Crash swallowed. God knows, he wished they could stay here forever, but that didn’t seem to be in the cards.
“There is something I think you can help us with, if you have a few minutes,” he said. He glanced at Kaya. “No offense to you, Kaya, but if you don’t mind, I’d love to talk to Tank for a few minutes alone.”
She smiled and squeezed Tank’s hand. “No offense taken,” she said. “Besides, I’ve been up all night with Stephen. I’m going to leave someone else to watch over him for a while, so I can get a little bit of rest.”
She raised up on tiptoes to plant a kiss on Tank’s cheek, nodded to Crash and Noah, and disappeared around the corner toward the main wing.
“What’s up?” Tank asked, brow furrowed. “Is this about the girl you lost? Jason told me one of your friends didn’t come back with you. The quiet girl. I’m sorry, I can’t remember her name.”
“Lily,” Crash said, trying to make his face look sad, despite his anger toward the girl. He could, at least, be sad about her betrayal and the fact that the fifth was still out there alone. “She didn’t make it, Tank. The hospital was so much worse than we imagined.”
“Oh, shit, I’m sorry,” he said, his eyes darkening. “And here you are trying to make sure one of our guys is doing okay. How are you and your friends all holding up? I know how it feels to lose someone you love.”
“We all know that type of loss now,” Noah said. “We hadn’t known her very long, but for a while, we thought of her like family. I think we’re all still in shock about it.”
Tank nodded.
“There’s been too much loss,” he said, glancing at Stephen’s room. “Hopefully her sacrifice can make a difference here today. There’s no doubt all that medicine is going to save a lot of lives.”
“Let’s hope so,” Crash said. “While he’s resting, though, is there someplace you and I could go to talk? In private?”
“Of course,” he said. “But are you sure you don’t want to rest up and get a shower first? No offense, but you boys look like hell.”
“I don’t doubt that,” Crash said with a laugh. “And while the idea of a shower is just about the best thing I’ve heard all day, there’s something we’ve got to do that can’t wait. We could use all the help we can get.”
Tank studied him for a second, then finally nodded.
“Come with me back to my office,” he said. “No one will bother us there.”
Crash turned to Noah. “Go get Parrish,” he said. “She’ll want to be part of this conversation.”
Noah nodded and jogged back down the hallway.
Tank started heading the opposite way back to his office, and as they passed by Stephen’s door, Crash couldn’t help but look in on the guy.
His wife sat in a large chair next to his bed, her eyes closed and her hands resting against her belly. Stephen was still asleep, but Crash could have sworn that even though only a few minutes had passed since they’d started up the IV, Stephen’s breathing had already evened out and the color had started to return to his cheeks.
“You coming?” Tank asked.
With a smile, Crash closed the door and followed Tank down the hallway.
He had a feeling that despite everything else that had gone wrong in the past few months, this was one time when everything was going to be alright.
Four
Parrish
Parrish headed toward Tank’s office, and as she walked through the compound, everyone turned to stare or stopped to say thank you. Word of what they’d done had traveled quickly.
It was obvious most people had thought their trip to the hospital was more of a suicide mission than anything else, and they were probably shocked to know a group of teens had survived it.
Parrish normally might have been annoyed at the fact that they’d sent them out never expecting them to return, but the truth was she was glad they could do it. The five—four—of them were obviously more capable than anyone here knew. If it hadn’t been for Lily and her betrayal, the trip would have been easy.
No one here, despite their looks of surprise and awe, had any clue what they had just been through yesterday, or how close they had all come to dying.
And Parrish had a feeling deep down that if the four of them died, it wouldn’t matter how many compounds there were like this in the world or how safe they all seemed to think they were. Eventually, the witch Lily had called the Dark One was going to have enough power to break free, and this entire world—perhaps all of humanity—would be over.
The weight of that realization made every step feel heavy.
She agreed with Karmen. She hadn’t asked for this kind of responsibility. At least not in this lifetime. And she wanted to save Zoe more than anything else.
But the fate of this entire world rested on their shoulders. That truth was starting to become more obvious by the day. How could they ignore it?
They simply couldn’t, and no matter how tired or scared that made her feel, she knew they still had a long way to go before this was over.
She knocked on the door to Tank’s office, and he told her to come in. Both he and Crash were sitting by the desk, waiting for her.
“Where are Karmen and Noah?” Crash asked. “Didn’t they want to come?”
Parrish shook her head. “All Karmen cares about right now is getting the zombie guts off her arms,” she said. “And I don’t know about Noah. He
