Disarming by Alexia Purdy Page B

a model in her past life, just a year and a half ago. He knew she felt robbed of the famed career that could have been hers. What her life had been like before was definitely not comparable to what it was now. Life was pretty screwed up that way. Now, she got to gunk up her pretty manicured hands with soot, blood, and zompire decay.
    “Sorry, I got to catch some zzz’s. Haven’t had much lately.” He winked at her and polished off his meal. It should have bothered him that he didn’t know much about her, besides the fact that her father had dragged her to the Wynn, knowing there was a shelter under it. He had been one of the lead security officers there and had brought his only daughter with him for safety before the doors closed to Vida. He had died not long after, a victim of the fatal version of the virus, leaving her all alone, transformed into the superhuman that she was now. But it didn’t bother Elijah, if fact, the less he knew about everyone around him, the easier it would be to let them go.
    Even so, Sarah had become his right hand woman. She was strong headed, stubborn and driven. He still felt a twinge of sympathy for her. We’re all orphans here , he thought . But she was tough and he knew she’d be fine, with or without his empathy. Instead of bedding her and taking her for his own, he’d let her run the group as she wanted and never engaged in anything other than a platonic relationship with her. It wasn’t what she wanted, and he knew that.
    It was all rather depressing, the past, the future. It was all so bleak. He didn’t want to think too long about it, so he hopped up and gave her a wave before depositing his garbage in the receptacles. Did he feel guilty knowing her eyes would be on him until he was out of sight as he exited the room? Did he even care that their less than perfect relationship was completely one-sided? No, he didn’t care. He didn’t have any feelings whatsoever for Sarah. It was like staring at a relative, a sister. Nothing made him feel anything anymore. All he felt was numb, empty and dead inside. He didn’t know if he’d ever be capable of any kind of feelings for anyone else again. That’s what concerned him the most.
    Shuffling down past the stark, white halls to his quarters, he pondered on that. Since losing his entire family to the epidemic and putting them down, he had felt nothing. No feelings except maybe resentment. To fall in love would be impossible—or so he thought. He suspected that it had something to do with his superhuman powers. Maybe it had robbed him of the ability to love. He had seen a few of his twelve pair up as couples, but it wasn’t for him. He hadn’t seen any of the others in a different light. Not even Sarah, who was one of the only ones also not paired off. Sarah wanted more though, which he had noticed. He could see it in her gaze, in the way her hips swayed as she walked away from him. He wasn’t blind, and he did like her. He just wasn’t interested right now.
    Heading through the door to his quarters, he slumped onto his bed and sighed, feeling the aches and pains of the day’s work gnawing at him. He wasn’t sleeping well, not since he had seen the April in his apartment at the Palms Hotel. Who was she? Where was she now? Wasn’t everyone dead aboveground? If so, why was there a perfectly non-dead girl constantly lurking around the Palms, hoping to get a glimpse of him again? It didn’t make sense.
    He wanted to find her again, ask her questions and see if she really might be like him, a superhuman. But he had blown it. In his panic, he had threatened her with her life if she ever disturbed him again. He wanted to smack himself for being so shortsighted. If it was remotely possible she was a hybrid human like him and the other eleven here, she would need them sooner or later. Surviving in the outside world alone was not a life for anyone. But neither was imprisonment in the underground city of Vida.
    He rolled over in bed,