Pavlov's Dogs (35 page)

He saw Kelly, sitting quite a ways down from him, looking as if she might be ill as she stared down at her feet. He called her name, but she didn’t seem to hear him over the sound of the crowd.

A deathmatch had just ended, a vicious knife fight between a short, stocky Latino with MT branded into each shoulder, and a fatter curly-headed man branded with HA. The bigger man was down, bleeding out into the dirt. MT discarded his knife and stepped away.

The Dogs all yelled their approval. A fat man stood by the cage in a white coat, spattered with red. He was shifting from foot to foot and was wet, as if he had just showered. With him was a pair of thin nurses, one of each gender.

Meet the medical staff
, Ken thought.

The masked guard opened the cage, and the fat, wet looking doctor, with a peculiar rolling gait, jogged to the bleeding man’s side. Ken couldn’t make sense of the way the physician moved.

A woman in black leather leaned forward in her seat behind Ken. “One time, he was too slow to see if the other guy could continue. One of the Sigma Dogs broke his shinbone.”

Ken looked back. “This is disgusting.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Yeah. It’s also your life for the foreseeable future, so nut up.”

A guard came to get her, and she stood, holding out her wrist. He unlocked the handcuffs, and she slid her leather jacket off, revealing the initial S on her shoulder.

“Just one name?” Ken asked as the guard led her away.

“All I need, sugar.”

The nurses and heavy doctor dragged the curly-haired HA out of the arena, and the guard pushed the girl with only one name in to take HA’s place.

The Sigmas began to chant.

“Shay-NA! Shay-NA!”

Ken watched in horror as the girl, Shayna, raised her fists. The insides of both arms were bruised and covered in scabbed-over cuts.

The next one into the arena was a slightly older man, with a wrinkled forehead and a receding hairline. His shoulder bore a TS, and he must have flinched when they’d branded him, because the outline of the letters was warped and dragged out. The guard pushed TS in, and he fell to his knees.

“I can’t do this anymore.”

Shayna kicked out, catching TS in the ribcage.

“Fuck you, Todd. You didn’t have a problem killing Scott. Try me, shithead.”

Something ugly peeked through Todd’s eyes. “You know how long I’ve worked in human resources?”

“Go to hell, that’s how long.” Shayna jumped, scissoring her legs, driving another kick into Todd’s ribcage as he stood. He staggered back, hands out to block the punches she threw next. He caught one of them, twisting her wrist. She gritted her teeth as the scabs split and blood ran down her forearm.

She brought a knee up, missing him entirely.

The Dogs gasped.

Then the leg came back down, catching the side of Todd’s knee.

“I knew it!” one of the guards yelled behind Ken. “Bitch don’t miss.”

Todd went down, losing his grip on Shayna. She tried to back away, but he flung himself from his knees, wrapping his arms around her hips. They fell to the ground, but he held on, and she pounded at his temples with the sides of her fists.

Todd let go and curled into a ball, wrapping his arms around his head. Shayna stood, and the cage door opened. One of the Sigma Dogs threw in a machete.

“Oh, shit,” Ken whispered.

Ignoring the blade, Shayna walked around Todd, kicking him over and over. He writhed with it, trying to avoid the blows, but she was too fast for him. Desperate, he swung out both legs and caught her ankles. Shayna fell.

Todd jumped up, hobbling for all he was worth toward the machete. Shayna was up right after him, limping on her left ankle. He grabbed the blade and turned, swinging. She leaned back and the machete whistled past her. Shayna’s hands shot out, catching Todd’s wrist, keeping the weapon at his off-side so that his arm was crossed over his body.

She brought up a deft elbow and nailed Todd’s nose. He dropped the machete into her waiting hand and staggered back. Shayna raised the blade.

“Kill! Kill!” the Dogs chanted.

Omega Kaiser stood, fist out, and the crowd stilled. Sneering, he put out his thumb and pointed it down.

“Sorry, Todd,” Shayna said. “Them’s the breaks.”

With a two-handed swipe, she opened the front of Todd’s neck and swayed back to avoid the spray. The Dogs went crazy, and the human crowd applauded, their eyes full of fear as they looked out through frozen, smiling faces.

The guard brought Shayna back to her seat and allowed her to put her jacket back on. “That’s how you make it through,” she said to Ken as she was being handcuffed to the handrail. “You want to live, you do it one minute at a time.”

Stepping forward to uncuff Ken, the guard grunted a laugh under his mask. “Listen to the girl, big boy. You’re next.”

He led Ken to the cage door as Todd’s corpse was being dragged out, leaving a bloody trail on the concrete.

With the end of his shotgun, the guard prodded Ken inside. Rolling his shoulders, the burly construction worker readied himself for whatever was next.

Another curly-haired man, obviously Todd’s brother, was being led to the cage. OA was burned into his shoulder.

Kaiser stood and shouted, “Halt!”

The guard stopped, and OA breathed a sigh of relief.

“The loudmouth one instead,” Kaiser ordered, and Ken’s stomach fell. “Since he failed to kill for us yesterday, let him fight his friend.”

Ken paced in the cage as the guard took OA back to the stands and retrieved Jorge. He could see his friend’s mouth moving the whole way to the cage, and he couldn’t help but laugh. Even now, Jorge was being an ass.

The guard pushed Jorge in and the gate slammed shut behind him. He looked into the stands and his face drained of all its humor. Marie was sitting next to Kaiser, her tear-streaked face looking down at him.

“
Este perro malo
,” Jorge said. “I’m going to kick his ass for this.”

“I’m not fighting you,” Ken announced. He turned to the stands. “I’m not fighting!”

“Fight or die!” Kaiser yelled back.

Ken shook his head.

Jorge took a step toward him. “Come on, bro. He’ll kill you. And me. And Marie, too.”

Crossing his arms, Ken shook his head again.

“Jesus Christ, you’re going to get us killed, for what? We fought before,
vato
. Don’t tell me you don’t remember.”

Ken closed his eyes. His lips moved as if he were praying.

“Jorge!” Marie screamed from the stands. He looked, and Kaiser was holding her throat.

“Mama said knock you out,” Jorge said, and he lunged forward, burying his fist in Ken’s stomach. The bigger man doubled over, but stood back up fast. His face was red, but his eyes were still closed, his lips still moving.

“Ah, you pigheaded
gringo maricón
, do you want us dead?” He swung again, hooking a punch into his friend’s side. Ken stepped back, and his hands came down, but his eyes stayed shut.

“Shit!” Jorge yelled, hitting him again. “All those times I took the blame for something you did, and this is how you repay me?” He hit Ken again in the stomach. “Remember when you bashed up her Mustang? Divorce wasn’t even final yet, and not only that, but you steal her dog! And you make me hide it?!” He hit Ken again, then kicked him in the shins.

Ken wasn’t budging. His eyes were still closed. Jorge swung and hit him in the face.

“You said I was drunk!”

Eyes flying open, Ken stepped back. “You
were
drunk!”

Jorge flew forward. “
But I didn’t steal the dog!
” He hit Ken again, connecting on the side of his neck. Ken staggered back, and Jorge kicked him in the crotch.

The Dogs were laughing, yelling, enjoying the show. Kaiser had let go of Marie’s neck and was sitting back, a bright and sunny smile on his face.

Jorge bowed and Ken tackled him to the ground.

“Goddammit, Jorge! I’m not going to fight you!”

Jorge laughed as they grappled. “What are we doing now?”

He rolled, straining to the left, but Ken fought him down. Jorge tried again, then again, and when Ken pushed back for the third time, Jorge switched his pressure and rolled them on the ground.

“This is getting boring,” Kaiser said. “37! Make it interesting again.”

Sigma 37 got up and ran to a trashcan full of weapons. He tossed aside someone’s old prosthetic hook and then reached in again and pulled out a Bowie knife. “This ought to do it.”

The other Dogs roared as they saw the blade, and Sigma 37 opened the cage door.

“Bring me the other girlfriend,” Kaiser said to the guard. “Maybe the big one needs an incentive, too.”

The guard ran over and uncuffed Kelly, who looked up at him with completely red eyes.

“What?” he said, and she started bleeding from everywhere. Hemorrhaging, shaking, she flung out her arms. The handcuffs dangling from her wrist caught the guard across the eyes and he fell.

Kelly shook, bleeding from her pores, her eyes, her nose, her ears. Her quick, jittery movements flung red droplets everywhere. In people’s faces. In people’s mouths. And then suddenly she stopped.

The crowd around her tried to get away and wipe off the blood that had gotten on them, but some of them were handcuffed to the handrail and couldn’t go anywhere.

Kelly’s head snapped up, and she hissed.

“What the hell is that?” Kaiser yelled.

Kelly leapt at the guard, knocking his hands out of the way and clamping her teeth down on his face. She yanked back, pulling the balaclava away. Red immediately began to run; it wasn’t just cloth pulling away from his cheek.

Screams rang out, and Kelly stood, running from person to person, sinking her nails and teeth into each one, tearing out throats and eyeballs. Those who tried to run fell first; those who tried to fight back failed.

It was an abattoir.

Kaiser stood and pushed Marie away from him, into the crowd. He reached down and grabbed the collar of a naked, blonde Asian woman, then brought her up to his face and yelled.

“Why is this spreading so fast?”

Summer Chan, more fascinated than anything else, tilted her head. “Was she bitten?”

“She was on the boat when the Mutt went berserk, but—”

Finally, Chan showed some concern. “Oh, Jesus. We have no idea what being inside a Dog, especially the Alpha Dog, has done to the virus.”

The screams started again, and Kaiser dropped the naked intern. Everyone Kelly had killed was getting back up, pouring blood and spraying it everywhere. And screaming. Not moaning—screaming. He kicked out at a security guard.

“Why the hell didn’t you screen these people? Never mind. Dogs! Sic ’em!”

Howling as a pack, the Dogs instantly fell to all fours and changed. The Thetas were done first, bounding up the stairs with the Sigmas following close behind.

Their earlier encounters with the dead hadn’t prepared the Dogs for this new strain. Even as the Dogs waded in, they were greeted by three walking dead apiece, moving fast and biting—always biting. And the holes they tore in the Dogs never healed.

“Time to go,” Ken said, helping Jorge up from the concrete floor of the sparring cage. He grabbed the Bowie knife on the way to the exit. The zombies had already swarmed past the Dogs and were starting to work on the crowd.

One came at Ken, and he lashed out with the big blade, nearly decapitating the monster.

He hefted the knife. “Where’s Kaiser?”

The Omega Dog had covered ground quickly. As soon as he had seen the Dogs being swarmed and bitten, he had run for Command. He knew what would happen to them soon, and was not about to let it happen.

Flipping open the notepad by the keyboard, he half-wished he had dragged the Chan bitch with him. She would be so much better at this.

One by one on the touchscreen, Kaiser brought up the Dogs’ video feeds and typed in the termination code. Hunting and pecking, he kept looking up at the big screen as the squares went black, one by one.

“Thank God for copy and paste,” he muttered.

He looked up at Rose’s screen and stopped dead.
He
was there. The Mutt. The old Alpha Dog. His fur was wet and matted from his swim in the sea, and water droplets flew with the blood as he tore into the crowd.

McLoughlin had gotten bigger, somehow, and he was rending everyone who crossed his path limb from limb. He caught sight of Jorge and Ken and took after them.

“Come on, Rose,” Kaiser said. “You haven’t been bitten yet, so come on!”

The Mutt stopped chasing after the loudmouth and the lumberjack, and turned to Rose. Kaiser felt the empty black eyes staring
through
the other Dog, right at him.

McLoughlin charged at Rose then, launching himself, jaws open. A second later, the picture spun crazily, showing sky and headless Dog and then sky again before going black.