by Karen Carr
“We have to get to the tobacco buildings before they find Huck and the others. You have to kill all the flesh dolls in the tobacco buildings so that they can’t use them to torture our friends.”
“How are we going to get out of here?” I asked.
“Why are you asking me?” Zeke asked. “I’ve never been here, remember? Maybe we can get to the pickup.”
“The pickup is probably buried under thousands of corpses by now.” I felt my body begin to shake. “Zeke, I’m scared.”
“Scared, you? Don’t be.” He pulled me close to his body for warmth. “We’re going to get through this together. I won’t let you down.”
“Like I let Huck down?” I asked.
“Huck doesn't let anyone get him down,” Zeke said. There was anger in his voice.
“Or Stan or Saudah.”
“Stop it,” Zeke said. “Stop feeling sorry for yourself. We have to get out of here. If they know about your virus, then they won’t harm you. They’ll want you alive.”
“So that they can torture me and take my cells to do experiments?” I asked.
“Over my dead body,” Zeke said.
“I hope not,” I said.
“I’m glad you feel that way,” Zeke said.
“You’re growing on me,” I said.
“What if we just stay here?” I asked.
“Not going to work. Close your eyes and count to ten. Take yourself back to when you were here. Where are the other exits? What is the best way out of here?”
I closed my eyes and tried to remember life before the Apox. I saw my friend’s face, but her name escaped my mind. With my eyes closed, the silent and humid building played tricks on me. I could hear the office workers complaining about the heat, and talking about what they were going to have for lunch, and fighting over who had the better computer—mundane stuff that seemed trivial in the world today.
“I don’t know the building that well. I only visited my friend a few times and I took the elevator. There’s a service elevator that leads directly to the parking lot. We used it to get down to the bottom faster. I think there are stairs over there too.”
“Then that’s where we are going.” Zeke grabbed my hand. “We’re going to have to move fast. I’ll let you lead us there.” Zeke took another last look through the binoculars. “They’re coming.”
Zeke handed me his set so that I could take a look. The gates of the tobacco building had opened and dozens of men were marching out of it, all in uniform and heavily armed. Seeing the scumbags coming toward us made me wish my virus worked on people. I could take an Uzi to that crowd, and in one swoop machine gun them down. But, where would humanity be then? I was losing my old self, the one that cared about saving the people, everyone and all included.
I grabbed Zeke’s hand and we raced around the maze of cubes to the service elevator. It was behind locked metal doors, but Zeke had no problem picking the lock. We closed the doors behind us. We were now alone with the elevator and stairs. Thankfully these stairs did not have garbage cans keeping them open.
Zeke picked the lock of the door leading to the stairs. “Come on.” He ushered me through and we began the long descent down ten flights of steps.
“Whose great idea was this?” I asked on the fifth floor.
“To climb so high in the first place? I think it was yours,” Zeke said. His tone was teasing, but it made me feel bad. I hated making mistakes.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Come on, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”
Three more flights and we heard the distinctive sound of the door opening below us. Zeke grabbed my arm and pulled me back. He quickly picked the lock of the second floor door. We quietly went out the door and onto the floor before the people coming up the stairs could see us.
“What’s next?” Zeke asked. We were in the small room next to the elevator.
“Me again?” I asked.
“Come on, don’t think. Some of the best ideas are spontaneous.”
“Elevator shaft?” I asked.
“Great idea,” Zeke said. “I told you so.”
“I was joking,” I said.
“No choice,” he said. “They’ve surely covered the other set of stairs. We’ll be caught. They’ll never expect this.”
Zeke pried open the doors. “See my architecture degree is coming in handy. All elevators have a manual opening device in case of power outages.”
Crap. “I don’t like heights.”
“It’s just two floors,” Zeke said. “There’s a ladder on the inside, see.”
I peered inside. The ladder was a dinky looking set of metal tubes running up and down the shaft with small poles crossing it several feet apart. “I don’t think that’s a ladder.”
“Sure it is.” We heard footsteps in the stairwell. “Come on, we don’t have much time. I can’t get the doors closed again. They’ll figure all of this out shortly.”
Zeke climbed in the shaft and helped me maneuver in front of him. We both went down the ladder, with his body on top of mine and his hands guiding us down the shaft.
It wasn’t so bad with his support and we traversed the two floors in a matter of minutes. He pried the bottom doors open and helped me jump to safety. We are on the mezzanine level and still had to sneak down through the parking lot.
“When this is all over, I want to soak in a hot tub,” I said.
“I think I can find you a hot spring,” Zeke said. “But not a hot tub.”
“Darn it, can you build me one?” I asked.
“Come on, Zombie Killer. Let’s get out of here. Lead the way.”
We snuck through the mezzanine and into the parking lot below. There were three floors of parking lot, each with an entrance at a different level because the building was built into a hill.
I guided Zeke to the deck that was nearest to ground level. We snuck through the deck, which was devoid of cars except for a couple. Several hundred zeroes had made it up this far and they were strewn about the parking lot haphazardly.
Walking close to the bodies made them human again, with men in jeans and women in slacks. I tried not to focus on the corpse as we tripped over them. I was leading the way and had to keep focused on our mission. It was hard not to think of the dead and dying when we were surrounded by them.
Suddenly, we saw two men coming. Zeke grabbed me and pushed me behind a large garbage bin.
“He said she would be near,” a female voice said. “Follow the path of the dead and we will find her. The path is going that way, look.”
I gave Zeke a knowing glance. They had said she. They knew they were looking for a woman. They knew they were looking for me. They knew about my virus. I thought about Sivan’s words. I would have to kill Mace Duce before he killed me, but first I was going to kill Trevan.
“I’m going ahead,” a man said. “You stay here and wait for the others. Tell them which way I went.”
The footsteps disappeared off into the distance. Suddenly, Zeke jumped out of our hiding spot.
“Zeke, wait,” I said. I reached for his shirt.
“Stay here,” he said. He took my hand and squeezed it gently. He vanished around the bin.
I heard a scuffle and a few seconds later he returned dragging an unconscious woman. “Is she dead?” I asked.
“I didn’t kill her, come on.” Zeke looked baffled. “I am not a cold blooded murderer. Get her clothes. You’re going to need a uniform like me.”
I took her clothes and changed into them, leaving her my yoga pants. I kept my favorite shirt on under the uniform and left her bra, so she wasn’t completely naked. When I emerged from behind the garbage cans Zeke looked at me and frowned.
“What’s the matter?” I asked.
“It just doesn’t suit you.”
“It doesn’t have to. Do I look the part?”
“Not quite, but close enough.” Zeke straightened out my collar.
Soon we were out of the parking garage and walking
toward the tobacco buildings. We tried to look like we were part of their team, like we were looking for me.
“Put your military face on,” Zeke said.
“I don’t have a military face,” I said.
Zeke looked at me. “You are right. I wouldn’t worry about it, Hella. You are tougher than any of these sissies. These guys aren’t real federally trained troops. Anyone can tell that. In a pinch, you will kick their asses.”
We were a block from the tobacco buildings when we encountered a dozen men jogging toward us in a row.
“Limp,” Zeke whispered to me. I started limping.
“You been out there?” one man asked.
“Sure have,” Zeke said. “It’s crazy. They’re all dead. Thousands of them. Dana, here, twisted her ankle trying to get through.”
“Dames, huh? I don’t know why they send them out here. Head in then, we’ll take over.”
“Yes sir.” Zeke saluted and they left us alone.
Shortly after that, we were standing in front of the open gates of the tobacco building being ushered inside by another guard. “We’re about to close up until we get orders.”
We went inside and found ourselves standing in what used to be the quads of the condos that were here, with park benches and brick paths leading around the iron fenced community. Before, the fences kept the riff raff out, and now it held back the undead. Now, as the doors clanged shut, it also kept us in.
“Now what?” Zeke asked.
“I don’t know, I’ve never been here.”
‘Ok, my turn. Do you trust me?” Zeke asked.
“Yea, of course,” I said. “Let’s find Saudah.”
Zeke listened for a moment and watched people walking around performing their tasks. They all looked like they were going somewhere or doing something. Some were carrying weapons, others bloody rags, still others strange looking chains.
“This way,” Zeke said, following someone with chains.
We followed the man and woman down two halls that were previously apartments but now were something else entirely. The corridors were empty but showed signs of struggle everywhere. The floors were mopped but traces of blood remained. Spatter marks were smeared on the walls.
Each apartment had a number painted on it, and hash marks. The markings gave me an eerie sense of death. Ana had been able to describe some of this, and by her description we were going in the right direction.
Suddenly, two men came around the corridor dragging someone between them. I gasped and gagged when I realized it was Stan. Before the two men noticed my reaction, Zeke swept me up and kissed me, making the others scoff and cheer.
Zeke’s mouth tasted like a cold glass of water, and his tongue was warm and probing against mine. He pressed his leg into my thigh and I felt the pressure of his groin against my hip. I reached for his neck and murmured for him to stop, my words sounding fake as I let him push his lips against my mouth again.
“That was Stan,” I said. I felt woozy from seeing Stan or Zeke’s kiss, I wasn’t sure which.
“Yea, I know,” Zeke said.
We waited for the men to get a little farther ahead and began to follow them. They turned down another two corridors before entering a wide long hall. We followed them down as they opened an iron gate and passed through, leaving it open.
Zeke paused at the gate. “Something’s wrong,” he whispered. “This is too easy.”
“You think it’s a trap?” I asked.
Before I could answer, men appeared all around us. One of them hit Zeke from behind and he collapsed forward. He regained his footing and turned around, just to receive the butt of a rifle in his face. That’s when I saw him. The Beefcake was standing before us.
“Hello Hella,” the Beefcake said.
I ran over and kicked him in the balls. I was about to bite him when he called to the others.
“Cover her head. She sees nothing.” He grabbed my breast and squeezed it hard. He clamped my jaws shut while the others put a hood over my head. I heard Zeke still fighting, pounding fists into flesh. I was sure they were pulverizing him.
I felt the beefcake’s hand on my rear. “I’ll be back for you later,” he said. “Lock her in with the others.”
They dragged me, kicking and screaming for Zeke, down several halls hall. I couldn’t see a thing with the hood over my eyes. They had tied my hands behind my back. Soon, they tossed me to the ground and I slid across a floor. I heard a door shut and lock and then nothing. I smelled blood all around me. I didn’t know if it was mine or someone else’s.
“Hello,” I said aloud, to see if I were alone.
“Hella?” Stan asked. I recognized his voice immediately.
“Stan? Are you hurt badly?”
“Me?” Stan asked. There was sorrow in his voice, like he had been trying not to cry.
“Hella?” another voice asked.
Tears started pouring out of my eyes when I heard the new voice. The tears soaked the black bag covering my head. “Saudah?” I asked.
“Yea,” she said, and then added, “You look like hell.”
I had found her. After almost eight months, and so many lives lost, I had found my best friend. I tried to move over to where her voice was coming from. “Can you help me get this thing off of my head, I can’t see you.”
“I’ll try,” she said.
I heard footsteps approach and then someone wrestled with my mask, finally taking it off. I was in a dimly lit room, but saw Saudah clearly standing in front of me. She was wearing a tank top and had scars, bite marks, all over her arms in different states of healing. I felt bile trickle down the back of my throat, but I swallowed hard. Saudah did not deserve to see me get sick because of her appearance.
“I’m so sorry,” I said.
She bent over me and began to untie the knots holding my hands together. “Don’t be sorry. You shouldn’t have come for me. Neither of you should have come for me.” Her voice turned severe and I knew she was talking to Stan.
“Well, we’re here now, and we came to rescue you, so we’re just going to have to get you out.”
Saudah finished untying my wrists and let the rope drop to the floor. She sat on a chair next to a table, the only furniture in the room besides two cots.
Looking around I could see that we were in a small studio with a bathroom, the two cots and blankets on the floor. Stan lay on one of the cots. He was in bad shape, but looked like he would recuperate.
Suddenly the door opened and the Beefcake threw Zeke through it. He landed on the floor.
“Mace will want to talk to you,” the Beefcake said. “He’s going to take a couple of days to get here from the coast, so you keep tight, ok?” I rushed to Zeke’s side. “Save some of those fond looks for me, okay girlie? He’s not going to last much longer. We need him in the zombie games.”
The beefcake shut the door again. Zeke’s face was badly bruised and swollen, blood dripping out of his mouth and from a gash on his head. He wheezed and held his ribs, like they were broken.
“Help me get him to a cot,” I asked Saudah.
Saudah helped me get Zeke onto a cot and then went to go sit with Stan.
“I almost lost my leg,” Saudah said. “They have doctors here. They were kind enough to fix me up after Stan escaped. They realized right away that they could use me, after what they saw in the village, so they decided to patch me up rather than let me die.”
“Was it Trevan, Stan? Did he tell them about my virus?” I tried to sooth Zeke’s forehead with a cloth I had found on the table.
“That asshole,” Zeke groaned and spit out some blood. I wiped it from his mouth and he took my hand and wouldn’t let it go.
“He’s one of them,” Stan said. “That traitor turned on me immediately when we saw them. Turned us right in. They treated him like he was a hero. He couldn’t wait to tell them all about you. It was disgusting.”
The windows had bars and the door was locked and even though Zeke could pick the lock, i
t was it surely guarded from the outside. I thought of the others, Huck, Ana and Broder were still out there and Lily too. What would she do when she found out about Trevan? Whose side would she choose?
CHAPTER 24
We spent the next few days locked up in the apartment cell. Nobody came to see us or to talk to us, they just dropped off food trays twice a day. When we asked to speak to someone, or inquired about others they may have captured, we were told we had to wait for Mace Duce to arrive.
Spending time in the cell made Zeke’s ribs heal, and gave us time to catch up with Saudah and Stan and find out as much as we could about this place.
At first Saudah didn’t want to tell us anything that happened to her, but then she told us about Mace’s experiments lead by Enroy. They kept a separate building with apartments full of zeroes categorized into men, women, boys, girls and even toddlers and infants. When they found people like Saudah, they would handcuff the victim to a wooden chair, and leave them alone in a room wearing only shorts and a tank top. They would open the door again and shove a zero into the room.
Inevitably, the zero would bite the person strapped to the chair, and then be taken away to their apartment. The victim was then left tied up in the chair for another few hours to see if she changed into one of them. If the person remained human, they would send her back to her room to heal, and then repeat the process with another type of zero. If they changed, they were sent back with the rest of the undeads.
“That sounds awful,” I said.
I looked over at Zeke who was resting on our bunk. We had agreed to share it after I had spent the first night on the floor, hoping to give him more room. He said keeping me near helped him heal, something about body temperature. By the way he held me in his sleep, crushing me against his chest and sometimes murmuring in panic, I was sure he was trying to protect me, even in his dreams. By what Saudah had described I would need his protection.
Our eyes made contact, and it was as if he read my mind because he sat up and turned to Saudah with a furrowed brow. “What are they going to do to her?” Zeke asked.
“Something worse than awful,” Saudah said. She took a chair across from me at the table, sitting on it backwards, and gave me a grimace. “With that power. Really, Hella. Why’d you come here to rescue me when you got that? You should have let me die.”