by Piper Leigh
I desperately wanted that chance. And if I waited any longer, that opportunity might pass. Of course, if we made a run for it, we could also get caught and shoved back in the cells. Or maybe this mysterious “something” Benson had wouldn’t work and we’d turn into zombies…and infect every remaining human on Zombicus.
I decided even the possibility of freedom, health and love was worth the risk.
We quickly reached the fan and climbed through its motionless blades. “There’s another one farther down,” Benson said. “We have to get there fast!”
I didn’t question him and together we ran full-out.
“The surveillance system is off in the utility hallway and on the staff entrance,” Benson panted. “I’ve got the system rigged to look like it’s still on. It’ll take them a while to figure it out. I hope.”
That seemed like a long shot to me, but I kept running as Benson briefly and breathlessly outlined our escape route. I hadn’t used my leg muscles for much beyond sex lately and they protested with a multitude of aches. Sure, I’d worked out in the facility’s gym. Sorta. But this was a full-out, terror-fueled run.
The tunnel curved again, slowing us, but we kept rushing toward the utility corridor, the decline gentle but steady as we descended the levels. Facility personnel used that doorway. It had a security system. I prayed that whatever Benson did to the surveillance would hold, the thought of a possible cure and freedom spurring me to run even faster.
We met another of those giant fans and climbed through.
“Why haven’t they figured out the ventilation system is off?” I whispered.
“Because I’ve input security codes that tell them to check a possible malfunction. That can be overridden, but they’ll have to run diagnostics first.”
We passed another grate. Guards walked by in the tunnels beyond. More guards than usual, it seemed to me, but they weren’t running anywhere. Whatever Benson had done, they hadn’t gone on high alert yet.
After what seemed like endless twists and turns, we ended our journey in the ventilation tunnel on the second level. One huge fan stood between us and the final grate. A stretch of corridor lay beyond that. We’d have to make it down that exposed passageway to get to a set of stairs leading to the exit.
Benson glanced at this chrono. “We’re running out of time. Once they’ve figured out the ventilation system’s been sabotaged, they’ll wonder about the surveillance.” He motioned toward the silent fan. “You first.”
I climbed through the blades and turned to wait for Benson.
Above me, I heard a clunk as the machinery engaged. The fan began to power up.
“Benson!”
He gave me a desperate look when the fan blades jerked.
I held my breath.
The blades began moving.
I opened my mouth to scream just as Benson jumped—
And landed on the floor beside me.
The blades picked up speed. I sighed, putting out my hand to help him to his feet. “That was too close.” He nodded. “We have to get out of this ventilation tube.”
Benson undid the bundle on his back. “Here, put these on.”
The breeze from the massive fan snatched at our clothes as we struggled into our disguises. We were now kitchen staff, complete with one-piece jumpsuits, hairnets and mouth coverings. With the wind shrieking around us, Benson pulled a tool from his pocket and unscrewed the grate. After a quick glance to make sure the passageway was clear, we stepped out of the tunnel. He wedged the grate back into place and grasped my arm.
“This way. Walk at a regular pace. We don’t want to look like we’re in a hurry.”
My heart pounding, I made myself stroll beside Benson. We turned a corner and the final stretch of corridor lay before us. Guards passed, moving faster this time. I guessed security was beginning to realize something was up. A couple of guards looked in our direction and I couldn’t hear anything over my pulse beating in my ears. But Benson’s disguises appeared to work, because they gave us no more than a cursory glance as they moved on.
The back of my neck itched with the urge to turn around and check the hall but we continued to walk as though we had all the time in the world. We reached the stairs and skipped down them leisurely toward the staff entrance.
Now only the exit door itself lay between us and freedom.
Benson stopped at the access keypad and input a code.
A red light flashed. He swore softly under his breath.
I wanted to hop from foot to foot with impatience and anxiety, but I worried about what the cameras might see. A couple of staff leaving after a shift was no big deal. Someone hopping around anxiously might be.
Benson input a new code. I held my breath.
The light flashed green.
The door swung open and we strolled through it into the yard. Now we just had the guardhouse to get past. Once through, we could hopefully get to a transport and leave the planet.
A transport rumbled by just outside the facility grounds. I stomped down on the instinct to storm the checkpoint and rush toward it. Instead we walked toward the guardhouse in that same easy stroll we’d taken down the utility hall. Benson gave the sentries a cheery wave. Apparently deciding we looked okay, a guard leaned through the window of the booth and pressed a button. The giant gates ground open. I barely managed to keep myself from passing out due to a heady combination of both anxiety and relief.
We stepped through the gates and onto the busy highway that led to the spaceport. The road wasn’t made for pedestrians. I feared for my life as vehicles whizzed by.
“What now?” I had to shout to be heard above the roar of the traffic.
He pointed to a settlement of low-rise buildings off to our left. “There’s staff housing over there. Let’s head that way.”
In the medical facility behind us, an alarm went off. Instinctively I turned my head.
“Don’t look back,” Benson said. “We don’t want to give anyone the idea we have anything to do with this. Just keep walking.”
“Won’t they be looking for us now?”
“By now, probably.” He smiled. “But they won’t be searching for a couple of kitchen staff going home after a shift.”
“We don’t have anywhere to go at the housing facility.”
“I have a place.”
“It’ll be too dangerous to go there.”
“That’s probably the first place they’d look,” he agreed.
“So where are we going?”
“We need to get off-world as fast as possible.”
“But they have scanners at the spaceport. They’ll know we’re infected.”
Benson put his hand in his pocket and brought out a pressure-loaded syringe. “They would…unless we’ve taken this. I’ve already had mine. This one is for you.”
“What is it?”
“Very likely the cure. They developed it from the blood of the red-furred woman’s daughter.”
“Gryl’s daughter?”
He nodded. “Turns out the virus just raced through her system. Even with the drugs, she went downhill much faster than most.”
A transport whipped by us. Benson stopped talking for a moment until the sound of its motor retreated enough for me to hear him again.
“But then they found out something pretty amazing. The virus went through her daughter’s body so quickly, it burned itself out. So they started studying her.” He held up the syringe. “And this is what they came up with. They’re still testing it, but it’s removed all traces of the virus from everyone they’ve tried it on so far.”
“What about Gryl? Did she get better too?” I’d been so sure Gryl was dead.
“She did. They tested it on Gryl and refined it a bit more.”
“So all those people they were dragging off downstairs were actually working the virus out of their systems?”
He shook his head. “Most were just getting worse. For some reason, Gryl’s species seems to hold the secret to be
ating this thing.”
Shielding me from view with this body, Benson reached for my arm and pulled up my sleeve. I felt a brief pressure as the drug entered my system, then nothing.
“The faster this gets into your bloodstream, the better. In a couple of days you’ll be completely healthy. Their scanners won’t pick up anything. We just need a place near the spaceport to hide out.”
Chapter Five
Transports came and went along the road. Apparently it wasn’t unusual for staff to hitch a ride because all the traffic was headed either to or from the spaceport, with the housing and medical facilities the only real destinations. I held my breath as the giant hulk of one of those transports cruised to a stop beside us. It hovered, bouncing up and down slightly.
One glance at the giant sheets of metal bolted to its side made me want to run in the other direction. It didn’t look safe for human passengers. Ground transportation on this planet sure wasn’t pretty. It looked as if the whole thing had been made from scrap metal and spare parts. And it probably was. The outer planets made an art of recycling.
A huge door in the side opened with a shriek of protesting metal. Inside, rows of workers sat on crude benches. The seats could be folded against the wall when the transport carried goods instead of people. I guessed it made one trip to the facility with supplies and one back loaded with workers.
I held my breath as we climbed in, afraid any one of those staff members might recognize us. Then I remembered that our mouths were covered. With only our eyes showing, it wasn’t likely anyone would identify us. As it was, none of the staff gave us much notice. They resumed their conversations as soon as we sat down. Some got up to stretch their legs or talk to friends on other benches. Benson and I stayed where we were and pretended to doze while the transport headed for the staff lodgings.
I had almost drifted off to sleep for real when the transport stopped at the low buildings housing the facility’s workers. The structures looked like smaller versions of the medical unit, made of the same brown-orange girders and hollowed-out stone. Staff filed off the transport and headed for their apartments. Others drifted toward the neon sign of a local bar.
“Why are we getting off here?” I asked Benson when everyone else had dispersed. “I thought you said this would be the first place they’d look.”
“I said my apartment would be our obvious hiding place. Not someone else’s.” The mask still covered his mouth, but I could hear the humor in his voice.
“We’re going to hole up in someone else’s house?”
He nodded. “There are quite a few of the security staff in the infirmary right now. But with this new treatment, they won’t take them off the roster just yet. They’ll be needed to help handle the exodus when everyone is cured and ready to be returned home.”
It sounded reasonable enough. Except for the part about living in someone else’s place. “We’re going to break in to an apartment?”
“Not break in.” His eyes crinkled at the corners. “I work in security. I have the code.”
“But still—”
He grasped my shoulder and turned me in the direction of one of those low buildings. “We’re not going to damage anything. We’re just going to live in a friend’s company housing for a couple of days. Although…”
“Although what?”
“We may have to borrow a bit of money from his account…just for a while.” He held up a hand. “Once we’re off-world I can access my bank at home and pay him back. But we’ll need funds to get on a ship out of here.”
We reached the staircase that led to the upper floors of the building and began to climb. The unit Benson had in mind was on the second floor. We walked along the curving hallway until we came to a doorway that looked pretty much the same as all the others. Benson punched in a codes and the door swung open.
The unit’s owner didn’t spend much time housekeeping. Blankets lay in a twisted mess on the bed in the corner. The apartment’s only chair had practically disappeared under a mound of discarded uniforms. A small table was littered with dirty cups and plates.
“Not the fanciest accommodations,” Benson said, pulling off his mask.
I tugged off my own face covering. “I suppose we can clean up a bit.” I stuffed the bedding into the sanitary and put the dishes in the sonic washer.
That made him laugh. “Poor Lanny will be wondering who straightened up when he gets home.”
“And who took money out of his account and ate all his food.”
Benson put his arm around me and pulled me close. “Nah, the money will be back in his account before he gets home. The food…well, I’ll put in a bit extra to cover that.”
“But if they’re going to let everyone out, why couldn’t we stay?”
“It’ll take a while for them to process everyone. It could be months before everything’s cleared. And…”
“And what?”
“I’m facing disciplinary action for fraternizing with a resident.”
“You’d have to do time? For what we did together?”
“I’d have to have a hearing and then they’d decide.” He found some clean blankets and made the bed. “When we got together, it looked like the whole universe was going down. I figured in the long run it wouldn’t matter.”
“But now things are better?” Was this where he told me it was time to part ways? That our relationship was just a fling, a diversion in bad times?
“Things are better. I want my old life back.”
I had to ask. “With or without me?” Before he could answer, I added, “I mean, it’s okay if you’ve changed your mind. You got me out of that place.” I looked at my arm where he’d injected the drug. “You cured me. It’s not as if you owe me anything else.”
Benson gripped me gently by the shoulders. “I want you in my life, Janeece. Wherever I have to go now to start my life over, I want you with me.”
“But where will we go?’
He closed his mouth over mine, giving me a taste of what I could expect as the afternoon progressed. Then he pulled away. “Does it matter where we go?”
I thought about that. I’d had a life. Not a really exciting one, but a life nonetheless. I’d worked, hung out with friends. I had an apartment not much bigger than the cell I’d just left, but it was mine.
“The whole galaxy’s in a mess. We just need to find a place that’s safe so we can hole up for a while and let things calm down.”
Now that they had a drug, life would get better. For the first time since I’d been bitten, I felt truly optimistic. I moved in closer and kissed him again. “Any idea where we should go?” I asked when we came up for air.
“Being a guard, I heard things. Rumor has it the situation is far more stable in the Rodan quadrant. I also started keeping track of the ships that routinely came in to port. There’s a spacecraft due to depart for Rodan in a couple of days.”
I’d never been there. I hadn’t done much traveling at all. But after all the adventures I’d had in the last little while, an extended stay in the Rodan quadrant didn’t sound so bad.
I pulled him down on the bed beside me and kissed him with everything in me. He murmured something that sounded infinitely sexy in his own language. I didn’t understand the words, but his fervent tone got the message across clearly enough. We got up long enough to strip off our borrowed uniforms and toss them in the sanitary before reclaiming the bed.
I gazed into his eyes, seeing my own desire mirrored there. He gave me a smile full of promise then swiftly claimed the top, pinning me against the soft blankets.
We didn’t need to worry about how much noise we made here. Anyone listening would blame the racket on the unit’s rightful owner. Benson grasped my wrists, holding them above my head. I retaliated by hooking my legs around the backs of his knees and drawing him closer. I wanted him inside me now. But Benson seemed determined to torture me by taking his time.
His hot mouth teased the sensitive skin beneath my ear, setting off
landmines of pleasure all down my spine. I bucked, encouraging him to begin more energetic activity, but those little kisses continued down over my collarbone until they reached my breast.
I gasped as his lips closed around the tip of one hard peak. The feel of his hot mouth on my sensitive skin made my body move of its own accord. I rocked against him, rubbing the hard length of his cock against my clit. He moaned softly, his warm breath gusting over my breast.
I unlaced my legs and planted my heels against the bed so I could move him into the position I wanted. His lips left my breast and he raised his head. The hungry look in his eyes was all I needed to see. I angled my hips and took the tip of his hard cock inside.
With one sure stroke, he entered me. He released my hands, giving me the freedom to grasp his butt and pull him deeper still. He filled me completely. The sensation of his cock, so hard and deep, nearly took my breath away.
He gave me no time to recover before leisurely pulling out as far as my hands would let him then thrusting fully inside me again. That tantalizingly slow push and pull drove me crazy, and it went on seemingly forever, until every muscle in my body tensed, ready for the orgasm to come. Benson obliged by quickening his pace. Faster, harder. His rhythm becoming sloppy. He’d begun this game in control, now he was the one coming undone.
His mouth crushed mine and our tongues tangled together, mirroring what our bodies were doing. He moved even faster and I arched my hips to meet every thrust. What we’d done in the facility had been tame compared to this. We’d worried that every sound, every movement might be witnessed. Now we were free.
At that thought, my body tightened, squeezing him. Benson groaned a strangled oath. Someday I had to ask him what all those mysterious words meant. At the moment I didn’t care as I became lost in the pleasure sweeping me away. Benson thrust into me one last time. He whispered my name as he came.
He stared at me, eyes glazed with passion. “Janeece,” he said again with the same reverence.
I smiled. “Wow, that was…that was…”
“Intense?” he supplied.
I nodded. “Guess we were kind of holding back in the facility.”
