Infection Z (Book 4) by Ryan Casey

time. And then you come back to my cell and you let me out. I’ll take lead from there.”
    Hayden’s heart raced. He didn’t know what to say. “But—but what if—”
    “I’m throwing the tile now.”
    “Miriam, I—”
    The tile landed right in front of Hayden’s cell. Right between the metal bars. Just in reach.
    “Take it or leave it. Just know that by leaving it, you’re condemning everyone in this place—yourself included—to a life in prison.”
    Hayden stared at the tile. At its sharp edge.
    “Why can’t you?” he asked.
    “Why can’t I what?”
    “Why can’t you stab the guard?”
    “Because Tim isn’t coming for me,” Miriam said. “Not anymore. I get meals delivered. I get the occasional medical check. But I don’t leave this cell, Hayden. And neither will you. That’s why it needs to be you. You’re my first neighbour since I got to this place. Please. Don’t let this pass.”
    Hayden’s mind raced. “But downstairs. The canteen.”
    “It’s for show,” Miriam said. “You really think they’d just let people wander ’round freely? Don’t believe what they tell you. Don’t believe their smiles. Don’t even believe a fellow prisoner. ’Cause you don’t know what the guards have told them.”
    Hayden’s stomach tensed. “Then how do I trust you?”
    Miriam chuckled. “That’s your decision to make. Choose it wisely. Hold up. I think… shit.”
    “Miriam? What’s up? What’s wrong?”
    “Shit. He’s too early. Way too fucking early.”
    “What you talking about?”
    “Tim,” Miriam called. “He’s… he’s on his way down the corridor. To your cell. Right this fucking minute.”
    Hayden listened to the approaching footsteps of the guard called Tim.
    The sharp-edged tile stared back at him from outside the bars.

Chapter Ten
    H ayden listened to Tim’s footsteps follow closely behind him.
    He walked down the metal pathway in front of the cells. He looked inside those cells. Saw so many different faces. People staring back at him. And regardless of the smiley faces and positive quotes etched on the white walls of this building, they didn’t look happy. They didn’t look content.
    Even the people who were smiling looked like they had a gun to their head.
    Hayden remembered what Miriam told him.
    “Don’t believe their smiles.”
    Maybe they did have a gun to their head after all, of a sort.
    “Come on, pal,” Tim said, his voice friendly, jovial. “I’m not the quickest of walkers but dammit, you don’t half drag your feet!”
    Hayden glanced around. Looked at Tim. He was pretty old. Short, thinning grey hair. Round glasses so strong they magnified his eyes. Breath smelled of pickled onion.
    But he seemed… nice. Friendly. He seemed okay.
    “Don’t believe their smiles.”
    Maybe what Miriam told him was true. Maybe he should be wary. Of other people. Of everyone in this place.
    But how did that exclude her?
    Who was to say she wasn’t just setting Hayden up for some personal benefit of her own?
    Shit, he hadn’t even looked the woman in the eye yet. He’d just heard her voice. Heard her voice behind the cell wall. Heard some bullshit about a fence splitting the north and the south. About an old group of hers reaching it, then being tossed into the back of a truck—just like Hayden—and brought here.
    As Hayden turned, climbed down the metal steps, every footstep echoing through the prison, he wondered if perhaps Miriam was lying. Maybe this was all some kind of test. A loyalty test. Maybe Tim was being nice for a reason—to lull him into a false sense of security.
    Maybe he was just waiting for Hayden to attack. To take his opportunity. A way of sifting the loyal from the opportunists.
    Or maybe he was just a guard called Tim.
    Maybe there was a corridor coming up. A corridor with an old office on the left.
    Maybe Miriam genuinely wanted Hayden to help her so they could get out of here.
    It seemed outlandish. It seemed fucking mental.
    But