Cale hurried down the stairs, Alice right on his heels. He lifted the radio to his mouth. “We’re right outside your door, and we got some bad company.”
Inside the basement lab, Dodge stared numbly at the radio. Help was right outside the door. Everything they had waited for was only feet away, but he couldn’t decide if they should open the door. As long as the door was closed they were safe. His eyes ticked toward the machine. The green light was still dark. If he didn’t open the door though, whoever was outside the door would die, of that much he was certain.
“Open the door,” Simon shouted, his face as panicked as the man’s voice had sounded.
“We can’t.” Dodge could feel his own panic rising and he fought to push it back. “You heard him; the zombies are right behind them. If we open that door, we’ll be letting death in.”
Simon strode up to Dodge, eyes blazing. Though he only came to Dodge’s chest it felt as if he was staring him in eyes. “If you don’t open that door they will all die, and it will be your fault.” Simon spoke softly, but with a force that Dodge couldn’t ignore. “My sister will die, and it will be all your fault,” Simon continued, his voice rising. “Now open the God damn fucking door.”
Dodge stood, floored for a moment, realizing it was the only time he had ever heard Simon swear. Simon was still up against him, breathing heavily, barely containing his rage at Dodge for not immediately opening the door.
Dodge gave him a small smile. “Alright.”
He pushed past Simon and sprinted to the door. He swiped the key card and took a hold of the handle. “Everyone remember to cover Tech.” Dodge pushed open the door, letting hell inside.
For a frightening moment, it seemed like the door wasn’t going to open. It felt painfully obvious to Cale that they would all die in the small stairwell so close to safety, but with no hope of being saved. Then the door swung open. The children fanned out, giving them room to get inside. Before they could get the door shut, the zombies were flowing through as well. Zero dropped Grace against the wall and spun to face the zombies.
Dodge quickly realized he should have armed the kids with knives. The guns were going to be little help, but it was too late. When he saw Tyson and Red beating the hell out of a zombie with their guns, he smiled. He turned and swung his gun at a zombie. He caught it hard enough in the jaw that he heard it snap. Its lower jaw hung loosely. He hit it again.
Alice could see Simon, but she hardly recognized him. It wasn’t just the dirt that covered his face, or the way his hair had grown wildly. It was in the way he moved and way he handled himself. He still looked like a child, but every time she glanced at him, he seemed older. He fought side by side with a young girl. The girl beat the zombies to the ground with a bat and Simon pressed the barrel of a handgun to their skull and fire. It immobilized the zombies without risking a ricochet. She saw others adopting this technique. Soon she and Zero were working together to thin the flow.
Tech knelt by the machine, hitting his knees and muttering for the green light to turn on. He glanced up at the mayhem around him and froze, fear overwhelming him. All around him the other kids and the grownups were fighting furiously. A pile of zombie bodies was growing on the ground, but it didn’t seem like they were getting anywhere. For every zombie they took out, one or more forced their way through the door. He shook his head, forcing himself to focus on the light again.
“Shoot him,” Tessa yelped.
The zombie she’d been beating finally fell to the ground. Simon was over him in a moment. He stared at the zombie, could it really be? The zombie looked like his dad with the same dirty blond hair and stubble of beard. Simon’s heart hammered. Was he looking at his dad?
“Simon, shoot it!” Tessa cried as the thing started to sit up. He pressed his gun to the creature’s skull. For one more second, he paused, wondering if he was holding the gun to his dad’s head. It didn’t matter anymore. He squeezed the trigger. Blood and brain matter exploded from under the thing’s skull as Simon stepped away.
Tessa spun, looking for the closest zombie to target. The butt of the gun came out of nowhere. It was on a back swing, but still held plenty of force. Her head rocked as the gun connected with the side of her skull. She took a step back, stumbled over a fallen zombie and fell backwards. Her head collided with the wall, a sick crack echoing through her head as the room started to fade around her. Tessa fumbled up to touch the wound. Pain sliced through her and her fingers came back sticky and red, just as she had feared. Her hand dropped, even though she was trying to hold it up. The room went black.
“Tessa!” Simon lurched towards her as she slumped against the wall. Fingers tangled in the back on his shirt and tugged him backwards. He spun and found himself facing a zombie. Without a thought to hurting anyone else, he fired a shot into the thing’s head and turned back to Tessa. Another zombie was dragging her out the door. Her head left a bloody trail along the floor that other zombies dropped to lick up. Simon climbed over them, desperate to catch Tessa.
Alice saw Simon trying to fight his way through the door and ran after him. There were too many out there. Even if he made it to the stairway, he would never escape.
“Cale, stop Simon,” she called.
Cale was closer to the door. He beat at the zombie he was fighting and gave her a confused look. Alice pointed after Simon; Cale nodded. He got the zombie to the ground and stomped twice on its head. When it was still, Cale lurched toward the door.
Simon was almost to Tessa when he felt hands grab him. He began to kick wildly. Simon jerked around, ready to fire, but surprised to see it was one of the men Alice had brought. Simon kicked again. He didn’t want to shoot the guy, but he wasn’t opposed to doing some harm if it meant he could go after Tessa.
“Let me go,” Simon cried.
“It’s not safe out there, Simon,” Cale tried to soothe him, though the way he was shouting couldn’t have soothed anyone. The kid was panicked, but Cale wasn’t about to let him die. Zombies began to notice them.
“She’s gonna die,” Simon cried desperately. “She’s gonna die like everyone else.” Simon couldn’t help the tears that fell. He could just see the sole of Tessa’s shoe disappearing at the foot of the stairs and all his hope was going with it. Simon let the man drag him back to his chest and begun punching him furiously.
“Simon.” Cale tried to calm the kid as he rained punches across his chest. It was no use. The kid was half-crazed. He looked like a wild dog and was fighting twice as hard.
“She said she wasn’t going to leave. I won’t let her leave.” Simon wailed and kicked Cale hard between the legs. That was all Cale could take. He let go and backed up a couple paces, head swimming with pain.
A zombie took a hold of Cale. Its teeth dug into his shoulder. Cale screamed and Simon could hear Alice scream too. Another man ran up and took hold of the zombie’s head and twisted. Its neck snapped with a soft crunch of bone. The man shoved the zombie to the ground where it lay still. Cale fell to the ground, gasping in pain, but with his shoulder intact. As Simon turned to try to follow Tessa again, a high pitched buzz started in the back of his head that stopped him cold. It was like ringing in his ears only louder.
He wasn’t the only one. When he looked around he saw the other kids, as well as the man who had just taken out the zombie, standing still. They looked surprised. The man wiggled his little finger in his ear, wincing. Zombies clawed at their own ears, letting out screams of pain. Simon would never forget the sound of those screams. Some of them started to shake. Blood ran from ears and eyes and then all of them were convulsing. They fell to the ground, bodies jumping a jig of pain before finally lying still. Simon could still hear the sound, but he shook it off. It was annoying, but not unbearable.
“Tech?” Dodge called softly, sounding shaken.
“Yeah?” Tech asked, almost breathlessly. He looked around at the fallen zombies.
“I think the machine works.”
Tech grinned, shakily. “Yea
h, I think so.” He turned the machine off and stood slowly. “Is everyone okay?”
Simon began to climb over the now dead zombies, hoping to find some sign of Tessa.
34
Haven Medical Base
“Cale!” Alice pushed away the zombie that had fallen on her and scrambled over to where Cale sat clutching his shoulder. He looked around with awe at the fallen zombies. He was pale, a thin sheen of sweat covering his face. “Cale, are you okay?” Alice crouched beside him.
“Yeah.” Cale nodded. “I think so.” He moved his hand and a small amount of blood oozed from his wounds, but the teeth had only punctured the skin, not torn it away. He winced. “I owe you one, Zero.”
“Here, man,” Zero pulled a blanket off the couch and cut a strip off. He tied it tightly around Cale’s shoulder to stop the bleeding. “We’ll talk about how you can repay me later.”
“How’s Grace?” Alice called to Quigley. He sat crouched beside Grace, examining her upper arm. He had tied a tourniquet tightly above the wound and it seemed to have stopped bleeding, but her arm was still covered in blood. Tech stood hunched over Quigley, watching with interest.
“Not good.” Quigley shook his head. “We need a first aid kit.”
“We have one of those,” Red offered and smacked Tyson on the arm. Both boys ran off to the back.
“Where’s Ian?” Alice asked, all of a sudden noticing the boy was no longer with them.
“They got him upstairs,” Quigley said softly. He took Grace’s hand.
“He never saw it coming,” Grace wheezed, clutching Quigley’s hand. Her face was ashy with pain. “They were all over him. There was nothing we could have done.”
“Shit,” Zero swore, running a hand through his hair and gritting his teeth. Cale understood how he was feeling. It had been his idea to start the whole damn mission. Now people were dead, and Grace was seriously injured. His shoulder pain seemed like a trivial thing.
“It’s not your fault,” Alice assured Zero, though she felt as if it was her fault for inviting Ian along. “He knew what the risks were.”
“We lost people too,” Dodge said, standing up. He moved to where Alice sat and offered her a hand up. “I’m Dodge. I believe we spoke on the radio.”
“Right.” Alice nodded. She figured he was roughly the same age as Ian had been, but Dodge had a mature aura around him that Ian never had. “Who did you lose?”
Dodge looked around the room as Red and Tyson came back with the first aid kit. The rest of the kids who had hidden in the back walked out slowly behind them, staring blankly at the devastation.
“Elliot for sure.” Dodge’s eyes played over the faces. “Jay too. I don’t see Tessa.” Dodge took a breath. “Or your brother, Simon.”
“Simon?” Alice’s heart sank as she realized he wasn’t around. “Where did he go? He was just here.”
“Simon went out the door,” Red offered.
“Simon.” Alice scrambled to her feet and ran out into the stairwell. Halfway up, she saw him crouched over the body of the girl he had fought beside. “Simon, are you alright?” Alice took a few careful steps toward him.
Simon shook his head. Tears streamed down his face as he held Tessa in his arms. She was pale, and there was too much blood flowing from her head. He glanced down the stairs to see Alice nearing him. He huddled closer over Tessa.
“It’s okay, Simon,” Alice soothed. “Let me check her pulse.” Alice reached forward and after a moment’s hesitation, Simon moved enough for her to check. He waited breathlessly, watching Alice’s face. Finally she smiled. “There’s a pulse. It’s weak, but it’s there.”
Simon began to cry all over again in relief, hugging Tessa tightly. Alice had to pry him away from her.
“Tessa,” Simon cried, reaching for her.
“Shh.” Alice smoothed his hair back from his face. She pulled him into a hug and rubbed circles on his back. “Calm down. We need to get her out of here. You need to calm down, okay? Breathe, everything is alright.”
“Did you see him?” Simon’s breath hitched on the words. “Did you see him?”
“See who?”
“Dad, he was in there. I killed him.” Simon buried his face in Alice’s shoulder, crying harder and gripping her shirt in his fists. “He said I was worthless, and I killed him.”
“No,” Alice said. “No, no, no, Simon. You’re not worthless, and anything you killed in there wasn’t Dad. Dad’s gone. He’s been gone since Mom died.” Alice’s eyes darted toward the door, wondering if there was any chance the zombie had been their dad. She shook her head, it didn’t matter. He’d given up his right to be their dad years ago. If she could just make Simon understand that who he was had nothing to do with what their dad thought of him. “He’s never going to hurt you again.” She squeezed Simon tightly. If she could only keep him that close forever, then nothing could hurt him.
Slowly, Simon allowed himself to relax against Alice. His crying slowed to sniffles until finally he pulled away and wiped his nose. Alice let go reluctantly.
“I’m okay.” Simon forced himself to keep the tears back, to not think of Tessa, or Zeke, or Noah. “I’m okay,” he repeated, aware he was saying it for himself as much as Alice.
“Oh hell, Tessa?” Dodge stepped into the stairway. He ran towards Tessa, but Alice held a hand out to stop him. “She’s alive, but we need to get her out of here and to a doctor. It looks like she took quite a hit to the head.”
“We have bandages in the first aid kit,” Dodge said.
“Go get them,” Alice ordered, but Dodge had already ducked back into the room. He returned moments later with the kit.
Alice took a thick pad of gauze and pressed it to the wound. She took Simon’s hand and held it tight to the wound while she unwound a strip of bandage and began to wrap Tessa’s head. She had to move Simon’s hand for him or he would have let her wrap over it. That done, she laid Tessa’s head in Simon’s lap and stood up.
“Are you okay here for a minute?” Alice asked. Simon nodded. “Watch her, if anything changes you yell.” Simon nodded again.
“Let’s get everyone together.” Alice led Dodge back into the room and surveyed the scene. Her eyes drifted past a sandy haired zombie. She had no doubt it was the one Simon believed was their dad. If it had been, there was no way to know now, its face was destroyed. She turned away. “Is there anything you need to bring?” she asked Dodge.
“Are you kidding?” he asked. “We don’t have anything.”
“We need to bring the machine” Tech said. He stood watching Quigley and Red pad Grace’s wound with gauze.
“Of course.” Dodge bent and gripped one handle. “Someone wanna get the other side?”
“I’ll help.” Cale winced as he stood.
“No offense man, but you are in no shape to lift this anything,” Dodge told him.
“I got it.” Zero stepped forward.
“Now listen to me,” Cale began to argue, but Alice shot him a look.
“Let them do it,” Grace said. “You look like crap.”
“Very funny.” Cale smiled. “‘Cause I’m not the one who lost a whole bicep. God, that looks painful.”
“I’ll be fine,” Grace assured him. “The doc will fix me up when we hit Coda. We just have to get out of this hell hole.”
“Better turn the machine back on,” Tech said. He flicked the button and the high pitched noise started in their ears again. “I’ll grab the notebook too, it might be helpful.”
“There’s an injured girl on the stairway. Can you carry her?” Alice asked Cale. “She can’t weigh much.”
“Yeah.” Cale nodded and headed for the stairs.
Quigley helped Grace to her feet. Red and Tyson stood on her other side, ready to steady her if she needed them. Slowly, they made their way toward the stairs. Zero and Dodge lifted the machine. When Dodge nodded his head toward the door, and the rest of the kids swarmed from the room. Alice couldn’t help but be impressed with th
e way he had taken charge. She stepped out in front of them and climbed the stairs, pausing only briefly to take Simon’s hand and pull him up. They walked together through the hospital.
Simon allowed Alice to lead him out of the hospital. His best friend was dead and a stranger was carrying the near lifeless body of his first love away. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so helpless. If Alice wanted to lead, he was more than happy to let her. The sun shone down brightly when they stepped from the hospital, a sharp contrast to the mood Simon was in. He had to shield his eyes after spending the last few days underground.
The streets were littered with the bodies of dead zombies as far as he could see. The sound still buzzed in their ears. Simon glanced at the machine. He wondered what would happen if that green light went out before the reached safety. Simon and Alice followed the others back toward the main street. When they reached an area clear of bodies, Cale gently set Tessa down and looked around.
“We’re not going to be able to fly out of this,” Cale said.
“There are cars somewhere.” Simon offered wasn’t sure where, but he knew Zeke had found a whole garage full.
“Down that road.” Dodge nodded, breathing heavily as they set down the machine. “A whole garage of military vehicles.”
“They got trucks?” Cale stared in the direction Dodge indicated.
“Yeah, about a dozen,” Dodge said. “Big ass trucks.”
“Watch your mouth,” Grace scolded. Dodge gave her a charming smile. Alice liked Dodge already. Despite his rough edges, she could see he was kind.
“I’ll take you,” Dodge offered. Cale looked around at the group, doing some quick calculating.
“Alright. We’ll need at least three drivers. I think I can still drive with this arm.” Cale looked around at the group.
“I’ll drive,” Zero offered.
“Me too,” Dodge added.
“Alright then,” Cale said. “Let’s go.”
PRIME Page 24
