Sarah headed through another open shutter door and found herself back outside. Kenny pursued her as she slipped between tents and containers. He was gaining on her, his hulking figure somehow able to outperform her in speed. She ran around a tent and tried to keep it between her and Kenny.
And whether through Kenny's lack of intelligence in this particular area, or due to his unstoppable intent, he charged right through the back of the tent, tearing it down around him and warping the structure as all the posts and pegs of the skeleton holding it up were pulled down and the fabric ripped. The structure slowed him down and he became tangled in it. The front of the tent buckled next to Sarah and the posts were pulled apart and fell to the ground, the fabric covering it fluttering down. And now for the first time Sarah could see Kenny's vague shape wrapped up in the tent like a kid struggling with the pile of bed sheets.
Kenny let out a rage-filled howl. Then it sounded like he was trying to unleash a torrent of threats to her. It seemed that his capacity for intelligence did extend to language, but it still seemed like his memory and brainpower weren't what they used to be, causing him to stumble over his attempt at words and periodically revert back to growls.
He'd had enough of the tent fabric impeding him, and he managed to grab a hold of it from beneath the tangled mess. The loud sound of ripping fabric sang out into the night, and he became visible again from the top down as he shredded the tent around him.
Sarah crouched down and aimed the assault rifle. She squeezed the trigger and popped off a few shots. They struck him in his armor, and like she'd seen before, the bullets simply bounced off, completely ineffective.
As he charged at her again, still slowed by the mess of tent at his feet that he was working through, Sarah carefully aimed at his head this time. She squeezed off another few shots, but they missed his charging mass. With only a small window of opportunity to fire a few more shots before she would have to flee, she did just that, keeping her focus on his skull.
The next short volley of bullets she fired sailed around him, with two of them hitting him in the forehead. But instead of puncturing his skull and sinking into his brain, the bullets only tore the diseased flesh wrapped around it and then bounced off, like he had armor attached to his very skin.
And then it made sense to her: the scars she'd seen wrapping around his head like Frankenstein's monster... Glass must have installed plating into Kenny's skull to keep him from being killed. Sarah's heart sank, realizing the fearsome foe gunning for her was completely unstoppable.
She threw the gun away as it clicked empty and she ran for it. Kenny was still faster than she was, but this time she was able to smartly slip around the objects in the outpost and outsmart him, going one way and making him think she went another.
Eventually all the other soldiers in the storage building came back outside as Kenny himself began to slow down, not being able to find her.
There was a thin gap between the corner of one tent and a tall stack of containers. Through the gap, it created a little cranny that no one would think to search or would even notice there in the first place. But Sarah did.
She wedged herself into the tiny space, waiting it out as she heard the soldiers make a commotion all around her. Kenny was audible above them all, his seething breath pouring out of his lungs like hot gas.
A period of time passed. It was indeterminable how long it was, but eventually things started to settle down as everyone genuinely thought she had gotten away.
As Sarah stuck her head out through the little gap, she thought she heard someone call her name. She looked around, but didn't see anyone. Then she heard it again.
"Hey, Sarah!" the voice whispered.
"Where are you?" she whispered back.
"Under the truck!" Trevor said.
She peeked out again to make sure that no one was around, then she slipped out and looked for what truck he was talking about. Sitting next to a big shipping container was an army truck much like the one she'd seen at the gas station where Kenny brutalized everyone.
Sarah crouched down and saw Trevor lying on the ground underneath it. She lowered herself down and joined him. "We have to get out of here!" she urged him.
"What do you think I'm doing?" he said.
She was confused and gave him an odd look asking him to explain what he meant, but then right on cue a soldier walked up to the truck they hid under and got into the driver's seat. The truck's engine started up and they heard gears shifting above them.
"Hold on to something," Trevor told her.
They both hooked their arms and legs onto whatever they could under the truck, lifting themselves off the ground.
The wheels of the truck lurched forward and the rumbling of all the moving parts reverberated through their bodies as they felt the swelling night breeze get sucked underneath the truck and graze across their skin.
A soldier sitting in a guard post by the entrance and exit gate hit a button and the gate slid open. As the truck rolled out of the base, giving Sarah the escape that she'd so desperately wanted, the ruckus in the base had died down almost entirely, the soldiers still on alert, but sure she had gotten away somehow. Trevor and Sarah didn't speak on the journey, just focusing on holding on for the ride.
The truck drove away from the chemical plant, and where it was headed, they didn't know. It seemed to go on for quite a few miles, and Sarah didn't know how much longer she would be able to hold on as the truck bounced and jostled like it was trying to shake her off like a flea.
Eventually, the truck pulled to a stop at the side of the highway. The driver didn't get out or do anything; he just seemed to be hanging out inside, maybe even taking a nap or something.
Sarah and Trevor both let go of the undercarriage of the truck and dropped down onto the gravel. She began to crawl her way toward the front.
"Where are you going?" Trevor asked her.
"I could use this thing," she said.
In one swift motion, she crawled out from underneath the truck and came up right beside the driver's door. She pulled it open and held the driver at knife point. He was taken completely by surprise, and he followed her directives as he stepped out of the truck and lay facedown on the nearby grass. She took his rifle and clocked him over the back of the head with it, knocking him out cold.
Trevor came up from behind her and his gaze moved from the hapless soldier laid out at their feet to the truck idling at the side of the road. "What do you need this for?" he asked.
"We're going to need it to get into that chemical facility past the outpost," Sarah explained.
Trevor looked at her, still confused.
She pulled out the inventory that she'd stuffed in her pocket and un-crumpled it and handed it to him.
His eyes scanned down the list, unsure of what he was reading at first, but then when he read over the entry that made her snatch the sheet in the first place, his eyes widened and his jaw slowly dropped open. He looked at her in surprise. "Where did you find this?"
"In the outpost we just came out of," she said. "It was with a bunch of other paperwork. It looks like they're still processing a ton of chemicals down the road from the outpost. We just need to get in there and get what we're looking for."
Trevor smiled. "Well, I guess we're going to need that truck."
15
DEPARTURE
Wayne paced back and forth along the hallway. Sometimes he would enter the kitchen and feel around for the countertop and use it to guide himself to the living room, then he'd circle the couch and go back to the other end of the hallway to the bedrooms. It had only been a couple hours since his fight with Sarah, and with the way they left things off, he didn't expect to see her again. But he couldn't shake the sudden feeling that she was in trouble. Maybe all the time they'd gotten to know each other built up a bond between them that went beyond just the physical; shortly after she left, he felt a knot in the pit of his stomach. It may have just been that that was when the gravity of the whole
situation hit him—the sudden realization that maybe she wasn't coming back and he would really be left to fend for himself. The thought terrified him. The thought of something happening to her terrified him. So he paced.
When the front door of the cabin opened, he reared back onto his heels. "Who is that?" he called out. "Sarah?"
Sarah shut the door behind her and met him in the hallway. She expected him to be off to sleep or maybe relaxing on the deck out back, and she felt extremely embarrassed about their fight and rather sheepish about facing him now.
"Yeah, it's me," she said.
"Sarah, I..."
"Don't worry about it," she said. She moved past him to the kitchen, carrying a plastic grocery bag full of canned food she found on her way back. She set the bag on the counter and started to unload its contents, piling them into the cupboard.
"You can't just say don't worry about it," Wayne argued. "Those things I said to you... I didn't really mean them. I want you to know that. I've just been... frustrated."
Sarah turned to him. "I know," she said. "We've all been. I've said things I regret too, so maybe we should take this whole thing over again from the start. In fact, that's kind of why I wanted to talk to you now."
Wayne's brow furrowed. "Why, what's going on?"
"Come on," Sarah said, grabbing his hand and leading him into the living room. They sat down on the couch together and Sarah turned and faced him. "I know I've been gone all the time," she said, "and I know I've been very secretive. I think I've been the cause of our problems more than anything."
Wayne shook his head. "No, come on, I've been a total asshole. I've been spending every day moping around. I tried to blame it on you, and I tried to pretend to be independent, but the reason why I never ask for your help is because I didn't want to admit that I can't do anything for myself. I'm totally helpless, and after being a goddamn Marine for twenty years, now I can't even open a can of soup without having trouble."
"I get that. Did you think it wasn't obvious? But I've exacerbated the problem. I couldn't help you because I've left you here all alone to fend for yourself and I don't think that's fair to you. Ron made me promise I wouldn't tell you about what we were doing. I swore that I wouldn't. But I think you deserve to know the truth, especially tonight."
He leaned forward on the couch. "What's going on?"
Sarah cleared her throat. "Ron's been working on a secret project for years. He never told us who he really was, but he has a team of scientists hidden from Jack's view, and they're working on curing the zombie virus. I'm talking about actually turning all the zombies in the world back to humans."
Wayne didn't say anything at first. He measured her words in his head and tried to determine what he thought about it. "I heard Ron talking about something the night you got me out of that base. I remember feeling delirious and I was in and out of sleep, but I knew he was here; I heard his voice and I heard the two of you talking. I remember him telling you that he was going to cure the virus, but I thought that was just in a dream I had."
Sarah shook her head. "It's very real. They've been working on it ever since the original outbreak."
"Can it be done?" Wayne asked.
"It can, and they're almost done. That's why I wanted to talk to you tonight."
Wayne didn't have a good feeling about what she was going to say. "Tell me what's happening," he said. "I heard you putting away a lot of food. Why did you get so much?" He became increasingly nervous, feeling like he was starting to get onto the trail of the answer.
"I've been busy with Ron and the others lately," she said, "helping them get the last components they need to finish the project... And now we've just got one last thing left to acquire, but it's not going to be easy. It's in a heavily-guarded location and I'm going to head out after I finish talking to you to get it."
"You don't think you're going to make it back," Wayne said. "Sarah, you're going to make it back. You know how many times you faced similar situations and still made it back for us to have this conversation right now?"
"I know," she said, "but just in case, I wanted to prepare. There's plenty of food now in the cupboard to last you for a little while. I also made one of the scientists swear to me that Ron would come and get you if anything happens to me tonight. You won't be here alone, he'll take care of you."
"I don't need a babysitter," Wayne said. "Let me come with you."
Sarah couldn't help but let out a laugh. The idea was absurd. "You can't come with me. You would never make it."
"I know, I just don't want you to wrap your head around this fatalistic bullshit. Go and do what you need to do tonight, but just promise me you'll come back." He leaned forward and gently grabbed her wrist, rubbing the back of it with his thumb.
Sarah smiled. "All right. I'll come back. Besides, I don't want to be the martyr. I want to see this project completed."
Wayne frowned suddenly as his hand brushed across her fingers. "What happened to your fingers? They feel all swollen."
Sarah looked down at them, and it was a good thing that Wayne was blind, because they looked far more hideous than they felt. "I had a little run-in tonight," she admitted.
"A run-in? With who?"
"Right after I stormed out of here, I headed through the woods for a while, and then Glass's men picked me up. I don't know how they found me, but they took me somewhere and interrogated me. Broke a couple of my fingers and some ribs, but I'll survive."
"Sarah, that's where you were?" Surprise riddled his voice and his face was one of anguish, realizing if he hadn't acted like a petulant child, she wouldn't have been put through that. "How did you get out of there?"
"You know how resourceful I am," she said. "Plus I guess you could say I had a friend in a high place."
"Was... Kenny there?" he asked.
"Yes. He's the one who did this to my fingers."
Wayne started to look like he was overwhelmed by the whole thing. "Is Jack really doing all of this?" he asked. "This seems to be getting sicker and sicker by the day. I always expected Kenny to come back someday, but not like this. Even for a murderous lunatic like him, this kind of treatment is just... inhuman."
"Now you know why I've been working so hard to stop him," Sarah said. "Wayne, he has to be stopped. It doesn't matter what it takes."
"So where are you going tonight?" he asked.
"It's a chemical plant, I think. The last piece we need to complete the project is in there somewhere, but the place is still operational and it's being run by Glass's forces. I'll have to sneak in and retrieve it, and once I do, Ron will finally be able to turn the project online, and then the zombie virus will be a thing of the past."
They both shared a long moment just staring at each other while Wayne held her wrist in his hands. She looked at his chiseled face, and he just used his sense of touch and imagined her image in his mind.
"I'll let you get to it," he said. "Just promise you'll get back to me in one piece. Go get 'em, kid."
"There you go with that kid thing again," she said jokingly.
"Right, right... you're not a kid, I know." He pointed his face to her like he really was taking in her beautiful features. "Good luck." He leaned forward and they squeezed each other, the warmth of their moment seeming to distract Sarah totally from her broken ribs.
"Thanks," she said. "The next time you see me, it should be amazing news."
The mood at the lab was hard to put into words. Ron seemed eager about their discovery of the final item, but the same nervous mood fell over the other scientists. Trevor and Vanessa shared a touching moment much like she and Wayne had. They seemed a little more cheerful than the rest, but Sarah could see in Vanessa's eyes that she was far more scared than the others. Trevor would be accompanying her to the chemical plant, and they would need to locate the item, steal it, and get out in one piece. If they could do all of that, then Sarah could say that she had a hand in the most significant event in human history next to the original impetus of a
ll this trouble.
Ron studied the inventory sheet that she stole from the outpost.
"If you read that one more time, I think your eyeballs are going to fall out," Sarah teased him.
He looked up from his reading-induced trance. "Hmm? Oh, sorry. Yes, I suppose. I just want to make sure." He went back to reading each item on the list, and at one point he brought Trevor aside and whispered something to him that he wouldn't let Sarah hear. When asked about it, he just shrugged it off like he usually did. But none of that mattered now; out of all the impossible odds she faced before, what was one more?
A few scientists had volunteered to put together a little going away package for them, which they loaded in the truck. When that task was complete, the tension in the lab grew, and they all turned to Sarah and Trevor, giving them their blessing to embark upon their final mission.
Before they left, Sarah stopped at the back of the lab and studied the zombie in captivity. It seemed just as bored and aloof as normal. But this time Sarah squinted and stared into its eyes, looking for some spark of life. It frustrated her to know that she couldn't find it, but she had faith that the project would work. These people wouldn't have spent the last nine years of their lives in seclusion on it if it didn't.
After Sarah and Trevor loaded up on weaponry and double-checked everything they would need to take on their mission, Ron saw them to the passageway and sent them off.
"No matter what happens, Sarah," he said, resting a hand on her shoulder, "I want you to keep the faith. Don't ever give up on this project, even if you feel like this project has given up on you. All of us have been there, going through doubts and insecurities, but we all push through it, no matter how bad it looks. And I want you to do the same; no matter how bad things appear out there, promise me that you'll keep going."
A smile touched her face. "You know I will," she said. "And we're going to finish this thing."
Zombie Apocalypse Series (Book 6): The Eden Project Page 15
