Dave turned toward me, catching my arm so that we faced away from the speakers and the window. “He’s probably right. We have to focus on ourselves now. If we can get to The Kid, fine. If not, well, I’d like to live and stuff.”
“I doubt that will be an option,” Barnes’s voice came from behind us.
“God, I’m really starting to hate that guy,” I said through clenched teeth before I faced the window. “Okay, jerk-off. So you have us, you don’t want us to let anyone else know about your little mad scientist lab, we have no recourse, what’s the plan?”
Before he could answer, the door behind him opened and suddenly The Kid reappeared at his dad’s shoulder. For a brief second, he looked at us through the glass, then he turned away. He whispered something to his father.
Barnes nodded. “Very good.”
I kept my gaze on Robbie. Although Barnes was right that it would be almost impossible to turn The Kid on his only surviving parent, Robbie didn’t look very happy at the moment. The fact that he couldn’t even bring himself to look at us gave me a little hope.
And maybe it was time for him to grow up and know exactly what his dad did to people who didn’t fall in line behind him. Whether that got us out of this or not, it might save The Kid down the line.
“So you’re going to kill us?” I pressed, moving up to the glass so Robbie would be sure to see me. And I could see him. He flinched. “How? Gas us? Shoot us?”
Barnes’s face jerked to me. “Nothing so barbaric. Now Robbie, you may return to your chamber if you’d like.”
“No, why not let The Kid know what you’re going to do to his friends?” I leaned against the glass. “If it isn’t going to be barbaric, then tell me what humane means you’re going to use to get rid of us and keep us from going against your desires, Dr. Barnes?”
He stared at me through the glass. Our faces were less than a foot apart. He was angry, I could see that. And I could also see he was pretty much just on the edge of losing it.
“Today you killed two of my bionics,” he said softly. “Not very good for my army’s record. I want to test them again.”
Dave rushed to my side. “Is that really what you think you’ve created? Look doctor, you can’t control these things. They may have more purpose, more drive, than your average walk-a-day living dead, but they can’t be controlled. If you don’t stop this now, they’ll turn on you. They’ll wipe out whatever’s left of the survivors.”
“I guess we’ll see,” Barnes said softly. “Worst-case scenario, you two will kill them and I’ll get to hone my skills at creation and keep testing them on you until they do destroy you. Best-case scenario, they turn you immediately and I end up with two new specimens and one sticky problem solved. Either way, I win, don’t I?”
From behind Barnes, Robbie shifted. “But—” he began.
Barnes spun on him. “What is it?”
“I-I thought we were going to keep them alive,” Robbie said. “I thought you said—”
“They’re too dangerous,” Barnes said, grabbing The Kid by the upper arms and tugging him closer. “They’re a threat to us, Robbie. And in this world, we have no choice but to eliminate threats.”
“Like your mom,” Dave said next to me. “And all those people down in the bunker with you. It seems like everyone else in the world is a threat, huh Robbie? Ever wonder when you’ll become one to him too?”
Barnes glared at David. “Shut up,” he snapped. He turned back to The Kid. “Now you, go to your quarters if you haven’t the stomach for what must be done. Now.”
The Kid stared at his father for a brief moment and then his gaze moved to us. And there was one thing very clear to me when our eyes met. Robbie was afraid. Afraid of his father, afraid of everything that had happened since the outbreak. On some level, he knew what was happening here. He knew it wasn’t right.
But he didn’t argue. He didn’t do anything except turn around and leave the room without so much as a backward glance for us.
My heart sank. He was our only chance for someone on the outside to help us. Now that he was gone, our options had faded out to just about nothing. Fight or surrender. And there might not be much choice there, either.
“You see,” Barnes said as the door closed behind his son. “With a little discipline you can raise an obedient child even in a post-apocalyptic world. I should write a book.”
“You do that,” Dave said quietly. “I’d love to read your thoughts on raising a man.”
Barnes’s face fell at the implication of my husband’s statement, and when his smile returned it was a harder, colder expression.
“Well, this has been fun, but it’s time for testing. Enjoy.” And then he reached across the desk and depressed a button hidden somewhere beyond my line of sight.
Profits aren’t everything. If you can get out with only your ass intact, that’s pretty good, too.
The three doors on the walls around the permeter of the room began to slide upward in tandem. I clenched at Dave’s arms as we watched the open space increase to reveal feet, legs… yeah, zombies.
Three zombies, to be precise, who rushed the room as soon as the doors cleared their rotting skulls.
And of course these weren’t normal zombies, either. I mean, that would have been bad enough, but these were bigger. Broader. Two of them I recognized as the ones Dave and I had collected earlier for Barnes. The third was dressed in the tattered remains of a military uniform, so I had to assume he was a much older friend of the “good doctor.”
Whoever they had once been, wherever they had come from, they were all but foaming at the mouth as they stared at the two of us, unarmed in the center of the room. They were all bionic zombies.
“They’re worked up,” Dave said softly as we shifted to stand back to back. “He’s given them something.”
“Excellent observation,” Barnes’s voice came from the speakers. “You’re correct that they’ve been drugged. I’m testing a new mixture to raise their intent to fight. It’s harder to rouse them than you might think.”
“Harder to rouse them!” I cried.
The military zombie dragged his leg behind him as his rotten lips curled back over black teeth. He was missing an eye, too, the open socket just sort of gaping at us. But the one that still existed watched me with rabid intent.
“Indeed. Now… I suggest you fight.”
The speaker crackled off and there was no longer any background reverberation, so I had to assume Barnes had shut the system off so he could just watch our struggle in silent satisfaction.
“Remember the last kung fu movie I made you sit through before the shit hit the fan?” Dave asked from behind me.
I fought the urge to turn and stare at him and instead kept my focus on the snarling zombie still moving on me from the door. Black drool leaked from his waggling tongue and pooled at his feet like oil from a dirty engine.
“You want to fucking talk to me about Jackie Chan movies right now?” I asked, my voice cracking.
“No. I want to talk to you about killing zombies without weapons,” Dave responded through clenched teeth. “There was a move in that flick that involved two people back to back like we are now. Remember?”
I scanned my brain for what the hell he was talking about. I mean, when you’re fighting for your life on a regular basis, you tend to brain-dump a lot of useless shit. Or at least file it under “crap I don’t need.” But then like a shot in the dark, I remembered.
I looped my arms through his.
“This isn’t going to work,” I whispered.
“I know,” he said and then he lifted me up and started to spin.
I was wearing heavy boots and the first zombie I kicked got the steel toe right to the temple. He whined as he dropped down to one knee, half his rotting head caved in.
I would have probably taken more time to celebrate that fact, but Dave was still rotating, steering my flailing feet toward the next zombie. This one was too far away for me to catch his sku
ll, but I did manage to press the bottom of my boot into his chest.
It sunk in a couple of inches and when I tugged to free myself, some flesh came with me as the zombie staggered backward toward the wall.
That left Sergeant Ugly, but by the time Dave made the 360 degree turn, the military bionic was already right up against us. As my boot came around to find a home in his side or his neck, he reached out and he caught it.
For a moment all of us stopped… or maybe it just felt like that because it was so fucking creepy. But there we were: Dave was looking over his shoulder. I was staring at the zombie. The zombie held my ankle and was staring right back at me. The frozen feeling might have lasted a second or ten minutes, I don’t know, but when it ended, it ended with a bang.
The zombie tugged and I slipped out of Dave’s grip. I slammed down on the floor on my back and the wind went out of my lungs as my head, still hurting from the concussion by the way, slammed on the linoleum. Dave pivoted instantly and threw a punch, but the military zombie dodged.
Yeah, you read that right. He fucking dodged.
With a moan, he tugged and I slid across the floor toward him. That woke me up and I kicked upward with my opposite foot. It caught him right between the legs and the zombie’s eyes widened just a fraction as he whimpered ever so slightly.
He flung my foot and I twisted into a half somersault and hit the ground again, this time on my stomach. Pain ricocheted throughout my chest, vibrating through my entire being as lightning exploded in front of my eyes.
Still, I fought through it, trying to find focus again, trying to remember that we were talking life and death here. I could whine about my owies later.
I managed to get up to my knees and then staggered up just about the time the second zombie I’d hit pushed himself from the wall and started after me.
I left Dave to deal with our uniformed friend and headed toward the other bionic with all my weight. We slammed back against the wall a second time and the zombie leaned down, his snapping jaws just missing my ear as I twisted out of the way.
I wrapped my hands around the back of his neck and joined them together in a tight, interlocked fist. Then I thought of every MMA fight I’d been forced to watch by my husband and tugged the zombie’s head down with all my might.
He bent at the waist with the weirdest whining screech and I threw my knee upward with all my might. It connected with his forehead and there was a wet squishing sound as the skin exploded against my jeans. Instantly I felt the wet sludge seeping through the cotton fabric. I threw the knee again and the bionic’s head caved beneath the force of the blow.
I let him go and backed up as he collapsed forward, face first on what used to be the clean floor, but was now far less stark.
I spun around. Dave was grappling with the military bionic. The two of them staggered around the room together in almost a dancelike fashion. I’m sure Dancing with the Zombies will be a big hit once we all get television back.
Admit it, you’d watch it.
I would have rushed to Dave’s aid at that point, but the grunting moan to my right stopped me. The first zombie I’d hit, the one whose head was half caved in, was starting to get up.
I stared in utter disbelief at what I was seeing. Normally once you broke any part of their brain, zombies were pretty much toast, but this one could clearly still function only partially intact. The brightness was gone from his stare now, but the bloodlust remained.
I dodged as he swung one clublike arm toward me and staggered in my direction. He was really pissed now, if a zombie could feel such a thing, and he still had pretty good speed even with only half a brain.
I glanced around the room as I dodged a second attack. It was barren, devoid of anything that would even remotely pass as a weapon against the hideous creatures bent on our destruction.
In short, we were fucked. I mean, even if we got past these three sweethearts, we were still locked inside this room, just waiting for Barnes to use us in another “test” of his minions.
So not only did we have to kill these fuckers, but we had to get the hell out of Dodge. And fast.
The zombie lunged for me and this time I couldn’t quite get out of the way. He hit my shoulder and the two of us fell back. The window where Barnes was watching took the brunt of our weight and as I sucked in for air and grabbed for the zombie’s shoulders, I heard a sound.
The sound of glass being strained. It was faint, but it was there. And it gave me an idea.
I shoved back, sweeping my feet against the infected beast’s legs, which sent him staggering wildly. I shuffled to the side and his sludge-y, brain-leaking head smacked the glass a second time. This time, in the corner, a hairline crack appeared.
Barnes must have noticed it, too, because through the glass, I saw his eyes widen. He backed up and stared, first at his zombie, who was trying to claw his way back up to his feet against the slippery barrier between them, and then to me.
I smiled at Barnes and then took off across the room, hoping the bionic would follow me. He spun around, this time slower as his body and brain became more and more damaged by my attacks, and faced me. For a moment he wobbled and I held my breath, hoping against hope that he wouldn’t keel over quite yet. I was strong, but I needed his increased weight and power to shatter the treated window.
Finally, he shoved toward me. He moved like Frankenstein’s monster as he lurched across the room, one arm dangling uselessly at his side, one reaching for me, clawing at me.
The zombie lunged and I dropped down and slid, face first between his legs. I hit the wall below the window and got to my feet just in time to see the zombie come around like a big, dopey ship. He had woken himself up a little and he lumbered across the room with ever-increasing speed.
“Sarah, don’t,” Barnes’s voice came through the speakers.
Dave jerked his head toward me as he kneed his own zombie in the gut. He stared at me, then at the freight train of a zombie coming my way.
“Be careful!” he cried.
I didn’t look at him, just kept my eyes on my prize as it got closer.
“I know what I’m doing,” I said and prayed for once I was right.
The zombie staggered and at the very last moment I bolted out of the way. He bent over like an angry bull and his head hit the window at full speed. The impact shook the glass and then the window exploded out into the observation room where Barnes was watching and waiting.
The zombie fell forward, impaled on the glass, his head nearly severed by it, and landed on Barnes’s control panel. The buttons all went on at once from the weight of the now-dead body on them and there was a hot smell of burning wiring as the entire thing shorted out. All the doors opened in the room at once.
Barnes stood there for a second, his face pale with shock, his eyes wide. He stared at the carnage around him, then his gaze lifted to me. I couldn’t help it. I smiled.
Without a word, he spun on his heel and tore the door behind him open to sprint out into the hallway. As much as I wanted to chase him, I spun away and back into the room where Dave still struggled with the final bionic in our way.
The military zombie was already staggering, his face battered, skin peeling away and skull damaged by Dave’s attacks while I was busy dealing with my own problems. As I watched, Dave pulled back to throw a finishing punch.
The zombie’s cheek collapsed under the strain and I stared in slow motion horror as my husband’s hand disappeared into the mouth of the zombie. And even further horror as the teeth of the nearly dead infected creature closed around his hand.
Do fight unwinnable battles. Sometimes they’re worth it.
No!” I screamed, but my voice sounded far away and odd. It mixed with Dave’s howl of pain as the zombie teeth sank into his palm.
I lunged for the zombie, grabbing it from behind by its rotting uniform seams and pulling as hard as I could. Dave’s hand popped free from the diseased mouth and the zombie and I fell backward onto the ground. Like
a turtle, the thing clawed at the air and tried to get itself upright.
But I was faster and up on my feet almost as fast as I was down. With another scream, I slammed my foot down into the zombie’s skull over and over again. I relished the feel of my foot crushing away its unlife until there was nothing left of it but a body in a uniform and a splat where its head used to be.
Panting, I spun around to face Dave. He had sunk to his knees in the middle of the room and was clutching his hand, staring at the spot where the zombie’s teeth had pierced the skin.
Wounds mean something different when the world as you know it has ended. Because of infection, even the smallest non-zombie-related injury can mean death in the Badlands.
And when it comes to the zombie-related ones, well… there’s no difference between having a zombie rip your throat out with his teeth or just barely scratch the skin. You’re fucked. You’re the living dead.
“I-It’s nothing,” I lied as I dropped down in front of him to look at the mark.
Yes, it was just a little break of the skin. But already the black edges were beginning to appear around the torn flesh. Telltale sludge was creeping into his bloodstream and making Dave bleed black-red instead of normal.
He looked at me, his eyes wide and steady. “It doesn’t matter, Sarah. It’s all over.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. That was the one truth I couldn’t hear. “No. No.”
He grabbed my upper arms and squeezed. “It is, babe. The best I can do now is help you get out of here before I turn. Then we have to put a bullet in my brain.” I opened my mouth, but he cut me off. “You know that’s true.”
“No!” I shouted in his face.
He grabbed me and tugged me against his chest. I hung tight to his neck, burrowing my face into his skin and biting back sobs as I felt his warmth all around me. Soon there wouldn’t be any warmth. Just cold death.
Unless…
I tugged back to stare at him.
“Small injury on a hand gives you about thirty minutes until you change,” I said, hardly able to breathe as my mind put together pieces. “And maybe forty if you hold still and stay calm so that your heart doesn’t pump the poison through your system as quickly.”
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