Queen of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #4) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,115

might have been my false name or anything at all really. Then he got me to stand on a set of scales, measured my height and checked my blood pressure. When he was done with all that, he listened to my heart and lungs with a stethoscope, made more notes on the iPad and finally prepared a syringe to take my blood.

I glanced at Saint as I rolled my sleeve back, wondering if I should be letting this guy take a sample from me now that I'd had the vaccine, but Saint just gave a faint nod, letting me know we needed to keep playing along. I guessed the main thing was that we didn’t draw any attention to ourselves for now and make it harder than it needed to be for us to escape this place.

"Would you be willing to donate more blood in the pursuit of a vaccine if it turns out your sample indicates your suitability?" the nurse asked me and I shrugged.

"What's in it for me?" I asked.

"You'd be helping us bring about an end to this pandemic," he replied, clearly not liking my attitude.

"Right. But I'm talking personally. I mean, I've already survived the Hades Virus, so I don't need a vaccine. I'm assuming you're offering some kind of financial compensation or something if you expect me to donate my blood?"

"Well...no," the nurse said, frowning like he thought I was a total jackass and I smiled broadly at him before standing. “There is talk of a possible future tax break as an incentive but as of yet that hasn’t been officially-”

"That'll be a no from me then," I said. "I have no interest in becoming a pin cushion for no reason."

I didn't wait for him to argue with me on that before moving aside so that Saint could take my place. I stood and waited patiently until the others had all been through the same routine as me then the first soldier came to lead us through the back of the tent and outside again.

"You're going to be allocated a sleeping area - for now, everything is fairly basic and we apologise for that, but it's safe, warm, dry and there will be hot meals provided in the mess tents three times a day. Over the next few days we will come around and assign work allocations to everyone which will include building better accommodations and we anticipate being able to move people out of the tents within a month at the longest." She moved over to a printer and hooked two pieces of paper out of it before handing them to us. "This is a map of the camp. The mess tents, shower rooms, bathrooms, toilets and exercise space are all clearly labelled and the four of you have been allocated bunks in tent sixteen-eighty over on the north side of the camp, which is marked with the X. There are bed rolls and basic supplies there for you so that you can go and settle in. If you are in need of anything else, you can come to one of the information points where officers will be able to answer any questions you have." She pointed those out on the map too and I took it with a nod.

"Thanks," I replied, trying not to look at the horror on Saint's face as he gazed out across the maze of dark green tents which filled the valley ahead of us in every single direction for miles on end.

Another soldier appeared with our bags, clearly having given them a thorough search and I slung mine over my shoulder as the others grabbed theirs too.

The soldier left us to go call the next people inside and I clapped a hand on Saint's arm as we started walking.

"If we don't get out of this cesspit within the next hour, I'm going to end up dead from exposure," Saint muttered, not even trying to hide the sneer on his face.

"It's not that cold," Monroe replied, shaking his head at him.

"He doesn't mean exposure to the cold," Blake said with a laugh. "He means exposure to the masses. Saint's snob is showing."

"Thank you for that accurate assessment, Bowman," Saint muttered. "But I have no objections to being called a snob if it means I don't have to mingle with the likes of these...peasants." He pointed out a dude who had a finger jammed up his nose while he rooted around his nostril in hunt of something up there and