by L. A. Boruff
Scattered gunfire, booming explosions, and an angry mob chanting “death to Dr. Jones” did not make ideal working conditions. The four soldiers carrying scary machine guns while pacing around her converted desk worktable didn’t help either. But the men surrounding Indie loved her, and they’d sworn to guard her and her lab with their lives.
Were they foolish to think they could take a vacation? They’d fought so hard to end the Scarlet Infection, and they needed—no, they deserved—a getaway. As soon as Indie realized the virus had mutated, they let their flight to Cancun take off without them, stranding them at the airport hotel. Her men had ditched their civilian clothes and donned their fatigues and boots. She didn’t even know they’d packed them. Always soldiers. They’d also acquired weapons and other vital equipment necessary for defending themselves while the world crumbled into chaos. She didn’t ask how or why. Those questions she reserved for her work.
The floor under her feet trembled as a too-close explosion sent the slide under her microscope lens rattling across the stage. “Will someone please tell them to stop blowing things up?” She tightened the clips and adjusted the focus.
“As you wish, Doc.” Sergeant Cody Taggert marched out on the hotel room’s balcony and yelled, “Knock it off, assholes!”
Chunks of masonry cracked against the sliding glass door as an answering bullet struck the wall next to his head, sending Cody diving for cover behind Indie’s table. His wild, wavy hair flopped in his eyes like a cocker spaniel’s ear. He’d stopped cutting it when they’d questioned their status with the Army some weeks ago, a sign that he’d gone rogue while the others kept up regulations. He flipped it back with a defiant toss of his head and grinned up at her, green eyes glittering with untamed mischief.
“Brilliant move, dumbass.” Chief Warrant Officer Jack Ramsey snorted and offered a hand to help the young sergeant stand. “That was never going to work.”
He clapped his hand into Jack’s palm and bounced into his chest when Jack pulled him to his feet. “You never know until you try.” With a smooth move everyone except Indie ignored, Cody ground his hips against Jack’s. Then he spun and blew a kiss at Indie.
Their brazen flirting dragged Indie’s mind away from her test results and tossed it in the gutter. “Is that why you tried him?” She tilted her head toward Jack, who managed to blush and snarl at the same time. God, she loved his growly face. The man rarely smiled, and to be honest, his resting grouch face gave her a little thrill. But when Jack smiled at her, she tingled all the way to her toes.
“Pretty much.” Cody adjusted the front of his pants.
The scar angled above Jack’s upper lip whitened when he scowled, but his blue eyes lit as he tried to fight off a smile and failed. “Tried me and liked me.” He’d let his hair get longer too, and it swept his eyes like a loving caress.
Hot damn, when the two of them turned their lusty grins on each other all of Indie’s synapses fired at once, rendering her incapable of coherent thought.
“Licked you, liked you. All the same to me.” Cody flicked the tip of his tongue across his lips.
Indie fanned her face with her hand as heat crept up her neck to singe her cheeks. She’d witnessed their mutual liking and more, and it never failed to melt several million brain cells into orgasmic goo. Damn it, she needed those to focus on her task. “You boys are making me stupid hot. Stop distracting me.”
“Agreed,” Major Austin Tucker grumbled. “Knock it off and pay attention. It’s getting scary out there.” He waved the barrel of his rifle toward the windows. “Get back to your posts.”
Jack patted Cody on the butt while Cody slid his hand over Jack’s zipper before the two darted behind the heavy drapes.
With order somewhat restored, Indie picked up her slide and eased it under the microscope lens. “If this test fails…” She bit her lower lip. The rest of her sentence felt like overkill.
Austin peeked over her shoulder as he paced behind her. “We’ll keep trying.”
“We?” Under normal circumstances, his close supervision would’ve grated on her nerves, but she’d gotten used to having her soldiers nearby—preferred it, even. She leaned back slightly to brush her butt against Austin on his return pass, and he rewarded her comfort seeking with a squeeze of her ass cheek. The close-trimmed, Army-compliant beard he’d worn since she’d first met him had gotten thicker, softening his set jaw and highlighting his intense blue eyes.
Lieutenant Eli Cobb stepped forward. As the only black man in the group, he naturally stood out from the other soldiers. His gentle smile and weary eyes belied a mind always at work, always alert. “Tell us what you need.”
“I need someone to survive this.” Indie sighed. She’d hoped the antibodies the guys had built up after enduring the Scarlet Infection would lead her to a cure for the mutation, but so far, all of her tests had failed.
Cody abandoned his post at the window again, marching across to room to stand before her. “I’ll be your lab rat, Doc.”
“The fuck you will!” Jack chased after him, snagging his arm to drag him away from her test tubes.
“No one’s volunteering to be an experiment.” Austin shook his head and used the butt of his rifle to direct the men back toward the window.
Cody sidestepped the Major’s efforts to herd him. “We all survived the Scarlet Infection, so we might have an edge on the Scarlet Hell. I’m the youngest one of us, the hardiest, the best looking–”
“The craziest.” Jack cuffed him upside the head. “You’re willing to gamble with your life?”
“Wouldn’t be the first time.” Unrelenting mischief sparked in Cody’s eyes.
“Fucking nuts,” Eli muttered.
“Cody, you’re an angel.” Indie placed her hand on his shoulder and kissed his cheek. “But hell no.” She refused to risk any of them.
Austin lost his cool and roared at the men under his command. “No one is volunteering to be an experiment!”
Of course, they ignored him. “Fallen angel,” Cody corrected her with a rare serious tone.
Indeed. Indie suppressed a smile. “I was immune to the first virus, so I thought—I hoped—that my blood would hold the key to the cure for its mutation, but so far, nothing works.” Indie mashed her lips together, unable to keep them from quivering.
Eli picked up the TV remote and increased the volume.
Indie glanced up at the noise and recognized the picture on the screen.
“The Army is struggling to keep order as panicked residents attempt to flee the Scarlet Hell’s infection. Reports of rioting and looting in major cities across the country filter in as social barriers break down. Bodies litter the streets because people are afraid to properly tend to the dead. Desperate protestors have gathered in front of a hotel near the airport, the last reported sighting of Dr. Indiana Jones. Some experts place blame for the mutation squarely on her. But questions remain as to her exact whereabouts. Is she still in Dallas, and if so, why hasn’t she come forward with a cure? Why hasn’t she saved us?”
“I’m trying!” Indie clapped her hand over her mouth, but a sob burst through. “I’m working as fast as I can. Testing everything, every one of us. They’ve all failed!” She wrung her hands and circled her worktable. “I can’t do this. I can’t–” She stopped in her tracks and took a deep breath. “I can’t give up. There’s got to be something else I can do. I need…help. I need a new sample. That’s it!” She grabbed a syringe and marched toward the door. “I’ll go out and–”
“No!” All four soldiers surrounded her, penning her in.
“Yes!” She shoved Austin’s shoulder as Eli snatched the needle from her hand. “I can do this. I can! You’ve got to let me out.”
Cody frowned at Jack. “Doc’s wound up tighter than her sexy scientist bun.”
Jack cradled her elbow and pulled her close. “Do you need an orgasm?”
Indie shook off the idea. “We don’t have time.” She tried to push between them, but the wa
lls of muscle would not move.
“That’s not what I asked you.” Jack spoke in a low tone, firm yet soothing.
Indie caught her breath and recalled his question. An orgasm. God, yes, she needed one. The endorphin rush had always released her tension before, especially with four sculpted soldiers lending a hand, or a tongue, or… A hot tingle zipped down her spine at the memory. “Of course, I do.”
“She’s right.” Eli glanced out the window as shouts echoed from the hotel entrance below. The death chant increased in volume while curls of smoke floated up past the balcony. “We don’t have time.”
“That’s why I need to get out now!” Indie jerked her arm from Jack’s grip and rushed toward the door.
Austin caught her and hauled her in against his chest. “We have time for this.” His big hand swung, connecting his open palm with her bottom.
“Ow!” Indie flinched back and rubbed her stinging butt, fixing a glare at the grinning major. “How did that help?”
Austin shrugged. “It helped me.”
“Me too.” Cody gripped his crotch while Jack and Eli grunted their apparent agreement.
The sound of breaking glass and twisting metal jarred Indie from her panicked haze. Eli ran to the balcony and looked down. “They broke through the door. We’re out of time!” He darted back inside as the window shattered behind him, pelting his back with shards of glass.
Jack and Austin swept Indie out the door while Cody and Eli grabbed their backpacks and followed them down the hall.
“My lab equipment!”
“Leave it.” Austin curled his arm around her waist. “If we don’t get out now, we never will.”
She turned in their arms and stretched out her hand only to smack Cody in the face.
“We gotta save our asses first, Doc.”
No! She’d saved herself while her mother lay dying in the hospital, and when she’d finally found the cure for the Scarlet Infection and returned to her family, she’d found her father and sister dead, her brother Monte missing. “And then what?”
No one answered her.
Jack yanked the stairwell door open and pointed his gun inside. Angry shouts echoed up the cement shaft. “Can’t go that way.”
Austin whirled and ran toward the opposite end of the hall, dragging Indie by the arm. She stumbled on her feet as Cody and Eli spun to follow them. The stairwell door on that end flew open, and a mob spilled through.
Cody skidded in front of the elevators and slapped both the up and down buttons. “Stall them!”
Austin and Jack fired in opposite directions, spraying the walls with bullets. Chunks of paint and drywall flew toward the protestors, driving them back.
Eli scanned an elevator a few feet away from the main bank then reached up and pressed a hidden button at the top of the frame. The doors immediately slid open. “Service elevator.”
“Get inside!” Cody shoved Indie into the car then dragged Eli with him while Jack and Austin backed in, firing as the doors closed.
They collapsed against the walls and caught their breath as the elevator lurched upward. Indie pressed her hand to her slamming heart. “Why are we going up?”
“Front doors are compromised,” Eli informed her. “If we can get to the parking garage, we might be able to find a vehicle to get us out of here.”
“If? Might? That’s a lot of gambling.” She preferred facts, not probabilities.
Cody cracked his infamous cocky grin. “Place your bet with us, Doc. My money’s on Eli’s brain, Austin’s lead, Jack’s gun, and my balls.”
“Sounds like a sure thing.” Indie smiled and kissed him.
The elevator stopped at the roof, and the men spilled out, guns first, Indie in their center.
“Garage is that way.” Eli took off toward the edge of the building. The guys all paused beside him and stared down.
“Ten, twelve-foot drop.” Austin eyed the parking area below. “Doable?” He glanced at Eli.
Eli frowned. “It’ll hurt.”
Cody moved along the ledge. “Shorter if we jump on top of that.” He pointed to a moving truck backed against the hotel’s exterior.
Indie peered over the side, and her heartbeat faltered. “I can’t do that.”
“I’ll go first.” Austin stroked her arm. “You jump with Cody. I’ll catch you.”
Blood rushed through her limbs, making her head spin. “Promise?”
Austin nodded. “Jack and Eli, cover us.” He stared past them at the advancing mob. “Go!” Then he dropped over the ledge.
Cody grabbed her hand as bullets zipped past them. “Tuck and roll, Doc.”
Indie held her breath and jumped. Her feet hit the truck’s metal roof too quickly, jarring her skull as she pitched forward into Austin’s waiting arms.
Eli and Jack followed and they scrambled to the ground, taking cover inside the cab.
“Can you hotwire this thing?” Austin shot a glare at Cody.
“Absofuckinlutely.” Cody whipped out his pocket knife, stripped the wires, and crossed them, grinning with hopeful glee. Nothing happened. “Damn it.”
“Get it started, Sergeant.” Austin snarled at him and fired out the passenger side window.
He pulled another wire loose and stripped that. “I got it, I got it.” Still nothing. “Fuck.” Cody’s hands shook as he crossed the wires in different combinations. “Fuck me to hell and back.”
Eli peered in the passenger side mirror. “Shit! They’re coming!” He hoisted his rifle to his shoulder.
Indie clutched Cody’s trembling arm. “Hurry!”
“Why isn’t this working?” Cody slid to the floor and dug under the dash, pulling more wires loose as a bullet screamed through the open driver’s side window and struck the headrest he’d been leaning against. “Shit. If I can’t get this thing started, we’re all gonna die.”
Jack crawled over Indie and aimed his rifle out the window, putting down the guy who’d gotten off the lucky shot. “One threat eliminated.”
Cody let out a string of curses, scattering bits of metal and plastic on the floor mats. “Well, I’ll be a son of a motherfucker…” He shoved Jack aside and leaped back into the driver’s seat. Something gleamed between his fingers while he stabbed at the steering column. “Where the fuck is the slot?”
Bullets rang off the concrete around them, peppering masonry against the truck. Cody flinched and dragged his hand through his hair. “We’re so fucked.”
“Do you need an orgasm too?” Jack cradled his rifle and brushed his hand against Cody’s thigh.
Cody snarled and jammed the key into the ignition, cranking it hard. The engine roared as he stomped the gas pedal to the floor. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he moaned out loud. “In progress.” He jerked the stickshift back so fast the gears ground as the truck jolted forward. Lunatic laughter echoed inside the cab, and Jack cringed when Cody puckered a kiss at him.
“That explains a lot.” Eli arched his eyebrow at Austin, who nodded wide-eyed as if some great mystery had finally been solved.
Austin reached behind Jack and Indie to pat Cody on the shoulder. “Well done, Sergeant Taggert.”
“Fuck you very much, Major.” He turned the truck toward the exit, leaving the hotel chaos behind and heading into the unknown.
CODY
Black smoke obscured the horizon, blowing north from an unseen source. Cody kept a close eye on the gas gauge, but every time he peeked at it, the needle had dipped closer to E. “We need to find a gas station.” They’d been driving for close to three hours, maybe four, and time had stretched into an endless blur.
“Uh-huh.” Austin acknowledged his urgency as they passed another exit jammed with cars seeking fuel for their escape.
“Everyone’s heading west.” Eli turned in his seat, glancing back at the long line of traffic filling the opposite side of the interstate.
Cody peered down the road. No one in front of them. He glanced in the rearview mirror. No one behind t
hem either. “That’s a bad sign.”
“Should we turn around?” Indie pressed her hand to Cody’s leg and looked back over his shoulder.
The woman contained a surprising amount of strength in that small hand. Cody pried her fingertips from his thigh and touched her knuckles to his lips. “I’m never going back to Texas, darlin’.” Too many ghosts for his liking. Some of them might even be dead now.
She faced forward again while Austin shook his head. “We’d just get stuck in that mess. Keep heading east.”
An eerie orange glow illuminated the horizon, opposite the afternoon sun. Smoke billowed in great white clouds, rising up from a city landscape while flames licked underneath. “The fire is spreading.” Eli watched it with an unwavering stare “White smoke means it’s found something new to burn.”
“Coming this way?” Austin tensed his grip on his rifle, as if it would do any good.
Eli shook his head. “No, the wind’s blowing it north.” He studied the map he’d found in the glove compartment. “Take the next exit and go south. That’ll get us around it.”
Cody shot a sideways glance at Austin and got a confirming nod. They didn’t have much of a choice. Traffic spilled off the entrance ramp and cut across the eastbound lanes in front of them to drive across the median, attempting to merge into the westbound lanes. Some gave up the effort and drove west on the wrong side of the interstate. Cody laid on the horn as a packed Honda headed straight for them. He swerved onto the exit ramp, just missing the vehicle.
“Well, that took balls.” Cody couldn’t decide if he wanted to punch the guy or give him a high-five. To the face. With a coffee table. He pulled up to the traffic signal, forced to wait at a green light because the old laws obviously no longer applied.
The pickup truck behind them apparently disagreed with Cody’s decision and drove around their moving truck, shooting out onto the highway and causing a northbound sedan to slam on its brakes. The SUV behind it didn’t have enough time to stop, slamming into the car’s back end with a shattering crash. The pickup truck either didn’t see or didn’t care about the accident it caused and drove down the embankment to get to the interstate.
