Bone And Cinder: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller (Zapheads Book 1) (17 page)

24.

Mackie tackled Meredith and pushed her as far from the flaming rain as he could before losing his balance and sending them both crashing to the ground.  The blast of heat was more uncomfortable than the worst Tampa summer, but Mackie and Meredith were just far enough from the flames’ reach to avoid a serious burn.

Kara knelt several feet away, her arms clamped protectively over her head as hellish debris dropped down.

Krider and Herrera, however, hadn’t distanced themselves far enough from the explosion.  They rolled on the ground, screaming, fire dancing on their clothing.

The Zapheads that had mutilated the old man shuffled languidly as flames consumed their entire bodies.  They had taken the brunt of the explosion, but if they felt any pain they gave no indication of it.  They moved in a slow, dreamy daze as the flames peeled away their clothing and the flesh beneath it, as if they’d been waiting for a new sun to take them home.  A sparkle-eyed child Zaphead staggered three steps, a shard of wooden two-by-four protruding from her head, bowels leaking from a gash in her belly, before she pitched forward without a sound.

After Herrera had extinguished most of the flames on his body, he looked toward Mackie and the others with a searing rage that easily matched the fire’s intensity.

The arrogance, the calculating predation...it was all burned away now, replaced with the raw anger beneath.

As if the explosion was something that Mackie, Meredith, and Kara had planned, a method devised to wound and humiliate a force of nature that could never have conceived of vulnerability.

Herrera lifted his rifle and Mackie pulled Meredith to her feet, shoved her to the left in an effort to put the burning cottage between her and Herrera’s rifle.  “Run!”

Mackie hoped he would hear the same empty clicks from Herrera’s gun that he heard from Meredith’s, but deep down he knew there was no chance of that happening.

Herrera’s rifle rattled in his hand, but Mackie didn’t feel the sharp burn of rounds tearing into his body.

Herrera was hurt and pissed and his aim was shit right now, but that wouldn’t last.  Especially firing an automatic.

Mackie clutched at Meredith’s shirt and pulled her along, shouting “Go, go, go” at Kara, who crawled toward the street, instinctively keeping low.  Mackie eyed the tangled pile of burning corpses where his Glock lay, but he couldn’t risk it.

As they hurried around the burning cottage, keeping a wide berth of the flames, bullets zinged all around them, even as more Zapheads came out of the forest to join the party.  The fresh swarm cut Krider and Herrera off from the campus, meaning they’d have to fight their way through.

Mackie ducked and kept running, dodging between abandoned and dead cars before reaching the campus commons, the pounding of his heartbeat competing with the sound of Sabbath’s frantic yowling in his eardrums.

We’re going to make it.

As they ran across lawn, they passed a few other Zapheads ambling toward the fire, but none of them appeared hostile.  Dr. Lehman and Rebecca appeared on the commons, heading in the direction of the smoke.  They spotted Mackie, Kara, and Meredith, and changed course.

Dr. Lehman said, “What’s happening?  We heard the explosion.”

“We have to go,” Mackie said.  “Now.  Where’s Desiree and the others?”

“Desiree is in the dorm with Allie,” Rebecca said.  “I don’t know where—”

“Dr. Lehman, do you still have a key to your office?”

“Well, yes, I—”

“Go there.  All of you.  Don’t come out until I come get you.”  There was no time to look for Todd and Emma.

“Mackie, what’s going on?” Dr. Lehman asked.  “How did that fire start?  And what happened on Faculty Hill?”

“I’ll tell you about it later.  But right now I need you all to go to that office and stay there.  They won’t know to look for you there.”

“Who won’t?”

“Please, Dr. Lehman.  There’s no time right now.  I need you to do this.”

“Where are you going?” Meredith asked Mackie.

“To get Allie.  And Desiree.”

“Let me help,” Kara said.

“No,” Mackie said.  “Desiree and I—”

“You need an extra set of hands,” Kara said.  “And somebody to have your back.  Please.  Let me help.”

Mackie hated to admit she was right.  If he tried to fly solo here, others would pay with their lives.

“Okay,” Mackie said.  “Meredith, keep them safe ‘til I come for you.”

Meredith nodded, even though she had no weapons.  “I’ll look for McRae.  He can help, too.”

“I’m not so sure about McRae.”

“Krider left these people unprotected.  He must know something we don’t.”

“Or else he was fine with all of them getting killed.”  As the group reflected somberly on that notion, Mackie said to Kara, “Let’s go.”

Mackie and Kara raced toward Linvale Dormitory.  “Mackie, we can’t do it,” Kara said.  “Even with Desiree’s help, we won’t be able to carry Allie to Dr. Lehman’s office before Krider gets here.”

“No.  We’ll hide Allie somewhere else.  Desiree can stay with her.  I wish we could just leave her in that dorm, but Krider would know where to find her.”

“What are we going to do?”

Mackie’s lungs still ached from the smoke.  “I know there’s more guns somewhere here on campus.  Maybe in the student union, since that’s pretty much where Krider and Herrera set up camp.  They’ll probably search there for us soon.  Maybe you could create a diversion to keep them away from there, give me a chance to sneak in and look.”

“Just me?” She smirked to hide her fear.  “Without a weapon?  That can’t fail.”

None of Mackie’s plans up to this point had ended well, that was true enough.  He thought of that hackneyed old chestnut of philosophy: “
Man plans and God laughs
.”

It should’ve been amended to: “
Mackie plans and God laughs.  And then kicks Mackie’s ass
.”

They charged through the front door of Linvale and rocketed up the stairwell, taking the steps in groups of threes.

How long had it been since Mackie made his first trip up these stairs post-Zap?

Days.  But it felt more like months.

What if the day came when he couldn’t remember climbing those stairs during happier times, when Allie was whole and healthy and Mackie had yet to take a life or a prescription narcotic and Lucas Krider’s name meant nothing to him?

What if the day came when Mackie could only remember Evans-Lawson in its current state, not as it used to be?

Live in the now.
 
The same old bullshit that sounds good until you actually try to put it in play.

It didn’t apply here.

The past was the only safe place now.

Mackie and Kara burst into Allie’s room and Desiree shot up from her seat on the floor.

Allie was lying on the bed.  Eyes wide and glittering like mad, as if the proximity of the other Zapheads had juiced her up.  She thrashed on the bed, beating at the mattress.

“We have to go,” Mackie said to Desiree.  “Help us carry her.”

Before Desiree could respond, the sound of gunfire drifted through the open window, and Herrera’s voice called out from below.  “Better get your asses out here.  Right the hell
now
.”

Mackie peered out the window through a crack in the shades.  From where he stood, Mackie had a view of the center of campus.  Herrera and Krider stood outside the student union.  Todd and Emma knelt in front of them, heads and shoulders sagging.

“I don’t see you
pronto
, I’m gonna put bullets in your two friends here,” Herrera shouted.

Even at this distance, Mackie could see the burns covering Herrera’s arms and most of his face.  Krider, who was looking across campus for Zapheads, bore large patches of raw, wet redness on his face as well.

They were both hurt, but still functional.  Wounded animals that had been cornered and were eager to lash out.

Mackie sensed Desiree leaning over his shoulder.  “Mackie, I don’t understand...why are they—”

“They’re hurt.  And they want to kill us,” Mackie said, though he realized it explained nothing.

“We just can’t let Todd and Emma die,” Kara said.

He studied the two victims as closely as the distance would allow.  He saw no fear, no comprehension of their predicament on their faces.  Just that dull, dazed look with which he was all too familiar.

They were blitzed out of their minds and had no idea what was about to happen to them.

Better that way
.

“The only people I give a shit about are in this room and in Dr. Lehman’s office,” Mackie said.  “What happens to those two...it’s not my concern.”

“Mackie!” 
Desiree backed away from him, her brown eyes wide with confusion and anger.

“Keep your voice down,” Mackie said.

“Mackie, we have to help them.”

“No,” he said.  “They’re a couple of junkies.  And I’m not putting their safety before Allie and everyone else.”

“You’re no better,” Kara said quietly.

“What’s that?”

“I said, ‘You’re no better.’  You’re a junkie, too.  Who the hell are you to decide they’re not worth saving?”

“Not gonna wait much longer!” Herrera shouted.  “I want Mackie and the blonde bitch out here now.  Any of the rest of you know where they are, you’re gonna make it a lot worse for yourselves if you don’t come forward and start talkin’.”

“I’m going out there,” Kara said.

“Hell you are.”

“I’m not going to let anyone else die.  And you can’t stop me.”

“That’s exactly what I’ll do,” Mackie said, grabbing her arm.

She shook free and moved toward the door.

“Kara, you’re a strong girl, and I know I’ve done a lot of damage to your life already...but you’re not walking out of here.”

“You gonna kill me, too?” Kara asked, her hand on the doorknob.

“No.  But I’ll keep you here even if I have to hurt you.  Because you’re risking Allie.”

She turned to face him, her fingers still loosely curled around the doorknob.  “You’d really do that?  To save your own ass and a sick girl that’s not going to get any better?”

“I’d do it for her.  And for Dr. Lehman.  For Rebecca and Desiree and Meredith.”

And then Mackie heard a voice call out, “I’m unarmed.  Please don’t shoot.”

Oh God, no.

Mackie turned to the window and saw Dr. Lehman walking slowly toward Herrera and Krider, his arms up, palms facing out.

“Nobody gives a shit about you, old man,” Herrera said.  “You’re not the one I’m looking for.”

“Please don’t hurt them,” Dr. Lehman said, motioning toward Todd and Emma.  “Whatever’s happening, they don’t have anything to do with it.”

“You better get your ass out of here, old man.”

“Whatever you want to do, you can do it to me, okay?  If you need a hostage, I’ll volunteer.  Just let them go.”

Krider waved his pistol at Dr. Lehman as the professor approached.  “You’re getting a chance to walk away from this.  You sure you don’t want to take it?”

Dr. Lehman just stood with his head tilted down, gazing at Emma and Todd, who seemed unaware of the deal taking place.

Krider grabbed a fistful of Dr. Lehman’s wispy white hair and pulled him to his knees.

“Mackie!” Krider shouted, swiveling his head to give himself a rotating view of campus.  “You and the McAllister bitch are going to die, that’s a given.  Don’t make this worse for anyone else here.  I know how much you hate spilling innocent blood.”

Herrera and Krider shared a pain-wracked peal of laughter.

Okay, then.  No other moves to make now.

Mackie removed his backpack, handed it to Desiree.  “There’s...there’s a cat in there.  Her name’s Sabbath.  Take care of her,” he said.

Sabbath had mewled frantically and shifted spastically inside the pack while Mackie ran from the burning cottage to Linvale, but she had quieted at the sound of other voices once they were inside Allie’s dorm.  Mackie had still felt her moving around in the pack, but if Desiree had noticed the movements, she hadn’t commented on them.

She was probably too distracted by what was happening outside the window.

“There’s food for her inside the pack,” Mackie said.  “No matter what happens, keep the door locked and don’t leave this room.”

He stooped over Allie, stroked her damp, tangled hair.  He tried to find something familiar in her eyes, but the solar storms had scorched away anything he might’ve recognized.  He kissed her forehead anyway, hoping she wouldn’t lunge up and bite off his lower lip.

Mackie met Kara at the door.  “You don’t have to come.  You can try to get away.”

“No.  Let’s go.”

Mackie’s gaze drifted from Allie on her bed to Desiree near the window, holding his backpack.  There were Allie’s posters, her framed pictures, her books and music, her guitar, her
life
.  Everything he loved was in this room.