by Kris Norris
Jake grabbed his oxygen tank and gear then jogged along the roof, heart still pounding against his ribs. As soon as he’d jumped, he’d known it’d be close. But then a part of him had counted on Sully and Cogan having his back, just as he’d known Harper would cover him. And all three had more than risen to the occasion. He never would have held on if Sully and Cogan hadn’t grabbed him, and he knew by the way the infected had dropped behind him on the ladder that they would have reached him if Harper hadn’t taken them out.
He stared at Harper, watching her run across the roof, every movement fluid. Calculated. Even with fifty pounds of gear, she looked graceful. He wondered how they’d ever lucked out and found her. Someone who had their backs as well as their hearts. Though he supposed anyone who’d made it this long had learned to adapt. Whatever the reason, he didn’t plan on letting this chance slip away.
Sully stopped at a large hole in the roof, the vent ripped off. Jake used the brief pause to tug his gear back on, watching as Sully peered inside. Curls of smoke wafted out of the opening, evidence their handiwork had paid off.
Sully dipped his head inside the vent, reappearing a few moments later. “There’s got to be a fair amount of flames spreading through the building to have this much smoke up here already. We might have been a bit too zealous.”
Harper’s face paled. “You’re kidding, right?”
Sully gave her a reassuring nod. “We’ll be fine. Each tank is good for about thirty minutes of air. But the quicker we get at it…”
Her neck strained as she swallowed, glancing at the increasing billow of smoke. She clenched her jaw, and for the first time since he’d met her, Jake saw fear flash in her eyes.
He moved over to her, pulling her against him. “You’re not going to get burned. I promise you. We’ll keep you safe.”
She nodded, too quickly to be genuine as she eased back, pressing her lips together as she visibly drew herself up. “I told you. I’m just not fond of fire. Not this kind.”
The fear in her voice spiked his protective instincts. He glanced at the other men. They’d obviously noticed it, too, their gazes swinging her way.
Cogan took a step forward. “There something you need to tell us before we go down there? Because there’s no room for error, sweetheart. If there’s even a chance you might panic, we need to know. Now.”
Her focus shifted to the vent then back to them. She looked them all in the eyes, breaking contact as she toed at the roof. “Don’t be silly. I’ll be fine.”
“Harper.”
“It’s nothing. Just something that happened a long time ago. I can do this.”
Jake closed the distance again but didn’t touch her. He didn’t like the way this was shaping up. She was hiding something.
“Well, when you say it like that, it’s much more convincing.” He invaded her personal space. “What happened a long time ago?”
A shiver worked through her body as she seemed to reluctantly gaze up at him. “Nothing.” She shook her head, seemingly backpedaling. “Really, I’m fine.”
“Call me crazy, love, but this doesn’t sound like nothing. And you’re obviously not fine. I’ll ask you again. What happened?”
She blew out an irritated breath, shifting her weight restlessly from foot to foot. “I got trapped inside an apartment complex during a blaze. I must have been about eight.” She swallowed again, trying to laugh it off but failing. “I’ve never seen flames that color. The orange was so damn bright. I kept banging on the door, screaming, but when no one came…” She took what looked like a fortifying breath. “One of the firefighters eventually found me. Guy axed the damn door down and carried me out. I haven’t been fond of these kinds of situations since.”
“Fuck, Harper. Why didn’t you tell us?” Cogan moved over to her, hugging her into his chest. “I never would have suggested this if—”
“If what?” She freed herself from his embrace. “If I’d confessed I’m not invincible? This is the most success we’ve had since arriving here. I wasn’t going to toss the opportunity out because my skin crawls a bit at the thought of being surrounded by smoke and flames.” She pushed her shoulders back, the operative bleeding through again. “I can handle myself. I have other fears, you know. I’m not exactly fond of zombies, either, yet I seem to have adapted to their presence quite well. So let’s just do this before we run out of time.”
Cogan clenched his jaw. “Harper. Sweetheart. That kind of ingrained fear can be debilitating, whether you’re a badass agent or not. I’m not sure—”
Jake stepped into the fray. “I’ve got her.” He held up his hand when Cogan stared at him. “We’re not separating. It’s too dangerous. I’ll make sure she doesn’t lose it, though I’m certain her stubborn attitude will do that for me. Won’t it, love?”
“Damn straight. I don’t need a babysitter, Cogan. I’m just not going to be the first one to jump through a ring of flames. I’ll leave that to the trained professionals.” She smiled at him. “Besides, maybe my childhood experience is why I find firemen so damn hot.”
Cogan groaned. “You are a piece of work. Fine. But keep your ass glued to Jake’s side. You do exactly what he says, when he says it, and you don’t stop for even a second to question him. And if you think there’s even a remote chance you’re going to lose it, for god’s sake tell him. Got it?”
“Crystal clear.”
Though she’d tried to inject a dose of sarcasm into her voice, it’d fallen short. Cogan looked at him, the message coming through loud and clear. Jake gave Cogan a curt nod, standing beside Harper as the other two men positioned themselves at the edge of the vent, disappearing one after the other into the darkness.
Jake grabbed her hand, waiting until she met his gaze. “Cogan’s right. It’s easy to get confused down there. With all this smoke… The visibility is going to be next to nothing.” He held up a small length of cord. “I’m going to tie us together. That way, you’ll know that I’m no more than a few feet away. If you get…confused…just tug on it. Okay?”
Her bravado slipped away, leaving the woman who’d stolen his heart standing there, vulnerable. Beautiful. “Got it. Tug on the line. No more than a few feet away.”
“You can do this. I won’t let you go.”
“Right.” She grabbed him just before he descended into the vent. “Thank you.”
“I love you, too. Now let’s go.”
Her smile was honest, and he gave her hand one last squeeze before easing into the vent, using the sides to keep from sliding all the way down. The metal squeaked against his hands as he slowly descended, stopping every few feet to ensure he didn’t yank Harper off balance. She followed his lead, seamlessly matching his pace, dropping in beside him when the reached the next floor. Smoke swirled through the gray space, not quite all-encompassing, but enough he had to feel his way along. He listened at every pause, straining to hear if Harper’s breathing had quickened beyond a safe level, a clear indication she was moments away from hyperventilating. But despite a noticeable increase in rhythm, her movements were steady.
He gave her a thumbs up before crawling forward until they reached the junction. Sully and Cogan had positioned themselves in adjoining branches, obviously waiting to see which way they needed to go.
Jake motioned Harper to join him, leaning in so she could hear him talk. “Which way?”
She glanced up and down the tunnels, huffing out a breath. “We need to go toward the north side, three-quarters of the way. Then we’ll branch east.” She checked out the corridors again. “That should be the duct to the right.”
Jake indicated the path with hand signals, again waiting as the other two men plodded off. Though it would have been slightly faster to let her lead, he didn’t want to chance any sudden change in smoke or fire conditions would spook her, despite the bulletproof façade she carried around her like armor.
Harper trailed behind him, hands and knees padding along the metal. The level of smoke increased as they pass
ed another junction, Harper waving them on. Jake kept moving, maintaining a steady pace until Harper tugged on the line. He stopped, spinning quickly, fear cresting the back of his throat.
She motioned him closer. “We need to take the next right. There should be a laser-protected vent ten yards down that passageway on the left. If the damn thing is still active, I’ll need to bypass it before we can gain access.”
“I’ll tell Cogan.”
He tapped out a code then proceeded ahead, grinning when he found the two men waiting several feet down the duct. He made another series of hand signals, and Cogan waved him on, allowing him to take lead. He followed Harper’s directions, doing a small fist pump when the vent she’d described wavered into view. A fan hummed on the other side of the grate, a series of lights blinking in the smoky haze.
He made room for Harper to slide up beside him, smiling when she appeared out of the swirling gray, eyes wide but not panic-stricken. She opened a small panel hidden in the frame, lighted number keys glowing in the dark. She punched in a series of codes, each one illuminating one of five circular buttons. When she hit the last one, the set blinked green three times. A loud hiss sounded through the corridor, followed by a whoosh of fresh air.
A radiant smile curved her lips as she glanced over at him, pushing the vent inward. It hinged open, allowing them access into an overly white room, emergency lighting casting a dim glow over the space. A couple of toppled chairs leaned against the far wall, along with the remnants of a TV and some old tapes. Other familiar objects covered sections of the floor, but it appeared clear of infected.
She motioned to the leash joining them, and he reluctantly untied it, grunting when she swung her legs over the opening, dropping gracefully to the floor. A knocking sound cut the silence as he moved to the edge, jumping into the room.
Jake moved out of the way, knowing Sully and Cogan would be right behind him as he slipped off his mask, the air noticeably smoke free, save the curl of fumes funneling down from the open vent. Harper was at a door, punching more codes into another keypad.
More knocking sounded in the distance, and he gazed off to his left, cursing. A group of infected lined a set of glass walls, mouths smearing across the surface as they banged limbs and heads against the panes.
He darted over to Harper, snagging her arm before she had a chance to open the next door. “You do know there’re infected beyond the glass, right?”
Her mouth pulled tight, and she didn’t give the creatures more than a passing glance. “Intimately. But the next room’s secure. We’ll only have to face them if we need to venture down the hallways.”
He held firm. “You sure? I don’t want any surprises.”
“I spent a few years of my life in this building. I’m pretty damn sure. These two rooms are linked. If they’d gotten past the security measures, they’d already be in here. There’s only one way in and out of Lelin’s lab, and this is it.”
“All right. Just…be careful, regardless.”
She winked at him, opening the door as Sully then Cogan dropped down, the firm contact of their boots ringing through the room. Harper walked into the next section, heading straight for a cabinet. Jake waited until Cogan had signaled he and Sully were good then trailed after her, watching her bypass more security measures.
“Do I want to know how you’re able to get around what is no doubt top level security?”
She looked back at him. “It’s a spy thing.”
“Right. You sure you didn’t willingly work for the CIA?”
Her smile lit up her face. “Would it matter if I had?”
“No.”
“I didn’t. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t make the most of my time with them. Or take advantage of all the training I got offered. You know what they say… It’s good to understand your enemies.”
He chuckled. “So the CIA was your enemy?”
“In my line of work, everyone who wasn’t me was my enemy.”
He frowned at the hollow tone to her voice. “Doesn’t sound like that was an enjoyable way to live.”
She shrugged. “Not like I had any friends if that’s what you mean. But I guess you don’t realize what you’re missing when you’ve never had it.”
An unsettled feeling gnawed at him. He didn’t like the picture she’d painted of her life, and he couldn’t help but wonder if there were more secrets like the apartment fire hidden in her past. He studied her as she removed a container from the cabinet and set it on the counter, carefully opening the lid. Jake peered at the contents. A series of test tubes sat inside a protective grid, the tops capped closed.
She removed one, gingerly turning it over before placing it back inside. “This is it. What Lelin had been working on for the past couple of years. I don’t know if it’ll do what Kace thinks it will, or hopes it will, but… It’s the best I can do for the man.”
Jake snorted. “All this way. All the trouble we’ve gone through for nothing more than a few ounces of liquid. Seems ironic to me.”
“I’ve discovered most of the important things in life generally are.” She closed the case, grabbing a roll of tape off the counter and sealing it shut. “Now all we have to do is find a way out.”
“We’ll check with Cogan and Sully. We can backtrack it’s just… I’m not sure how we’ll get off the roof. Might be better…”
The clatter of gunfire drowned out the rest of his words. Jake turned, mouth gaping open as a zombie fell through the open vent, writhing on the floor before scrambling up. Cogan fired, splattering bits of brain across the walls. Two more bodies littered the floor, similar wounds on their heads.
Harper pushed him out of the way, yanking open the door as two more fell. She swung her gun up, killing the first before it’d gained its feet. She aimed at the other, nothing but a hollow click sounding from the rifle. The creature rolled upright, teeth bared. Harper didn’t appear to slow as she punched it with the butt end then spun, booting it backwards with a solid roundhouse kick to the head. She dropped, grabbing scattered debris off the floor. Three DVDs flew across the room like Frisbees, cutting the zombie in the face before she popped up with an old VHS tape. She broke off the hinged end then slammed the chunk against the wall, cracking more of the plastic. The creature regained its balance and lunged at her, only to drop, the end of the black casing sticking out of its eye.
She turned and grabbed Cogan and Sully by the arm, dragging them through to the other room, allowing the door to slide shut behind them. Another corpse rolled out of the duct, the sound of it hitting the floor making Jake’s stomach knot.
Jake stared at her as if seeing her for the first time. Shit, he’d never seen someone fight like that. Use anything, hell everything, as a weapon. No wonder she hadn’t argued about meeting with Barrett and the others unarmed. She hadn’t needed to bring any along when there’d been plenty of objects she could have used lying around inside the room. Emotions battled inside his head, but pride won out. He just made a mental note not to seriously piss the girl off.
Cogan spun around, the expression on his face suggesting he was having similar thoughts when he sighed and waved at the door. “While I applaud your use of obsolete movie media, and appreciate that you saved our asses, we can’t stay in here.”
Harper started rooting through supplies, glancing at him over her shoulder. “Out there isn’t a better option. Not unless you have a way of preventing them from falling out of the damn vent. And we’re running low on weapons. I’m out of ammo, and I had to leave my bow and all but one knife back on that dirt road in order to wear this gear. Even then I can’t access the damn blade fast enough with this jacket as heavy and cumbersome as it is.”
“The gear’s necessary.”
“I know. But it’s why I dragged your asses into this room. At least in here nothing’s going to eat us. We can regroup.”
Cogan looked at Jake, motioning to Harper. Jake cringed inwardly, already aware of what Cogan was going to say. Jake moved in beside h
er, close but not touching.
Cogan cupped her arm, stopping her from rummaging through a drawer. “Harper. We can’t stay in the building, either. Those fires we started took hold better than we anticipated. The amount of smoke in the ventilation system suggests half the building is in flames already. We need to get out of here while we still can, or zombies won’t be a problem.”
Jake snaked his arm around her chest when the blood drained from her face. A tremor shook through her before she pursed her lips and nodded. She opened her mouth but closed it without saying anything, her focus shifting to the next room.
A sigh hummed past her lips as she kicked at the floor. “They wouldn’t cross the fire line before. What if you set that room on fire? I know we need to get out that way but… Can’t you walk through flames with these suits?”
“They provide some measure of protection. We could still get out with the room ablaze. But we’d have to light up the hallway, too. There’re already infected banging at the glass. God knows how many more of them there are.”
“I know. They’re the agents that didn’t make it out.”
Cogan turned away. “Fuck, Harper. Is there any story from your past that doesn’t make things even worse?”
“Would it help if I told you that once we kill them, we should be clear until we leave the next section? This area was cut off. Nothing else got in as far as I know.”
Jake stepped up behind her. “We can start another fire. The question is, are you going to be able to run through that room if it’s engulfed in flames?”
Harper grabbed the case with the vials, sticking it inside her jacket and zipping it closed. “I’ll do whatever’s required to get out of here. Take what you need and light this place up.”
Jake searched her face, but she’d plastered on the stubborn smile she’d used before. He nodded at Cogan. The man hesitated for a moment then moved, searching through the bottles of chemicals stacked in the cabinets. He grabbed some empty beakers, filling them with a mixture of liquids while Sully tore up some strips of cloth from an old lab coat. He soaked the fabric in more of the liquid then stuffed the pieces into the tops of the beakers, leaving a few inches sticking out. Jake kept Harper close, once again tethering them together. She scowled as his fingers tightened the cord around her, but he knew it was mostly for show. He didn’t miss the fear reflected in her eyes as Sully lit two of the bombs, motioning to Cogan. The man moved to the door, pressing the button on the side panel. It slid open on a swirl of air. Another zombie had gained access to the room and it turned at the sound, hissing at them. Cogan stepped aside as Sully tossed the glass jars, ducking back when Cogan hit the button again, closing the door as flames burst to life in the next room, filling the area with a plume of black smoke. The glass panels rattled from the force as debris splattered against them, smearing charred flesh across the clear surface.