After the End (12 page)

Ann swallowed and wiped away the mucus running from her red nose. "I'll be quiet, and I'll find a hiding place in case they do get in. Just leave me some food and water. I can wait here until things get better. It has to happen soon. The army will storm the city. They'll rescue us."

"Jesus. You're crazy!" Deb said.

Ari held up a hand to silence her. "It's up to Ann. If she's really that terrified or if she's going to freak out once we get outside, then she should stay behind."

"No!" Ronnie shrieked and threw her arms around Ann's waist, burying her face against her. "I want to stay with Ann."

Things were rapidly spinning out of his control. Ari felt sick. As if there wasn't enough stress having to face zombies, now he had to deal with a little rebellion of two.

Derrick grabbed his sister's arm, pulling her away from Ann. For a moment, Ari thought he'd shake her, but he squatted beside Veronica and looked into her face. "Monkey, you want to try to find mom, don't you? We can't stay here. You've got to be brave and go out there no matter what we have to face. I'll protect you. I won't let any zombies come near you."

Mrs. Scheider stooped to talk to her, too. "And I'll hold your hand the whole time. We're only going to walk a few blocks. You can do that, can't you?"

Ronnie sniffled and whimpered, but nodded.

Ari leaned to whisper to Ann. "Are you coming or not? No one's going to make you, but don't undermine the kid's confidence. If you're staying, say goodbye to her with a smile then go in the other room, wait for us to leave and lock up behind us. But if you're going, pull it together and pick up that fucking backpack right now."

Ann looked into his eyes, her own red-rimmed from crying. She shook her head and muttered, "I can't do it and none of you should either. You'll be ripped apart out there."

She seemed to have forgotten that he, Derrick and Hector had had a successful foraging trip yesterday. But maybe hearing zombies running past last night, and the distant screams of victims and gunfire had unhinged her.

"All right." He stooped to pick up her pack and took out some cans of food and bottles of water. "Here's your share of the provisions. Good luck."

Lila and Mrs. Scheider each hugged Ann, then Lila whispered to her for a minute, clearly taking one last shot at convincing her it was suicide to stay.

Ann knelt and hugged Ronnie. "Be good. Take care of Bright." She indicated the stuffed unicorn she'd given the girl in the subway store.

Ronnie nodded and clutched the rainbow colored animal. "You should come with us."

"I'm sorry. I can't. Good luck, Ronnie." Ann rose and said goodbye to the others before leaving the back room. The door to the storage room shut behind her with a soft whoosh of air.

"All right. Anyone else having second thoughts?" Ari slipped his arms through Ann's abandoned knapsack and hoisted it up. He didn't give them much time to consider before giving the order to move out.

Deb took her place in front, her gun drawn and opened the exit door. She stepped from the storage room into the alley. Ari doubted this way was any safer than the street out front. Their adversaries could pop up anywhere, but psychologically it might give the team more confidence to imagine they were slipping away unnoticed out the back door.

The alley was deserted except for dumpsters and litter. They took their positions with the stronger people encircling the weak and started down the narrow passage. Ari's gaze swept around them and up at the windows of the buildings. The sense of being watched was palpable. He hadn't felt nearly this much paranoia on their expedition yesterday. His nerves prickled almost painfully. His skin felt too tight and he was distracted by the sound of his own uneven breathing.

Steady
, he warned himself,
before you have a goddamn panic attack
. Sergeant Vogt had instructed his men in how to deal with the tension of battlefield conditions. He'd advised focusing outside of oneself and becoming completely aware of the environment. "A good soldier is an antenna, eyes and ears taking in information and reacting to it in an appropriate manner. Concentrate on the job and your fears will stay under control."

That meant no second guessing or feeling guilty about leaving Ann Hanson, either. Ari relaxed his grip on his rifle and kept his body loose yet poised as they emerged from the alley onto an empty side street. Cars were abandoned here, too, although not as many as on the main thoroughfares. Human remains littered the sidewalk. After awhile they stopped trying to step over or around them. There were too many bits and it was impossible to avoid them all. The smell of decay rose in a choking pall from the rotting meat, and Ari imagined how much worse it would be after several more days had passed. They had to get out of the city as soon as possible.

Ronnie started to whimper again and Mrs. Scheider told her to stop looking down. "Keep your eyes up, honey. Focus on Deb's back or the buildings or the sky. Don't think about where you are. Picture where you want to be."

Sage advice, except right now Ari needed to mentally be exactly where he was, paying attention to the moment he was in. A sound caught his attention and he looked back over his shoulder. Lila and Derrick, the rear contingent of their cadre, were on guard, scanning the deserted area through which they walked while keeping their weapons ready. Lila caught Ari's look and glanced behind her so they both spotted their followers at almost the same time.

Coming up the street about two blocks behind them were several stumbling, blood-streaked figures. The things were as deadly as sharks silently swimming up behind their quarry. These creatures had that same dead-eyed stare but considerably less grace in their movements.

"Zombies sighted," he barked at the rest of the group. "Move double time."

They'd discussed what to do in case of an attack. In the time it took the group to accelerate from a brisk walk to a trot, the zombies sighted them and began to move faster, too.

"We've been spotted." As the group began to run, Ari fell to the back, ready to protect the rear. He ran alongside Lila, who muttered underneath her breath "Omigod, Omigod, Omigod."

The zombies raced after them with a stiff-legged gait. Any second they'd catch up. Ari went to phase two. "Go!" he ordered. Joe scooped up Ronnie, Julie grabbed Mrs. Scheider's hand and they raced after Deb and Carl. The group would head for a specified meeting point. Meanwhile, Ari, Lila and Derrick whirled around, ready to fight.

Time seemed to stand still like in a car spinning out on an icy road. Ari noted details with detached calmness. There were three men, two women and a young child of uncertain gender racing toward them. One man was balding and paunchy and looked as normal as if he'd just gotten up from his La-z-boy to get another beer from the fridge. Another seemed to be missing his jawbone. A pair of glasses hung askew from an ear of the third. One of the women wore a dress he thought was rust brown until he realized it was simply blood-soaked. He took in these images with one assessing glance.

Ari pointed his rifle and was a hair away from shooting when suddenly Ann burst out of the alley in front of the zombies. She didn't see them, wasn't even looking their way as she ran toward Ari.

"Wait. I changed my mind. I want to go with you," she called. "Wait!" And then she became aware of the sound of running feet behind her. Her head snapped around and she screamed.

"God
damn
it!" Ari growled. He couldn't shoot with Ann between him and their pursuers. A second later it didn't matter because the creatures were on her. They grabbed her and dragged her down like cheetahs on a gazelle. Ann's screaming was abruptly cut short. So was the momentum of the zombies as they fought over the struggling woman.

Lila screamed. Derrick shouted, "Fuck!" and Ari unleashed a round from his rifle at the feeding zombies. The bullets tore through them, knocking them around a little, but not stopping them.

Ari grabbed Lila's arm. "Run. We can't help her." He glanced back one last time, long enough to take a mental snapshot of Ann's foot clad in a brand new tennis shoe. The zombies were on top of her like a football pileup. One of them tore at her leg and that pristine, white sneaker beat erratically against the pavement. Ari checked to make sure Derrick was with them, then faced forward and ran like hell. Lila did her best to keep up, but soon he was dragging her with him. They soon caught up with the rest of the group, who'd turned a corner headed north.

Julie caught sight of them first. "You made it! What happened?"

Ari scanned the way ahead of them, well aware the danger at their back wasn't the only one they might face. "Turn left here," he called to Deb. "We need to get inside somewhere and take a breather."

She nodded and pointed to a McDonald's. "In there." There were several entrances and plenty of windows from which to keep a lookout. She led the way inside where the stink of fry grease and overheated corpses hit them like a wall. Ari took shallow breaths as he looked around the restaurant for any movement. It seemed to be deserted, at least of the living. He didn't think the zombies were bright enough to lie in wait for victims, but underestimating them might cost their lives so he sent Joe and Carl to do a quick walk through of the building. Meanwhile, the rest of them collapsed in seats or on the floor, gasping for breath.

Lila bent over in a corner and heaved. The sound of her vomiting started Ari's own stomach churning and bile rose in his throat. He couldn't get the sight of Ann's jerking foot out of his mind. They couldn't have saved her and had to take advantage of the opportunity to escape, but he'd felt like shit leaving her to those monsters. He swallowed hard and closed his eyes.

"Only four more blocks to go," Deb's smoky voice floated to him. "We can do it. We have to do it."

God bless the cheerleader. He needed that right now when the situation seemed hopeless. He rubbed his hand over his eyes and opened them. "Okay. Let's see that map again."

Deb produced a hand drawn map she'd sketched before they started out. "We got off track, but we can cut over here."

Ari nodded. "And here's where you want to camp out." He indicated an X marking a hotel.

She nodded. "I think it's the best location; many ways in and out and places to hide if things go bad, plenty of beds for everyone and food in the kitchen. I'm guessing we'll find a lot of people camping out there. Hooking up with some more able bodies could be useful." She jerked her head at Mrs. Scheider, who was nearly passed out in her seat with Ronnie, slumped across her lap. Ari didn't like the way she kept referring to those two as dead wood, but she was right. They were weak links and the group needed to be at its strongest in order to survive.

"What happened?" Julie asked again. "How did you get away?"

"Ann," Lila spoke up. "Ann happened. She changed her mind and tried to come after us. Those things caught her and took her down which gave us time to escape."

"She was a stupid lady," Derrick practically shouted. He pushed away from the table where he was leaning and stalked over to the soda machine. His shoulders were shaking and he kept his back turned to them as he filled paper cups with the tepid, sugar-water.

"My God," Julie murmured. "I'm so sorry."

What are you sorry for? You didn't know her any more than we did. And you sure as hell didn't eat her
," Ari wanted to say. He glanced down to find his legs trembling. Derrick wasn't the only one shaken by the loss.

Joe and Carl returned from the kitchen bringing food with them, not burgers and fries, but limp salad from the warm cooler and packaged, uncrisp apple pies.

"Nothing back there," Joe reported. "Just more of the same." He nodded at the decimated bodies around them. ""What do you suppose happens when the zombies run out of food sources? Can they feed on any kind of meat or does it have to be living? What keeps them from eating each other?"

"Just a guess, but I'd say they need the electrolytes in energized, living blood and tissue. Dead meat wouldn't satisfy them," Carl said. "And it's a very good question—what
would
happen if they were imprisoned without fresh food. I suppose eventually the bodies would shut down and return to their natural state. Only a guess, of course."

Ari drew as deep a breath of the foul air as he dared. "We shouldn't stay here long. We'll bring the food along. The sooner we get where we're going, the better."

He doubted anyone was hungry anyway. He certainly wasn't. Nothing like adrenalin and endorphins to keep you flying and the scent of decay to put you off eating. He reached across the table and touched Mrs. Scheider's arm. "Hey, are you going to be all right."

She opened one eye and looked back at him. "I'm not unconscious, young man. I'm resting. That's what we're supposed to be doing. I'm in excellent physical shape and I'd be perfectly fine if we had to walk another five miles."

"What about her?" Ari nodded at Ronnie. Derrick had crouched beside his sister to offer her a drink.

"I'll carry the little girl for a while," Carl volunteered. "The least I can do since you're protecting me like I was made of glass. I feel so useless."

"You're too important to risk," Ari said. "What's in your head is as important as what's on your hard drive. You'll stay back with the others while Deb, Joe and I go for the computer."

"I should go with you instead of Joe. It makes the most sense." Derrick stood up, sloshing soda over the edge of his cup as he set it on the table. "I can take the hard drive out of the tower. You probably don't even know what one looks like."

"Fine," Ari agreed, glad Derrick had made the offer. "We three will go."

 "I should go, too," Julie said. "I work there. I know the layout of the place and which terminal is Carl's. You'll need me to be your map."

"Babe, no!" Deb protested, shaking her head. "I'm not taking you along. As soon as we find someplace safe, I plan to park your sweet ass there. Carl can draw us a map."

"
Babe
," Julie stressed the word hard. "I think you know how well I respond to being told what to do. I'm going with. End of discussion."