by Perrin Briar
Dana’s comatose state cracked at hearing Debbie’s name. The muscles tightened around her eyes and mouth. A flicker of her old self. The passion and energy of surviving, no matter the odds, no matter the requirements.
“You think we can trust her after what she did?” Dana said.
“Normally, I’d say no,” Hugo said. “But the truth is, she’s a survivor.”
Dana glared at him. Hugo held up his hands.
“I know,” he said. “She’s a liar and a cheat too. But what would we have done if we had been in her situation? Lie to get out of the room full of undead? I know I would.”
Dana folded her arms and shook her head. She wasn’t buying it.
“A survivor survives,” Hugo said. “We might not be able to trust her to do much else, but we know she cares about one thing—and that’s herself. She’ll do anything to keep herself safe. Swatter is going to kick us out. Soon. If we don’t have somewhere to go, we’ll be wandering the streets. You know how dangerous that is these days.”
Dana gritted her teeth. She didn’t like it, but then Hugo didn’t expect her to. He expected her to listen to reason, even if it came in the form of Debbie.
“I’ll never trust her,” Dana said.
“You don’t need to,” Hugo said. “But trust me.”
Dana hesitated. It was his big gambit, the one thing that might convince her to listen.
“Fine,” Dana said. “Where is she?”
Chapter Thirty-Four
DANA HADN’T GONE to see Debbie since the day she’d admitted she’d lied about knowing Max’s location. She had completely avoided the area, knowing if she set eyes upon the old hag she would end up going into the private room and rip her apart.
Swatter wouldn’t have punished Dana for doing, what he considered, the right thing. But it would have made the other kids a little uncomfortable to have a raging murderer in their midst.
Meanwhile, Hugo would have been forced to clean the blood off the bedsheets. And everyone knew how difficult blood was to get out of any fabric. Then there was Debbie herself, who no doubt was happy not to have to be choked to death.
Happy faces all around.
Debbie didn’t react when Hugo entered the room and approached her bedside. He had entered many times before. It had been up to him to squeeze as much information from the old woman as he could. It turned out she knew precisely what she had said she did about Max’s location.
Diddly squat.
Dana, unable to confront the old hag directly, stood outside her room. Poo Poo Head stood on the opposite side, and wouldn’t move a muscle until Dana said so.
The old woman lay there, staring at the TV. She had been distraught when, no matter how many times they tried to explain there was no signal, there was no image. The TV would not work.
Debbie either lacked the ability to understand or didn’t care to. She contented herself with watching the black vacuum on the screen. It had nothing playing on it, but it seemed to soothe and calm her.
“How are you doing today?” Hugo said.
The old lady shrugged in response. She always felt the same.
“I’m here to talk to you more about the place you told me about,” Hugo said. “The one where you worked before. The safe house.”
Debbie looked away from Hugo and focused on the blank TV screen again.
“Debbie,” Hugo said. “The house on the outskirts of town. Remember? The big one. Can you remember where it is?”
Debbie again said nothing.
“Hey!” Dana said, stepping in the doorway. “Shithead. He’s asking you a question.”
Dana’s glaring, blazing eyes focused on the bitch in the bed and did not veer away. She might ignore Hugo, but she wasn’t about to do the same with Dana. She was fire and brimstone. Hugo could almost smell the Sulphur.
Dana approached the bed. Hugo put himself between the old lady and Dana, spreading his arms wide to intercept her. Little good it would do. There was no stopping Dana when she was in this state. He might as well try to stop a runaway train.
He could not prevent whatever Dana intended on doing. Hugo wasn’t even sure he should try to stop her.
He needn’t have worried. Dana stopped two yards from the bed, waiting. She glared at the old woman, who had torn her eyes off the TV screen and had them focused entirely on Dana. She was afraid of her. No doubt she could recall with clarity what Dana had wanted to do to her just two days ago.
There would be no stopping this demon from harming her if she wanted to. The only person willing to put up any kind of resistance was Hugo.
Why it always came to him, Hugo didn’t know. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact he was the only person in the entire hospital who could stand the old hag for more than a few seconds.
Some of the other kids, who hated her so much they wouldn’t even come into the room, had built a contraption that allowed them to deposit her food on the bed without having to step inside the room.
Debbie gripped the sheets tightly in her swollen hands, drawing it tight to herself. The deep lines of her face found new depths from the shadows cast by natural light.
“I’m sorry,” Debbie said.
“I don’t want your pity,” Dana said. “Tell us about this house, or I swear I’ll finish what I started before.”
The old lady looked from Dana to Hugo, and back again. The question was clear on her face: You’ll stop her, won’t you?
In response, Hugo stepped to the side to let both barrels of Dana’s glare drive hard into Debbie’s face. She flinched under the stare.
“I work…” Debbie began. “I work in house before. I cleaner. For rich couple, on outskirt town. They come only sometime, when not busy. They need someone honest, reliable…”
“Ha!” Dana said without mirth. “And they got you.”
“Yes, me,” Debbie said, not catching the sarcasm. “They have good security system. Very, very good. It safe. It have wall and cameras and room under earth. The house hide in wood, not see from road.”
“Where specifically is it?” Dana said. “No more bullshit. No more lies. Where?”
Hugo hastily extracted a map out of his pocket and unfolded it. He’d found it in the mini library at the opposite end of the ward. It was torn and dog-eared but it would serve its purpose. He laid it out flat on the old lady’s bed. Her bent legs provided the undulating landscape.
Debbie peered at the map and frowned.
“We are where?” she said.
Hugo pointed out their location on the map.
The old lady frowned again.
“What is it?” Hugo said. “Is the map old? Can’t you see the house on here?”
“I not know with this,” Debbie said, pointing at the map and waving her hand. “I see with own eyes. I know way.”
Dana had pieced together Debbie’s meaning.
“You’re not coming with us,” Dana said. “You can’t. I’m not dragging your sorry ass over the city again.”
The old lady found her backbone. Her eyes narrowed, focusing on Dana.
“Then you no find,” she said.
Dana gritted her teeth and took a pair of fast steps forward, raising her clenched fist. Hugo was quick to step in her way. Dana considered knocking him aside, then lowered her arm.
“Then we won’t go,” Dana said. “I’d rather have the meat stripped from my bones than help you survive another day.”
“Let’s go outside,” Hugo said.
“Can you believe her?” Dana said. “She actually thinks we’re dumb enough to take her with us!”
Hugo negotiated Dana toward the door. He shut it behind him. The truth was, he didn’t like the idea of taking the old crone with them any more than Dana did. She didn’t deserve to go with them, not after everything they had done for her and how she had repaid them.
But the harsh truth was they needed to get somewhere safe. They couldn’t loiter in the streets, couldn’t wait for the undead to pick them off one by one. They needed to get o
ut of there. They needed a plan of where they were going to go.
This was going to be a tougher sell than he thought.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“WHAT DO YOU THINK?” Hugo said.
“I think she’s full of shit,” Dana said. “That’s what I think. I think it’s all she’s got. She’s going to die, and take us with her.”
“I think she might be attempting many things,” Hugo said. “But I don’t think she wants to die.”
Dana scrunched up her mouth. Spoken like that in Hugo’s calm voice, she had to admit it sounded unlikely.
“The old lady has lived this long for a reason,” Hugo said.
“She lied to us before,” Dana said. “Why should we believe her now?”
“Perhaps we shouldn’t,” Hugo said. “But she knows where to go. And this place might turn out not to exist. And if that happens, I swear you can do anything you like with her, and I won’t get in the way. But I don’t think she would lie to us again, not about this, not when it would be so easy for us to see she was full of shit.”
“I think it’s convenient she can only recall where to go if she could see where we were going,” Dana said. “It means we have to take her with us.”
“Then we’ll take her,” Hugo said.
“She’ll slow us down,” Dana said.
“We won’t get there without her,” Hugo said.
“Putting our lives in the hands of this evil corrupt old hag…” Dana said, shaking her head. “I can’t do it. I won’t do it.”
Hugo stepped up close to Dana, so close he could feel her breath on his face.
“Think about Max,” Hugo said. “Think about how happy she’s going to be when we bring her back to the house, to somewhere safe.”
Dana’s eyes moved to the side. That gave her pause for thought. Then she shook her head.
“We should head out by ourselves,” she said. “Anything is better than going with her. She can probably can’t walk. And I’m not helping her. If she needs to walk, she’ll do it by herself. I’m not slowing down. She’ll keep up with me or we’ll leave her behind. Understood?”
Hugo nodded, but his heart wasn’t in the decision. It couldn’t be. There was no way the old lady could keep up with them. And how were they going to know which direction to head in if she wasn’t there to tell them?
He kept his concerns quiet. Finding a good location was of prime importance. It didn’t matter how they found it, only that they did. And the old lady was their key to that.
“So, it’s decided,” Hugo said. “We’re going.”
Swatter approached. He looked to be in a malevolent mood, moving with the grace of a hooligan football fan. He’d been dropping hints about kicking Dana out for days. Now, he had evidently had enough.
Hugo beat him to the punch.
“Good news, Swatter!” Hugo said, slapping a hand on his back. “We’ve got a plan and we know where we’re going!”
The scowl on Swatter’s face melted, though it wasn’t without trepidation.
“Where?” he said.
“We don’t know,” Dana said.
“I see you found your tongue,” Swatter said.
“Would you believe, it turned out to be in my mouth the whole time?” Dana said.
“Things are always in the last place we look,” Swatter said. “When are you going?”
“As soon as we can,” Hugo said.
The darkness began to creep over Swatter’s face again. He’d heard these kinds of excuses before.
“Right now, in fact,” Hugo amended.
“Now?” Swatter said.
“Yeah, now?” Dana said.
“The sooner we go, the sooner we find somewhere safe to call our own,” Hugo said.
Dana must have known it was unlike Hugo to want to jump feet first into a dangerous situation, but she said nothing. He could only have said it if there was good reason to.
Dana glanced at the hospital door. It looked mighty thin to keep hundreds of thousands of undead at bay. Still, it wasn’t her concern. If they wanted to hole themselves up in a tomb, that was up to them.
Swatter gave them what little food they could afford, and their choice of weaponry. He’d sent his little army to help Debbie get ready too. She came through the doors, barely able to keep her own feet underneath her. More than ever, Dana thought they ought to be heading out by themselves, without the crutch of the old lady.
“Take Poo Poo Head with you,” Swatter said. “He likes you more than us anyway.”
Dana looked at Poo Poo Head. She knew he wasn’t going to survive with these other kids. They were children themselves, struggling to survive in a world that didn’t care for them. But they were at least conditioned to be self-reliant. Unlike Poo Poo Head. He needed other people to care for him. But did she really want to have to be that person?
The lights dimmed for a moment before flickering and coming back on.
“The power grid’s out,” Hugo said.
“If the power’s cut, why are the lights still on?” Dana said.
“It’s the backup power generator,” Swatter said. “It really is the end of the world now.”
He was right. Without power, the world would be a cold, dark place. They would return to the Stone Age.
They waved goodbye and were silent as they approached the door. Swatter peered out, checked the coast was clear, and then gestured for them to step forward. The door closed behind them.
They were alone in the corridor. In the city. In the world.
Oh shit.
Chapter Thirty-Six
DANA, HUGO, POO POO HEAD and Debbie crept down the corridor. Blood splatters adorned the walls. Smashed glass crunched underfoot. Freddy Kruger was the interior designer.
They had stepped from a normal functioning hospital ward and right into the midst of a war zone. Bodies lay on the floor, unmoving lumps of red festering meat. Rats commuted, ferrying chunks back to their nests and starving loved ones. At least they were eating well.
Dana peered around a corner and into a large waiting room. Lights flickered overhead as the power supply attempted to enforce itself. Half a dozen undead stood, jaws moving like cows chewing cud.
“Stand back,” Dana said under her breath.
Hugo, Debbie, and Poo Poo Head stepped back, out of view.
“Not you,” Dana said to no one in particular.
Hugo knew she had to be talking to him. He knew his lack of luck would extend to this situation.
“Their eyes will be worse than ours in this harsh light,” Dana said.
The electricity was, for now, still on, thanks to the backup generator. They had to use it to their advantage while they could. They donned the sunglasses they still had tucked in their shirt breast pockets.
“What’s the plan?” Hugo said.
“We step out there,” Dana said. “We get close and bash them over the head.”
“Simple, but effective,” Hugo said. “I like it.”
Dana and Hugo stepped into the room of flickering lights. A disco for the insane. The zombies were intrigued, grunting and peering over at them. They made no move to approach them. Dana’s instinct was right. These creatures hadn’t noticed them.
She would take advantage of the opportunity. Dana moved alongside a zombie and took out the knife Swatter had given her. She slowly slid it into the zombie’s eye socket. It grunted, but made no obvious sign of pain, and fell to the floor.
The other undead heard the noise and approached the fallen figure. They dropped to their hands and knees as if they had no control over how they moved, and feasted upon the fallen creature. They didn’t seem to associate Dana with the death.
Dana and Hugo hacked at the others while they were eating, taking advantage of the distraction. They utilized their weapons for maximum efficiency. Only once they had put them down did Poo Poo Head and Debbie emerge from their hiding places.
They met few undead on the remaining floors. Most had apparently found their
way to the top floor where the orphans had dealt with them. Only the stragglers remained here now. Dana and Hugo repeated their original plan and put each lurching figure down.
Dana was certain this would be the simplest stage of their journey. She turned out to be right.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
THE CITY WAS a smoking ruin. The battle between the undead and soldiers seemed a thousand years ago. They had struggled through it, climbed a collapsed skyscraper over it, and survived to tell the tale.
It was still a shock seeing the smoking remains and what remained of the city. Someone had drawn Death’s cowl over the city, setting it ablaze and destroying great swathes of it.
The sunlight was warm and welcoming, a stage light on the apocalypse. Ambulances lay on their sides, cars black with fire damage, dented beyond use.
So much for hotwiring a vehicle, Dana thought. What remained of these shells wouldn’t have been accepted by a scrap dealer.
The rank stench of charred corpses and spilled blood hung heavy in the air. A tank with blood stains spilled out of the turret and down the sides. The building they had scaled lay in pieces, blocking the road.
Dana snatched a watch from a dead man’s wrist. The hands were still moving. Time continued on, and so must their existence.
Sporadic gunshots here and there, signs of life as fleeting as happy emotions. Dana felt relieved by those sounds. It meant they weren’t the only ones trying to survive.
There were others.
Still, she didn’t much like their chances if they kept opening fire like that. They would get the attention of every monster in the city. It was only when the gunfire stopped that she ought to be afraid.
“Come on,” Dana said. “We haven’t got all day.”
They turned a corner and immediately realized their first mistake. Coming out into the city was not the best idea. They should have remained inside, in the hospital. They should have done everything they could to stay there, safe and sound.
They were exposed, and it had been their own decision to do so.