ZOMB-POCALYPSE

Chapter Sixteen

Waiting is pure torture. Now I know why one soldier referred to this place as the box. It's a badly ventilated, windowless box. There isn't even electricity.

Ryan and I try to entertain ourselves, but finally we just curl up and sleep. The soldier comes and takes down my parents' information. He promises to give me an update later and then he's gone, taking with him the only entertainment I had.

I try and imagine my parents sitting in this very same office, but it's hard to imagine anyone penning in my Father.

Finally I settle down, leaning against Ryan while he runs a soothing hand over my back. "It shouldn't be much longer now," he promises me, and I nod. Even though its dark and he can't see me, my head is leaning on his shoulder, so I know he felt it.

"How much longer do you think?" I can't help asking, unable to settle my jittery nerves.

Ryan sighs, "If I had to guess, I would say you already spent a good twelve hours pacing back and forth, another hour giving that soldier your info, and we've been sitting here for at least two hours."

I do some quick mental math and grin.

"You should try and get some sleep," Ryan urges me, but I shake my head.

"I won't be able to sleep," I complain, making him chuckle.

"What do you want to do then?" he asks, his hand making lazy circles across my back.

"Play eye spy?" I ask, and he snorts.

"Eye spy with my little eye something that is black," he says, and I giggle. Everything is black.

"Tell me what you were doing when all of this started?" I ask, turning serious as I realize that, as much as I care about Ryan for the person he has been to Abby, Megan, and especially me...I know nothing about the guy.

I feel him grow still in the dark when I ask the question. It is so long before he answers that I start to wonder if he's going to ignore the question.

"It's something that you don't want to talk about," I guess. I can hear his heart hammering where my head lays on his chest. "Tell me," I prompt, lifting my head from his shoulder and moving back a bit. I wish it wasn't so dark.

"You might think differently about me," he says, and that gets my heart pounding.

"It can't be as bad as you think," I tell him, but, honestly, I'm thinking of some pretty crazy scenarios.

"I was in prison," he says, surprising the hell out of me.

My jaw goes slack and my mouth actually hangs open. The silence in our small space feels like a lead blanket.

"What?" I manage to get out after several minutes of trying to calm my rampant thoughts.

Ryan tries to hold my hand, but I pull mine away. I feel guilty as soon as I do it, but I can't help my reaction. He just told me he was incarcerated.

"Did you kill someone?" I ask finally, blowing out a breath as I gird myself for his answer. I know the world has gone to hell and even Megan has blood on her hands now, but that's different. Ryan did something terrible back when the rules of society were still important, terrible enough for him to be locked up.

"No," he mutters, and I can hear the hurt in that one monosyllable. Relief washes through me that he can still be the person I thought he was.

"Tell me," I ask, but he remains silent. I can feel his anger. It's so palpable that I can almost taste it in this small, dark room. "Please," I say more softly. This time my hand finds its way into his. I think I'm as surprised as he is, but Ryan has always had a pull over me that I can't deny.