by Amy Cross
“You can stand up now, boy,” Patterson says calmly. “We can still work together. This is a golden chance for you to prove your loyalty, but you're going to have to act first. Did Carter give you any information about the cure? That could be valuable knowledge. Let's not waste time here, kid. You need to start persuading me why I should trust you.”
He's coming closer and closer, and I know I have no chance of making a break to the door. Even if I managed to get out, there are still several soldiers upstairs and only a complete fool would think he has a shot of getting to one of the trucks without being spotted.
My mind races as I try to figure out what to do next, and finally I shove the box into one of my pockets before getting to my feet and holding my hands up in the air as a signal of surrender.
“Smart kid,” Patterson says, aiming the gun at my chest. “You might look and sound like a hick from a country backwater, but maybe you've got half a brain after all.”
“Why did you kill her?” I ask. “You didn't have to do that!”
“You spent time around her,” he replies. “She could be something of a handful, and that's putting it kindly. We're about to remake the world, Thomas, and people like her just don't have a place in what we're planning. History wouldn't be kind to a woman like Sarah Carter, so I did her a favor by making sure that her name is swiftly forgotten. The legacy of her work, however, will live on forever. Isn't that, in some ways, more important?”
I need to get out of here, but I get the feeling that Patterson won't exactly be sympathetic to Elizabeth's plight.
Looking around, I finally spot a bench that's near the foot of the stairs. It's a stretch, but I might just be able to get over there before Patterson has a chance to shoot. Then I'd need to hope that the soldiers aren't directly at the top of the stairs. It's not a great chance, but it's better than staying right here and facing Patterson's gun.
I hesitate, before telling myself that I can't wait a moment longer.
Struggling to my feet, I race toward the bench, only for Patterson to suddenly step in front of me and aim the gun straight at my chest.
I barely manage to stop in time.
I thought he was around the other side of the room.
“Looks like you made your decision,” he says firmly. “Sorry to find out that you're a traitor, boy. Things could have turned out very differently for you.”
“Wait,” I stammer, as I take a step back and try to figure out how I'm going to escape, “I'm not -”
And then, suddenly, I realize someone's moving behind Patterson. Before I have a chance to react, I see a flicker of concern in his eyes, and I realize that he's aware of the movement too. He starts to turn, and everything seems to happen in slow motion as a familiar face appears and bites down hard on the side of Patterson's neck.
Sarah Carter.
Patterson cries out and falls forward, dropping the gun in the process.
I quickly kick the gun away and then hurry over to pick it up, and then I turn just in time to see that Carter has shoved Patterson to the floor. Blood's gushing from the wound on his neck, and he's trying in vain to press a hand against the damaged area and stem the flow.
“Next time you shoot someone,” Carter says breathlessly, struggling to speak thanks to the messy wound on one side of her face, “you might want to consider whether or not they recently became a zombie. 'Cause that might complicate things.”
“I -”
“Give me the gun, Thomas,” she continues, holding a hand out toward me.
“Don't give her anything!” Patterson shouts at me. “That's an order!”
“Don't make me come and take it from you, kid,” she says, still staring down at Patterson. “I did the supposed right thing the other day with that Clayborne jerk, and look how that turned out. I'm not going to make the same mistake this time.”
I hesitate, but I still can't bring myself to hand her the gun so she can shoot a man in cold blood.
“Give me the fucking gun, Thomas!” she snaps.
“You can't just murder him,” I stammer. “He -”
“Forget it.”
Before I have time to react, she grabs a scalpel from the bench and lunges at Patterson. He tries to pull away, but the blade slices straight into the side of his right eye and he thuds back against the bench's legs.
Carter leans a little closer to him, before twisting the blade and then dragging it straight across his eye and then pausing for a moment.
“I want to thank you for your usefulness,” she sneers. “As a reward, Mr. Patterson, I promise that the world will never get to hear about your stupidity, and about about all the terrible things you've done. I'll just let your name fade from knowledge.”
He opens his mouth to reply, but suddenly she drives the scalpel all the way into his eye, piercing his brain. He lets out a faint gasp, and for a moment he stares straight at me, and then in an instant I see the life drain from his remaining eye. He gasps again – one final escape of air from his lungs – and then he's still.
I wait for Carter to say something, but for a few seconds she merely stares down at Patterson's corpse. Finally she turns to me, and I see the extent of the damage to her face.
Nobody could survive a wound like that.
“As it turns out,” she says slowly, “sometimes being sick can be a bit of a help.”
She reaches up and touches the ragged flesh that's hanging from the main part of the wound.
“This is something I never anticipated, though,” she continues. “Something about how the virus works... It's almost as if it isolates damaged parts of the body and manages to work around them. This is going to be a fascinating avenue for study.” She takes a step toward me. “I can't wait to get to a -”
Suddenly she stumbles, and I rush forward just in time to hold her up. As I do so, blood spills from her wound, and there's a look of fear in her eyes.
“Did you keep hold of the box?” she asks.
I nod, before taking it from my pocket and opening the lid.
“Not for me,” she says. “It might kill me now. The sickness is probably the only thing holding me together. We have to get out of here before those soldiers come back down.”
“But how do we -”
“We'll go out the back way,” she explains, “and hope we're about to get one of those vehicles. It's our only shot.”
“What back way?” I ask. “You never told me about a back way!”
“Oh honey,” she replies, forcing a smile as she reaches out and ruffles the hair on top of my head, “there's lots I haven't told you. You know the shelves near the cages? There's a back route behind those shelves. Now let's move. And bring the girl!”
“I have to get Elizabeth,” I say, turning and heading toward the door.
“No.”
Suddenly I feel a hand on my shoulder, and I turn to see Carter staring at me.
“I'm sorry, Thomas,” she continues, “but you have to be realistic here. And besides... Elizabeth is dead.”
Thomas
“Just because she's a zombie,” I reply, pulling away so that her hand slips from my shoulder, “that doesn't make her dead.”
“I think it literally does,” she says. “The cure isn't strong enough to bring her back. Her heart will have already begun to -”
“I'm not leaving her!”
“Thomas...” She sighs. “There's no point making some meaningless moral stand just to prove a point.”
“You can go,” I tell her, taking another step back. “I've been leaving people behind ever since all this madness started. I'm not going to do it again.”
“Don't be an idiot. You'll get yourself killed.”
“I'll follow you up through the back exit,” I tell her. “Behind the shelves, right? I'll be close behind you.”
Without waiting for her to reply, I turn and head toward the arched doorway. My heart is racing, but I know that I have to save Elizabeth.
“Take this!” she yells.
“It'll knock her out,” she explains. “Long enough for you to get her out of here, but you're still taking way too much of a risk. Sedate her, give her the cure, and then come up after us. But don't take too long, because I will leave without you if that's what it takes.” She pauses, before stepping toward me and reaching out a hand. “All the best,” she adds. “If we don't meet again, I want you to know... I almost like you.”
“Ditto,” I reply, before turning and hurrying through to the next chamber, where Elizabeth is chained to the wall.
Stopping, I'm shocked when she turns and snarls at me. Her skin is almost completely discolored now, with a yellowish-green shade in places, and her eyes are blood-red. She pulls against the chains, trying desperately to reach me, but I know I don't have any time to lose so I aim the stun-gun at her chest and take a moment to aim properly, and then I pull the trigger.
A syringe needle jerks out from the stun-gun's other end, extending all of about six inches.
“Seriously?” I stammer, as I realize that I'm going to have to get much closer to Elizabeth if I want to make this work. “She couldn't make this a little easier to use?”
I take a step forward, but Elizabeth is snarling and hissing now, and I'm genuinely not sure how I'm going to do this. I need to get within six inches of her, without letting her grab me or bite into my flesh. She seems absolutely ravenous, but I guess I don't have time to wait so I take a deep breath and then I rush at her, crying out as I throw myself into her chest and thrust the needle straight into her body.
Before I can press the button that depresses the plunger, however, Elizabeth knocks my feet from under me and sends me crashing to the ground. With the needle still embedded in her chest, she lands on top of me and tries to bite my face, missing by just a fraction. She tries again, and this time I have to reach up and place a hand against her throat, pushing her back. With my other hand, I try to grab the stun-gun, but I can't quite manage to twist my arm around and reach the handle.
Elizabeth hisses at me yet again, and this time she sprays my face with a foul-smelling liquid.
“I'm trying to help you!” I gasp, struggling to simultaneously hold her back and push the sedative into her body. “Elizabeth, I know you're in there! Just stop for one second and let me do this!”
She growls at me, and – as I stare up into her bloodied eyes – I can't see even the slightest hint of her humanity. Of her soul. It's as if she's gone.
But that's what I thought about Jane Kincaid, and I'm not making the same mistake twice.
Gasping, I let go of her throat and use all my strength to push up against her chest. She tries to bite me, but in a split second I manage to inject the sedative into her body, and then I roll out from under her and scramble to the nearest wall. I turn just as she lunges at me, but then – with no real warning – she suddenly slumps down and collapses like a puppet that just had all its strings cut.
I wait a moment, in case she gets back up, but she seems to be genuinely out for the count.
Fumbling with the syringe, I finally manage to get it open and – with no other options – I re-load it with one of the vials containing the cure. My hands are shaking, and I don't even know if this I how it's supposed to work, but finally I kneel next to Elizabeth and inject the milky substance into the side of her neck.
“This'll work,” I say out loud, as much for my benefit as for hers. “I know it will.”
Once that's done, I toss the syringe aside and start hauling Elizabeth up. She stinks, but I quickly manage to haul her onto my shoulders and then I carry her through to the room with the cages. The shelves have already been pushed aside, revealing the rear exit that Carter mentioned, so I hurry through and start making my way up the stairs. I know there's a chance that Carter and Polly didn't manage to escape, and there's another chance that they got to a truck but had to leave with us, but for now all I can do is keep going and hope for the best.
And then, just as I get to the top of the staircase and see an open door leading outside, I hear a burst of machine-gun fire in the distance.
Thomas
“It's going to be okay!” I tell Elizabeth as I reach the door and look out toward the forest. “We're going to get out of here, we just have to -”
Before I can finish, the gunfire breaks out again, this time accompanied by the sound of several men yelling. I instantly understand that the soldiers must have spotted Carter and Polly, which means we're almost definitely not going to be getting out of here via truck.
It also means that Carter and Polly have probably been captured, maybe even killed.
I hesitate for a moment, trying to figure out what I should do next. There's more gunfire in the distance, as I look toward the forest and realize that my best – perhaps only – shot is to take Elizabeth out there and hope we can somehow evade capture for long enough to escape. I try to come up with a better plan, but finally I force myself to hurry out across the clearing, heading toward -
Suddenly I hear the roar of an engine, and I turn just in time to see one of the trucks racing around the corner. The damn thing's going so fast, it almost tips over, and I have to step back to keep from getting knocked down as the truck screeches to a halt right in front of me.
Then the door swings open and I'm shocked to see Carter waving at me.
“Get in!” she yells. “Hurry!”
I pause for a fraction of a second, and then I shove Elizabeth into the vehicle before clambering in after her. Even before my feet have properly left the ground, Carter hits the gas pedal and the truck shoots forward.
The door bumps against me, but I'm too busy settling Elizabeth onto the back seat. She's still unconscious and she doesn't really look any better, although at least I've managed to get her in here. I glance over and see that Polly is watching me from one of the other seats, and then I turn my attention back to Elizabeth, just as the truck races around another corner and roars over a bump in the road.
I'm sent thudding first into the nearby door, and then into the roof, and then finally I crash back down next to the seat. I look over my shoulder and see that the rear of the truck is packed with military equipment, and then I look out the window and see the front of the hospital. The soldiers are running down the steps, and for a moment I spot another figure in the doorway, leaning heavily against the frame and clutching a hand over his bloodied face.
“Is that Patterson?” I gasp. “Is he -”
“Get down!” Carter yells.
I turn to ask what's wrong.
Suddenly more gunfire rings out. The vehicle swings hard left and the windows on the right side are blown out. Then I feel a punch to the gut as the truck roars down a steep road, and I realize we must be on the access route that leads up toward the hospital. I can hear more gunfire in the distance, getting further and further away, and finally I manage to sit up just far enough to see that we're racing away from the scene.
“They're going to follow us,” Carter mutters. “Hang on, kid. We're not out of the woods yet. How's your friend?”
Turning to Elizabeth, I reach down and check her pulse by pressing a finger against the side of her neck, but I don't feel anything.
“Her heart's not beating!” I shout.
“Figures. I think she's too far gone.”
“No, she's not,” I say firmly, checking again for a pulse before trying her wrists. “I don't know how, but I know. I just know she's going to be okay.”
“What kind of mystic-age bullshit is that?” Carter snaps. “Your gut's not telling you anything, Thomas. But your very clever, very wise science buddy – who just saved your life, by the way – is letting you know that your efforts were wasted. I'm sorry, Thomas, but you just rescued a corpse.”
The truck bumps over another bump in the road.
“In fact, Thomas,
there's no real -”
“Shut up!” I yell, turning to her as my anger finally boils over. “I don't want to hear what you've got to say about anything right now, so just shut up and drive!”
I wait, but she doesn't reply, so I turn back to Elizabeth and see that she doesn't seem to have changed at all. I reach down and move some hair from across her face, while watching for some hint that Elizabeth is going to recover. I still really believe that she has a chance, although it's getting harder and harder to maintain that optimism. I refuse to surrender, however, and I keep telling myself that we only need one more miracle.
Just one.
“Is she going to be okay?” Polly asks suddenly.
I turn to her.
“Daddy isn't okay,” she continues. “I saw.”
“She's going to be fine,” I reply, although I can hear the uncertainty in my voice and I know full well that I'm getting desperate. “I'm sorry about your father.”
She pauses, staring at Elizabeth, and then she leans a little closer as if she wants to take a closer look.
“Is she your girlfriend?” she asks.
“My -”
I hesitate, shocked by the question.
“No,” I tell her finally. “I don't really know her at all. It's been about a week since I first met her, but I just... I wanted to help her. I've lost so many people, and I've left so many behind, and this time I couldn't do that. So I made sure that I went back for her.” I look down at Elizabeth's face, and there's still no sign of recovery. “I can't guarantee anything,” I continue, “but I think I did the right thing. And with the way everything else is in the world right now, I think maybe that's what really matters. Not just doing anything to survive, but doing what's right. I mean, everyone has to die some time, don't they?”
I wait, but she simply stares at me. I guess she's just a kid, so she doesn't understand.
“And now we're going somewhere else,” I tell her. “I don't know where, but we'll end up in some place.” I look back down at Elizabeth. “She's going to be okay. I promise.”
