“You piece of shit,” he snarls, his body trembling with rage as he squeezes the smaller man’s neck.
The nurse chokes and gasps, hands clawing at Alex’s wrist as he struggles to breathe.
As much as I’d love to watch Alex choke the fucker to death, we need him alive. Things aren’t adding up, especially since Andy is already dying from the zombie infection. Why would the nurse need to inject him with the venom if he’s already infected?
I shove the venom into my pocket, stagger over to my best friend and place a hand on his shoulder. “We need answers,” I tell him softly. “And the only way he’ll give them is if he’s alive.”
Alex growls and tightens his grip for a moment before releasing him. The nurse coughs and gags as he tumbles to the ground, his eyes wide and glassy.
I watch him gasping for breath with grim satisfaction for a moment before speaking. “Alright, start talking.”
The nurse swallows and winces, bruises already appearing around his throat. “I was told to pick up the vial from the side of the gate and to go to this room and inject the venom into the patient,” he croaks.
“Is this the first time you’ve dosed him?”
The nurse nods furiously. “Yes! The other times I was just told to cut off the intravenous antibiotics and sedate him.”
Hefucking what?! “You mean to say that this poor man hasn’t been getting antibiotics all this time?” I snap, barely resisting the urge to strangle the nurse myself. What the actual hell is going on?
He flinches and nods. “S-since the second day, yes.”
I rake a hand through my hair and take a step back away from the man, just to remove the temptation to attack him. “Is Kevin, his doctor, in on this?”Please say no.
“No. I’m the only one who knows at the medical centre.”
I blow out a breath. Okay, well, at least that’s something. But now we have problems because there’s a chance Andy isn’t dying from the zombie infection, but from a normal infection. Although whoever is behind this wants it to look like he’s turning, but why? Thishasto be connected to the traitor. There’s no way it isn’t.
“Who asked you to do this?” I demand.
The nurse shudders and shakes his head. “N-no. I-I can’t tell you,” he whispers pleadingly. “Please, Ican’t.”
“Why not?” Alex demands gruffly as he flexes his hands.
“They said they’ll kick me and my family out of Haven for the Scourge to take us. I-I have a wife and two kids, two little girls—” He cuts off with a choked sob. “Pleasebelieve me.”
Fucking hell. That’s no idle threat, especially if it’s the same person who’s working with the Scourge.
Alex, however, isn’t swayed by the man’s sob story. He crouches down in front of him and gets right into the man’s face, tremors running down his back from how hard he’s having to keep himself contained. “And we’ll do much worse if you don’t start bloody talking,” he snarls before slamming his fist into the wall beside the nurse’s head.
The nurse yelps and huddles into as small a ball as he can get as he stares at Alex in abject terror. But he says nothing, practically retreating into himself.
I blow out a frustrated breath. This isn’t helping. We need him to trust us, not fear us, and Alex is too far gone to be of any use in this conversation.
I place a heavy hand on Alex’s shoulder, stopping him from saying anything else. He turns his head to me, his brow furrowed. “I need you to go find the doctor and tell him what we know. Andy needs antibiotics immediately.”
Betrayal and annoyance flash across Alex’s face. He knows a dismissal when he hears one, but he can’t argue because I’m right. Kevin needs to know as soon as possible if we’re to save Andy’s life.
With one last glare aimed at the terrified nurse, my best friend ambles to his feet and stalks down the corridor to find the doctor. I wait until the door slams shut behind him before turning to the nurse.
“Look, I’m not going to beat around the bush. Whoever is behind this is absolutely capable of handing you over to the Scourge. In fact, they’re probably planning on doing that to you regardless of whether or not you say anything. You’re a loose end, someone who can connect them to their crime so they’re not going to just let you go.”
The nurse flinches, his face paling even more at my words as the reality of the situation he’s in hits him.
“So we really need to know who forced you to do this, otherwise we won’t be able to protect youandyour family. I know there’s no way to trust that we won’t turn around and do the same, but I don’t think you have much of a choice. At least with me and Alex, you have a chance of saving yourself and your family from a fate worse than death.” He doesn’t need me to tell him how horrific life would be if he and his family fell into the Scourge’s hands.
It takes a moment for his fear-addled mind to process what I’m saying. When his brain finally kicks in, he raises his gaze to meet mine. “How do I know you’re not just going to throw us out the moment I tell you?”
“You don’t, but I encourage you to remembereverythingthat Alex, Rhys and I have done for this place. How we risked our lives to go after the Scourge to save the people they’d taken. Not to mention that I got shot defending Haven. Are those the actions of people who’d go back on their word?”
