Mace yelled for Angela to run as he opened fire, dropping the closest four in quick succession before turning to sprint towards the half-open door. They were directly behind him as he cleared the door, and they shrieked in pain as the fullness of light blinded them. The light reached to the back of the retina's, their damaged rods and cones were the only place where pain sensors were active and hyper-sensitive. Having existed in a state of metabolic depression for months, though, the infection had remained mostly dormant, just now reaching its fullness as their rage sent the alien proteins racing through their bodies.
Continuing after Mace, the pain they suffered only increased their animosity, and they reached a sprinter's pace after being slowed down considerably by the initial exposure. Catching up to Angela as she ran across the air field, Mace grabbed her arm and pulled her along as the infected closed the gap. They were less than fifteen feet away. The only structure close to them was the air traffic control tower, and Angela was gasping for air as she ran. “We’re not gonna make it!”
“Bullshit! Run!” Mace yelled as he turned and fired, hitting an infected with a shot to the forehead that sent an instant splatter of brain tissue across the trailing horde. They roared in outrage as they trampled over its body, continuing after them.
Angela was starting to fall behind as Mace pulled her, and she almost tripped. “I’m not gonna make it!” she cried out again in exasperation. The tower was twenty feet ahead of them, but the infected were closing fast.
“You have to!” Mace yelled as he eyed the tower, looking for any place to create some distance or escape. The tower itself was over 50 feet tall with a large, square windowed structure on top. It was a three story building, narrow at the base, with a three-foot porch and railing that ran across the top two floors. The second floor was a good twelve feet off the ground, and Mace realized that if they were going to survive they’d have to make it up there. He eyed an air conditioning unit that was about three feet tall on the ground.
“We’re gonna have to jump for the second floor,” he panted as they came within ten feet of the building. His lungs were screaming, and he was struggling for each breath.
“How?” Angela screamed as sweat poured off her and the infected manically reached for her, closing the distance to a few feet.
“Air-conditioner!” he yelled as he pointed to it. “Jump on it and then jump for the bottom rail!”
“No way! I’ll never make it!”
“We’ve got no choice!”
Angela’s eyes turned wide as she remembered the flash grenades. “Use the flash grenades!” she screamed.
His heart pumped at their mention, and he immediately unclipped one from his belt, pulling the pin and tossing it ahead of them towards the wall of the structure, where it rolled to a stop. “We’ve got 5 seconds before it blows,” he panted.
“I can’t jump it! I can’t!”
Shooting her a frantic glance, he said, “When I jump up, dive behind the air conditioner. Stay down until it explodes!”
Reaching the air conditioner, Mace let go of Angela’s arm and leaped with one foot, landing on top and instantly pushing off, reaching for the bottom porch railing. He clasped the railing with his fingers as his body swung forward, his knees and legs crashing into the tinted plate-glass windows that surrounded the bottom floor. He could feel the concrete bottom of the porch scraping up his arms as he hung on. Pushing off the wall with his feet, he reached up with his right hand for the next railing and quickly pulling himself up by his arms.
Below him, Angela dove over the air conditioner, crashing into the window and shrinking down behind the unit. The infected were directly behind her, ignoring Mace and diving after her as the grenade popped with a loud bang and flash. The grenade was only a few feet away, and the infected diving after her shrieked in agony before landing dead on top of her. Their weight crushed her, and she fought to catch her breath, overwhelmed by the physical exertion and choking and gagging from the horror of their stench.
Bloody eyeball fragments were splattered over her face and body, and she spit out tiny chunks as she manically tried to push their bodies off of her. She was effectively freaking out.
Shrieks of torment traveled across the airfield as over a dozen infected stood blinded by the flash grenade, swinging their arms wildly and exploding in rage and frustration at their condition. The remaining infected that hadn’t been killed or maimed by the grenade fled in confusion and fear, racing back to the airport hangar where they hid in the shadows, trembling with fright, eyes darting around in abject terror.
Mace dropped back down to the ground, shooting a few quick glances at the standing infected, who were now growing completely still and quiet. Except for a light tremor that shook through their bodies, they remained frozen, lost to a dark internal world of horror and madness.
Angela was cursing loudly as she flailed under the bodies, and Mace rushed over and pulled the first one off, tossing him to the side. Seeing a glimpse of her squirming under two other dead infected, his heart stopped for a second. She was covered in dark matter and thick, coagulated blood.
“Get these fuckers off me!” she screamed, fighting to free herself and tangled in their limbs.
Mace pulled the second one off, and she was able to push the third one away. Scrambling to her feet, she began cursing wildly. “Fuck! Holy fuck! Those fuckers!” She wiped her body down in a frenzy, trying to get all their bits of flesh and fluid off of her. Turning her attention to her face, she began wiping it furiously, smearing the infected goop all over it.
Looking at their precarious environment, Mace pointed at the tower. “Let’s try to get inside and see if we can clean you up.”
Angela was still freaking out. “Clean me up? Those fuckers are all over me!” Her face was covered in their blood as she pulled out her gun and aimed it at the head of one of the standing frozen infected. “Fuck you!” she yelled as she fired, dropping it instantly. She kept firing at them until the gun clicked empty.
Mace stood back, keeping an eye out for any movement, as she threw in a fresh magazine and continued with the executions. Now walking directly up to each one, she placed the barrel hard against the sides of their heads, pulling the trigger and smiling bitterly as their heads exploded and they crumbled to the ground. Once she was finished she had calmed down considerably.
Mace pulled his gun from its holster and shot the lock out on the door to the control tower. Moving forward he kicked it in, keeping the gun aimed at the open entrance. “Let’s get you cleaned up,” he said without diverting his eyes from the interior.
Angela stayed silent, following him inside. As Mace searched the first floor, Angela sat down on the stairs leading to the second floor, staring blankly ahead.
Returning a minute later with a roll of paper towels, Mace started gently wiping the fluid from her face. “You didn’t get anything in your mouth, did you?” he asked quietly, trying not to get her worked up again.
“No,” she whispered back as a chill ran down her spine at the realization that she had. He wasn’t convinced and studied her face carefully. “You sure?”
“Yes,” she snapped, pulling the towel away from him. “I just got zombie fucking slime all over me.”
As she scrubbed at her face with the towel, a hint of a smile showed on his face. “There’s nothing out here, huh?”
She stopped wiping her face, gave him a hard look, and said, “Shut up, you ass.”
He dismissed the insult, knowing he should be upset with her for her recklessness but figuring it wasn’t the best time. “What did you bring me out here for, anyway?”
“The helicopter. It’s around here somewhere. I thought it was in that hangar.” She was looking much better, although she still had some wet, stringy secretions around her hairline. “I thought it would be perfect for patrols. Nothing like an aerial view to really see what’s going on.”
Mace stared at her for a few long seconds as the idea sunk in. “Brilliant.”
<
br /> A smile actually spread across her face. “I know. I’ve put some thought into our security as well.”
Deciding to risk offending her, Mace said, “You were reckless, you know. You almost got us killed here.”
“My bad,” Angela said in all seriousness, nodding in agreement. “I know. I get carried away sometimes.” She paused and then said, “I’m sorry. Really.”
~~~
That night, after having pushed a concerned Shawn away, Angela hurried to the shower where she vigorously scrubbed her face and body in an attempt to get the filth of the infected off of her. No matter how hard she scrubbed, though, she couldn’t get to a point where she felt clean. Feeling the beginnings of a migraine and replaying the day’s events in her head, panic began to set in. Screaming at herself in the mirror, she barely held herself together. “That was so stupid, Angela! You were so stupid!”
She rubbed her skin raw with a bath towel, finally dropping to a corner of her bedroom as the enormity of the situation hit her. Holding her head in her hands, she stared at the floor, trying to convince herself it wasn’t real. “You’re fine. You’re gonna be fine.” Her breathing was rapid as she tried to bargain with a God she didn’t believe in. “Please. Just let me be okay. Just let me be fine. Just this once. I’ll do anything. I swear.”
Wrapping her arms around her knees and curling herself into a ball, she started to cry. Fifteen minutes later she was sobbing uncontrollably. She had received the antidote months ago but could still feel something happening inside of her. Not just to her body, but to her mind. She could feel a darkness probing her, analyzing her for its purposes, and she felt helpless and corruptible.
She wasn’t clean, she realized. It didn’t matter how hard she scrubbed, she’d never be clean again. At some level, she realized, she was already one of the walking dead. She turned her head and threw up violently at the thought. There was no way she was going out like that.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“I know you were toying with the pirates,” Jacqueline said quietly as she drove the bus back towards their property. Woody sat behind her in the front seat, and they locked eyes for a second in the large, round, rear-view mirror above the driver’s seat. He remained quiet, but the look on his face told her she was right. “I need you to take care of these kids,” she said, lifting her eyes to briefly glance at the other kids goofing around at the back of the bus. Her eyes returned to the road, where they remained as she continued talking. “You’re their leader. What is going to happen to them if you die? Or if you get infected?”
Feeling slightly ashamed, Woody avoided looking at her and stared out the window at the passing landscape. “I don’t know what would happen,” he said in a low tone. “I just can’t help myself, though,” he admitted quietly.
“You can do anything you want to, remember? You’re Peter Pan,” she said.
His voice grew stronger as he started getting excited. “Peter Pan hated pirates! He didn’t want to just kill them either. He wanted to make them pay.” As he stared at her, his eyes grew momentarily misty. “The pirates killed my mom and dad. They kill everything. Sometimes just killing them isn’t good enough.”
They locked eyes again and this time shared a brief emotional connection. “I’m really sorry, Woody,” Jacqueline said. “None of us asked for this world. But the only way to survive it is to stick together. If all we want to do is kill, then the pirates have won. Then we’ve become just like them.”
Woody considered that as he stared out the window, his eyes cold and empty.
As Jacqueline drove down the street towards their property, kids started appearing, running alongside the bus and waving in their costumes. As soon as the bus pulled to a stop in their long driveway and the door wooshed open, kids started running aboard, screaming and talking excitedly. Jacqueline was all smiles until she noticed a few of the girls sitting by themselves, growing melancholy, as memories of a past life came flooding back.
Jacqueline sat down next to Alexi, who silently stared out the bus window, leaning her head against it, looking miserable. “It’s okay, you know,” said Jacqueline. “To grieve for the past”.
Alexi turned her head and stared, holding back her emotions. “What good does it do? It won’t bring anything back.”
“No, it won’t bring anything back, but you still have a right to your feelings. If you bury them, you’ll never get past them.”
“I don’t want to get past them. I don’t want to forget what life used to be like.” The pain in Alexi’s eyes made Jacqueline remember why she had stayed. Alexi’s voice cracked as she whispered, “I can’t even remember what my parents look like. There is something so wrong in that.”
“I’m here to help you,” Jacqueline said empathetically. “And it’s not your fault if you can’t remember what they look like.” Jacqueline took a deep breath, reached over, and gently squeezed Alexi’s hand. Alexi didn’t pull away.
As kids hollered and ran up and down the middle of the bus, Jacqueline and Alexi sat quietly together, holding hands as they both stared out the bus window, moving past the tension that had been building up between them.
Jacqueline leaned towards her and whispered, “You know your parents loved you. I’d bet that they are here right now, watching over you. In fact, if you closed your eyes right now, I believe they would help you to see their faces.”
The look on Alexi’s face held uncertainty and fear as she stared back at Jacqueline. Taking a moment to ponder the idea, Jacqueline could see a small sparkle of hope appear in her eyes.
“Go ahead,” Jacqueline said, coaxing her gently. “Give it a try.”
The bus grew completely quiet as Alexi closed her eyes, shutting herself off from everything around her. Jacqueline squeezed her hand a little tighter as Alexi quieted her mind, in turn opening it up to a receptive state. A second later a clear vision of her parents began appearing, and they were all spinning and laughing in a giant tea cup at Six Flags. Her mom was cracking up and screaming as her dad spun the tea cups harder, cranking on the metal wheel in the middle. She could see herself laughing madly, begging him to stop as they continued to spin. It was a memory she loved, and one she would look back on and hold until the very day she died.
“Oh my God, I can see them!” Alexi said excitedly, and Jacqueline watched as her face took on a joyful countenance. A huge smile spread across her face before she opened her eyes back up. “Thank you!” she said, bursting with excitement as she turned towards Jacqueline. “I could really see them! I remember exactly what they look like!”
Smiling warmly, Jacqueline put her arm around Alexi, hugging her. “I’m so glad for you,” she said. “I knew it would work.”
Jacqueline had worked regularly with dying patients in the intensive care unit at Kaiser. She had a gift for helping them with their transition and had come to understand the real power that suggestion could have on their troubled minds. She'd had complete faith it would work under these circumstances. “I’m here for you,” she said quietly with sincerity, hugging Alexi tightly again.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Jade was furious as Mace tried to explain the circumstances at the hangar.
“You went on a patrol without even letting me know? With Angela? What the hell were you thinking?”
“I know. I’m sorry. It was just supposed to be a quick run.”
“You almost got yourself killed! What the hell, Mace? If you had died out there, no one would have known!”
Knowing there was nothing he could say to make it better, Mace just shrugged his shoulders. “I know. I know.”
Pressing Jason against her shoulder, Jade repositioned him and bit her lip, trying to keep her voice down so she wouldn’t wake the baby. “I don’t trust her,” she said more quietly, referring to Angela. “She takes too many chances. And I can’t believe you followed her lead!” She shook her head and her voice started rising again. “I am just so mad at you right now!”
Mace moved forward and put h
is hands on her waist, knowing she couldn’t fight him off with Jason on her shoulder. “I made a bad decision,” he said softly. “It won’t happen again. We’ll set up a schedule and send people out with flare guns. I know they’ve got a large supply, and it will be a good warning system if things go wrong.” He locked eyes with her and could tell she was beginning to calm down a fraction. “There is nothing more important to me than what is right here,” he said, looking from her to the baby sleeping on her shoulder. “I just want to make sure we stay safe. Every day that we’re here is another chance to improve our situation.”
Jade wasn’t ready to give up the fight yet. “Don’t you ever leave this compound without letting me know again, and I want you to be very careful around Angela. She’s a loose cannon.” She paused, scanning his face. “Are you sure she’s still clean? Is there any way to know for sure?”
“Not yet, at least not right now. She was covered in their blood. We’re just going to have to watch her closer and see if she starts running a fever.”
~~~
It was close to midnight as Angela pulled the Suzuki up to the compound gate. As she dismounted her bike and moved towards the lock, Jim, who was in the guard tower, peered over the railing and said, “Hey, what do you think you’re doing?”
“Heading out on patrol,” she said flatly.
Flicking on a flashlight and pointing it down on her, Jim was surprised by her disheveled appearance. Even in the poor fluorescent glow of the small lamp, her face appeared pale, gray, and sweaty. Her hair was a mess of tangles. She was dressed in all black leather, with an M-16 strapped across her back. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said as she undid the lock and began unlatching the gate.
“Whoa,” Jim said with some alarm. “You can’t just leave. You need some type of authorization.”
She continued with the latch, not paying him any attention. “I won’t be coming back,” she said quietly to herself.
Children of the Apocalypse (Mace of the Apocalypse #3) Page 7
