Frank hit one right in the nose with his hammer.
Hughes shot another one through the chest.
They were almost finished. Only a handful remained.
They’d make it. They’d be okay.
Everyone except Carol.
Annie swung her crowbar at one of the last three remaining—this one also a man—but she swung too early. Her blow connected with nothing. She felt her shoulder go out.
And he was upon her.
He knocked her right over and onto her back. She damn near cracked her own skull open on the pavement. He was right on top of her, his mouth open wide and baring his teeth as if they were fangs.
“Annie!” Kyle shouted.
And then something happened. Something she did not expect, something she did not intend, something she did not even think about. It just happened. As if someone or something else was in control of her body and mind.
She bared her own teeth and lunged for the infected man’s throat.
The next two things happened at precisely the same instant. Kyle said, “Jesus Christ!” and Hughes put a round through the infected man’s head.
He went limp and collapsed on top of her.
Kyle pulled him off.
Hughes came running, rifle in hand. “Jesus, girl. Did you try to bite that thing?”
She had indeed tried to bite him.
* * *
Annie watched as Hughes and Kyle set Carol down in the flatbed. Everyone else piled in after, except Frank, who climbed into the passenger seat. He said he did it so Hughes wouldn’t have to sit up front by himself, but Annie assumed Frank just didn’t want to ride next to Carol. He looked at her like she was leaking virus, which wasn’t far from the truth.
Annie didn’t worry about that at all. It wouldn’t matter if she recontracted the virus. Her body knew how to fight it, so she sat next to Carol and held the poor woman’s hand and didn’t care if the others thought she was reckless.
Hughes started the engine. “We’re just going a couple of blocks down the street for right now,” he said as he lightly stepped on the accelerator.
“Finally,” Parker said as they started to move, “we’re clear.” Then he punched Kyle hard in the mouth.
* * *
He shouldn’t have done it. He knew he shouldn’t have done it, and he regretted it instantly, but goddamnit Kyle had to be the dumbest person he’d met since all this shit started.
“Parker!” Annie said.
“The fuck was that for?” Kyle said and wiped his mouth.
Frank turned around in the passenger seat.
“S’going on back there?” Hughes said from the front.
Parker ignored everybody but Kyle. “You know damn well what that was for.”
Kyle pulled his hand away from his mouth and licked blood off his lips. “What’s to stop me from bashing your head in with this crowbar right now?” Kyle said, his face twisted.
Parker pointed his gun at him. He wasn’t going to shoot Kyle, and the weapon was empty anyway, but he wasn’t going to just sit there and take a death threat over a punch in the mouth.
“For God’s sake, you guys!” Annie said.
Parker lowered his gun. Kyle lowered his eyes.
“You damn near got us all killed back there,” Parker said. “You did get Carol here killed.”
“All right!” Annie said.
Carol groaned.
Parker knew he should have apologized, to Carol as well as to Kyle, and he should have done so at once, but he didn’t.
“I got Lane and his boys to stand down when they were ready to throw us all out,” Kyle said in his whiny little voice. “And I’m about to take us to an island where we’ll be safe and where we can start over.”
“You disarmed me,” Parker said, “when I stood our ground against Lane. And you refused to kill Roland or Robby or whatever the fuck his name was when you had the chance.”
“Okay!” Annie said. “Can you guys do this later? Right now we need to take care of Carol.”
Hughes slowed the truck. Parker hadn’t paid the slightest bit of attention to where they were or where they were going. They’d stopped in the middle of an intersection. On one corner was a mini-mart, on another an ex–Chinese restaurant with its windows smashed in. Two gas stations took up the other corners.
“We stopping for gas?” Parker said.
“We’re stopping for Carol,” Hughes said. He turned off the engine and stepped out of the truck.
A hush fell over the world. All Parker could hear was a slight breeze in his ears and a ticking sound from the engine. The air smelled decent and fresh. Nothing dead was anywhere near them.
Hughes put his hands on his hips and stared hard at Parker. “You guys want to go at each other later, that’s fine, but right now you save it. Frank, we have any water?”
Frank hopped out of the front and unzipped one of the backpacks. “Just gear in this one. But, hey, we still have the night vision.”
Thank heaven for small mercies, Parker thought to himself. He didn’t care about Carol. Not really. He knew he should. He just didn’t. She’d been a burden all along and would have continued being a burden if she hadn’t been bitten. He felt a small twinge of sympathy for what she was going through, but he wouldn’t miss her. Not really.
He would have felt differently about it a month ago. Hell, he’d have felt differently about it two weeks ago. He didn’t know if the old Parker or the new Parker had it right. The old Parker was more humane, but the new Parker would last longer.
Frank fished a bottle of water out of the backpack and set it down next to Carol.
Annie held Carol’s hand and stroked her forehead. The girl was reckless.
“Careful,” Parker said.
“Shut up,” Annie said. She wouldn’t look at him.
She’d have to vigorously wash her hands with soap and hot water, and where would she find any hot water? Parker made a mental note not to touch her until she was clean. Not that he had any intention of touching her. He could only imagine her reaction, especially if he touched her right now.
“So what do we do?” Kyle said and wiped his mouth again. He wasn’t bleeding much. Parker hadn’t hit him that hard.
“Let’s just sit here a while,” Annie said. She stroked Carol’s face with one hand and held Carol’s hand with the other.
“I’m sorry,” Parker said to Carol. “About what I said a minute ago.” It was true that Kyle had gotten her killed, but he shouldn’t have said it out loud. She wasn’t dead yet.
Kyle glared at him. He wasn’t getting his apology. Not now, anyway. Probably not later, either.
“It’s okay,” Carol said. She sounded weaker already. Maybe she was just tired or resigned or numb with shock over what happened.
“How you holding up?” Parker said.
God, what a stupid fucking question that was.
Annie glared at him.
“I’m sorry—”
“Just shut up,” Annie said. “Go walk around the truck or something.”
He sort of liked Annie. She was a tough kid, and she wasn’t stupid. He’d need to behave a bit better now that she was around. He didn’t care if Kyle hated his guts, but he didn’t want any more rebukes from Annie.
How long would they have to sit there in the middle of the intersection, though? Were they just going to wait for Carol to die—or to turn?
No one seemed to have any idea how long they’d be there or what exactly they were supposed to be doing. Carol obviously wasn’t coming with them on the boat. And how were they supposed to get to a boat, anyway? They couldn’t drive to Olympia with the roads so packed with cars. Parker wasn’t even convinced that they should go to Olympia. Thousands of those things would be hunting in a city that size. There had to be a smaller marina on Puget Sound somewhere.
“Is there anything I can do?” Kyle said.
Parker should have been the one to say that. Annie would have been impressed.
&nb
sp; “You can open that bottle of water,” Annie said.
Kyle twisted the cap off the bottle of water and handed it to her.
Carol moaned and reached toward her shoulder where she’d been bitten. Her shirt was soaked with blood, but the bleeding seemed to be slowing. It wasn’t pooling underneath her.
“Don’t touch it,” Annie said. “You’ll just make it worse.”
She’d also risk spreading the infection to everyone else if she got blood all over her hands, but Parker didn’t say anything. They were all covered in blood splatters anyway.
“Don’t wait for me,” Carol said. “Just set me down on the sidewalk.”
“The hell we will,” Hughes said.
“Shh,” Annie said. “We aren’t going to do that to you.”
“You need to get to that island,” Carol said and tried to sit up. “It will be dark soon and you should get going. It isn’t safe here.”
“We’re going to wait,” Kyle said.
It took everything Parker had to keep quiet. Carol was right. It would be dark in a couple of hours. Then what? Were they supposed to sit out there exposed as the sun went down while she lay there in pain? Someone should put the poor woman out of her misery.
He supposed the humane thing would be to wait for her to pass out. Everyone passes out for an hour or so before turning. She wouldn’t feel a thing when they put her down.
Or was that the humane thing to do? They were all risking their lives just sitting there in the intersection. And for what? So Carol wouldn’t be awake when somebody put a round through her head? She’d die instantly. She wouldn’t feel anything. Instead she had to lie there in agony while knowing she was about to turn into one of those things. Who wanted to spend their last hours that way?
Parker sure as hell didn’t. Once this was all over, he’d make damn sure to tell everyone to shoot him dead on the spot if one of those things ever bites him. Kyle, at least, would gleefully take him up on that offer.
“It doesn’t hurt anymore,” Carol said woozily. She was fading. Good. Maybe they could get out of there.
Nobody said anything. The silence of the world was overwhelming. Parker thought he might hear a pinecone falling as far away as Idaho if somebody didn’t say anything soon. He scratched his face. Kyle looked at him sideways as if he’d just belched in church. What was he supposed to do? His beard itched.
Annie kept stroking Carol’s forehead. No one else moved or said anything. Frank looked as uncomfortable as Parker felt.
“I didn’t want to live in this world anyway,” Carol said. “I was just so afraid.”
“You don’t have to be afraid anymore,” Annie said.
“I was silly for being so scared,” Carol said. “It hurt for a couple of minutes, but now I’m okay.”
No, she wasn’t okay. She wasn’t even remotely okay.
“You won’t let me turn, will you?” she said. “I want to just go to sleep.”
“We won’t let you turn,” Kyle said.
Parker wondered, Who was this we Kyle referred to? Somebody had to do the deed, and Parker couldn’t see Kyle stepping up for the job.
“Can you not do it now, though?” Carol said. “Can you wait until my little coma?”
“We’ll wait, honey,” Annie said. “We’ll wait.”
“I’m sorry to ask you this, Carol,” Hughes said. “But … how do you want us to do it?”
“What difference does it make?” Parker said. “She won’t feel anything.” God, did he actually say that?
“You,” Kyle said, “are seriously an asshole.”
* * *
Kyle could not believe Parker. Just couldn’t believe him. The man was shaping up to be a serious problem. Hitting him in the mouth like that? What next? Would he punch Annie? Or Carol?
Maybe Parker would try punching Hughes. Kyle would love to see that.
In the meantime, they had to figure out how get to Olympia, or at least to a marina near the city where they could pick up a boat. Kyle still liked bicycles for the job. They could ride up there in one day, or even in one night if they used the night vision.
Parker was disgusting, but Annie was impressive. She had a wonderful bedside manner with Carol. Kyle thought she should have been in nursing school or even med school, but then he realized he didn’t know that she wasn’t. He had no idea what she was doing before.
Carol would probably be better off dead if it weren’t for Annie, but the way Annie comforted her seemed to make everything okay. Kyle wouldn’t mind dying like that, even if—especially if—he’d been bitten by one of those things.
“Thank you,” Annie said to Carol.
“For what?” Carol said.
“For giving me comfort when I woke from those horrible nightmares. I’m glad I got to know you, Carol.”
“Me, too, honey,” Carol said and squeezed Annie’s hand. Then she looked straight at Kyle. “Take care of her, Kyle.”
Kyle swallowed hard. Carol singled him out to take care of Annie? A warm feeling bloomed in his chest.
But then Parker snorted.
* * *
Annie knew something was wrong with her. She was still Annie Starling, but she was no longer the same Annie Starling.
She still suffered some of the effects of the virus. Mother of God, she actually tried to bite one of the infected when it pinned her to the ground. Hughes saw it. Kyle saw it. They must have thought she was mad. And she supposed they were right.
The virus was out of her system. Her antibodies beat it back, but she seemed to have new neural pathways in her brain. It happens sometimes. Isn’t that what post-traumatic stress disorder is? When something terrible happens to a person, it blazes new neural pathways. Thoughts and feelings experienced during traumatic events come rushing back when triggered by something associated with the event—a car backfiring can trigger it for someone who was shot. Slipping into a bath can trigger it for someone who nearly drowned.
Neurons that fire together, wire together.
She’d snapped into a state of pure violence when she stabbed Lane in the throat and went after Roland.
It happened again when she beat a bunch of infected to death with her crowbar.
What if she actually did bite the one who had pinned her? Her companions would think she was out of her goddamn mind. They’d start counting down the hours until she went into a coma and had to be shot to death before a monster version of Annie Starling rose and tore them to bits.
Fighting seemed to be her trigger. She might spend the rest of her life having flashbacks and behaving … differently under stress.
She could never tell her companions. Never. They’d shun her.
Or worse.
But she did have an advantage, a secret and enormous advantage.
Unlike the others, she’d be okay if she got bitten again.
* * *
Hughes knew everyone expected him to do it. He didn’t want to. Hell, nobody wanted to. Surely not even Parker. Parker wasn’t a killer. He was just your garden-variety asshole.
Hughes wasn’t a killer either, but they’d all look to him to take care of Carol once she slipped into her coma. It’s not that he was their leader. The group had no leader. Nobody seemed to be up for it. But Hughes knew his way around guns as well or better than anyone else. He didn’t panic. He could think straight in a crisis. The others listened when he barked orders.
No one would listen to Parker if he barked orders. Kyle thought he knew what was best, but he was too immature and naive. Too docile. Frank was a natural follower. He’d shoot Carol if Hughes told him to, but Hughes wouldn’t do that. Frank would be screwed up for life, and Frank was his friend, and Hughes couldn’t do that to him.
Annie was far too sweet and kind-hearted.
That left Hughes by default. Doing the deed wouldn’t mess him up for life. He was already as messed up as he could be, but he was messed up in just the right way. He couldn’t feel anything anymore. He was always a little cold and cou
ld become a real hard-ass when necessary, but now he was practically heartless. It was the only way he could keep going.
So when Carol slipped out of consciousness, he drove the truck just past the outskirts of town and asked Frank to help him carry her to the tree line.
Hughes wasn’t going to shoot her. They had to conserve ammunition, and they’d already brought enough attention to themselves and given away their location with the noise from the truck. But the biggest reason he didn’t shoot her was because enough violence had been done to her body already. He sure as hell wasn’t going to bash in her head. He may have become cold and heartless, but he was not a barbarian.
So he gently plugged her nose and covered her mouth. She didn’t struggle. He released her a few minutes later and made sure she’d stopped breathing.
Everybody just stood there in silence and shock.
They didn’t have a shovel to bury her with, so they pushed dirt and rocks and leaves and sticks onto her.
Everyone helped, even Parker.
Annie sobbed.
They stood around her in a circle when they were finished. Nobody said anything for a long time.
Finally, Annie spoke up. “She was the last innocent person.”
Kyle swallowed hard. Frank looked disturbed. Parker didn’t seem to know what to do with himself.
Hughes didn’t feel anything. Come on, he thought. Cry. You saved this woman’s life once and now you’ve just killed her. For fuck’s sake, cry like a man.
* * *
Annie later had a terrible thought. It all but seized her with panic.What if Carol had been immune too?
PART TWO - THE ISLAND
CHAPTER TWELVE
They parked the Chevy a half-mile from the bicycle shop and walked the rest of the way, bringing as many supplies as they could carry in their packs. Nothing and no one followed.
The shop’s windows had been smashed in and the door left ajar. Somebody had taken some bikes, but dozens remained and they only needed five.
Resurrection: A Zombie Novel Page 14
