by Kate L. Mary
No one passing us, no matter how out of control things had gotten yesterday, would think a member of The Church was armed. It had been historically non-violent since it was established, and even though the High Priestess and her daughter had made an appearance yesterday at the CDC, no one would have guessed that the other people who had stormed the building were her followers. Not when none of them had been wearing a red robe.
I strapped a gun to my waist, watching Meg as she did the same. She’d told me that she’d gone out with Jada to train before I made it to Senoia, but I still couldn’t help thinking about that day outside the walls. I’d barely known her then, but already I’d felt drawn to her. Maybe it was how fast she’d been able to pull herself together after getting attacked, how strong she’d been, or maybe it was something else that I couldn’t even name. I didn’t know for sure because an attraction like this defied all logic, but I knew that if I weren’t going to die in the next few days, she and I would be together forever. I couldn’t explain it or justify it, but I knew it in my very core.
I reached out and grabbed her hips, pulling her forward until her body was flush with mine. She looked up at me, lifting her eyebrows as I ran my hands up her back over the thick robe.
“Did something distract you from the mission?” she asked with a small smile on her lips.
We’d promised that we’d put my impending death out of our heads, and I had to give her credit, she was better at holding it together than I was or would be if the situation were reversed.
I leaned down and covered her lips with mine, twisting my hands in her robe as we kissed.
When I pulled back I whispered, “Be careful. Okay?”
“I didn’t plan on being anything else.”
“Good.”
Twenty-Eight
Meg
We were in the middle of the group, all of us smashed together and surrounded by other robed figures. Between the thick material covering me from head to toe and the crowd pressed against me, it was nearly impossible to get a mouthful of fresh air. The already humid day had turned into an inferno even though the sun was setting, and I knew it was only going to get worse. Right now we were only walking, but soon we’d be fighting. Soon we’d be running through the CDC in search of Star.
I wanted to be there when he died even if I didn’t get to be the one to pull the trigger.
All around me people chanted, their voices and footsteps so in synch that they sounded like they were one person, one voice. The beat of their feet against the ground vibrated through the air, and the echo of their chant bounced off the surrounding buildings as we made our way down the street. I couldn’t see much through the crowd, but every now and then I caught a glimpse of the people we passed stopping, either turning to stare or moving forward to join us, the lesser members of The Church getting swept up in the crowd as we moved through the city.
I stood on the tips of my toes as the top of the CDC came into view, trying to get a glimpse of the people at the front of the group. I knew which hooded head was the High Priestess, although I wasn’t sure how. Her robe was no different and she wasn’t any taller or bigger than anyone else, but somehow she stood out.
I glanced around, catching fleeting glimpses of my friends and family. We were the only ones in the crowd who hadn’t joined in the chanting, and even though we were covered in red from head to toe, I felt like we stood out. Like it would only take one look at the crowd for the enforcers and CDC guards to spot us.
I pulled the long skirt of my robe up so I could unhook my gun, my fingers itching to pull it out even as my palm started to sweat.
“You okay?” Jada hissed from my left.
I turned my head and found only her eyes visible in the dark folds of her hood.
“Yes,” I lied, and then let out a breath. “I’m fine.”
She didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t ask me again.
We moved closer, our numbers growing with every street we passed. Now there weren’t just hooded figures in our group, but people from all over the city as well. Enforcers who had most certainly worked side by side with my dad, parents with their children, people from the construction and maintenance crews, and even men and women who looked like they had been on their way to the entertainment district for a night of fun. So many people that we took up not just the street, but the sidewalk on both sides as well, the crowd swelling and growing the way a wave did when a storm rolled in.
We didn’t stop until we’d reached the courtyard of the CDC, and it was the High Priestess who signaled for the break. It was our cue to move forward, and Angus went first, but the crowd had thickened so much that it wasn’t easy to push our way through. He had to force his way between the followers surrounding us to get them to part, but once they did it was like Moses parting the red sea as robed men and women stepped aside and made way for him.
They bowed their heads when he passed and we followed, sticking close to one another as if we expected the sea of red to slam in on us once Angus had been led by. Jim and Jada were right behind him, with Donaghy next and me close on his heels. He had a gun in one hand, concealed by his robe, and with the other he reached back and grabbed my hand. His palm was moist and I tried to tell myself it wasn’t from a fever or the bacteria moving through his system, but it was a hard thing to believe when I knew his time on this earth was slipping away with each passing second.
The High Priestess was turned toward us, waiting for Angus to join her at the front. When he reached her side the expression on her face once again sent a feeling of doom surging through me. I wasn’t sure that this was the right way to destroy the CDC and Star, not if it opened the floodgates for this group of fanatics, but I also knew that Angus had been right: we didn’t have another choice.
Guards were already outside the CDC when we came up, but even more streamed out as we stood there. There were dozens of them, each of them armed with several guns and even a few grenades. The sheer number of weapons in front of us was daunting, but when I looked back over the crowd and saw how many more of us there were, I knew the guards didn’t stand a chance.
“Are you ready?” the High Priestess asked when Angus had stopped at her side.
He nodded and then he climbed up on the ledge of a flowerbed. Up there he was nearly a foot taller and was able to look out over the crowd of followers. A hush fell over the area, and with the sudden silence the guards at Angus’s back shifted uncomfortably, as if the calm was even more unsettling than the chanting had been.
Angus once again wore no shirt under his robe, and already people had begun to whisper about the bite marks that were visible on his chest. Then he pulled it up and over his head, tossing it aside, and the voices grew louder. The people who hadn’t been in the temple for the revealing craned their necks as if trying to figure out who he was.
They didn’t have to live in suspense for long.
“I am Angus James,” my uncle said, his voice floating out over the crowd.
A guard at his back rushed forward, his gun raised. “Get down. Get your hands up!”
The High Priestess pulled out a gun and shot the man in the head, and before his body had even hit the ground every single robed figure at the front of the group had their guns out as well.
“Do not move,” the High Priestess called.
The guards shifted and looked back and forth at each other. Some lowered the weapons while others raised theirs higher. Some took a step back while others shuffled forward. None of them knew what to do. None of them had expected this.
“We just want the man,” one of the guards called.
“You will not take Angus James again,” the priestess replied.
It happened quickly after that. One minute Angus was towering over us while the guards tried to decide what to do, and a second later the High Priestess had given her signal and the crowd was surging forward. Angus dropped down as the chants rose up, once again joining us in the sea of red. The bodies swelled around us, pushing us fo
rward as they moved toward the CDC. Some of the men guarding the doors yelled for us to stop while others backed up, unsure of what to do in the face of such a large group. I moved with everyone else, tethered to Donaghy’s side by the hand he had wrapped around mine. I felt like I was holding my breath as I waited for the inevitable gunshots. There was no way this would go down peacefully, and I knew it was only a matter of time before someone pulled the trigger.
Even though I’d been waiting for it, my body still jerked when it rang through the air. The chant that swelled around us was broken as some people gasped and others cried out. Still, there were other church members who weren’t at all fazed by the burst of violence. They continued to chant, seeming to call out louder so they could make up for those who had faltered.
The first gunshot was followed by a second, and then another, and within seconds the sound of gunfire popped through the air like fireworks. Screams joined the sounds, both from the people around me who were surprised by the violence and those who had been hurt. There were others too, shouts from far off, probably from citizens who weren’t members of The Church but had gathered to see what was going on.
“Come on!” Jada yelled from in front of us as she shoved past men and women wearing red robes.
Donaghy pulled me after her, and to my right I caught sight of Luke pulling his robe over his head as he hurried alongside. I fumbled with my own robe, but with my gun in one hand and the other one trapped in Donaghy’s grip, it was impossible. It would have to stay for now.
As far as I could tell, my group made it into the lobby without having to fire a single shot. Once inside the red robes thinned out, but the chaos didn’t. Some of the guards had run inside, either retreating to the safety of the locked halls or rushing to Star’s aide. A few fired from the back of the lobby where they were fighting to get through the only open door, but we were well out of range thanks to a huge pillar.
“What’s our next move?” Jada asked as she slid the blade of her knife down the wide neckline of her red robe, cutting it away.
I pried my hand from Donaghy’s so I could do the same, anxious to free myself from the stifling fabric. When he saw what I was doing, he copied me while Jim did the same and Dragon pulled his own robe over his head. Al had already gotten his off, as had Parv, and in seconds we were all back to our normal clothes. Even though I was grateful to be out of the robe, I felt suddenly vulnerable. We would be totally recognizable now. There was nowhere to hide.
“We go where they’re goin’,” Angus growled, his gaze focused on the door the guards had just fled through.
He was shirtless still, thanks to The Church’s twisted desire to see the scars that covered his skin, and in the bright lights of the CDC lobby, they looked more jagged than ever.
“He’ll be in his office for sure?” Jim asked.
“That bastard will be wherever he’s safest,” Angus replied. “That’s either in his office or in the hall.”
His gaze flickered our way and I could tell which one he thought it would be. The hall. It made sense, Star wanting to be with the zombies he had worked so hard to create. If the guards weren’t enough to keep him safe, he’d have an extra layer of protection in the dead.
“Then that’s where we head,” Jada said.
Outside the fighting continued, but the gunshots were getting fewer and fewer. With the number of guards who had fled into the building, we knew we’d need the backup, and thankfully all it took was one whistle from Angus and a group of robed figures rushed toward us. Sabine was among them.
“My mother wants me to make sure you succeed,” she said when she stopped in front of us. She nodded to the men at her back and I recognized them as the same men who had escorted us into the city. “She’s sent her most trusted warriors.”
I never thought of The Church as having warriors before, but I was learning that there was a lot more to them than I’d ever expected.
“No time to waste,” Angus muttered, and then took off across the lobby.
With Star’s code in our possession, getting through the CDC was a snap. I wasn’t sure if he had no way of knowing how we’d gotten around the last time we were here or if he’d intentionally kept the code working in hopes of luring Angus back into the building, but I was hoping it was the first one and he was in for a major surprise when we finally found him.
Just like the day before, the halls of the CDC felt like a maze, but Angus and Jada seemed to maneuver them with very little effort. They must have memorized the layout of the building, because we reached the now familiar locked door that led into the observation hall without taking a single wrong turn. It wasn’t until we were standing in front of it that we stopped to take break, but even then it was only so everyone could double check their weapons. We were all breathing heavily, but it was as much from adrenaline as it was from the trek through the building, and that wasn’t likely to get better until we took Star out.
“Be ready,” Dragon said as he punched the numbers into the keypad that was mounted on the wall.
The beeps seemed twice as loud as before, and with each one my heart pounded faster. I inhaled slowly, my fingers tightening around my gun as I waited for the door to open. I had no doubt in my mind that there would be a surprise waiting for us, and I was relieved not to be at the front of the pack. Let the bulky guards from The Church go in first. After all, they were the ones who had been waiting twenty years for this day.
The door clicked, signaling it was open, and the scent of death that wafted from the hall caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand up.
Twenty-Nine
Donaghy
As I waited for Dragon to get the door open, my heart raced the way it had before stepping into the ring. I had no clue how many cells were in this hall, but I had no doubt that Star had spent the last twenty-four hours making even more of his deadly pets. It might also account for why there had been so few guards outside the building. The asshole would do anything to make sure he came out of this victorious, even if it meant turning his own guards into these creatures.
A growl reached us before the door was even open, and my pulse raced faster as my body prepared for the fight. This would be easier than the others, or at least that’s what I told myself, because this time I had a weapon and people who had my back, while all the times I’d gone up against the zombies before I’d been alone and unarmed.
“Let me up there,” Angus pushed past Meg and me, moving to the front of the group.
“What are you doing?” Jada asked.
He shot her a look that said she was an idiot. “They get a bite outta me and I’ll be fine. Can you say the same?”
That shut her up, and it suddenly occurred to me that I should be up there too. I wasn’t immune like Angus, but I was already dying. Everyone else here had a chance, and it wasn’t fair for me stand back and let them go first. Not even the crazy robed guys the High Priestess had sent with us.
“I’m coming with you,” I said.
I didn’t look at Meg before pushing past the people in front of me because I was pretty sure it would change my mind.
“Donaghy, don’t.” Her protest made my steps falter, but I forced myself to move.
Angus’s gaze met mine and I said, “I’m dead anyway.”
“There ain’t nothin’ in this life that’s a sure thing, you know that don’t you?”
“I know that the people behind me aren’t going to drop dead tomorrow if they make it out of here,” I replied.
Angus nodded. “Fair ‘nough.”
Meg said my name again, but it was barely audible over the growls from the hall. Now that I was right outside the cracked door, the smell made my eyes water. I adjusted my grip on my gun, wishing that my palms weren’t so moist, but there was nothing I could do about it because at that exact moment Angus ripped the door open.
The hall looked nothing like it had the last time we were here, because now it was crowded with the dead. It took one look around to see that th
e doors to the cells had been thrown open to let them out, but just like I’d thought, there were more zombies than there were rooms. Dozens more, and many of them were still wearing their uniforms.
I lifted my gun as the dead moved our way and nodded past them to the end of the hall. “He’s got to be in the last cell.”
It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Star had locked himself in the room furthest from us. That’s why he’d allowed the dead to leave their cells. He’d created a gauntlet of zombies that anyone looking for him would be forced to run.
“Let’s move,” Angus growled just before he squeezed the trigger.
The crack of gunfire made my ears ring, but the head of the nearest zombie exploding made it worthwhile. I took aim and fired too, and yet another body dropped to the ground. Angus and I moved forward side by side as the dead advanced. Most were newer strains that changed the person faster, which meant they were also quick and more calculating than the zombies who’d been infected by the older strains of the virus. It blew my mind how quickly these creatures were able to change their tactics. How they zigzagged through the hall like they were trying to make it more difficult for us to take aim, how they moved lower like they were trying to avoid the bullets, and how insanely fast they were.
More people stepped into the hall behind us, but I was too focused on firing to see who it was. Bursts of gunfire joined ours, and the dead fell, but more came. They seemed to pour out of the open cells at the back of the hall, one after the other after the other in a never-ending procession. Either Star had pulled people from the city yesterday and injected them, or he’d had his guards collect the injured and zombies from the streets before he’d infected them as well. Whatever had happened, there had to be nearly fifty zombies in front of us.