Z-Boat (Book 3): Z-End

by Robb, Suzanne

  Ally reasoned he could be a good actor, or covering for one of his men, or this could be a wild goose chase.

  "I'll tell you in a minute. Ben's going into that room to look for something. When he comes out, we can talk."

  A few of Daniel's men piped up, but he silenced them with a look. So far he wasn't acting like someone who'd committed murder. Then again, it took all kinds. Ben came out shaking his head. Ally figured this would happen. With all the scavenging missions and stragglers they brought in, a small blade would be easy to conceal.

  "Joseph's dead. He stumbled into the radio room with a knife in his back and a broken windpipe."

  Daniel backed up, right into Ben. He glanced back at the big man and cringed. "You don't think I did it. I've been here, sleeping. Don't you have cameras or something?"

  "Cut them to save on power," Ben said.

  "Come on, why would I kill the guy? He was the only one who wanted to go along with my idea…as nuts as he was."

  Ally tapped her fingers on her thigh, thinking. "The blood trail starts here, or it's been made to look that way. I'm not sure what really happened, but whoever killed him had the skills to do it quick and efficiently."

  Daniel rubbed the back of his neck. "Hate to argue with you, since you're accusing me of murder and all, but I don't think that assessment is right. If I did it, you wouldn't know the guy was dead until I had time to do what I wanted and get the hell out of here. Not to mention, I don't leave targets to walk around, too risky."

  Ally agreed with him on every point, but she needed to hear him say it. Now she had a good idea of his tactics should he decide to do something and could watch her back. With a nod she walked away.

  "Lane, are you trying to prove your own guilt?" Victor laughed as he trailed behind them.

  "I think it might be a good time to find something else to do with yourself," Ben said in a tone indicating it was not a suggestion.

  Ally returned to the radio room to find Kevin sitting in the chair looking over the log book. His smile when she entered fell when he saw Ben and Victor following behind.

  "Hey, did you find Daniel? Where is he? Didn't you arrest him…or whatever?"

  Ally shook her head. The floor was so clean it shined, no evidence of a dead body ever having been in the room.

  "I cleaned up after Dr. Miller took the body. He asked me to."

  She took the book out of his hands and placed it on the shelf with the others. "Where did he take the body? Did he have someone carry it to the pit, because it's too dangerous out there right now?"

  "I don't know. He said he needed the body. Two guys showed up and took it."

  Ally felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise. Something was wrong.

  "I'm going to chat with the doctor. Victor and Ben, search Joseph's room, let me know if you find anything strange." At the look she received, she clarified. "Stranger than usual."

  Ally created a mental list of suspects: Victor or one of his men, Daniel or one of his men, and one of the survivors with a background and a grudge they didn't know about. She gritted her teeth, no closer to finding the truth. Daniel and his men were in the clear as far as she was concerned, but for now they needed to stay on the list to appease Victor if he started pushing her again about who else could have done it.

  She tried the handle on the doctor's door, and was surprised to find it locked. As she raised her hand to knock, the door swung open startling her.

  "What are you doing here?" Dr. Miller's voice was laced with annoyance.

  Ally opened her mouth to speak, but two vaguely familiar men brushed by her on their way out. One turned back, the uneasy smile and wrinkles around the eyes let her know something was wrong. Looking back at the doctor she debated what to do. Follow the men and ask them what they had done, or see if the doc knew anything.

  "Ms. Lane, please forgive me. I'm sure you can imagine it has been a stressful night. I've been up tending to several hundred of the survivors."

  Ally raised an eyebrow, this was news to her. "What are you talking about?"

  The doctor's eyes widened. "I'd assumed Ben told you. There's been another illness rampaging through the population. I've tried various methods of treatment with my limited supplies. All I can do is isolate them from the others for now."

  Ally heard something fall inside the room and pushed her way inside. Joseph's body was sprawled out on a small cot, next to him was Noah, lips smacking together.

  Dr. Miller backed up. "It's not what you think. I'm doing research, important things might be discovered from the data I collect."

  She undid the snap that kept her knife in place and pulled the blade free. She brought it down, and was surprised when it didn't penetrate. The thing that was Noah pulled at the restraints, snapping one. Its left arm swung around trying to grasp Ally.

  "Dammit, he's one of the bastards, and fresh. Help me!"

  "I can't do that! It goes against the oath I took…do no harm."

  Ally scanned the room for a weapon strong enough to fend off an attack. For now, only one arm was free, but it wouldn't take long for it to break out of its bindings.

  "Your oath? You do remember you're not a real doctor, right? You were an assistant in a lab. Ring any bells?"

  He stared at her, unmoving. The right arm broke free, and she began to worry. Noah got to his feet then toppled to the ground, his legs restrained at the ankles. Instead of focusing on them the zombie pulled himself across the floor to fresh meat. Ally tried jumping out of the way, but her leg was grabbed mid-air by a cold hand. She fell to the ground, her head hitting the concrete floor with a thud. Vision darkening, ears ringing, and body hurting like hell, she kicked out with her free foot. As soon as the icy grip was gone, she was scrabbling across the floor.

  Noah groaned and Ally watched in horror as the doctor leaned over the zombie and tried to sooth it. Spittle flew out of its mouth as it snapped.

  "Ally, you have nothing to worry about. I've removed the teeth. He's harmless now."

  "Famous last words, doc."

  Metal glinted in the light and she saw the instrument the doctor must have used to pull the teeth. It occurred to her while she grabbed it that he must have removed them while Noah was still…Noah. Moving to the body, she stared down at the thing that used to be her friend. He struggled to get closer to her. She danced out of the way then jumped onto it, grabbing some hair as she straddled the dead man. The body beneath her bucked and writhed, trying to get at her. Ooze dripped out of its mouth where it had worn the gums away with snapping.

  "Sorry, Noah, you deserved better." She put a choke hold on him and drove the pointed part of the metal instrument into the ear canal, twisting it when she felt the membrane of the inner ear break.

  She got to her feet watching the thing spasm, the damned green shit pouring out of its eyes, ears, and nose. The doctor jumped on her, screaming.

  "What have you done? All my work…"

  Victor barged in, weapon raised.

  "Nice timing," Ally said.

  Chapter Twelve

  Ally felt like her reality didn't match up with anyone else's. "You can't be serious. He's insane."

  "I don't care what you think. I'm in charge now, and things are going to run differently. First being, you need to watch your step. I know you killed Joseph, and I'll find the proof no matter how deep I need to dig."

  Ally checked her knife then slid it back into its sheath. She'd assumed Victor would side with her that the doctor wasn't in his right mind and should be stopped. Not only that, but she felt like checking on the people in isolation might be a good idea as well. Victor shot down everything she said, citing some long forgotten rule book.

  "Ben, help me out. You're what passes for law here."

  Thick biceps bulged as the tall man crossed his arms. "We have no idea who killed Joseph, only a list of suspects. As for the doctor, I agree with Ally. He needs to be locked up and I want to know where he put those sick folks."

  Victor laugh
ed. "Right, let's waste time looking for sick people while a murderer is on the loose. Why am I the only one that doesn't think that's a good plan?"

  "Because you're an idiot?" Ally offered.

  Ben closed the door to the radio room with more force than necessary. "We need to sort through the information we have and make a timeline for when Joseph was killed. I'll do that; people tend to answer my questions."

  Victor sputtered. "I'm the boss now. You'll do as I say."

  Ben seemed to grow over a foot in height. "You don't tell me what to do. I was assigned to watch over the survivors and investigate any crimes that occur within these walls."

  Victor didn't back down, stupidity overriding brains. "That was before your name was on the suspect list, and you weren't buddies with the goddamn killer."

  "You have any proof? If so, present it now, or get out of my face." Ben's voice was cold and hard.

  Victor left the room, making sure to keep Ben in his peripheral vision. When the door closed behind him, Ally sat at the table. Pulling out the logbook, she tore out a page and listed the possible suspects on it, including herself. Next to her name she put her location and that she had no solid alibi since no one was on the radio with her. She handed it to Ben.

  He eyed the list carefully. Ally knew he was memorizing the names on it. He grabbed the pen and wrote.

  "I don't have much of an alibi, either. A roomful of sleeping people can't exactly back me up. Though, I was talking to Kevin a few minutes before it happened."

  She made her usual trek to the coffee table and made a mug of the sludge for herself, idly wondering if Kevin had any more of the good stuff.

  "Why isn't his name on the list?"

  Ally laughed. "Kevin? You really think he could do something like that? The last scavenge we went on, he almost died because he had a hard time killing those things out there. That strike you as a man who could take another's life in cold blood?"

  Ben scratched his head. "I s'pose not, but to be safe you need to put him on here or Victor is going to think you're playing favorites."

  She accepted the paper and scrawled Kevin's name at the bottom. "Happy?"

  "Jumping for joy." Ben twitched his eyebrows.

  "Okay, so we have a murderer on the loose. You need to investigate that because Victor is going to be busy decorating his new office. In the meantime, I'm going to find the people in isolation and maybe have another chat with the doctor."

  "Fine, but we start tomorrow. It's late and we both need some sleep."

  When the door clicked into place behind Ben, Ally grabbed a map of the facility from one of the filing cabinets. She unrolled it, not sure what she was looking for. When she gave the tour to Daniel, he'd mentioned something about unused space but she'd chalked it up to his arrogance. However, now she wondered if he might have been on to something.

  The last time illness claimed the lives of hundreds of survivors, Ally wasn't around. She'd been on a week-long scavenging mission. The pale faces and averted gazes had made her blood run cold. No whoops of joy or cries of delight at what she and her team had found. She'd run from Joseph in mid-sentence needing to find Sean. He couldn't be one of the dead.

  After an hour of interrogating people in the main room with no results, she'd discovered him in her room. He said he'd hidden in there when the strange things started happening, like she'd told him to.

  At the time, Ally was too frazzled to take in his words, but now she heard them nice and clear. Strange things started happening, that's what he had said. What did it mean, and were there things that she'd missed over the last few days?

  Ben might be able to get some shut eye, and with Kevin's absence she assumed he was getting some sack time. She, on the other hand, with the sight of Noah like that, and Victor determined to pin Joseph's murder on her...sleep was the last thing on her mind.

  Walking the corridors, she listened for sounds of the sick, sneezes, coughs, anything. After two hours of roaming, she'd found nothing. Her neck tingled and she knew something wasn't right.

  The door to the doctor's office was open, but he wasn't inside. Joseph's body still lay sprawled on one of the cots and she hoped someone would get it the hell out of here. Noah's body was gone, but as she searched the cabinets and shelves, the absence of something else jumped out at her.

  People milled around the main room when she entered. Breakfast, or at least what passed for it was being handed out. She caught sight of Sean's unruly brown locks and made her way toward him.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Kevin squeezed his hands together in an effort to stop the shaking. He needed to do this. Ally thought of him as weak, unable to do what was necessary. After he'd cleaned up the mess in the radio room, so Ally would not have to return to such a horrific sight, he'd gone in search of proof of her innocence.

  When he'd overheard her talking with Ben, he was so disappointed. Part of him wanted to rush into the room and tell her how wrong she was, but the other part, the smarter part, knew she was right. So, he needed to be strong. He needed to find the murderer, even if it meant looking in the more dangerous corners of the installation.

  Ally had given him a special tour when he'd passed muster for supply runs. She'd told him about the secret tunnel system further below ground than they were now, and shown him a map with all the entrances on them. Red for compromised, green for safe. The red far outnumbered the green.

  In the tunnels, zombies swarmed, gaining entrance from the Old House. Ally had led a mission months before to close it off, but it was impossible. Instead, she'd made the small opening larger, hoping more would enter. When he'd asked why, she explained the zombies weren't able to use the ladders to pull themselves out. Ally and her team went in a different way and used a make-shift explosive device to try and contain them in a particular sector. However, as with most things in this life, nothing was perfect and the occasional straggler made its way into otherwise safe territory.

  This is where Kevin found himself. If someone wanted to frame Ally for murder, any evidence proving her innocence would need to be destroyed. Time was of the essence, so he figured, what better place than the tunnels?

  Lowering himself, he heard the groans of trapped ghouls echoing off the walls. A shiver ran up his spine, but he forced his feet to continue the descent. Once his foot hit solid ground, he pulled out his axe and struck a small flare to guide his way. He performed a circular search around the ladder, expanding the radius four feet every time he completed a round.

  Something crunched under his foot and he cringed, hoping he hadn't destroyed evidence. Crouching down he saw syringes, the same kind Dr. Miller used to take his samples. Chattering movement made Kevin jump back. The cylinders rotated on their round bodies, the needles seeking him out, guided blindly by what was inside.

  "Okay, maybe I'm not a hero." He ran back to the ladder. Ally needed to know what he'd discovered.

  * * *

  Ally waited next to Ben as the room was cleared of tables. Victor came in while people ate and told them he'd be making an announcement after their meal. The group stood, arms fidgeting, others whispered to one another. Ally hoped he wasn't going to publicly accuse her of Joseph's murder, because the last thing they needed was more mistrust.

  During breakfast, Sean told her several people mentioned to him that Joseph was dead. He didn't need to tell her the rumors about her being the killer. She saw it in his eyes clear as day.

  Kevin stopped beside her, rumpled and gasping for air. She put a hand on his shoulder, but he held up a finger for her to wait. At the same time Victor, with an entourage of five men, headed to the front of the room.

  "I'm going to make this quick. As some of you may have heard, Joseph has been killed." Victor spared a moment to search out Ally and stare at her; it was not lost on the others in the room. "He may not have been an official leader, but he tried his best to make decisions that would benefit all of us. That is why I am going to honor his last decision. During the next week, with
the help of Daniel and his men, we will be collecting as many vehicles as we can. Our goal is to head west where the zombie population is much lower and will likely be zero in a couple of years. I suggest anyone who knows how to operate a vehicle volunteer so we can move forward as soon as possible."

  In a word, Ally was furious. Murmurs ran through the crowd, panicked cries, and people rushing to catch up with their new leader only to be pushed aside by his guards. She searched the room for Daniel, expecting to see a satisfied smirk on his face. When she did find him, his eyes were wide.

  "Ally, I need to talk to you," Kevin said.

  She turned to him, glad to see he'd caught his breath. Daniel approached them, and Ben nudged her.

  "Ally, I need to talk with a few people who say they saw something last night," Ben said.

  She nodded, unsure what else to say because Sean was looking at her, fear in his eyes. "It's going to be fine. Trust me. Now go and train with your friends, can you do that?"

  "Yeah, but they always beat me."

  "I'll spend some time helping you out later, but right now I have some things to do."

  His shoulders slumped as he walked away, but based on the Kevin's incessant foot tapping and rapid breathing, she didn't want Sean to hear whatever it was Kevin needed to share with her.

  "What's up?"

  Kevin looked around before leaning in close to whisper in her ear. "I went into the tunnels to see if someone might have gotten rid of any evidence. I found something…well, strange is the best way to say it. Several of the doc's needles, full of the green ooze the zombies emit."

  Ally pushed him forward, wanting to look him in the eyes to make sure he wasn't crazy or on drugs. "What were you thinking, going down there alone? You could have been killed. What if the killer saw you go and sealed the hatch? You'd be dead."

  She forced herself to take a calming breath. Why didn't people think before they acted? Didn't Kevin know better? Nothing could happen to him while she was around.