Page 18 of The Girl Who Broke Free (Death Fields 5)

“Yeah, I guess it makes sense to have some extra juice running through you.” Green gives me a look and runs his hands over his bright red hair, now cut close to his scalp. “Would you ever do it?”

“Take the EVI-2?” I don’t hesitate. “No.”

He fidgets with the button on his sleeve and he chews on something unspoken. Finally, I ask, “You want to take it?”

“I’m going to. I already talked to Erwin about it.”

“You’re serious.” I can’t deny I’m stunned. I didn’t see this coming.

Jude explodes into a string of curses across the field and one of the recruits falls to their hands and knees and begins a series of push-ups.

“Yeah, I’m serious,” Green says. “Once the Crisis spread and my family fell apart and my little town got overrun with the infected, I decided I would do whatever I had to in order to stop it. It’s how I ended up at the evacuation center and later with Jane. Despite Jane’s motives, my intention all along has been to eradicate the world from monsters. That includes Eaters and the Hybrids.”

“You can’t come back, you know. Paul and Cole aren’t the same as they were before the inoculation.”

“I know, and that’s okay. I’m probably going to die out there anyway, Wyatt. This just gives me a chance of fixing some shit before I do. I promised the Director—Jane—that I would keep her safe. I’m going to fulfill that promise.”

I lean over the railing and look out at the field. Jude helps the solider off the ground and the recruits all run toward the parking lot—training over for the day. “I won’t judge you for your decision. I can only wish you luck.” I offer him my hand and he shakes it. “Promises are hard to keep in this day and age, remember that.”

“They may be hard to keep,” he replies, “but they’re also pretty much all we have left.”

I can’t argue that. I’ve got my own to keep but I’m not going to turn into a filthy animal to make it happen. No, I got into this fight as a human and I’ll go out the same way.

The door behind us swings open and Paul emerges, eyes wide. “Erwin needs to see you—all of us.”

“What’s going on?” I ask, already walking away from the rail.

“It’s time,” he says. “We’re going to get Alex. Tomorrow.”

Part Three

Alexandra

Asbury College

(Present Day)

Chapter Fourteen

Wyatt stares at me from the doorway, his eyes hard and unyielding, although they do take in every inch of my body. I am seconds—heartbeats—from falling apart. My heart is in my throat and I blink back tears because I refuse to give Chloe a peek into my emotions. Not these. These feelings belong to me—and him.

“You’re alive.”

We both shift our gaze to the corner of the room. Cole assesses my new sparring partner. Well, new is relative. Wyatt trained me from the start.

Wyatt gives Cole a slight, weird nod. He doesn’t react to Cole’s terrible condition. “We all are, it seems.”

“Although I’m aware reunions of this sort are a bit of a novelty during times like this, you haven’t been brought together to socialize,” Chloe’s voice comes over the intercom, hollow and loud. “We caught this little solider lurking around the perimeter the other day. Saved him for just the right moment.”

“Get to the point!” Wyatt roars. I get the feeling he’s had to listen to her yammering on for days. That alone is enough to put a person on edge.

“The point is, I gave Alex an order. Kill my traitor brother and I spare her life. So far, she’s refused to cooperate.”

“So what?” I ask, voice shaking with rage. “You want me to kill Wyatt instead? You know I won’t do it. I’m not your puppet.”

“I don’t care who dies today—take care of it yourself or my Hybrids will do it for me.”

The intercom snaps off and I look at the two men. “I’ve just come out of the infirmary. Even if I wanted to kill you both, I don’t have the strength or energy.”

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