I sensed the captain stiffening as she spoke, and the temperature of the air seemed to drop a couple of degrees.
I smiled and nodded, not entirely sure what to say other than “Please, can I go now?”
Parker returned my smile. “Let’s talk inside, get to know each other a bit better.”
She seemed genuine enough. It was probably safe, but I really just wanted to leave. I nodded anyway and clambered out of the Jeep.
“Thank you, Captain. Melissa asked me to send you over to her when you got back. I think she got the car working.”
The captain nodded and tapped Novak’s shoulder. He dropped the Jeep into reverse, backed up, and then drove off toward the brown tent I’d seen on the way in.
Parker led me inside the ranger’s office, past a wooden information desk and into an office at the back of the building. She moved around the metal desk that filled most of the tiny room, and gestured toward an office chair. Once I’d sat down, she followed suit.
Apart from the desk and the two chairs, there was just a narrow filing cabinet that had seen better days and a faded map of the surrounding area hanging from the wall. Three black crosses marked presumably significant locations on the map. One of them I recognized. It was Camp Redfern—the first place I’d truly felt safe since the outbreak. The place I’d been forced to leave when it was overrun by zombies. And the military. It was also the place where I’d lived with Alex and Lucy.
I looked away from the map and smiled at Parker, trying to look natural.
She leaned forward. “So, Marcus, tell me about yourself.”
My chair suddenly felt extremely uncomfortable.
“Not much to tell,” I said. “Before the… outbreak I worked in a medical research facility in Vancouver.”
“You must have been close to the first incidents.”
I nodded.
A sympathetic look came over Parker’s face. “You lost people?” she said softly.
“Friends. I was staying with them in Whistler when the outbreak hit. The government told us there was nothing to worry about. By the time we realized just how big a lie that was, it was too late. I was the only one that made it out.”
The words were a lie, but Parker seemed convinced.
“When was that?”
“About three months ago.”
Parker’s eyebrows shot up. “And you’ve been living in the forest since then?”
“Mostly. I’ve managed to hole up a couple of times, but the swarms always forced me out in the end.”
Parker nodded thoughtfully. I was telling the truth about my time in the forest, just not all of it. If she knew about Camp Redfern and realized I was there when the military arrived, I’d have a lot of difficult questions to answer. Like why I wasn’t dead when everyone else was.
“I wish I could say you wouldn’t have that problem here in Hope. But I’m afraid we’re not as safe as we’d like. You probably saw that we don’t have a full perimeter fence. We station people at the gaps, but we’ve lost a lot of people recently, and we’re stretched thin. A… swarm came through a couple of weeks back—maybe twenty of them.” A pained look came over her face, and her voice softened. “It was dark, and we were lucky to survive.”
I tried to look sympathetic and nodded. Really I was thinking, Twenty is nothing. I’d seen, and survived, swarms six or seven times that size.
Parker’s eyes were moist, and I was afraid she was going to start crying. Comforting strangers isn’t my forte.
She blinked away the tears. “Captain Harwood said he picked you up on the road?”
“Yes, I was searching for a place to spend the night.” I realized my mistake as soon as I’d said the words.
Someone laughed outside, and Parker looked out of the window. When she turned back to me, the sadness in her face had returned. “Well, we’re quite happy for you to stay here.”
I shook my head. “No, that won’t be necessary.”
“But where would you go? You just said you were looking for a place to sleep, and we have room.”
I didn’t want to talk about the caves, but I still had plans to go back there. I opened my mouth to reply, but the words wouldn’t come.
“I understand,” Parker said, “this place isn’t secure enough.”
“It’s not that. I—”
“You’re right. Hope isn’t a long-term solution, but we have somewhere better in mind. A couple of weeks ago, we picked up a radio transmission from a town—a gated community. It’s fortified, and they have plenty of food and more than enough room for us to join them. It’s less than a hundred miles east. The roads are bad, so it will still take a while to get there, but it’s our best chance.”
“Why haven’t you left already?”
“There are forty-seven people in this camp. A third of those are ill or injured in some way. We need a way to transport them. We have the Jeep and a car that almost starts, but that’s it.
“One of our scouting groups found a bus. If we can get it going, it will be big enough for everyone in the camp.”
It was a solid plan. If they could get the bus running. And keep it going for the journey. And if they didn’t run into a swarm. Or someone like Ling.
“Which is why,” continued Parker, “I’d like you to join our group. We need people, particularly those with medical skills.”
I held up my hands. “I was just a lab assistant, not a doctor. I know a bit of first aid, and that’s it.”
“That’s still a help, believe me. Even just having one more pair of hands would make a big difference. I can’t promise that it will be totally safe, but it’s safer than out there.”
“I’m sorry, Ms. Parker—”
“Please, call me Allison.”
“I’m sorry, Allison. It’s not this place, or the people here, and your plan sounds like a good one.” I paused. “I’m just more of a loner.”
“It’s dangerous out there, and with winter on the way, it’s only going to get worse.”
“I understand, but I prefer to make my own way.”
Parker held my gaze, and I had to force myself not to look away. Then she sighed. “Well, I can’t make you stay.”
“Captain Harwood seemed quite insistent I come with him when he picked me up.”
Parker’s face darkened. She didn’t speak for several seconds, and when she did, her voice was tight. “The captain and I have differing views on how Hope should be run. If you want to leave, you can, but at least stay the night. Get some food inside you.”
At the mention of food, I suddenly realized just how long it had been since I’d eaten. I nodded.
“Good. We eat in the big tent. You can’t miss it.” She checked an old watch on her wrist. “Dinner is in an hour or so. In the meantime, have a look around, get a feel for the place. Maybe you’ll change your mind.”
She smiled, and I sat staring at her for a few seconds before I realized she was waiting for me to leave.
I coughed and stood, knocking the chair away from me in my haste and almost tipping it over. “I’ll do that. And thank you for your hospitality.”
“You’re welcome.”
I was almost knocked over as I opened the door to leave. A fresh-faced young girl burst into the office.
“Miss Parker! It’s James; he got bit!”
Parker leaped to her feet, and I barely managed to get out of the way as she charged through the door.
“The captain wants to kill ’im!” shouted the girl, running after her.
Chapter 13
Bite
A crowd had already gathered outside the office, but it parted as soon as Parker appeared. A gray-bearded bald man in a bloodstained T-shirt knelt beside a boy of about fifteen. The boy’s shirt had been torn away to reveal a bite on his upper arm. It wasn’t deep, I’d certainly seen worse, but there was blood pouring down his arm. His skin was pale and slick with sweat.
Captain Harwood was standing nearby, his pistol pointing squarely at the young boy
. The bald man had put himself directly in the line of fire.
“Get out of the way, Giles. You know what needs to be done,” said the captain.
Parker knelt beside the boy, and he let out a moan.
“It’s okay, James. You’re going to be fine. Giles, go and find Mercy. She should be here.”
The bald man nodded. He glared at Harwood and then took off through the crowd.
Parker nodded at another boy standing nearby. He looked a couple of years older than James. He wasn’t injured but seemed in just as much distress. “What happened, Tony?”
Tony hopped from one foot to the other as he spoke, as though he were dying to go to the restroom.
“We were out by the well.” A panicked look came over his face. “I know we’re not supposed to go there on our own, but we were just goofing around.” He looked like he was about to cry.
“It’s okay,” Parker said. “Tell me what happened.”
“A zombie came out of the woods, from behind the log pile. He was fresh, so we didn’t smell him. I tried to warn James, but…”
Now the boy was crying, great heaving sobs that made his shoulders shake. His apparent age made it look all the more pitiful.
A woman who was barely taller than Tony pushed her way through the crowd. Her face was creased with worry, and I could see the family resemblance between her and the boy—they had the same eyes. She slipped her arm around his shoulders and pulled him tight. She whispered something in his ear.
“What happened to the creature?” asked Parker.
“Vic got him,” said a voice from the back of the crowd.
Parker nodded and looked down at James. She ran her fingertips across his forehead, brushing aside a few stray hairs. Then she pressed the back of her hand against his skin. She frowned. The boy mumbled something and batted her hand away.
“Parker,” Harwood said, his voice granite. “It’s time.”
She stared up at the captain, her face equally hard, defiant.
“No. We have medical facilities.” She pointed toward me. “Mr. Black has medical experience, and he can help. We can bind the wound and perform a blood transfusion, amputate if we have to.”
“You know we don’t have the equipment to do that, and even if we did, it won’t help. There’s no going back.”
Parker shook her head. “We don’t know that. We have to try—”
Harwood stepped forward. “No. We can’t risk the infection spreading. There are too few of us as it is.”
Parker was about to respond when the crowd parted and a woman appeared. Her long black hair was wet and stuck to her disheveled shirt. One of her boots was missing, her left foot covered with just a thin black sock. Giles was close behind.
The woman shrieked when she saw James lying on the ground. “No!” Tears streamed down her cheeks. She staggered, almost fell.
Parker stood and steadied the woman. “Don’t worry, Mercy, we’re going to do everything we can.”
There was a sharp crack as Captain Harwood shot James in the head.
Chapter 14
Fractures
Time stopped.
Parker stared in shock at Captain Harwood.
Captain Harwood stared defiantly back at her.
Mercy looked down at the now-dead body of her son, her face filled with horror and grief.
Giles had turned away, hands pressed over his mouth.
A few of the crowd stared at the body in shock, the rest looked away.
In the middle of it all lay James, one neat hole in his forehead and a pool of blood spreading slowly around his head.
And then time snapped back to its normal pace.
Mercy pushed her way past Parker. She wailed and fell to her knees. Tears streamed down her face. She scooped up her son and held his limp form to her chest. The boy’s back was stained red. Fragments of bone and brain lay scattered across the ground.
Parker ran at the captain. Her rage was so intense that I thought for a moment that she was going to attack him or get herself shot trying. She had the front of his jacket grasped in her hands before he could back away.
“What the hell did you do?”
The captain kept his composure. “What needed to be done.” His voice was calm—that of a man who knew he was right.
Parker shook her head. Her mouth opened and closed as she struggled to find the words to express herself. She twisted Parker’s shirt, and her knuckles turned white.
Mercy’s wails turned to sobs. Some of the crowd that had formed around the boy had moved back as the horror of what they’d seen became too much. Others stared in morbid fascination. A handful of new onlookers appeared, drawn by the gunfire and Mercy’s cries.
A young woman with a pronounced limp stepped out of the crowd. She winced as she knelt awkwardly beside Mercy and wrapped her arm around the distraught woman’s shoulder.
Parker finally let go of the captain’s shirt, giving him a push.
Captain Harwood straightened himself up. “You know I’m right.”
A couple of young men, two of the minority that had kept staring at the body, took a few paces closer to Harwood as though backing him up. Parker’s eyes flicked to them, just for fraction of a second.
“We can’t afford to be weak, Parker,” Harwood said.
Parker straightened her back. She was a good nine inches shorter than the captain, but I didn’t doubt she’d be prepared to take him on if she had to. She might even win if her rage ran deeply enough.
“Now is not the time for this,” she said. The anger was still there, but now it was an undercurrent, not a river threatening to burst its banks.
“I disagree. It’s the perfect time. We need to move and find somewhere safer. Sanctuary isn’t far. We can make it in a couple of days if we march hard.”
Disgust twisted Parker’s features. She gestured toward a tent at the back of the camp. “And how do you propose we move the sick?”
I knew what the captain’s answer would be before he spoke. I’ve known people like him. I am people like him.
“We don’t.”
“We can’t just leave them behind to die.”
“I’m not proposing that.”
Parker’s eyes blazed. “So, what exactly are you proposing, Captain?”
“I’m proposing… we end their lives humanely.”
“We are not putting our own people down like animals!”
Parker was shouting now, her anger back to full strength.
The two men backing Harwood up moved subtly toward her.
A man’s voice called out. “We can’t just stay here and wait to be picked off.”
A murmur of agreement rippled through the crowd, led by the captain’s supporters.
Parker looked around the circle. There were fifteen or so people now. Mercy was the only one not looking at Parker—she was too busy cradling her dead child.
Parker stared at someone in the crowd. “Joyce, do you agree with Harwood? Do you think we should just force people to commit suicide?”
Joyce looked at the ground, her face turning a deep red.
“What about you, Samuel?” Parker said, pointing at a beanpole disguised as a man. He managed to hold Parker’s gaze but didn’t say anything.
“Is this really what we’ve become?” Parker said. Her voice was softer, persuasive, and I saw how she might have ended up the leader of this community.
Harwood could see it, too. It was obvious from the cold, calculating look in his eyes.
He turned to address the people around him. “This has gone on long enough. It’s time for a change. We’re within walking distance of safety. We’ve known about Sanctuary for two weeks. But still, our leader refuses to even send a scouting party to check it out.”
The meaning of Harwood’s words was almost drowned out by the contempt in his voice.
“We can’t afford to lose more people,” Parker said.
Captain Harwood’s eyes flashed, and his lips curved into a slight smile
. “No, we can’t. And yet you sent some of our best people on an idiotic rescue mission and got them killed.”
Harwood jabbed his finger at Parker to emphasize the point. I could see her fighting the urge to step back.
The captain’s smile returned as the group muttered their agreement. He pressed home his attack. “That mission was a mistake. You took a needless risk, and now the entire camp is in danger. And you were going to take another risk.” He pointed at James’s body lying on the ground. “That thing was a threat to the safety of everyone here. It needed to be put down before it infected anyone else.”
Parker clenched her fists. The crowd was starting to side with Harwood, and she knew it. Say the wrong thing now, and she might lose control completely.
In the movies, this would be the point where the mysterious new arrival would step forward and with a few choice words cement Parker’s position and forge a critical alliance with her at the same time. But I’m no movie hero. I was as likely to side with Captain Harwood—he seemed to have what it would take to get this group to safety.
In the end, it was Mercy that came to Parker’s aid. She shrugged off the arm around her shoulder and stood. Eyes blazing, she marched toward Harwood. “He. Was. My. Son!” As she said the final word, Mercy launched herself at him.
She screamed with rage and swung clawed hands at his face. Harwood twisted out of her way. She managed to catch his cheek with the tip of one finger, scratching it, but otherwise, the attack had little effect.
Harwood brought his gun up as Mercy whirled to attack him again.
“I won’t hesitate to use this, Mercy Ballantine.”
Mercy took no notice and started toward Harwood. Before he could fire, Parker was in front of her. She forced Mercy back, even as the woman struggled to get to the captain.
For a moment, it looked as though Captain Harwood might shoot Parker in the back, but then he lowered the gun.
“Erica, take Mercy home, will you?” Parker said.
Serial Killer Z: Sanctuary Page 7
