“I would think so,” Connor answered.
“I’d rather have that than,” he finished his sentence by making a clicking with his teeth.
“You’ll carry the virus,” Connor said handing Carlos the CD. “Remember the main thing is to find out if we can use it against the weather witch. With that still functioning, we don’t have any options.”
“You’ll also need this,” Adus said handing Cory a walkie talkie. “It’s long range. You’ll be able to communicate with us back here. I’ll keep the other one.”
“And now more working electronics?” Val asked.
“The chipmunks had us make a box for some random electronics. They were protected.”
Val had to fight the impulse to think of so many other things she would have saved than a walkie talkie. She knew such thoughts wouldn’t help.
“You should get moving,” Adus announced. “The sooner you get through the tunnels, the fewer enemies you’ll likely see.”
Just then Maya came running out of the hallway. Everyone turned expecting some fateful message from Sara.
“Carlos,” Maya said. “Sara says she loves you. And thank you for everything.” With that Maya moved up to Carlos and had him lean down so she could kiss his forehead.
Carlos took all this as a bad sign.
Carlos turned to leave. He faced everyone and his mouth opened as if he meant to say some profound thing. But nothing came.
Val yelled to him, “I’m sorry I was so angry with you. Everybody has their-” Val could not help laughing, “stuff, you know?”
Carlos stared blankly. Val was a mystery he would never solve. He said simply, “Take care of yourself, Val.”
“Eat your heart out.”
Carlos glanced at her one last time and merely walked away.
“You’ll be departing soon?” Cory asked Connor.
“Within a half hour,” Connor answered. “We won’t be far behind you.”
Cory said his goodbyes to his friends and lit an old fashioned lantern. With it leading the way, he and Carlos moved into the great, dark cavern before them. Val and Connor stood watching the light from the lantern disappear around a corner.
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ • ∙
“There’s nothing I could say to make you come with me?” Connor asked Val once they were somewhat alone in the main room. “I’m joking – but I’m kind of not.”
Val wrapped her arms around his neck and stared up into his eyes. She carefully did not lean too heavily against him for fear she’d unbalance him.
“I can’t,” she whispered. “I would regret it if I did. Sara is so alone. I couldn’t leave her.”
Val let her hand move down to his cheek. “Connor,” she whispered in a voice that belonged to a romantic weekend. “I have loved you. And I love you. These last few days with you have been the best of my life. You know me. You see me. And you still think I’m beautiful.”
Val started to cry. “Stupid emotions!”
Connor laughed and smiled back at her.
Val continued, “I dreamed a nightmare but when I woke you were there. I was a monster and you called me beautiful. Ever since you said that, I desperately wanted to believe it. I needed to believe it. I needed to hear you say it.
“My heart is not without your scars. But nevertheless, I trust you. I am your woman. And my heart belongs to you.” She brought him close and hugged him. “Thank you for calling me beautiful,” she whispered into his ear.
“Thank you for saving me,” he said when he saw her eyes again. “I would have been wholly lost without you. Even before you trusted me again, your beauty inspired me to be more. I couldn’t stand not being with you. The thought of you and Moses just killed me.”
“Me and Moses? What are you talking about?”
“I really thought you two were getting together.”
Val laughed. “Connor, I loved Moses – like a father. We were never interested in each other.”
“See we should talk more because I didn’t know that. I always envied you two. I thought he was taking you away from me.”
“He shielded me from you before you were ready for me again. Nothing more. Try not to be so envious!”
“Try not to shoot anyone that’s not a zombie.”
Val raised her arms in the air. “You shoot one person to protect your friend and you get this reputation for mass murder!”
Connor laughed. “I’m sorry I called you ‘zombie bitch,’” he blurted out.
Now Val laughed. “I’m sorry I thought about eating you at some points along the way.”
“Like recently?” he asked with concern in his voice.
Val smiled. “No, dumbass. I’m talking about way back then. Before we saved Sara. Remember like when I was a zombie and ate people?”
“Oh! Right.”
“Connor, you do know I don’t currently eat people, right?”
Connor thought he’d piggyback off the one joke he’d pulled off in his lifetime. “Hey, you never truly know someone. I mean, look at Carlos.”
Val nodded her head. “That’s true.”
Connor sighed. “I’m in love with you, Valarie.”
“Connor, I think that’s one of the first times you’ve ever called me that.”
“I know! I was always so jealous of how Moses called you that.”
She embraced him again deeply. “I wish we could make love one last time.”
Every ounce of Connor’s attention drained out of the hug and immediately turned to how he could make that happen. His eyes madly darted about the room. “The tunnel outside has a turn in it. No one would see us if we went around the corner.”
Val looked up at him a little shocked at how literally she’d taken him.
Connor continued, “There’s a little maintenance closet over by the rooms. It doesn’t have a door but-”
“Connor!” Val said in an attempt to bring him back to reality. “The look on Adus’ face and the way he’s been pacing the room makes me think we’re out of time. It was kind of more like a sentiment anyway.”
Connor saw Adus move towards them as Connor and Val’s embrace ended. To Connor, Adus’ heavy footsteps sounded very unlike feet and much more like breaking timbers. Timbers that held up the bridge Connor’s train of hope was about to cross. When Adus opened his mouth to speak, Connor saw the damned locomotive plummet through the air and explode on the riverbed. Connor could feel the flames.
The whole analogy made Connor think he’d been spending too much time with Val.
When Connor came back to his senses, he found Adus looking at him as if awaiting a response.
“Sorry. What?” Connor asked realizing he must have seemed very rude.
“Are you ready?” Adus repeated. “You should be leaving very soon.”
“I just need to say goodbye to Sara,” Connor answered.
“Connor,” Adus replied, “I’m afraid there isn’t time. Your entire team is waiting for you. You need to get through the tunnels.”
Connor turned to Val. “Tell Sara I love her.” He thought for just a moment but Adus turned to leave. “I don’t know what else to say.”
“I’ll tell her, Connor,” Val replied. “I love you,” she said grabbing him and kissing him again.
“I thought we’d die together.”
“If I can, I’ll search the stars for you.”
Their hands untwined and Connor took the heavy steps that led away from her. Adus overwhelmed him with gear and instructions and quickly sent him off. Val watched him and his team move out into the tunnel and disappear around the curve.
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ • ∙
Once Connor left, Val realized how unfamiliar everything seemed. Val hadn’t seen Andrea in hours. When Val looked in the main room, she found only strangers with unfriendly faces. Even though she knew it to be right, she regretted her decision to leave Connor.
It annoyed Val that she hadn’t seen Andrea lately. So beginning with the kitchen area, she started searching f
or her. When she came to the supply room, Val stumbled onto her sitting behind a pile of boxes.
“Andrea! Where have you been?” Val asked.
“I’ve been here,” she replied softly.
“What are you even doing in here?”
“The plan has gotten out.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We all die and Sara saves herself.”
The look on Andrea’s face caused Val to become very serious. “Andrea, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“But that’s the plan isn’t it? She gets away in an airplane and we all get left behind. I’ve watched us die one by one. Eaten alive. Disease-ridden. Murdered by you. Nuked without warning. And I’ve got to say, the best way to go was when they all overdosed. It was the only peaceful death any of us ever had.”
Val watched Andrea fidget with something in her hand. The box kept it from view until Val leaned forward and saw the end of its metal barrel.
“Andrea,” Val pleaded.
“You’re such a dumbass, Val! I would have given anything to have a man’s affection. It killed me how you pushed Connor away for months. He loved you and you were too prideful to accept it. I would have let him love me. I’ve never had anyone. Not even back in Colorado Springs. Nobody wants Andrea.
“You all barely talk to me. I’m not in your inner circle. Sara’s never told me the answers to my burning questions. She didn’t look at me and say she loved me. She said it to strangers but not me. Not the woman who walked beside her for months. I’ve carried four children. And Sara never once asked me about pregnancy.”
“I’m sorry, Andrea.”
“I don’t want your pity. I will not be eaten alive.” Andrea brought the gun up to her head.
With the boxes in the way, Val knew she wouldn’t be able to stop her. And something inside her didn’t want to try. Val’s heart sank under the weight of two regrets now.
Val stood sadly long after the gun went off. She didn’t even blink when the sound echoed off the walls or some of Andrea’s blood splattered onto her. Not until several people came rushing into the room did Val’s eyes move from her dead friend.
Val explained what happened to one of the soldiers and stepped outside. She slumped down next to the wall and put her head between her legs and wept.
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ • ∙
Val walked in a daze. With Andrea’s blood still on her, she found herself standing in the doorway of Sara’s room.
“There you are,” Sara greeted Val warmly as she entered. Her head tilted to the side and she smiled at Val. “I think I cut enough wood to last us through winter.”
Val had no idea how to take Sara’s comment.
“Is Val up yet?” Sara continued. “She’s been sleeping for a day now. She hit her head harder than I thought. It’ll do you good to have a woman around here, Connor.”
Val now realized Sara must be reliving some memory from when Brady first brought Val to live in their mountain cabin in Colorado.
“She’s going to save you, Connor. And Sara. And through that me. Her beauty will draw you out to be more than you thought you could be. She’ll infect you with her beauty. You’ll catch it like a disease. And she will never let go of you. She’s like-” Sara leaned forward in the bed obviously having a contraction. The pain of it killed the memory and forced Sara back into the present.
When it ended, she became aware of Val sitting beside her bed.
“Val, I was hoping you’d come,” Sara whispered grasping Val’s hand. Val could hear the pain in Sara’s speech. Her voice seemed softer and far less sure of herself. It bore a hint of fear.
“I’m here, Sara, to whatever end.”
“Is Connor gone?”
“For a while now.”
“I meant to say goodbye. And to tell him that I love him.”
“After all we’ve been through. He knows.”
Another contraction came over Sara. When it ended Sara regained her confident voice. Val started to wonder how many Saras were inside her.
Sara’s head sank back some and rested on the pillow behind her. “I think somehow I always knew it. If only deep inside. The cure was always temporary. I mean, how could you really bring someone back from that?”
Sara’s head jerked around again as if she underwent some transformation. When it ended, she locked directly onto Val’s face and said, “Valerie, there you are, my darling. Are you ready to rejoin the dead?”
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ • ∙
Cory and Carlos’ journey through the tunnels proved uneventful. Cory checked his map often to decide which passage to take.
They traveled together in silence until Cory’s curiosity got the better of him.
“How’d you lose your hand?” Cory asked.
“Bowling accident,” Carlos replied without hesitation. “It and the ball went down the lane.”
Cory stopped and looked at his companion in the eyes.
“But I got the strike,” Carlos said.
Cory continued forward and they walked together in silence.
After several hours, they came to a passage overlooking a lower one. Cory dimmed the oil lantern – a gesture Carlos had only seen in old movies. In the lower passage, two zombies stood inspecting a small metal door. Carlos immediately recognized them as level two by their agile movement. Carlos readied his weapon. Cory’s hand didn’t move to his weapon. Instead, he gestured for them to crouch past the two and continue down the main corridor.
They quickly slipped past without being detected. But as they walked down the main corridor, Cory’s lantern illuminated something terrible. Its rotting teeth quickly came into view as it pulled back its lips and lunged forward. Without hesitation Carlos fired off a round killing it instantly.
Cory glanced back to his companion and said, “I guess it had to come to something like this wandering around in tunnels with nothing more than a lantern. We should just run for it.”
“Sure! From here it’s only like forty-five miles, huh? I used to run that before breakfast.” It became very apparent Cory did not appreciate Carlos’ sense of humor. “Let’s think. My average was a six minute mile,” Carlos said his thoughts aloud. “Forty-five miles. Six times forty-five. That’s like-” Carlos’ head started to hurt. “That’s like math.”
Cory could have solved the problem easily but decided to stay out of the maniac’s distraction. Cory shook his head and started to run down the tunnel.
Cory managed to run while keeping one eye on where he move and another on the map. Occasionally his hand shot up to point out a new direction for Carlos to take.
Carlos smiled as he ran thinking about his hand being lodged in a bowling ball.
After a few more random encounters with their enemies, they finally came to the end of the tunnels.
The two stopped to catch their breath before the ladder that would lead them to the surface.
Once he was able to speak again, Carlos said, “I got shocked once. It wasn’t that bad. It almost tickled.”
Cory made no reply. He did not want to encourage Carlos’ words. Instead, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the walkie talkie to inform Adus they had arrived at the end of the tunnels.
The two climbed the ladder. Cory reached the manhole cover at the top of the ladder and lifted it just enough to see outside. Besides the hurricane in the sky and the lack of people, it could have been a typical Orlando cul-de-sac.
“Are you ready?” Cory yelled down.
“Do you think you see your skeleton like in the cartoons?” Carlos didn’t realize how much he talked when he was nervous.
Cory popped the cover and climbed out. The houses glowed with an eerie white. Against the backdrop of the sickly sky, the houses stood like stationary ghosts too frightened to flee. The swirling witch’s brew that once would have been the sky reminded Cory of the tornado he’d seen as a child. He still remembered how dark and dreamlike everything seemed just before the funnel appeared.
> Without a word, Cory ran east. Carlos breathed in one last normal-sized breath and followed. Just to be safe, the two ran with a good distance between them. That way, it would take two strikes to end their marathon.
Carlos thought they’d run several miles before they felt the unsettling sensation familiar to many mountain climbers. Both men looked at each other and ran for the nearest cover.
In a blinding display of power, a bolt hit the building before them. Carlos’ eyes took a moment to readjust from the intensity. Carlos ran into a small storefront and looked over to see Cory had done likewise.
Cory gave the hand signal for Carlos to rest a minute before they continued.
Now that they’d stopped, Carlos found the thought of continuing too much to take. In his mind, he saw himself getting electrocuted immediately after stepping out from under this roof. And the only thing worse than being zapped by lightning was knowing exactly when he was going to be unavoidably murdered by it. Carlos wondered if he should ever leave this store again. He browsed the shelves and unfortunately only found fabrics.
In his mind, Carlos let himself wonder what it would be like to stop and live here instead. The fascinating consequences of a diet of fabrics kept Carlos’ mind too preoccupied to notice Cory’s gestures. Finally the noise of metal against metal forced Carlos’ eyes up to his companion. The anger on Cory’s face informed Carlos that he might not be the best of companions.
Cory gestured for them to get moving. Carlos accidentally took his time and allowed Cory to step out under the naked sky first. When no bolt immediately struck his companion down, Carlos followed.
Soon another tingling sensation ran down their spines and they ducked for cover. Lightning struck a nearby pole. Carlos was encouraged at how inaccurate the strikes seemed.
This time, Cory gave his companion almost no time to rest. With a quick gesture, the two were dashing again through the end of the residential area.
When the buildings ended and only the road remained, Cory added a zigzag pattern to his running. He hoped it might save his life. Carlos noticed it and attempted to copy. But on the divided four lane highway, Carlos found there was only so much zigzagging one could do. The stripped out trees pressed them in on either side. Even with the old vegetation ripped to shreds by the terrible weather, the remaining tree trunks and branches made running off the road almost impossible. So the two resigned themselves to running down the main highway. Cory took the west bound lanes and Carlos the east. No shelter could offer them cover now.
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