Didi shook her head. “I can’t risk infecting him,” she said with a gravelly edge to her voice. “I can’t lose him. He keeps me sane. He helps me make sense of everything going on in my head, even if he doesn’t know how much of it is for him.”
Rachelle studied every part of her mentor’s face. None of it moved, but none of it had to; those eyes said everything. “You really are in love with him.”
Didi cringed like she had just swallowed something disgusting. “What does it matter? I can’t be with him. Right? I can’t cuddle with him, or kiss him, or give him children. I can’t even share with him the one thing I was best known for when I was alive.”
Despite the gross imagery, Rachelle sympathized.
The screaming finally stopped. Gilda tossed aside some kind of tongs and took a needle from Pepe. Rachelle hoped that was a good thing.
Didi looked at her like a gloomy china doll. “You know the worst part about being dead? If he dies, I won’t be able to cry for him. I’ll just ache. Forever.”
Rachelle hugged her friend, hoping she felt it emotionally. “If he dies, I’ll cry for you both.”
A hand softly touched her arm. She looked up and saw Didi smiling at her; it was full of sadness, but it was still there.
Until the ground shook beneath them.
*****
Paula fumbled around in the dark until she found an earthen wall to help her stand while little Danny screamed into her ear. Some of the other babies cried, a few children whimpered, and two of the teens argued. Clarissa tried to calm them down and told them to stay close together.
A beam of light cut through the tunnel and upturned, revealing Jerri as she pointed to her left. “Everybody on that wall.”
“What was that?” Paula asked while helping Ray Ray stand.
“I think the generator—”
Water sprayed into Jerri’s face from high up on the wall, making Chun wail in her arms. She turned away to shield her baby girl’s face, but more water spit out of the other walls, showering everyone and forcing them to cover their eyes. Clarissa fought the harsh mists to corral the other children. Paula did what she could to shield Danny, but there was no place that water didn’t spew.
Jerri headed for the visible intersection nearby until someone bumped her to the ground, knocking the flashlight out of her hands. On its way down, the beam flashed past a skinny girl in green, soaked from head to toe, with red hair matted to her face.
Paula quickly scooped up the flashlight and aimed the beam down the tunnel, where the redhead ran up a stairway. “Who was that?” she shouted over the hissing water.
“Who cares? Follow her,” Clarissa yelled.
Paula ushered a few of the children in the redhead’s direction while doing her best to cover Danny. She stumbled over little Leticia into a few inches of water but did all she could to keep the baby above water, which was higher already. “The dirt’s not soaking up the water.”
“It’s packed too tight,” Jerri yelled as she helped Paula to her feet, which were submerged. “We have to get out of here before we drown.”
Paula and Jerri helped Clarissa and the fallen children get away from the intersection. The light reflected off the spraying water into Paula’s eyes, forcing her to stop.
Jerri took her flashlight back, aimed it low, and followed the wall until she reached the stairs ahead of the group. She grabbed the handle and tugged at it for dear life.
“Open it,” Clarissa yelled.
“It’s locked,” Jerri yelled back.
A bloodcurdling scream pierced the hiss of spraying water.
Jerri aimed her beam back the way they came and saw a zombie stumbling toward them, while two more chewed on Lydia’s neck. The doomed girl squeezed Jerri’s last triplet, April, into a screaming fit.
Paula couldn’t breathe.
“Oh, my God, get us out of here!” Clarissa yelled as she rushed to the door and started ramming it with her shoulder, doing her best to keep Amber out of the way. The door wouldn’t budge.
Jerri stood in the water, frantically glancing between the baby in the dying girl’s arms and the one in her own. She steeled herself and shoved Chun into the arms of the panicky boy Jeremy. She rushed toward Lydia, but the vile monster in the lead grabbed her and wrestled her for a bite.
The screaming Lydia kept crushing the life out of poor April.
Paula passed Danny off to Belinda and rushed past Jerri, but the knee-high water slowed her down. She grabbed Lydia’s rigid arms and pried the baby loose.
Another wading zombie reached for her but was clubbed down by an angry blonde mother.
“I owe you one,” Jerri said while taking her baby back and grabbing Paula’s forearm. “Come on.”
The two women reached the stairs with the last infant, but they were still trapped with two more zombies and nothing with which to fight them but a flashlight. Paula had no idea how she would—
The doors behind her flew open, startling everyone.
“Let’s go,” Didi shouted from above, her sword in hand.
Some of the teens pushed past everyone and congested the exit. Didi grabbed who she could and helped them into the Lounge, slinging the most belligerent ones. Clarissa scooped up children with her free hand and shoved them out of the door ahead of her. Jerri passed April over to Dandy and helped Didi clear the exit.
Something snagged Paula’s ankle, and she fell face first onto the concrete stairs. Her head swam, and she swallowed blood. She turned as the monster pulled itself up her leg. She tried to pull and kick away, but its jaws drew closer.
The thing’s face stiffened as a blade skewered its forehead.
Above her, Didi retracted her sword, picked Paula up, and pulled her up the stairs. “Is this everyone?” she asked.
Paula stammered through her answer while crossing the threshold of the café, the last one out. “Those things got Lydia. Rachelle ran off. Everyone else is here, except one redheaded girl. It wasn’t Megan because she—”
Didi drew her up by her lapel, ignoring the hungry zombies crawling up the stairs. “What redheaded girl?”
Paula trembled under the furious Death Doll’s grip. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen her before. She wore something green.”
Didi drew back, decapitated the last two zombies, re-sheathed her sword, and took Jerri’s flashlight. “Get them into the Courtyard, then find Isaac or Rachelle. Tell them Cynthia’s here. I’m going to check out how bad it is down there.”
Jerri nodded, and Didi headed back to the tunnel entrance.
“Who’s Cynthia?” Paula asked.
Didi walked past her into the flooded tunnels, saying only, “Have Gilda look at your nose.”
Paula tried to process what was happening when a handkerchief appeared before her eyes. She thanked Clarissa, pinched her nose with the cloth, and followed everyone into the hall.
*****
Cynthia tried everything she could to break through the boards on the door and the windows, but to no avail. She ran through the hallways and ended up in a small, walled-off alley without a gate. She tried scaling the wall, but it was too high. She snuck along the passage and saw people bunching up near a large moving trailer. She quickly slipped inside a nearby door.
The theater was pretty well shot up, but empty. She snuck from the backstage area to the lobby, where some wetback blocked the doorway. He asked if she was okay. She ran through him and made it outside.
“Get that little bitch,” she heard that black bastard Isaac yell from the theater, then she heard footsteps pursue her. They were welcomed to try. No one had ever been able to catch her when she ran; not the bullies, not the cops, not—
Something rammed her in the back, and she tumbled to the ground. Her shoulder throbbed and her head swam. She clawed her way back to her feet, but that muscle-bound spic jumped her again and straddled her like a calf at a rodeo.
“All it takes is a little Corazón,” the brawny jerk said, looking awfully pleased wit
h himself.
“That's her,” Isaac said as he closed in with a big blond guy.
The meaty shrimp hoisted her up, spun her around, and squeezed her waist. She tried to shake loose, but the runt was too strong.
Isaac interrogated her while the blond guy frisked her from tits to toes and back. The perv could touch all he wanted, but none of them would get what they—
The blond found and removed her vial from under her bra. The three dimwits questioned her on its contents, but she stared them down like the fools they were. They wrangled her into the compound, but she knew she could hold out. Nothing they could do to her would be worse than what she had already been through. She would prove her worth, no matter what.
CHAPTER 27
WRECKAGE
Sean raced through the compound to find Paula, praying to God she was safe. The Day Shift Bay was empty, and the tunnel door was locked. He prayed she wasn’t trapped down there with all those children. Assembly was empty, too. So were the School Room, the little salon where Clarissa gave her a haircut, and all the other places he ran through. After hearing about some of those crazy guys getting into the walls, he feared one of them might have snatched his wife.
The Lounge was dim and flooded just past the sole of his shoe. He stared with dread at the tunnel entrance from where the water poured, praying she wasn’t still down there.
Rumbling behind him startled him. He rushed for the nearest hiding place, just in case.
Craig and Isaac entered, wrangling a skinny redheaded girl in with them.
“Oh, thank God,” Sean said when he emerged from behind the counter and approached them. “Have either of you seen Paula?”
Craig jerked his head backward. “She’s out there with the kids. Have you seen Didi?”
Water spilled behind Sean. He turned to find a drenched zombie bearing down on him from the tunnel. He fell back, splashing on the floor. The thing fell right on top of him and—
Isaac shot it in the head. The thing wasn't alone, but he took down its buddies as quickly as the first.
Sean tossed the corpse off of him and stood up. “Thanks,” he told Isaac, then nodded toward the girl. “Who’s this?”
Isaac sneered at the girl. “That’s Cynthia, one of Kenny’s li’l bitches.”
“The Pride of Life will get its due,” the girl shouted like a cartoon Chihuahua.
Isaac looked like he was about to slap her, but waved her off and pulled a small vial full of a dark liquid from his chest pocket. “How would you like a drink?”
“What is—look out!” Sean shouted as another zombie emerged from the dark water.
Isaac tried to shoot it, but clicked empty. He handed the vial off to Sean, stomped off the leg of a nearby chair, and rushed the dead thing with it. As he swung down on its head, a sword broke the water's surface, blocked the makeshift club, and swung it away. He backed up as the thing stepped into the dim light.
Sean couldn't believe his eyes.
With all her make-up washed away, Didi resembled the worst version of the Bride of Frankenstein. Sewn scars stretched across her face and down through her choker, each patch of her skin a different shade of sickly gray. She looked like an old porcelain doll broken and repaired several times over; like a real Death Doll.
Isaac fumbled an apology until Didi flashed a hand up to his face. She re-sheathed her sword and approached the skinny redhead, who recoiled in terror. “Have a little fun downstairs?” she asked, her voice as dark as her glare. Sean’s hackles stood on end from the sound of her speaking through that deathly mask. It was surreal. “The turbine’s all over the place, as are all of the boneheads I ran into. We shouldn’t see too many more.”
Isaac seized Cynthia’s jaw. “What’d you do?”
The petrified teen didn’t say a word. She just ogled Didi.
The big man uncorked the vial and placed the open end near her mouth. “If you don’t talk, you’re gonna drink this.”
Cynthia glanced between Didi and the vial. “I just let your buddies out.”
Craig cursed. “I knew I should’ve made an independent coolant system.”
“Huh?” Isaac said.
“When the wheel stopped, so did the coolant system on the cistern, which made the heater flash-boil all the water and blow the pipes. We’ll never get it fixed before the first blizzard hits.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Didi said. “All the water’s contaminated. This place is ruined.”
Sean’s gut churned at the sight of the waterlogged floor. “Does that mean we’re infected now?”
Isaac yanked Cynthia’s hair and placed the vial close to her mouth again. “I should make you drink this shit anyway.”
“What is that?” Didi asked the big man, who handed her the vial. She curiously glanced it over, put her tongue to it, waited, and glared at the redhead with cold malice. “Get everyone in front of the Clinic, and make sure they all see her.”
Isaac and Craig dragged the mortified girl away.
“What’s in that?” Sean asked, but Didi was already on her way out. He followed, somewhere between curious and scared of whatever it was that pissed off Didi more than what happened to the camp.
*****
The trucks returned, and Kenny marched toward the R.V. with a purpose.
Pat couldn’t wait to hear what Kenny had to say about the raid on the porn star’s villa. After losing Gary, Blanche, Jason, Steve, and Tory to that creepy bitch, he hoped to hear twice as many of those sons of bitches paid for it.
Kenny burst through the door, marched up to his bar, and slammed his fist on the counter. Then, he fixed himself a shot of Wild Turkey, huffing to keep himself calm. “We lost twenty-eight. Hell, I barely got away myself. This Death Doll’s stronger than I thought, but I am gonna tear that bitch apart.”
Pat grabbed a rag, soaked it with some of the cheap hooch, and patted the cuts on Kenny’s shoulder. “Is Cynthia with you?”
Kenny shook his head and glared at the mirror ahead of him, his nostrils flaring.
“Well, you know her. She wants you so bad, she’ll die before disappointing you.”
Kenny nodded curtly and downed his shot of bourbon.
“When do we go back?”
Kenny glared back at Pat. “When do you think? Marshal the troops.”
Pat nodded happily, then presented Kenny his sword.
*****
“We have to run,” Clarissa shouted.
The camp agreed but quickly got quiet to hear Didi’s reply. On the other hand, those blurry faces could’ve all been staring at her face; her true face. Down to the wire and drenched from head to toe, she hadn’t reapplied her make-up. She didn’t have time to make them feel better. “You’re right,” she said, then hiked her thumb at the redheaded saboteuse restrained by Craig and Isaac next to the Clinic. “Thanks to Toothpick, here, all the water is infected. We can’t stay here anymore.”
“The Pride of Life will get its due,” Cynthia shouted. “No one’s more worthy than us!”
“I should eat you,” Didi said, making the little jerk shrink with dread.
“Go ahead,” Clarissa said, backed by most of the group. Some were still squeamish, but all regarded the kid with outrage.
“Thanks, but no. I won’t be the monster these people are,” Didi said when the crowd got quiet. She removed the vial from her pocket and showed it to everyone. “Want to guess what this is? It’s zombie blood. Their spies don’t just tally loot. They infect someone with the plague and wait for everyone to die off. That and the guys we took out guarantee they’ll be back.”
The camp’s murmurs ranged from defensive to terrified. Didi still battled her own fear for Cody’s health, but she needed to press on for the good of the camp.
“We need to pack up everything we’re taking; food, medicine, weapons, the works.”
“How will we get out of here?” Ron asked. “We don’t have any cars, do we?”
Didi grinned. “We do.”
*
****
Pat lit the bonfire and watched Kenny with the same reverence as everyone else.
Kenny uttered the names of the dead and a good thing about each one of them—all without a scrap of paper to read from. He knew everyone he ruled; that was his way. No king in history could ever claim that. After calling the last name, he said, “Since our ancestors founded this country, we’ve been its heirs. We live by a simple code: family, honor, strength. Society died because they failed to live by these ideals. Today, our brothers and sisters were murdered trying to live up to these ideals. Well, we ain’t gonna let that stand, are we?”
The crowd cheered their agreement.
Kenny smiled. “We will not fall to these selfish hoarders. The Pride of Life will never be denied what is rightfully ours.”
Everyone loudly agreed.
“Bring him out,” Kenny ordered, which made everyone cheer.
Pat smiled as the boys dumped the pale, pudgy dude onto the ground by the bonfire.
Kenny settled the crowd and knelt beside the wheezy tub of lard. “What’s your name, sir?”
The tub glanced around like a scared animal, trying to regain his breath. “Borman. Rusty Borman.”
“You worked for those hoarders, didn’t you?” he asked. The fat man nodded. “Tell us what you did for them, Rusty Borman.”
“I worked in the Power,” Rusty barked like a weak little pup. “It’s a big turbine that gives the camp electricity. It’s turned by corpses that chase pigs around.”
“Now that is interesting,” Kenny said as he stood over the lardass wuss. “Now, tell us what you know about this Death Doll. How’d she get so strong?”
Rusty regarded everyone again, then nervously claimed, “She’s dead!”
Kenny’s ever-patient smile slowly vanished, looking as surprised by that bullshit as Pat. “I don’t think I rightly heard you.”
“She’s dead, man. She’s a freakin’ zombie,” Rusty insisted, which earned an impatient glare from Kenny. One of the boys yanked the fat man’s head back by the hair and placed a knife to his flabby throat. “Her partner Cody stuffed her head with some kind of device that makes her smarter than the other rotters. That’s why I left, I swear.”
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