SurvivorZ: Grave Harbor

52

Boots echoed down the hallway, getting louder. Erica held her breath and checked on the progress of the food bandit. She had moved on to the stacks of bottled water piled up in the corner of the room. She had no inkling of the threat heading her way.

"Damn," Erica whispered. It was up to her to do something, or they'd catch the poor girl for sure.

After unfastening the top button of her shirt, she pulled it loose from her pants and tied it below her breasts, revealing her toned midriff. She stirred her hair up with her fingers and started breathing heavily and jogging in place to get her heart rate up.

The sounds of her footfalls caught the attention of her young accomplice. The girl froze with a bottle of water in her hand and a panicked look on her face. Erica winked at her and raised a shushing finger to her lips.

Then she was off, jogging down the corridor towards the approaching soldiers as if out for a morning run. As expected, the uniformed horn dogs stopped in their tracks to ogle her as they crossed paths at the intersection.

"Hey, sweetheart," one of the privates called out as she jogged past them. "You must be new around here, aren't you? I'm sure I would've remembered someone as fine as you."

Erica turned to face them, running in place. She could barely keep from laughing at the flushed faces of the wide-eyed young grunts gawking at her assets jiggling in the loose folds of her shirt.

"I just arrived a couple of days ago," she replied. "I'm Erica."

"Private Chaz Spillane," he said with a broad grin. "Friends just call me Champ."

The other soldiers snickered at this. "Dude, no one calls you that," one of his friends muttered. He earned an elbow in the ribs from Chaz for his unsolicited feedback.

"You like to have fun?" another of the soldiers asked. "We traded a few favors with some of the guys in the motor pool and scored a bottle of primo scotch. How about you meet up with us this evening? Say, around nineteen-hundred? We could crack it open and make it a proper welcoming party."

Erica stared past them. Her co-conspirator stole across the hallway with her loaded pack on her back. The girl gave her a grateful nod before disappearing out of sight.

Time to wrap this up, Erica thought.

"I'll think about it," she answered with a measured smile. "I should get back to my run now. Maybe I'll see you around... Champ."

She turned and jogged off, leaving the soldiers to whoop and catcall as they patted Chaz on the back. Erica smirked. Manipulating them had been so easy that she almost felt guilty about standing them up.

Sorry boys, no drunken playdates for you.

Once she was out of sight, she fixed her clothing and cut across a side passage, heading in the direction from which the thief had originally appeared. She ventured down the hallway of the northernmost building, peeking through every opened door, until a familiar figure stepped out in front of her.

The teen stood in her path with her thumbs forked in the straps of her backpack. She eyed Erica cautiously.

"Thanks for that," she said.

Erica smiled. "Don't mention it. I'm Erica."

"Paige."

"Did you manage to get everything you wanted?" she asked.

Paige jiggled the laden pack on her back. Canned food scraped together inside it.

"You must really be hungry," Erica snickered.

"I'm stocking up to leave," Paige said. "It's not safe here."

"You do know they have tanks outside, right? And guns? And Humvees? About the only place safer than this is a deserted island in the middle of nowhere."

Paige shook her head. "That's not all they have. Have you been upstairs to the labs yet?"

"I thought that area was off limits."

"It is." Paige admitted. "Doctor Mueller got approval to bring me on as her assistant. I start tomorrow."

Erica hiked a surprised brow. "Sounds exciting. Is it true what I heard? That they're working on a cure up there?"

"They're working on all kinds of things," Paige said. She glanced over her shoulder, confirming that nobody else was listening in. "They're doing experiments on these... creatures in a cage. Giant spiders or something. They give me the creeps just looking at them. Mueller says they're the key to stopping the zombies, but I don't know. All I know is, I don't want to be around them. I'd sooner take my chances with the dead."

Erica nodded, putting a mental checkmark next to the rumors she heard earlier about the army conducting tests on monsters. Her smile widened. She couldn't help but be fascinated by her young companion. The girl had managed to trick her way into the army's confidence and uncover the truth of their activities here for herself. That was a feat worthy of her respect.

"I like you, Paige. You're pretty cool. We make a good team."

A glimmer of a smile crossed Paige's face, gone as quickly as it appeared. "Thanks. Same here. But you don't want to be around me. Everyone who gets close to me ends up dead."

Erica shrugged, unperturbed. "That's not an issue for me. My family's with the mob, so Death practically had a seat at our breakfast table. Trust me, whatever you've been through, I've seen and done far worse."

"I doubt that."

Erica turned away, but not before flashing the girl a final, contented grin. "Do me a favor? Don't go running off without saying goodbye first? I don't often meet people who impress me as much as you do. I think I'd like to get to know you better."

Paige nodded. "Okay."

"See you around, Paige."

Leaving the girl to stare at her departing backside, Erica sauntered off, immensely satisfied by this unexpected turn of events. In the space of a few hours, she furthered her knowledge of the military's operations and established a relationship with what passed for Harvard's criminal element. She had to hand it to herself. Overall, it wasn't a bad day's work.

Dad would be proud of her.