Z

by Michael Thomas Ford

  But the Z had also kept him up all night, and now he was exhausted. He thought about taking half a Z this morning, but he didn’t want to waste it. They had practice that afternoon, and he wanted to save it for that.

  Josh managed to avoid Firecracker the rest of day, though it meant skipping lunch and hiding out in the bathroom. But that was okay—it gave him some time to rest. He’d actually fallen asleep in the bathroom stall, waking up only when some seniors dragged a freshman into the bathroom and threatened to dunk his head in the toilet if he didn’t pay them off. The kid had screamed bloody murder, and Josh jolted awake thinking he was in the middle of a game.

  Now the day was over and he was on the train heading to the Docklands. He couldn’t wait to see Charlie and to play with the rest of the team. He also wanted to find out if Stash was okay. He didn’t like the guy, but he was still a Torcher, and they had to look out for one another.

  When he reached his stop, he got off and walked toward the wharf. He was thinking about the Z in his pocket, and not really watching where he was going. So when someone came up from behind and grabbed his arm, he yelled in surprise.

  “It’s just me,” Firecracker said, holding his hands up.

  Josh stared at him. “Are you following me?” he asked.

  “I just want to talk,” Firecracker said. “What’s up with you?”

  “Nothing’s up with me,” said Josh.

  “Then what are you doing in the Docklands? Coming to help the homeless?” Firecracker stared at Josh, daring him to lie.

  “It’s none of your business,” said Josh. “Just go home.”

  “Or what?” Firecracker asked.

  Josh felt himself getting angry. “Just go,” he said. “Leave me alone.”

  He turned and started to walk away, hoping that Firecracker would give up and go the other way. No such luck. Firecracker rushed forward to block Josh’s path. “I want to know what you’re doing,” he said.

  Josh stared at his friend. Why couldn’t Firecracker just let it go? He started to push past, but Firecracker moved over and cut him off.

  Without thinking, Josh shoved him. Firecracker reeled backward but didn’t fall. His face reddened and he stormed toward Josh. The two collided, Firecracker pushing Josh against a brick wall. Two Zooeys who had been standing on the corner turned to stare at them.

  “Get off!” Josh grunted, trying to push Firecracker away.

  “Josh, come on,” said Firecracker. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  Josh put one foot against the wall and used it to push himself forward. Firecracker stumbled back. Caught off balance, he was an easy target. Josh punched him in the stomach, and Firecracker crumpled to his knees.

  “Hey!” yelled one of the Zooeys, a boy in a duck costume. “Fighting isn’t cool!”

  Josh took a few steps toward the boy and the other Zooey, a girl dressed like a koala bear, grabbed the duck’s hand and pulled him away. Josh turned back to Firecracker, who was standing up again, holding his stomach.

  Before Josh could react, Firecracker swung at him. His fist connected with Josh’s cheek, and there was a sharp crack. Pain exploded in Josh’s head. He ran at Firecracker, tackling him. The two of them fell to the sidewalk, where they wrestled for position until finally Josh had Firecracker pinned beneath him.

  “Get it through your thick head,” Josh said, flecking Firecracker’s face with spittle. “I don’t want you following me.”

  He could see confusion in Firecracker’s eyes, and for a moment he felt bad and almost broke down and told the truth. Then he remembered that if he let Firecracker know what was going on, he would be risking everything. He had to keep his part in the game a secret.

  “Stay away,” he said. “You got that?”

  He waited for Firecracker to nod, then got up. Without looking back, he walked as quickly as he could down the street. He turned a corner and waited to see if Firecracker passed him. After a minute he took a look and saw that the sidewalk was empty. He’s gone, he thought with relief.

  Still, he took a different route to the shipyard. He didn’t want to take any chances. Firecracker wasn’t stupid. He was a good tracker, and he could easily be tailing Josh. But Josh was pretty sure he had hurt Firecracker’s pride enough that he would just leave. He hated himself for having done that to his best friend, but he’d had to—for both their sakes.

  Only when he was safely in the tunnel walking to the ship graveyard did he relax a little bit. He was all right. Firecracker didn’t know anything.

  When he saw Charlie sitting on top of a ship’s propeller, cleaning her flamethrower, he felt much better. She saw him and waved. “Hey there,” she said. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

  “Yeah?” Josh said. “Why’s that?”

  “So I could give you this,” Charlie answered, giving him a quick kiss. Josh tried for another one, but Charlie shook her head. “We have to be careful,” she said. “Team romances are kind of a no-no.”

  Josh sighed. “I suppose I can do that,” he said dramatically. Then he pretended to think of something. “Or I could break up with you. Then it wouldn’t be a problem.”

  “Just try breaking it off,” said Charlie, squinting. “Then next time you’ve got a z after you, I might just have to trip you.”

  Josh didn’t say anything, distracted by the throbbing in his cheek.

  “Come on. I’m just joking. Don’t be mad.”

  “It’s not that,” said Josh. He hesitated, not sure he should tell Charlie what had happened. Then he sighed. “It’s Firecracker. He followed me today.”

  Charlie’s eyes widened. “He followed you? Did he see where you went?”

  “No. I caught him in time,” Josh answered.

  “Don’t tell Clatter,” Charlie said quickly. “He’s super paranoid about that kind of thing. Keep it to yourself.”

  “All right,” said Josh. “I’m going to get changed.”

  He left her to finish cleaning her thrower and went to the locker room. Finnegan, Seamus, and Scrawl were already there, talking, but when Josh came in they stopped abruptly.

  “Hey,” Josh said. “Am I interrupting something?”

  Finnegan and Seamus didn’t say anything, but Scrawl shook his head. “Nah,” he said. “We were just talking about Stash.”

  “How is he?” Josh asked as he opened his locker and took his uniform out.

  “Not great,” Scrawl said. “He’ll be fine, but his bite got infected and he won’t be playing for a while.”

  Josh slipped into his uniform. “How does a cyber-bite get infected?” he asked.

  He saw Seamus and Finnegan look at each other. Then Finnegan said, “He got dirt in it. We told him to be careful, but you know Stash.”

  Josh snorted. “Yeah,” he said. When nobody responded, he added, “Not that he isn’t a good guy, or anything.”

  “It’s okay,” Finnegan told him. “We all know Stash can be a jerk.”

  Josh smiled. “That doesn’t mean I want him to get hurt,” he said.

  “Like I said, he’ll be fine,” Scrawl said. “He’s just on temporary time out. Now let’s go kick some zombie butt.”

  The others left the locker room, and Josh sat on the bench to tie his boots. Then he reached into the pocket of his jeans and took out half a tablet of Z. He put it in his mouth and swallowed hard, feeling it go down.

  When he rejoined the group, they were still waiting for Freya, so everyone was just hanging out talking. Bess came up to Josh, frowning. “You cost me twenty bucks,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Charlie told me all about it,” she whispered. Then she made kissing sounds with her lips.

  Josh looked over at Charlie. She was looking up at the ceiling, pretending to be interested in something.

  “I’m going to get both of you,” Josh told Bess. “You just wait.”

  “Ooh, I’m scared,” Bess said, wiggling her fingers and miming fear.

  Josh walked over to Charlie. “I thought we wer
en’t telling anyone,” he said.

  “I had to tell Bess,” said Charlie. “Otherwise I would have owed her twenty bucks.” She laughed.

  “Hey,” Charlie said, looking around. “Did you take the Z?”

  Josh nodded.

  “Me too,” Charlie said. “Let’s make sure we’re on the same team for practice. We’ll kill!”

  Caught up in Charlie’s excitement, Josh forgot all about Firecracker and his earlier worries. The Z was starting to work, and his thoughts were slipping away.

  “Kill,” he said, grinning at Charlie. “That’s just what we’ll do.”

  14

  Josh looked down the stairs. Something was moving below him; there was a slight shifting of the shadows that normally he might not notice. But the Z had worked its magic on his brain, and although his thoughts were a little hazy, he was sensing things more acutely. He sniffed, smelling something dank.

  “Water,” he said.

  Finnegan switched on his torch’s light and shone it into the darkness. A dozen steps down, the stairs disappeared into water. “Good work, genius,” Finnegan said.

  Ever since Finnegan had been assigned to a team with Josh, Charlie, and Bess, he’d been acting weird. Assuming it was because he had been separated from his brother, Josh was trying not to let Finnegan’s comments bother him. But his patience was wearing thin.

  “What’s your problem?” he demanded.

  Finnegan stepped back. “I don’t have a problem,” he said, sounding surprised.

  Josh grinned. “I didn’t think so. So how about you go first down the stairs, then?”

  Suddenly Charlie was beside him. “Ease up,” she whispered so that only he could hear.

  Josh laughed. “I’m fine,” he said.

  Charlie grabbed his elbow. “Josh,” she said. “I’m serious. Just cool it, okay?”

  Josh closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, until he calmed down a little. “I’m fine,” he told Charlie.

  “Josh, you take lead,” Bess said. “Finn, you’re rear man.”

  Josh glared at Finnegan. “No problem,” Josh said.

  He descended quickly, moving faster than he knew he should. The light mounted on his flamethrower cut through the blackness. When he reached the point where the water met the stairs, he kept going, never hesitating. The cold water slid over his boots and up his legs, and still Josh didn’t slow down.

  When the water was up to his waist, the stairs ran out and he was on level ground. Ten feet ahead of him the opening to a huge pipe gaped like an open mouth about twelve feet across. The metal was rusted and flaking off, and the water was speckled with tiny pieces of it.

  “What is this place?” Josh asked.

  “One of the intake tunnels,” said Bess. “This is where the water came in to flood the main room and raise the ships to the surface. There are a dozen of them.” She shone her light at the top of the tunnel entrance, where a number was etched into the steel. “This is tunnel nine.”

  “The worst one,” Finnegan mumbled.

  “The hardest one,” said Charlie, correcting him.

  “Why?” Josh asked.

  “This one is still live,” Bess explained. “The others were turned off years ago, but this one still works. It’s connected to a line used by the city to take water from the ocean to use in the hydrogenerators that power the subway. The guys who built this place tapped into that line. They installed a valve to open and close it, but when they abandoned it, that valve was stuck halfway open. So whenever the city uses this particular line, water comes through tunnel nine too.”

  “What she’s trying to say is that this place can flood at any second,” Finnegan added.

  “Not any second,” Charlie countered. “You get a warning, at least if you keep your ears open.”

  “Right,” said Bess. “When water moves through the main line, you can hear it. Then you know you have about three minutes to get out of the tunnel before it starts filling up.”

  “What kind of noise?” Josh asked her.

  “It’s hard to explain,” Bess answered. “Trust me, you’ll know it when you hear it.”

  “How often do they use the line?”

  “Not often,” said Charlie. “The lines are old, so they rotate between them. This one gets used maybe three times a month.”

  “But never on the same day,” Finnegan added.

  Josh looked at the water. “It looks like they’ve used it pretty recently,” he remarked. “Look how high it is.”

  Bess shook her head. “It’s always at least this high,” she said. “Remember, the valve is stuck halfway open. When the tunnel floods, it only drains back out to the level of the valve opening.”

  “Why not just fix the valve?”

  “Clatter thinks it makes a great training zone,” Charlie said.

  “And he’s right,” said Bess.

  “Wait a minute,” Josh said. “If the tunnel goes straight in and straight out, what’s the big deal? We just go in until we find the z’s, torch them, and get out.”

  Finnegan laughed but said nothing.

  “It’s not that easy,” Charlie said. “The tunnel doesn’t just run straight through. It’s in five sections, with a flood chamber between each section and the next. The flood chambers have a hatch door on each side. If the tunnel starts to flood, theoretically you can release the door closest to the main line and prevent the water from coming any farther this way.”

  “Theoretically?” said Josh.

  “They don’t always work,” Finnegan said. “The machinery is old. Some of it is broken. Some of it sticks. You just never know.”

  “Each flood chamber has a shaft that runs up to the surface,” Bess continued. “It’s a way to vent water if it builds up. There’s also a ladder in each shaft, kind of an escape route if you’re trapped in the room.”

  “Not that you’re likely to make it,” said Finnegan. “More than likely the water will rise faster than you can climb.”

  “There are also some smaller access tunnels,” Charlie said. “They link the twelve tunnels together. But they’re really only wide enough to crawl through.”

  “Which the z’s are really good at,” said Finnegan.

  Josh tried to make sense of everything he was being told. Normally it wouldn’t be a problem, but the Z was making it hard to analyze everything clearly. Hatches, he thought. Access tunnels. Flood chambers. Individually the words made sense, but when he tried to put them all together, things got a little fuzzy.

  “So you’re saying that the z’s could be anywhere,” he said finally. “Got it. Let’s go torching.”

  Without waiting for the others, he pushed ahead through the water. His eyes quickly adapted to the darkness, another benefit of taking the Z. He watched the shadows carefully for signs of movement but saw nothing.

  After about a hundred yards they came to a wall that prevented them from going forward. A circular door about six feet across and made of thick steel was set into the center of the wall.

  “This is the first hatch door,” Bess said, shining her light on the door. “See that lever on the right?”

  Josh looked where her beam was pointing and saw a rectangular box about a foot high affixed to the wall beside the door. A metal rod extended from it at an angle.

  “When you pull the lever, it activates the chains that raise and lower the door,” said Bess. She reached for it. “Be ready to shoot if there’s anything inside.”

  Josh and the others stood back, their flamethrowers held out in front of them, as Bess pulled the rod down. There was a grinding sound as the heavy door rose straight up into the ceiling.

  Josh stepped through the opening and found himself in a square chamber approximately fifteen feet on each side. From the doorway, steps led down from the tunnel to the room’s floor. On the opposite side of the room another set of steps went up to a hatch door that was partially open. The room was filled with water that left only three steps exposed.

  “Do
esn’t look like there are any meatbags in here,” said Josh, shining his light around. He walked down the steps and into the partially flooded chamber. When his feet touched the floor, the water was just above his waist. As he waded across the room, he noticed a ladder affixed to the wall on his left. It led to a hole in the ceiling, and he guessed it was the escape shaft Bess had mentioned.

  “Where are the access tunnels you talked about?” he asked Bess. “I don’t see any other ways in or out.”

  “They’re below water level right now,” Bess said. “It’s different in each room. You just have to look everywhere.”

  They made their way to the other side of the chamber and ducked beneath the partially opened hatch door to reenter the tunnel. The next stretch was as empty as the first, and Josh found himself getting bored.

  “The other team better not get all the z’s,” he complained.

  “Don’t worry,” Finnegan said. “You’ll get your share.”

  When they reached the second chamber and found it empty, Josh was annoyed. “This is a waste of time,” he said as he surveyed the room. “We might as well go back.”

  All of a sudden a loud clanking sound filled the room, and the hatch door behind them crashed closed, falling from the ceiling as the chains rattled violently. They all swirled around and stared at it.

  “How did that happen?” Bess yelled. She looked at Finnegan, who was standing closest to the control box, but he shook his head.

  “It wasn’t me,” he said, showing her that he was holding his flamethrower with both hands.

  “Somebody had to have touched something,” Bess insisted. “The hatches don’t just—”

  She was cut off as the water exploded upward. Three zombies rose from the bottom, screeching as they clawed at the air.

  “Meatbags!” Josh yelled. “Torch them!”

  One of the zombies—a man in a tattered suit—lunged at Josh. With no room to use his flamethrower, Josh used it as a club instead, butting the man in the chest with it so that he staggered back and fell into the water.