Broken World (20 page)
“Easy,” he whispers.
He inches forward with his gun raised.
Joshua and I fall in behind him. More movement greets us, this time footsteps.
My heart leaps in my chest. It has to be her.
We turn the corner and almost bump into
the well-dressed body of a woman staggering toward us. Her face is gray and
gaunt, and the stench of decay floats around her. I cover my nose and step back
automatically.
“Shit,” Axl says.
He’s too close to get a good shot and
before he can move the woman grabs him by the arm. Her mouth opens and she
moans as she pulls him toward her. Thick, milky saliva drips off her teeth and
her tongue juts out. It’s dark purple, almost black, and swollen. Axl jerks out
of her grasp and stumbles back. She reaches out to him again, but I step in
front of him. I jam my knife into the side of her head. The thick black ooze
that runs through her body leaks out as she falls to the floor, covering my
knife and getting on my hand.
I quickly wipe it on her clothes, terrified
it will somehow seep through my skin and get in my bloodstream. That it will
turn me into one of these walking nightmares.
“Nice work,” Axl says.
My heart pounds and I’m breathing so
hard I can’t catch my breath.
“Holy crap,” Joshua says, waving his
hand in front of his face. “They stink!”
“Yeah, it’s whatever that black liquid
is.”
“Well there ain’t nothin’ else on this
floor,” Axl says. “Let’s go down one more.”
We’re heading down the stairs when a child’s
scream pierces the air.
MY
FEET MOVE AUTOMATICALLY. Axl’s right in front of me, taking the steps so fast
I’m sure he’s going to fall. He jumps down, pausing at each landing for a split
second to look through the windows. It isn’t until he reaches the tenth floor
that he pushes the door open and rushes in.
I follow him with Joshua right behind
me. The first thing my mind registers is Winston. He’s busy pounding in the
skull of one of the dead. Emily crouches on the floor at his feet, crying.
Arthur and Trey are at her side. Arthur whispers in her ear and Trey pats her
back like he doesn’t know what else to do. She’s shaking and hysterical, and
tears stream down her little face as she clutches her arm to her chest. There’s
blood everywhere.
My feet stick to the floor. I gasp,
desperately trying to fill my lungs. All I can focus on is the blood. There’s
so much blood.
Emily’s whimper moves me forward. I suck
in a deep breath, thankful for air even though it’s thick with rot and death.
Axl rushes to Winston’s aid and I throw myself on the ground next to my
daughter. “What happened?”
“We heard her screaming and came
running,” Arthur says. “That thing had her…”
His eyes meet mine. They shimmer. He
shakes his head and I almost choke on the lump in my throat. She’s been bitten.
“Let me see,” I say with a shaky voice.
Joshua kneels next to me and we pry
Emily’s arm away from her chest.
“Mommy.” Her tiny voice is like a knife
through my heart. She isn’t asking for me.
Tears fill my eyes and I can hardly
focus on the injury. There’s so much blood, and the gash in her arm is huge. I
had no idea human teeth could do something like this.
“Get the elevator.” Axl pushes his way
through and sweeps Emily into his arms.
We jump to our feet and scramble toward
the elevator. Trey reaches it first and pushes the button. Emily’s sobs dig the
knife deeper into my heart. All I want to do is hold her. Comfort her. But Axl
is doing it. And doing a damn good job. Her face is buried in his chest as he
whispers soft words in her ear.
He runs inside the second the door
slides open, but there’s no way we can all fit. It’s an old building and the
elevator is small.
“Come on, Doc,” Axl says. “She needs
you.”
He doesn’t ask for me. Doesn’t look my
way. Why would he? The guilt threatens to crush me. I step in, anyway. All I want
to do is touch Emily. Comfort her. I can’t get close enough to her, not with
her in Axl’s arms. I have to satisfy myself by clinging to her hand as the
elevator goes up.
“Tell me you can do something,” I mumble
without looking at Joshua. I can’t look at anything but Emily. At this moment,
she’s the only thing that exists.
“I don’t know.” He doesn’t say anything
else, but he doesn’t have to. I can hear it in his voice. There’s a pretty good
chance this is the end for Emily.
The doors open on the eighteenth floor
and Axl starts yelling as he runs for the room, “Open the damn door!”
Jessica flings it open. Her face pales
when her eyes land on Emily. “Is she bit?”
“Yeah,” Axl snaps.
He runs into the room and lays her on
the couch, then steps out of the way so Joshua can look her over.
“Get that bag with the medical
supplies,” Joshua says.
I grab the bag and drop it on the floor
at his feet, then kneel down next to him. “What do you need?”
“Alcohol and gauze. We need to get it
cleaned off and get the bleeding to stop.”
I dig through the bag. Thank God we
stopped at Walmart. Thank God we have a doctor.
Joshua cleans the wound and I sit next
to Emily on the floor, rubbing her head and whispering soothing words. She’s
still crying, but only faintly. What if she’s turning already? We have no idea
how long it might take. If it happens at all.
When he’s done, Joshua sits back and
just stares at her. Everyone is frozen. No talking. The room is as silent as
the outside world. This has to be a dream. It’s all too surreal to actually be
happening.
“What now?” I ask.
Joshua shakes his head and runs his hand
through his hair. “I don’t know. Give her some acetaminophen for the pain.
Maybe some antibiotics to help fight off infection. Otherwise, all we can do is
wait. I’m totally ill-equipped for this.”
“You did a good job,” I say. “Thank
you.”
The door opens and the others walk in.
Winston, Arthur, and Trey must have gone down to get Angus and the others,
because they’re with them. Every single one of them looks shaken and pale, but
still no one talks.
I turn back to Emily and continue
rubbing her face.
“Looks like we’re gonna find out ‘bout
that bite soon ‘nough,” Angus says.
I sit up straight, ready to tell him to
shut his stupid mouth, but his expression is twisted and miserable. He’s just
as upset as the rest of us.
“Least we know we got two days before
she turns, if she don’t make it. Damn.” Angus shakes his head and walks away.
“We got to git outta this city.” Axl
jumps up and grabs his bag. “Everybody start packin’, I want to be on the road
as soon as we can load them cars!”
I ignore the bustle in the room while
everyone gets their things together. I can’t take my eyes off Emily’s pale
face. She’s drifted off to sleep. The possibility of what might happen to her
is almost too much for me. My hands shake. I have to think about something
else.
Arthur sits next to me, groaning as he
lowers himself to the floor. “Are you doing okay?”
I try not to let the tears in my eyes
spill over, but it’s hopeless. They run down my cheeks, burning me with their
intensity.
“This isn’t your fault. You know that,
right?” Arthur says calmly.
“I should have been with her,” I
whisper.
“You were out trying to get a car so we
could be safe. That’s just as important.” He sighs and looks around. “No, this
isn’t your fault. It’s everyone’s. Mine included. We all should have been
paying closer attention.” I start to argue with him, but he shakes his head.
“Things are different now. We can’t just keep looking out for ourselves and
hoping for the best if we’re going to survive this thing. We’re going to have
to adjust our selfish, American way of thinking and include others in our
concerns. That goes for me, too. We’re going to have to learn how to work
together.”
Some of the guilt slips away. I’m still
to blame, but Arthur’s right too. We need to adjust, to think of the group as a
whole and not just ourselves. It’s the only way we’ll survive this catastrophe.
“Thank you, Arthur.” I put my hand on
his.
He smiles and climbs to his feet.
“Sixty-six is too old to be sitting on the floor. I’m going to go help pack.”
“Crap,” Joshua says from across the
room. He’s digging through the bag of medical supplies, shaking his head.
“What’s wrong?”
“There’s a bag missing. Looks like I
must have left the antibiotics in the car.”
I jump to my feet. “I’ll go get them.”
“Wait a minute there, Blondie,” Angus
says. “You ain’t goin’ alone. Give us two minutes to pack up some of this shit.
Axl an’ me’ll walk out with ya.”
I cross my arms over my chest and stare
at Emily’s face while I wait. Her expression looks pained, even in her sleep.
It only takes a few minutes for the men to be ready, but it feels like forever.
When they’re finally set, Angus hands me a bag and we head out.
The ride down is silent and tense. Axl
and Angus have the same expression on their faces and they look more like
brothers than ever. Their eyes are hard and their eyebrows drawn together,
their lips are pursed and their jaws clenched. It makes my skin crawl.
When we reach the lobby we head over to
the front door, stopping so we can look out into the parking lot. It’s empty.
I blink several times. My eyes have to
be playing tricks on me. “Where did they all go?”
Angus spits on the floor. Right on the
carpet. “Don’t care, long as they ain’t botherin’ us.”
“There’s some ‘cross the street,” Axl
says. “But they’re walkin’ down the hill.”
“Whatever,” Angus mutters, pushing the
door open.
We head out to the Nissan and I keep my
eyes open as we go. But the handful of bodies in sight are doing exactly what
Axl said. Walking down the hill.
Whatever. Like Angus said, as long as
they aren’t bothering us.
I toss the bag I’m carrying on the
ground behind the Nissan while Angus opens the door. The back is empty. The bag
of medicine Joshua is talking about must be in the backseat. I run up and throw
the door open, digging under the seats until I locate it. I yank it out and
slam the door at the same time as Axl and Angus. We’re just heading back to the
hotel when a man screams for help.
I spin around and scan the area. “Did
you hear that?”
The others stop. It takes a few seconds,
but eventually the man screams again.
I throw the bag on the steps right by
the front door and pull out my gun as I charge through the parking lot. The
brother’s footsteps pound on the pavement behind me. A steady stream of
profanity flows out of Angus’s mouth. Of course
he’d
be pissed about
helping someone.
When I get to the street, I check out
the area. There’s a horde of bodies, at least twenty of them, at the bottom of
the hill, and a man dashes down the street in front of them.
“We have to help him!”
“Leave him,” Angus growls. “He’s a
goner. Look at all of ‘em!”
I ignore Angus and turn my glare toward
Axl. He has to be reasonable. “We can’t just leave him!”
“Shit,” Axl mutters. “Come on, let’s get
the car.”
We run back to the Nissan with Angus
cursing the entire way. Axl jumps in the driver’s seat.
“You’re gonna have to shoot,” he says,
backing out of the parking lot.
I roll the window down and climb up, so
I’m sitting on the door with my upper body hanging out. Just like in the
movies. Angus tries to do the same thing in the back, only the window won’t go
all the way down. He won’t stop swearing.
Axl speeds down the road. The man is
barely visible through the mass of dead. He still has a lead, but not much of
one. He’s carrying a leather briefcase and a black and white umbrella. He stops
every now and then to jam the umbrella into the face of one of the dead.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Either way, he’s running out of time.
When we get close enough, I start
firing. I miss with the first two shots. I’ve never had to fire out the window
of a moving car before, and it’s harder than I ever imagined. I take a few more
shots and adjust my aim. On the fifth try, I hit my target and a body goes down.
After that they fall one after the other. Angus does the same from the other
side. I take six down before my gun clicks. Axl comes to a screeching halt next
to the horde and he begins firing too.
The man looks up. His face is red and
streaked with dirt, and his eyes get huge. Hopeful.
“Run!” I yell. I release my clip and
slam a full one in, then take out a body stumbling toward him.
The man dodges a few and heads toward
the car. Just as he’s about to break away, one grabs him and they both fall to
the ground.
“Shit!” I turn around and throw my legs
out the window, jumping to the pavement. My feet slam into the ground and I
stumble forward a few steps before I regain my footing. Then I take off
running.
“Dammit, Vivian!” Axl calls behind me.
I ignore him and keep moving, raising my
gun as I go. The man screams and fights under the body and I take aim. He’s not
making any progress. The head is in my sights. I take a deep breath and squeeze
the trigger. The bullet pierces the dead man’s temple. It falls on top of the
man and I have to kick it off.
“Come on!” I yell, grabbing his arm and
jerking him to his feet.
He’s right behind me as we run for the
car. Axl kicks the passenger door open when I get there, and Angus does the
same with the back door. We’re barely inside when Axl hits the gas and speeds
away from the hotel.
“Gonna lead them away,” he says, looking
over at me. “You’re dumb as shit, you know that?”
“I’m not going to just sit back and let
someone die when I can do something.”
Axl looks over his shoulder at the man.
“You’re welcome.”
The man is panting. “Th-thanks,” he
manages to get out.
“So who are you?” I ask, turning around
in my seat. He’s in his mid-thirties and has dark hair and dark eyes. He’s
good-looking. Like movie star good-looking, and wearing top-of-the-line
designer clothes that barely look wrinkled despite his near-death experience
