by Pam Jernigan
He walked slower, still. He didn’t want to share this. Whatever it was.
After a moment, she began to squirm. “Let me down,” she demanded.
He obliged. When her left foot hit the ground, he caught an echo of her pain, but she ignored it, stepping away from him.
He watched her anxiously, catching hold of her arm.
She studied him, her breathing quick and uneven, then shot a look at the pack. Her fear flickered, but not too much. She began limping, slowly, beside him and he grunted approval. She flinched a little, but kept walking.
#
Karen walked with the monsters, trying to keep the fear under control and think clearly. The buildings were unfamiliar, thinning out, and it looked more open ahead. Not good for hiding, and she was in no shape to run. She shouldn’t even be walking but she had desperately needed at least a little space. Away from his damp clothing and clammy hands. To get her bearings and have any chance of escape. Some houses stood in the distance, but they looked neglected. Abandoned. Their former occupants either dead or long gone - leaving the architecture Mindless. Karen had never been this absolutely alone. Looking around, she noted that the crowd was significantly smaller than it had been. She’d killed some, but not that many. The rest might still be chasing Kat and Jake.
Her ankle and foot hurt but not as badly as she’d feared. She wouldn’t do herself any good by hobbling on it, but she’d live. At least, it wouldn’t be the ankle that killed her.
She looked sideways at sweatshirt boy. His face had returned to a blank mask. What did he want from her? Earlier… he could have killed her. She’d expected him to; that was generally what happened when the Mindless had you that vulnerable. But he’d only held her. The other monster - it could have killed her, too, but had lost interest, which was bizarre.
She had no idea how, but he had definitely protected her - and wasn’t exactly menacing her now, either, just holding her by the sleeve. He’d even set her down when she’d asked. Good for you, dude; you’re now officially my favorite zombie.
She must have blacked out. Totally helpless, even if she hadn’t been out of ammo. She shivered in the warm air. What had happened while she’d been out of it? Her hand went to her neck… no bites. Clothing covered most everything else. She tried to breathe out her relief in a controlled little stream.
Although - bright side! - if she lost her mind, she wouldn’t even miss it. Like she wouldn’t remember Katrina, or Jake. Or be bothered if she attacked them… Her mind shied away from the idea. Katrina was safe. Jake would protect her.
Jake. Would he go back to the library to search for her? He would want to, but the city council would never approve. Not for just her; she wasn’t important enough. Karen shivered in the warm air, pulling her jacket closer to her body.
She looked around, needing a distraction. Focus, Karen. They were on an old highway. Surprisingly rational, or maybe not. Even water chose the easiest course. The sun approached the horizon, glaring at her from the right, making it hard to see much in that direction. That never happened inside the city; it had its own artificial horizon in the form of a huge wall encircling it. The survivors inside were always trying to make it better, stronger, taller. Because outside the walls… she glanced around. Here be monsters.
The fear crept back; she shoved it down again. Maybe there were monsters out here, but there was also more sunshine. Bright side - literally. Maybe she’d actually live to see the sunset. Hadn’t done that in years. Maybe that would be even better than seeing her life, which still stubbornly refused to flash before her eyes. Then again, what had she ever done that was worth remembering? “Stupid life,” she muttered, breathing faster.
Sweatshirt boy glanced at her, silently questioning. She ignored him and he looked away again, his head sagging as he shuffled.
The artificial calm from earlier was well and truly gone, and the reality of her situation loomed large. She was going to die, probably painfully. Why hadn’t he just killed her while she was passed out? She glared at him, lower lip trembling as she fought back tears. He straightened and turned towards her again, his eyes widening slightly.
A moaning noise from ahead distracted her. Oh, crap. The other Mindless were getting more active. If sweatshirt boy didn’t kill her, they would. Her pulse accelerated in a hopeless call to fight or flight, neither of which she could manage right now. One of the crowd ahead slowed and turned, unerringly focusing in on her.
Sweatshirt boy grabbed for her arm again, moving slightly in front of her, facing the others. More of them were turning, now, coming towards her. She shuddered, her breath hitching as she teetered between rage and tears. They were going to shred her, and she’d never see Katrina again, never get to help her kids learn to read and dream. Her eyes squeezed shut without her permission and a sob clawed at the back of her throat.
The moaning got louder. Arms folded around her, the stink of wet dirty sweatshirt surrounding her. Barring a miracle, she was done for.
CHAPTER FOUR
Loud bangs ripped through the air. Sweatshirt boy pulled her down, twisting her to one side, until she hit the sun-warmed blacktop. At the moment, she felt no pain, but her pulse rate spiked. Holy crap. Gunshots? From who? Why had this guy collapsed, had he been shot? Could this be her way out?
She started pushing, trying to get leverage, but he lay on top of her, too heavy, and only one of her arms really worked. His hold tightened. Not dead yet, then. Please, God, I just want to go home. The noises stopped, and then a voice yelled something that sounded like “nets” which made no sense whatsoever… until Karen felt weight added to the body above her, and turned to see rope. She struggled harder, partially dislodging the Mindless. Still tangled up with him.
“Hey,” she called. “Get this thing off of me! I’m not with them!” She lay there panting, starting to realize that she’d have scrapes and bruises from this to go with the sprains from earlier. A man’s face appeared above her, hard and wary.
“Hello, not Mindless,” she greeted him. “A little help?”
He blinked and then started to smile. “Yeah, okay. Give me a second.” He called to some others, and they helped him pull sweatshirt boy aside. She sat up, too shaky to stand, wrapping her arms around her knees. She watched as a small group of human soldiers quickly but carefully trussing up the Mindless. Most of them were agitated, thrashing about, attempting to bite. Not sweatshirt boy, though, she noticed. He just stared at her. Almost mournfully.
Yeah, right. Don’t be ridiculous. She turned her focus to the humans on the scene; she didn’t recognize any of these guys. What the? One by one the Mindless were tied up, muzzled, picked up still wiggling and slung into the bed of a white pickup truck. Karen watched, too tired to care. Except, what kind of military outfit did this? She’d never heard of other human enclaves nearby.
They seemed friendly enough. So far.
Slowly, she managed to stand. The man she’d seen earlier was in charge. He was medium tall, built lean and rangy, with close-cropped reddish hair. As soon as the cargo was loaded, he came over towards her.
“You’re not from the city,” she blurted out, then winced. Way to be subtle, Karen.
“No, we’re not. Are you alright? I’m Curt.”
She smiled weakly. “Hi. I’m Karen.”
“Nice to meet you, Karen.” Curt grinned, his eyes briefly checking her out. “Very nice. Happy to be of service. How’d you get here?”
“Not quite sure. I think I was captured.” She swayed and reached out to grab Curt’s arm for balance.
He steadied her. “Let’s get you off your feet. You can sit up front; looks like you had a bad day.”
Ya think? She leaned on his arm a bit as she hobbled to the cab of the truck. Deliberately not looking at the Mindless. “Thanks for the rescue. Um, where did you come from?”
“Oh, we have a camp nearby. Used to be a military base.” He helped her into the seat. “We work for a scientist
there who’s studying the Mindless. He’s got a new formula to test, so he sent us out to fetch guinea pigs.”
“Really?” Karen settled into the seat, feeling drained. “That’s… interesting.” Interesting was such a useful word; it could mean so many things. Hopefully it’d come across as polite. “So, can I catch a ride back to the city?”
He looked sideways at her. “I’m sure that can be arranged. Not today, though. Have to get to the base before dark.”
She did not want to hear that, but considering the time, she couldn’t argue. “Right. Tomorrow?”
He smiled. “Maybe. Have to see if anyone else needs the wheels.”
Karen reminded herself firmly that it would be undignified to beg. Okay, deep breath. Stuff happened, no sense whining. Maybe she’d learn something. “Thanks. So, meanwhile, can I crash at your place?”
His smile widened. “Absolutely.”
She closed her eyes as Curt walked around to the driver’s side, started the motor, and jolted the truck into gear. Katrina, Mom, Jake… they all had to be going out of their minds, but what could she do? Hang in there, guys, I’m coming home. Just a little bit longer.
#
The sun had almost disappeared by the time they drove into the old army base. A barbed wire fence encircled the perimeter, with a gate anchored to a guard tower. A few shouts, and the gate opened.
Once inside, Curt parked and exited, shouting for one of the others. Karen gingerly stepped down from the cab, her body protesting the movement. Never mind, she told herself. Life hurts. Get over it.
Curt came around the front of the truck to meet her. “They’ll unload the cargo.” He motioned for her to precede him. “I’ll get you settled inside. We have some empty rooms.”
The air seemed even warmer, now. Thicker. The gathering darkness pressed against her skin. Like the touch of the Mindless, from earlier: Too close, unwanted, impossible to evade. Lights began flickering on overhead, and she glanced up to see them mounted to poles. Not many, but enough to see by, to push back the night. She breathed a little easier.
Curt steered her towards first aid and introduced the med tech on duty as Alexi. As he inspected her ankle, she asked, “So, if they didn’t bite me, I’m not infected, right?”
He shrugged. “Far as we know. It’s transmitted through bodily fluids, like saliva, or blood. Did they bleed on you?”
“Don’t think so.” Of course, she had been unconscious part of the time, but… she hadn’t noticed any blood on either herself or the guy in the sweatshirt.
“Did you bite them?” Curt asked, with a sly grin.
She glared at him.
“Sorry.”
“I can take a blood sample to check,” Alexi offered, ignoring the byplay. “If you want. Come in tomorrow for a more thorough exam and we should have results.”
“You have a test for this?” First she’d heard of one.
Curt smiled. “Doctor Borsa’s learned a lot, so yeah, we know what to look for now.”
“Cool.”
They did a finger stick for the blood, capturing a drop on a glass slide. The pain barely registered, compared with all the other injuries. Alexi gave her an ankle brace and put it on her, explaining its workings. Lastly, he gave her a small bottle of painkillers and a cup of water. “That’s about all I can do for now. Go eat, sleep, and then come back tomorrow.”
“Eating and sleeping both sound good.” Karen shook one pill out of the bottle - no safety seal - and swallowed it. “Thanks.”
Curt showed Karen to an unoccupied room. She tossed her knapsack on the bed, then turned to her escort. “Thanks, can I please eat now?”
“Right this way.” Curt took her to the main mess hall, slowing his pace to match hers. Getting attacked and kidnapped turned out to be a real energy drain.
Curt led her to a cafeteria line of sorts, and she gratefully accepted the small portions they provided. There were boiled potatoes, some greens, and a thin strip of some kind of meat. Not gourmet, but a definite step up from the emergency meal bars riding in the bottom of her bag; those had the color and consistency of wet sand, and not much more taste.
“You guys are doing pretty well, looks like,” Karen commented politely.
Curt laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound. “If you can call it that. Come on over here, I’ll introduce you to some of the others.”
She followed him to a table and smiled uncertainly at the four surrounding it. Almost surrounding it; they shifted to accommodate Curt and Karen, allowing them room to sit. Karen looked around as soon as she was seated. “Hi.”
One of the women was sizing her up, assessing the threat, and Karen returned the favor with a bland smile. The woman was maybe thirty. She’d be attractive, if she smiled. “And who are you?” she asked.
“Karen,” Curt said, preempting her reply, “this is Suzette, Ricardo, Pip and Nick. Guys, this is Karen. We picked her up Outside.” Karen could almost hear the capital letter. “When we were getting a new batch of specimens.”
Karen nodded at each of them. “Your guys rescued me. But I need to get back to the city ASAP.” See, she commented silently to the suspicious woman. I’m not going to be your competition. So relax.
“In a hurry to leave, huh?” Ricardo raised an eyebrow, grinning at her. “It’s the cooking, isn’t it?”
Karen smiled. “Hey, you have real food. That’s getting harder to come by, back home.”
The woman identified as Pip smiled a little, looking down. Some sort of agricultural worker, probably, judging by the casual clothes and rough, tanned skin. Maybe five years older than Karen, maybe less. Suzette, by contrast, didn’t look like she got her hands dirty much. Now that Karen had said she’d be leaving, Suzette’s scowl had softened, but there was still wariness around her eyes.
“We’ve got a pretty good farming operation going,” Nick chimed in. He looked ridiculously young, with fine blond hair, but with his baby face he probably could keep on looking that young for another twenty years. Assuming any of them lived that long.
“We do what we can,” Pip said, obviously not wanting to raise hopes too high. Or become a target.
Karen chewed slowly, savoring the unfamiliar tastes. “This is good,” she declared after swallowing. She looked at Pip. “Tell me more about your farms.”
#
He was in a cage. They’d been pushed into it right off the back of the truck. The ropes were gone, now. He took a few more steps, buying a little distance between him and the others, and saw that there was a door on the other side of the cage, too. The same, but different, because that one led to a room inside the building. It took him a while of concerted thought before deciding that the cage had been built into the wall.
Conversations were happening around him, outside the cage. He couldn’t follow them all, but gradually pieced together a few things. The sources of emotions, like her, were humans. The ones in the cage, like him, were Mindless. Also referred to as monsters and specimens. Usually with the humans generating waves of fear, anger, or something even darker. The others in the cage, they wanted more of that energy, clustering at the bars. He could feel it, too, but in comparison to the girl’s glorious not-fear, this had a bitter tang. The others soaked it up, becoming more aggressive in response.
He could think more clearly now, since he’d met the girl, absorbed her feelings. The energy was leaking away, slowly dissipating, but not gone yet. It would never happen again, of course. Not unless she let him touch her, and why would she?
Being Mindless must be bad. The girl had been afraid, and now she was gone.
He hadn’t seen her since she’d gotten into the truck. He could still sense her, faintly. Maybe. None of the humans were close now, and their energy was fading and blending together with distance, but he thought he could distinguish hers. No fear. Good.
Better for her to be with the humans, anyway. Now that he was thinking better, he realized that taking her home
would never have worked. Even if the others hadn’t turned on her. She wouldn’t have wanted to stay with him. Or to repeat the amazing not-fear for him. Of course not. She was human, and he was a monster. A creature barely able to think or speak. Only able to steal and destroy.
Now that she had a choice in the matter, he’d never see her again.
The others sighed and shifted, shuffling nearer, and he realized he was broadcasting his own… not fear. He didn’t know what to call it, this sense of loss and longing. It was different from her not fear. Nowhere near as pleasant.
He didn’t want to share. Working by instinct, groping in the dark, he tried to stop broadcasting. To keep his reactions to himself. It had never occurred to him to do that before. There had never been a need. For the first time, he wondered whether they were projecting towards him. Must be. Not very strongly, of course. They never felt anything strongly, not on their own.
The other Mindless in the cage settled down. Either they were becoming accustomed to this emotion he had, or he was no longer sharing it.
He wished he knew which it was. Either way, he was still feeling it.
CHAPTER FIVE
That neutral subject occupied them all for more than a few minutes, and Karen almost regretted having asked.
“What got you outside the city, Karen? What’s that story?” Curt asked, sounding like he might even care.
She shrugged, wincing. “A small group of us were looking for some books. See, my boyfriend--”
“You went outside the wall for books?” Suzette asked. “There’s a lot of more useful things to be salvaged.”
“Um, yeah. Well, why are you guys out here, then?” she challenged. She didn’t want to be the only one uncomfortable with the conversation. “Some kind of religious thing?”
“Religion?” Curt snorted. “No way. I’m not interested in a God that lets the Mindless loose on the world.”
She didn’t know what to say about that. “So you think that God did this? Like, a punishment on the wicked, or something?”
