The Plague Box Set [Books 1-4]

by Jones, Isla

  Somehow, I managed to get to the glass.

  Waist-down, I was submerged. My teeth chattered as I pounded on the glass. It didn’t so much as rattle.

  I called her name, over and over. But she’d left me. Summer, my own sister, the last of my family, left me to die. She drowned me.

  Tears slipped down my face. I tasted the salt on my tongue before they merged with the water surrounding me.

  “Summer!” My voice was drowned out by the waterfall around me. “Summer, please! Come back!”

  Rising and rising, the water devoured me. It came up to my breasts.

  I looked up at the ceiling—faucets all around sprayed down at me. I was done for. No more lives. No one left to save me—no one left to care.

  Sobs jolted through me. My face twisted and I slumped against the glass, letting the sobs wash over me like the water. I gave in and shut my eyes. It would be easier, I thought, to close my eyes and hide from what was happening to me, happening all around me.

  “Summer,” I choked out.

  The glass wobbled.

  I jerked back and choked on the water that splashed into my mouth. Adam’s face, wild-eyed, cleared before me. He had a chair in his grip; he raised it and whacked it against the glass. Again, it wobbled. No cracks. No breaks.

  No chance.

  “GET CASTLE!” I shouted. My hands slapped against the glass, the water inching up to my chin. “GET CASTLE!”

  He couldn’t hear me. I cried the same words over and over—but no matter how loud I shrieked, Adam kept whacking the chair against the glass over and over.

  Finally, he stopped and threw the chair to the floor. He paced, his bulging eyes on me. Then, he paused, mind churning behind his eyes.

  He turned and ran up the corridor.

  “ADAM!” My cries couldn’t reach him. But I shouted his name until the water poured into my mouth and all that came from me was a gurgle.

  I’ve never been the best swimmer. The force of two dozen rivers crashing down on me didn’t help. Keeping my head afloat just enough to catch a breath was all I could manage, right before being hit back down. Choking on the coldest water I’d ever tasted, I dragged myself through the whirlpool to the table in the middle of the room. By the time I reached it, water swallowed up my whole body. I had to stretch up on the table to suck in a pinch of air.

  Head above water, I caught a glimpse of black by the window. Adam scrambled back into view and skidded to a halt. A second black blur almost took him off his feet.

  Castle.

  His name sputtered from my soaked lips. Like an injured bird, I flapped my arms in a frenzy to stay with the rising level.

  Castle didn’t hesitate a beat.

  His gun was out in a flash, aimed at the window. Before I could choke out a cry of protest, he squeezed the trigger. The bullet bounced off the glass and ricocheted to the wall behind him. He ducked just in time.

  Castle jerked upright and threw his head to the side. Adam’s face turned ghostly pale, wearing the same fear as Castle’s. They didn’t know what to do—how to get me out.

  The water kept rising, pushing me up and trying to drag me down at the same time. My shoes didn’t touch the table anymore, the ceiling drew nearer my face inch by inch. Even with Castle on the other side of the wall, churning through ways to get to me, the water hummed deep with the thrum of my racing heart. Sweat slipped off my body, joining with the water I sputtered out of my chattering lips. But the cold was the least of my worries.

  Gaze glued to Castle, I struggled to stay afloat and avoid the whirls all around me. Castle beat his gun against the glass. My hands pressed against the ceiling as I spat out a spurt of water.

  Castle shouted a silent noise in the corridor, his defeated eyes on mine. For a moment, I thought he was giving up on me. I recognised the sharp gleam in his glare, the same one I’d seen when Leo had returned to the group. Raw fear. Then, he whacked his gun against the glass again—and shouted something at me.

  I frowned, head bent all the way back. It took me a second to realise that he was pointing at something—the far corner of the room.

  Water foamed all around me, spraying like a storm’s birth. But even so, I saw it. The grate. The vent.

  A way out.

  Sucking in a deep breath, I rammed the ID card into my pocket and let the suction pull me under. The force of the faucets stole the clarity from around me—bubbles and swirls distorted my surroundings.

  Air ballooned from my lips as I jerked to my left.

  I dragged myself through the water to the corner, feeling an itch slowly ignite in my lungs. I hit the wall then pushed up for the grate. Hoarse breaths sucked in as much air as my lungs could fit, but my eyes locked onto the vent above me.

  I latched onto it.

  My fingers slipped through the grate. Water rose and rose, reaching up to my neck once more. The grate wouldn’t budge. It was screwed on.

  Panicking, I held onto the grate and looked at the window.

  Castle was gone. They both were.

  Castle had abandoned me. The realisation carved hollow spots all over me—my chest, my stomach, and even my throat. But I couldn’t give up.

  Tears could have been falling down my face, but I wouldn’t have known. All I felt was the final surge of the water rising over me, slipping up to the ceiling and my fingers tangled in the vent.

  A scream tore through me in bubbled gurgles as I rattled the vent. It wouldn’t give out, but it was the only chance I had. The water didn’t care. It slipped above my face and through the grate.

  Still, I gripped so tight that my knuckles ached. My body shook with the force of my last fight, a fight that dwindled with each breath I couldn’t take. The water grew heavier, my lungs reached for air. And my fingers slipped from the grate.

  I sank. Further and further until I just … floated.

  Above me, a flash of grey surged down.

  I blinked, in a daze, catching sight of the falling grate.

  Then there he was. The last person I saw before my eyes drifted shut.

  Castle…

  27.

  I woke to lips leaving mine. A fleeting moment, one that I treasure as a kiss that never happened. Then, palms hit down on me, forcing up a purge of metallic water from my lungs.

  I choked on the water that spilled from my mouth.

  “On your side.” Castle’s voice was as tight as violin strings. He flipped me over; cold metal pressed against my cheek as I spewed out the last of the water.

  I blinked, once, twice, and metal took shape all around me. We were in the vent. Shiny grey slats boxed us in.

  Kneeling at my head was Adam, not a drop of water marking his troubled face.

  Castle was pushed between my legs, crouched over me, hair plastered to his temples. Harsh breaths came from both of us, joining together in a wretched song that spoke of who we were, our destinies. Forever surviving, just barely.

  Not an ideal life, but the warmth in my chest didn’t care about that. Castle saved me—not for access to the CDC, not for himself. The blur of his shattered-glass eyes told me so.

  My hand shot up and snatched a fistful of his hair.

  In a breath, his lips were on mine, stiff and cold—raw. Then

  The rest of him followed. His hands clutched onto me with such desperation that it was as though he feared that letting me go would mean to lose me again.

  “Ahem.”

  Adam’s forced noise pulled me from the bubble of warmth the way Castle had pulled me from the water.

  Adam shifted onto his knees, crouching. “Sorry to interrupt—” Liar, I thought. “—but what the fuck just happened?”

  Castle released an echo of a sigh against my lips. He drew back from me, the redness lingering in his now-sharp gaze. I knew that look. I read him as easily as I read a street sign. The cutting glare of his eyes asked the same question Adam had—as well as his added, Why can’t you stay out of trouble?

  The truth is, trouble finds me.<
br />
  After I told them all that I knew, even about the rotter rooms and orchestrated apocalypse, we holed up in a supply closet a few corridors away.

  Castle gave me his black sweater to replace my sopping clothes, but the swap did little to dry out my tangled, wet hair or to stop the light chatter of my teeth.

  As Adam loaded his gun, Castle took me to the side.

  He didn’t get the chance to say it.

  “No.” My biting tone matched the glare of my eyes. Though, I likely looked like a drowned, rabid rat, rather than someone to be taken seriously. “I’m not staying behind. Finding Leo is just as much on me as the pair of you. Besides, I’m the only one who knows where he is.”

  I pinched Summer’s ID card between my fingers, watching Castle’s eyes frost over like mint leaves caught in a blizzard. “And,” I added, “I know the code.”

  Castle’s breath was hot on my face as he hissed, “Tell me the code and where those rooms are, Winter. If you think I’m going to march you into your umpteenth brush with death, you’re out of your fucking mind.”

  “If you think—” I jabbed my finger against his chest. “—I’m going to leave this revenge bullshit up to you lot, you’re a complete idiot.”

  The bright gleam of his furious eyes didn’t scare me anymore. Not even when he rolled his jaw to chew back whatever venomous words nipped at his tongue. I didn’t back down—there was no other option but to stand up to him. If I walked away or stayed hidden, I knew what they would do to Summer. And even after what she did to me … she was still my sister. I loved her.

  Surprisingly, that love couldn’t just be washed away by the ice-cold water she tried to drown me in. The deltas would choose a death sentence for her. I had to be with them to make sure that didn’t happen.

  “You’re a walking target,” spat Castle.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Adam nodding to himself, making no effort to hide his eavesdropping.

  “Everywhere you go,” Castle barked, “every time we’re at odds with others, what happens? A bullet goes in here.” He poked my stomach, then tapped my shoulder. “Or you sprain your ankle, knock yourself out, almost drown in a sealed room! What part of this is unclear to you, Winter? Do I have to tie you up and lock you in here to keep you safe?”

  At that moment, I regretted kissing him. The regret burned so hot inside of me that the urge to tear off his lips twitched my fingers. Instead, I levelled my gaze with his and curled my lip.

  “You’re the most arrogant dick I’ve ever met,” I seethed. “The fact that you’d even think about taking my choice away from me just proves that everything you confessed to me was a load of garbage. This isn’t about me and you, or even about Leo. It’s my sister you’re going up against. Don’t think I won’t do everything I can to stop you from killing her.”

  Castle shot forward, his face a breath away from mine. “She tried to kill you!”

  I pushed up on my toes. “She’s my sister!”

  Adam cut in; “We’re supposed to be keeping a low profile here.”

  The glare Castle touched him with even made my toes curl. Yet, Castle didn’t argue. Teeth clenched, he shut his eyes and took a deep breath through his flared nostrils. As he tried to find some scraps of patience for me, Adam pushed from the wall and doused the argument between Castle and me with just words.

  “Recovering Leo should be our first priority.” Adam paused to throw me an unreadable look. “We can detain Dr Miles until we agree on what to do with her.”

  It wasn’t what I wanted to hear, or even promising enough to feed me hope. But it was enough to make Castle nod stiffly. Then, without sparing me a glance, he handed me a gun.

  Not a minute later, we left the closet and crept through the sterile halls to where I was sure Leo was being kept. That was the easy part. But I knew … the hard part was yet to come.

  *

  Curses and blessings come in all shapes, colours and sizes.

  Sometimes, they come masked as each other. I’m still unsure which one Castle and Leo were. Life itself could be either.

  When we made it to that thick security door without bumping into Summer, I couldn’t tell whether or not that was a curse in blessed wrappings. Time—as it always did—would tell.

  We’d passed two soldiers on the way, not far from the closet we’d taken refuge in. There mustn’t have been a hit out on the deltas yet, because the soldiers had hardly spared us more than a glance or two.

  Still, Castle and Adam take no chances.

  I looked away while they did it.

  Two quick snaps of the necks, a heaped thump … silence.

  Life is fickler than my conscience—a conscience that seemed to have drowned under the faucets.

  At the door, I rounded on the panel and looked over my shoulder at the deltas behind me. Castle held my stare, unwavering. He wasn’t going to look away. I pushed closer to the panel and swiped the card. Cupping my hand, I shielded the code from his steady gaze.

  There were some things I trusted Castle with. My life, for example. Then there were others things … like my sister’s life and the code to her card.

  The door groaned before it swung open to the blinding fluorescents beyond. I frowned under the horrid lights.

  Guns raised, Castle and Adam swept inside without even a blink.

  I wasn’t as trained. I rubbed my sore eyes and shuffled in after them. The door re-bolted shut behind us, making me jerk a little. Castle looked back at me, a flicker of a question on his face.

  “I’m ok.” My mumbled words were followed by the squeak of my wet shoes as I hurried closer to them.

  The three of us kept tight down the wide hall.

  Most of the rotters from before were still inside their secured rooms. I spotted Noah, the cargo-boy, and the doctor who Summer had blamed for the outbreak within the CDC. Though, now that I knew how much she’d lied about, I suspected she’d infected him on purpose to gain control.

  The reminder of the infected sergeant only strengthened my theory.

  Castle stopped at the sergeant’s window. I’d forgotten to tell Castle about him…

  “Oh,” I said. “Yeah, he’s infected. Um, Summer didn’t want me to tell you because that means—”

  “I have rank,” he finished to himself.

  A spark of something burned in his eyes. A curse or a blessing yet to form.

  We moved ahead, straight to the end of the hall until we all stopped at the window to the left.

  There he was. Worse than I’d expected. Weak.

  The sight of him silenced all three of us. It turned us into statues and we all just … stared.

  I blinked out of my horrified daze and dragged myself to the glass door.

  Inside, Leo didn’t look up. He stayed slumped against the wall, knees drawn to his chest, head in his bloodied and bruised hands. Whatever they’d done to him, he’d tried to stop it. He’d fought, hard. The tears on his skin said as much, and the white pants he wore were shredded in some places, stained with the red of his blood. Or someone else’s.

  My gaze refused to leave his defeated posture.

  I raised my hand and balled it into a fist, but I hardly remember knocking against the thick glass. It wasn’t thick enough to silence my knock.

  Leo stirred.

  Lazily, he lifted his head and looked up. He might’ve moved in a way that told of agony and defeat, but his eyes burned so darkly that my heart jumped up to my throat.

  A whisper of relief came from my lips as we locked gazes—with his eyes so dangerous and full of life.

  We weren’t too late.

  28.

  Bolts of power jolted through us at the same time.

  Just as he jumped to his feet, I rammed the card into the panel and punched in the code. Behind me, Adam took point for the entrance and Castle swept up to my back. He reached around me to whip open the door before Leo could stagger into it.

  Instead, Leo staggered into me.

  The forc
e of his sagged weight almost took me off my feet. My shoes squeaked against the floor, but before the floor could rise up to hit me, Leo’s arms locked around me, tight.

  I stood rigid for a moment, then, slowly, I wrapped my arms around his scarred waist.

  “For once,” he rasped into my ear, “I condone your sneakiness.”

  A smile tugged at my lips as I peeled myself from his hold. “You’re welcome.”

  Castle took my place and pulled Leo into him.

  That one shared hug yanked me back to reality.

  As surreal as it felt watching them embrace, it was the truth right in front of me. A reminder. Leo and Castle were friends—they’ve been friends for years, long before they even worked together. Sometimes, I might’ve felt caught between them, but no matter what happens, who or what I choose, they’ll be friends until their final breaths.

  Through the sudden realisation, I have to admit, I felt weight being lifted from my shoulders. Their embrace vanished a worry I hadn’t even known I’d had. But then, it wasn’t long before another worry took its place—

  “Someone’s coming.” Adam’s sharp voice cut through the hall.

  I traced his focused stare to the door where the blinking light stopped flickering. Someone was using the panel on the other side. Before I could react, Castle snatched my arm and shoved me into the rotter room.

  A grunt came from me as I tumbled inside. I made to round on him, but the groan of the entrance stopped me.

  In the hall, Castle shoved a gun into Leo’s hand and—a mere second of thick tension swallowed the world whole.

  The silence shattered. Gunfire erupted in the hall.

  I threw myself against the wall on instinct, the aches of healed wounds guiding me. My arms caged my head like a helmet, so tight that I couldn’t steal a peek at the hall.

  Even when the shots stopped firing, I stayed rigid until warm hands pried my arms apart and I found myself looking into eyes the colour of ripe frosty apples.