by M. Van
“I’m right here, Warren. You can let Ash go,” Mags said as she took a cautious step back. Her gaze shifted from one man to the other.
“Oh, don’t worry, Ms. Vissers. The child is of no concern to me,” Warren said. He released my neck but kept his weapon pointed at my head. “In fact,” he added and then paused. “Except for that pretty head of yours, neither are you.” With that he raised his weapon and pointed it at Mags.
| 35
Mags
I hadn’t expected Dr. David to be contented with my dead corpse, but then I wouldn’t have put it past him. His plan hadn’t turned out that great, and that could have made him desperate. Mars’s warning echoed inside my head as Dr. David raised his weapon.
If it had been up to me, we would have taken Dr. David and his men out from a distance. With Angie’s and Mars’s skills, this wouldn’t have been a problem. Even I would have been able to make the shot, but we didn’t know the extent of Dr. David’s plans. We didn’t know how many men he had on his side. All we knew was that he had stolen a decent amount of the Mortem virus from the DC lab and that some branches of the government supported him. We needed to weed those out and find the remainder of the virus before anyone else with bad intentions could get their hands on it. And for that reason, we couldn’t kill Dr. David—not just yet. We needed that information from him. But if I didn’t shoot him, then what would keep him from shooting me?
It took about a fraction of a second for that information to process, and at the sight of his weapon raising, I dropped to one knee. My hands seemed to move of their own accord as they reached for the M4 hanging from my chest. Ash’s scream tore through the air, and from the corner of my eye, I saw her reach for the gun in Dr. David’s hand. In that split second, I made my decision and aimed. The weapon in my hands crackled in quick succession as I pulled the trigger.
The man on Dr. David’s right went down in an instant. As his body crumpled to the ground, I turned to Dr. David. Fortunately, I had the luxury to count on backup and hadn’t immediately worried about the man on Dr. David’s other side. The sound of the gunshot hadn’t resonated inside my head, but I noticed his body falling to the ground and knew Angie, who had followed me onto the field, had taken care of him.
My focus was on Ash, who struggled with Dr. David for the weapon in his hand. She grunted with the effort when Dr. David managed to tear his hand away from her. He smacked her in the head, but that didn’t stop Ash from lashing out. He took a step to create some distance from her as the scene around him registered. His eyes widened at the sight of the two dead bodies at his side.
His face turned red in anger as his eyes shot to me. Still down on one knee, I angled my weapon at his head. Our eyes locked for a long moment, but I couldn’t decipher his expression. Except for the anger that radiated from him, he didn’t move or flinch. He just watched me like a predator would eye his prey.
As if he knew that I wouldn’t or, more accurately, wasn’t allowed to shoot him, he stepped forward, wrapping an arm around Ash and pulled her from the chair. The gun, still in his hand, now pointed at her head as he held her around the waist.
He spoke to her in a low voice. I couldn’t make out the words he whispered into Ash’s ear, but her jaw flexed, and her nostrils flared. It was clear that Ash wasn’t happy with what Dr. David voiced, but seemed to be complacent as she stopped thrashing in his arms.
Dr. David straightened his back and shifted Ash higher up his chest so her head was near his and he could use her as a shield.
For some reason, it felt as if we had come full circle, because it had been a similar situation that had led us into the hands of Dr. David in the first place. Back then, it had been the men and women at that church who’d followed Father Deacon. The name of the old man taking orders from Dr. David suddenly came back to me, and I wished it hadn’t. The doctor had convinced the father that he could provide them with a cure for the zombie plague. He had twisted the old preacher’s head into thinking that he was doing the right thing by handing us over to be tested and experimented on.
This time, it wasn’t some oversized woman with curly hair who held Ash and threatened to hurt her. This time, it was Dr. David himself who held her in harm’s way. Except this time, I wasn’t going to surrender. This time, I wanted nothing more than to put a bullet in the doctor’s head. But it wasn’t just Ash that kept me from pulling the trigger.
A pattern of colorful flowers shifted between the doctor, Ash, and me. The fabric swayed in the breeze as it blocked my view. Looking up, I gazed into eyes swimming behind that familiar white fog, but they appeared anything but vacant. The old woman had blood pooling down the side of her head from where her ear was missing, and it drenched her flowery dress. She stared down at me as her jaw clenched open and shut in jerky movements, and her head twitched in weird spasms without any control over her own body.
Gunshots rang out from further down the field, and I gathered they came from the side of the stadium where Mars, Angie, and I had entered. As the rapid fire of automatic weapons increased, the zombies surrounding me pushed closer together. It had to be soldiers who had entered the stadium, pushing the zombies back to this side.
I eased myself into a standing position as more and more of the infected surrounded me where I stood. Bodies started to press against each other as they filled the pathways between the tents, and I felt the panic rise inside me as I lost sight of Ash. I had to stay calm so as not to send these newly infected into a frenzy. They seemed agitated enough as it was. There were too many of them, and I felt as if I were back in that distribution center. Dread filled my voice as I reached for my coms and shouted, “I’ve lost her!”
“I see her,” Mars’s calm voice replied. “Warren’s taking her to the far corner where we first spotted them.”
With some idea of where to go, I started to move and shifted my body between the gatherings of newly formed zombies. The crowd seemed to grow by the second and even though my head poked out over most of them, I had trouble locating Dr. David—let alone Ash.
“Get away from me,” Dr. David shouted. My blood grew cold as his frantic voice was followed by a gunshot. Deciding calm was overrated, I pushed through the crowd of zombies. This earned me some growls and jaw snapping, but because of the only recent infection, the zombies’ reactions weren’t as imposing as I had witnessed them at other times.
“You’re on the right track,” Mars said over the coms. “Keep to your right.” He had stayed at a higher position where he could keep a better eye on things, and I felt grateful for his guidance. His calm voice helped keep me keep my nerves in check as I carved myself a path among the infected.
Finally, I spotted Dr. David’s head poking out between the mass, and I slammed my shoulder into an unsuspecting elderly man sinking his teeth into a severed arm. He fell to the ground, and I jumped to avoid stumbling over him. Shoving past three other bodies, I saw how Dr. David swung his arm at the zombies pushing into him.
Shifting his body, he again used Ash as a shield, but this time to ward off the zombies. She had her hands pressed against a man’s bloodied chest as she tried to keep him from sinking his teeth into her. Ash cried out as the zombie opened its jaw to latch on. The mouth was met with Dr. David’s handgun as he shoved it between the zombie’s teeth and pulled the trigger. Brain matter splattered from the back of the skull before the body slumped to the ground.
Dr. David stepped backward in the small clearing he had created for him and Ash as he waved his gun in front of him. I had almost reached them and struggled past the remains of a tent as I reached for my own handgun. The space between bodies was limited, and my M4 had become useless. I pushed forward, dodging a lumbering zombie, but as I looked up, I was met with Dr. David’s cold stare.
He must have spotted my approach, and he held his weapon raised at my chest. As our gazes held, he seemed to hesitate. Was I still that much worth to him, that he couldn’t risk the shot? As his face grew red with anger, and his mouth co
ntorted into a sneer it was easy to see that I wasn’t. Out of a newly found instinct forged in the colds of Alaska, I raised my own weapon with the knowledge that I’d never be fast enough, and with Ash in his arms, the risk was too great.
Without warning, Angie burst through the crowd of zombies, slamming her body into Dr. David. He cried out as he fired his weapon, but the impact had thrown off his shot. With Ash still in his arms, Angie tackled him to the ground. Surrounding zombies stumbled over them, and by the time I could reach them, a tangled mountain of arms and legs had formed on the ground.
Among the growls of the infected, I heard the combined curses of the three people still able to voice their thoughts.
“Get off me, you piece of shit,” Ash called out while the other two grunted with the effort of their struggle. I shouldered my way between two zombies until I reached the pile, where I grabbed the jacket of a young boy. He nearly felt weightless as I jerked his body from the pile of bodies. Focusing on his foggy eyes, I forced the image of his freckled face from my mind, pointed my weapon at his head, and pulled the trigger. Dropping the boy’s body, I reached for the next on the pile as another shot rang out.
For a second it seemed as if everything had gone silent, as if the air had been sucked from the atmosphere and had left us in a vacuum. It was Dr. David’s movement that my eyes caught first. On hands and feet he crawled from under the three bodies that still remained of the pile. Without looking back, he staggered to his feet and pushed through the crowd.
My hand gripped the handle of my gun so tightly that I feared I might break it, and I took a step to sidestep the remaining forms on the ground until I heard Ash cry out, “Angie!”
My eyes veered down, Dr. David all but forgotten, and met Angie’s face contorted in pain as she tried to push out from under the last zombie that had made it onto the pile of bodies.
I grabbed the old man who had sunken its teeth into Angie’s vest and shot him in the same manner as I had the boy. Without further thought, I discarded his lifeless form to the side. Ash pulled her limp legs behind her as she maneuvered closer to Angie.
“Goddammit,” I cursed while I dropped to my knees at Angie’s side. “What did I tell you about getting shot?” Angie grimaced, but managed a half-smile.
“Ask me later,” she croaked and then sucked in a sharp breath between her teeth.
As my hands worked on opening Angie’s load carrier vest, I cursed again.
“You’re not wearing your armor, you idiot,” I said.
Angie jabbed me in the side with a feeble punch and said, “Neither are you, so just shut up.” A weak smile followed her words, and I wished I could have returned it with more confidence. I shifted my body and braced myself to shield Angie from the surrounding zombies. Using my back, I nudged at the shuffling forms and managed to create some room on my side. Ash tried the same where she sat at Angie’s other side, but she wasn’t as successful. Still we managed to keep our little corner on the field from being overrun.
As I worked on Angie’s vest, my eyes kept going to Ash. A blood-soaked bandage sat plastered on her forehead while her face and neck were covered with bruises. I had to force myself to focus on Angie or else I couldn’t have stopped myself from wrapping my arms around the fragile kid and pulling her into a tight embrace.
I registered Mars’s voice, but my pounding heart seemed to drown out his words. Even the weapons fire that had sounded so close before had found a way into the background, and for a moment, I wondered if the soldiers had seized their advance.
“I’m kind of busy, Mars,” I shouted back at him.
Angie lifted her head as I tugged on her shirt to reveal the wound. I held my breath in a silent prayer that it wouldn’t be too bad.
“Well,” she said as I inspected the small hole and instantly spotted the exit wound. I sighed in relief as I determined that the bullet had hit her on the side and should’ve missed any vital parts. The realization didn’t stop my hands from shaking as I reached for the bandages stashed in my side pocket.
“I think you’ll live,” I said in a shaky voice.
“I’d hope so,” Angie replied with a nervous smile. She closed her eyes for a moment as I pressed the white cloth to her side. Then her gaze shifted to Ash who had watched our exchange in silence with a distant look on her face.
“Hey, kiddo,” Angie said as she took Ash’s hand in hers. “You okay?” As if it took a moment for the words to sink in, Ash’s eyes turned to Angie. A faint smile crept onto her face as she nodded her head.
“Hi,” she replied in a small voice. Angie smiled, but then moaned as I finished dressing her wound.
For some reason, I suddenly felt nervous facing Ash. I couldn’t help feeling responsible for what had happened to her and feared she might hold it against me.
A zombie bumped into Ash, and she grunted her disapproval. The infected man shuffling around on bare feet looked down at her and opened his jaw. At the same time, he seemed to take in Ash’s smell and shuttered in distaste. I raised myself up on a knee, leaning over Angie, and shoved at the man until he straggled on.
As I sat back down, I reluctantly shifted my gaze to meet those big blue eyes. Relief washed over me at the smile on Ash’s face that, even though small, had reached her eyes.
“Hey, Mags,” she said in that same small voice she had used before.
“Hey, Ash,” I replied and couldn’t deny that urge to hug her anymore. I wiped Angie’s blood from my hands on my pant leg before I wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She replied by throwing both arms around me and pulled me in tight. “God, I missed you.”
“Back at ya,” she said with a chuckle as she buried her head in my shoulder. I tightened my grip around her for a moment, but then released her and pushed her at arm’s length.
“Are you okay?” I asked as I touched her head with a tentative finger.
“I’ll be fine,” she said at a whisper that didn’t have me convinced. I was about to ask for details when I heard Mars’s voice over the coms.
“I just saw Warren running over the field, and I’m trying to cut him off. Where the hell are you?”
Feeling calmer than before, I managed to reply. “We’re still on the field,” I said as I looked up. I could barely see beyond legs and bodies as they surrounded us. The infected had enclosed us and it wasn’t hard to understand why Mars wouldn’t be able to spot us from his position. “We’ve got Ash. She’s okay, but Angie’s hurt; we need to get her out of here.”
“How bad?” Mars had gone into soldier mode, and his voice sounded all businesslike, which angered me, but I swallowed it down as I replied, “I think she’ll be okay.”
The sentence had barely left my mouth as he said, “Ash will have to stay with her. I’ve radioed Preston. He and Tom are inside the stadium,” he said in a harsh tone. “We need to find Warren.” The anger that I had managed to suppress before reappeared.
“No,” I said in a raised voice, “I’m not leaving them.”
“Goddammit, Mags, I’m on the wrong side of the field,” he said, sounding about as pissed as I felt. “We can’t let him get away.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could utter another word, Angie’s hand reached out to grip my hand.
“He’s right, you know,” she said through gritted teeth, “We’ll be fine.” She shot Ash that look she used to get people to comply, and at that point, I couldn’t appreciate it like I used to. Ash visibly swallowed and nodded before her gaze lifted to face me. Her eyes held fear, but her jaw flexed in determination before she spoke.
“Go,” she said. She cleared her throat and then added in a firm voice, “you have a chance to stop this from happenin’ again. Go!”
“Are you sure?” I asked and looked around. All I could see were the remains of wrecked tents and the shuffling forms of the infected surrounding us, although they weren’t pressing in on us anymore and we had some space to move. Ash took my hand and squeezed it.
“Go!” s
he repeated. My gaze shot to Angie and nodded at her commanding eyes. I shoved my handgun into Ash’s hand and leaned in to kiss the top of her head.
“I’ll be right back,” I said as I readied my M4 and stood. I didn’t look back as I pressed through the wall of bodies that blocked my way.
| 36
Ash
I watched as Mags walked away, but it wasn’t long before she’d disappeared from view. Pulling my gaze away from the ass of a very large man, I turned to Angie. She grunted as she tried to push herself up into a sitting position. I threw my arm around her shoulder and helped her up as best I could.
“Ow,” she said and clutched a hand at her side. She sighed as she shifted her butt before her eyes fell on me. Her brows furrowed as she inspected my face. For a moment, I thought she was going to fuss or pity me, but instead she said, “Well, I won’t be carrying you very far. Where’s your ride?”
For some reason, those words brought a smile to my face, where a moment ago I felt more like crying. I glanced around and spotted my chair. A handful of zombies stood between it and me. I sighed at the daunting task, but at least it gave me something to focus on.
“Do you think you’ll be able to walk if you can lean on me?” I asked.
“I guess we’ll find out,” Angie replied.
“Okay,” I said and hoped I sounded more confident than I felt. I checked the weapon Mags had handed me and confirming the safety was on, I tucked it into one of the pockets of my cargo pants. Just as I was about to maneuver into the chair’s direction, Angie grabbed my shoulder.
“Hey,” she said as she pulled me into a hug. “I’m glad you’re all right, kid.” The hug felt too good to voice any discontent about her calling me a kid, but I did scowl at her as she released me. With a grin, she waved me off.
“Go already,” she said.