Since The Sirens Box Set | Books 1-7

by Isherwood, E. E.

  He looked her up and down. “You have a weapon?”

  “I had a screwdriver”

  “Against zombies and assassins? You are either very brave or very stupid.”

  “Stupid,” she said with an even tone. “I couldn't protect myself, or the camp. I had to run to get you.” She looked around at the survivors of the ambush. “I'm sorry I brought these guys to you. I didn't think they'd be that aggressive.”

  Sparks gave her a look she couldn't read.

  “I need three of you to come with me. I don't care who, but I need volunteers. I also need two of you to stay here until the morning shift arrives. Tell them to keep their eyes open on both sides of the blockade. Spread the word down the line.”

  It didn't take long, and Sparks had his team. Victoria tried to explain where the building was located, but her directions weren't very good. She could walk him back there, but the campus was so big and convoluted…

  “It's past the quadrangle. On the left.”

  “That's enough. We'll find Whitaker from there. But we're taking a different way.” He pointed into the darkness of the campus. “There are too many places to get jumped if we head straight in. We're going to go south along the blockade—where it's hopefully safer—and then make our way up the south edge of campus and come at the building from the far side. It will take a lot longer, but we can take them by surprise.”

  Victoria didn't like the word “longer”, but it did seem reasonable.

  Sparks pulled a gun off one of the dead women at the blockade. He spent time at her body—praying perhaps—and returned with her gun. “You know how to shoot?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Good. We may need your help. Everyone has to fight, tonight.”

  She thought of Hayes huddled in the security room, waiting for rescue. Here, Sparks was outfitting her to be on the team that pulls him to safety.

  Hayes read me perfectly. I'm going to save him.

  “Is there anything else we need to know?” Sparks asked as he looked squarely at Victoria.

  “There's a scientist trapped on the third floor. He sent me out to get help.”

  “He sent you?”

  “He's…complicated.”

  At best.

  “Anything else?”

  She could think of reams of information they probably didn't know, but for this mission, there was only one really important thing they needed to know.

  “He was working on a cure to the plague. As best I could tell from my time with him, he was close. But he also found that some of the people in his test group carried the plague, but didn't turn into zombies. They are Typhoid Mary's,” she said expectantly.

  Blank looks in the darkness. She glanced up. Dawn was on the air. A faint glow in the eastern sky.

  “You can't let anyone out of that building who might be infected.”

  “So how do we rescue your boyfriend?”

  “He's not my—oh, it doesn't matter, dang it. You have to save the scientist, but you can't free the zombies. There are at least thirty inside, that I know about. If they get out, they'll rip through Forest Park.”

  Sparks pulled out a green pack of Newports. He removed one with deliberate care, then placed it in his mouth, but didn't light it.

  “If you're lying to me, I'll make sure your life is miserable and short.” His eyes penetrated hers, but she didn't flinch. He was searching for deception, of which she had none.

  “Sir, if there are no zombies in that building I'll happily take what's coming to me. But there are. And they're evil. And dangerous. I can't stop them on my own.”

  The stare down continued for many moments. She looked at his eyebrows, rather than his eyes, so she could maintain his molten glare. Eventually, he struck an old-school Zippo lighter against his leg, then lit up his cigarette. After he sucked in a deep breath, he held it, then blew it out to his side.

  “I think you're telling the truth. The guy we killed was a marksman, I'll give him that. The one that got away is gonna be none too happy we killed his compadre,” he said with humor.

  “Terry and Jill, you guys are front. Me and the co-ed are in the middle. Carl, you got tail gunner.”

  “My name is Victoria,” she said a bit too defensively.

  “Me and Vee are in the middle. Everyone good?”

  She nodded. Others responded in the affirmative.

  They walked into the night.

  4

  By the time they had eyes on the Whitaker Building, dawn was in full bloom. Victoria huddled with Sparks at the edge of a large parking lot, while his team set up. No one had spotted any additional shooters.

  “This place is going to be crawling with students, soon. We need to make it happen.”

  She didn't doubt him, but she wondered what “it” was going to be. The man had barely said two words to her since they began, so she knew better than to ask him to reveal what he was planning. She wondered if he knew. Now that she saw the building in the light of day, she remembered how big it was. It would be a complicated operation to storm it and kill every zombie inside.

  Minutes hurtled by. A student appeared out of nowhere and made it all the way to the front door of the building before anyone noticed her. The girl seemed to try the handle of the door, peer inside, then pause like she didn't know what to do.

  “Shouldn't we be up there? Telling people to steer clear?”

  Sparks seemed to think on it. Victoria thought he was going to answer, but when she turned to him, he was looking elsewhere.

  “I think we need to warn everyone,” she said with finality.

  Eventually, the girl moved on. Victoria released the breath she didn't know she was holding, as the brightly-dressed student fell out of view.

  Sparks remained noncommittal.

  She figured it was another ten minutes before he spoke.

  “Ah, there you are,” he said to someone behind her.

  Terry and Jill ran up carrying a large blue container between them.

  “This thing is so heavy, I thought I was going to bust a nut,” Terry said quietly.

  “Me, too,” Jill said with a laugh.

  “You guys ready?” Sparks asked them.

  They agreed, but Victoria became instantly worried. “Wait a second. You're going to start a fire?”

  “You got a problem with that? You said those zombies were a huge threat. These buildings are ancient. We start a little fire in a front room, and the whole thing will burn. I'm sure of it.”

  “Um, yeah, that's probably true. But my friend is on the top floor. He won't survive if you burn the place to the ground.”

  “Look, Vee, I appreciate you calling this to our attention, but our alternatives are pretty thin. We can either go in shooting, and maybe kill them all, and maybe lose some of us,” he swept his pointer finger to their small group, “or we can light a little fire and enjoy the sight of burning zombies from the comfort of far away.”

  “That's what I choose,” said Terry happily.

  Victoria smacked her forehead. “I should have done this myself.” She knew it was foolish to say, but it was her first thought.

  “Our priority is protecting the camp, not your sissy scientist. And besides,” Sparks continued, “there are men who want to shoot us hiding somewhere nearby. It will take a few seconds to toss the fuel and run. It could take hours to clear a building that size. We could get ambushed at any point along the way. What do you think has better odds for my people?”

  The demeanor of the trio around her was enough to dissuade her from continuing her line of reasoning. They were right; she was sad to admit. She wondered if she could go and get other helpers from elsewhere in the camp, but there was no time to be picky.

  “Will you give me a few minutes to try to warn him? He's watching on security cameras. I can get a message to him.”

  Sparks tossed the butt of a Newport. He had the half-empty pack in his hands to grab another. “Makes no difference to me. Unless I'm missing something, the
zombies are good and locked on the inside. As long as no one comes along with a key, we can afford to wait. And watch.”

  “I'm going over that way,” she pointed to one of the dorms behind her. “They have a tunnel that goes underneath this parking lot. I know that tunnel is on the cameras.”

  “We'll cover you as long as we can,” Sparks added.

  “Thanks.” She stood up to go, weapon in hand, but felt she needed to say something more. “I'm, uh, really sorry I got your people shot, sir. But I think saving this one scientist may make up for that. I think he can save us. Save our families.”

  Sparks took a long drag. “My family is already dead. But thanks for trying to make things right.”

  Victoria turned and ran for the dorm. She couldn't bear the pain of the man.

  On the run, she checked her sides as best she could. Short Guy could be anywhere. Behind any derelict car. Behind any tree. Up in any window. She pushed it back and ran forward.

  The front doors were unlocked, as expected. A couple of students stood in the foyer, munching on the energy bars they'll all been given. They looked as miserable as she felt. The early light of dawn reminded her of her sleep deprivation.

  “Hiya,” she said with all the cheer she could muster. Their eyes were drawn to her rifle, and her earlier sadness morphed into anger. They recoiled at the sight of the gun, as if she were carrying a little demon with her. This far into the disaster she figured it had to be obvious to everyone still alive that guns were their only true salvation.

  Or spears, rebar, shovels, or…

  She could list a lot of zombie-killing tools, but none were as efficient and safe to the user as the gun.

  They'd spent too much time on campus, under the protection of people with guns, to recognize things had changed.

  She thought about that for as long as it took her to go down the stairs to the tunnel system. Only when she was at the bottom did it strike her she had no light source.

  5

  The tunnels were almost pitch black. Fortunately, planners had anticipated just such an event by placing small opaque windows on the ceiling that let in some of the light from above. The morning was still very young, however, so not much light made it down. It wasn't solid darkness, at least.

  The rifle fortified her resolve as she shuffled along the tunnel. She had an irrational fear there were steps ahead of her, though the thought of putting steps in such a confined and dark area almost made her laugh.

  In the light of day the tunnels never seemed very long, but now…

  She took many minutes to walk the distance she covered in seconds when she ran across the parking lot above her. Various side tunnels joined hers, though her destination was directly ahead. When she thought she'd certainly gotten to the end, she did see the end another twenty or thirty feet ahead of her. The gate, which Hayes had said he locked, was there. But it had been partially opened.

  Oh no.

  She felt the weight of zombies behind her. Could they have gotten by her in the darkness? Were they in other tunnels? Suddenly, the thought of going on didn't seem so smart.

  While she considered what to do, a form came out of a dark corner. She raised the rifle so she had a good bead on it.

  But it didn't lunge at her. It appeared lost.

  The form was someone she recognized from the experimental group from the day before, and from the video feed tonight. The teen girl wore a darling red sundress. It was a type of clothing unheard of out in the world anymore, so here in the safety of the campus, it got her noticed.

  But as she came into focus, her beauty was gone. Her ashen gray skin was terribly mangled on the side of her head and face. Her neck carried the telltale signs of massive trauma—a zombie had recently infected her. And here she was, in the sights of Victoria's rifle, doing nothing.

  Her finger hovered on the trigger. She wanted to pull it. She was certain she was going to pull it.

  After I see what she does. Then I kill her.

  The zombie had to have noticed her. It was getting lighter every minute, and the two girls were now only a handful of feet from each other. The girl in the red dress turned and faced Victoria—she stared at her, or in her direction, for a long minute. She sniffed the air. She cocked her head. It was as if Victoria was invisible.

  She paid attention to as many details as she could. The girl had to be something special. A new kind of zombie, as Liam would undoubtedly say. But what would he call her?

  After several minutes, the girl turned and walked into the metal gate. It seemed to readjust.

  Is she blind?

  It would explain everything. A blind zombie would depend on other senses to find food.

  But it hadn't done very well using those senses. Victoria had made sounds and had to smell like something. Besides the perfume still lingering on her clothes, she'd been sweating like crazy since she began her escape from the zombies, then from the pair of NIS jerks.

  Blind, and deaf?

  That seemed closer to the truth.

  She chanced moving closer to the zombie. The blood on the girl's neck glistened. As more light filtered down from above, the more ruined the girl appeared. From one side she almost appeared normal—save the grayish skin—and from the other, she was a horror movie. Yet, Victoria could imagine her mostly as a normal girl caught up in the events of the night, the same as her. Only one girl was under restraint, while the other was free to escape the calamity. A blind and deaf person would have had a very rough time in the Zombie Apocalypse…

  It sobered her thoughts.

  “Do you hear me?” she said before she had time to talk herself out of it.

  The girl turned her way.

  “Ah,” she said much quieter. “You do hear me.”

  She moved sideways as fast as she could, making sure she held tight to her weapon. Her finger was next to the trigger. Ready.

  As she feared, the zombie turned to where she moved. It had seen her, after all.

  It could both see and hear her, yet didn't attack.

  The zombie snapped her jaw—clacking her teeth loudly. She seemed to lose interest in Victoria and turned back toward the gate, and the research building from which she came.

  “I don't know what's going on here,” she whispered to herself.

  But she knew.

  No. That's impossible.

  Hayes said as much. Showed it to her on the screen.

  No. It can't be. That would mean…

  The zombie jumped and barked in a high-pitched chirp. She nearly dropped her gun.

  A man came down the steps of the research building firing a rifle over and over into the red dress girl. It only seemed to anger her. She exploded from her standing position and charged the man. Shot after shot went into the girl, some of which exited her back as Victoria watched in stone-like terror.

  The man's rifle clicked loudly. He was out of ammo. Instead of reloading on the fly, he continued toward the girl with purpose. That's when he saw Victoria near the gate.

  “Just a minute, my dear. I'll be with you.”

  It was Short Guy. He had a bandanna over his ruined right eye.

  The red dress zombie was perforated, but her head was intact. Zombies can be put down in many different ways, though the head is always a requirement to take it out of action completely. However, that doesn't mean it can magically move and attack even after the rest of its body is destroyed. Her leg appeared shattered, her arms didn't work, and the holes in her backside were soaking the rest of her dress in blood. She barely made it to Short Guy, and it took him one solid crack with his rifle stock to put her down for good.

  He kept coming toward her.

  “Now it's your turn, you little bitch.”

  6

  “I don't think so.” She raised her rifle.

  He stopped in his tracks. In the dim light, it was hard to read his face. The anger was there but also surprise. With a swallow, he seemed to try a new tact.

  “There's going to be a wave o
f zombies coming down behind me. Then they'll take you to Hell, where you belong.” His empty rifle fell to the floor.

  “I don't think you understand who goes to Hell,” she said sadly.

  Would Hell be anything like this night?

  She forced herself into the moment. Having philosophical debates over her feelings would not help keep her alive. Only the gun in her hand was doing that, now.

  “Well, you'd better arrest me so we can both get out of here. They're coming.”

  “Why? Why would you let them out?” She took a step back as she spoke. He took a step forward.

  “Easy. Rid the world of the filth out there in the camp. A few zombies get loose. Poof. Problem solved,” he laughed.

  “What's so funny about that? You can't just go around killing that many people for no reason.”

  He looked at her with the same evil eyes she'd seen in that Colorado forest. “Sweet thighs, you have no idea what's going on, do you? You probably think this is gonna pass. We're all gonna survive and then rebuild. Am I right?” He laughed sarcastically. “We haven't even gotten to the real in-your-face killing, yet.”

  She took another step back. She was close to the gate. He continued to slowly move forward. Her gun remained trained on him, but it didn't seem to evoke the same fear she'd have felt had their positions been reversed.

  “I can see by your eyes you don't get it. Why would you? This is a rebirth. A renewal. Of mankind.”

  “With zombies?” she croaked. Screams echoed in the tunnel. They came from behind Short Guy, up in the building. Distant gunfire cracked up there, too.

  “The zombies are better than nukes and bombs and they leave infrastructure intact.”

  “Don't move another foot,” she said with her rifle pointed at his chest.

  “You think I'm afraid of you?” He wasn't stepping toward her with haste, but he wasn't slowing down. “I eat girls like you for breakfast.”

  “I will shoot you.” She knew she would, but she didn't want to. She had another idea in mind for him. But it would take time…

  Not sure if it was worth it, she took a chance and fired the gun. She expected a loud bang, but it was only a dainty snap. She wasn't aiming at Short Guy. She only wanted to scare him.