas and Claire looked and saw a black Tahoe, identical to hers and Henry’s, parked at the takeout window of a fast food restaurant.
“Is that…?” Thomas started to speak, but Sophie interrupted.
“Yes, yes, I do believe that is…I mean, was…Kellan’s truck. Let’s go and investigate, shall we?” She pulled up beside it.
“Why wouldn’t he bring it to the house?”
“I have two suspicions. Number one, he was trying to lay low. Or number two, he ran out of gas.” Sophie opened her door and said, “Let’s be aware, please.” She hopped out, Thomas and Claire following. Sophie tried the handle, but it was locked. Claire looked in the back window.
“There’s a trunk back here!” She was feverishly pulling on the handle. She hoped that they would find everything they needed in Kellan’s trunk, and they could get back to the house sooner rather than later. It took her a couple of seconds to realize it was locked.
Sophie and Thomas came around to the back. Claire was looking around for a rock or something with which she could break the window. She heard the glass smash and turned around. Sophie was pounding out the driver’s side window with the butt end of her Sig. She reached in and unlocked the truck, Thomas pulling open the liftgate.
“How are you gonna open this? You don’t have the code, do you?” Thomas asked.
“There is an override keypad underneath. Tip it back.” He did, as Claire stood and watched for undeads. Sophie pushed a series of buttons, putting in the code. “I’m not supposed to know this. I discovered the code when I was snooping in Roger’s office one night.”
“Snoopin’?” Thomas looked a bit shocked that Sophie would even take that risk. “Weren’t you afraid of what would happen if he caught you?”
“What did I have to lose?”
Thomas shrugged. “Nothin’, I guess.”
“Exactly. In the middle of one of his special ‘training’ sessions with me, there was an emergency in the complex that he had to respond to so he left me alone in his office for a bit. I used it as an opportunity to snoop.” Sophie pressed one more button on the keypad and the trunk unlocked.
“Yes! Get down. Just in case it is rigged.” Thomas jumped out of the back of the truck. Sophie carefully opened the lid of the trunk. She didn’t seem all too worried about her own welfare. “Motherfucker…” quietly rolled off her lips.
“What?” Claire was standing on her tiptoes, trying to see what was in the trunk.
“Empty,” Sophie muttered. She got out and leaned over to the gas tank, tapping on it. Empty. “That arse! He left us with nothing! Where did he hide all the weapons? Fucker!” Sophie spent the next several minutes tearing apart the truck, looking for anything they could use for supplies.
Claire spotted a small herd of undeads staggering toward them. “Sophie. We have company.”
“Shit. Come on. Let’s get out of here.” Sophie jumped out of Kellan’s truck and got into theirs. She started it up and threw it in gear just as Thomas and Claire closed their doors. She took off back to the main road.
“Shouldn’t we take care of them? What if they wander toward the others?”