by Dia Cole
Grady, who’d walked over, inhaled sharply. He looked at Eden as if she’d sprouted another head. “Terrier? You exposed my daughter to a dog?” he shouted.
Dominic turned to look at Eden, his expression thunderous. “What did you do?”
I grabbed the lip of the laminate counter to steady myself as the ramifications hit me. I’d thought the kid had a respiratory infection. If she’d contracted the canine flu, it’d spread to the rest of the survivors like wildfire. Last spring, the highly contagious flu had taken out a quarter of the world’s population. In a cruel twist of fate, the long-awaited vaccine had turned a subset of the population into zombies. They’d succeeded in finishing off nearly everybody else.
Eden wilted like a sunbaked rose. “Two days ago, the dog developed the telltale signs of the flu and died. Rosie started developing symptoms last night.”
Grady sat down heavily in the closest chair and buried his face in his hands.
Dominic froze, his expression frightening.
“Shit,” Reed and Darcy said at the same time.
Eden lowered her head and rubbed her arms. “The pills can save her life if she takes them in the next forty-eight hours.” She paused and took a deep breath. “There should be enough medication to treat anyone else who gets sick.”
Damn it. There would be others. There were kids and elderly people back at the school, and they were the most susceptible to the flu.
“The medicine isn’t a cure,” I pointed out. If it had been, the government wouldn’t have pushed forward its divisive dog-killing legislation. And the vaccination that doomed the entire world would’ve never been created.
Eden slung on her backpack. “If taken early, the medicine can significantly reduce the complications of the flu. It could mean the difference between life and death for Rosie. But she needs the medicine now. We can’t wait.”
A low rumble sounded in Dominic’s throat. The corded muscles in his neck stretched taut, and the tic in his square jaw worked overtime. “Not only did you likely kill the little girl, but you’ve endangered every single man, woman, and child in the safe house.”
The feral note in his voice had me taking a step back. I’d never seen him come so close to losing it before.
“I’m sorry,” Eden whispered through tears. She looked from face to face. “I’ll make things right.”
Grady looked up and glared at her. “If my daughter dies, you die.” He got to his feet, his hand resting on the hilt of his gun.
The rising hostility in the room made my hair stand on end. This was bad. Very bad.
Our plan for leaving the safe house needs to be moved up to tonight.
There was no way we could stay once news of this got out to the rest of the survivors.
“Oh, Eden,” Reed said, shaking his head.
Darcy sneered. “You’re one dumb bitch.”
“Shut the hell up,” I said to the female soldier, not caring that she could crush me like a foam cup.
Darcy’s eyes swept over me, the contempt in them crystal clear. “Don’t disrespect me, Hooker.”
I stiffened. I wasn’t a hooker. Not that Darcy bothered to make the distinction between a prostitute and an exotic dancer. From the day she’d found out about what I’d done for a living, she’d treated me with distain and barely veiled disgust.
Eden straightened her shoulders as if coming to some kind of decision. Her gaze flickered in my direction. “Remember your promise to me, sissy.”
It took me a second to realize what she was going to do. I lunged for her, but she’d already bolted for the door.
“I’ll distract the horde,” she called back. “Get the medicine.”
“Edie!” I screamed. But it was too late. She’d already darted outside.
The front window framed the image of her sprinting toward the animal hospital.
Rational thought evaporated as I rushed after her.
With my blood pounding in my ears, I grabbed for the door handle.
Dominic caught my arm. “Stay here.”
I tried to shrug him off.
His grip tightened.
There was only one goal—getting to my sister. And he was in my way. Without conscious thought, my knife was in my hand and up against his throat. “Get your hands off me.”
Darcy raised her rifle and aimed it at my head, “Lower your weapon, Hooker, and—” Her words trailed off as the knife end of Reed’s shotgun touched the back of her neck.
Reed spoke in his darkest tone—the one reserved for the creeps who’d followed me home from the strip club. “Don’t ever call Lee that again.”
Darcy snorted. “You couldn’t hurt a fly, Goldilocks.”
“Try me,” said Reed, the gun trembling in his hands.
“Do as he says, Corporal,” Dominic said softly.
Giving Dominic a WTF look, Darcy slowly lowered her gun.
Dominic snared me in his dark gaze. “You don’t want to do this.”
The frantic need to get to Eden overrode any of my conflicting feelings for him. “Let me go.” My mind played gruesome images of what could be happening to my sister out there.
Dominic stared into my eyes as if he was taking measure of my soul. Whatever he saw in my gaze made him sigh. “I can’t save you from yourself.”
“Then stop trying.” Eden was in danger and we were wasting time.
I can’t stand by and let someone I love die. Not again.
I struggled to free myself. “Help me or get out of the way.”
Grady roughly pushed passed us. “You’re all pussies.” Then he was outside running toward the animal hospital.
Dominic cursed and released me. “Lee and Reed, head to the front doors of the animal hospital. Get them open. Corporal, protect Eden. I’ll cover Grady.”
I lowered my knife and wrenched the door open.
Dominic started to say something else, but I was already running after my sister.
Reed fell in step behind me. We navigated around debris and abandoned cars in the street. I tried not to focus on the bloody piles of bones and tattered clothing we passed.
I could see Eden in the distance. She waved her hands like a traffic controller, beckoning Biters away from the front of the animal hospital into the parking lot.
The air was filled with the sound of teeth gnashing.
“This way,” Eden called out to the enthralled masses. “Come and get me.”
Crap. The horde had grown even larger.
How are we going to get to her?
As I frantically searched for some way to reach my sister through the wall of undead, Darcy rushed by us at a dizzying speed.
I blinked in disbelief. She had to be carrying fifty pounds of weapons and equipment.
How can she possibly run that fast?
I tried to catch up with her, but something snagged my backpack and sent me flying backward.
Dominic’s voice growled in my ear, “Your orders were to get to the steps.” He locked a muscular forearm across my chest.
I bucked against him.
His grip was ironclad.
My hands balled up into fists. “Goddamn it, Dominic, let me go.”
Up ahead, Reed must have realized I wasn’t next to him. He stopped in his tracks and spun around. “Really? This is starting to get old, man.”
Dominic loosened his hold, but didn’t let go. “You both need to get to the front doors.”
Panic churned inside me. I’d lost sight of my sister. “Eden needs our help.”
“Corporal Ross has it covered.”
My mouth dropped open as I caught sight of Darcy pushing herself through the crowd of Biters. “Is she insane?”
Just as a line of undead turned in her direction, Darcy vaulted up on top of a red sedan. Body after body slammed into the car. Without a moment of hesitation, she lifted her rifle and opened fire. Bullets tore into decaying flesh, sending brackish blood and viscera flying into the air.
The rat-a-tat of Darcy’s weap
on mingled with the sound of gnashing teeth to create a macabre symphony.
Dominic cursed. “Let’s hope gangs don’t hear the gunfire and come running.”
Who cares about gangs at this point?
At least half of the horde had broken off from the pack and turned in Darcy’s direction. As they headed for the car she was on, she ran and jumped back down to the ground where I lost sight of her.
My estimation of the bitchy soldier rose several notches. I’d never thought she’d put her life on the line for one of us. We’d never be besties, but maybe now I wouldn’t be tempted to slip a scorpion in her boot.
A man’s shout broke through the din of chattering teeth.
4
Grady was surrounded by a pack of zombies near the fountain.
Dominic shook me, bringing my attention back to him. “Corporal Ross will save your sister. Now get the goddamn doors to the animal hospital open!” He released me and took off in Grady’s direction.
I fell forward, barely catching myself from face-planting on the asphalt.
Reed grabbed my arm. “He’s right. We should open the doors.”
“No.” If anything happens to Eden, I’ll never forgive myself.
Reed tugged me in the direction of the hospital. “We can’t help Eden if we’re dead.”
As if to underscore his point, two Biters—a thin, blonde woman in a pencil skirt and an elderly man in a stained hospital gown—stumbled toward us. Most of the left side of the woman’s face was missing, leaving the ghastly white of her skull and teeth exposed.
Screw Dominic’s rule about not wasting bullets.
“Let’s go hot,” I said, motioning at Reed’s shotgun. If anything, the loud noise would help Eden by drawing Biters to us.
Reed lifted his weapon, but his finger froze on the trigger.
Not this again.
“They’re not alive, remember?”
Reed nodded, but the gun wavered in his hands.
“Reed,” I shouted, my heart hammering a frantic beat.
Crap. The Biters are getting too close.
There was no time to lecture him on the fact that his antiviolence stance had no place in the apocalypse. “Damn it, shoot.”
Unable to wait for him, I grabbed my gun and fired.
The side of the old man’s head blew off. His frail body flew back, the IV tubing still attached to his arms streamed after him like pale ribbons.
The blonde stumbled over his body and then righted herself.
Oddly enough, she looked a lot like my high school English teacher.
I hated that teacher.
Ignoring the ringing in my ears, I fired again. The first shot winged the blonde in the shoulder. She canted to the right, but kept coming. I steadied my arm, calling to mind all the hours of target practice with Dominic.
My second shot nailed her in the forehead. She collapsed midstep.
More creatures approached.
“I’m s-sorry,” Reed stuttered.
There was no time for apologies. “Where are they?” I’d lost sight of Eden and Darcy. Fear clogged my throat. “We can see them from the stairs.” I grabbed his arm and dragged him toward the hospital.
Together we darted around the undead stragglers. As we passed, they turned and shuffled after us.
The memorial fountain loomed ahead.
We ran around the edge of the eighty-foot, white marble monstrosity that city council had commissioned as a tribute to the euthanized dogs of Saguaro Valley. Unfortunately, instead of pacifying the animals rights groups and bereaved pet owners, it had become the focal point for the protests.
Remembering the news footage of Eden’s animal rights group going toe-to-toe with police in riot gear made a tremor run through me. The two groups had clashed in the very spot where Grady and Dominic were currently battling for their lives.
Reed and I skidded to a halt fifty feet from them.
The fountain teemed with undead. Throngs of Biters thrashed against each other in a shallow pool of stagnant water inside the fountain basin. The ones that fought their way to the edge hurled themselves at the two men.
With their backs to the animal hospital, Grady and Dominic fought side by side. The blood-soaked pair looked like demented serial killers. Grady hacked Biter after Biter with his machete, while Dominic threw his blades with almost preternatural speed.
My eyes tracked the airborne knives. Everyone one of them hit a flesh-eater in the center of their forehead.
Damn. He’s good.
It seemed his position as leader of the soldiers was well deserved. But his skills with the blade weren’t enough. Zombies continued pouring out of the fountain and the men were dangerously close to being surrounded.
Why aren’t they using their guns?
Dominic left Grady’s side to retrieve his knives.
Behind him, a whale-sized Biter in a floral muumuu jockeyed to the edge of the fountain.
He didn’t see her.
Fear for him kicked my feet into action.
“Lee,” Reed shouted.
But I wasn’t listening; I’d made it halfway to Dominic. Close enough that the putrid smell of wet rotting flesh slapped me across the face. But not close enough to shoot with any hope of accuracy.
The female Biter launched herself at Dominic.
“Dominic, behind you,” I screamed.
He spun around in time to block the creature flying at him. No small feat given the flesh-eater probably outweighed him by two hundred pounds. He roundhouse-kicked the thing to the ground and stomped on its bloated wet face.
He lifted his gaze to mine, nodding his head slightly in thanks. Then the new group of infected stumbled out of the fountain and snared his attention.
Reed caught up to me. “We need to go,” he panted.
Indecision grounded me. Should we stay and help? The men were grossly outnumbered. What if something happens to Dominic? The thought twisted me up inside.
As if sensing my hesitation, Dominic shouted in my direction, “I’ve got this. Get to the doors,” before turning his attention back to the Biters.
Fighting the overwhelming urge to run to Dominic’s side, I followed Reed up the single flight of wide cement steps leading to the main floor of the red brick building.
Reed twisted the handle of the front door.
It swung open.
“It looks deserted,” he said, peering into the lobby.
“Looks can be deceiving.” Eden’s former coworkers were sticklers for following protocol. If they hadn’t locked up, it meant that either something made them leave in a hurry, or they hadn’t left at all. Neither explanation gave me the warm fuzzies.
“Should we go in?”
I scanned the parking lot. “Not without Eden.”
There. A flash of pink.
Immediately, my relief at spotting her turned to panic.
Eden looked like a movie star swarmed by adoring fans as she slowly walked backward. The Biters stalking her shook their broken limbs with frenzied anticipation. The excited chattering of their teeth carried over to where we stood.
Each step brought her closer to the end of the parking lot. With her back to the street, she couldn’t see that more zombies approached from the south. The gunfire must’ve attracted them.
Fear for her clawed at me. “Where the hell is Darcy?” The soldier was nowhere to be seen and her assault rifle had gone silent.
Had she been overtaken?
The new arrivals filled the street behind Eden. She was surrounded.
Anxiety punched me in the gut. We have to help her. Before I could run down the stairs, Reed grabbed my arm.
“Look,” he said, pointing at a silver truck parked at the end of the lot.
Something moved on top of it.
“Darcy,” Reed said, with more than a hint of awe.
The female soldier clambered over the truck roof. She cupped her hands to her mouth, and shouted something at Eden.
Eden twisted
around. An expression of horror crossed her face as she glanced at the street behind her. Finally, she seemed aware of the danger closing in.
Giving up all pretense of calm, Eden raced in Darcy’s direction. As she reached the truck, she threw her hands into the air.
Darcy pulled her onto the hood as if she weighed nothing more than a Gucci handbag.
The galloping of my heart slowed to a canter.
Reed let out a ragged breath.
Dominic and Grady dashed up the steps toward us.
Grady wiped a streak of dark black blood from his sweaty brow. “They just keep coming and coming.” He motioned at the packs of Biters heading for the stairs.
Dominic stalked forward, his eyes on me. “Are you okay?”
I gave him a jerky nod.
He raised one hand as if to touch my face. It hung in the air for a second, before he dropped it back to his side.
Reed looked from Dominic to me, an inscrutable expression on his face. “I’m fine too by the way. In case you cared. The building is unlocked.”
“Fucking A.” Grady rushed over to the door. “I gotta find the pharmacy.”
“Stop,” Dominic shouted. “We haven’t cleared it.”
Ignoring him, Grady darted into the lobby.
Biting off a curse, Dominic glanced at me, and then back to the building. Indecision flashed in his eyes.
Darcy’s voice crackled through his radio. “Sarge, we’re boxed in.”
I turned my attention back to the parking lot. The sight of the horde closing in on the truck chilled my blood.
Dominic’s gaze zeroed in on the women. “Can you get inside the vehicle?”
“Negative.” Darcy’s voice was barely audible over the sounds of the bloodthirsty horde.
“There’s a tree overhanging the truck. Climb it.”
“This?” She pointed to the spindly Palo Verde shaking tiny yellow petals down on the truck.
“Yes. I’ll create a distraction. When the mob disperses, take the civilian back to the SUV.”
“10-4,” Darcy said. She grabbed Eden’s arm and led her toward the roof of the truck.
The mob slammed into the vehicle.
The truck rocked wildly. The women, precariously perched on the edge of the windshield, fought for balance. They were barely out of reach of clawing hands.