by Lia Habel
“Griswold!”
He bit me.
I didn’t even feel it at first. I felt his hair against my cheek, his cold breath and skin against my neck, his big fingers sliding into my curls, but not the bite.
I slowly shut my eyes.
I knew it was a stupid, stupid thing to do. I knew there was the risk that he wouldn’t be able to control himself, and that pretty soon parts of me would be swimming alongside the tofu in his stomach. I waited for that. I waited to feel my flesh stretching, tearing.
I felt Bram’s mouth moving.
He was kissing me.
Pain rushed in, and with it the world.
I opened my eyes. On the screen, Wolfe was screaming. He took the gun off Samedi for an instant, just an instant.
Samedi took his chance.
The stool went flying across the room as Sam stood up and grabbed Wolfe by his uniform jacket. The gun went off, and Salvez and Beryl started shouting again. Sam went in with fast, snakelike strikes, biting Wolfe repeatedly, ripping off chunks of his skin. Wolfe fell, and Samedi kicked him as he went down, roaring like a lion.
Wolfe tried to crawl across the floor to get away, his fingers slippery with his own blood. He was making high-pitched, animalistic sounds of fear and panic.
“No! No! Get away from me! Get away!”
Samedi, his white coat streaked with gore, stalked after him. He picked up the stool.
“Get away from me!”
Bram turned me around. He was licking my blood from his lips. When he saw that my eyes were open, he pulled my head to his chest so I didn’t have to watch. My shoulder throbbed. He’d given me what I wanted, but not in a way I’d ever expected.
I could hear Wolfe’s scream as Sam started to beat him.
“Oh my God, oh my God!” Isambard started shrieking.
“Is he killing him?” Tom asked. “Is he dead? Sam! Sam, back to reality here, smart guy! C’mon!”
The undead in the airship tried desperately to catch Sam’s attention. They cried his name, clapped their hands. Eventually it must have worked, for I heard something drop, heard Wolfe’s voice cease. As the zombies around me fell silent, I could hear that someone was still screaming Sam’s name on the other end. Dr. Chase.
“Open the door! Baldwin, open the door! Let me in!”
“Let me see,” I whispered to Bram. He slowly released his hold on me, and I turned around to watch with the rest.
Samedi stood perfectly still before the body of Captain Wolfe, absently sliding his hands over his face, his coat. Eventually he said, voice strained, “I can’t, Beryl.”
“Just do it! Baldwin, please!”
“I don’t want to hurt you. Please don’t ask me to do this.”
“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea, Dr. Chase …”
“Baldwin Anthony Samedi, you let me in there this instant!” Dr. Chase yelled, ignoring Salvez.
Samedi tore off his lab coat angrily, as if Wolfe’s blood had contaminated it somehow. He clutched his stomach. “All right, all right! Give me a moment. Just give me a moment!”
Everyone on both sides of the broadcast remained quiet. Samedi waited for five endless minutes, still as a statue, before walking to the door. It took him an interminable second to unlock it.
When he opened it, Dr. Chase rushed into the lab and threw herself into his arms.
“Oh!” I blurted out, suddenly afraid for her.
But he didn’t hurt her. He clutched her to his chest and burrowed his face into her hair. “I’m so sorry, Beryl. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay.” She seemed half afraid herself, but she held him nonetheless. She was wearing a long nightgown and her hair was a mess. “I’m sorry … I’m sorry. Calm down. It’s okay. You’re not a beast, you’re not a killer. You had to do it. It’s okay. Just calm down.”
“What happened?” Bram managed to ask. He was still shaken. “What’s going on down there?”
Salvez appeared in front of the camera. “Wolfe is going on. He returned to base a bit ago, but we’d learned that he was a double agent. He turned on us when we confronted him. Samedi tried to restrain him, and … you saw what happened.”
“How’d you know?” I asked.
“Because your father got in contact with us a few minutes ago.” Salvez rested his hands on his chest. His heart must have been going a mile a minute. “He’s alive, Miss Dearly. He’s at a Punk compound in Bolivia, being held by a man named Averne. He’s alive … and we have his coordinates. You can go get him.”
“We have to get the other members of Z Comp,” Bram realized. “If the order’s gone out to kill them—”
“Not till 0600 hours,” Salvez said. “Go. Get them. I’ll tell them to return to the docks. And … he’s done it.” He actually smiled. “We have a vaccine. We don’t know if it will work—no vaccine is one hundred percent effective—but at least it should be safe. We can start to test it here. I’ll get in contact with the army. We might be able to pull out of this.”
A whoop went up in the airship. I turned and hugged Bram, and he squeezed me back, more tightly than he ever had before. I couldn’t breathe, he was so strong.
I liked it.
Behind Salvez, on the screen, Beryl stepped back from Baldwin and went to check on Wolfe. She felt for a pulse at his neck. She must have found one, for she announced, “He’s alive! We need to get him somewhere secure, before he reanimates!”
“I do believe we should call that justice, eh?” Salvez asked of Samedi.
Samedi laughed, before sinking down onto the bloody tile floor. Beryl rushed to his side again and wrapped her arms about his neck. He let his head fall against her shoulder.
“I’m so sorry you had to see that,” he said regretfully. “You can disconnect me if you want.”
“Baldwin …” She lifted a hand to his missing ear and traced the hole. Her fingers were trembling. “When he had you … do you think I would have done any less to him if I’d gotten my hands on him? After all we’ve been through?”
Samedi laughed again. “I knew there was a reason I’ve always loved you. Aside from your figure, that is.”
Beryl slapped him gently upside the head before rolling her forehead against his cheek.
Bram pulled my sleeve up. I looked to my shoulder. The wound he was covering was deceptively small compared to the amount of pain I felt. It was still bleeding, but not enough to worry about.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“I asked you to.” I slid my fingers over his, taking up his hold on my shirt. “And I’m asking one last thing …”
“You don’t need to,” he told me, then raised his voice. “Okay, guys. Let’s head for the docks.”
I rose to my feet. “Nora,” I fought out. The ship swayed, causing me to rock where I stood.
She turned to look at me. There was no fear in her eyes.
She was just bitten by a zombie. Why is there no fear in her eyes?
“You were bitten!” I screamed. “You were just bitten by that … that …” I looked at Bram. I looked at all of them in turn. It was like I was caught up in a carnival freak show or one of the lowest levels of hell. In my panic, I felt like they were looming over me—creatures full of holes, their flesh missing, their skin stitched together like horrifying rag dolls, watching me with eyes like mirrors reflecting a sickly moon.
The big zombie lifted a hand, but before he could speak, I tore myself away from Isambard and approached Nora. Tears were starting to burn my eyes. I couldn’t lose them both, there was no way I could lose them both and remain sane …
Nora clutched my shoulders. “Pam. Pamma, calm down. I’m immune. It’s a long story, but I’m not going to become one of them. That’s why I asked him to bite me. I knew the idea of me being eaten would scare Wolfe. Calm down.”
“Immune?” I knew I sounded like an idiot. I felt like an idiot. I didn’t understand. “Immune? To all this? To—” Wait. “They said they had a vaccine.” I ducked out
of Nora’s grip and ran back to Isambard, pulling his head against my side. “Then we can cure Issy!”
Nora was starting to tear up. “No. It’s too late for him. I’m so sorry. I should have just left the base and come for you. I should have just run away and walked back home. They wouldn’t let me call anyone or—”
“I should have fought Wolfe harder,” Bram said. The one-eyed zombie tilted his head in Bram’s direction. Bram went silent.
“It’s my fault,” Nora got out. Her voice was choked. “Please forgive me.”
Forgive her?
Nora started to make her way closer. I shut my eyes and sobbed, “I killed a woman. I killed her …”
“Miss Roe,” I heard Michael saying. “There’s no time for this.”
“They put me in jail for it, with whores and drunks! And then I killed a man with an arrow … and others … I chopped them up with an axe. I … I was covered in blood. My family is locked up. I started drinking to sleep, I … I was trying so hard to be you! I was trying to be you!”
I felt Nora’s arms around my neck. “Pam, I’m so sorry.”
“But then Issy was bitten, and I couldn’t do anything for … I can’t do anything for that. No one would listen to me! No one would listen to me!”
Nora was crying now. “Please, Pam …”
I collapsed against her. “And I’m wearing pants!” I keened before fully breaking down.
She held me. I don’t know how long I cried, but she didn’t leave my side. I felt Isambard’s fingers in mine after a time, and distantly realized he was the one who ought to be breaking down, who ought to be comforted. But he didn’t make a peep.
The zombies concentrated on flying the ship. They talked among themselves, but I couldn’t hear anything they said. Bram kept looking at Nora. I couldn’t read anything in his expression. His eyes weren’t clear.
Zombies. There were zombies here, not five feet away from us. I had to pull myself together. No matter what Nora said, they were different from us. They were dead. They were cannibalistic. Surely, we shouldn’t trust them. Maybe they’d done something to her, brainwashed her, to make her think they were safe.
But my little brother was becoming one now.
I turned my head to look at him. He wasn’t well. There were dark spots on his skin, like black veins. I reached out and stroked a hand through his hair, and he looked at me with tired red eyes.
“Are you okay?” I whispered.
Isambard shook his head. “I don’t feel good,” he admitted.
Nora wiped at her eyes. “We need to get him help,” I said as I lifted a hand to my own.
“You’re right.” Michael straightened up. He and Vespertine were still leaning against the wall, unwilling to step any closer to the zombies.
“You’ll do it, then?” Vespertine asked. She seemed to be sharing some sort of understanding with him that I didn’t. Her expression was dark.
Michael’s hand disappeared behind Vespertine for a moment, as if he were touching her in a most uncouth way. Before I could question this strange occurrence, or even blush, he stepped closer to me. He was holding the crossbow. “Are you sure you’re not infected?” he asked Nora.
“Yes,” she said. She sounded as confused as I felt.
“Okay,” he said. He turned to me. “Miss Roe, stand up.”
“Why?”
“No!” Bram was with us in two beats. He took Nora’s hand and hauled her to her feet. “Give me the bow, Allister.”
I realized what he meant to do.
“No!” I screamed.
“Pamela?” Issy said to me, panic creeping into his voice. I pulled him closer, shielding him with my body.
Michael leveled the bow at us. “I’m sorry, Miss Roe,” he said. His voice was hollow. “Let go of him. Move behind me.”
“He’s going to become one of them, Roe!” Vespertine said. “You can’t let him live! He might turn on us!”
“He’s my brother!” I cried. “He’s still alive! He’s not evil!”
“Allister, you moron!” Nora screamed. “Stop aiming it at them!”
Bram grabbed Michael by the back of his jacket and spun him around. He delivered a blow with his fist right to Michael’s face, breaking his nose and rendering him unconscious before tossing him aside. Michael landed limply on the floor of the ship, the crossbow skittering out of his hands.
Vespertine leapt at the opportunity. She pushed off the wall and ran for the bow, but Bram’s long legs got him there first. His boot landed on the crossbow just as she bent down to retrieve it. “I don’t hit girls, unless they try to hit me first,” he warned her.
Vespertine went white as new milk. She slowly retreated, her eyes on the big dead boy. She stumbled a bit, and Renfield, the nearest zombie, thrust an arm out to steady her. She shrieked and backed away from him.
“My lady, be still,” he told her. He looked injured by the slight.
“Get away from me!” Vespertine curled her dainty little hands into fists and held them before her face.
Renfield opened his mouth to say something else but then went still. He seemed to be captivated by something he saw on her hand.
“Get back here, Ren,” Bram said, breaking the spell. Renfield looked curiously into Vespertine’s face. “Harpist123?”
Vespertine backed against the wall again and pressed her fists to her throat. After a few moments, during which her eyes roved madly over the body of the zombie in front of her, she ventured a very small, “Zboy69?”
“I knew it!” He pointed triumphantly at Bram. “I recognize her rings!”
“What?” Vespertine asked breathlessly.
Renfield grinned, and said, adjusting his glasses, “You see? Death really isn’t that bad—just a minor inconvenience. I would never have had such a lovely chess partner while alive. Miss Mink, it is an honor to meet you. You know, that bishop strategy you often use is incredibly devious, and I was just about to try a new way to block it before we were so rudely interrupted by the end of the world.”
Vespertine stared incredulously at him as he blathered on. “Mother was right. Only weirdos hang out on the Aethernet.”
“Pam.” Nora was speaking again. “Look, we’re going to meet up with the other zombies on the docks. Did they come on one of the big boats, do you think, Bram?”
“Sure of it,” he told her as he picked up the crossbow and snapped it in two.
“We can take Isambard there. We’ll figure out what to do. Maybe they can take him back to Z Base.”
“Okay,” I said, relieved. “Okay. There’ll be a boat there, Issy. It’s going be okay.”
He nodded but didn’t let go of me.
Renfield slowed the Alice down as we reached the eastern side of the city. Bram passed control of the steering wheel to Coalhouse, and I felt the ship lowering.
Nora climbed the steps to take a look outside. “Come look at this, Pam!” she called down.
“Stay here,” I said to Isambard. He was starting to surrender to his own weariness, and he didn’t argue.
I joined Nora up top and leaned over the railing of the ship, marveling at what I saw. There was now a full-fledged war going on in the streets below us—zombies throwing themselves at our troops, only to encounter a hailstorm of bullets. Citizens who, like us, having taken shelter on the rooftops of the city, waved to our airship as it passed; we were close enough that I could see a few of them recording the fighting with their high-end mobile phones. Farther east, a column of soldiers in black was assembling on one of the docks. A massive wave of soldiers in New Victorian red was marching the other way, into the city—the living relieving the dead. There were more ships in the water than I’d ever seen before—freighters, ironclads, galleons.
“Wow,” I whispered.
“I think we’re going to be all right,” Nora said with a grin. Her expression faltered and she reached out to slide her hand over my shoulder. “I am truly sorry, Pamela. For everything.”
I tore m
y eyes from the scene below and looked at my best friend. “It’s all right,” I decided. “I just … did what I had to. Just like you did.”
Bram joined us a moment later. What caught his attention was not the action or the soldiers, but the ships in the bay. “That’s the Christine. That’s the ship we brought you back to base on, Nora.”
“You’ll have to tell me more about that night someday,” she said. “I mean, it was an important event in my life, and I don’t remember a thing.”
Bram chuckled. “The Christine’s outfitted with a med bay. We can take Isambard there, Miss Roe. There’s got to be a doctor on board. We never go far without our docs.”
“Can I go on the boat with him?” I asked.
“I don’t see why not.” Bram continued to look out across the water, his attention distantly focused. “Might be the safest place for you.”
Nora reached out to take Bram’s hand. I found myself surprised by this. Had that horrible man on the com spoken true?
The airship eventually came to rest on one of the wide stone docks designed to accept big shipments from overseas freighters. A living mustachioed officer in red came to greet us, driving a little open-topped electric coach and accompanied by two soldiers. All three stepped out, reaching for their rifles as they did. “Captain Griswold?” the officer called.
Bram kicked out the gangplank and moved down, saluting once he got to the bottom. “That’s me.”
The officer stared at Bram in wonderment for only a second before cocking and lifting his gun, aiming it at Bram’s head. The soldiers, fear far more evident on their faces, did so, too. Bram stopped where he was and showed the men the palms of his hands. Nora gasped and started for the gangplank, and I reached out and snagged her sleeve. The last thing I needed was for her to be caught in the cross fire.
Despite the fact that he was clearly threatening Bram, a well-bred veneer of politeness settled over the officer’s face. “A precaution only, I assure you. Colonel Edmund Lopez, New Victorian Army. My men and I are here to make sure the red lights don’t get into trouble.”
