“Ready?” she asked. Everyone nodded.
Tessa yanked the door open; the boys lifted their guns. There was a moment of silence. Simon felt as if his head was going to snap off from the tension in his shoulders. The lab was dark, but nothing lurched out at them. That was a good sign.
“Here.” Dodge handed Simon a flashlight without taking his eyes from the door. Simon lowered his gun and clicked on the flashlight. Slowly he swung the beam over silver work tables piled with lab equipment no one would use again. Still nothing. He swept it upwards, checking the ceiling just to be safe.
“We’re good,” Dodge said. The tension eased as everyone lowered their guns. “Simon, give me your gun and the flashlight.” Simon handed them both to Dodge and took Dodge’s bigger gun in return.
Dodge stepped into the room, flashlight and gun up. He swept them over first one side of the door, and then the other. He relaxed and traded guns with Simon again. “Yeah, nothing here.”
“Jesus Christ,” Zeke muttered, wiping at his brow. Simon was surprised to see him so nervous. Zeke was usually a pillar of cool. Then again, getting high and walking through an abandoned hospital had to be bad for your nerves.
“It’s just back here,” Tommy said happily. He approached a shelf that stood sticking out from the wall at an angle. He grabbed an end and began to pull it out further.
“I’ll get the other side,” Dodge said. He handed his gun to Simon again and stepped in to help. In seconds, the shelf had swung out far enough for them to see the door hidden behind it.
“Crap.” Dodge lifted his gun. “Okay everyone, guns at the ready again. Tessa, get the door.”
“Oh, hell no,” Zeke said. He took two steps forward and shoved open the door.
Simon fumbled, dropping Dodge’s gun and trying to lift his own as a zombie roared out of the doorway. Its teeth snapped together rapidly as it reached for Zeke. Dancing backwards faster than he could raise his gun, Zeke fell over a desk, landing safely away from the zombie. Its head jerked in the other direction, its rotten nose twitching and attempting to scent them. Dodge crawled across the floor, shoving Tommy aside as he reached for his gun.
The zombie moaned and lunged at Tessa. Letting out a yelp, she swung the bat. It connected with the zombie’s head, but only stunned him. Shaking its head once, it lurched for her again, dead fingers clutching at her shirt and trying to pull her closer. Unable to get a good swing at it, Tessa shoved the end of the bat into the things chest and pushed. Something in its chest cracked, and it was forced to take one, then two steps back.
As the distance widened between Tessa and the zombie, Simon lifted his gun. His hands shook, but no one else seemed to be doing anything to stop the thing. He took a deep breath, pushing his fear aside and steadying his hands. A second later, he squeezed the trigger.
The shot was an explosion in the small room. Instinctively the others ducked, but the shot had been good. Simon watched as the zombie fell to the side, its head half blown off. It landed on the floor with a thud. Dodge jumped to his feet, shotgun now in hand. He took two steps and pressed the barrel of the gun to the zombie’s head and pulled the trigger. The boom was even louder, and Simon’s ears rang as he moved to Tessa’s side, but the zombie wouldn’t be getting up.
In the silence, Zeke began to giggle. He leaned on the desk, covering his mouth with both hands in an effort to keep the laughter inside.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Dodge took two steps toward Zeke.
“I couldn’t do it again.” Zeke backed into the wall, laughter fading. “All that watch the door and we’re clear stuff got to my head.”
“And that zombie almost got your head because you acted like an ignorant scrab.” Dodge stood less than a foot from Zeke, shotgun clutched tightly in one hand.
“Sorry.” Zeke cringed.
“We do this safe,” Dodge shouted, slamming his palm against the wall beside Zeke.
“Yeah, okay.” Zeke nodded, licking his lips nervously. “Whatever you say.”
They were all silent as Dodge hovered over Zeke. Simon half expected Dodge to hit him, but he didn’t. After a moment, Dodge snorted a small laugh and backed away. “You shoulda seen your face when that thing came out.”
“Yeah?” Zeke asked smiling nervously and standing straighter. “If you all smell something it’s just the load I dropped in my pants.”
Simon shook his head and knelt beside Tessa. “Are you okay?” Simon helped her up. She nodded, but she was shaking.
“Yeah,” Tessa said. “Wow, that wasn’t what I expected. They’re worse close up.”
“That was so friggin epic,” Tech said, grinning widely. “Simon, you blew that scrab right off her.”
“I thought I was dead,” Tommy said. He lay on the floor and looked pale as paper, but he was grinning as well.
“We damn well might have been,” Dodge said. Simon could tell he was fighting his smile. “Damn, Simon, I told you we needed you around.”
“Thanks.” Tessa took Simon by surprise, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing the breath out of him. “That bat was pretty useless,” she said when she pulled away.
“No problem.” Simon grinned. Now that it was over, the whole thing seemed exciting, especially with the others laughing it off.
“So awesome,” Zeke said, chuckling to himself as he climbed over the desk.
Dodge leaned down to pull Tommy up. “Okay, Simon got his chance to be a hero, but let’s not do that again. We’re all prepared before we open doors from here out.” He shoved Zeke and went to look through the door. “We got stairs, and another door. This is looking more and more like what we’re looking for. No games this time.” Dodge glared at Zeke.
Zeke nodded, and Dodge clattered down the now empty stairs with the others close behind. The whole group came to a stop in front of the door at the bottom of the stairs. Dodge lifted his gun and looked at the others. They all lifted their weapons. With a deep breath, Dodge took the handle and shoved it down; nothing happened.
“Uh, Dodge?” Dodge turned to Tech, who pointed to the key card slot installed beside the door.
“Damn it,” Dodge swore and punched the door with the heel of his hand. “Damn it,” he said again, cradling his hand. “It’s made out of lead or something.”
“They don’t make things out of lead anymore,” Tech said distractedly as he knocked on the door and felt it. “But whatever it’s made of is thick and tough. Those are both good things. Taken along with the need for the key card they practically guarantee we’re not going to find a closet back here.”
“Or anything else without the key card,” Simon pointed out.
“Okay.” Dodge shook his head, finally letting go of his hand. He nodded. “Okay. Tech and I will search the people upstairs. You all look in the apartments. Bring any key cards you find.”
“Alright,” Zeke said. “Tommy, you wanna come with me?”
“Yeah.” Tommy nodded.
Zeke gave Simon a half grin and a quick wink before turning to the stairs. Tommy followed Zeke up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Simon looked at Tessa, scared and excited to have been left alone with her.
“We’ll go look at some of the apartments on the east side of base,” Tessa said. “Come on.” She tugged on Simon’s sleeve to get him to follow.
“Stash your weapons in the lab, I don’t want the others asking questions yet. Be back here in an hour,” Dodge called after the four of them as he and Tech began to wearily climb the stairs.
14
John Kahne Medical Center
The group gathered with surprising speed and efficiency, in Cale’s opinion. He found it reassuring. Back at Culex, things had begun to fall apart long before he left. No one wanted to be the one making decisions and the place began to go wild. The night before he set off to find the cure the message spoke of, a man pulled a gun on him over a bag of chips. That had been the last straw.
Seeing Grace and Quigley shout orders and the others scurry to do as they were told was somewhat comforting. Zero looked overwhelmed by it all as he sat on a bench watching. Someone had found him a clean pair of jeans and a t-shirt which was only a little tight on him. He still looked pale and over-tired, but being out of hospital pajamas made him look much healthier.
“Here.” Cale held out a gray zip-up sweatshirt from the lost and found.
“Thanks, man.” Zero slipped on the sweatshirt and zipped it up. “I owe you one.”
“No problem.” Cale nodded. He couldn’t help but like the guy even as he hated the looks Zero got from Alice. “It’ll be gettin’ cold out there soon.”
Zero nodded, scratching his nose. “This is all kind of crazy, huh?”
“Really crazy,” Cale agreed as he sat beside Zero. “Glad it’s going this way though, I woulda hated to have to take off for Coda on my own.”
“I would have gone along with you, and I bet Alice would have too,” Zero assured him. The words made Cale smile. He would have welcomed their company. Zero continued. “Staying here would have been madness. At least this way we have a better chance of finding out more about that so-called cure of yours.”
“If I have anything to do with it, the cure’s gonna be called the ‘death vaccine’ when our story is told,” Cale said. He leaned back with a grin, acting much more sure of himself than he felt. “Sounds good, don’t it?”
“Accurate at least,” Zero agreed.
“You gonna be okay to walk all the way?” Cale asked. Up close it was hard to miss how tired Zero looked. Dark bags hung beneath his eyes, and his skin had the pale look of someone long overworked.
“If a bunch of rug rats can make it, so can I, even I’m down a few vials of blood thanks to the good doctors,” Zero insisted. He shifted to look over his shoulder to where Alice was organizing the so-called rug rats.
In truth most of them were past rug rat age, though only a few were in their teens. Most of them fell between seven and twelve. One little girl and a whole group of boys; not what one would call great odds for the future. Alice saw him looking her way and gave him a brief smile before zipping up the jacket of the little boy in front of her.
“What do you think of it being mostly kids who are immune to this business?” Cale asked, looking back at Zero.
“It’s like the Bible says.” Zero grinned, turning back to Cale.
“What?” Cale had never really been a bible thumper.
“Alright, listen up.” Grace clapped. Her clear voice sent a hush over the group as they looked to her for their instructions. “I’ll lead along with Bailey and Corwin. Quigley, Jake, and Turner are going to take up the rear. Kids will be in the middle and the rest of you either in front or behind them. Are we clear?” There was no answer, which was their general response for yes. “Good. Anyone who has any experience with a gun is welcome to take one. Any weapons we don’t carry will be left behind. We have enough food for the day, maybe one more if we need to stretch it. I hope we don’t need to.”
Grace stepped down. Almost everyone stepped forward to grab a gun of some sort.
“And a child shall lead them,” Zero finished as he and Cale stepped towards the table of weaponry.
“Huh?” Cale glanced at Zero, wondering if the man had gone batty.
“It says that in the Bible.”
“It’s all a bunch of crap.” Cale shook his head.
Alice stepped toward the weapons. Cale and Zero exchanged a surprised glance as Alice picked up two hand guns, checking the safety on each and sliding one into her waistband.
“What?” she asked, catching their looks.
“Just a lot of weapon for an intern.” Cale smiled.
“Not really, I could have gone with the shot gun, but I wanted more rounds.” Alice shrugged and took the hand of the smallest boy. “I grew up on base. You learned how to shoot.”