Z 2135

by Wright, David W.

  CHAPTER 6—DUNCAN THOMAS

  Paradise

  “He’s perfectly calm,” Duncan repeated.

  He could tell neither Ana nor Liam believed him. She looked confused; he seemed downright suspicious.

  Liam said, “So he’s over killing his son. Oli? In two hours, without a rampage?”

  “I’m not saying he’s fine, or that he’s not upset, or that the man isn’t deeply grieving. But he just lost his son, and eight others. And now you two are leaving. The man needs time to digest.”

  Ana, always quick, got there first. “Wait. What do you mean ‘you two’—you’re not coming with us?”

  “No, I said I would stay here; it’s best for everyone. If I leave now, Oli will fall apart. The camp will follow.”

  Liam looked suspicious, but held his silence, knowing Duncan well enough to trust him, even if something smelled sour.

  Duncan continued. “I know it sounds flimsy, but I promised Oli I’d stay and help get those three captured orbs up and running, programmable by his people. So far, I got one up and tweaked, so we’re close. More importantly, though, I figure he also needs an ear … about Daemon.”

  “We’re not leaving you,” Liam said. “I don’t trust these people.”

  “Nothing will happen to me,” Duncan said. “I’m fine.”

  “You don’t know that,” Liam countered. “Oli’s flaky. And Shaw’s downright psychotic. If you piss Oli off, Shaw will seize the chance to take you out. He’s been eyeballin’ us since our first day.”

  “Oli needs me, and Oli’s still in charge. Even if Shaw and everyone else hated me, it wouldn’t matter. They all listen to Oli.”

  “That makes sense,” Ana said, eager to cut the arguments short and find her father. “But when do we get to see you again?”

  “I’m not sure,” Duncan shrugged. “I imagine I’ll either join you next time a courier comes through here. Or, if you and Jonah come back here.”

  Duncan excused himself before they started digging deeper, especially Liam. Dinner was an hour off, once Shaw came back from the perimeter sweep he was told he didn’t have to (then was asked not to) make.

  It was absurd, Duncan knew, to say that Oli needed him that much, and even his fake admission of the cover story felt weak to him. Paradise had existed before Duncan’s arrival, and would continue to thrive in its way after he left. That was mostly because of Oli, one of the toughest men Duncan had ever known, well-seasoned by time with The Underground on both sides of The Walls. He also knew that even if Oli did fall apart, the village was well organized enough to fall in step behind Oli’s council, a set of three elders who served as the camp’s skeleton government.

  But Duncan couldn’t tell Ana and Liam the truth of why he wasn’t going with them: he needed to make an immediate return to City 6 so he could get medicine to keep his infection at bay.

  It had been a month since Duncan had run dry of his supply. He never expected to be away from City 6 for so long, but even if he had never returned, West Village’s doctor could have brewed a new batch of medicine from the formula Duncan had memorized.

  Yet West Village was now in ashes, meaning City 6 was Duncan’s only hope … and a place where he was a wanted man.

  Duncan had been hiding his infection for two years. He was bitten by a zombie child he and his friend, Dr. Liza, had tried to rescue outside The Walls. The child, docile and in the early stages of infection, escalated immediately. It had nearly killed Duncan. It would have, if not for Dr. Liza’s quick thinking and the shot she fired to kill the child monster.

  Dr. Liza had brought him back to her hidden lab in City 6, and promised to keep his infection a secret, as long as he agreed to be a guinea pig. Duncan was the doctor’s first human test subject in her campaign to cure the plague.

  And while the current serum wasn’t a cure, it was humanity’s best hope at the moment. It worked by keeping the virus dormant in the bloodstream, but it required early administration to the infected, before the virus had a chance to do any serious damage. Prior to Duncan, the medicine had tested successfully on lab primates. Duncan was the first evidence that the serum also worked on humans, but Liza needed more subjects—not exactly something humans were standing in line for. And Dr. Liza could never tell The State about her work; they would want to turn prisons into labs.

  Yet she didn’t want to her research public until after she found a cure. Which meant waiting until she found subjects naturally, like Duncan, who had accidentally been infected.

  While the medicine worked in 90 percent of its subjects, it only delayed the inevitable turning. Also, the medicine required weekly injections. The longest any of the lab animals had gone without the medication before turning was five weeks.

  Duncan had run out of medicine exactly four weeks ago.

  Now he could feel himself changing, ever so slightly.

  Being around zombies, even though they were outside of the camp’s walls, caused something to stir in his blood. It was as if Duncan could feel their hunger and thoughts, like he was part of some sort of hive mind. Their thoughts were never in words, though. They were visual and emotional—fear, hunger, anger—flashes of emotion tainting his thoughts.

  It was all he could do to keep these feelings in check, and he was cognizant enough to realize it was only a matter of time before the hive thoughts would overpower him and trigger the change in his body.

  Of course, he had no idea of how the change would happen, or how quickly he would turn. Would his metamorphosis be instant, or a slow degradation? Duncan didn’t know, nor did he want to find out, which was why he had to get back to City 6 immediately. Every minute spent in Paradise was another in which Duncan put his humanity and the entire camp at risk. He had wanted to leave a few weeks back, but guilt kept him in Paradise, tending to Oli, Liam, and Ana.

  Now it was time to go.

  It seemed that as the weather grew hotter, zombie activity in The Barrens increased. The zombies seemed hungrier, more desperate to feast. As zombies wandered nearby, their thoughts seeped into Duncan’s brain more often, threatening to trip whatever mechanism inside his cells caused the turn.

  Duncan had thought about telling the others—specifically Ana, Liam, and Oli—that he was infected, so they’d let him leave and return to City 6. But if he told the others, he would be banished. If Oli wouldn’t allow his son to stay, he’d never let Duncan return. Even worse, Oli would surely be mad that Duncan hadn’t told him about his infection already. But Duncan couldn’t risk Dr. Liza’s life by telling anyone, even if it might have saved Daemon’s.

  He strolled along the interior walls of Paradise as the sun dipped beyond the tree-lined horizon. It looked as if God had poured molten sun across the sky, casting the world in many shades of beautiful orange. He felt a chill as he considered how few sunsets were left in his life if he didn’t get medicine soon.

  As they often did, Duncan’s thoughts shifted back to the well-being of others, foremost among them Ana and Liam. He wished he could escort the two on their trip. Not just to see Jonah again, but to ensure the kids made it there safely. He wasn’t sure he could trust the courier, even if Oli cast the man as a regular.

  What helped ease his mind a little was that Duncan had spoken with Oli earlier about sending a hunter orb along with Liam and Ana. Since Oli couldn’t afford any men, he said he’d think about it, as long as Duncan stuck around to fix the other two orbs. Duncan agreed, saying he’d finish training Balon on the schematics. In truth, Balon had learned enough, which made Duncan feel less guilty about his plan to leave first chance he got, whether he was done programming the other orbs or not.

  Duncan caught Oli’s eyes on his final lap around the camp, looking down from the dining hall porch. The man smiled as they exchanged an unspoken something—kinship from one warrior to another, perhaps.

  Oli rang the bell. Duncan crossed the yard and strolled up to the steps of the dining hall.

  * * *

  Duncan sat in bet
ween Ana and Liam at a long wooden table, one of five in the dining hall which seated most of the 50 or so citizens left at the camp. Four girls, all from the Harrison clan, worked the kitchen and set the tables before joining Oli, along with the council, at his table for dinner.

  Usually, the day’s final meal was led with a prayer from Oli, but tonight he simply said, “Let’s eat,” as he sat at the end of the table toward the room’s rear.

  Meal times tended to be lively affairs, with conversation flowing as freely as drink. Tonight, death was the elephant in the room. All had lost someone close to them today, whether friend or family, and people were clearly swallowing their feelings—anger, the frustration of a failed mission, and of course, sorrow—along with their food.

  A silence had settled over the hall, cut only by the sounds of the mourners poking forks at the hand greens. Three children who had lost their older brother stared at their plates, eyes red. Their mother, who’d lost her husband three months earlier, didn’t even bother pleading with them to eat.

  Just when Duncan began wondering if anybody would say anything, the doors to the dining hall burst open.

  Shaw entered, Avery beside him, dragging a wheeled cage and a captured zombie. Everyone gasped as Shaw entered. Their gazes settled on the woman, eyes wild, thrashing in the cage, trying to break free or grab a hold of Avery.

  Oh, Jesus.

  Duncan felt the woman’s hunger in his brain, interfering with his thoughts. He clasped one hand tight in another, squeezing, trying not to shine light on his struggle, and keep his thoughts from tearing, ripping, feeding …

  Shaw stood as tall as the cage, his hulking frame casting the zombie in shadow. He looked at Oli, but spoke to the room. “Anyone wanna have some fun?”

  He guffawed, dragging his club across the bars while the zombie snarled and gnashed behind them.

  The zombie was too close. Her rage and hunger too loud in Duncan’s mind, amplified by Shaw’s taunting. He squeezed his eyes tight and tried to will the danger away. It wasn’t working. The zombie could smell his infection. Duncan felt her staring.

  Something drew his attention: he wanted to get closer. Something in him wanted something in her. That something made the caged zombie go crazier, growling like an animal, now down on all fours behind the bars, as if ready to leap. It was grabbing the metal and grunting at Duncan as if trying to broadcast intention.

  “Look,” Shaw laughed. “She likes Duncan!”

  Oli looked from Shaw to the zombie, to Duncan and back, then to each of them again. The zombie’s nostrils flared, and there was a horrible scraping, almost a clawing, croak from her throat. Her spindly fingers opened and clenched, reaching out and stretching for Duncan.

  Oli looked up from his dinner with tired eyes, turning from the cage to Shaw.

  “You know the rules,” he said softly, then gestured toward the cage. “No infected behind The Walls. You need to get that out of here, now.”

  Shaw barked laughter. “Aw, come on Oli. She’s in a cage. She can’t hurt anyone. C’mon. We all want to take out our frustration from today. Don’t you all wanna get even, just a little?”

  Shaw was a pig, the one person in the village Duncan couldn’t stand. Daemon had kept his oaf on a leash, but Daemon was dead. It was only a matter of time before things bucked between Oli and Shaw and one of them wound up dead. But Oli seemed uninterested in rising to the bait at the moment.

  Shaw sensed that and looked around the room, his question still in the air.

  While a few of the men in raised their fists and said, “Hell, yeah!” most of the others were too shocked, or too scared, to say anything.

  The children all cried.

  Duncan looked at the courier, sitting three people down from himself, and saw that the man was simply looking at Shaw, showing no emotion either way. At least he wasn’t laughing with him.

  Shaw’s face turned crimson. “Come on, you pussies, you all get a free shot!”

  Shaw gripped his club tight and thrust the butt through the bars into the zombie’s face.

  The woman fell back, screaming.

  Her pain shot through Duncan’s mind.

  He yelped without meaning to, then noticed all eyes on him, especially Shaw’s.

  He had to save face. Fortunately, as a preacher it wasn’t odd for him to cry out against such an act of violence. “Come on, Shaw. There’s no need for that here. Nothing will bring back our loved ones.”

  Shaw’s smile faltered, a flash of anger tearing through his eyes as if Duncan had insulted his community standing and questioned his manhood. Silence stretched too long and Duncan was certain something bad was about to happen.

  Fortunately, Oli finally spoke.

  “Outside,” Oli repeated, his voice so low and so barely there, Duncan figured Shaw was just stupid enough to think he didn’t mean it. For a moment, the giant shifted on his feet, looking like he might protest. Every eye was on Shaw, the cage, Oli, or some combination—everyone surely wondering what would happen next.

  The zombie screamed, inhuman and screeching, boiling in Duncan’s thickening blood.

  I have to get out of here.

  Duncan felt like he would lose control at any second, but the standoff between Shaw and Oli seemed even more powerful, potentially explosive. If Duncan got up, he might squeeze fuel on an already simmering fire.

  He tightened his muscles, trying to stay invisible, then looked to his left. Both Ana, sitting next to him, and Liam, on the other side of her, were looking at Duncan in concern. Both knew him well enough to understand that something was up, even if they weren’t exactly sure what it was.

  Shaw made up his mind. “Fine, but that’s no fun,” and spun the cage toward the door, to take it out the way he came. “If anyone wants to have some fun with me, I’ll be outside the main gate. Bring your own weapons!”

  As Shaw and Avery began to turn the cage and take it from the hall, Duncan stood, dropped his napkin on the table, then clutched his hand to his stomach. “I’m so sorry to leave, but I’m going to be sick.”

  Oli looked over to Duncan, concerned, perhaps, that Duncan wanted to finish his argument with Shaw.

  Duncan grimaced, holding his stomach.

  Oli nodded.

  Ana and Liam stood and followed Duncan toward the door.

  “Are you okay?” Liam asked.

  Duncan didn’t answer until after he passed Shaw and the zombie. He couldn’t afford to look back. The zombie’s screams were loud, and the barks from the cage seemed to be directed at Duncan, as if singling him out.

  Duncan could hear its thoughts.

  You, you, you … Me!

  He tried to bar them from his mind, but it was useless. He had to get out of the hall—immediately.

  Duncan made it halfway to the door, before remembering his companions. He turned back to look at Ana and Liam.

  “I’m fine,” he smiled, knowing how thin it sounded. “The stress is eating me, you know, staying while you two go. I’ll worry about you.”

  It was a weak excuse, brittle as it left his mouth. Neither bought it, he knew. He barely cared at this point, as his mind raced with the zombie’s thoughts: rage, confusion, hunger, fear.

  Without a word, Duncan spun from his friends, yelled, “Be right back,” and raced toward the door.

  Oli called out behind, “Duncan, wait!”

  Duncan turned toward Oli, on fire, the always-there whisper now screaming inside him.

  He tried to hang on, to make it outside. But as he looked up at Oli, he realized he’d lost the battle.

  The infection took him.

  CHAPTER 7—ANA LOVECRAFT

  Ana wasn’t sure what to watch, the zombie or Duncan. Something was definitely wrong with Duncan, though. He seemed preoccupied ever since their return from the failed raid.

  At first, she figured he was upset about the loss, or concerned that she and Liam had been summoned by Sutherland. But as they sat for dinner, the preacher seemed more than pr
eoccupied.

  Something was wrong, and Ana wondered why he hadn’t confided in them. She thought about how she and Liam—and even Oli—had often gone to Duncan with their problems, but who could Duncan turn to? Who did Duncan give his deepest worries to?

  Ana wondered if in their selfishness, they’d overlooked something seriously wrong with their friend. She looked over at Liam, who also seemed to be noting Duncan’s odd behavior.

  And now here was Shaw, making it worse.

  Shaw was a troublemaker, always had been. Oli tolerated him because he was a hell of a fighter—maybe their best—and one of Daemon’s best friends in a world where he couldn’t have many. He was strong as an ox, and exactly that smart. One of the only things that made Shaw a solid addition to raiding parties was that he and Daemon had complimented one another in the best possible ways. While Daemon was a hothead, he also had some of his father’s strategic intelligence, even if it had gone unused today. Shaw and Daemon as a team were no doubt one of the camp’s best assets.

  But now that Daemon was gone, there was no one left to check Shaw’s worst inclinations. Everyone—save for Oli, herself, Liam, and Duncan—was too scared of Shaw to ever speak up.

  What kind of an idiot brings a caged zombie to dinner when the camp is in mourning?

  Only Shaw.

  Duncan was sweating. His eyes were giant and bloodshot. Wet. His dark skin was ashen. Even his hair seemed in disarray. He mopped his brow many times each minute, and stole glances everywhere, mostly from Shaw to Oli to the zombie, then all three again in that order, pausing only to look at her or Liam.

  He was probably worried about having to stay while she and Liam went to meet Sutherland. Before dinner, Ana suggested to Liam that she try talking to Oli, get permission for Duncan to go with them, but Liam said it wasn’t worth it: if Oli wanted Duncan to stay, Duncan would stay.

  But Ana wasn’t sure. Despite everyone tiptoeing around Oli’s mood, Ana saw the man as perfectly reasonable. If she said they needed Duncan for the trip, and that Duncan needed them, Ana figured she had a good shot of getting Oli to relent.