“Oh, no. I don’t think so. You’ve got some explaining to do.”
Miguel moaned, muttered some incomprehensible words. Sammi slapped him. Hard. That seemed to do the trick.
“What? What do you want me to say?”
“We want you to tell us what the hell you were thinking, going back there unsupervised. Who the hell was supposed to pull you out of the Deadspace?”
Miguel shrugged, sending the mercury in Anita’s thermometer to the top. “I don’t know. I couldn’t help it. I just wanted to see it again. To go back and feel… I don’t know… free.”
This is exactly what they had warned him about. The addiction that can come from the initial plunge into the Deadspace. And, while Anita’s eyes burned into Miguel’s, she couldn’t help but notice there was a note of understanding in Sammi’s. Of course, he had wanted to go back. You don’t introduce a child to chocolate, leave a bar within arm’s reach and not expect it to be gone when your back is turned.
After establishing that Miguel’s only real crime here was a lack of self-control and that perhaps if they had wanted to keep him safe, perhaps they should’ve relocated the syringes, they changed tact. “Every trip into the Deadspace reveals something new,” Sammi said, pulling a chair. Anita dragged her own and they spent the next few minutes asking questions.
“What did you see?”
“Was it the same as last time?”
“Could you see Lucas? In the Dodge? Was he there?”
Yet, with each eager question, Anita found herself wishing she hadn’t asked. Miguel’s trip to the Deadspace had been considerably different this time around.
“It was like there was an… energy, I suppose. At first, I walked around free, feeling like Neil Armstrong must’ve done when he first landed on the moon. I felt… liberated. I took a couple doors and travelled to a place I hadn’t seen before. A big factory with smoke pouring from the top.
“But then I sensed something, an unease grew in my stomach and it felt like there were a thousand eyes watching me. Then ten thousand, until all I could feel were eyes. Have you ever had the dream where you’re in a classroom naked? It felt like that, only I couldn’t see anyone. The dark began to feel real close, so I jumped through another door to get away and found myself hovering above High Point.”
“Hovering?”
“I know, right? Weird. But I could see High Point as though it were a map on the internet. I could see my house, the streets that branch off, right up to the enclosed perimeter. And I could see people out in the streets in clusters. I got closer and saw they all looked odd, as though they were… this is going to sound stupid… hunting for someone. Then there was a rush of wind, and I realised that they were hunting for… me.”
Sammi scoffed. Anita asked, “How do you know they were looking for you?”
“Because, as one, they all moved, snapped their necks up at me and stared with dead eyes. That’s when you pulled me out. That feeling… that intense, sickening feeling, that’s still in me though.” He grabbed the bucket, looking as though he may hurl again, then spat and put it back.
“You think he’s telling the truth?” Sammi asked under her breath as Miguel stared at the ceiling.
“I don’t know. How do you make something up like that?”
“I’ve been in the Deadspace a dozen times and more, Ani. I’ve never been able to… float. Hover. Whatever he said.”
Ani scratched her head, remembering the sounds that she had heard as she had sprinted to the practice. Animal noises, processed through a digital programme to make them louder, more ravaging.
“Anything’s possible,” Anita finally replied. She watched Miguel intensely, trying to figure him out. He wiped his brow with his sleeve, picked off a stray chunk of something from his top, then reached over and picked up the glass of water Ani had brought him earlier. He raised it to his lips, took a few long gulps, and it was then that the fluorescent light caught the glass and shone to reveal the contents.
Anita gasped, grabbed the glass from Miguel and held it high. It was a minute colour change, but it was there. Like light piss on a summer’s day. “Sammi. The water. It’s in the goddamn water.”
Sammi placed her glasses on, took the cup and inspected it herself. “Son of a bitch.”
“What? What? Have I done something wrong?”
“You stole the RevitaGo formula and put yourself into the Deadspace. Of course, you’ve done something wrong,” Ani bellowed, patience waning. She opened her mouth to give Miguel another dressing down when the door swung open and Stanley ran in, red in the face and huffing.
“Stan? Is everything…?”
“We need your help.” He looked around, confused as to why the crew was all here and hadn’t invited him. “There’s more of them. Those things. They’re at the gate.”
“Slow down, Stan. Breathe. What’s going on?”
Stan doubled over, took a deep lungful of air, and reeled off the news as fast as he could. “I was about to switch over my watch and come off duty when they came. Those… things. People. Ferals. Whatever. Dozens of them. Screeching, crying. I recognised them instantly, the way they were walking. The way they were running.” He took another breath. “I couldn’t believe it. I knew all their faces. High Point folks. People I’ve seen every day. How’s it all happened? I don’t know. But they came, they all came at once.”
Ani ran up and threw her arms around Stan. “Are you okay? Are they still there? How come you’re here? Alive?”
“That’s the strangest thing. They came at us, looking ready to kill. I managed to pick a few off with my pistol, then as they reached the gates, they just kept on running, as though I didn’t exist. As though I wasn’t even there. I turned around when I heard a noise, and saw they were all streaking for a car that was kicking up dust as it headed our way. The gate was choked with bodies of crazy people who all seemed determined to reach the car. Next thing I know… BOOM! The old Dodge has slammed into the crowd, taking half of them with it.”
“A Dodge?” Anita exclaimed. “Sammi… what if it’s Luke?”
Sammi stepped forward. “Was it? Did you see him? Is he okay?”
“Hell if I know, I kept on running. Came for backup. Harry’s ducked down in the guard post sobbing like a toddler.”
Anita stood up straight. “We need to get to him before they do.” She began barking instructions, telling Sammi to grab their guns from the hidden compartment in her office desk. She turned, threw a glass of water over Miguel who looked ready to fall asleep again and bagged the remaining Aegis pouches to keep out of his reach. She then took Stanley’s arm and raced upstairs to catch up with Sammi.
She thought of Lucas surrounded by ferals and fought back a tear.
44
Anita, Stan, and Sammi stared at the throng of ferals. People they knew, people they encountered on a daily basis, now unleashed and all fighting each other to get to the prize in the centre of them all. Donny, the Dodge Impala.
The feral mass writhed, shifted, screeched. Anita tried to take a calming breath, but it did little to steady her nerves.
Donny had made light work of the security fence, ploughed a gap into the crowd of ferals and blistered the gates open like ripe fruit. The whole scene made Anita think of Black Friday at a Walmart. Despite herself, she gave a hollow chuckle.
“I don’t see the funny side of this,” Sammi muttered, not able to take her eyes off them all. Her pistol ready at her side.
“So, what’s the plan?” Stan asked.
Anita thought for a moment, already so caught up in knowing that there was only a limited window of time to extract Lucas. Maybe he’d already been taken, turned into one of those freaks.
Don’t think like that.
“Okay. Sammi, you stand at the side here, pick off anyone that blocks our way or attempts to eat me. Stan, you stand that side of the alley, covering from the right. I’ll take the golf cart and plough my way through, extract Lucas, return in one piece. Any question
s?”
“Er… I have one,” Stan said. “Are you out of your mind? I’m coming with you.”
“No you’re not. Only one of us needs to put our necks on the line. It’s got to be me.”
Stanley furrowed his brow, held up his keys. “You won’t go far without these.”
“Not to be that person,” Sammi said. “But time is kind of against us here. And, oh look, Mr Hunter has just taken a chomp out of his son. Shall we get moving here?”
Anita glared at Stan. Stan clutched the keys tight in his fist. “I’m driving.”
“Fine.” They sat back in the cart. Stan started the engine and began to accelerate. “Just hold fire until we’re—”
Too late. While Anita had been focusing on talking to Sammi, a feral had peeled off from the group, spotted the cart, and dived at them. Sammi released a bullet that struck the side of the neck and floored the beast.
Stanley cried “No!” as she popped off another three rounds into the corpse.
“Don’t!” Anita shouted, noting that several of the ferals nearby turned their head angrily at the sound of the gun. “Enough! You’ll only lure more.”
They watched in useless horror as more of the foaming mouthed savages turned and noticed their presence. Small handfuls peeled away from the larger group, some by themselves, others in groups of two to five. Sammi let rip her pistol, taking them down mid-run. Ani grabbed Stan’s gun as he drove onwards towards them, his face morphing into a painting of fear. Ani shouted words of encouragement, but even she knew they’d soon be overpowered if they weren’t careful.
“Reloading,” Sammi shouted, desperation clear in her voice. To their left, a feral that Ani recognised as Holly Green, one of the servers in Platt’s Diner, sprinted towards them. A quick look back at Sammi confirmed that they were on their own, at least until she had reloaded her cartridge, and it was down to Ani. As she raised her gun, there came a colossal sound and Holly fell down in a pool of her own blood. Only sinewy remnants of her head left behind from the blast.
Anita looked up from the corpse and saw Tony Rickett with a shotgun to his chin and a steely expression on his face. He turned sharp left, shot another and waved them on. “I don’t know what the hell you think you’re doing. But I got you.” He quickly reloaded and fired another round off.
They drove on, the sounds of bullets all around them. It seemed that the chaos, while bringing forth ever more ferals from the quiet streets of High Point, also ignited the fight within the uninfected, the remaining, the living. Not everyone follows the same routines, and it was many of the unhealthier citizens that lived off Diet Pepsi and Gatorade that now approached, adding their own firearms to thin the feral crowd.
When they were about twenty feet away Stan stopped the cart. There was a problem. Surrounding the car, battering and clawing at the vehicle, was a wall of ferals, three or four deep all around. The glass was splintered and looked ready to crack.
“What do we do?” Stanley said as he turned on the electric cart engine. “We gotta go back right?”
They heard crying from inside.
Anita stepped out of the cart, the ferals nearest to the car not giving her the least bit of attention. Gun reports echoing in staccato beats. She moved closer and saw someone moving inside the car. A blonde haired someone with big eyes, struggling to unclip the seatbelt of some child in the backseat.
Dear God, it’s Maddie.
“Give me your gun,” Anita said snatching a semi-automatic from Stanley. She aimed, stared down the barrel as if she’d been doing it for years, and let it rip. She aimed in an arc at the feral’s heads, legs, bodies, careful not to fire directly at the car. In twenty seconds she’d created a gap in the wall that was already slowly filling back in again.
She turned to Stan. “Drive!”
“What?”
“Drive!”
Stan drove at the car, Maddie’s eyes widening as he approached.
“Turn!”
At the last moment, Stan veered a hard right and bowled into a line of ferals, clearing enough room for Maddie to open her door. She didn’t come first, though. First there was a small blonde haired girl with red tear-stained cheeks. Anita ran over, pulled the crying girl aside before helping Maddie out, and tried to push her towards the cart that Stan was turning in a hard circle to meet them again.
“Come on!” Anita shouted.
“Not without Lucas,” Maddie replied, already leaning across to the driver side and pulling the unconscious body of Lucas with her. There was a long gash on his head. At this point Anita wasn’t sure if he was concussed or dead.
Stanley approached again, knocked out some more ferals, and popped a few bullets. Behind them all, a small distance away, some of the civilians that had joined the fight picked off a couple more ferals with handguns.
“Anita, move it,” Stanley shouted. “We’re as good as fried chicken shit here.”
Anita looked at Maddie, noticing how tired and worn she looked. What the hell were they both doing here, together? Where the hell was Fred?
No time for questions now.
“Together?”
Maddie nodded.
They half-clambered in, tugged at Lucas with adrenaline-filled strength, and carried him out the car. When Stan pulled around again, visibly growing pale from the loops, they placed Lucas over the back rack and Anita climbed in the car. She looked around for Maddie and saw that she had gone back to the car and pulled a young boy out. His arms hung limp as a fish, his eyes rolled back in his head.
“What the hell have you got yourself into?” Anita yelled.
Maddie grabbed the young girl’s hand and took her over to the cart, narrowly avoiding a feral crawling on the floor that chomped at her legs. “You’re one to talk.”
“Get out of there,” Sammi’s voice came from afar.
“Floor it, Stan.”
“Not a bad idea, guys.” He slammed his foot on the accelerator, stopped when he reached Sammi to let her in, then drove on back into the centre of High Point. Back to the labs for another dose of reviver fluid.
Sammi watched the mass of ferals as they shrank and then disappeared around the corner, her intelligent mind being the only one amongst them all to note that the remaining ferals had abandoned the car and were now chasing after the bodies they’d just extracted.
*
The cart almost gave out as they parked up outside the practice. Maddie hopped out and cradled the boy. Sammi took the girl and Stanley picked up Lucas. They entered, heading straight for the basement. The group were grimly silent, but they could already hear the ferals playing catch up. Screeches and cries growing louder as they approached. Sammi halted a moment to twist the lock, then push a chest of drawers in front of the glass for extra caution.
Maddie seemed to struggle with the boy’s dead weight. By the time they’d made it down the stairs it was almost too much. She clumsily dropped him onto a gurney, took a deep breath, then noticed Miguel in the corner.
“Who the hell is this?” Miguel asked feebly as Stan placed Lucas down on a separate bed.
“It’s okay. He’s one of us,” Anita replied through gritted teeth.
Sammi entered a moment later with hands full of Aegis pouches. She hurried in, placed them on the side near Lucas and the boy (noting the hungry look that suddenly flamed in Miguel’s eyes), opened a cupboard and extracted large white boxes with screens. Attached were a handful of wires with pads attached to their ends. She looked to Anita as if to say ‘Well… here we go’.
Despite it having been over a decade since Anita and Sammi had had to perform this kind of operation their bodies quickly found their rhythm. Connecting wires to machines. Applying jellied nodes to skulls. She worked quickly on the boy. “His name’s Kurt,” Maddie muttered, fighting back tears now, the strength leaving her as she folded her arms and watched. Sammi worked on Lucas, demonstrating her natural talent with this type of thing, and if Anita trusted anyone to work on their Lucas, it was her. The ga
sh on his forehead was a violent red, already beginning to bruise. She tried not to focus on that, nor the fact that she couldn’t see any rise and fall in Lucas’ chest.
“Just what the hell did you do, Luke?”
“I don’t know what came over him. He just charged at them like he couldn’t help it. Like it was the only way.”
“How long have they been gone?”
“Lucas, about ten minutes. Kurt… nearly forty.”
“Forty?!” The words jumped out of Sammi’s mouth. She hurried her pace.
After Sammi was satisfied that Lucas was fully connected and monitored, she whipped around to help Anita. Another minute gone, time they knew they didn’t have to spare, and both patients were now connected to their respective machines.
They flicked the power switches. Sammi’s brow creased. There were two key monitors hooked to each patient. The EKG displayed a flat green line which hopped and peaked in syncopation with the beating of their heart. The other was a rudimentary EEG system, designed to pick up electrical activity generated by the various cortical layers of their grey matter. In an ideal situation, they’d have a fully Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) setup. A system that would more finely capture where in the brain the activity was taking place. They’d used a similar system back at RevitaGo, in the Aegis facility, but times, she thought as she looked at her fading patients, they sure were a changin’.
Erratic beeps sounded from Lucas’ EKG. There was some heartbeat – a good sign – but it was peculiar.
A muffled screech exploded from somewhere upstairs. Sammi wondered if the barricade was holding.
“They’re here?” Ani exclaimed.
“They’re outside. It looks as though they’re drawn to those that have fallen within the Deadspace. That’s why they followed us. That’s why they began to ignore Stan and aim for Donny,” she said matter-of-factly, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Lazarus: Enter the Deadspace Page 26