CONTAMINATION
INVASION SURVIVOR BOOK ONE
HAYLEY LAWSON
Contamination (this book) is a work of fiction.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Copyright © 2018 by Hayley Lawson. All rights reserved.
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
AUTHORS NOTE
MORE FROM HAYLEY LAWSON
BOOKS BY HAYLEY LAWSON
To Chris Hemsworth, thank you for brightening my day.
(Don’t worry my husband never reads my books)
Hayley
CHAPTER ONE
AJ’s whole body ached, and he didn’t know why.
“AJ, AJ.” The voice sounded disembodied, even creepy.
Turning, he looked at his companions, but no one paid him any attention. They were all busy—hazing, talking among themselves, or checking out the new girls. He frowned and turned to resume his walk down the college hallway.
“Your assignment just started,” the voice told him.
“What the hell?” he exclaimed, turning once more to look around him.
Those closest to him looked at him, their expressions questioning.
“What assignment?” he asked, directing the question to no one in particular in the hope that someone else might have heard the voice.
“What are you talking about?” his friend Brent asked him.
“Did you hear that?”
His friends looked at each other, confusion written plainly on their faces.
Is it an act? He had to wonder.
“Heard what?” Brent asked as if he thought it was expected.
“Quit playing with me, I’m not in the mood, okay?” AJ snapped.
Brent came and gave him a one-arm sideways hug. “Are you okay, man? You seemed a bit off at practice today.”
“I’m fine,” he grumbled, still believing this whole voice in the head thing was one of their pranks. Or maybe his brain was simply fried from playing Reapers and the Mass Effect series all night.
But it was a good night, he remembered with a smile. His teammates and he had killed a bunch of aliens. It was freaking epic.
“Okay.” Brent immediately backed off.
“Collect the Seedling and bring it to the mothership,” the voice commanded.
AJ looked expectantly at Brent. “How could you not hear that?” he demanded, slightly freaked out.
“Um, AJ, are you high right now? What is going on?” Brent laughed, which only annoyed him. He didn’t take drugs, and his friend knew that.
“Oh, bite me,” AJ retorted, but it was all for show. His anger had already faded, gone just as quickly as it appeared.
“You would like that, wouldn’t you,” Brent heckled.
AJ jumped on his back. “Only if you ask me nicely,” he said in a sweet voice, making kissing noises while laughter erupted all around them.
“Get off me, you clown,” Brent grumbled but laughed along with the crowd. Then he sobered and looked seriously at AJ. “Hey man…” He spoke quickly once AJ stopped with the theatrics.
“What?” AJ asked.
“You have blood on your shirt,” Brent informed him.
AJ looked and, true enough, a few specks of blood had ruined one of his favorite T-shirts.
“What the hell?” He checked whether his nose was still bleeding. “I’ll catch up with you later,” he added, wiping his nose with the hem of his shirt.
“Where are you going?”
“Back to my room. I don’t have a spare shirt in my locker,” he explained, already running. Luckily, his dorm room was close by so he could get cleaned up before morning classes and still be on time for everything.
Once in his room, AJ changed quickly but froze on his way, the hair rising on the back of his neck.
“Get the Seedling. Return to the mothership,” the voice repeated. It sounded much stronger now, and his heart rate kicked up a notch.
“Come home.”
“Come home.”
Looking frantically around the room, AJ confirmed that the TV was off. He’d turned his phone off too, so there was no way the noise had come from them.
It had to have a physical source; the other option was too terrifying to think about for even a second.
I am not crazy, AJ told himself sternly.
“Come home.”
He spun around, looking for the voice. “Stop it, you guys. This isn’t funny anymore,” he yelled but the protest was futile.
Those same words continued to repeat themselves over and over in his head.
Fucking Brad, he thought with sudden clarity. Fucking Brad Michelson is messing with me!
That dude was always causing trouble and pulling crazy pranks. This must be one of his as well. AJ was equally pissed and relieved that he’d managed to solve the mystery.
“Nice going, Brad,” he said, feeling only slightly embarrassed while to the empty room. “Where is it?” He looked around his room, trying to find the hidden microphone or some other device that would prove his theory.
Conscious of the time, he checked hurriedly under his bed, turned his mattress, looked behind his books, and patted the floor and walls but came out empty handed.
Maybe it’s on me? He remembered he heard the voice in the hall first.
AJ stripped, even changing his sneakers before going to classes. Though he examined every item of clothing, he didn’t find a speaker.
But the voice had stopped.
As he stepped outside of his room, the wind increased in velocity. He frowned, knowing it would ruin a perfectly good day.
Still muttering about the weather, AJ picked up his pace and noticed a flock of birds flying together in perfect formation. Then, as one, they banked quickly away from something.
AJ grimaced, trying to figure out what had caused them to switch direction. It was as if something invisible had got in their way, but that was crazy talk.
He really did play too many video games because his imagination was running wild.
While making fun of himself, he saw with slow-motion clarity as a couple of those same birds crashed into something that was clearly there but wasn’t at the same time. Sadly, they plummeted to the ground, either dead or knocked out cold. His focus on the sky while he continued to rush back to class, he didn’t look where he was going and ran into someone.
“Hey, watch it, jackas
s,” Jessica snapped at him.
“Sorry,” he replied absentmindedly but she glared at him like he’d committed a capital crime.
But even that wasn’t enough to pull his fixed attention from the sky, and once more, his gaze traveled upward, trying desperately to see something—anything—that would explain the odd behavior of the birds.
What is going on here?
“It is time for you to come home, AJ.” The voice returned as if in response to his question. “But first, you must collect a Seedling.”
A cloud drifted lazily closer to where the birds had crashed. AJ squinted and concentrated, hoping for a clear look at whatever was up there. The cloud shifted and flurried, then settled in a strange shape around the invisible object—was it a spaceship?
CHAPTER TWO
I’m going to die of math boredom. Paige sighed, tapping her pen on her open book. She so badly wanted out of her Mathematical Statistics class.
Not so great of a first day, she mused.
Glancing at the notebook in front of her, she realized she’d completely spaced out and hadn’t taken any notes during class. She had written Johnson’s initials—AJ—with a heart around them, instead. Over and over again, like she was a girl in freshman year of high school.
AJ was late to class, which was out of character for him. Paige wondered if he was okay, then looked back down at her masterpiece.
What am I? A twelve-year-old girl with a crush?
No, you’re an idiot, a freaking senior in college with a childish crush, she corrected herself.
In all honesty, she didn’t even want a boyfriend. The last jerk she’d been with really broke her heart, and that left her too timid to even try.
Suddenly disgusted by the evidence of her weakness, Paige ripped the paper from her book with unnecessary force. The sharp ripping sound echoed through the classroom like gunfire.
“Really smooth, Paige,” she mumbled to herself while all her classmates turned to stare at her. More like glare, actually, but she ignored the obvious.
To those who were more persistent, she gave her trademark “what?” look, and that made them back off.
They all acted as if she committed murder or something. All she’d actually done was rip a single page, though that, in turn, woke the bunch of them who had all no doubt been zoned out as well.
Still, Mrs. Wilson’s reaction was the best. She jumped slightly and yelped at the same time, managed to misstep, tripped, and had to hold onto the writing board so she didn’t fall. Naturally, everyone laughed.
Paige included.
Some reenactment would inevitably follow, but their professor called out for order quite sternly, and everyone settled down—once she regained her equilibrium, that is.
Paige found something else that intriguing, though. Mrs. Wilson’s reaction was so over the top as if she had just woken from a sleep. Paige wanted to giggle thinking how the old woman’s lecture was so boring she even put herself to sleep with it.
That little unintentional stunt of hers really helped in brightening the mood in the classroom, because up to that point, it had been quite depressing.
The first day of school after spring break could be like that. Everyone was still dreaming about vacations and lamenting that they had to be in stifling classrooms instead of on beaches or mountains.
Paige didn’t have a problem with that. She wasn’t sad about being back at school because she never left, but she was bored out of her mind nevertheless.
Once upon a time, she’d enjoyed math and solving all kinds of mathematical problems but of late, even the advanced classes didn’t provide a challenge. Not as much as one would wish or expect from a place like this.
Her phone vibrated, and Paige took it slowly out of her pocket. At the same time, she made sure Mrs. Wilson didn’t see and surreptitiously checked the text she’d just received.
It was from her little sister, Willow, and it was simply a bunch of emojis piled together. They played that little game sometimes—communicated through pictures or emojis—and Paige knew this would take her some time to decipher so she put it away for later.
The classroom door flung open in a hurry. AJ closed it quickly and made a beeline for his seat.
“Sorry I’m late, Mrs. Wilson,” he said hastily as he sat down. His hair was all untidy, which again, wasn’t like him. He smiled sweetly at Mrs. Wilson. No one in their right mind couldn’t forgive AJ with that smile.
Mrs. Wilson waved at him. “Is everything okay?” She seemed concerned.
AJ nodded without his usual charming comment. He must be sick. Or he’s just a normal person who slept in…no, he must be sick.
Mrs. Wilson continued with her lecture as Paige gazed at the back of AJ’s head. His hair was freshly cut and revealed the white skin which hadn’t seen the sun.
She looked around the class and was slightly envious of her classmates because they had all gone somewhere on spring break. They did things and experienced new places, only to return, while she was stuck there constantly.
She couldn’t leave Charles Rosehill, which was in Connecticut and was one of the best and most prestigious colleges in the country, during her spring break. The Ivy League had nothing on this place, where kids from all around the world practically fought tooth and nail for a single place.
And since it was so exclusive, it was filled with celebrity kids or royals. Paige, regretfully, was neither of those things.
Her mom had selected this college for her after basically scouting the whole world for the perfect place, and her grades ensured she got it. But her dad was still pretty annoyed when he got his credit card statement.
And why was she abandoned during spring break?
As a small child, she’d lived in Philadelphia with her parents. Once they’d split and Paige started college, they sold the house and didn’t quite have a home base anymore.
Her dad worked for NASA and was usually too busy, which was understandable considering where he worked.
Their schedules were always far too crazy, so planning a vacation with him was difficult, to say the least. Still, she loved him very much and was grateful he let her stay at Charles Rosehill, but that didn’t stop her from missing him.
Besides, they Face Timed a lot nowadays, so it was manageable.
There wasn’t a chance in hell she would stay with her mother at the Institute, so Paige ended up staying in her college dorm.
Willow also stayed at her school over the break. It was located only a few blocks away, a lucky coincidence for the sisters. They managed to spend a lot of time together simply goofing around and enjoying their time off.
Paige sighed. Thinking about her family was never a good idea because they were so close—in a very odd sort of way—and yet lived so far away from one another. She banished those thoughts and the sadness they brought and concentrated on the task at hand.
Which was destroying the evidence of her stupid crush, of course.
She rolled the paper she’d previously ripped in a ball, ready to throw it away. Once again, everyone was aware of the gesture, as if they watched her every movement.
It felt like when she tried her best to be silent in a movie theater while eating chips, but in reality, she only sounded louder than ever. Every crunch was more like an earth-shattering scream, and she simply wanted to kill herself rather than try to take another bite. Even if she was starving.
It was exactly like that, she decided, only more embarrassing since the lights were on.
I’m really on a roll today, Paige thought sarcastically while she ignored her classmates who, for some weird reason, seemed quite irked by her behavior.
The one person she couldn’t completely ignore was Chen.
She turned to look at her, and she wondered if she would scowl or roll her eyes at her. It was a constant thing between them—a game of sorts—and sometimes, she really enjoyed it.
She liked Chen, who was super smart and a good friend.
As they still
eyed one another, she bet on scowling but suspected Chen wanted to do both.
Go on Chen, you can do it, roll your eyes just once, Paige urged her mentally but then something else caught her attention.
A single red drop of blood trickled slowly from Chen’s nose, grew bigger, and fell on her notebook. Even from where she sat, Paige could see it had destroyed a whole section of her perfect handwritten notes.
She frowned because that was such a shame. Chen put a lot of work and effort into those.
“Chen,” Paige whispered and nodded toward her book in an attempt to bring her attention to the matter at hand. Or nose, as it was.
Chen turned pale, almost ghost-like, and Paige felt nervousness rise slowly in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t like what was happening one bit.
And who knew a simple nose bleed could freak her out so much.
Especially as Chen simply continued to stare at her with her almond eyes—like she actually looked right through her—not bothering to wipe the blood off her face or try to stop it in any way.
On impulse, Paige looked quickly behind her to make sure no one was there. Satisfied that she had no lurker creeping up on her, she turned to look at Chen again. The strange behavior puzzled her.
She’d never heard that a nosebleed could cause mental damage.
Luckily, as if Paige’s movements woke her from her weird trance, Chen finally blinked and noticed the blood.
She rubbed at it as if she needed to make sure it was real, which only caused it to smear completely across her notes.
Paige watched all of this in confusion because her friend was not acting like herself. At all.
Another drop fell. It landed on the back of her palm and she finally raised her hand over her face as if to stop it.
Still, that wasn’t enough.
Chen’s pale hand turned scarlet as the blood seeped through the gaps in her fingers, soaking everything in its path. Even Paige, with her limited experience, could see there was way too much blood.
“Oh, damn, Chen,” Paige exclaimed, worried now because Chen looked like she would bleed to death in a matter of minutes. Which was ridiculous—as if she could die from a nosebleed.
Contamination (Invasion Survivor Book 1) Page 1
