by M. Lorrox
She shakes her head as she walks through the door, and the medics rush back in. Damn Mary for tricking me, damn Melgaard for hurting me, and damn Char… Hmm… Damn that zombie that bit me. She frowns, then she tilts her head down and looks at her hand. She holds the fingers up like they were claws, then she makes a fist. I can’t change the past. I’m glad they’re dead now, though. They can never hurt anyone else, ever again.
The sound of Lorenzo’s gun firing woke Li Chen, but he didn’t rouse from his bed until he heard the SUV tearing down the drive and bashing through the front gate. He yawns while creeping down the stairs, armed with an antique, gold candlestick. Power’s out, and somebody was shooting down here...
He sneaks through the downstairs until he finds Lorenzo with a body on top of him. He pulls the dead guard off him, a single bullet hole in his forehead and a torn open neck. Li Chen notices that Lorenzo’s mouth is covered with blood. “Did you fucking bite that guy?”
Lorenzo stands. “Of course I did, I was injured.” Slightly. “If you’re here, it means they’re all gone, yes?”
Li Chen scratches his head. “I guess so.”
Lorenzo sighs, then he walks over to his gun and picks it up. “My guests are probably petrified. If you’ll excuse me.” He starts to walk past Li Chen and brush him aside, but Li Chen doesn’t budge.
“I think they took my phone.”
Lorenzo shrugs. “So? You told me you saved and sent the images to another account.”
“I checked Steve’s room, he’s gone.”
Lorenzo throws his head back and rolls his eyes. “Of course he is, he was working with the knights.”
Li Chen shakes his head. “He was? How’d you know that?”
Lorenzo sticks the gun in the back of his pants. “John suspected him, so we took precautionary measures. I have all I need from that trunk, so I let them take it.” He sighs. “We can talk about this in the morning...but I suppose I should ask you one thing right now.”
“I’m not working with anybody, I swear.”
Lorenzo blinks slow and shakes his head. “I don’t enjoy being robbed from, but I don’t need those trinkets.” Who would want to be possessed by a god of vengeance anyway? He waves a hand dismissively toward the road. “Those pieces of metal are nothing compared to what I’m now so close to finding. All I need is the information from one last piece, and with it... I will have the world in the palm of my hand.”
Li Chen clears his throat. “You were going to ask me something?”
“Will you help me find it? Or are you leaving before sunrise?”
He laughs. “I’ll help. Do you know where this last piece is?”
Lorenzo smiles. “The original piece may be lost, but the information it held is hiding in history; we just need to do some digging. I hope you don’t have anywhere to be.”
Li Chen leans against a table. “Nope, I’m good.”
“Bene...because this is going to take a while, and someone with your...youth and eagerness will be an asset.”
As long as you keep money in my pocket, old man. “How long we talkin’, a couple weeks?”
“Months, at least.”
Li Chen licks one of his sharpened canine teeth. “Fine with me.”
Lorenzo walks past him. “Good. Now get some sleep, John will report in at eight am. He’s been following those thieves.” He kicks the blood-drained security guard at his feet. “Those murderers.” He shakes his head. “This operation has already cost a fortune—cleanup and disposal will cost another one.”
Li Chen clenches his teeth and inhales through them, then he caves. “Hey, do you have any motorcycles I could use while I’m helping out?”
Lorenzo doesn’t turn around, but he swings the door wide as he walks through. “Just tell me what to get you.”
Li Chen grins and bites his bottom lip. This is going to be a hard choice. I better start doing some research...
After Gabriel’s and Ghost’s report to Captain Blake of the HMNZS Pukaki, New Zealand’s military mobilizes. Now, less than an hour from the team’s return from The Plant, helicopters ferry soldiers to the facility. They clear each level, and are extra careful while checking the zombie and blade covered floor of the top level.
They find only a handful of scared-shitless people on the residential level, who surrender without challenge.
On the science level, the soldiers find Ghost’s boobytrap and disable it. Then, they collect the people she trapped in the lab and detain them.
Soldiers find the packing and production area empty, except for a ton of extra to-go coffee cover lids.
When they reach the bottom level—mostly made up of The Foundry—Kazumi is brought down to address the workers. She pauses before walking through the door, and she turns to her escort officer. “I think it’ll send the wrong message if I’m handcuffed.”
Warrant Officer Samson nods and uncuffs her. “Don’t try anything now...”
She rubs her wrists. “Yeah, I think I know that.” She walks through the door. “Everyone, come on over here.”
They assemble in front of her, Xavier with a bandage on his head.
She frowns. “Our employers weren’t completely honest with us... Well, I wasn’t completely honest with you either, and I apologize. If there ever was a situation where it can be for your own good to be left in the dark, it turns out this is the case. I doubt any of you will stand trial for our actions.”
Ryan, the CNC machinist, takes a step forward. “What are you talking about? What’s been going on, Dr. Oshiro?”
She raises her palm to Ryan and holds his questions back. “Our employers wanted to do bad things, but they were stopped. We…you all, still made history, and now I come to you to ask one last favor. I can make a small amends for my involvement, and with it, our work will not be aligned with the evil of our employers. Otherwise, it will… You trusted me before, and I want you to trust me again…one last time.”
No one speaks, although many turn to look at the faces of their friends beside them. Finally, Tim, who is still covered in grease and whose breath carries the scent of an imported IPA, steps forward. “We’re still getting paid, right?”
Kazumi shrugs. “I don’t know what the government will do, but you were actually paid in full the moment you stepped into this facility—Swiss accounts under your names and the personal identification numbers you registered with us have all of your money. Also, that retainer paid out to you was actually a secret bonus; your full contract amount is sitting in those accounts.” She swallows and pleads with her eyes. “Will you help me? We can go down in history for something good...”
Ytarra is all smiles. “Fully paid plus bonus, Scott free of whatever, and the chance to help you, Kazumi? ’Nuff said. What do you need?”
She sighs relief. “An hour to modify designs, two new translation couplers, and two new wireless communication and battery modules...”
Everyone’s eyebrows push the ceilings. Elizabeth Parks, who helped Charlie to the residential level and then returned to The Foundry, blows the bangs from her face. “That’ll take...awhile. I, for one, am starving and need a shower. Can we hit our rooms and—”
Kazumi is shaking her head. “I’m sure we can bring food to you, but all other areas of the facility are locked down.”
Elizabeth sighs. “Well, I guess we’re eating pizza until we’re done... And just so you know, Dr. Oshiro, it was an honor to work with you.”
She smiles and a blush rises in her cheeks. “Thanks… I’m not sure I deserve that though.” She sighs. “I’ll get to work.” She turns to Warrant Officer Samson, makes eye contact, then starts back toward the exit.
He follows.
“We can get some food down here, right?”
“Yeaaahh. It might not be pizza, but we’ll bring something in.” He shakes his head. “I’ve never seen the mil
itary jump through hoops like this. Who... I guess I shouldn’t ask who you people are—or were—but instead, who are the people that shut you down?”
“They’ve got friends in really high places.” Maybe they’ll be lenient on me for helping that kid...
While the other members of Charlie’s team are being treated or are briefing various military officers, July is left alone in the captain’s quarters. It’s a small room with a desk and a hammock. She sits at the desk and looks at a sturdy picture frame with a photo of a woman and a child, and July smiles.
She sees her reflection in the plexiglass, and July’s smile fades a bit without retreating fully. She stands back up and turns to face a mirror she saw attached to the wall. She opens the top of the oversized uniform and lifts the chain and pendant up into view. The old red bead secured within the gold coil of the ouroboros gleams in the light. She drops it back into the shirt, leans her face closer to the mirror, and studies her odd, green-and-silver eyes.
When Mary sang those songs, it’s like I was dreaming. What if I’m still dreaming? She shakes her head. No, I’m not… I can tell now. She stares at her eyes, then her irises start to swirl. July takes a breath and focuses her thoughts. From the edges of her pupils, plumes of brown bloom up to the surface, then swirl with the green-and-silver until it overtakes them, turning her irises brown. Her heart skips a beat. I changed them! ...They should be darker.
Her irises darken, and July beams. She pulls her face away from the mirror, then she tips her forehead down and looks at the scars on top of her head. She squints and focuses her thoughts. The normal skin around the scars closes in, and the marks diminish. Then her hair grows, at first just a few millimeters, but after it starts, it quickly grows to the length she usually keeps it, and it flows down her back.
July tilts her head and studies the image of the girl she used to be when she was June. Not zombie infected, not turned vampire who can go in the sun, not ravaged and changed with new abilities and strengths. “Just June.”
She turns and grabs the picture frame from the table, and she studies the woman. She has strawberry blonde hair, light skin, blue eyes, and soft cheekbones. July adjusts her gaze back into the mirror, and she imagines herself looking like that. Her cheekbones quiver, then her eyes itch. She squeezes her eyes shut and exhales. In a soft flash of light, she opens her eyes and gasps.
Blue eyes set in pale skin look back at her as strawberry blonde hair bobs at her shoulders. July chuckles. That’s pretty cool.
She blinks again, and in another flash, she looks like Hecate. Then again, and she changes her appearance to look like Balena. She bites her lip, then she blinks once more.
“Ahh!” Eddy’s voice yelps at Eddy’s face in the mirror. She shakes her head and sheds Eddy’s look from her body. She stumbles off her feet and back, but her hand catches the desk, and she holds herself up. After a full breath, she stands before the mirror again, studying the image of a girl with weird eyes, a shaved head, and circular scars over her scalp. She smiles.
The scars dissipate once more, and her hair grows a few inches into a pixie-styled haircut. “Hmm... No.” She shakes the hair on her head out and grows it longer, then she lifts and turns her chin.
She wears a short, stacked bob haircut, where long hair curves and frames her face in the front but shortens into messy layers in the back. With her eyes, she traces the long hair in front on her left side and colors it crimson. She scrunches her face. “Gross—too emo against black.” She looks at her eyes again, then she smiles. The red hair fades to gray, then it grows to an emerald green. She traces her eyes down the hair on the other side of her face, and she changes it to match.
July looks at her face and hair from different angles, checks that everything is symmetrical, then she gives herself a nod of approval. “I like that, but…” She sighs and shakes her head. She shakes away all the changes; the hair disappears in a -poof- of dust that evaporates into the air, and the circular scars bloom across her skin. She stares into her eyes—at green irises with tributaries of silver flowing toward her pupils.
She smiles at her reflection and nods. “This is me. I’m July.”
Sadie brings Minnie to the hospital to visit Skip. She once again parks like a Jeep owner on the lawn, even though there are a few parking spaces in the lot. “Okay, it’s dark out, so we don’t need medicine, but are you thirsty?”
Minnie pouts; a dinosaur-print bandage covers the still-healing wound on her neck.
Sadie turns to look at her. “What’s wrong, baby?”
“I’m scared for Mr. Skip.”
Sadie sighs, grabs a bottle of from the drink holder in the center console, and downs the last of it. She pulls a vial from her purse and hands it back to her daughter. “Drink up, and let’s go visit him.”
Minnie takes it and drinks.
Sadie rounds the Jeep and helps her down. She holds her daughter’s hand, who with her other hand, holds Valentine.
Inside, Sadie asks the girl at the desk for Skip’s room. The attendant smacks gum while looking it up. While she’s typing, painfully slowly, nurse Jacqueline bustles into the lobby and notices Sadie.
“Oh, Mrs. Costanza. Are you alright? I know there was a...an incident nearby.”
Sadie dips her head to the vampire nurse with a southern accent. “Thank you, but I’m fine. I was hoping to visit a friend, Mr. Skip Tubman.”
Jacquelyn nods her head in sharp, small movements, and she starts walking down the hall. “Mmm-hmm, I can bring you to him, but first, I think you better come visit someone else.”
Sadie furrows her brow but doesn’t argue. She follows with Minnie and Valentine.
The girl at the desk sighs as a drunk man in the lobby starts swearing at the television and falls over. She pushes a button and smacks her lips open to speak into her microphone. “Security to the ER lobby.”
Jacqueline leads them to the same BIOHAZARD—QUARANTINE wing that Sadie got to know earlier in the week. The nurse walks up to a room and enters without knocking. She holds the door open and extends her hand for Sadie and Minnie to continue past.
Sadie walks in, looks at the person in the bed, then looks back at the nurse. “Who is that?”
Jacqueline closes the door and motions for Sadie to push further into the room. They approach a hospital bed with a figure lying in it who is completely covered in bandages. Tubes run from a ventilator to the person’s face, and an IV drips into an arm. Jacqueline sets her hands along the back of a chair and whispers, “I believe this was one of your guards, although it’s hard to tell from his wounds. They found him at the hotel, blown through a second-story window… Poor man.”
Sadie racks her memory, thinking of whom she didn’t see after the explosion. “Flying Eagle?”
Jacqueline tilts her head. “Could be. His face is...very injured...”
Sadie swallows, picturing the man with his long dark and slightly oily hair blasting across the roof of the Pentagon, then brawling with Deina in the hotel’s banquet room. “Wait, you said second story?”
“I did.”
Sadie glances away, then she rests her eyes on the man in the bed. “He must have been outside, closer to the explosion. Maybe he even caused it to detonate there instead of in the hotel.”
“My assumptions too…” Jacqueline sighs. “He may be responsible for saving all your lives and hundreds of others in that hotel... I’m not convinced he’ll ever wake up to receive those thanks though. The poor soul’s in a coma, broke near every bone, and has massive brain hemorrhaging.”
Sadie’s bottom lip quivers, and she squeezes Minnie’s hand. “Dear, would you help me say a prayer for him?”
Minnie nods.
Sadie walks up to the man, then places her hands—and Minnie’s hands—on his bandage-covered arm. She leans her head over him, closes her eyes, and whispers words never before spoken in that hospi
tal. She whispers words in a language never before spoken there, either.
When Minnie hears the weird sounds her mother is making, she looks up at her. Mommy’s crying. Minnie looks away as her own eyes grow misty. She sniffs, but she doesn’t dare move her hands.
When Sadie is finished, she opens her eyes, glances at a confused nurse and somber child, then says one more prayer, in English. “Life in the blood—”
Nurse Jacqueline and Minnie both join her and say in unison, “Death in the blood.”
Sadie lifts her hands and wipes her eyes. “Thank you, Minnie. Thank you, Jacqueline. Can you bring us to Mr. Tubman’s room now?”
Jacqueline nods and leads them out of the quarantine wing, then down another hall to Skip’s room. She knocks at the door and steps aside.
As Sadie and Minnie enter, Katlyn bounds from a chair over to them. “I heard about the attack. I’m so relieved you both are okay.” She drops to a knee and hugs Minnie.
The door clicks shut behind them, and Sadie smiles while watching Katlyn and Minnie. “We were lucky to be in the lobby, protected from the explosion.”
Katlyn stands and extends her arms to hug Sadie, and without a moment’s hesitation, Sadie accepts the embrace. Katlyn sighs. “I’m glad you’re both safe.”
Sadie nods and pats her on the back. “How’s Skip?”
Katlyn withdraws her arms and deflates. “Surgeons went in, stopped the bleeding, and stitched up the damage. They say he’s stable.”
Sadie takes a step past her, toward Skip’s bed. “That sounds like good news... What else is going on?”
Katlyn walks to the far side of his bed. “They said his vitals are very weak, and they’re not sure what’s happening with him, but they’re concerned that he might have suffered a brain injury.” She picks up his limp hand. “They say all that we can do now is wait.”
Minnie leans her arms across Skip’s blanket-covered legs, and she starts to cry. Sadie looks at her and pets her head. “Minnie, this isn’t a time for crying, okay?”