Affliction

by Laurell K. Hamilton

Chapter 77-78

  77

  When we got back to the trucks, Little Henry wasn't there. Badger said, 'I told him to stay here, damn it. '

  'There he is,' Yancey said.

  At the same time Nicky said, 'There,' and pointed.

  I followed where he pointed, and it was Little Henry running toward us, using all that long leg to run as fast as he could, carrying someone over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. There were two zombies chasing them.

  'Go save his ass, then we got a hospital run to make,' Sergeant Badger said.

  We had a second where SWAT looked at us and we looked at them. I said, 'We'll take the zombies, you secure the civilians. '

  'Roger that,' Yancey said.

  I wanted my shotgun when we got to the zombies, but once you had the AR on its tac swing for running, you had to hold it as you ran, or it tangled your legs. The shotgun in its cross-draw shoulder sleeve was fine for running; I'd just have to change guns when we got there. I started jogging toward the zombies and Little Henry. Dev, Lisandro, and Nicky did the same, all of us jogging with our ARs in our hands. The men fell in around me, jogging easily to keep up. SWAT was moving out to meet Little Henry and there was a moment when all eight of us were close. Then the zombies seemed to sense that their prey was getting away, because they suddenly picked up their own pace, and it was fast. Why was it that only the flesh-eating zombies ever moved like that? I started to run, using that otherworldly speed the way I had in the mountains, and my men paced me, easily. They could have outstripped my shorter stride, but they stayed with me, because I had a plan, I would tell them what to do; people with training like people with plans, and they'll stay with you as long as you keep having a plan and making decisions.

  We left SWAT behind, because humans couldn't move like we could. We came even with Little Henry. He was running full out, long legs eating up the ground, the woman on his shoulder bouncing a little as he kept moving toward SWAT and we kept moving toward the zombies.

  I let my AR slide to one side, keeping my left hand on it, and reached with my right hand to draw the shotgun out of its back sleeve. I had a few moments of running with a gun in each hand. Nicky was beside me with the same double-handed run. I stopped with a few yards between us and the running zombies. I let the AR fall from my left hand and put both hands on the shotgun, raised it to my shoulder, and snugged it into place as the zombies ate up the ground between us. Nicky mirrored me.

  I called, 'Right. '

  He answered, 'Left. '

  I shot the knee of the zombie on the right. It stumbled, falling to the ground. The zombie on the left fell down as Nicky blew its leg out from under it, too. Lisandro and Dev moved up on both sides of us to flank the zombies. They got up off the ground on hands and the remaining leg, snarling, and launched themselves at us. Nicky and I shot them in the heads; at this distance most of the upper parts of the heads exploded. Their bodies recovered from the force of the shots and they got back up. Lisandro and Dev fired into their bodies. Again the zombies reacted to the physics, but they couldn't feel pain, or fear, and they were already dead, so they got back up. Nicky and I shot them again, took the rest of their heads. Lisandro and Dev concentrated on the other intact leg. They used their hands to start to crawl toward us. Nicky and I used the shotgun to blow a hand into red mist on each of them. Lisandro moved up and shot the arm that Nicky had taken the hand off in a series of rapid gunshots until the arm was destroyed. Dev did the same on the arm of my zombie. Nicky and I took the other hand on our zombies, and Lisandro and Dev took out the arms. The zombies lay on the ground with legs and arms ruined, no heads, their bodies destroyed, and the remains of the bodies started trying to wiggle forward.

  Dev said, 'These things just never give up, do they?' He stared down at the zombies with a look that might have been fear, but he was trying to hide it, and he'd done his job perfectly.

  'No, they don't,' I said.

  'It's going to be a long night,' Lisandro said.

  'Yeah,' I said, 'it is. '

  78

  We got the first woman to the emergency room and left the woman that Henry had rescued there, too. She was shocky from the whole nearly-being-eaten-by-zombies thing. There were other injuries from zombie attack, including two police officers. There were zombie calls from all over the city. So far it was just one or two zombies attacking, but we still had an hour until full dark. I was betting that once night fell we'd get more zombies in larger groups just like up in the mountains, except there we'd all been armed and trained. The normal citizen wasn't going to fare very well against these things. Hell, a single officer in a patrol car was going to have trouble if there was more than one of them. You needed armed groups that knew how to shoot and work together, and even then there might come a point where overwhelming numbers, well, overwhelmed us. I stood there in the emergency room letting the noise and the movements of it wash over me. Nicky stood not far away. Lisandro and Dev were talking to the SWAT guys. Who you going to call when it looks like you're really going to have to survive the zombie apocalypse?

  I knew exactly who to call. 'Ted, you know how you complained that I had a zombie apocalypse and didn't invite you?'

  'Yeah. '

  'Consider yourself invited. '

  He gave a small chuckle, the way some men will do when you say something sexy.

  'You're excited. After what we saw in the hospital and the basement you're excited about this,' I said.

  'Yeah, I am. '

  'There's something wrong with you, you do know that, right?' I said, and laughed.

  'Yeah, I do know. Give me your location. '

  I had Dev bring it up on his phone's GPS and gave him the address. 'We'll have to keep moving around from one emergency to the next,' I said.

  'Understood, we'll be there as soon as we can. '

  'We?'

  'SWAT, remember?'

  'Yeah, me, too. And, Ted?'

  'Yes, Anita. '

  'Bring your flamethrower. '

  He gave that excited sex chuckle again. 'For real, you're not just teasing this time?'

  'Zombie reports from all over the area and it's still daylight. It's just going to get worse after dark. '

  He gave that low, deep laugh again. 'You say the best things. '

  'Conversations like this is one of the reasons people think we're doing each other. '

  'Maybe,' he said.

  'Someone on your end of the phone said something you didn't like about us, or me, and you're rubbing their face in it. '

  'Would I do that?' The words were innocent; the tone was not. Someone must have done something that truly pissed him off for him to play into it like this, because he knew it hurt my reputation worse than his. People expect men to be sex-hungry bastards, it's the old boys-will-be-boys idea, but a woman who sleeps around is a whore. I hated the attitude, but I knew it was a reality in most people's minds. I didn't understand it; I mean, if you think sleeping around is bad, shouldn't it be equally slutty no matter if a man or a woman does it? Or equally okay?

  'Get here as soon as you can, and let me know which of the guys with you pissed you off and I'll help you play with him, between killing zombies. '

  'You sweet-talking thing, you,' he said.

  That made me laugh. We hung up with both of us laughing. There were so many reasons that Edward and I were friends.