The Fall: Victim Zero (28 page)

“They've obviously been watching people, casing who they think are the easiest victims,” Kate said. “They'll know something went wrong here when their buddy doesn't show up. The question is whether we think they'll show any loyalty and come for revenge, or if they'll cut their losses and try other targets.”

Kell spoke. “We're talking about this like we know any of the variables. This isn't an easy equation where we can just plug numbers in and see what happens. And you two seem to be forgetting that we're not heroes. None of us are bulletproof. We can't fly. I want to make sure these bastards can't hurt anyone else, but it's going to be dangerous.”

Arms crossed, Kate stood with a hip jutted out to one side in the way all women have of speaking with their entire bodies. “That's a bit rich coming from you.”

Shaking his head, Kell sighed. “It's not the same. The marauders who had you two were barely organized. The conditions were perfect, and I had the element of surprise. Not to mention about a metric ton of amazing luck that I didn't get shot.”

Laura raised an eyebrow. “You made your own luck. You chose the time, made sure there were zombies nearby to respond to the noise, and acted calmly and rationally to hamper your enemy as much as possible.”

“
Still...” Kell said, unable to articulate an argument against his own actions.

Laura held out a hand. “Beer me. And look, Kell, we're not going to go into this blind. We'll choose a time to fight, pick our own circumstances as much as possible. We have the element of surprise, too. We can do this.”

“I'm not against doing it,” Kell said. “I'm just saying a lot of things could go wrong. The guy you shot moved like he had some training. Maybe he was a cop. Maybe military. If the rest of his group has any kind of training or discipline, there's every chance they'll see us coming a mile away and just pop us with rifles the way you did this morning.”

Kate and Laura had no response.

He drove the point home. “I don't have to tell either of you how dangerous this is going to be. You both know what the stakes are. You know what can go wrong. I'm willing to do it, and even bring in more people if you think it's a good idea. But I don't know anyone I trust to go out there and not fuck up aside from both of you. It's your call, whatever you want to do.”

Laura only smiled grimly. All the laughter had fallen from Kate's face. She inhaled deeply, as if summoning up her courage.

“I say we go scouting today, see what we can find, and we'll plan from there. Just the three of us.”

Kell and Laura agreed.

“Look over here,” Kell said. “Tire tracks in the snow. Footprints leading right toward my trail.”

The three of them stood a few hundred feet down the road from the place Kell's trail cut away from the asphalt. There were cigarette butts crushed into the ground where the car had been.

“He wasn't alone, then,” Laura observed.

Kell sucked in a breath. “That means they knew pretty fast something happened. I bet they followed his trail and found his blood all over the place. Might have even followed our tracks up to the house.”

“Guys,” Kate said in a carefully controlled tone, “I want you both to make sure you don't react to what I'm about to say. Okay? Pretend nothing is wrong.”

“
Sure,” Kell said, Laura nodding.

Kate hunkered down, pretending to examine the tire tracks. “I'm pretty sure we're being watched. Saw a flash of light reflecting off something down the hill. Not many deer out there sporting glass or metal.”

Laura's voice was tense, but her body language didn't show it. “What should we do?”

“
I'm going to stand up here in a second. Kell, I want you to put an arm around my shoulder, like you're comforting me.”

With an effort, he kept his confusion from showing. “Uh, why?”

Kate chuckled. “Because one of those ideas I had was making them think we're weak. They know we killed one of their people, but they don't know what the circumstances were. If I can act like a vulnerable, scared little girl, it might encourage them to come for us.”

“
Which just sounds
awesome
,” Kell said sarcastically. “So you want to draw these guys to the house so we can pick them off?”

“
Ideally,” Kate said. “Though I'm thinking we'll want to circle around behind this guy if we can and see what direction he takes when he leaves. Now, comfort me, motherfucker.”

Just like the flip of a switch, Kate became someone else. A shudder went through her, as if she were crying. When she stood her body screamed all the signals for defeat. She had slumped shoulders, slow movement, fidgeting hands. Kell stepped in and pulled her close, and she crumpled against him.

“Now, let's start walking back home. We'll take the trail, and once we're sure no one is following one of us can peel off and circle around.”

Laura got into the game, stepping up to the two of them and gesturing as if angry. “Better idea,” she said in an amused tone that didn't match her expression at all. “You two pretend I just yelled at you, and stay here. If someone really is watching, they're more likely to stay where they are if they can see you.”

Laura pointed at the empty spot where the car had been. “Stay here! I'll be back soon, so get your shit together while you wait!” This, she shouted. Kell held back a smile as she stalked away.

The two of them found a spot free of snow on the edge of the pavement, Kell holding Kate close, and they waited.

After a few minutes they grew bored and started riddling each other. Kell was thinking through an
answer—Hold me tight, I'll fall away but cup me gently and I'll always stay. What am I?
–when a single gunshot echoed from the direction of their supposed watcher. Both of them reacted identically, training and experience taking over as they threw themselves flat to the ground and worked themselves away from where they could be seen from down the hill.

Kate positioned herself to shoot, her gun appearing in her hands as if by magic. Kell noted with amusement which was both wildly inappropriate in timing and powered by nerves that she seemed totally relaxed. Less than fifteen seconds from the sound of the shot, and he was laying behind her with a knife in hand, tremors going through him while Kate lazily peered down the barrel of her gun as if she were about to pick off tin cans.

Several tense minutes later there was the sound of an engine turning over and the slow crunch of snow and gravel under tires. The car moved in their direction slowly, the noise growing, and Kell readied himself to spring up and give Kate a distraction. Kell cursed himself for leaving his spear at home. It might not make much of a difference in a gun fight, but he had learned hurling six feet of metal at someone's face served as an excellent distraction.

Then the car's horn beeped in a familiar pattern, shave and a haircut. This was followed by a mad cackle instantly recognizable as Laura's victory noise. Kell heard it often enough when she trounced him at the pool table. Which happened exactly as often as they played.

The car, a faded green Taurus, slowly crept over the hill. Laura was in the driver's seat. Next to her sat a man who was in pain, pale and shaking, obvious even from a distance. Laura was driving with one hand, her left. In her right she held a massive handgun, bright and shiny, pressed hard enough against the prisoner's face that his head was shoved into the passenger window.

The Taurus came to a rolling stop in front of them. Laura grinned and shouted, “How much for a good time, ladies?”

The man with the gun to his head didn't laugh.

“
Wake up,” Kell said as he slapped the young man hard across the mouth.

He woke slowly. Not much of a surprise given the state he was in; his femur was broken by a bullet, torso bruised where Laura pummeled him into submission with the butt of her rifle. Anyone would fight against waking up to that kind of pain, and Kell noted coldly this was barely a man at all. Just a kid, really.

“Come on, son, wake up.” Kell slapped him again, much harder this time.

The boy took a sharp breath as his conscious mind discovered a world of pain. His eyes shot open, then, and Kell watched with perverse satisfaction as the prisoner took in his situation.

Tied to a steel chair, a belt cinched down on his broken leg tight enough to make it numb, and sitting in front of an angry giant. Those things were enough to shake anyone. But the room itself, if you could call it that, was a whole other level of unnerving. Plastic sheeting hung around them, thick and translucent enough that it was obvious they were in an otherwise dark space. A single naked bulb hung from the ceiling, casting light on a small table full of tools.

Cutting tools, mostly. There was also a drill.

The boy tried desperately to keep from meeting Kell's eyes, head whipping around as if he expected help to arrive.

Kell sat in the folding chair next to the table covered in gleaming steel. “What's your name?”

The boy went still, the last resort of prey suddenly aware a predator has it cornered.

Leaning forward in the chair, Kell snapped his fingers. “If I have to say everything twice, this is going to take a long time. And I just don't have the patience for that. Now. What is your name?”

“B-Ben,” the boy stammered. “Ben Carpenter.”

“
Ben, this is how it's going to be,” Kell said. “You're going to tell me everything. I want to know where your camp is, what the defenses are, why you're targeting people. Everything. I want details. I want to know everything you know.”

Fear on his face, Ben shook his head. “You don't know what they'll do to me if I give them up. I can't.”

With a sigh, Kell gestured to the table. “Look, son. You've seen enough movies to know where this is going. You're actually the lucky one in this scenario. You've got a chance to live, here. Your friends aren't going to be as lucky. You can tell me the easy way, with you and me sitting here in relative comfort...”

The plastic behind Ben's chair rustled and twitched aside. Kate and Laura came into the shrouded space, expressions grim as they stood on the other side of the table.

“The other option is I leave you alone with these two ladies and this table full of very sharp objects.”

From somewhere deep inside, the boy found some steel. “I can't.”

Kell stood as if to leave. “I have to say, I respect your willingness to suffer for the sake of your friends,” he said in a pleasant tone. “But I really should mention that my companions here were once captives of some very bad men. Men, I imagine, a lot like the people you're so keen to protect.”

Kell's voice broke into a growl. “I wish I could say it hurts my feelings that you're so loyal, but it would be a lie. I don't have a doubt in the world what happens to the girls you people steal. I'd also be lying if I told you I'm not looking forward to my friends here having a chance to see how the other half deals with the kind of abuse you've been so keen to dish out.”

The smile spreading across Kell's face held no warmth. “You're going to tell us what we need to know, Ben. It's your choice how hard or easy it's going to be.”

Kell left. He had expected the boy to give in at the last second. That was always how it happened in the movies, after all. As he made his way up the stairs, not at all eager to hear more than was necessary, a vague sadness fell over him. He, Laura, and Kate had agreed the room itself should be enough to scare the kid into giving them information, but on the off chance it wasn't, they would move forward as needed to find out what they had to know.

His stomach rolled, and he had to stop at the top of the stairs to suppress his rising gorge. The ladies would try psychology first, and even if it came to hurting Ben they wouldn't enjoy it no matter what kind of show they put on. He knew that.

But they
would
do it.

Which made him wonder for the thousandth time what they were becoming. Which led naturally to the far more disturbing possibility that they weren't actually changing, but rather simply being revealed.

He stepped from the stairs into the kitchen, but before reaching the other side of the smooth, heavy granite tiles a piercing wail filled the house. The power in it was unreal, loud enough that the intervening floor and walls did little to blunt the sound of it.

“
I'll talk, I'll talk!” Ben screamed. “Jesus, just put that down!”

Kell's legs went weak with relief. He turned to head back downstairs, but something on the counter caught his attention, giving him an idea.

Three minutes later he sat in front of Ben once more, careful to appear upset that Laura and Kate didn't get to supply him with new scars.

“
Came you your senses, I see,” Kell said. He took a bite of the sandwich he'd made. “Here's the deal. I'm going to have some lunch here, and you're going to talk. If, by the time I'm done, I think you've lied to me or held back, you're going to have a bad day. Understand?”

“
Yeah,” Ben said, tears rolling down his face. The front of his pants was soaked, urine dripping onto the floor. The smell was powerful in the small space, but Kell had years of practice eating meals in the lab. Smells didn't bother him.