Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife)

by Robles, Joyce

  "Fuck you Cyborg," well at least nobody did but her. She didn’t bother trying to push past him because she was aware that he was faster, stronger, and just in general bigger than her, she went around the opposite side of the car.

  "You think I’m going to let you go in there by yourself," he growled at her practically jumping the hood to get in front of her.

  "Since whatever team you’ve assembled is just a mop up crew, yes," she tried to step around him but all he had to do to stop her was shift half that space to get in her way. "Move," she warned him fully aware that while she might not be able to take him physically or even out run him, she was more then willing to shoot him in the foot.

  "You go in with my team, or you don’t go in at all," he folded his arms over his chest.

  "And what about my team, if we go in there and they’re not zombies you’ll shoot them over my dead body." He gave her a glare that she was sure made the men who worked for him cower but she simply stood her ground and glared right back.

  "At 0300 this morning we intercepted an emergency call claiming that the dead were coming back to life and attacking people inside that building. How likely do you think it is that your team isn’t where it started?" At this point it was one-hundred percent likely, that didn’t keep her from wanting to punch the Cyborg in the face. "We call them revenants," he informed her when she didn’t immediately tell him to go fuck himself again.

  "Whatever, I’m not shooting anyone who isn’t infected," she told him just because she knew that she couldn’t.

  "I’m confused as to why if we are agreed that your team is the cause and so dead, you would still be coming in at all."

  "Because unlike you, who didn’t bother to ask me any questions, I was out getting information last night and know that a vampire is your revenant carrier, and that before last night he was still acting like a vampire, which means that at least one of my team could still be clean." At least that was what she was hoping for, she choked back a sob at the thought of Manson being the cause of all this.

  "I wouldn’t keep your fingers crossed," he warned her blankly.

  "Tom," she warned right back, "either I’m going in with you, or I’m waiting for you to go in and sneaking in behind your back. Your choice," although it wasn’t much of one. There was another tense moment where he seemed to be calculating the odds of his ability to keep her out.

  "Fine," he relented when he’d apparently come to the conclusion that stopping her had a low probability or would result in problems for him later.

  "Smart man," but when she tried to move past him again he put himself in her path, "don’t say it, please don’t, we both know I’m morally obligated not to listen."

  "You follow my orders Jennifer," he used that same self possessed tone he did when he was speaking to anyone under his command, she didn’t know why he was wasting his breath. But it was clear he intended to make a show of standing in her way until she agreed to these terms.

  "Tom are you trying to make a liar out of me because we both know I can tell you what you want to hear but when it comes down to it," Jennifer shrugged, didn’t even bother to do anything but walk up to him casually and punch him in the arm. "So let’s stop wasting both our time and go kill ourselves some revenants." To her disbelief the Cyborg rolled his eyes at her before grabbing her arm to make her face him.

  "You stay in the center, you hear me, my guys take point and rear I don’t want you hanging out in the open."

  "If I didn’t know you better Tom I might think you were worried about me," and Jennifer really did think she saw concern in his eyes. Between him and the vampire she was feeling down right coddled it was almost suffocating. "Should we hug," she finally teased him in hopes that it would make him stop looking at her like that. Maybe it was because this was something that had come out of both of their pasts, when he was younger and less Tom, maybe it was bringing out the human in him the way it was bringing out the coward in her, because just then he looked like he was considering hugging her in front of everyone. But to her utter relief his eyes closed off, took on their regular cold regard and she knew that he wanted only one thing from her. She rolled her eyes at him the way he had a few minutes prior and uttered, "I’ll try to stay in the center."

  "Don’t try, do," he warned her although he had to know there was no way to anticipate how things were going to go. That and Jennifer was lousy at taking orders which was probably part of the reason she’d ended up on point so quickly in her own team. She just tried to give him a convincing smile but she could tell he didn’t believe it for an instant.

  "Come on let’s go," surprisingly he reacted in yet another way she wouldn’t have expected, he led the way up to where his team was waiting never relenting his hold on her arm, he might as well have held her hand and towed her like a toddler for all the difference it made. But if it let him feel like he was in charge of her and in turn got her in the building she didn’t care. Quickly he deposited her next to one of the uniformed men that she had encountered on several of the occasions that she and Tom’s people had cause to work together.

  "Don’t let her out of your sight," he ordered the poor guy, he’d probably just bestowed the most difficult task he could on the poor guy. When Tom stomped off without another word Brook raised his eyebrows at her.

  "You can’t of been here longer than five minutes and looks like you’ve already got the Lieutenant’s panties in a twist." Brook gave her a sloppy salute, "well done."

  "I’ve a talent for getting under peoples skin," Jennifer admitted, probably because she refused to go away in general until she got her way. "How’s the life been treating you Private?" With a very clear display of pride Brook pointed out the patch on his shoulder.

  "Been a Corporal for about three months now Sir," he gave her a crooked smile, Brook was cute in that baby faced kind of way, his buzzed hair didn’t help disguise the fact that he looked alarmingly young, in fact it simply emphasized it. "You ready for this?" he asked her like he wasn’t quite sure he believed whatever he’d been told.

  "More then ready, you?" She didn’t think she had to ask, could anybody really be ready for revenant’s, zombies, whatever you wanted to call them.

  "Keepin’ it frosty, Sir," Jennifer didn’t understand Brook’s need to call her Sir, she supposed he didn’t know what else to call her when there were so few outside references to go on.

  "Good, just remember that when one of those things is trying to eat your face off." Was she joking about zombies, apparently, looked like the vampire might have been right, maybe knowing her past would get her through this without acting like a baby.

  "You seen a Rev before," he was looking at her now like he’d just run across General Patton and was standing in line for an autograph.

  "I’ve got one kill under my belt so far, you," she looked away from him because she didn’t really want to see hero worship there.

  "This will be my first chance to rack up a count," she was sure they all must know by now that Tom had who knew how many Rev kills notched onto his belt.

  "You sound all amped-up for the zombie apocalypse," he would be the first person she’d met today that felt that way.

  "No Sir, just rarin’ to stop it before it starts," he smiled again and Jennifer did her best to try and remember to take whatever she saw inside the building in strides. She couldn’t afford to react the way she had around the vampire the other night. He had killed two revenants the other day, and blown up a good deal more which probably still counted. If she hadn’t tried to climb him like a tree when she’d seen that zombie clawing its way across the floor she might have shot it herself. She could not do that in here, she would not do that, and not just because Tom would kill her for it, she could get someone killed.

  "HEY!" She and Brook turned their focus back to Tom as soon as the dead-pan silence indicated he was shouting at them. "Am I boring you?"

  "A little," Jennifer mumbled under her breath and Brook cracked a smile that had the Cyborg glaring
daggers.

  "No Sir," Brook caved, of course everyone he glared at seemed to react that way. Jennifer probably should have wondered why she was one of few people who didn’t cower away from that glare. She thought she had some idea why it was now, she supposed she’d been subject to it most of her life, had possibly known him before he’d even mastered the glare.

  "Alpha team will enter through the rear Whiskey goes through the front, we clear the floor and meet in the middle. The mission is sweep and neutralize one floor at a time," at this particular juncture in his little monologue he turned his glare on Jennifer. "Do not leave the formation for any reason, we don’t want to get anyone killed."

  "Way to rub it in," Jennifer mumbled again under her breath but she did sometimes wonder if the Cyborg possessed super human hearing as his eyes seemed to sharpen on her.

  "Should I be worried Sir," Jennifer knew without looking that Brook was addressing her, "do we need to get a string and tie ourselves together because he’s lookin at you in a way that implies he’s waitin for you to run off as soon as we get in the door."

  "Don’t worry Brook, I’ve got your back," she wouldn’t leave him hanging out to dry no matter how badly she wanted to try and save her friends.

  "That is a welcome relief, best we better be headin off with Whiskey then," Jennifer nodded still glaring at Tom as Brook turned on his heal and charged off. She glared at him waiting to see which way he was going to run off and was glad when he finally relented and took off toward the back of the building with Alpha. Apparently his need to coddle had subsided, either that or he knew she was far less likely to leave Brook to chase after her then him. He was also leaving her with an opportunity to save some lives, which he had to have known he was doing. Once he was gone she pulled the Beretta out and made her way after Brook, this she supposed was going to be that do or die moment, her last chance to prove she could handle the zombie apocalypse or be eaten by it.

  Chapter 18

  Jennifer took a deep breath, trying to slow her heart rate, it was a comfort to have someone she trusted next to her again. Brook was acting as that anchor, although she could easily admit that the vampire had made for appealing backup, what with his super-speed, super-strength, and he hadn’t been half bad with the sword either; she was still more comfortable with a human being by her side then she’d likely ever be with a dead guy. So she was grateful that Tom had left her with Brook, thereby giving her at least some leeway but leaving her with that sense of comfort as well. Maybe that wasn’t the reason he’d paired her with this particular watch dog, but she didn’t mind in any case.

  She steeled herself as the front doors to the hospital were unblocked and the point-man pushed his way into the building. After a brief silence he must have indicated an all clear because quickly they started filing in after him. Jennifer did her best to pay attention while trying to remember if she’d ever learned what floor Manson had ended up on. Probably the same one that Clive was on, at least that was where she hoped he was because she was already counting how many floors were in between here and there. Hundreds of people came in and out of this building, she was almost certain that it had twenty-two stories and didn’t think that included the basement. She probably should have paid closer attention to how exactly they were going to go about clearing the building. Now that she thought on it, she was surprised that he was going to clear the building at all, why wasn’t he simply doing as the vampire had done, leveling it? All questions she hadn’t thought to ask, she supposed now it was too late, in all likelihood he wouldn’t have answered her anyway, as the reason was probably some stupid covert crap she didn’t have clearance for.

  She wasn’t sure what she was expecting when she made her way through the front entrance, a barrage of half eaten dead coming at them in waves. She made it through the door and outside of the sound of boots on tile, there was silence, she didn’t feel a twinge of panic, at least not until the men guarding the door barricaded them inside. Calling what she felt in that moment a twinge probably would have been under playing it but she stowed anything emotional. Since there was nothing currently going on to cause panic, running back to the door and screaming to be let out wasn’t going to earn her anything but a permanent boot from ever gaining entrance into one of Tom’s lofty special-ops.

  Jennifer was perfectly aware that she had been in this hospital on multiple occasions and had never once been surrounded by silence. "Where is everyone," she whispered because talking helped keep her grounded, and still nothing happened. Before she could say anything else, which was probably for the best, they were motioned forward. Without pause they quickly cleared the front lobby, now that she thought about it, Tom had taken what was probably going to be the more difficult entrance for himself, the E.R.. As if the thought of a place where people came in the door bleeding conjured an endeavor several gunshots went off across the building. Their point-man didn’t let it stop his forward momentum. Their job was to clear this side of the building and meet Alpha in the middle, if their sweep didn’t uncover anything they’d meet them at the emergency room, at least that was what Jennifer was assuming.

  With a silent hand motion Whiskey team leader, someone Jennifer didn’t know, motioned for a halt. She knew the hand motions because they were basically the same ones that Manson had taught her, so when he motioned for them to break into three groups to clear the separate halls, she wouldn’t have known what group to go with if Tom hadn’t told her she was glued to Brook. So when he took off down the hall to the right she was right behind him. Groups of three seemed like too few people to her but was probably for the best given how narrow the halls were. "We have contact," the man in front of Brook, another that she’d never seen before, whispered. Then like a normal person might do he addressed the person that Jennifer had to lean past Brook to see. "Sir," at the sound of his voice the figures shoulders twitched. "Are you alright, we are here to help," she wondered who’d told him that because Tom had given her the distinct impression they were here to shoot anything that moved. Then again she hadn’t really asked him, and he hadn’t volunteered any information, maybe they were here to save someone.

  "Sir," Jennifer knew without a doubt when she heard the sound of teeth snapping shut, in a way that was altogether unnatural for a human being, that the ‘Sir’ their new point man was addressing was no man.

  "Shoot it," she finally just yelled at him when the thing started stumbling toward him. "Just shoot it," she ordered again from the back and the sound of the guy talking at the thing became gibberish. "Brook," but he seemed to be frozen in some kind of stupor as well because he didn’t fire either. She hoped that this was just one of those moments where shock was incapacitating because she didn’t think that she could deal with being the only functioning person in the room, she had been so certain it was going to be the other way around, she found neither scenario comforting. "Move," Jennifer shoved past Brook, who was standing in front of her like a statue but lucky for the new point-man she didn’t have to make it past him. The thing was stumbling at him on a broken foot, why the hell wouldn’t he shoot? "Hey," she called just to throw it’s gait off kilter, her voice did exactly what she wanted, like the sound drew it in it veered last second in her direction. Hoping her aim wouldn’t go wrong she squeezed the trigger, she had honestly expected to miss but the shot hit true, a burst of gore sprayed out the things head before it hit the floor. "That makes two for me now Brook," she looked back over her shoulder and ignored the surprised look on the Corporal’s face.

  "That was a zombie," he finally acknowledged.

  "It certainly was," Jennifer admitted, feeling more calm in the situation and more confident with herself then she had in the last week. "Now that that’s clear I thought you wanted to rack em up," she looked back at him with a raised eyebrow, "or are you going to let my Rev count get bigger than yours?"

  "No Sir," Brook finally seemed to try and shake off his shock, she could tell he wasn’t completely over it but for the moment it would hav
e to do.

  After a pause she turned her attention to point man, he looked even younger then Brook did, she was suddenly feeling like the oldest person in the room even if she physically wasn’t, this kid looked that fresh. "What was your name," she asked calmly, trying to divert his attention from the corpse that had been within feet of him. Before he could answer gun shots went off in one of the adjacent halls to them and he nearly jumped a foot. She looked quickly back at Brook and he understood without her having to ask.

  "Palmer," he supplied the name for her.

  "Palmer," Jennifer addressed in her best soothing voice, "why don’t you let me take point." She looked back to Brook, "can you handle rear?"

  "Yes Sir," he nodded and gave her a forced smile, apparently she wasn’t the only one who wasn’t comfortable with zombies.

  "Good," Jennifer took up position in front of Palmer but before she started forward looked the kid in the eye, "try not to panic Palmer, I’m counting on you," he nodded blankly at her and Jennifer really hoped she wasn’t going to end up getting shot in the back by accident. The way her luck had been running this week she couldn’t see that as an impossibility.

  Jennifer gave one last fleeting look at the zombie on the ground, outside of the ankle damage however it had been turned was a mystery, maybe the bite was on the ankle, nothing was impossible. She supposed she should wait on the verdict of how she was handling the situation until she encountered a Rev that had it’s face eaten off or it’s guts hanging out, she probably shouldn’t decide until she faced something that looked like a zombie. She would just keep her fingers crossed and pray that her courage held out. "Alright boys, let’s meet the Cyborg halfway, wouldn’t want to leave the tin man hanging out on a limb." Brook laughed, Palmer was probably still in shock, or picturing every Romero flesh eating zombie scene happening to him. He had in fact come that close, not that she could judge, she’d had the same problem the night before.