Weird was a good way to summarize this man. He told her his name was Marco. He was frail, with a stiffness to him. Mechanical, but lacking grace. She asked for his hoodie next, then had him turn out his pockets. He took off his shoes and turned them upside down. He lifted his shirt to show nothing was underneath. Every order he obliged without dispute. There was a total lack of fear in his expression that made her uneasy. He had a sort of bright-eyed exuberance that she couldn’t understand. Like he was happy to be there.
He handed her the only other four items he’d kept on his person: a two-way radio, car keys, a bowie knife and a small brown leather-bound notebook.
“You’ve disarmed me,” he said, now dressed in just a black t-shirt and jeans. “I’m gonna put my hands down now.”
She allowed him that much. He turned to look back at the television set behind him, continuing to disrespect the power that she held in her hand. He doesn’t believe I’ll kill him. Still, glancing back like that could have been a way to divert her attention. She let him stare at the screen a long moment, keeping her eyes on the back of his head. No, not the head. Watch his hands. They’ll signal his true intentions. Zeke’s words, coming back to her. His hands looked as tense as the rest of him, but they remained by his sides. He didn’t seem to be up to anything. She chanced a look up at the screen in question. The scavenger in the red jersey had toppled a chair and was yelling something at Jacob Crowe, though his screams were faint and muffled through the door. Crowe sat behind his desk now, shriveled and completely shaken. She recalled seeing the old man when they’d rushed by to get into the safe room. Why had he stayed? Why hadn’t he locked himself in this room, before anyone else had a chance?
“Do you care about the old man there?”
“What?”
“The old man. As soon as he tells Knox about the safe room, Knox is gonna torture him to try and draw us out.”
“I don’t.”
“If you do, you should tell me.”
“I said I don’t.”
“He’s gonna question him too, to try to get in. Is there any way in from the outside?”
“It’s a panic room.”
“So?”
“So, that means it can only be opened from the inside,” Justine said.
Marco glanced back at the screen. He scratched his head.
“Do you umm… do you know that, or are you basing this completely on the Jodie Foster movie?”
She exhaled through her nostrils, fuming.
“Just asking,” he said. “You don’t need the gun, you know. I told you, we’re on the same side.”
“And I heard you. But I’ll keep it anyway, thanks.” She glanced up at the screen. “He’s the Knox?”
“Yeah.”
“You know him?”
“A little. I was a Stray, and him and one other guy caught me, forced me to join up with them. The three of us were on our way here to find you. He’s umm…he’s kind of a dick, actually.”
“So, you came here with him.”
“No. I stole his motorcycle and took off. Then I found Conrad’s diary there, with the coordinates to you. I came here to find you before he did.”
Conrad. Her expression must’ve changed with the realization. Surely he saw it. She tried to make her face a mask, the way Zeke always did.
“Your rescue mission isn’t going so well,” she said.
“To be honest, I’m kind of surprised I got this far.”
“Are there others coming? More Bloodline?”
“No. At least from what he told me, Knox is the only one we’ll have to worry about.”
“What about this other guy?”
The man’s face darkened suddenly. He lowered his eyes.
“He’s dead.” Marco let the words hang in the air a moment, as if it were queer to him to say them out loud. “Gunned down on the way here by some scavengers on the road. The Bloodline have a lot of enemies.”
She rested the pistol up on her shoulder, but still refused to put it down.
“You don’t believe me,” he said.
“I know you and Knox showed up within ten minutes of one another. And I know people will say all kinds of things when you put a gun in their face.”
“I guess that’s true.” He slid down to the floor, to a sitting position, with his knees up by his chest. “But,” he said, snapping a finger, “if I’m with him, why would I close the door? Why would I lock us in here?”
“I don’t know.”
“What, wait for reinforcements? The Bloodline want you dead. The skeleton crew you had protecting you, they did nothing. Look how easily he got rid of them,” Marco said, pointing a finger up towards the screen behind him.
“What’s your plan then, hero boy?”
He chewed his lip. She wasn’t sure which word had offended him, but one of the two hit home.
“I…I don’t know. If we try to wait him out, he could call in others from the Bloodline. No matter what is in those cabinets, they’ve got more food than we do. They could wait us out forever.”
“Attack, then.”
“No. No way.”
“Why?”
“Look…I’ve seen him put out a tire from fifty yards. Your friend Conrad, he had a hole in his hand from playing quick draw with Knox. We can’t beat him. Not in a fair fight.”
Zeke could.
“All I know is,” Marco continued, “we open that door, we’re both dead. And fast.”
She looked up at the screen. Knox had begun to walk along the walls. He drew closer to them, to the bookcase that had been pushed aside and the false door, painted green to blend into the walls. He lifted a fist, and knocked. It must have clanged like metal.
Immediately, the scavenger stiffened. Then a smile parted his lips. He glanced back at Crowe, then groped at the wall, searching for a secret switch. Some way in. Marco had turned to watch too. Both he and Justine were silent, breathless, as Knox clawed at the sides and bottoms of the door. He kicked and slapped a palm against it, yelling. All sounds were muffled on this end. Hardly there at all.
Knox took a step back and drew his big six-shooter, pointing it down to the very spot where Marco was sitting, and fired.
Both he and Justine instinctively ducked for cover, but the bullet ricocheted off the door, zipping back behind Knox and into the back wall. Crowe too had his arms raised above his head. He clutched his chest with one arm.
“FUCK!” Knox yelled.
That one she was able to make out through the wall. Knox snarled, turning back towards Crowe. He wrapped a hand around the old man’s throat and lifted him from behind the desk, screaming at him in a red rage. Knox tossed him to the floor, and the old man landed awkwardly, his cane bouncing and twirling away from him until it too laid in rest. Knox hovered over him, chest heaving in and out. He was still holding that revolver.
It was so quiet inside these walls. Quiet enough that she could hear both herself and Marco breathing. She felt her heart pounding inside her chest. She wiped her brow with her free hand, probably smudging her makeup even further.
“Grab the remote next to you,” she said to Marco. She’d nearly forgotten. All the rooms were bugged. With a press of a button, they had audio.
Knox put his six-gun back into its holster.
“You might not want to watch this part,” Marco said.
“Quiet,” she said.
Staring down with a crazed look in his eye, chest heaving in and out, Knox reached for something in his back pocket. He held it out before him, unfurling it. A barber’s blade. A straight razor.
4
-VIOLENCE ON T.V.-
-Marco-
THE OLD MAN didn’t need to be restrained. Knox pulled his high-backed black chair away from his desk and set it in the middle of the floor. He propped the old man up in his seat. His cane remained on the floor behind them, forgotten. Jacob Crowe was shaking like a leaf.
The camera hung in the far right corner of the room, so Marco and Justine were of
fered a perfect view of the duo. Up, and to the side. He couldn’t help but feel like he was behind his desk again at Outpost Four, watching his drone hover over the silent city, the wasted ruins that had once been Garland. He relished this feeling of seeing but not being seen. Part of it was that rush he assumed Peeping Tom’s get in viewing something they aren’t supposed to. But, it was also like a science experiment. A candid camera, showing people how they really were.
Except for this time. Nothing felt good about this.
“I…I…I…have an offer for you,” the old man said. His voice was hoarse. He spoke not to Knox, but to his blade.
“I wasn’t aware this was a negotiation.”
“The girl. She’s yours.”
In unison, it seemed like both Marco and Justine forgot to breathe.
“I know she’s mine. We’re just waiting for her to come on out.”
“I’ll make it easy for you.”
“It’s already pretty easy. She your granddaughter?”
“No, no,” he said, a little insulted. “We’re of no blood relation. I bartered for her.”
“Who was selling?”
“Zeke the Dollface.”
That seemed to pique Knox’s interest. He took a seat on the bed, opposite Crowe, and grabbed a gold colored throw pillow. He placed it beside him and set down his little blade on it.
“What for?”
“I financed a journey of his. Into Garland. A doomed quest, but it’s what he wanted.”
“Financed. You mean food and bullets. You seriously purchased the Apocalypse Maiden.”
“We came to an agreement, yes.”
“Alright,” Knox scratched the back of his neck. “And what, you expect me to pay you?” He turned his head and spat on the floor. “You want, what? Food and bullets?”
He raised his eyebrows, smirking. As if to say I dare you.
“No. I’m offering you a…a partnership. Kill her if you must, but study her first. Whatever research your people have done at the Armory, you can compare your data to ours and-”
“We don’t do research at the Armory.”
“I apologize. I assumed, a man in your condition would have a thirst for the knowledge-”
“My condition?”
“Your symptoms are quite advanced. Maybe moreso than I’ve ever seen. May I inspect your teeth, please?”
He held out a hand, which Knox swatted away.
“Who the fuck are you?”
“Jacob Crowe. And you are?”
“What is this place?”
“This is my home. This is where we’ve been doing our research. Since the outbreak.”
“What research?”
“I…I heard about the virus when it was still contained to Garland. When barely anyone knew about it. It horrified me, the sight of it. Reminded me of old monster movies I watched when I was a lad. So, I pooled my resources. I sacrificed what wealth I had to purchase this manor and stock it with enough food to last us half a decade. I turned a walk-in freezer downstairs into a lab. And then I recruited residents from the surrounding towns. Scientists, doctors, scholars. Many of them retired, but still…the brightest minds in Garland County all gathered here. When the quarantine walls went up, we barricaded ourselves inside this perfect sanctuary. I assumed the outside world would become more dangerous, but I never imagined the level of chaos it’s come to. Anyway, the people here who didn’t have a role became the test subjects. We learned that the illness was bloodborne, but that didn’t explain why it was travelling so fast. The symptoms also seemed almost non-existent, save for the obvious ones. The physical attributes, the heartbeat sound.”
“Two years of research and you learned nothing.”
“We learned plenty. And I think we could learn even more by studying your blood, sir. If we could just work together…if…” He exhaled deeply. “…Please?”
Knox lifted the knife from its resting spot beside him, causing Crowe to tense up. Knox held it out before him, examining it.
“Tell me what you found.”
“We…we had a man here named Liam. He had somehow avoided the virus. We had him set up in the guest house, back behind that pond, so as to prohibit all unnecessary contact with the rest of us. We took blood samples from him regularly to use as a control. With Liam…when his cells came in contact with infected blood, they too would begin to show the characteristics of the infected. You see, he wasn’t immune…just very fortunate. We assumed Justine would be the same. All of the fanfare that came with that title, Apocalypse Maiden, we figured it was just hullabaloo. Surely, there wasn’t a true immune amongst us. Still, it was useful to have her to use as another control, like Liam. So, I gave Zeke what he required and let her into my home. We examined her blood, her hair, her skin cells. But, it wasn’t like Liam’s. Quite the contrary. Justine’s blood much more closely resembled ours.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying the Maiden isn’t clean. The virus, it’s just camouflaged. And there’s more to it than just that, I’m afraid. We keep blood samples in vials here. We put a sample of Liam’s beside Justine’s one night. Overnight, the virus spread. It passed through glass, through air. It infected Liam’s sample by simple proximity, like it had a…a poisoned aura. Two weeks after Justine’s arrival, Liam contracted.”
Marco glanced back and caught her eye. She was breathing hard again. Her grip on the pistol at her side seemed to tighten.
“A few weeks later, Liam killed himself. Off in that guest house, alone, he slit his wrists. Might be he was trying to rid himself of the infected blood. It worked eventually, as it does with all of us. The virus dies with the body.”
“You ever seen symptoms like mine?”
“Once. Do you get headaches?”
Knox nodded.
“Pain in your back?” Crowe asked. “In your gums?”
“I chew gum to keep my mouth moving. Takes my mind off the pain. Keeps me from screaming.”
“You’re teething, aren’t you?”
“Maybe.”
“Let me see.”
Again Crowe reached out. Knox recoiled, baring his teeth.
“Easy now,” Crowe said. “Easy. Listen…you keep me alive and I’ll help you. Let me help you. We’re not so different, you and I.”
“You can’t help me.” He rose and paced away, angrily. Growling, he punched the steel door. “Come out! Stop wasting my fucking time!” Knox put a hand to his own head, seething. “What happened…to the man you found? The one with the symptoms?”
“He grew fangs. Like you are.”
Knox turned back, eyes peeled.
“What?” he snarled.
“His teeth fell out and he grew fangs. We tried to study him, to keep him restrained, but it only lasted a night or two after his symptoms showed. He must’ve noticed that we were treating him differently. And of course we asked him to hide it from the other guests. About a week later, he left in the night and never returned. Sometimes I used to think I’d dreamed it all up.”
“Where the fuck are your scientists? I don’t see any people.”
“Justine chased them off. She’s got a gun in there. My guests are still scattered nearby. But…” he said, raising a finger, “but, you and I…we could track them down. We can do it all again, all the research, except with you here. You could live like a king, my friend. With great minds at your disposal. We can beat this. We can understand it…find a cure. If you must kill the girl now, we’ll study her body post-mortem. We-”
“Your friend, did he ever say anything about the Pulse talking to him?”
“What?”
“The heartbeat. Was he able to understand it?”
“No. He didn’t talk about the sound.”
Knox let out a deep sigh. He stepped back towards the seated patriarch.
“Are you a scientist, Jacob?”
“No.”
“So, this whole offer of yours…you’d just be putting me in contact with your scientists
?”
“Well, I’d do more than that, I-”
“So, you’d be like a middle man.”
“No, you have to understand-”
“What I understand is that the bug activates in certain people and not in others. I’ve been chosen and you haven’t. Whatever else there is to learn, my body will tell me.”
“You’d be a fool to turn me down.”
“Then I’m a fool.”
“I don’t understand. Why isn’t the Armory doing research? You, Justine, Zeke, you’ve got so much at your disposal and yet you all do nothing. All you do is mess things up! Like savages! Am I the only one acting logically?! Am I the only one who wants to fix all of this?!”
Knox checked his watch.
“You about done?” He twirled the little knife in his hand.
“You….you still mean to torture me. After everything. I…I don’t understand.”
“Nah. I’m not gonna torture you. What do I look like? I’m not a masochist.”
“Oh, thank God.”
“However…I do have a reputation to uphold.”
He slashed at the old man’s throat. Once, then back the other direction. Quick as the flick of a wrist. Crowe’s eyes bugged out and his wrinkled old hands shot up to the wound, but it was too late. Bright red blood was spurting out of him, onto his hands, onto his neck, onto his expensive suit. He spat and convulsed. Knox stood beside him, hardly paying attention. Hands at his side, the Bloodline scavenger stood with his eyes low, hair in his eyes. A statue. An upright corpse. The straight razor remained in hand, more red than silver. The blood slid down the blade, bubbling into drops at the tip of the knife and then dropping one by one onto the carpet below.
Out from the screen, back in that cramped safe room, Marco looked away. He turned his head, nausea swelling inside of him. For a moment, he thought he might retch. His stomach was damn near empty. He figured it’d be water, mostly, but still he held it in. He looked back at the girl with the gun. She was still looking at the screen. Justine hadn’t averted her eyes as he had. Her nose was wrinkled, jaw clenched. Still, she stared.
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