PRIME (17 page)

“Well thanks for all your wisdom, Doc,” Zero sneered. “Now maybe you could help your friend take a look at people’s wounds. Or do you just figure out if people are dead or not? Maybe the actual help has to come from this guy.” Zero pointed a thumb at the other doctor.

“I assure you Markus is just as useful as I am,” Scott, the other doctor, snapped. He pushed his glasses further up his nose as he examined Corwin. A zombie’s nails had left large red welts down his face.

“We need to keep moving.” Grace was already looking around, antsy about staying in one place so long. Alice didn’t blame her. “Just fix up anything that can’t wait until we get to Coda.”

“I’ll wrap Alice’s hand, and we can get going,” Scott said.

“Is it bad?” Alice asked as the doctor looked at her hand. He poked at it and she winced in pain.

“Bend your fingers.” Alice managed to do as she was told, even though it brought tears to her eyes. “You should be fine.” The doctor gave her a quick smile, which she forced herself to return; overall he was a good guy. “None of the muscles seem severely damaged.” He finished wrapping the hand and patted her arm gently. “Try to keep it above your waist.”

“Thanks,” Alice said and folded her arm across her chest. She rested her hand on her shoulder.

“Time to get moving,” Grace ordered as soon as Scott was done with Alice.

“What about Bailey?” Jake asked as he stepped past the young man’s body. He looked regretfully down at the man.

“I’m hoping he buys us some time,” Grace answered in a clipped tone. Even Quigley looked shocked at her coldness.

“Harsh.” Zero shook his head, and Cale nodded in agreement as he took Sarah’s arm again.

“That’s the world now,” Grace said without a hint of apology in her voice.

Neither man made any comment as they continued down the tunnel. Sarah still quivered against Cale, letting him help her along, but everyone else seemed to be holding their own. Another long tense hour passed before they came to an access door. Grace stopped in front of the door, the rest of the group slowly coming to a stop behind her. Quigley made his way to the front. Together they looked over the door.

“This is it, right?” he asked, glancing away from the door to look at her.

“Yeah.” Grace nodded.

“What are you waiting for?” Quigley asked. He reached for the doorknob. Grace caught his wrist in a vice grip, stopping him an inch from the handle. He frowned at her.

“We don’t know what’s waiting for us behind this door,” Graced warned softly.

“Right.” Quigley pulled his hand back.

“What’s the plan then?” Corwin asked. Alice found it hard to remember he was a soldier as she looked at him in his jeans and sweatshirt. To her, he was just another scared kid, barely twenty years old. “Where does this door lead us to?”

“It will let us out on a subway platform.” Grace put her ear to the door, listening carefully, but hearing nothing. She pulled away and looked at Corwin again, but she spoke to everyone. “From there, we’ll need to head upstairs and into the street. We’re a couple miles from the city limits and another ten miles from Coda.”

“We’re gonna die.” Sarah shook her head. Alice resisted the urge to slap the girl.

“Corwin, can you do recon?” Grace ignored Sarah better than Alice could.

“Yeah,” Corwin said. “Of course.” He stepped towards the door.

“See if anything is down here, check the street outside if you can. If you can find a couple vehicles, that would be great. Something big enough to move us all.”

“Got it.” Corwin nodded, shifting his gun on his shoulder. He looked tense, his jaw clenched and his movements tight. Still, he would follow the orders.

“No shooting unless you’re being attacked. I don’t want to draw any more attention to us than we need to.”

“Right.” Corwin nodded again.

“Okay, twenty minutes. If you’re not back we move on to the next access door and try our luck there.” Grace put a hand on Corwin’s shoulder. “Be safe.”

Corwin nodded. “I’ll be back.”

Quickly, before he could think about it, Corwin opened the door just wide enough for his body and slipped through. The door closed with a soft click behind him, and the group settled in to wait.

16

Haven Medical Base

Simon and Tessa climbed the stairs to the fourth floor of the apartment building. It was the fifth building they had checked, and so far they had twenty key cards. None of the keys had anything printed on them to identify their purpose. Tessa opened the door of the first apartment they came to, and they were assaulted with the smell of fetid meat. Tessa wrinkled her nose, but threw the door open wide.

A man and woman lay in the middle of the room, their skin rotting and slipping from their bones. Simon reached past Tessa and shut the door.

“What are you doing?” Tessa frowned.

“If none of the key cards work, we can come back. I would have rather found zombies.” He shuddered and headed for the next apartment.

“That’s easy to wish for when the base has been clear for weeks,” Tessa teased, bumping his shoulder with hers.

Simon flushed. “Yeah, I guess so.”

There was no reek of death when he opened the next door. He pushed it wide and stepped into the small, cozy apartment. They were in the living room, with a dining room and kitchen to the left. On the other side of the room, Simon could see the hall that led to the bedrooms.

“I’ll get the kitchen.” Tessa flashed him a smile.

“Okay.”

Simon headed for the bedrooms. He paused at the first door, glancing back toward Tessa. She pushed her hair behind her ear as she dug through a deep kitchen drawer. His stomach tightened as he thought how nice it would be to do that for her. He shook the thought away and opened the door.

An unmade bed faced him from the master bedroom. He hurried around it to a nightstand, rifling through but finding nothing. He hesitated as he rounded the bed, hearing a rustling. His eyes slid over the empty room and dark bathroom doorway. Just Tessa. He shook his head and went to the other nightstand. He grinned.

“I got one!” he shouted to Tessa, and snagged the key card. He turned at Tessa’s muffled reply and took two steps back toward the door. “What?”

“I said awesome!” Tessa yelled back, laughing a little.

“No need to yell,” Simon teased.

The zombie lurched into him with only the barest groan as warning. Simon stepped back under its weight, his hands fumbling to find the thing’s shoulders and hold it back. Teeth snapped, its empty eyes seemed to stare over Simon’s head even as it scrambled to pull him closer.

“Tessa!”

Simon’s back slammed into the wall and he slid sideways, using all his strength to slam the zombie’s head into the corner of the tall dresser. It barely had any effect. Even as he heard the crunch of bone it continued trying to force itself close enough for its teeth to find flesh. He lifted a foot, shaking with the effort of balancing and pressed his foot into the thing’s stomach. He shoved as hard as he could, adrenaline giving him strength he didn’t know he had.

It stumbled back a few steps and Simon darted for the door. He wasn’t fast enough. The zombie caught him around the waist. Simon kicked and turned, unable to stop himself from falling. Again, he got his hands against the its shoulders, but now he was fighting both its desire for his flesh and its weight. His arms began to shake, slowly bending and bringing the deadly teeth closer.

A wet thwump filled the air and the zombie stopped struggling toward him. He shoved hard and it fell to its side. He crab-walked away from it and to his feet. An iron fire poker sat deep in its skull. Simon wiped his mouth and turned to Tessa who was breathing almost as hard as he was and staring at the downed zombie.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” Tessa reached for Simon, wrapping an arm around his forearm and tugging him toward her. “Let’s get out of here.”

They stepped back into the hall and Simon pulled the door shut with a click. Tessa let go of his arm and hugged herself, walking back through the kitchen and out onto the balcony.

“What are you doing?” Simon leaned against the sliding door, unsure if he should join her. He still felt shaken, his nerves jangling inside him. How close had he come to dying?

“Come here.” Tessa waved to Simon. He went to stand beside her. She leaned on the rail, resting on her elbows and not meeting his eyes. “I just need a minute.”

“You and me both.” Simon leaned on the rail beside her. The base spread out in front of them and if he didn’t look to the right he didn’t see any zombies. He lost himself for a moment, trying to pick out which apartment building had been his, but he had no idea. Slowly his heart beat returned to normal.

“Did you ever think of killing yourself when you got sick? Like the people in that last apartment?” Tessa asked abruptly.

“No,” Simon said after a moment. “I thought about it after I woke up though.” Tessa nodded as if she understood, but he doubted she really could. His eyes drifted toward the wall. Zombies stood pressed against each other. Across the fields, he could see more lumbering over to join the crowd. “There’s just going to be more of them every day, huh?”

“Yeah.” Tessa nodded. “What were you going to say back at the hospital?”

“Huh?” Simon asked, tearing his eyes away from the incoming zombies. “When?”

“When I said how weird it was that all the kids at the hospital survived,” Tessa explained patiently. “You looked like you were about to say something.”

“Oh, nothing.” Simon shrugged. “It’s weird we all survived.” He fidgeted, pulling away from the railing. “Do you want to head back?”

“Did we all survive, Simon?” Tessa brought her gaze up to meet Simon’s. Simon shifted uneasily, and she knew the truth. “We didn’t, did we?”

Simon let out a long sigh, turned and took a step away from the rail. “Tech was the second one to wake up.”

“And?” Tessa pressed, stepping around Simon to stand in front of him again.

“He was older.” Simon looked away, back over the base. “I was so glad that someone older was there to take charge, but Tech was even more lost than I was at first. We found another nurse’s gun, so at least we were both armed, but Tech just stayed in his room most of those first few days. He was there if I really needed him though.” Simon looked back at Tessa. “Before Matt woke up, another four kids woke up. They were all zombies.”

“God.” Tessa breathed slowly.

“I shot them all and Tech helped me get them outside. We burned them. Matt and a few others woke up, and they were all okay. I thought it was over, that maybe everyone else would be fine too. Matt and the others took off. They raided all the apartments and brought all the food to the rec center. Tech and I stayed at the hospital. Two more kids were zombies when they woke up. We took care of them.”

“Does Matt know?” Tessa asked.

“After they had all the food, they raided all the alcohol,” Simon said with a bitter grin. “You think Matt’s a drunk now? At the beginning he was worse. Every time someone woke up healthy, we sent them to the rec center. The ones who didn’t wake up right-” Simon shrugged. “-well, Tech and I took care of them.”

“How many?”

Simon met Tessa’s eyes and answered softly. “Sixteen came back as zombies.”

“You never told anyone?” Tessa was wide-eyed.

“Tech and Zeke are the only ones who know what happened.” Simon said. “I told Zeke, but I don’t like talking about it. None of them were any older than us.” Simon said, losing his fight against tears that needed to fall. He brushed at two as they streaked down his cheeks. Why was he always crying in front of Tessa?