“You’re not a vampire anymore, remember?”
“I know,” he said, but the look on his face suggested he’d forgotten. With a grimace, he lowered the face shield on his helmet and pulled a large knife out of a slot on his military vest. “Use knives and blunt force. Try to avoid shooting. We don’t want to draw more.” He looked at Hannah. “Stay with the baby. Chris, you’re with me.”
Before either of them could argue, he got out of the truck. He closed the door quietly and began his approach.
Hannah turned to Chris. “I’ll go. You stay with Noah.”
“He said for me to go.”
“He’s not thinking. It’s too soon. After what you’ve been through—”
“What, getting halfway eaten by those things?” He meant it to sound light and jokey, but it came out sullen and bitter, only proving her point. He pulled his arm out of her hand. “I can handle it.”
“Chris—”
“I won’t freak out and get us killed, if that’s what‘s worrying you. Besides, what if the baby wakes up and cries?”
“I gave him Benadryl before we left. He’ll be out for hours.” She shrugged. “I’m not mom of the year. Sue me.”
“I’ve got this, Hannah.” He climbed out of the truck and had to stop himself from slamming the door behind him. He crept after the doc who had almost reached the closest shambler. Suddenly he flew at it—not as fast as Chris had seen him move before, but still fast—and plunged the knife into its skull.
Chris took that as his cue. He pulled out his own knife and ran at a zombie faster than he’d ever thought possible. Forgetting himself, and the need for silence, he screamed a battle cry, fueled by fear. He stabbed its eye with perfect accuracy. Without pausing, he grabbed another and brought down the knife, caving in part of its skull. And then another, and another. It was the first time he’d let loose with his new strength, and it felt good. His fear melted away and he finally felt alive.
He reached for the last body standing, raising his knife only to have it wrenched out of his hand. “Christopher, stop!”
Panting, his heart hammering in his ears, he realized his mistake. The last one wasn’t a shambler. It was the doc. And Chris might have killed him.
“I’m okay,” he said. “I’m done.”
Konstantin released his arm and stepped back. “You sure?”
Chris nodded, then looked around at the bodies littering the street. “How many did you get?”
“Three, maybe four. The rest were all you.” There was something in his voice. Concern, maybe, and something else. Possibly a hint of fear. “Do you feel better?”
Looking at the corpses, Chris couldn’t help remembering the last time he’d faced a swarm. The pain and terror as they tore into him. He felt the burn of bile rising in his gorge and swallowed.
“Not really. Let’s go.” He felt the doc’s eyes following him as he marched back to the truck. Hannah stared at him, her face pale and worried.
She said nothing as he climbed into the cab. A moment later, the doc climbed back into the driver’s seat. He had put the truck in four-wheel drive to climb over the bodies. They drove on in silence.
THE TENSION IN THE truck felt as overpowering as the smell of rot and gore that clung to both men. Hannah chanced a sideways glance at Chris, who stared out the passenger window in sullen silence. She turned to Alek, who flashed her a grim look that told her he shared her concern.
It wasn’t the speed and efficiency with which Chris had attacked the shamblers that bothered her. That was nothing compared to the way Alek had dismembered the things with his bare hands when he was still operating on full vampire strength. But Chris’s rage had been plain to see, and he’d lost control. If Alek hadn’t been quick enough or strong enough to match him, Chris might have killed him.
Hannah shuddered and reached for Alek’s leg. She squeezed his thigh, needing to feel him, solid beneath her hand. He released the wheel with one hand and took hers, giving it a squeeze before letting go and making a left turn.
They came to another stop.
Up ahead were too many to count. They filled the street, stretching for an entire block.
“This time we go around, right?”
Alek’s jaw tightened. “The lab’s just ahead. We can’t get to it without going through them.” He put the truck in reverse. “Plan B, then. We’ll go to the hospital.”
“Are you sure it’ll be better there?”
“No. But we know they’re bad here.”
“Wait,” said Chris.
Alek stopped the truck. “What is it?”
“We can take them. You saw how much faster than them we are. We’ll have them cleared out in no time.”
“Are you insane?” asked Hannah. “There are at least a hundred. We’re immune but we’re not invulnerable.”
“Then we shoot through them.”
“And risk bringing every shambler in the city down on us,” Alek pointed out.
“So what happens if the hospital’s crawling with these things?”
“If it is, we’ll figure out a plan C. Preferably one that doesn’t involve suicide.”
“You think that’s what I’m trying to do?”
“I think you’re not displaying the best judgment right now.”
“Why? Because I got the job done back there?”
“Because you almost took off my head!”
They fell silent. Hannah hugged Noah and said a short prayer of thanks for the effectiveness of children’s antihistamines. Then something Alek said gave her an idea.
She unstrapped the baby carrier and handed Noah to Alek. “Here. Hold the baby.”
“What are you doing?”
She turned around and slid open the back window of the cab.
“Hannah, what are you doing?”
“We don’t want to bring them to us. But we can redirect them, right?” She flashed him a grin. “This is why we brought the big guns.”
She climbed through the window. Crouching in the back of the truck, she pulled back the tarp covering the assortment of weapons and artillery they’d brought in case they had to battle their way out of the city. She spotted what she was looking for and smiled.
Hannah opened the case that held the rocket launcher and began assembling it. A moment later, Chris crawled through the window to join her. “Do you even know how to use that thing?”
“Actually, yeah. One weird benefit of being raised by a gun nut.”
In minutes, she had it assembled and loaded. She propped it on the roof of the truck and pointed it at an empty parking structure two blocks over.
“You’re pointing it the wrong way.”
“No, I’m not.” She fired. Even with her enhanced strength, it knocked her on her backside. Before she even landed, the rocket exploded into the parking garage, raining down rubble and sending up a plume of black smoke and flame.
Chris took her hand and helped her to her feet, where she saw the result of her handiwork. The shamblers turned en masse and shuffled off toward the blast.
Hannah crawled back into the truck. She settled in her seat and turned to take the baby, only to see Alek giving her a look that sent shivers through her. Good shivers. The kind that made her wish they were alone.
“Nice work,” he said.
She smiled, resisting the urge to lean over and kiss him with enough force to make the rocket launcher doubt its own strength. “Thanks.”
Chris got back in the truck via the passenger door. The look he gave Hannah wasn’t so easy to read. He said nothing as he pulled the door shut.
Within minutes, the last of the shamblers cleared the street. Alek put the truck back in gear and pulled up in front of the lab. They piled out and went to the entrance, a set of double glass doors. Not only still intact but also locked. Alek swore as he peered inside.
“Maybe there’s a back way in,” Hannah suggested.
“If the alley’s not infested.”
Chris pointed at a second-s
tory window. “Someone left that open a crack.”
Hannah shielded her eyes from the sun as she gazed up at it. “How do we get up there?”
He looked at her, then at the window. Then he backed up several steps before taking a running leap. He gained enough height to grasp the window’s ledge. Fitting his toes into the grooves between the bricks, he gripped the ledge with one hand and used the other to pry open the window.
He grinned down at them. “Wait there. I’ll unlock the door.”
He pulled himself up and had both elbows hooked over the ledge when a shambler appeared in the window, groaning as it clawed at him, jaws chomping. Chris slipped, but held on as he grabbed the corpse by its rotting shirt and yanked it through the window. It plummeted headfirst onto the pavement with a sound Hannah associated with breaking watermelons open.
Still hanging there, Chris stared down at the corpse. When it didn’t move, he glanced at Hannah and Alek, and then hauled himself up and through the window.
Hannah felt Alek’s hand on her back. “And here you worried he wouldn’t recover.”
“Physically, sure. But emotionally?” She looked up at Alek. “That kid’s got issues.”
“Give him time.” He patted her back. “More of those things might be in there. Should I take the baby?”
She thought about it. Though he no longer had full vampire strength, he was still the more experienced fighter by far. She knew he’d die before allowing harm to come to Noah. But she didn’t like either of those prospects. Besides, in the time he’d been alive, protecting her brother had become second nature. “Thanks, but I’ve got him.”
He nodded. “In that case, stay between us until we get the building cleared. I’ll take the lead. Chris can watch your back.”
“To be honest, I’m not sure I find that reassuring.”
Before he could reply, Chris appeared and unlocked the door. “The building’s clear. The first couple of floors, anyway.”
Alek led the way inside. He pulled plastic shopping bags out of one of his pockets and handed one to each of them. “Take syringes, test tubes, stoppers, flasks—whatever you can carry. Keep an eye out for a centrifuge. It’ll resemble a high-tech pressure cooker with a hinged lid.”
“I know what they look like,” said Hannah.
“Should we split up?” asked Chris. “We’ll cover more ground that way.”
Alek shook his head. “It’s safer if we stay together.”
Chris looked like he wanted to argue, but then he swept his arm in an “after you” gesture. “You’re the boss.”
Alek led them past a set of office cubicles, to another roomful of cubicles containing medical equipment. They each filled their bags, taking care with the more fragile items.
After about fifteen minutes of scavenging, Chris pointed to a counter against the back wall. “Is that what you’re looking for?”
It was. The centrifuge still held tubes of coagulated blood and plasma. Alek removed them and laid them aside before closing it up and unplugging it from the wall. “We’ve got what we need. We should head back.”
Outside, the coast was still clear. The fire Hannah had started still raged, filling the air with thick smoke. Bits of ash rained down like dirty snowflakes.
“There’s one more thing we need.” Alek scanned the street, reading the signs on the doors. He pointed. “There, at the optometrist.”
“What,” said Chris, “you need glasses?”
Alek only glanced at him. “Wait in the truck, both of you. Get Noah out of this smoke and get the AC running. I won’t be long.” He set off across the street at a jog.
Hannah climbed in and started the truck while Chris secured their bounty in the back. Across the street, Alek tried the door which appeared locked. He pressed his face to the glass and cupped his hands around his eyes. After a moment, he crossed back to the truck and rummaged in the back before returning with a tire iron in his hand.
Chris got in the truck just as Alek smashed the glass. “You should go with him and watch his back,” she told him.
“He told me to stay with you and Noah. You’re more than welcome to go with him. I can watch the baby.”
Hannah merely looked at him.
“Yeah. That’s what I figured.”
“Chris—”
“Forget it.”
Hannah pressed her lips together, struggling for something to say. “It happened to me too, you know.” He said nothing, but he looked at her, and she took that as an invitation to continue. “I got bit. I died. Alek brought me back. And now I’m different, but still the same. It’s taking a lot of getting used to.”
“You got bit.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“Singular. One time. I was ravaged, Hannah. That’s not something you bounce back from.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry.”
He sighed. “You have nothing to be sorry for. You guys saved my life, and I’m grateful, even if I don’t seem like it. I just have a lot to figure out.”
“I get that. And for what it’s worth, you saved everyone from that horde. You saved your mom. She’ll be so happy to see you.”
“Yeah.” He didn’t sound convinced.
Noah began to squirm and sputter. “Oh, no,” Hannah said, right before he let out an ear-splitting cry.
“So much for the Benadryl,” said Chris. “Man, that kid’s got lungs.”
“He’s hungry. His diaper bag’s under the seat. I packed a bottle.” She held the baby close and patted his back while Chris bent over to retrieve the bag. “Shh, Boo. We’re getting your bottle.” She looked over at the eye clinic and saw no sign of Alek, but something moved in the corner of her eye. At the intersection, several shamblers shuffled back in their direction. Whether drawn by the door shattering or the crying was impossible to know for certain. Either way, they didn’t have much time. “Chris.”
“Hang on. The zipper’s stuck.”
“Chris!”
He raised up and saw them coming. “Oh. Crap.”
Hannah thrust the baby at him. “Take him.” He did, and Noah screamed even louder. Hannah slid into the driver’s seat and put the truck in gear. She drove past the eye clinic and then did a u-turn and parked on the sidewalk in front of the door. “Roll down the window.”
As soon as Chris cracked the window, she shouted, “Alek! We have company!” Whether he could hear her over the baby, she didn’t know, but there was no chance he didn’t hear the baby.
So did the shamblers. They turned onto the street and headed toward the truck. The rearview mirror showed more spilling out of the intersection behind. “Let’s go,” she muttered.
Alek appeared in the doorway, carrying a cardboard box. He set it in the back of the truck and hopped in. “Go!”
Hannah wanted nothing more, but there was nowhere to go. As if reading her mind, Alek shouted, “Just drive!” He crouched down to rummage in the back.
Hannah drove. Right into a swarm. She mowed down the first few rows but there were too many to keep going.
Alek stood up in the back, holding an M16 rifle. He opened fire, clearing a path, but they were still closing in on the back and sides, pressing in, reaching for him.
Hannah reached down and pulled her dad’s old .45 out of her ankle holster and handed it to Chris. “Cover him!”
He handed her the baby and turned to open the back window. As he leaned out and fired at the shamblers on the sides of the truck, Hannah settled Noah in her lap and put the truck in four-wheel drive. “Hang on!” she shouted, gunning it. The tires dug in and gained enough traction to climb over the bodies littering the road, and the truck picked up speed. They tore through the crowd. Hannah sped away from the swarm as Alek turned the assault rifle on the few still clinging to the truck. She didn’t stop until they reached the highway leading out of town.
When she did, Alek climbed out of the back. She moved over as he got into the driver’s seat. “What in the world was so important that we could
n’t leave when the coast was clear?”
He tossed her a small box. She caught it with a reflex that still amazed her. “Contacts?”
“Colored lenses. We’ll need them to pass for plain old human. I got enough for everyone who might need them.”
She handed the box to Chris and traded it for her brother. He had finally cried himself out, downgrading his angry shrieks to pitiful wales. Chris handed her a bottle.
“Thanks.” Noah reached for it as she brought it to his mouth, and as he settled back and enjoyed his meal, Alek put the truck in drive and started for home.
A home they’d soon be saying goodbye to. Maybe for good.
ELEVEN
IT WAS THE LAST NIGHT in Hannah’s own home, the last chance to sleep in her own bed. They’d only been hers for a few weeks, but she’d already grown attached, and it made her heart-sick to think of leaving for good. It hurt almost as much as getting forced out of her childhood home.
Was this her life from now on? Constantly getting uprooted and moved from one place to another, never any sense of permanence, never time to grow anything meaningful?
Hannah stood over Noah’s crib, watching him sleep in blissful ignorance of the upheaval they faced, of the dangers ahead. It broke her heart that this way of life, this world of monsters, of just trying to survive, would be his normal.
In the bathroom, the shower shut off. Moments later the door opened, and Alek’s soft footsteps moved toward her room. Hannah bent to kiss the baby, then met him there. He stood before the dresser, clad in only a towel, studying himself in the large mirror. His gaze focused on the same thing hers did—the shock of white-blond hair that replaced his dark brown locks. He glanced at her. “What do you think?”
She went to him and ran her fingers through it. Still damp, it curled slightly in front, where it was still long enough. She’d shorn the sides close with a set of clippers they’d liberated from the base’s barber shop. They found the peroxide in the store run by Chris and his mother.
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