PRIME by Samantha Boyette Page B

conspiracy,” Zeke said, smiling. “I knew it.” Zeke held his hand up to Simon, looking for a high five. Simon gave him a look and shook his head. Dodge smiled at that. Zeke shrugged and lowered his hand.
    “I doubt it’s as exciting as that,” Dodge said. “But there’s a huge weapon room tucked away in a back room at the rec center.”
    “At the rec center?” Tessa’s face paled. “Where anyone could just stumble onto them?”
    “No,” Dodge assured her. “You get to it through a false door in the back of the closet in the guys changing room. I locked the closet as soon as I found the weapons.”
    “How many weapons are we talking here?” Tech leaned forward curiously.
    “Enough to arm everyone here at least three or four times over,” Dodge said. “Also enough ammo to keep us going non-stop for a week or more.”
    “Wow,” Tommy said, wide-eyed.
    “Yeah.” Dodge bit his lip, eyes shifting like he wasn’t sure if he should continue. “The other room back there is where I’ve been getting the burn.”
    “You mean the base had it locked up?” Tessa asked. “But it’s illegal.” She blushed as soon as she said this, realizing how naive it made her sound.
    “And naughty,” Zeke added, grinning at Tessa. “Nobody tell Santa Claus or we’ll all get coal for Christmas. Wait, I think Christmas was canceled due to zombies, my bad.” Tessa hit him with a pillow.
    “Knock it off.” Dodge grinned. “I think it served a less sinister purpose than the guns. You know how people were always saying that it helped the sick? Like people with cancer or whatever?”
    “Yeah.” Simon nodded eagerly. “My dad did cancer research here.”
    “I figure it was here for that.” Dodge shrugged. “Or who knows, maybe the docs here had a real drug problem. It’s not really important.”
    “Yeah, a better question is why all the weapons if all they were doing was cancer research?” Tessa looked at Dodge, a strand of red hair falling out of her hair band. She tucked it behind her ear.
    “Your girlfriend is pretty smart,” Dodge teased Simon.
    Simon blushed and glanced at Tessa. He looked away quickly when he saw she was still watching Dodge. The words hadn’t moved her at all. Did she really just think of him as a kid? Panic fluttered through him, and all of a sudden the pleasure of holding her hand at the funeral felt worrying.
    Dodge continued. “There’s no need for that many weapons to research cancer. It’s a military base, so I expected it to have weapons on hand, but I wasn’t expecting anything that vast. As for what they were doing, it beats the hell outta me.” Dodge shrugged.
    “You think we’ll find what they were doing behind that door,” Simon guessed.
    “That’d be it.”
    Zeke grinned. “Sounds pretty twisted. When we heading down there?”
    “I think,” Dodge paused, as if realizing he was losing his commanding tone. “I mean, we will go down tomorrow.”
    “I’m in,” Zeke said.
    “You guys better believe you aren’t leaving me behind,” Tessa warned dangerously.
    “Um, can I come too?” Tommy asked quietly.
    “Everyone here is coming.” Dodge grinned and clapped Tommy on the shoulder. “That’s why I called you all here. Well except you Tessa,” he said with a smile.
    “He tried to get Zeke alone, but I knew he was up to something.” Tessa smiled proudly.
    Dodge nodded and looked around the room, sizing them up. “No one else hears about this until we know what’s going on. We clear?” Everyone nodded.
    “Good.” Dodge nodded back. “Try to get some sleep. There are enough beds here for everyone. I have to go check on the watch, but then I’ll be sleeping too.”
    Dodge left the apartment. It took a few minutes for the others to get moving, but soon they filed up the staircase and began to explore the rooms. There was a master bedroom with a huge bed, and then two smaller rooms. One of the smaller rooms had a set of bunk beds with colorful rails and