A Plague on All Houses (26 page)

Tony sat back, chastened.

Nathan looked around the room. “Anyone else with movie trivia to share? No? Good. So let's discuss the rest of our assets.”

“Silly String?”

I held up a can, one of half a dozen in Nathan’s duffel bags. “Silly String is part of our assets?”

Kai grabbed it from me and gave a little whoop. “Sweet! This stuff is awesome!”

Kai and I were out with the rest of the Wild Cards by the barricade running the length of the main parking lot.

I hadn’t seen Gabriel since we’d parted ways in front of my room, but I still carried a warm glow in my heart and certain parts of my anatomy. He was out with Nathan and the rest of the soldiers setting up lines on the far side of the barricade. They’d set up a couple of makeshift wooden ramps on either side so people could go back and forth with relative ease. The ramps could be set on fire or otherwise dismantled if the zoms got close enough to use them.

The fog lay heavily in the air again, thick and moist and cold. Thank you, Cosmic FX designer, for the perfect day to battle hordes of zombies. What’s wrong with a little cheerful sunshine?

Fog laced the trees and buildings and the air smelled of eucalyptus, the sea salt breeze from the ocean … and something else, a faintly rotten taint wafting in on tendrils of mist.

Did I hear the moans of the damned or was it my imagination? Either way, the swarm was on its way and soon enough the smell of putrefied flesh would fill our nostrils.

I did a quick glance downwards. Yup, I’d remembered the nose plugs this time. Not like we’d notice one lone zombie sneaking up on us amidst the hundreds marching … or lurching up on Big Red.

I still wondered what the story was with Nathan and Simone, and why Colonel Paxton seemed content to have Nathan take the lead in what was his operation, but explanations would have to wait. We had a job to do.

Our job? To go through the stuff we’d lugged from Nathan’s and divvying it up amongst ourselves, the soldiers and those civilians willing and able to fight. We had little canvas knapsack/backpacks piled up, each one waiting to be stuffed like a deadly Christmas stocking packed by G.I. Joe Santa.

Nathan’s stuff included the flamethrower, assorted firearms and ammo, a bag full of darts, projectile weapons, and what Nathan said were little radios transmitters. And Silly String.

“Why didn’t you mention the Silly String in the first place?” Tony slapped a hand against his forehead. “Now if we only had a wheel barrow and a holocaust cloak…”

Kai grinned. “There should be something here about killing my father and preparing to die, right?”

“Gah!” I couldn’t stand it any more. “I swear, you two are going to be quoting movies when you die, aren’t you?”

“Yup.” Tony picked up a can of Silly String and put it in his bag. “And if I get taken down by zombies, you can bet I’ll be saying ‘choke on it” all the way down their throats.”

I restrained the urge to shove a can of Silly String down his throat and tell him to choke on it. Instead I turned back to Kai. “What, may I ask, is so awesome about Silly String?”

“They use Silly String in Iraq to find trip wires,” Kai replied. “Spray some of this shit, it catches on one of the invisible wires and there you go.”

“Great,” I said. “But zombies don’t set trip wires.”

“It’s also highly flammable.” Kai put a can in his knapsack. “Light a match near this shit and you’ve got zombie barbecue.”

“Seriously?” Lil poked her head up from behind a bench where she sat behind loading ammo into clips for the firearms.

Kai nodded. “Yup. Couple of kids at a party found out the hard way.”

“Put the Silly String away, children,” said Gentry, walking up behind us. “I’ve got this.” He brandished the flamethrower nozzle, the tanks strapped to his back.

“Good. Silly String is just … silly.” With that editorial comment, Lil went back to loading the clips. I smiled, happy to see her interacting with the rest of us even a little bit. Mack’s loss desolated her and I’m not sure how much of last night’s discussion penetrated her grief.

We’d stayed up late into the night figuring out how we were going to face what could be up to several thousand zombies against less than a hundred trained combatants along with whatever civilians and non-coms had any firearms or practical experience that make them an asset instead of a liability on the battlefield. There were around two hundred of those, including medics and civilians who’d been taking advantage of the training over the last week. Others, about twenty, had the fortitude to fight even if it meant wielding blunt objects. They’d be the next line of defense.

Then there were the survivors who still hadn’t come to grips with the fact the dead had returned to life and were trying to eat them. They could barely function on a day-to-day basis, let alone fight against something they refused to accept was real. They’d stay in the secure lower floors of DBP while the rest of us fought. If we lost, well, they’d be thankfully unaware up to the moment the military dropped a tactical nuke in the middle of the quarantine zone. Which meant they were depending on those of us who could fight to make sure this didn’t happen. Thanks to Nathan and his toys, we might have a chance.

For instance, the darts—tiny little things with fins made of plastic explosive called déjà vu’s—were loaded into special projectile weapons, kind of like modified paintball guns. The darts also could (and would) be packed into what Nathan described as a “claymore dispersal platform,” which would send multiple darts shooting out in a specifically aimed arc, but that was someone else’s job. Like I wanted to mess with bombs.

Each dart had a little RIFD chip in it, like the tags they used in retail stores to prevent shoplifting. Both used radio signals to activate the chip, but whereas the tags just set off an alarm when within range of the transmitter, these little darts exploded. Pretty cool, huh?

The downside is the signal wouldn’t work unless the transmitter was within ten yards. Some would be mounted on the razor wire slinky to take care of zoms that made it past our other defenses, but otherwise the transmitters had to be carried onto the battlefield. Pretty much a suicide mission for anyone not immune to the zombie virus, all that hot blood and goo splattering around. So if it came to that, the Wild Cards would be the one carrying the transmitters out into the swarm. Fun times, right? Especially since we were two Cards short in our deck.

The remaining soldiers, Alpha, Beta, and assorted personnel, were in position by the barricades, watching for the swarm. The majority of defenders were at the main barricade stretching across the back end of the outdoor athletic fields and the parking lots. Those were the most vulnerable areas, long stretches without any buildings to create an extra barrier. The main road into Big Red ran right up into the parking lots, a nice easy walk for man and zombie alike.

The rest of the campus had much better protection between the barricades, a lot more buildings, and the fields strewn thick with blackberry bushes and a few paths, like the one where I’d nearly been eaten. We had sharpshooters up in strategic places to take care of any zombies that might come in from those areas, although we expected most of the swarm to head up from the direction of Redwood Grove.

A golf cart pulled up, driven by Simone with Jamie as passenger. Both wore combat gear. Jamie smiled at me as they stepped out of the cart and I gave a little wave. She’d been friendly ever since Lil and I had brought home Binkey and Doodle. Maybe she’d noticed the chemistry between Gabriel and me or just decided I wasn’t a rival for Simone’s affections. Honestly, I doubt Simone went that way at all, especially after observing her reaction to Nathan. But maybe Jamie liked the whole unattainable-love dynamic. Whatever, I was just glad to have one less enemy.

Tony checked Jamie out with an appreciative eye. “You look good in Rambo gear.”

She eyed him back with a noticeable lack of appreciation and turned away without deigning to reply. I doubted Tony noticed. He was too busy checking out her butt in tight camo pants.

Simone took a look at what we were all doing, picking up one of the full knapsacks and inspecting it. “Almost done, then? Good. Jamie and I will help hand them out. We’ll each need one too.”

“You’re fighting with us?” I didn’t bother hiding my surprise. “Colonel Paxton agreed to this?”

“We need as many capable fighters as possible.” Simone picked up an M4 and several clips. She looked very capable. “Although I did promise Colonel Paxton I’d fall back if necessary.”

“What about Nathan?” Okay, I couldn’t resist it. “Did you promise him too?”

Simone shot me a sideways look that told me she knew exactly what I wanted to know. “Nathan,” she said, “has no say over my actions or lack thereof.”

“Like, did you guys used to date or what?” Okay, so tact and Tony did not go hand in hand.

Simone raised a patrician eyebrow. “Now is hardly the time to discuss this.”

“But you know each other, right?” Lil popped up again, like a little Whac-A-Mole.

Simone raised her eyes heavenward. “Yes, children, we know each other.”

We all stared at her expectantly. She stared back, one eyebrow still raised.

“Come on, Simone,” I wheedled. “We may all die in the next few hours. Don’t make us die with our curiosity unsatisfied.”

Simone stared at me. “Some would call that blackmail, you know.”

I shrugged, grinning at her. “Inquiring minds wanna know.”

Simone took one more look around her at a bunch of kids waiting for their bedtime story. Even Jamie looked hopeful.

Simone threw her hands in the air. “Oh, good god, fine. Let it not be said I let you all die without satisfying your prurient curiosity. Nathan was an army ranger in Pakistan. We met in Kyrgyzstan when I was brought in to investigate a possible outbreak in a system of caves near the border. Our missions overlapped.”

“Did he know about zombies?” I really wanted to ask if they’d hooked up, but figured I’d be more likely to get an answer with a less personal question.

“He knew something was wrong,” said Simone, “but I couldn’t confide in him. We were under strict gag orders unless we couldn’t contain the outbreak. Which we did.”

“So I figured it out myself.”

Nathan didn’t quite materialize from the fog, but his appearance was unexpected enough to make us all jump. Even Simone startled, looking like an irate feline who’d just had its fur stroked the wrong way.

“Never got definitive proof—your crew was really good at the cover-up.” He nodded to Simone. “But saw and heard enough to tell me some of the things in our nightmares are real. And that I had a damned good reason to be paranoid of the military and women.”

Simone’s eyes narrowed. “You of all people knew the importance of maintaining secrecy in covert operations. Why you would have expected me to betray my orders for the sake of a pair of brown eyes and strong shoulders … it’s ridiculous. I suggest you get over it.”

She turned and stalked off, as angry as I’d ever seen her. Jamie glared at Nathan and hurried after Simone.

Nathan shrugged, said, “Oh well, the sex was great,” and walked off in the opposite direction.

“Talk about high school shit,” I muttered.

“
Total
high school shit,” Lil agreed.

We went back to assembling rucksacks full of destruction while the surviving members of the Alpha and Beta teams took positions outside the Slinky of Death and Gillette double barrier.

Tony had his iPhone earbuds in. I smacked his arm, hard. “Hey!”

“What?”

I pulled the bud out of his left ear. “This! You can’t wear your friggin’ iPod into battle. What if we need you?”

Rolling his eyes, Tony grabbed the dangling bud and said, “It’s only for the first few minutes, okay?”

I stared at him. “Why?”

“Just listen.” He stuck the bud in my ear. I listened to a few bars of dramatic film score before taking it out.

“So why?

“It’s
March of the Dead
from
Army of Darkness
. I want to be listening to it when the zombies start crossing the field. I mean, if I might die today, I want good music to go out by.”

What could I say to his wish for sort of a musical last meal? “Just leave the iPod behind when we’re out on the field, okay?”

Tony gave what might have been a nod or could have been a subtle fuck-you jerk of his chin. Hard to tell with him. Either way, I’d be checking him for ear buds.

A shout went out over the barricade. The tension in the air went from palpable to physical, so thick I could cut it with my katana. The slight tinge of rot in the mist suddenly thickened to a visceral stench of putrefying flesh and rotten blood. Gotta love that Wild Card enhancement of smell.

The dead were walking and headed straight for us.

A hand came down on my shoulder. I recognized Gabriel’s touch even through all my armor and padding, and turned to meet him.

“The first ones have reached the edge of the woods,” he said quietly.

I nodded. “I smell them.”

“Are you ready?” He touched my face, eyes intense.

“As much as anyone else.” I looked down, suddenly shy. Of all the dorky times to get self-conscious.

Gabriel shook his head. “A lot of these people will never be ready. They’re just doing the best they can in a situation they could never have imagined would be real. But you…” He shook his head again. “You just take what comes at you and roll with it.”

I wrapped my fingers around Gabriel’s hand, savoring its warmth in the chilly air. Hard to remember he would be half dead if not for the vaccine. Was the glass half dead or half alive?

Shut up, brain.

“Can we win this?” I didn’t really expect an answer.

“I don’t know.” Gabriel dropped his hand from my face and looked out towards the outskirts of Big Reds. “Nathan knows what he’s doing and Colonel Paxton is smart enough to check his ego at the door and listen to him. But the numbers and the odds…”

“Let’s hope we do a
Zulu
instead of a
Zulu Dawn
?”

“Pretty much.”

“And if we don’t?”

“Then at least we had last night.”

We stared into each other eyes, heat running back and forth on the electric current connecting us. I leaned in to kiss him and—