Serial Killer Z: Shadows

by Philip Harris

“Don’t,” Sara said. “He’s gone now, that’s all that matters.”

  Ryan looked at her doubtfully.

  The lights in the corridor flickered, then the elevator doors slid open.

  “We don’t have time,” Cali said. “We need to get out of here. The guards downstairs will have called for backup.”

  Ryan led Sara into the elevator. Cali held the door open for me. I looked back at Faraday’s apartment. The feeling of loss grew. The elevator buzzed, reminding me it was still there and the door was still open.

  “Marcus,” Cali said.

  I looked down at the scalpel in my hand. I should leave it behind. It was part of my old life. There was no reason for me to keep it, but I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away. Not yet.

  I put the scalpel into my pocket and joined the others in the elevator. The doors slid shut. The buzzing finally stopped.

  “Where are we going?” Sara said. Her voice was cold, but calm, and there was a grim determination in her eyes.

  In contrast, Ryan’s voice was uncertain. “I—I don’t know.”

  “Why don’t you come with us?” Cali said. “There’s plenty of space in my apartment building.”

  Cali’s face was still flush with the excitement of the kill and her eyes gleamed. I wondered if there was more to her invite than simple human kindness.

  Sara didn’t seem convinced about Cali’s suggestion, but Ryan said, “Thank you.”

  The elevator doors slid open, and I stepped out into the lobby. Gunfire rang out, and the wall beside my head exploded in a shower of broken tile and plaster. I ducked back into the elevator as a stream of bullets tore into the wall.

  Chapter 41

  Gunfire

  Cali hammered the close door button. Bullets clattered against metal as they finally slid shut. She reached for the button for the parking levels.

  “No!” I said. “It’s too open. We’ll be sitting ducks.”

  “You got a better idea?” Ryan said.

  I pressed the buttons for a handful of floors. “Yes.”

  First stop was the third floor. I hurried Cali, Ryan and Sara out into the corridor. There were two emergency exits. I picked the closest one. Not waiting to see if the others were following me, I ran through the door and charged down the stairs.

  Cali was right behind me.

  The stairs led to a long, dimly lit corridor that ended in a door. An orange EXIT sign hung above it. I’d had visions of us running headlong into a cadre of armed soldiers, but the corridor was empty.

  Ryan started to speak, but I pressed a finger to my lips and pointed toward the door.

  When we reached the end of the corridor, I motioned for everyone to stay back. Cali slowly unzipped the bag and removed the black knife. Faraday’s blood still stained the blade.

  I leaned close to the door, listening. Silence.

  The push bar on the door probably meant it couldn’t be opened from outside. If there was anyone out there, they’d be waiting for us to come to them, but I no longer cared.

  I pressed the bar and pushed the door open a few inches.

  The hail of bullets I expected never came.

  The door opened out onto a narrow alleyway behind the building. It ran for about sixty feet in either direction, leading to wide city streets. I picked a direction at random, right, and we hurried down the alley.

  A siren suddenly rose to life, the noise echoing off the walls around us. Ryan gave a yelp. The siren grew louder, then an ambulance rushed past the end of the alley, scattering blue lights across brick walls. Two more vehicles—nondescript dark gray cars—followed close behind. Scattered gunfire rang out, but the sound was distant.

  “What’s going on?” Sara said.

  “I don’t know,” Ryan said. “There was an outbreak at one of the SkyTrain stations, but that should be dealt with by now.”

  Another burst of stuttering gunfire cut the air, quickly followed by shouts of alarm. Whatever was going on, it was getting closer.

  We slowed as we reached the end of the alley. I poked my head around the corner then quickly ducked back.

  “There’s a group of people heading this way. Thirty maybe.”

  “Security?” Cali said.

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  They’d looked like the ordinary people; some were dressed in the eclectic attire we’d seen at the clubs, but at least half wore work camp overalls.

  “Something’s happened,” Sara said. “Something big.”

  “It’ll work in our favor,” I said. “We’ll join up with the group as they come past. With any luck, Faraday’s security won’t be looking too closely.”

  “We could go another way,” Ryan said.

  “There’s no time.”

  The first few people had already reached the end of the alley. They were hurrying—half-running, half-walking. Most ignored us completely, and the handful who did notice the four people loitering in an alley barely gave us a second glance. We let most of the group pass, then merged in and made our way down the street with them.

  A young man jogging beside me, one of the camp workers, stumbled. Well, actually I’d tripped him, but he didn’t know that. I caught him and helped him get his balance.

  “Thanks,” he said.

  “Any idea what’s going on?” I said.

  “There’s been another outbreak, in the camp near the marina.”

  I glanced across at Ryan. He shrugged and shook his head.

  Two police cars pulled into the junction ahead of us. They parked across the road, lights still flashing. A van pulled up behind them and half a dozen security guards in body armor clambered out. They took up position behind the cars, automatic weapons resting on the hoods and trunks of the vehicles.

  A murmur spread through the crowd. It slowed, coming to a stop half a block from the line of security.

  Another man climbed out of the front of the van. He raised a megaphone to his mouth. “You are attempting to leave a restricted area. For your own protection, you are required to stay exactly where you are.”

  A woman from the middle of the group called out. “What’s happening? Has the outbreak been contained?”

  “That is exactly what we’re doing here,” said the man with the megaphone.

  A chorus of complaints rose up, all variations on, “But we’re not infected.”

  The man held his hand up to silence the crowd. He was middle-aged with a gut that was just beginning to strain against his uniform, but there was a casual confidence to his movements.

  He waited for the crowd to quiet down. “I get you’re not infected, and if you do as I say, you’re going to stay that way. Everyone will be able to go home soon.”

  Two men at the front of the crowd took a handful of steps forward. The guards behind the cars tightened their grips on their weapons.

  “This is your last warning,” said the man with the megaphone.

  Cali leaned close to me. “Any more ideas?”

  I shook my head, slowly. “We’ll have to wait it out.”

  Behind us, a man screamed. The crowd turned. More screams. Fear spread through the crowd. People whispered to each other and tried to work out what was happening. A pair of young men beside me turned and ran toward the barricade.

  A man’s voice screamed out. “Zombie!”

  Someone knocked into me. As I fought to stay upright, I saw a glimpse of a face I recognized. Then it was gone.

  “This way,” said Cali. She grabbed me by the arm and hauled me toward the sidewalk. Ryan and Sara followed.

  A gunshot rang out. Just to our right, someone went down. A woman screamed. The panic that had been lurking just beneath the surface overflowed. The crowd scattered. The chatter of automatic gunfire filled the air. A bullet ricocheted off the sidewalk near my foot. Cali had reached the entrance to a gift store. I ducked and hurled myself after her.

  She was already kicking the door, trying to break it down. I threw my weight against it. The door frame shifted,
then split open, almost dumping me onto the floor. Sara caught my arm and hauled me upright.

  Outside, the gunfire continued—steady, controlled shots. A woman ran past, heading away from the barrier. A bullet slammed into her back, and she stumbled and fell. On the other side of the road, a man’s shoulder exploded in a mass of blood. He collapsed to the ground, screaming in agony. A slack-jawed man staggered into view. Blood poured from a cut on his forehead. Ryan slammed the door shut.

  The air inside the store was damp, laced with the smell of rotting vegetation. We ran between the racks of tourist trinkets and postcards and through the Staff Only door into a tiny storage room stacked with boxes of cheap souvenirs. A rear door brought us out into a courtyard dotted with plastic containers filled with dead plants. There were only two ways out of the courtyard: back into the store or through a door covered in peeling green paint.

  “Anyone follow us?” Cali said.

  “Not as far as I could tell,” Sara said.

  “Did you see that?” Ryan said. His voice was tinged with panic, his eyes wide. “There were zombies! Where the hell did they come from?”

  Cali caught my eye. She didn’t speak, but the look in her eyes told me all I’d needed to know. We’d both seen Jon in the crowd.

  Chapter 42

  Checkpoint

  The building blocked most of the sounds of carnage from the streets, but the occasional pop of gunfire still cut through the silence of the courtyard.

  “Now what?” Sara said.

  “We stick to the plan,” Cali said. “We’ll go to my building. It’ll be safer there.” Her voice was still laced with excitement.

  “But won’t there be more roadblocks?” Sara said.

  “I’ll get us through.”

  Sara gave Cali a skeptical look.

  “Why don’t we just wait?” Ryan said.

  Cali shook her head. “We need to get somewhere safe in case this escalates.”

  “The security teams will deal with the outbreak,” said Ryan. He was trying to sound confident but failing.

  “They may not be able to.”

  Sara stepped toward Cali. “What aren’t you telling us?”

  “Nothing, but I’ve seen this happen before.”

  Ryan looked as though he was going to protest, but before he could, Cali raised a hand. “Listen.”

  The four of us stood in silence until Sara said, “The shooting has stopped.”

  “So we can go out and find whoever is in charge and—”

  “Didn’t you just see what happened?” I said. “They aren’t on our side.”

  “He’s right,” said Sara. She gave Cali a sideways glance that was packed with suspicion. “We’ll go with them. For now.”

  Cali went to the door at the back of the courtyard. Wood scraped across the concrete as she pulled it open. She checked left and right, then beckoned us out into a narrow alley. There was a gap between two other buildings opposite. Cali led us down it and out onto a deserted street.

  “This way,” she said and set off at a gentle jog.

  I knew this part of the city. We were maybe five blocks from Cali’s apartment. As we ran, I tried to make sense of what was going on. If there’d been an outbreak at the work camp, that meant someone had probably been bitten while they were outside the city then brought the infection back in.

  That didn’t really explain the sudden appearance of the zombies in the crowd, though. I supposed someone might have been able to hide a bite in the chaos, but Cali and I had seen Jon, I was sure of it. His presence couldn’t have been a coincidence.

  My train of thought was broken by Cali cursing. Two men in black uniforms had rounded the corner ahead of us.

  Any chance of avoiding them vanished when one of them lifted a hand. “Hold it right there.” His other hand hovered near the pistol clipped to his belt.

  Cali smiled at the men. “Hi.” She seemed relaxed, apparently unperturbed by the man’s hostility.

  “What are you doing out here? The city’s on lock down.”

  “Yes, we’re just heading back to my apartment.”

  The officer waved Cali over. “Let’s see some ID.”

  Cali reached slowly into one of her many pockets, this one on her leg, and removed a laminated plastic rectangle. She offered it to the man, standing a little way back from him so that he had to stretch to get the ID.

  The officer took one look at the card, and his attitude changed completely. He seemed to shrink in on himself and almost flung the card back at Cali.

  “I’m sorry, Ms. Hart, I didn’t recognize you.”

  Sara’s eyebrows flicked up.

  Cali smiled. “That’s quite all right, I understand. Everyone’s on edge at the moment.”

  “You should really try to get home as quickly as you can. There have been multiple outbreaks in the area.”

  Cali slipped the ID back into her pocket. “We heard the gunfire. Do you know what’s causing the outbreaks?”

  “No, but there was an explosion in one of the tunnels earlier. We’re treating it as a terrorist incident.”

  Cali shook her head in disbelief. “Well, thank you—”

  A huge figure charged around the corner. I had enough time to make out body armor and Monstro’s scarred, blood-soaked face and then it slammed into the officer. It grabbed him by the head, lifted him up and sank its teeth into his neck. The man screamed. Blood poured down his chest. He clawed at the zombie’s head, his fingers raking across its face and leaving tracks in its pale skin.

  The second officer leaped at Monstro and tried to pull him away. Monstro barely reacted. He reached back, took the officer’s face in one massive hand, and gave it a sharp twist. There was a snapping sound as the man’s neck broke. Monstro pushed him away, the man’s limp body falling to the ground.

  The officer in Monstro’s grip stopped screaming. He reached out toward Cali. His eyes grew wide, pleading. Tears of pain streaked his face.

  Cali didn’t move.

  Monstro bit deeper into the officer’s neck, and the man fell limp. The zombie tightened its grip. Blood ran down the man’s face where Monstro’s ragged nails had pierced his flesh.

  I backed away.

  Ryan had frozen, his face a shocked mask.

  Sara grabbed his hand and tried to pull him away. “We need to go!”

  Monstro tore his hand away from the officer’s face, bringing tattered shreds of muscle with it.

  Ryan’s face paled.

  Three more zombies stumbled into view. These were smaller and slower than Monstro, but no less dangerous. Two of them set off toward Ryan, the third headed in Monstro’s direction. Monstro bellowed and threw the officer it had been biting away. It launched itself at the zombie running toward it, grabbing it by the shoulders and driving it to the ground. The zombie twisted and snapped, trying to bite Monstro, but it was pinned down. Monstro lowered its head and tore into the zombie’s face.

  Sara hauled on Ryan’s arm. “Come on!”

  Ryan blinked as though he was waking from a dream and took a half step backward, then froze again. The approaching zombies let out moans and reached toward him. The sound caught Ryan’s attention. He turned toward them but instead of retreating he just stared at them, a puzzled look on his face as though he couldn’t quite remember what he was looking at.

  The first zombie reached him. It reached out to grab his throat, but Sara was quicker. She dodged around Ryan and threw herself at the zombie.

  The movement finally broke through Ryan’s fugue state. “Sara! No!”

  The zombie was male, and its blue overalls were stretched tight across lean muscle. Sara managed to push it away from Ryan, but then its decaying neurons fired, and it found its balance again. It snapped at Sara’s arm. She almost managed to pull away, but she was too slow.

  The zombie’s teeth clamped down on her wrist.

  She screamed.

  Ryan ran forward. “Sara!”

  He threw himself at the zombie, jam
ming his hands up into its face and forcing its head back. Sara pulled her hand free, and she staggered away. She grimaced in pain and clutched at the bite. Blood poured down her arm.

  Ryan grabbed the zombie’s shirt and shoved it away. The zombie staggered, recovered, then came at him again. Ryan punched at it. The blow caught the zombie on the side of its head and did nothing to slow it down.

  The zombie grabbed Ryan’s arm, but he twisted free and kicked its knee. It twisted inward, a shard of bone protruding from the thing’s calf. The zombie crumpled to the ground. Ryan kicked it again as it went down, breaking its ribs. His face contorted in anger, he stepped forward and drove his boot into the creature’s jaw. Its head twisted sideways, its neck broken.

  Ryan ran to Sara. “No, no, no!”

  She removed her hand. Blood poured from her wrist. Grimacing, she pressed against the wound again.

  Ryan turned to Cali. “You have to do something!”

  Cali shook her head. “We can’t help her. You know that.”

  The third zombie was almost on top of Ryan. He turned and shoved the zombie backward. It tripped on the curb and fell back. Its head slammed into the concrete pavement.

  Sara’s face twisted in pain. She was already turning pale. The pool of blood at her feet was growing quickly.

  Ryan let out a scream of frustration.

  “Babe, please,” Sara said. Tears ran down her face.

  Ryan clenched and unclenched his fists, his hands moving about as though he wasn’t sure whether to punch something or tear his own hair out.

  Sara went to him. His face crumpled, and he wrapped his arms around her.

  “I can’t be without you.”

  Sara squeezed her eyes shut. “Yes, you can.”

  Ryan pressed his face into Sara’s neck. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Ryan lifted his head, and they kissed, gently at first, then harder as the reality of the situation sank in. When they pulled apart, Ryan’s face was wet with tears.

  Sara let go of her wrist and brushed away one of his tears with the back of her hand, leaving a scarlet smudge across his cheek. She smiled sadly. Her legs wavered. She leaned heavily against Ryan. Behind him, the zombie was getting back to its feet.