Hollowland

by Amanda Hocking

  “Yeah,” I nodded.

  “And when I touch you, don’t freak out.”

  He looped his arm around my waist, powerful and warm. His hand went dangerously close to pressing painfully on the bite wound. I almost slapped it away, but that wouldn’t look right. I leaned into him, rubbing my hand on the firm muscles of his stomach, and let him lead me over to the door.

  “Giggle a lot,” Tatum whispered when we got closer.

  “I don’t giggle.”

  “Hot girls always giggle,” he insisted, so I tried a small, feminine giggle, but it sounded like a horse or something. “Okay. Never mind. Don’t giggle.”

  When we got to the doors of the building, I nuzzled even deeper against him. I knew I was a horrible actor, so I let my hair fall into my face, hiding the excitement and anxiety I felt. The hand Tatum had around me got increasingly friskier, roaming all over my body. American hero or not, I kinda really wanted to kick him.

  “Another one, Tatum?” one of the guards asked jovially, and Tatum laughed.

  “You know me. I work hard, I play hard, Griffin,” Tatum replied and slapped my ass. It was really, really hard for me not to punch him, but I somehow forced a playful squeal instead.

  “I hate to bust your balls, but the Sergeant really does not want civilians inside,” the other guard said. “Can’t you go back to her place?”

  “She lives with other people,” Tatum said. “And we need some privacy.”

  “Just let him in, Stanley,” Griffin said, imploring the other guard to listen to Tatum.

  “Fine,” Stanley sighed. “But this is the last time. You need to find a love nest somewhere else.”

  “Thank you,” Tatum smiled gratefully as Stanley punched numbers in the keypad.

  “Don’t play too hard now,” Griffin said. “You’ve got field training in the morning.”

  “I can’t make any promises,” Tatum quipped. The doors slid open, and he led me through.

  Once the doors shut behind us, I pulled away from him. The hallways were plain and utilitarian, like the kind in most hospitals. White floors, speckled tiles, drop ceiling. I couldn’t see anybody around, but I could hear people talking and laughing and music playing.

  “Thanks for getting me in,” I said, readjusting my skirt.

  “It was my pleasure,” he grinned.

  “Yeah, I’m sure it was,” I muttered, remembering when he grabbed my ass. He laughed, so I shot him a look.

  “Come on. The second floor is this way,” he nodded to the hall to his left. I walked with him, deliberately giving him a wide berth. “I’m not gonna grope you now or anything.”

  “How do you have music?” I asked, changing the subject.

  “We have CD’s and stereos,” Tatum shrugged again. “All we need is electricity.”

  When we walked a little closer, I was surprised the band playing was Emeriso, Lazlo’s old band. Over the music, I heard a door creak and footsteps approaching.

  “Someone’s coming,” Tatum said. Without warning, he grabbed my wrist and pushed me up against the wall. “Don’t slap me.”

  I just stared at him, and then he pressed his mouth against mine. His kisses were hard and rough, and while they weren’t entirely bad, I didn’t really feel anything. Not like with Lazlo.

  I heard the footsteps getting closer, so I kissed him back more fervently, and a man whistled.

  “Get a room, Tatum!” a guy laughed.

  “On my way,” Tatum stopped kissing me long enough to smirk at the guy passing by. He didn’t kiss me anymore, but he stayed leaning against the wall, his body pressed against mine, until the other guy had disappeared around a corner. Then he looked at me, his eyes both earnest and hungry. “You know, my room is just around the corner-”

  I scoffed and pushed him off me. When I’d put my hands on his chest to push him, I was surprised how fast his heart was beating. Even though he had only been helpful since I met him, he was so cocky that I didn’t really think of him as really feeling anything.

  “Sorry. Let’s go,” Tatum said and walked quickly ahead of me, so I had to jog to keep up.

  At the end of the hall, another set of doors with a keypad blocked the stairwell. Tatum punched in the numbers, looking back over his shoulder to make sure we were alone. The keypad flashed green, and the door made a clicking sound. He opened it, glancing around once more.

  “Your friend better be waiting up there for you,” Tatum said. “Because there’s a keypad to that door, and I don’t know the code.” I went through the door, and he hesitated. “Do you want me to go with you?”

  “No, I got it from here,” I smiled wanly at him. “Thanks, though. For everything.”

  “No problem.”

  I dashed up the stairs, taking two at a time. There were no windows in the stairwell or the door, so I didn’t really know what to do. Blue might be waiting for me, but I couldn’t see him.

  Timidly, I knocked at the door, and then waited. Three of the longest seconds of my life later, the keypad flashed green, and the door slowly pushed open.

  “Hey,” Blue poked his head around the open door, and his brow furrowed. “What the hell are you wearing?”

  “Never mind,” I shook my head, feeling even more self-conscious.

  “You’re right. Hurry,” he waved me into the second floor.

  It looked exactly like the first floor, except there were big, stainless steel Craftsman toolboxes randomly placed throughout the hall. A few people in scrubs stood at the other end of the hall, talking.

  Blue immediately pushed me through the door right next to the stairwell, which happened to be a men’s bathroom. He shoved a pair of blue scrubs at me and told me to get dressed.

  “Does everybody have to wear scrubs all the time?” I asked. He had his back to me, and he stood at the door, holding it open a little to keep watch for anyone coming.

  “Kind of. They’re big into uniforms here,” Blue replied absently. “It helps them keep track of everyone.”

  I changed quickly and pulled my hair up. Blue waited a beat, making sure the coast was clear, and we went into the hall as casually and as fast we could. We took another left, going towards where the other people were talking. They complained about how loud the soldiers were on the floor below them, and Blue and I politely smiled when we walked by and rounded the corner.

  The stairs to the third floor were at the end of the next hall, and we almost jogged towards them. Blue punched in the key code, opened the door, and we raced up the steps.

  “Third floor is gonna be trickier,” Blue said as we reached the next door. “We can’t be seen. If we are, people will ask why we’re there, and we don’t have clearance. Obviously. The only good thing is that very few people have clearance, so there won’t be many people up here to see us.”

  When the door opened, I was surprised by how much dimmer it was. Half the lights must’ve been off. Everything felt narrower and darker, but I’m not sure if that was true.

  The hall was completely empty, no metal carts, no people, nothing. We crept down the corridor, literally tiptoeing like they did in cartoons when they were being sneaky.

  The sound of a door opening echoed down the hall. Blue grabbed me and pushed me around a corner. We stood with our backs pressed up against the wall, neither of us breathing, and waited. Footsteps came closer. Then another door opened, and they disappeared.

  After Blue let out a shaky breath, we went back out into the main hall and walked down a few doors. We stopped in front of a plain white door, but this one had a slot for a keycard, like they had in hotels.

  “I think this is where your brother’s at.” Blue nodded and pulled a plastic keycard out of his pocket.

  “Wait.” I stopped him before he slid it in. “You go. I can do this. I don’t want you to get in trouble over me.”

  “Are you sure?” Blue asked.

  “Yeah. You’ve helped me enough.”

  Almost reluctantly, he handed me the card. I waited unti
l he had taken a few steps down the hall, then I slid the card in. The light flashed green on the slot, and I pushed down the handle to the door. My stomach twisted with nerves, and slowly, I opened the door.

  – 20 –

  In a small white room, under almost blinding light, dozens of vials lined the counters surrounding the walls. Some of were filled with red liquid, some green, some clear. Syringes and all sorts of medical equipment were stacked about. A computer monitor sat on a stand next to an IV in the middle of the room. Next to it, was a white dentist chair.

  In that chair sat a very small boy, even smaller than I remember him being. He looked thin and pale, making the few scattered freckles on his cheeks stand out more. His dark brown hair stuck to the damp skin of his forehead, and he didn’t even open his eyes when I came in.

  The IV ran out of one of his bony arms, sticking in amongst a million other bruised needle marks. His dark blue scrubs were much too big for him. The bottom of his pants had been rolled up over his feet.

  I stood there for a moment, terrified he was dead. He looked so frail and sickly. Max might be immune to the zombie virus, but he certainly was not immortal. His chest rose and fell with a breath, and relieved tears welled in my eyes.

  “Max,” I said softly, not wanting to startle him.

  “Remy?” Max opened his eyes, and there he was. Buried underneath this sickly haze, was my little brother. His entire face lit up when he saw me, and he sat up straighter. “Remy!”

  I ran over and threw my arms around him. I hugged him as gently as I could, afraid I would break him. He felt so delicate and brittle. He hugged me as tightly as he could, and I barely felt it.

  “I’m so happy to see you.” I leaned back so I could get a better look at him, and I pushed the hair off his clammy forehead. “I’ve missed you so much.”

  “Remy, I can’t believe it’s you!” Max started crying, too, which only made it harder for me to contain my own tears. “I thought… I thought you were dead!”

  “Are you kidding?” I smiled at him. “You know a few zombies can’t stop me. I promised I would take care of you.”

  “I know, but things were so bad back there.” His face clouded over. “Beck saved me. He went and made sure they got me out.”

  “Beck saved you?” A painful lump swelled in my throat.

  “Yeah. Is he with you?” Max sat up, looking behind me as if I had snuck someone in my shadow.

  “No, Max, he’s not.” I ran my hand through his thick hair, and a sad understanding came over his face. “But you wouldn’t believe everything I went through to find you!”

  “I bet you got a lot of zombies,” Max said, proudly.

  I had sheltered him far too much, and he never developed an appropriate fear of zombies. He didn’t enjoy being around them, but he mistakenly believed that I could take on anything, so he always got a kick out of watching me fight with them.

  “Yep, I did,” I laughed, wiping at my cheeks to keep the tears from falling. “And I even found a lion.”

  “A lion?” His eyes widened.

  “Yeah, she’s here, and you’d love her,” I said. “Maybe you can come out and meet her.”

  “Oh, I can’t do that.” His face fell, and he looked down. “I can’t leave.

  “Of course you can leave.”

  “The doctors told me not to. They said I needed to stay here,” Max said.

  “What is going on here?” I asked, forcing a smile. I tried to keep my tone light and curious, so he wouldn’t get upset. “What are these tubes?”

  “I’m helping save the world,” Max smiled. I took a deep breath to keep from sobbing, and he misunderstood. “But I’ll be okay, Remy! They’re doing all this stuff, but I’ll be just fine! You don’t have to worry about me!”

  “I know I don’t have to worry.” I squeezed his small hand. “You’ve always been so tough and brave.”

  “They’re taking care of me, Remy. Honest,” Max tried to reassure me.

  “Yes, I can see that.” I swallowed hard.

  The door behind me opened. Adrenaline surged through me, and I instantly stopped crying. A tall man with dark slicked back hair and blue scrubs stood in the doorway. He narrowed his eyes at me, and I stood up, preparing to fight to get Max out of here.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked.

  “Dr. Daniels, this is my sister, Remy!” Max announced as cheerily as he could manage in his weakened condition. “Remy, this is the doctor who’s taking care of me.”

  I glanced back at Max, disturbed and confused to find that he liked this man. I really wanted to punch the doctor, but I probably shouldn’t do that in front of Max. He’d seen enough death and violence.

  “How did you get in here?” Daniels asked, and he relaxed a bit after Max made our introductions. He even let the door shut behind him.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I shrugged. “What the hell are you doing here? What are you doing to my little brother?”

  “You’re aware of his condition?” Daniels tilted his head uncertainly at me.

  “I know he’s not sick,” I said carefully. “He’s the opposite of sick, but he looks very ill. What are you doing to make him look like that?”

  “I’m helping the world!” Max protested.

  “You don’t need to help the world! You need to be a little kid,” I told him gently. “You need to leave with me.”

  “Max, wait!” Daniels held up his hand, but Max hadn’t made a move to go anywhere. “All the people in the world are very, very sick. You’ve seen what it does to people, haven’t you? Like your parents? You can stop that. You can save them. Your blood is the cure.”

  “This isn’t his responsibility!” I stepped in front of Max, blocking him from Daniels. “And you don’t know that! There isn’t a cure yet! You may never find the cure, and Max might not hold the answer!”

  “But he could! He does!” Daniels insisted.

  “I don’t care!” I snapped. “You’re making him sick! He wasn’t this bad before. When they did tests on him in the old quarantine, he never looked like this!”

  “They weren’t going fast enough,” Daniels said. “By the time they found a cure, everyone would be dead. He could save the entire human race!”

  “How can he save the world if he’s dead?” I looked back at Max. His eyes were wide and glassy, and I’m not sure how much of the conversation he followed.

  “If we don’t find the cure soon, there won’t be a world left to save,” Daniels said. “The zombies are getting smarter. They’re working together and tracking humans. It won’t be long before they find a way to kill everyone.”

  “So your solution is to kill the only kid with a cure?” I asked skeptically.

  “We’re not trying to, but we need to get everything now,” Daniels explained as reasonably as he could. “We’re getting all this genetic material before that happens.”

  “So… you know it’s going to happen? You’re planning on it?” I actually started shaking with rage and clenched my fists. They were killing him, and they knew it, and they didn’t care.

  “Do you think that everyone in the whole world should die so one kid doesn’t suffer?” Daniels looked at me skeptically. “That’s your argument?”

  “Pretty much.” I walked over to Max to start undoing his IV. “He can’t live like this. I won’t let him.”

  “You can’t take him.” Daniels pushed a button by the door, presumably calling for help.

  I knew he was right. No matter how badly I wanted to, I couldn’t just take my brother out of an armed building. Not on my own.

  “Max,” I crouched down in front of him, putting my hands on his knees. “I promise I will get you out of here.”

  “But if I can save people, I should,” Max said.

  “Not like this,” I insisted. “The world isn’t your responsibility, okay? This isn’t your burden.”

  “No, Remy, this isn’t your burden.” His eyes looked darker set against his ashen skin, and I
hated how reasonable he sounded.

  Wise beyond his years, but he’d always been that way. A weird combination of little kid and old man that I had never understood. I was proud of him for wanting to sacrifice himself to do the right thing, but I was mad at him too. He didn’t need to do this.

  He didn’t need to die, and I wouldn’t let him.

  The door behind me opened, and a guard came in. He grabbed me by my arms and pulled me to my feet, but I didn’t put up a fight. I knew it would be futile in the long run, and I didn’t want Max to see me like that.

  He just stared up at me, already resigned to living like this. As the guard pulled me out, Max’s sad face was the last thing that I saw.

  I realized exactly what I had to do.

  – 21 –

  “You are so, so lucky you know me,” Tatum repeated for the twentieth time as he paced in front of me. I leaned back against the trailer, where we had been standing for the past fifteen minutes as he lectured me.

  Tatum actually did have some clout around here, and using all of his considerable charm, he’d talked the officials into letting me go with a warning. They called it extenuating circumstances, but next time, I’d get the stockades.

  For a while, people loitered around us. We had been a spectacle of sorts, but everyone had gone away now. It was just the two of us, hidden in the shadows of the trailer, so he could calm down the show he’d been putting on. He’d been playing it up like he had nothing to do with it.

  “I shouldn’t have let you talk me into that.” Tatum rubbed his jaw and stared off at nothing.

  “I’m sorry,” I said sincerely.

  He had put himself on the line for me, and it wasn’t until his sergeant was berating us both that I realized what that meant. At least nobody had figured out his involvement, or Blue’s, and I was very grateful for that.

  “It’s alright,” he shrugged and looked back at me. “But the least you could’ve done was wore that skirt out here.”