by M. Van
“Shit,” I said under my breath.
“That bad,” Mars whispered. I looked up at him and nodded. My gaze shifted to the connecting hall. It ended in a dead end. A couple of closed doors might serve as an escape, but without knowing where they went, it might as well have been a trap. It was the end of the hall with the zombies where we needed to go. I eased my head around the corner and saw the maintenance duct we needed to reach. It sat low by the ground, covered by a grid, and looked big enough for a grown person, although Mars could run into some trouble squeezing into the tiny space because of his size. Still, it was the only option we had. I stepped back and ushered the others down the hall. I could think of one way to get Mars past the zombies, and although I didn’t like it, I knew it had to be done.
As quietly as possible I moved to a door and wiggled the handle. It was locked. I moved to the next and found it unlocked. It clicked open, and I eased the door at a crack. Another office-like space lay beyond it. I waved for the rest to follow and entered. The room sat empty except for a single desk in the corner, a couple of chairs, and a painting of an F16 fighter plane. Not that I would have known that if it weren’t printed on the bottom.
Angie closed the door behind us. Her eyes narrowed as she waited for an explanation. Ignoring her, I moved behind the desk and started opening drawers. It took me a minute to find what I was looking for. Although a pair of scissors wasn’t the best option, they would have to do.
“What are you doing?” Mars asked. I held the scissors out to him.
“The way I see it,” I said, “we have one option.”
“And that is?” Angie asked curiously.
“We need a distraction.” They all glanced at each other, and the looks on their faces told me they didn’t like where this was going.
“So,” Ash said. I took a breath to gather my nerves. There could be only one scenario, and I needed them to agree.
“Mars, take your shirt off,” I said.
Ash smirked. “I don’t think this is the time for that,” she said. Mars frowned at her but addressed me.
“What are you planning?” I noticed an edge of worry in his voice.
“You need to cut yourself with this,” I said, “and get the blood on the shirt.” He took the scissors from my hand and inspected them.
“You what to use my blood on the shirt as a distraction.”
I nodded and replied, “It is the only way to get those things to move away from the duct.”
“Wow, wow,” Angie chimed in. “And you just want to wave a bloodied shirt at them as some kind of treat.” I answered with a shrug.
“And then what?” she asked.
“Run and hide.”
“We’re not leaving you behind,” Ash snapped.
“I’m not staying behind,” I said with as much confidence as I could muster. “I’ll just wait for them to settle down and follow once you get out.”
Angie shook her head but didn’t say anything. She knew it was our one chance. As we had seen in the control room, zombies blocked the routes to the open area. This was the only way to get past them. It wouldn’t matter where we planned to do it.
“What if they catch up on you or there isn’t a place to hide?” Ash asked.
“They won’t and there will be—I’ve seen doors at the other end of the hall.”
“You can’t know that.” Ash’s voice raised an octave—the usual tell that she’d started to freak out a little. I moved around the desk and knelt to face her.
“We have to try,” I said in a soft voice and looked up at Mars.
Ash shook her head. “We could just wait for the cavalry to show up.”
I smiled at her. I guessed she still had faith. Mars answered, so I didn’t have to.
“Remember the last time we ended up in a facility crowded with zombies?” he said. Ash looked up at him, and her face paled.
“They blew it up,” she said with barely a whisper. Mars placed the scissors on the desk and unzipped his flight suit to remove his shirt. Heat crept up my neck when my eyes roamed over this toned physique. Angie cleared her throat, and it pulled me out of my haze. I took the shirt from Mars and glanced around the room nervously until he zipped up his suit. Then he moved to the corner of the room where I joined him as he rolled up his sleeve.
Without hesitation, Mars pulled the sharp edge of the scissors into his skin. He didn’t even flinch. I stood by to catch the blood. He glanced nervously at my hands before his eyes flickered to my face. Although I had cleaned my face, blood still coated my flight suit while flakes of it covered my hands and crusted under my nails.
“I’ll be careful,” I said with a whisper. He met my eyes with a hurt look I couldn't interpret.
The scissors left him with a deep cut and blood flowing freely. I caught it with his shirt and made sure not to touch him. Mars glanced over his shoulder where Angie had taken a seat on the desk. She and Ash were conversing in hushed tones.
“I’m sorry,” he said in low voice. “I shouldn’t have said … you know, the things I did.” Without looking up, I folded the shirt so the blood could spread, afraid to face him.
“I wasn’t ready to hear it … but it had to be said, I guess,” I whispered. “Besides, I don’t respond well to subtlety”.
Mars grinned as he said, “I promise I’ll never be subtle again.”
“Does that mean you aren’t fed up with me?”
He raised his uncut arm to place a hand on the part of my face that had caught the brunt of William’s blow. I winced, afraid it might hurt, but his soft touch didn’t allow for pain.
“I care about you,” he said. My breath caught in my throat, and it became harder to breathe.
“But?” I said under the breath I managed to let out.
“But nothing.”
I clumsily wrapped the shirt again, my brain spinning into directions it feared to go.
“I don’t know how to make this work,” I said. I hadn’t been able to maintain a decent relationship with my direct family; how would I manage it with a boyfriend?
“Does anyone?”
I smiled at his remark but refused to look up. I could sense tears threatening my eyes. In an attempt to hide them, I focused on the shirt, which looked adequately soaked. My hands were coated with Mars’s blood. Unsure what to say, I cleared my throat and turned to Ash and Angie.
“Do we have anything to wrap his arm up?” Ash rolled forward, reaching for the backpack that still hung off the back of her chair, and removed a shirt. They were leftovers from the clothes she had gone off to find for Angie.
“Here,” she said, “pack it up good.” Mars grabbed the shirt and wrapped it around his bleeding arm.
Ash pulled up her nose at the bloody rag that used to be Mars’s T-shirt. It didn’t hide her concerned expression. It turned out old habits died hard as Ash held on to the mask she wore to protect herself from being hurt. With my hands covered in blood, I bent to kiss the top of her head.
“It’ll be okay,” I whispered into her ear. She nodded with jaws clenched so tightly they wouldn’t allow a reply. Angie stood by the door, blocking it.
“I should do this,” she said.
“Probably,” I said and grinned. “But you’re a lot more valuable.” There was no need to explain. She had been the first to survive a zombie bite without a natural high hormone count. Angie was proof the serum could work, and we needed to get her to Alaska in one piece.
Besides, the plan was set. Mars had to wait inside the room until Angie gave the all clear. I feared his cut wrist might attract the zombies into this hallway when we needed them to follow me.
“Wait until I’ve drawn them down the hall and past this hallway,” I said as nerves started to rattle my voice. “Then wait for Angie’s signal and get the hell out.”
“Okay,” Ash said when Angie stepped into the hallway, “be careful”. She waited for me just outside the door. Ready to follow her, Mars took me by the arm.
“Just reme
mber, okay,” he said. Those pale jade eyes bored into me as they had the first time we’d kissed on that parking lot in front of a burning lab.
“Remember what?” I whispered
“It’s not just about the people you need to be safe.”
Our eyes met, and I felt unsure what to say. This whole thing was kind of about the people I needed to be safe.
“They need you as well,” he said, “so you better get your ass back to us.”
Mars looked over his shoulder where Ash sat in her chair, the mask she wore about to shatter. I wasn’t far from choking up at his not-so-subtle reminder. He leaned in to kiss the top of my head.
“If you don’t, I’ll come and kick your ass.”
I chuckled, unable to keep the nerves out. Fear of what I was about to do seemed to catch up, but I refused to let it get to me.
“You get your ass to that duct,” I said. “I’ll be right behind you.” Ash raised a hand in good-bye as I clicked the door shut.
| 28
A tremble ran through my legs as I stepped into the middle of the hall. I turned to face Angie. She stood by the door with a determined look on her face.
“You’ve got this,” she said.
I managed a half-smile. “Be careful,” she added as I turned.
I stopped for a moment to take a breath. If I wanted to do this, I needed a cool head. With a tight fist I squeezed the bloody fabric to stop my hand from shaking. With careful steps, I moved to the end of the hall. At the corner, I stopped and glanced over my shoulder. Angie nodded and then crouched in front of the door. She needed to make sure not to attract the zombies’ attention so she could alert Ash and Mars when they had to make their move. I nodded and took another deep breath before I stepped into the connecting hall.
I counted six of them. This wouldn’t have scared me before. Zombies had ignored us enough for me to know they weren’t interested in us, but we’ve had some hairy situations where agitated zombies didn’t really see or smell the difference between regular people and us.
None of them reacted. I didn’t know how long they had been standing there or how newly turned they were. Maybe they weren’t hungry. That thought vanished when the nearest stuck its nose in the air. Dressed in green camouflage, which in itself wasn’t a surprise—most of them were—the woman shifted her gaze to me. Her hair had been put up in a bun but, since then, had jumped in all kinds of directions. Blood ran down her cheek where a big chunk of flesh was missing from her face. I could see through it and out the side of her mouth when it stretched open and her jaw widened. Her head snapped my way.
Other zombies seemed to notice, and their eyes landed on me. I swallowed hard and remembered my job. Holding the shirt by the hem, I started to wave it. Noses shifted upward, and nostrils flared.
A zombie’s head jerked as it took a step. He sniffed as if he couldn’t place it. I figured my own body odor might be interfering with the smell of Mars’s blood, and I held the shirt out. Several teeth snapped, making me jump. The zombie with the jerking head took another step forward, and others followed. In sync with them, I took a step backward. It worked. I started waving the bloody shirt in a frantic manner.
Growls sounded in unison. I had gotten their attention. In a slow-moving procession, they started to follow me. Moving backward, I glanced into the connecting corridor where Angie knelt by the door. She looked tense. Not that I wasn’t feeling it. It was all I could do not to drop the rag and bolt. Walking among the brain dead was one thing, but trying to make zombies follow like the pied piper an entirely different one.
The lead zombie with the jerking head stopped as if he had changed his mind. Not that he had a working brain to change it with. He let out a growl that had me jump before he started to move, and I mean move. His slow shuffle turned into a more rapid pace. I backed up with quickening my steps, but he adjusted to my pace.
“Oh shit,” I said under my breath.
As if they had heard or understood, they all growled. I almost stumbled, ducking for an arm that lashed out. Turning on my heel, I sprinted down the hall. I passed the T-junction, and from the corner of my eye I saw Angie siting crouched by the door but had to ignore her otherwise as I ran for the first door. I wiggled the handle, but it remained locked. Why hadn’t we checked the doors before we did this? Stupid! A bloodied fist slammed into the wall next to me. They had gained on me. Never since the outbreak I had seen these things move this fast. How was this possible?
Unable to delve further into the why, I bolted for the next door. It too sat locked. I cursed and turned for the next one when a hand touched my shoulder. I yelped and turned to face the woman with half of her cheek missing. She opened her mouth to stretch her jaw. It snapped shut just inches from my face. Then a searing pain ran up my arm. A zombie had dropped to its knees and had gotten a hold of my hand holding the bloody shirt. I tried to pull it from him, but its teeth had a firm grip. As the zombie’s teeth hit bone, I screamed and yanked harder. With my other arm, I pushed the woman to the side. I lifted my foot and planted my boot into the torso of the zombie biting my hand. It let go.
I turned to run. The zombie on its knees grabbed my leg, and I stumbled and crashed to the ground. On hands and knees, I crawled across the floor. As if the others had waited for their cue, they moved to follow me. Catching momentum, I got to my feet and slammed into the final door. This was it. If this thing didn’t open, I would end up a zombie snack. I wrapped my hand around the handle, and a burst of pain shot up my arm. Along with the bloodied shirt wrapped around my wrist, everything about my hand looked like a bloody mess. I shook my hand to drop the rag as I tried the door with my other hand.
It clicked open just as a zombie slammed into me. With it, the door swung open, sending me tumbling inside the room. In a reflex, I kicked the door. It swung close, clocking another zombie in the head. It stumbled backward, and I kicked the door again. This time it clicked shut.
The zombie at my side moaned. I scrambled to my knees and crawled into the corner. Pain seared through my limbs as if they’d been gone through a shredder. In the corner, I reduced myself to the tiniest pile of human as I could manage. My heart hammered inside my chest on the brink of jumping out. Breathing hard, I watched the zombie that had entered the room along with me clamber to its feet.
In the hall outside, other zombies were pounding and scratching at the door, trying to get in. The zombie inside noticed and moved toward it. It pressed its nose against the door and sniffed. After a moment, it shook its head, and white milky eyes roamed across the room. Irises swimming in fog fell on me. For a moment, I feared it might attack. Could Mars’s smell still be clinging to me? I inspected the bloody mess that used to be my right hand. It occurred to me I might be missing a finger. Blood ran from the wound where the zombie had bitten me—my blood.
The zombie shoved its nose into the air searching for the meal it had been chasing. I let out a breath when it shook its head. It seemed confused, as if unsure of what it was looking for. With the bloodied rag on the other side of the door, it had lost the scent of a potential snack. A tiny bit of relief washed over me until I remembered where I was. I had to get out of this office and out of this mountain.
My hand started to throb as took in my surroundings, and I cradled it to my chest. With the help of the desk that stood near the corner I was hiding in, I climbed to my feet. It turned out I was in one of the observation rooms. Computer screens decorated the walls with blinking lights and tons of graphic images. Desks filled the rest of the room.
As it ignored me, the zombie regained its idle shuffle and started to make its way to the back of the room. It seemed like as good a time as any to make my exit. I took the first step to the door when my vision started to blur. Blinking, I tried to focus, but it didn’t work. I wanted to rub my hands over my eyeballs, but the blood on my hands kept me from doing so. It would probably make it worse.
I stumbled on my second step and sank to my knees. Pain shot through me as though the blo
od in my veins had caught fire. Without feeling the cold, my body started to shiver. I couldn’t stop it. Fear took over when my eyesight worsened. What was happening to me? It seemed a stupid question. I had seen it before, but I refused to believe. This couldn’t be happening to me, could it? Not after all this shit.
I curled up on the floor, shaking. My groans of pain must have alerted the zombie because it started to make its way to me. With slow, shuffling steps, it closed in. Gathering my strength, I forced my body into a sitting position. Every muscle ached, and the chatter of my teeth wasn’t funny anymore. I crawled across the floor until I reached the wall next to the door.
The zombie seemed enticed by my efforts to get to my feet. The former soldier opened its mouth wide. A moan combined with a hiss rose from the deepest bottom of its throat. Its head dropped to a side after it sniffed the air. Except for some blood that ran down a sleeve from its shoulder and those damned milky eyes, it seemed so human. Nothing resembled the shredded bloodied forms that a zombie was supposed to have, but then these hadn’t been around for that long. Although, even the eyes that must have made her stand out as young woman before she turned screamed of fear—this wasn’t a run-of-the-mill zombie.
Her irises appeared wide behind the fog and showed a childlike curiosity. It stopped a few feet in front of me and raised an arm. A pale hand stretched its bony fingers. I squeezed my eyes shut in an effort to clear my vision. When I opened them, the fog hadn’t disappeared. Had I turned into one of them? The fact that I asked myself that question should mean I hadn’t, or was this what it was like to be trapped inside your own body? Thought upon thought collided inside my mind until it became impossible to hold a coherent thought. I strained to get air into my lungs, but the pain in my chest made it hard to breathe, while darkness crept up on me.
I woke with a jolt, unsure of what had happened or how much time had passed. As I glanced around the room and saw the zombie milling in a corner, it all came back to me. Sitting up, I noticed the shakes running through my body had faded, and I found a way to gather my thoughts. I hadn’t turned. From what everyone had been telling me, and from what the tests had predicted, I couldn’t turn. Still, the fear of it wasn’t easy to subside.
