PRIME

by Samantha Boyette

  “You son of a bitch,” Zero hissed. He wanted to spit on the man.

  “She wanted it,” Jake sputtered as he began to pull up his pants, muttering softly to himself.

  “Oh, yeah right.” Zero kicked the man hard in the stomach. Jake went down again, holding his stomach and moaning. “Are you alright Alice? Did he?”

  “I’m fine,” Alice said with a sniff and a slight nod. “He didn’t get anywhere.” She wiped her mouth.

  “She’s fine.” Jake said, managing to get his pants up to his waist, but not buttoned before Zero kicked him hard in the groin. He felt little remorse when the man began to cry.

  “Come on.” Cale took one of the man’s arms, and Zero took the other. They hauled him up and began to half-drag, half-walk him toward the door. Behind them, Alice followed quietly.

  They crossed the small hall to the apartment Grace and Quigley were sharing. Jake began to struggle against their hold, but they didn’t let go. Soon he gave up and shuffled between them with his head down.

  “Knock on the door, Alice,” Cale ordered.

  Alice stepped forward, giving three sharp raps on the door before stepping back. She glared at Jake; he wouldn’t meet her eye. A minute later, the door swung open. Grace stood looking at them with a half-asleep look of confusion.

  “What in the hell is going on?”

  “Jake here just tried to rape Alice,” Cale told her. He pushed Jake toward the door.

  “Is that true?” Grace asked, looking at Alice. She nodded.

  “Oh, Jake,” Quigley said. He stepped up beside Grace. “I should have known something like this would happen.”

  “What?” Alice asked. “You should have known?”

  “You had an inkling of this and didn’t say anything?” Zero fumed.

  “I should have,” Quigley agreed. “He’s been a little obsessed with Alice, but I didn’t think it would come to this.”

  “Well it did,” Cale snapped. “You better take care of it.”

  “We will.” Grace reached out and pulled Jake in. He didn’t try to fight. “I am so sorry Alice,” Grace said as Jake stepped into the apartment. Alice nodded and turned back to their apartment.

  “Take care of it,” Cale reiterated, before he followed Zero and Alice back to the other apartment.

  “Are you really alright?” Cale asked. Alice nodded, not looking up from the kitchen table. She sat with Zero’s arm across her tense shoulders.

  “I never would have thought he was capable of something like that,” her voice sounded hollow. It hurt Cale to hear.

  “People change in times like these.” Cale sighed. He sat on the other side of her and took her hand. Alice looked his way, eyes red and haunted looking.

  “That’s not an excuse.” Alice shook her head.

  “I know,” Cale said. “There is no excuse.”

  “They better shoot that bastard,” Zero seethed. Cale had never seen the man so upset. It was so far from his usual laid back attitude that Cale was thrown by it.

  “No.” Alice took a deep breath. “That won’t change anything.”

  “You’d feel safer,” Zero pointed out.

  “Did you figure out which base you are going to?” Alice asked, catching both men off guard.

  “Uh, not yet.” Zero raised an eyebrow at Cale. He shrugged.

  “I’m coming with you.” Alice nodded to herself. “That’s the only way I’ll feel safe.”

  “Alright,” Cale agreed easily. He would feel better with her close as well.

  “You know we wanted you to come along anyhow,” Zero added with a small smile.

  “We all need to get some sleep,” Cale said.

  Zero stood and helped Alice to her feet. He led her back to the bedroom he had been sleeping in and helped her into the queen sized bed.

  “You both are great.” Alice smiled up at the two men as they stood beside the bed, their faces barely visible in the shifting moonlight filtering through the window.

  “We like you alright too.” Zero smiled and squeezed her hand.

  “Get some sleep.” Cale reached over Alice and took the other pillow to lie on the floor. Without a word Zero left the room, returning momentarily with another pillow and two blankets. He handed one blanket to Cale and made a bed for himself on the floor with the other one.

  “You two don’t need to sleep right there,” Alice said, blushing. In truth, she was glad for the company.

  “Yeah we do,” Cale said.

  Alice didn’t argue. Instead, she snuggled down deeper into the bed, enjoying the feel of a proper bed for the first time in weeks. Hospital beds just couldn’t compare.

  25

  Coda Base

  Alice woke to sunlight streaming in through the windows, making the room cozy and comfortable. For a moment, she let herself savor the feeling. She rolled on her side, and when she didn’t see Cale or Zero, she figured she ought to get up. Still, the bed was especially comfy. She stretched happily, only to kick something at the end of the bed. Memories from the night before filled her head violently and she sat, pulling up her feet. Before panic could grip her, she saw Zero. He lay across the end of the bed, one leg drawn up and the other hanging off the bed.

  Alice smiled as he rubbed sleep from his eyes. “Mmm, morning.” He looked at her through half squinted eyes.

  “Why are you sleeping on the foot of the bed?” Alice asked with a small laugh, happy to see him, even if his position was strange.

  “Cale went into the other room, but one of us had to stay in here.” He crawled up the bed and flopped down beside her. He smelled warm.

  “You could have slept beside me.” Alice turned to face him. “I trust you.” She snuggled back down into the covers, a faint blush spreading across her cheeks. Zero smiled softly. He reached to push away a piece of hair that fell lazily on her face.

  “Well, now I know that. I thought it would have been awfully presumptuous at five AM. Besides, the end of the bed is just as soft as this bit.”

  Alice laughed, taking his hand in hers and squeezing it. “You two are such gentlemen.”

  “Someone’s gotta be.” Zero swallowed, distracted by how soft her hand felt in his. She gave his hand another squeeze and pulled away. Abruptly, she got out of the bed, leaving him stranded.

  “We should get started on those lists.” She ran her fingers through her hair. What she wouldn’t give for some clean clothes. “I’ll wake Cale.”

  “Alright.” Zero nodded, confused by her mood, but not about to pry. After the night before, he supposed a girl was allowed to be moody. Alice turned to leave before Zero was out of the bed. She paused at the door, holding it half-open and turning back to Zero.

  “Thanks for last night. You both really came through.”

  “Of course.” Zero smiled, his eyes bright in the morning sun. “Nothing else we could have done.” Alice nodded and left while Zero pulled on his boots.

  Cale stuck his head through the door as Zero stood. “We’re starting on the lists. Would you mind running over to the cafeteria for some breakfast? Alice doesn’t feel much like seeing people right now.” Cale explained with a shrug and a kind of ‘you get it’ look. “Maybe you can see what happened with Jake as well.”

  “Sure.” Zero found his sweatshirt on the floor and pulled it on. He followed Cale into the living room where Alice sat pouring over a list. “How do you two take your coffee?”

  “Black as night.” Cale winked and sat onto the couch; Alice had claimed the arm chair as her own.

  “Some cream and sugar in mine,” Alice answered. The warm smile she flashed at Zero seemed completely contradictory to her hasty exit from the bedroom and her matter-of-fact mood.

  “Alright,” Zero said. “I’ll be back.”

  As the door shut, Alice found it hard to concentrate on the list in front of her. After a few minutes, she realized she was reading the same names over and over again. There had been something so comforting about Zero lying beside her that morning
. When he pushed away her hair, he hardly seemed like the man she had come to know. He seemed so soft. She wanted to trust him and couldn’t deny how attractive she found him, but he was a recovering addict. Not to mention, they were in the middle of the end of the world. It didn’t seem like the time for romance.

  She shifted on the seat and Cale looked up at her. “Are you alright?” He frowned in concern.

  “Yeah.” With a sigh, she put down the paper. Cale did the same, giving her his full attention. “Just thinking about things,” she explained vaguely.

  “Last night?”

  “No, actually trying really hard not to think about that.” A chill went through her and she shook it off. “This morning, Zero-”

  “Did that boy try something?” Anger boiled up inside Cale. He had already given up on Alice, but if Zero wasn’t the good guy he thought he was, Cale would have his head. “I swear to God I will cut him in two.”

  “No,” Alice answered quickly. “He was a perfect gentleman. That’s sort of the problem; it went against my idea of him.” Cale calmed, surprised he had reacted so quickly, so willing to believe Zero had tried something. All because he had a teenage crush on her. In that moment Cale felt as dirty as Jake. He took a deep breath and pushed his feelings to the side for good, knowing Alice would never return them. It was time to settle into friend mode.

  “Alice.” Cale gave her a fatherly look and shook his head. “From everything I’ve seen of Zero, he’s a stand-up guy. I admit his history had me on edge, but he’s done nothing to make me think that’s still a part of him. Don’t forget, he doesn’t even remember most of that.”

  “Yeah.” Alice nodded slowly. “So you don’t think I should worry?”

  “Be as worried with him as with any man,” Cale answered with a smile.

  Alice laughed. “Thank you. And thanks again for last night. If you hadn’t been there . . .” She shuddered and shook her head. “Whatever. Just thank you for being such a good guy. All the guys I knew before were so immature.”

  “Age will change a man.” Cale picked his list back up. He glanced up at her and grinned. “Zombies will sure as hell change him. I admit I wasn’t much of a man until I was mostly through my twenties.”

  “I bet.” Alice smiled and picked up her list.

  *

  Zero nodded his thanks to Gabe as he stepped into the small, one story building at the edge of the base. He half expected Gabe to follow him inside, but he waited outside. Gabe followed a short hallway and then he was facing a row of three single occupancy cells. Iron bars separated each small room from a processing area barely big enough for the desk and chair that half filled it. Keys hung in the open doors to two of the cells, while a third set of keys hung out of reach of the occupied cell.

  Jake lay on the low cot snoring away. It disgusted Zero that the man was still breathing, let alone sleeping like a fat happy baby. Zero strode forward and wrapped his hands around the cold bars. Their solidness was reassuring. Jake wouldn’t be coming after Alice again.

  “Hey,” Zero called into the cell. Jake kept on snoring.

  Zero went to the desk and dug through it until he found a stapler. Back at the cell bars, Zero took careful aim and threw the stapler at Jake’s head. It missed and cracked into his chest instead. Jake sat up with a surprised snort, knocking the stapler to the floor.

  “What the hell?” Jake asked. It took him a moment to notice Zero standing at the bars. His surprised expression changed to a sneer. “What do you want?”

  “To tell you you’re a real grade A asshole,” Zero said. “And the simple joy of seeing you locked up.”

  “Screw you.” Jake held his head, a pounding headache growing behind his eyes.

  “I just want to know what in the hell you were thinking last night? I guess one asshole has to survive every apocalypse, but seriously? Alice? If it was up to me you’d be dead.”

  “And if it were up to me, so would you.” Jake sighed and leaned back against the cement wall separating his cell from the next. Why was this loser talking to him? “The girl’s a tease. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed.”

  “You know who calls women teases? Men who want an excuse for their own bad behavior.” Now that Jake was awake, Zero was even more disgusted by him. “You better hope they keep you in here, because if you ever get out of here and I see you near Alice,” Zero let the threat hang there.

  When Jake didn’t reply, Zero left the holding area. Gabe was gone when he stepped out of the building. With the cell locked it wasn’t like Jake was going anywhere. Zero doubled his pace as he headed for the rec-center.

  *

  It was easier to focus, but it was still slow reading. She didn’t want to skim over a name and have to go over the list again. She lost track of time, eyes blurring as she read name after name until she stumbled over a Maya Greenwood. As she was about to tell Cale, the front door opened. She jumped, half expecting to see Jake lumbering through, but it was only Zero. He balanced three coffee mugs and a paper bag.

  “Breakfast,” he called cheerily and Cale hurried to take the bag from him.

  “Thanks.” Zero set the coffees on the table. “I warn you, this isn’t the best coffee ever.”

  “As long as it’s not decaf.” Cale took a sip and grimaced at the coffee in question. “Oh damn.” He set the mug down on the floor beside the couch.

  “Yeah,” Zero said. “But I snagged us a box of doughnuts.” He pulled out a prepackaged box of powdered doughnuts and continued speaking as he opened them. “Got word on Jake too. Seems they woke up Gabe and have Jake in a holding cell at the moment.”

  “Good.” Relief flooded Alice as she sipped at the coffee, still bitter even though Zero had added both sugar and cream. “I think I have the list for the base we need.”

  “Haven?” Cale looked up sharply.

  Alice nodded, her heart hammering. “There is a Maya Greenwood. I guess we should finish the other two lists, but she could be the one.”

  “Let’s get on it then.” Zero popped a doughnut in his mouth and grabbed his coffee. He hurried to sit and gather up his list again.

  A half hour later they found no other Maya. Alice tried to fight down her excitement again, reminding herself that Haven would most likely be deserted, and the best they could hope to find was the cure. Still, she couldn’t help thinking of Simon. A small part of her was beginning to nourish the tiniest hope that he’d somehow survived.

  “At least you’ll know your way around,” Cale mused, sipping the last vile dregs of his coffee. “We’ll need a car.”

  “The truck is out of commission, but I’m sure Gabe will have something lying about.” Zero leaned back on the couch, doughnut in hand. Satisfaction filled him; they were finally getting somewhere.

  “But how will we drive it out of here?” Alice asked. “If that truck couldn’t handle driving through the zombies, we’d need a tank to get through now.”

  Cale and Zero were silent. Cale stood and walked to the window. As he looked out into the empty street, he leaned his head against the cool windowpane and tried to come up with a solution. Behind him, Alice and Zero exchanged a quick look. Alice looked away again even more quickly. Cale stepped back from the window and gathered up the papers into one large pile.

  “We need to go talk to Gabe. We don’t know anything about this base. He may know an obvious solution we can’t imagine.”

  Alice stood, nodding. “Sounds good. There may be access tunnels or something here as well. Or there is always the sewer.”

  Zero shook his head as they headed for the front door. “I don’t like it. Aside from whatever we run into in the sewers, we won’t know what we’ll come out into until it’s too late.” They stepped into the brisk day. The clouds had floated in since Alice woke, and now the whole base had a dull gray look to it. The temperature was mild, but a biting breeze rolled through, causing Alice to pull her sweatshirt more tightly around herself.

  “Let’s talk to Gabe.” Cale’s l
ips pressed together in a thin line and they hurried to the rec center.

  It took longer than they expected to find Gabe. He wasn’t in the cafeteria with the group and no one knew where he was. Finally, Alice thought to duck into the library. They found him nursing a cup of coffee and working his way through a thick book in one of the wing-back chairs. He looked happy to see them, as if they weren’t all trapped on the base and were only friends bumping into each other.

  “Well, hello.” He carefully slid a bookmark into place before setting the book aside on the table. “What can I do for you?”

  “We found out where the signal is coming from.” Cale didn’t waste any time on pleasantries.

  “You did?” Gabe looked elated. “Wonderful!”

  “Yeah. We’re gonna need a car of some sort.” Zero crossed his arms and leaned on the nearest table. “Something armored if you have it.”

  “I’m afraid we don’t,” Gabe apologized.

  “Crap.” Cale scowled.

  “Well hold on,” Gabe said soothingly. “Can any of you fly?”

  Gabe’s solution turned out to be simple. They would fly in. There were two small planes on the base. Gabe had no idea if either were functional and no idea how to fly one, but he saw no reason why someone else couldn’t try. Indeed, it would be quick and easy to fly out over the zombies and land in Haven. It would be deathly simple.

  Except the only one with flying experience was Cale, and that had been ten years ago. He had hated it. Everything about flying was wrong. If people were meant to fly, they would have been born with wings. Cale had never wanted to learn how to fly, but his dad was an avid pilot, so Cale had pushed down his fears and learned. He had been good at it too, but each little rumble of turbulence made his heart leap and beat wildly.

  “I’ll do it,” Cale assured them grudgingly, as they hurried down the main hallway. “But I’ll need a manual or something, some way to read up on the whole operation. They should have them on the computers. Everything was going electronic.”

  “So you just hop back on the computer, read a bit and we take off?” Zero sounded more than a little leery. “Sorry if I don’t seem too excited, but this isn’t like a car. You lose control of the plane, and it’s gonna be bad.”