DeadBorn (11 page)

“
Maybe next time,” Holly says as she examines the cement floor, the stacks of boxes and the row of doors that line the back. “You'll remember to close the door.” Martin blushes furiously and wipes his still bleeding hand across his shirt. I wonder how long cat scratches are supposed to bleed for and think maybe the little tabby nicked an artery or something. There's nothing I can do about it now, but I tell myself that I'll remember later and see if I can find a first aid kit or something.

Holly closes the door, locks it and then walks forward purposely, pulling the ring of keys out of her pocket as she goes. She tests them on the doors to one of the trucks and sighs when none of them fit.

“
Was the door locked?” Holly asks and Dawson shakes his head.

“
No, and it was already open.” Holly pauses and we exchange a frightened glance. Suddenly the barn – which actually looks more like a garage on the inside – seems like less of a safe haven and more like a death trap. “Did you check for DeadBorn?” she asks and Dawson spits on the floor like he's pissed that she would even ask that.

“
We found the door, heard Galen scream and came in here. What else do you want from me? There was no time to check.” Holly gestures for me to follow her and moves immediately to the back of the room where she checks the other doors. There are four of them, all locked, none of which we have the keys to.

Holly doesn't look in the windows until we walk the entire room, check under the trucks and behind the stacks of boxes, tools, and power equipment.

“
Are you going to tell us what happened out there?” Dawson asks as he helps with the search. Martin leans against a support beam and I notice that he's sweating pretty profusely. It is
hot
in here and I wonder maybe if all of the excitement is getting to be too much for him. He doesn't look so good.

“
There was a DeadBorn,” Holly says as she grabs a flashlight from an open box of tools, turns it on, and shines it at the shadowy parts of the room. There aren't many; the fluorescent lights pierce the barn with brightness and emphasize the headache that's been building behind my eyes for the last several hours. “Galen took care of it. It's over.” Dawson kicks over a cardboard box and tools spill out across the floor: screw drivers, hammers, pliers, small saws. They look old and they're kind of rusty, but if we don't find anything else they should work just fine.

“
Well was it one of those lava spewing things or one of the rotten corpses? You have to tell us this stuff. We need to know, Holly.” I don't like the way Dawson says my girlfriend's name and bristle. I keep quiet though, convinced that she can defend herself and probably prefers to. If he hits her again though …

“
It was another baby,” she says and her voice reflects a horror that I now carry in my heart, too. We're united in the deaths of those weird unborn monsters. She beat one to death on my front lawn; I beat one to death here. It doesn't seem like something that could bind two people together, but it does. Guilt is a powerful emotion.

“
Did it float this time?” Dawson asks, sounding tired. No, not just tired,
weary.
Dawson sounds like a person who's lived a hard life and is ready to die. He's only a year older than me, so it's actually pretty sad. He should be starting college in the fall, but instead Holly and I have killed his parents. I turn away and move back towards the offices, cupping my hands over my eyes and peering in. The first two look like storage rooms and are filled with uniforms, boots, backpacks, and other equipment that I can't quite make out. The third room is a bare bones office with a desk, a chair, and some metal filing cabinets. Then I get to the last window, look in, and find a dead body.

CHAPTER 10

Ardent

Fourteen Hours and Nine Minutes After …

“
Holly,” I say as calmly as I'm able. “You might want to come look at this.” She strides across the room without hesitation and despite her pink shorts and her baggy sweatshirt, she looks like a general in charge of the world's greatest army.

“
What is it?” she asks as I step back and let her look for herself. She doesn't gasp or startle or even blink, just steps away, points the revolver at the glass and shoots.

“
What the fuck?” Dawson yells as he kicks yet another box. “You have to warn us before you do shit like that!” Holly ignores him, reaches in and unlocks the door.

“
Wait,” I beg, reaching out for her shoulder. “She could be a DeadBorn.” Holly pauses and we both stare at the mess of red together. The woman is lying on her side in a pool of sticky, crimson blood. Her brown hair is arranged carefully around her head like a question mark and her green tank top is torn and hangs from her body like rags. She has on a lacy, black bra that's come unhooked and is twisted around so that one of the cups is sitting across her shoulder blade. It's hard for me to tell from this distance, but it doesn't look as if she's breathing.

Dawson comes storming across the warehouse at full speed, looking like he wants to rip Holly's head off for firing the gun. When he gets close enough to see what we're looking at, he stops and levels a horrified stare on both of us.

“
Is she dead?” he asks as if we know any better than he does. Dawson then begins to curse and pace in a circle and I have to wonder yet again if the stress is going to make him snap and put a bullet in all our heads. He runs his hand down his bare belly like he's trying to pet himself. Maybe he's trying to comfort himself, I don't know, but honestly, I just wish he would put on a shirt.

“
Is there any real way to know without going in there?” Holly asks as she squints her eyes and examines the scene carefully. Dawson stops petting himself and takes three massive breaths. They actually look like they're calming him, and when he speaks next, his voice is much lighter.

“
How do you want to do this then?” he asks as Martin comes huffing and puffing up behind us. Then he spots the woman and immediately vomits onto Holly's shoes. She purses her lips, but doesn't say a thing. I love her for that.

“
This is like Zombie Apocalypse 101, guys,” he says as he wipes his face with the end of his
Daryl
T-shirt. “If she's lying in that much blood and isn't moving, she's dead. We should just leave her where she is.”

“
And if she's alive?” Dawson says, voice rising an octave. I step up between him and Martin and reach for the door knob. There is no debating this. There's only one thing that can be done. I have to go in there and check the woman. I just have to, for my own sanity if nothing else.

“
We're wasting time. I'll go in. Just cover me, okay?” I say. Holly leans forward suddenly, grabs the back of my head and kisses me.

“
No.” And then she's shoving me out of the way with her hip and stepping into the room. I reach out for her, but she sidesteps my hand and practically closes the door on my thumb.

“
Holly!” I hiss under my breath as quietly as I'm able. I feel as if the sound of my voice could wake the dead. And maybe it could, what do I know?

Holly ignores me and gives the body a wide berth. When she gets a look at the face, her own scrunches up painfully.

“
Oh yeah,” she says as she lifts her baseball bat. “She's dead.”

“
Check her pulse first,” Dawson pleads, stumbling forward as if this is the most important thing in the world. “Please, just do it.” Holly hesitates for a brief moment. “If you killed an innocent person because you didn't check, how would you feel?” This does the trick and Holly pauses, bending down, her fingers stretching out for the woman's neck.

“
Oh my god, she's gonna get bit,” Martin moans and I flash him my most evil look.

“
Be quiet,” I growl, turning my attention immediately back to the situation. If something were to happen to Holly, I don't know what I'd do. I watch carefully as her fingers press into the bloody flesh. We all wait with hushed breath, but nothing exciting happens. Holly stands back up and shakes her head. Dawson breathes out heavily and turns away. He doesn't want to watch and I don't either, but I know it has to be done. If we don't destroy this body, there's no telling if it will get back up again. I don't know all the details about how this DeadBorn thing works, but it isn't something we can take chances on. “Do you want help?” I ask and Holly shakes her head again.

“
Just start gathering stuff we could use to board up the windows or defend ourselves with.”

“
Why not just stay in here?” Dawson offers as he looks around. “There are only two windows, and it seems pretty secure.”

“
No,” Holly says and then her bat comes down and blood splatters the white walls. She raises it again and again and again. Dawson looks like he wants to argue, but I can see that he doesn't want to bother Holly while she's swinging that bat. Instead, he turns his attention to me and starts bitching.

“
It makes perfect sense to stay in here.” I stare him straight in the face but say nothing. Holly has her reasons. I don't know what they all are, but I know that there's nobody I'd trust more. She'll get us through this, I know she will. “Why go through all that trouble to make the other place half as good as this?” Dawson asks as he starts to pace the floor.

Martin moves away from the wet, splashing sounds that are emanating from the office and vomits again. Nothing comes up this time, not like it did on Holly's shoes. It's all just saliva and stomach bile. I ignore them both and am left to gather the supplies by myself, stuffing them in boxes and dragging them over to the door.

When Holly comes out of that room, her eyes are empty and her body is red with the blood of a woman we've never met. I drop the tools in my hand and rush over to her, folding her shaking body into my arms and pressing my chin into the crown of her head.

“
Why can't we stay in here?” Dawson demands and although I'm holding Holly, I feel my fists clench with anger. I want to punch him again. Holly pushes away from me and takes off her sweatshirt, tossing it to the floor in a bloody heap. The camisole underneath hasn't fared much better and now looks pink instead of white. I reach for her again, but she steps away and I can see that she doesn't much feel like being touched. It hurts me a little, but I pretend that it doesn't, telling myself that I'm being selfish and that her feelings come first.

“
Because this is a hot spot.” She doesn't elaborate on this and moves over to the door to see what I've gathered up.

“
A what?” Martin asks as he looks up at Holly and pales even further. I could never find her repulsive or frightening or threatening, but I can see why someone else might. Right now, she looks like Bloody Mary.

“
A hot spot,” Holly says with a sigh as she falls to her knees and starts to dig through the box with a detached frenzy. “It's where the demons come from.”

“
Did you learn this in your dream, too?” Dawson says, moving threateningly across the barn. I follow after him, ready to grab him if he goes for Holly. “What else are you not telling us?” Holly ignores him and keeps digging. “Look at me!”

“
Shut up!” she screams and tears start to roll down her bloody face. “Just shut up and leave me alone.”

“
But we need to know,” Dawson says as he collapses to his knees next to her. His voice is much softer now, pleading. “You have to tell us, Holly Olly. You just have to.” My blood freezes at his words.
Holly Olly.
I've never heard anyone use that nickname before, not once in the two years since Holly and I started dating. She doesn't seem to care though and when Dawson starts crying, he leans forward and puts his arms around her. Holly doesn't push him away and instead, reaches a hand up and puts her fingers on his arm.

Jealously doesn't even begin to cover what I'm feeling right now. I want to lope across the room like a DeadBorn and tear his head off.
She doesn't want me?
I wonder as my heart begins to pump fiercely and a surge of adrenaline pierces my chest.
She wants him?

“
The really bad DeadBorn,” she says as Dawson sits back and drops his arms to his sides. “Like the ones by the lake and the ones that breathe fire, they come from hot spots. Inside this building is a hot spot.”

“
Then shouldn't we get the fuck out of here?” I ask and Holly's head whips around at the bitter note in my voice. When our eyes meet, I see that all her love's for me and I'm even more confused by her actions.

“
There are hot spots everywhere. We can't really get away from them, but we can't really sleep next to them either. That's why I want to stay in the refuge building, even if it has a hundred windows.”

“
How do you know all of this stuff?” Martin asks and I don't sense even the slightest hint of an accusation in his voice, but for some reason, Holly does. She tucks some bloody blonde behind her ear and scowls.

“
I just dreamed it, okay?” she says, but I know that's a lie. I can tell from the stiffness in her neck and the way her words rush out of her mouth in a jumble. Something's happening to Holly that I don't understand. It started this morning and it doesn't look like it's going to stop until it consumes her completely. As soon as we get a chance,
if
we get a chance, we need to have a talk. I don't say anything now because I don't want Martin or Dawson to know, but I do step forward and squeeze her shoulder comfortingly. She doesn't pull away, but her spine straightens and the muscles in her forehead clench. I don't know what's happened to her just now, but she seems almost repulsed by me. “Let's just get our stuff and get out of here,” Holly says and stands up.