“You two all right?” he asked them once they were up.
“Fine.” Jessica brushed and straightened her clothes again. She still held the field hockey stick tightly in her other hand though. It was a white knuckle grip with the same strength that the girl had grabbed Abby with. When she noticed the gun in the man’s hand, she gripped the stick with her other hand as well, equally hard. The colour in her face wasn’t coming back.
“We’re not hurt if that’s what you mean.” Abby’s head was still going on a little trip. Part of it still wondered if the globs were brains. This was a very strange day in which the only thing that was supposed to be different was Abby’s trip to the doctor.
“Good to hear. You got to get them in the head.” The man tapped his temple with the muzzle of his gun. Jessica wasn’t taking her eyes off the weapon for a second.
“What are you talking about?” Abby didn’t follow what he meant.
“To keep them down.” He gestured to the other side of the truck. “I don’t know why, but they only seem to be staying down if you get them in the head. A real good whack with that stick might do it, but you’ll probably need to hit them several times.”
“Umm, thanks.” Abby glanced over at Jessica again, but she was still intently following the gun. This guy was strange.
“Do either of you ladies know how to get to Larson Street?” The man finally put his gun away by tucking it into his belt. His plaid shirt hung over it, hiding it from sight.
“I don’t. Jessica?” Jessica didn’t respond. “Hey, Jessica!”
“I’m sorry, what?” Jessica snapped out of her daze, her colour finally returning.
“Do you know where Larson Street is?” the man asked her.
“Oh sure, it’s that way.” Jessica pointed in the opposite direction she and Abby were going. “This street intersects with it several blocks down.”
“Thanks,” with that, the man headed off.
Abby thought the whole encounter was very strange. She also had the feeling that Jessica lied about where Larson Street was just to get the guy away from them. “Are you okay, Jessica?”
“Yeah, sure, I’m fine.” Jessica seemed back to normal. “So what was that you were saying about going under Jalice? I really don’t want to be going into a sewer.” She picked up their previous conversation as if nothing happened.
“Well, the subway line runs under Jalice, right? We just have to find a stop. A busy street like this is sure to have subway openings on both sides of the street so we can just cross under it.”
“Yeah sure. The closest stop should be only one block over. Come on.” Jessica led the way.
When she rounded the corner of the next small street, Jessica groaned. Abby also rounded the corner and frowned. Their route was blocked by a massive construction site. Apparently, they were getting rid of the entire tiny street to erect some tall and skinny condo building.
“Jalice is the next street ahead.” Jessica looked up the street. “I guess we’ll have to head backwards to the last street we passed.”
Abby looked back at where they had come from. “Uh oh, big and bloody heading up the street.” A huge football player-sized man, soaked in blood, was wandering their way.
“Crap,” Jessica said under her breath. He also wasn’t alone. A few others were shuffling their way along with him. The gunshot probably attracted them.
“I guess we’ll just have to go through the construction site.” Abby started looking around the barrier.
“How? That wall doesn’t have a door in it.” Jessica just stared at the big wooden wall, a hopeless expression darkening her features.
“There.” Abby pointed to some scaffolding that crossed over the wall. “We can use that to climb over.”
Abby hurried to it. Jessica hesitated a moment but then followed her.
“You expect me to climb that?” Jessica managed to sound even more hopeless. “In a skirt?”
“Screw your skirt. Roll it up if you have to.” Abby grabbed the first of the bars and started hauling herself up. “Would you rather stay down here with them?”
“No.” Jessica threw the field hockey stick over the wall and hiked up her skirt to inappropriate heights.
Abby got to a walkway made of loose boards first. She lay on her stomach and reached a hand down for Jessica. Jessica was struggling, but she managed to take hold of Abby’s hand. When she got up, she crawled over Abby into the construction site. Before turning around, Abby looked up at the street. She just spotted the big guy coming into view when she decided to scrabble backwards.
* * *
Abby passed over the wall and heard Jessica thump down into the dirt beneath. Abby swung sideways and practically threw herself over the edge. She landed on her feet, but crumpled her legs and rolled to take the shock. Years of climbing trees as a child had taught her that. She hoped the big guy hadn’t seen her. He looked like he could just bull his way through the wooden wall.
Jessica found the field hockey stick and clutched it to her again. She rolled down her skirt but this time she didn’t bother brushing off the dirt and grime. Abby looked around the construction site. The ground was completely made up of dirt as the street had already been dug up. The buildings flanking the zone had already been closed for destruction, walls already knocked out. Big cranes, diggers, and dump trucks sat around what was the start of a big hole. None of them was idling, which was a shame because Abby would have loved to drive one of those dump trucks out of here. She wasn’t willing to spend time looking for keys though.
“There’s always so much construction going on in this city,” Jessica complained, “it’s such a nuisance.”
“Shh,” Abby quickly hushed her. “They might hear us.” She was all too aware of what could be on the other side of the barrier just then.
Jessica frowned but stayed quiet.
They began crossing the construction site, sticking to the middle of the zone. Abby didn’t trust the partly destroyed buildings to stay upright, and the vehicles provided enough cover. It was strange how much she was hiding behind cars. It reminded her of playing tag with her brothers in the church parking lot on the Sundays of her childhood.
Along the way, they came across a short-handled shovel sticking up out of the dirt. Abby picked it up and tested its weight. It wasn’t too heavy and its slightly pointed, spade head would make a fairly good weapon.
“Trade you,” Jessica whispered holding out the field hockey stick.
Although Abby knew the shovel was the better weapon, she traded with Jessica, who looked like she needed it more. That, and after watching her with the field hockey stick under the car, Abby knew she could count on her to use it.
They walked around a large bulldozer and came across a man lying in the dirt. The middle of the man’s back was clearly broken. He lifted his head and looked at the girls. A gasp escaped his lips as he reached a hand toward them. The girls quickly hurried off, taking the long way around that particular vehicle.
Abby wondered if the man was like the attackers. She didn’t see any blood other than what pooled around his broken back, but that didn’t mean anything. She also couldn’t tell if he was pale like most of the other attackers were because he was covered in dirt. He could have been just an injured man, reaching out to them for help, and they were leaving him behind.
“Hey, Jessica?” Abby couldn’t get that man out of her head, not while she was so unsure.
“If you’re thinking of turning around and checking that guy out, you’re nuts,” Jessica answered simply. Obviously, she was thinking about him too.
“But what if he’s just hurt?” Abby hated leaving someone in need behind.
“What if he is?” Jessica shrugged. “What can we do? You saw his back; it was a complete mess. He wouldn’t be able to walk, which means we’d have to carry him. Plus, you want him hung between us when we’re back on the street? Where there are clearly psychos wandering around? You think we have the strength to get him all the
way to the hospital?”
Abby backed down. She looked at her feet and shrank into herself a little. Again, Jessica was right; there was nothing they could do.
“Look,” Jessica sighed, feeling badly about her outburst, “when we get to the hospital, we can tell the authorities about him. They’ll be able to send someone out for him.”
“Yeah, sure.” Abby nodded, although she didn’t really believe it. They had yet to see any authority figures helping anybody. So far, the only assistance they’d witnessed was the random man with the revolver.
The girls continued to make their way to the other side of the construction site in silence. There was a gate there, which was big enough for the heavy machinery to travel in and out. Although the gate was chained and padlocked, it was loose, probably done in a hurry. The girls were able to push on the gate and squeeze out through the opening. Abby noted that this new block looked just like the last, except no threats were in sight, thank God.
“Come on,” Jessica whispered and started to lead the way toward Jalice. She hurried along in a half crouched position, sticking near the cars. Abby followed suit.
Before they reached Jalice, they came across the subway entrance. Looking down into it, Abby wasn’t so sure of her decision. The lights were all on, but it still had this dark, ominous quality to it. She started down the steps anyway. The pale green tiles on the walls were old and crusty. Abby despised the look of it. Nothing should be that exact shade of green, especially if it was going to be uncared for and submitted to almost constant human traffic. She looked at the floors instead.
“Abby!” Jessica hissed in her ear, pulling her backwards by the collar of her shirt.
“Huh?” Abby was confused by Jessica’s angry and panicked expression. She looked around the corner Jessica had pulled her behind. There were some people milling about the exit they wanted to use. The area they were milling about was not so much pale green anymore as it was dark red. Abby couldn’t believe she had let her guard down like that. She vowed not to do it again.
“We can’t get past them, what do we do?” Jessica whispered very closely to her ear but was still barely audible.
Abby searched for a way out. She spotted what might be a solution but Jessica wasn’t going to like it. “There.” They could reach the entrance down to the subway platform simply by jumping the turn styles.
“What will that do?” Jessica didn’t know what Abby was getting at.
“We can walk along the tracks to the next station, and then surface there.”
“What if a train comes? And it’ll be pitch black.”
Abby sighed, “The lights here are still on so the lights at the next station will probably be on too. Also, there are lights along the inside of the tunnel that will help us. As for the trains, I highly doubt they’re running. If you want though, we can wait on the platform for a few minutes and if a train comes, we’ll ride it to the next station.”
Jessica shifted around Abby and looked around the corner. She fretted for a moment, but then nodded. The subway tunnel it was.
As they neared the tunnels, a sound could be heard coming up from them. The women had no time to think about it though, as they needed to get away from the lingerers as fast as possible. They quickly hopped the turn styles and headed down the steps.
“What’s all the banging?” Jessica had to speak up a bit because it was so loud.
“I don’t know,” Abby shrugged.
They made it to the bottom of the stairs and quickly found out what the source of the noise was. A subway train was stopped at the station and every one of its cars was filled to capacity with people. They were banging on the windows and doors, trying to get out. There was a great deal of blood.
“I guess we know that the trains aren’t running,” Abby rasped. Her mouth had suddenly gone completely dry, while conversely, her palms became very sweaty. She tightened her grip on the field hockey stick so it wouldn’t slip out of her hands.
Jessica walked over to the track opposite the train and looked up and down it. “This side looks clear.”
“Okay.” Abby couldn’t take her eyes off the trapped people. Many of them had facial lacerations and bits of skin missing. Several had chunks taken out of their hands and were missing digits. Everywhere she looked, up and down the length of the train, were these bloody, grotesque people. They were all very pale and their eyes… Some were pure white, some were red, some were a putrid yet vivid green, and others looked almost normal, but they all looked dead. There was nothing behind them, no soul.
Suddenly, one of the windows cracked, causing Abby to jump.
“Come on!” Jessica called.
She turned and saw that Jessica was already down on the track. She ran over and nimbly hopped down. She stumbled slightly on the landing, but Jessica caught her and helped her keep her balance.
“That way looks closest, right?” Jessica pointed in one of the tunnel’s two directions.
Abby looked up and down the tunnel. “Yeah, that side looks closest.”
Huddling together, the girls headed off down the track. Despite the fact they knew the trains must have not been running, they kept looking up and down the track anyway, searching for the telltale light of an oncoming train. They went slowly, being careful of the tracks and other things covering the ground. It was all covered in a fine layer of grime.
“Eww, a rat,” Jessica said from just ahead of Abby.
“Rats happen,” Abby shrugged.
“It’s coming right toward us.” Jessica stepped back and put Abby ahead of her, almost like a shield.
It was indeed a rat and not just a mouse, and it was indeed running right at them. “Shoo!” Abby yelled at the rat, trying to be intimidating. It didn’t work. Maybe they were near its nest or something. The rat had nearly reached them. Abby stuck out the field hockey stick and hit the thing. It squeaked and slid back, but then turned around and launched itself at Abby, landing on her shoe.
“Get it off, get it off!” Abby squealed. She didn’t mind rats, provided they kept their distance or if they were someone’s clean and trained pet. A subway rat on her shoe however, was not acceptable. She started hopping around on one foot, shaking the other, trying to dislodge the rat. It held on tightly.
“Hold still,” Jessica commanded.
While Abby held still, Jessica used the shovel to scrape the rat off the top of her shoe. It clung to the shovel and Jessica catapulted it down the tunnel. The rat bounced twice then turned around and ran at them again.
“Little bugger is determined,” Abby noted.
“He must really like your shoes.” Jessica shrugged.
When the rat got close enough, Jessica brought the shovel down hard and splatted the rat against the tunnel floor.
“Ewww,” both girls protested at the same time when its little guts squished out.
Abby looked down at her shoe and found that the laces were all torn. “He tried to bite through my shoe.”
“Then I take back my statement. He must have really disliked your shoes.” Jessica scraped the underside of the shovel along the skinny ledge lining the track, trying to get any bits of remaining rat off it.
“I really liked these shoes,” Abby huffed. She had spent most of a day trying to find the perfect shoes for walking around the city. She hoped it was just the laces that were destroyed, because those would be easy to replace. If the shoe itself had been damaged though, she didn’t know if the store she bought them from would still have more in stock.
“Come on, let’s keep going before more rats show up.” Jessica stepped around Abby again and took the lead down the tunnel.
“Not much further now,” Abby noted happily.
That’s when all the lights went out. The subway tunnel was plunged into a pitch black nothingness, temporarily throwing off Abby’s sense of balance. Then there was a loud crack from behind them. It sounded like the Plexiglas of a subway train’s window breaking.
14:
The You
ng Teen
Danny held the handles of Alec’s wheelchair even though he didn’t need to. Alec was using the strength of his own arms to wheel down the street, but Danny held on to make sure he kept pace. He felt a lot safer with Alec, even though the man was in a wheelchair and he barely knew him. He was a man, not a boy, and he had a gun. He hadn’t used it yet, but it was ever present.
“So where did you get the gun?” Danny asked.
“I was in the military,” Alec answered.
“Oh. What part? Army? Navy?” Danny had never met someone from the military outside of Mathias.
“I was an army ranger,” Alec answered him in a monotone voice. His attention seemed completely focused on their surroundings, which Danny figured was a good thing. “I was a sniper.”
“So you killed some people.” Danny thought snipers were pretty cool, but he didn’t know too much about them.
“Some, yes.” Mathias would never tell Danny if he had killed anybody. This guy was cool.
“I was thinking of joining the Air Force when I’m old enough,” Danny told him.
“Air Force, huh?” Alec grinned slightly. “Do you want to fly jets or helicopters?”
“I’m leaning towards helicopters right now. I really like the Ostra class.”
“Ostra? I don’t know that one.”
Danny smiled broadly. “Not too many people do. It’s a new prototype being made by Keystone. I figure it’ll be put into full production by the time I join.”
“How does a kid like you know about Keystone’s prototypes, huh?” Alec actually stopped briefly in his scan of their surroundings and spared him a quick glance over his shoulder.
“My brother works on their security team. He’s not supposed to tell me stuff, but he does. He even got me the plans for it, so I could study the systems. Most of it is still over my head, but I’m learning.” Danny shrugged nonchalantly. He was trying to act cool.
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