Part 18 (1/2)

The doc stared at her. His face was that of a hardened man doing what he had to in order to survive, but deeper in his eyes was compa.s.sion.

”Come on.” He waved for her to follow.

Two rooms down, Dejah found Shaun, asleep, curled on a cot. David sat in a chair next to him, guarding him. He was reading a book and looked up in surprise to see Dejah there. Doc Ward excused himself with a nod, returning to the med room.

David regarded her as she knelt beside Shaun.

”My G.o.d,” she breathed, brus.h.i.+ng the hair from the teenager's face. She looked up at David. His unshaven face looked severe, angry, his eyes full of sorrow.

”They brought him in a few hours ago. He's been asleep ever since.”

”What did those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds do to him?”

”He didn't say,” David said. ”But I'm guessing they didn't take him to the f.u.c.king circus.”

Dejah rubbed Shaun's back and he stirred. She perched beside him on the bed.

”Dejah?” he said sleepily.

”It's me, Shaun.”

He pushed himself up and hugged her. She closed her eyes tight and tried not to cry at the things she saw in his face. Aging beyond his years, a desolate longing for a time before this world went completely mad, a strain no one should endure, much less anyone his age. Add to that a bone-weary exhaustion, and just looking at him made her want to mother him.

When Dejah released her embrace, again she was struck by what she saw in him.

”How are you?” Shaun said. ”Is that a.s.shole treating you okay?”

She laughed, tears coming to her eyes. ”I'm okay. Keller treats me like a queen, a d.a.m.n princess in a tower. I told him G.o.d told me to pray alone just so I could get of that d.a.m.n room and find you. G.o.d, I'm glad you're all right. I've been worried sick.”

Shaun mustered a smile. ”I'm tougher than you think.”

”I think you're pretty d.a.m.n tough.” She ruffled his hair.

Shaun sobered. He glanced around before he said, confidentially: ”We've got to get out of here.”

Dejah glanced to the door. The few people in the cots around them were oblivious. There was a woman with a little boy looking at her. Dejah looked away, guilty again. She tried to remind herself she wasn't responsible for these people as her eyes grazed the child, legs swinging over the edge of the cot, playing a card game with his mom, unaware of the full measure of tragedy sweeping over their world.

Shaun said: ”David has a helicopter. He can get us out of here.”

David nodded. ”Not a lot of fuel, but probably enough to get us out of the metroplex.”

Dejah studied the man, recalling how he'd been at her bedside as she awoke from death the other day. Though unkempt and under stress, she found him handsome. He looked like he hadn't slept well.

He focused on her, met her gaze. ”You do realize the reverend is insane.”

”Oh, yeah. I've got no doubt of that, at all.”

”There's not much hope of things around here getting any better,” David said. ”If you ask me, things are probably going to get a h.e.l.l of a lot worse.”

”Did you hear the announcement this morning?” Dejah whispered, not wanting the people around them to hear. They needed to be careful who overheard their conversations.

David shook his head. Shaun said, ”No.”

”I was attacked in my sleep last night by one of the other Daughters of Heaven'”-she curled it with finger quotes and said with derision-”The b.i.t.c.h came at me with a knife. The reverend has a two-way mirror in our room that he uses to watch us. He saw the whole thing and actually saved my life. Crazy b.i.t.c.h would have taken me out while I slept. She's convinced she's sent by G.o.d to be Keller's true wife and I'm some imposter. Now Keller's labeled her a tool of Satan and is having her killed tonight in some kind of public execution outside the church they're going to feed her to the zombies.”

David shook his head in horrified amazement.

Shaun grasped Dejah's arm. ”Let's go now. You can't go back. There's no telling what he might do next. This might be the only time we see each other again.” His eyes were wild. Dejah's heart raced as his fear infected her. She searched his face.

David reached for Shaun's hand. His hand brushed Dejah's arm. ”We have to make a plan first,” David said. ”If we leave right now, in the middle of the day, the guards will spot us. They've got this place wired with cameras. I've been listening to that scanner-” He pointed to the walkie-talkie scanner on the counter across the room. It was under a row of cabinets covered with children's pictures of crayon-colored rainbows, remnants of when life had been sane. It was the same scanner on which he'd heard the announcement that Dejah and Shaun's truck had been seen, when Carson and the others mounted their rescue force. ”They keep a keen eye on the perimeter of the church grounds, which are huge, as well as the immediate building. I've seen little black domes in the ceilings. I'm guessing those are security cameras.”

Dejah looked around the room. The scanner crackled. They heard two guards checking in with each other: No activity. All quiet.

The mother of the boy looked up at the sound of the announcement. An elderly woman stirred in her nap at the sound. Footsteps pa.s.sed in the hall along with the sounds of two people talking. The footsteps and voices continued through the hall.

”Anyway,” David said. ”I landed my copter in the parking lot on the south side of the complex. We need to find a clear path out there that won't put us in danger of being attacked by the infected, and won't get us detected by the guards. My guess is they've placed a great value on that whirlybird as part of their security for this operation. Or at least as an escape pod for Keller.”

”Do you really think you can get us out of here?” Dejah asked.

”David can do it,” Shaun said. He was confident. ”He was in the Army in Desert Storm. This ain't his first rodeo.”

”Thanks for the vote of confidence kid.”

Dejah smiled vaguely. She had to admit she sensed a strength about David that rea.s.sured her, that made her feel good about having him on their side. She found herself admiring the lines of his face, the flecks of beginning gray in his hair, the strong angle of his jaw and wide frame of his shoulders. ”Any ideas?”

”Well,” David said. ”If they're going to have some sort of public spectacle tonight, that'll be a perfect time for me to get outside. Then I'll take a look at the lay of the land and see what's the best way to escape detection. We need to get to the chopper, but once we get her in the air, there's no guarantee they won't try to shoot us down.”

Dejah nodded. She accepted this as truth, acknowledging the unhinged insanity of what was falling farther out of control here at the Church of the Risen King.

”So, I'll take a look around tonight. Probably best for us to make a break for it as early in the morning as possible. Even just before dawn if we can.”

”Okay,” Dejah said.

”Do you think you can sneak away?” Shaun asked.

”I think so. I've been friendly with the reverend. As long as I return on time tonight, before sundown, I think he'll trust me.”

”I take it he's got you and the other Daughters of Heaven locked away in a room,” said David.

”You'd guess right on that.”

David looked her. His eyes were hard, but softened just for a moment with genuine concern for her safety.