Page 39 of Reset

As she barked at him, she started waving his jacket around while yelling at the rats. Her enthusiasm was impressive, although Ryan took issue with what she was yelling.

“Back! Get back now! Get back before Ryan faints and squishes you with his oversized body!” Her flashlight hit the edge of the rat wave, and to his surprise, it slowed.

“What the hell?” he muttered.

“Ryan, I swear, if you don’t help me, I will feed you to them myself,” Sarah said between yelling.

Hastily, he brandished his shirt while stomping and shouting at the rodents. Unlike Sarah, he mainly used curse words. It took a helluva lot of self-control to aim his light at them, but he did it. And what he saw nearly made him pass out with relief.

The rats were scurrying away from them.

The wave split, like the Red Sea, and flowed into the two rooms holding the dead bodies. And that’s when he realized Sarah had intended for that to happen all along.

So freaking smart.

He could have kissed her. If she wasn’t so bad-tempered.

As soon as the last rat disappeared, Sarah turned off her light and held out her hand to him. “Now, we run.”

He didn’t need to be asked twice. Holding his shirt, he slung the bag over his body and took her offered hand.

“How did you know they’d do that?” he managed to get out as they raced along the tunnel.

“They’re scavengers. Cowards. They want an easy meal.” She paused. “I gave them one.” Her voice sounded strangled, and Ryan knew it’d cost her to send them after the dead bodies.

“It was them or us, Stats. At least the bodies won’t suffer.”

“It’s still wrong.”

Yeah, they’d argue about that later. In the meantime, he focused on putting distance between them and the rabid pack behind them while he tried to get his heart rate back under control. It felt like Dave Grohl was inside his chest, knocking out a fast-paced blast beat on his drums.

Every few steps, Ryan had to glance over his shoulder to ensure they still weren’t being followed. So far, so good, but who knew how long that’d last?

About ten minutes after the rats had dispersed, they came to a fork in the tunnel.

“Which way?” Sarah asked him.

“Now, you want my opinion?” He cocked an eyebrow at her.

She made a big deal out of looking back up the tunnel. “Nope. Don’t see any rats. Wonder why that is?” She folded her arms and glared at him. “I’d have asked your opinion if you’d shown any indication that you had a plan. As far as I could tell, you intended to run until we both collapsed and died. And the rats ate us anyway.”

Okay, he’d give her that. Letting the subject drop, he took a few steps up the tunnel on the right. The air was foul.

“The other one,” he told Sarah. “This way smells wrong.” It smelled like decomp, which he didn’t think she needed to know.

On the plus side, if any rats did follow them, the stink in that tunnel would appeal far more than Sarah’s floral perfume.

“Are we finished arguing about the rats?” She clearly wasn’t going to move until they’d settled things.

“Yeah.” He sighed. “You were right. I was…hysterical and I should have listened to you. I really don’t like rats.”

“No?” She gasped, placing a palm over her heart. “I didn’t know that. If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have bullied you into avoiding them. My bad.”

“You’re not funny.” Although, she really was and he couldn’t help grinning.

“You’re impossible,” she told him again.

“That’s probably true.” He hesitated. “Thanks for dealing with the rats. Perhaps we could keep this part of the story to ourselves once we’re out of here. Deal?” His team would rib him over this forever if they knew.