Survival Instinct: A Zombie Novel (9 page)

Jack sighed again but didn’t argue.  Clearly his level of worry was too high; in any other circumstance, he would have made Jessica put them back.  They started up the street again, Jessica’s high-heels held in one hand, Jack’s hand in the other.

The farther they went, the more the crowd thinned out.  All around them, people headed in different directions or ducked into shops and buildings.  They passed by one big office building where a man was arguing with a security guard to be let in.  He argued about it not being safe outside but wouldn’t say why.  No one seemed to know what was going on any better than Jack or Jessica did.  They all looked lost and confused, walking alone or in small groups.  People barely spoke unless they were arguing about something.  A few people were even crying.  Jessica couldn’t believe it all.  Only the varying sounds of gunshots kept her rooted in reality.  She knew that sound all too well.  She feared that sound.

A man ran up from behind, shoving Jessica hard in the shoulder as he passed.

“Hey!” Jack yelled at him as he stopped Jessica from stumbling over.  The man didn’t respond.  He just kept running as fast as he could.

Jessica looked behind them.  There was another man running towards them.  No, not towards,
at
.

* * *

“Jack.”  Jessica Clay drew her friend’s attention.

Jack turned.  They both looked at the second running man, not sure what to do.  Part of his head had been scalped or something, because a huge chunk of skin hung down the side of his face.  Jessica could see damaged skull bone underneath.

Another man stepped out of an alley between Jack and Jessica, and the charging man.  Jessica watched as the charging man’s eyes darted to the newcomer.  He abruptly changed course.  The other man saw him just in time to scream before he was bowled over.

The ensuing violence made Jessica’s eyes go wide.  She stood stock still, muscles tense
like a deer in the headlights.

“We have to get out of here,” Jack shook his head, horrified.  The man wouldn’t stop screaming.  “Jessica.”

Jack grabbed Jessica’s hand and tugged but she didn’t respond.

“Jessi!”  Jack grabbed Jessica’s shoulders this time and spun her to face him.  He had to shake her a few times to snap her out of it.

“I’m sorry,” Jessica whispered, dazed.  She started to turn her head back towards the screaming, but Jack grabbed her face and wouldn’t let her.

“Come on.”  He grabbed her hand again and started pulling her up the street.

Once Jessica finally started to keep pace on her own, they began jogging.

“What was that?” Jessica finally asked, the haze around her thoughts gone.

“I don’t know.”  Jack had stopped looking around suspiciously.  He now kept his gaze dead ahead, trying to avoid seeing something like that again.

“Did you see his head?”  Jessica couldn’t believe anyone could still function with a head wound like that.  The bone was so white.

Jack just nodded once in response.

“How much further?”  She wanted to get inside.  Behind safe walls.  Perhaps curl up in a nice small closet for
a while swathed in large, puffy blankets.  With a light on of course.

“One more block,” Jack’s voice had taken on an emotionless tone.  Jessica could only imagine what he was thinking about, but she figured it had something to do with Andrew.

As they ran the last of the distance, Jessica found herself thinking of Cillian again.  Despite all that had transpired between them, she hoped he was all right.

They reached Jack’s apartment building and he entered first.  He was the kind of guy who would normally hold a door for a lady, but not this time.  Not today.  They hurried over to the elevators.

“Hey, where’s your doorman?”  Jessica noticed that, what she thought of as a permanent fixture was missing.

“Don’t know.”  Jack kept pressing the call button and watching the numbers above the elevator doors as they descended.

While Jack remained focused on the elevators, Jessica kept her eyes on the entrance.  Not only did she notice the missing doorman, but she also noticed that Jack didn’t need to use a key to get in.  She tried to remember if there was normally an electronic lock to get in here or if it was just the doorman’s job to keep out any intruders.  She hoped it was just the doorman because otherwise, that would mean the lock was broken, and a broken lock was never a good sign.

The elevator cab finally arrived and opened its doors with a soft whoosh and a ding.  Jack nearly took a step inside but quickly reeled away gasping.  Jessica looked around him into the elevator cab.  The mirrored walls were sprayed with red blood.

Then Jack sighed, visibly relaxing, and he calmly stepped into the elevator.

“What are you doing?” Jessica was horrified.

“It’s just spray paint.”  Jack touched it and got a bit on his fingers.  It was tacky.

Now that he pointed it out, Jessica realized that the red was far too bright to be blood and she also stepped into the elevator.  It also smelled very much like paint, which was reassuring.  Still, she had to hold a hand over her heart, trying to keep it from bursting out of her chest.  Her pumper was getting quite the workout today.

“Some kid on the fourteenth floor decided recently that he wanted to be an artist,” Jack said as he pressed the button for the twentieth floor, his floor.  The doors slid closed and the elevator started up with just a slight jerk.  “He’s been spraying halls, the gym equipment, even the walls around the pool.  No one’s been able to catch him in the act though, so we can’t do anything.”

“Don’t you have cameras in the public places?”  Jessica thought a nice place like this should.

“He wears a mask and sprays the cameras.”  Jack pointed to a corner of the ceiling.  There was a bulge across the corner completely covered in red paint.  “I wouldn’t mind so much if he painted something good instead of just these squiggly lines.”

Jack actually smiled.  Jessica guessed that being in his home and thinking about a simple problem was making him feel better.  She smiled a little as well.

The elevator reached their floor and came to a stop.  Once more, the doors slid open and they both stepped out.  They walked quickly down the hall to apartment 2004.  To Jessica’s confusion, Jack knocked first.

“Andrew?  I’m home.”  Jack pressed his ear against the door.  “I have Jessica with me so if you’re indecent, cover up.”

Jessica smiled again at this.  “What?  He sits around naked when he’s sick?”

“Sometimes,” Jack grinned and pulled his keys out of his pocket, unlocking the door.  This time he held the door for Jessica.  Home clearly made him feel comfortable again.  Perhaps even normal.

“Hey, Andrew,” Jessica called into the cosy apartment.  “I hear you’re not feeling well.”

Jessica took off her pilfered sneakers and placed them on a rubber mat next to the door.  Jack put his own shoes next to hers.  All the shoes in the apartment were arranged neatly on the mat, but they were all men’s shoes so that when Jessica put her heels down, they stood out like a sore thumb.

“You can just leave your laptop bag by the door if you want.”  Jessica didn’t have a coat for Jack to take so he made do with offering a place for her bag.

“Thanks.”  Jessica, who nearly forgot about her bag entirely, placed it in the offered spot and followed Jack into the little kitchen.

The kitchen was located in an area that didn’t offer any natural light, but thanks to Andrew’s sense of style and Jack’s strange intelligence about all things, including light, the space was very cheery and bright.  It was Jessica’s favourite part of the whole apartment.  She liked sitting on the stools next to the little counter-table, even more than on the couch in the living room.  And that was a damn good couch.

“Andrew!  I’m making you some soup!” Jack shouted as he rooted through a cupboard.  “Do you want some
, Jessica?”

“Umm…”  Jessica’s mind flashed through the day.  She realized she was hungry, starving even, but she wasn’t sure she would be able to keep anything down.  That poor man in the street…

“I’m making you some,” Jack decided,  “and you’re going to eat it.”

Jessica humoured him with a smile.  Jack could probably see the stress on her face.  “Is Andrew okay?”  To think of something else, she poked her head out of the cosy nook and looked down the hall.

“He’s probably just really stuffed up and doesn’t want you to hear.”  Jack got out a pot and started filling it with water.  “I told you he doesn’t like to show weakness.”

“That bad, huh?”  Jessica thought about offering to help cook the soup or make sandwiches, but then remembered that Jack would never allow a guest to do such a thing.

“Yup.”  Jack sat on the stool next to her.

“I still think you should probably check on him.”  Jessica didn’t like that she hadn’t heard a sound from Andrew yet.  He was usually so excited to have guests.  Although she had never seen him sick.

“I guess I should.”  Jack slid back off the high stool.  “Although if he yells at me, it’s your fault.”

“I’ll take all the blame.”  Jessica lightly pushed him toward the hall entrance.

When Jack left the kitchen, he wore a slight smile, but at Jessica’s angle, she could see it fall as soon as he left.  He also stopped mid-step.

“Andrew?” his tone turned the name into a question.

Jessica got up and stood behind Jack so that she could see what he saw.  Andrew was in the hall wearing nothing but an open bathrobe and boxer shorts.  Black ones with blue hearts.  His chin hung against his bare chest, his dark and shaggy hair hanging down to cover most of his face.

“Hey
, Andrew, you wouldn’t believe what happened today.”  Jack stepped toward him.  His voice had taken on an odd quality.

Jessica reached out to grab his shoulder, but missed.  She didn’t know why she tried to stop Jack.  Something felt wrong.

Andrew took a heavy step toward them, swaying slightly.

“Andrew?  Are you all right?”  Jack took another step forward.  They were very close now.

Andrew took another small step, and then slid sideways into the wall.  Before he could fall to the floor, Jack closed the last of the distance and caught him.

“Andrew?”  Jack held him to his chest.  Jessica couldn’t see but it looked like Jack was trying to turn him over to see his face.  “Come on Andrew, talk to me.”

Over Jack’s shoulder, Jessica watched as Andrew lifted his head.  She saw his eyes before Jack did.  She should have warned him.  She tried, but it came out as a whisper that Jack couldn’t hear.  Andrew opened his mouth wide and sank his teeth into the fleshy part of Jack’s neck.  Jack didn’t even get a chance to scream before he was dead.

Andrew lifted his head up and looked at Jessica with his cold, dead eyes.  Jessica had seen a dead person before; she knew what their eyes looked like.  His jaw fell open with a pop and a hunk of Jack’s flesh fell out of it.  Red.  His mouth was completely red.  He began slowly crawling towards her.

Jessica ran for the door.  She pulled and pulled at the doorknob but it wouldn’t open.  Why wouldn’t it open?  He was coming closer.  Then she noticed that the lock was engaged.  Jack must have locked the door behind them and she hadn’t noticed.  She thumbed the catch and pulled.  The door opened only a little before being stopped by the chain. He almost had her!  Jessica got the chain undone and the door flew open.  As she bolted out the door, she felt Andrew’s hand caress her calf.

She ran out of the apartment so fast, she crashed straight into the door on the opposite side of the hall.  She fell to the carpet having stunned herself.  Andrew continued to crawl after her, making his way out of his home.

Abby

Abby slowed her pace on the spinner as she reached the cool down stage.  She grabbed her water bottle and took a quick drink, then replaced it in its holder on the handlebars.

Nearby, an overweight man got off a stepper machine.  He was sweating bullets despite the fact he had been on there for only about five minutes.  Abby didn’t criticise him though.  At least he was trying.  This was maybe the fifth time Abby had seen him in the little exercise gym.  Last time he had tried using a spinner but didn’t even go a full two minutes.

“Can you turn that off please?”  Abby gestured to the TV in the corner.

“Huh?”  The man looked around, out of breath.  “Oh, you don’t want to watch the concert?”

Abby shook her head and pointed to the headphones in her ears.

“Oh, okay.”  The man hit the power button and shuffled out of the small gym.

Abby was glad he didn’t ask what she was listening to.  People had asked her in the past and she wasn’t sure how to answer.  She never listened to music, except the inevitable music played during a movie, TV show, or theatre production.  Her iPod was completely filled with audio books.  She loved to read fiction of all sorts, but while working-out or travelling, she stuck to textbooks.  She had a need to expand her knowledge constantly, to learn everything she could.  Although she couldn’t always grasp the concepts she learned, she remembered them.  She had a fantastic memory for detail.  Right now, she was starting a chemistry kick.  Previously, it had been Spanish history.