Page 133 of Deadly Strain

He made it sound like something was going to change, but they were both inside the nightmare now. “I don’t even know what that would feel like.”

“We’ll both be able to rest soon,” he said, coming close and tucking a stray hair behind her ear.

“I’ve killed you,” she whispered, leaning into his hand. “Rest isn’t something I’m ever going to have again.”

“Won’t know until we get there.” Sharp took the grenade out of her hand. One second she had it, the next he did. “Start running. I’m going to throw this thing in ten, nine, eight...”

She ran.

Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one...

Sharp flew out of the cave and flattened himself over her, huddled against the exterior wall of rock just as an explosion blasted sound, rocks and dirt around them.

Sharp tugged at her and they scrambled down the slope and away as fast as they could go. After a couple of hundred yards, Grace ran out of air, strength, and everything else.

“I’ve got nothing left,” she said, folding in on herself and sitting on her butt on the ground.

“Okay,” Sharp said, reaching into his pack and pulling out a bottle of water. He took a swig and handed it to her. “We’ll wait here for the cavalry.”

She nodded, breathing hard. “Make sure they’re wearing bio-suits.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He sat down next to her, then pulled her into his lap, his arms around her, his head resting on top of hers.

She relaxed into his embrace. This might be the last time she had to be close to him, to feel his chest rising and falling with each breath, to hear his heart beating under her ear.

She cried a little more and soaked in the nonsensical words he murmured into her ear. She calmed after a while and he asked, sounding no more curious than if he asked her for the temperature, “How long until we know if we’re going to die?”

She sniffed and tightened her arms around him. “A few hours. Not long.”

“Don’t cry, darlin’. Wherever you go, I go.”

Chapter Thirty

The bag of saline hangingabove Grace’s head was almost empty. She frowned at it. When had she gotten an IV? There were three smaller bags next to it —Cipro, doxycycline, and penicillin.

Voices, their volume rising with every word, drew her attention to a knot of uniformed men standing about ten feet away. Though they could have been farther, the room looked a little fuzzy.

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