Hilliard tucked the clipboard under his arm and thought for a moment. “A truck. Loaded with supplies. Maybe a couple of weapons for defense.”
Broussard nodded. “And how soon might we hope for such a thing?”
Hilliard chewed at his lower lip for a moment. “I can have it on standby. Once the president is satisfied and the general gives the go ahead, you can load up and leave.”
Broussard’s face fell. “The whole point to this was that we don’t trust the general, remember?” He sighed animatedly. “Can you not act on your own? The general did say that we’d be free to leave once we did our part, yes?”
Hilliard nodded slowly. “But without his express permission…”
“Didn’t he give it? By saying that we were free to go once we did our job? Once we have satisfied our end of the bargain?” He gripped the man’s shoulder. “Think of the work we have given, and how little we have asked in return. My friends and I only want—”
“Friends?” he interrupted. “Who do you mean?”
Broussard felt his mouth go dry. “Myself, Dr. Chaplain…and Dr. Benedict, to start.”
Hilliard’s eyes narrowed. “The Zed.”
“The cured geneticist who has been helping us, yes.” He crossed his arms and sighed. “And there may be others. We haven’t spoken of it.”
Hilliard shook his head. “Green won’t be happy if you run off with the rest of the CDC.”
“Understood, but you could easily tell him that we are going to a better location to continue our research.”
“Are you?” He crossed his arms and stared at the man. “Going to reestablish the CDC in a proper lab?”
Broussard shrugged. “We might.” He cleared his throat. “I suppose it would really depend on whether or not any of the others wanted to go with us. If they do, then yes. I suppose we would.”
Hilliard slowly nodded. “I might can sell that notion.” He stepped away and pointed to Broussard. “Don’t act. Not yet. I have an idea. One that I think will actually work.”
“What do we do until you get back to us?” Andre called to his retreating form.
“Prepare the others for the treatment,” Hilliard yelled over his shoulder.
Andre sighed heavily and turned back toward the lab. “Fingers crossed that he knows what he’s doing.”
Simon stood over the shallow graves of the three men he’d dispatched and toed at the soft soil with his boot. “Penny for your thoughts,” Lana offered.
Simon shrugged slightly. “Honestly? I’m thinking that your little show with Vee might have cost us what we were hoping for.” He turned slowly and gave her a sad shrug. “You might have pushed her too far with your vivid descriptions and gory details.”
Lana huffed and stepped away from him. “She’s a doctor for fuck’s sake. Surely she’s seen worse.”
“Probably.” He turned back to the shallow grave and noted the flies that still settled on the blood pool nearby. “But when you let it get you hot and bothered…I think that might have pushed her over the edge.”
“Pfft.” Lana threw her hands into the air. “She’s a woman. She knows that other women get—”
“Lana!” Simon interrupted. “I just want you to face the truth.”
“And what’s the truth, Simon?” she asked defiantly.
“The truth is we might have destroyed any trust we had with her. She may very well go to the others and demand a vote of no confidence.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “I don’t follow.”
“They might decide that they would feel safer if we just pulled up stakes and left.” He gave her a serious look. “And if that happens, we simply have to accept it.”
Lana shook her head in denial. “No. You said that we needed to kill Trent and Jake and Tommy so that they’d love us and want you in charge.” She stormed up to him and poked him firmly in the chest. “You said that I could be Empress.”
He grabbed her finger gently and pulled her to him. “You’ll always be MY empress.”
“That’s not good enough,” she growled low in her throat. “No…no, no. They need to bow to us.” She got up in his face and lowered her voice. “They need to worship us.”
Simon’s brows knit and he shook his head at her. “What are you saying? We’re not gods.”
“We might as well be.” She smiled broadly at him and it didn’t reach her eyes. “We survived, Simon. We were infected and we beat it!”
“So did a lot of other people.” He grabbed her by the arms and pulled her to him. “That doesn’t make us gods.”
“Yes, it does.” She pulled from his grasp and stomped on the soft soil covering Trent’s face. “We won. They lost. We get to rule. That’s how this works.”
Simon’s mouth fell open but no words came out. He watched as she threw a tantrum, stomping on Trent’s grave and cursing the other campers. She spun on him, her finger outstretched. “We WILL rule these people. Whether they like it or not.”
She turned and began stomping her way up the hill. Simon broke into a jog to catch up to her. “Wait up!” he pulled her back and pressed her to the nearest tree. “Don’t be stupid about this.”
“Are you calling me stupid?” she all but growled at him.
“I’m telling you, to get what you want, you’ll need to use charm, not anger.” He pulled her away from the tree and met her angry gaze. “You need to play this smartly or we’ll lose everything.”
She narrowed her eyes even more and nodded to him. “Go on.”
“We need to listen to whatever they say,” he made his voice more stern as he spoke, “even if we don’t agree with them, we have to pretend that we do.”
“Why?”
“To earn their trust.” He glanced up the hill then back to her as her features began to wash out in the dwindling light. “We play along. We make sure that they need us.”
She gave him a confused look. “How?”
“If they say that they want us to leave,
