PRIME (27 page)

“Sure.” Zero found his sweatshirt on the floor and pulled it on. He followed Cale into the living room where Alice sat pouring over a list. “How do you two take your coffee?”

“Black as night.” Cale winked and sat onto the couch; Alice had claimed the arm chair as her own.

“Some cream and sugar in mine,” Alice answered. The warm smile she flashed at Zero seemed completely contradictory to her hasty exit from the bedroom and her matter-of-fact mood.

“Alright,” Zero said. “I’ll be back.”

As the door shut, Alice found it hard to concentrate on the list in front of her. After a few minutes, she realized she was reading the same names over and over again. There had been something so comforting about Zero lying beside her that morning. When he pushed away her hair, he hardly seemed like the man she had come to know. He seemed so soft. She wanted to trust him and couldn’t deny how attractive she found him, but he was a recovering addict. Not to mention, they were in the middle of the end of the world. It didn’t seem like the time for romance.

She shifted on the seat and Cale looked up at her. “Are you alright?” He frowned in concern.

“Yeah.” With a sigh, she put down the paper. Cale did the same, giving her his full attention. “Just thinking about things,” she explained vaguely.

“Last night?”

“No, actually trying really hard not to think about that.” A chill went through her and she shook it off. “This morning, Zero-”

“Did that boy try something?” Anger boiled up inside Cale. He had already given up on Alice, but if Zero wasn’t the good guy he thought he was, Cale would have his head. “I swear to God I will cut him in two.”

“No,” Alice answered quickly. “He was a perfect gentleman. That’s sort of the problem; it went against my idea of him.” Cale calmed, surprised he had reacted so quickly, so willing to believe Zero had tried something. All because he had a teenage crush on her. In that moment Cale felt as dirty as Jake. He took a deep breath and pushed his feelings to the side for good, knowing Alice would never return them. It was time to settle into friend mode.

“Alice.” Cale gave her a fatherly look and shook his head. “From everything I’ve seen of Zero, he’s a stand-up guy. I admit his history had me on edge, but he’s done nothing to make me think that’s still a part of him. Don’t forget, he doesn’t even remember most of that.”

“Yeah.” Alice nodded slowly. “So you don’t think I should worry?”

“Be as worried with him as with any man,” Cale answered with a smile.

Alice laughed. “Thank you. And thanks again for last night. If you hadn’t been there . . .” She shuddered and shook her head. “Whatever. Just thank you for being such a good guy. All the guys I knew before were so immature.”

“Age will change a man.” Cale picked his list back up. He glanced up at her and grinned. “Zombies will sure as hell change him. I admit I wasn’t much of a man until I was mostly through my twenties.”

“I bet.” Alice smiled and picked up her list.

*

Zero nodded his thanks to Gabe as he stepped into the small, one story building at the edge of the base. He half expected Gabe to follow him inside, but he waited outside. Gabe followed a short hallway and then he was facing a row of three single occupancy cells. Iron bars separated each small room from a processing area barely big enough for the desk and chair that half filled it. Keys hung in the open doors to two of the cells, while a third set of keys hung out of reach of the occupied cell.

Jake lay on the low cot snoring away. It disgusted Zero that the man was still breathing, let alone sleeping like a fat happy baby. Zero strode forward and wrapped his hands around the cold bars. Their solidness was reassuring. Jake wouldn’t be coming after Alice again.

“Hey,” Zero called into the cell. Jake kept on snoring.

Zero went to the desk and dug through it until he found a stapler. Back at the cell bars, Zero took careful aim and threw the stapler at Jake’s head. It missed and cracked into his chest instead. Jake sat up with a surprised snort, knocking the stapler to the floor.

“What the hell?” Jake asked. It took him a moment to notice Zero standing at the bars. His surprised expression changed to a sneer. “What do you want?”

“To tell you you’re a real grade A asshole,” Zero said. “And the simple joy of seeing you locked up.”

“Screw you.” Jake held his head, a pounding headache growing behind his eyes.

“I just want to know what in the hell you were thinking last night? I guess one asshole has to survive every apocalypse, but seriously? Alice? If it was up to me you’d be dead.”

“And if it were up to me, so would you.” Jake sighed and leaned back against the cement wall separating his cell from the next. Why was this loser talking to him? “The girl’s a tease. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed.”

“You know who calls women teases? Men who want an excuse for their own bad behavior.” Now that Jake was awake, Zero was even more disgusted by him. “You better hope they keep you in here, because if you ever get out of here and I see you near Alice,” Zero let the threat hang there.

When Jake didn’t reply, Zero left the holding area. Gabe was gone when he stepped out of the building. With the cell locked it wasn’t like Jake was going anywhere. Zero doubled his pace as he headed for the rec-center.

*

It was easier to focus, but it was still slow reading. She didn’t want to skim over a name and have to go over the list again. She lost track of time, eyes blurring as she read name after name until she stumbled over a Maya Greenwood. As she was about to tell Cale, the front door opened. She jumped, half expecting to see Jake lumbering through, but it was only Zero. He balanced three coffee mugs and a paper bag.

“Breakfast,” he called cheerily and Cale hurried to take the bag from him.

“Thanks.” Zero set the coffees on the table. “I warn you, this isn’t the best coffee ever.”

“As long as it’s not decaf.” Cale took a sip and grimaced at the coffee in question. “Oh damn.” He set the mug down on the floor beside the couch.

“Yeah,” Zero said. “But I snagged us a box of doughnuts.” He pulled out a prepackaged box of powdered doughnuts and continued speaking as he opened them. “Got word on Jake too. Seems they woke up Gabe and have Jake in a holding cell at the moment.”

“Good.” Relief flooded Alice as she sipped at the coffee, still bitter even though Zero had added both sugar and cream. “I think I have the list for the base we need.”

“Haven?” Cale looked up sharply.

Alice nodded, her heart hammering. “There is a Maya Greenwood. I guess we should finish the other two lists, but she could be the one.”

“Let’s get on it then.” Zero popped a doughnut in his mouth and grabbed his coffee. He hurried to sit and gather up his list again.

A half hour later they found no other Maya. Alice tried to fight down her excitement again, reminding herself that Haven would most likely be deserted, and the best they could hope to find was the cure. Still, she couldn’t help thinking of Simon. A small part of her was beginning to nourish the tiniest hope that he’d somehow survived.

“At least you’ll know your way around,” Cale mused, sipping the last vile dregs of his coffee. “We’ll need a car.”

“The truck is out of commission, but I’m sure Gabe will have something lying about.” Zero leaned back on the couch, doughnut in hand. Satisfaction filled him; they were finally getting somewhere.

“But how will we drive it out of here?” Alice asked. “If that truck couldn’t handle driving through the zombies, we’d need a tank to get through now.”

Cale and Zero were silent. Cale stood and walked to the window. As he looked out into the empty street, he leaned his head against the cool windowpane and tried to come up with a solution. Behind him, Alice and Zero exchanged a quick look. Alice looked away again even more quickly. Cale stepped back from the window and gathered up the papers into one large pile.

“We need to go talk to Gabe. We don’t know anything about this base. He may know an obvious solution we can’t imagine.”

Alice stood, nodding. “Sounds good. There may be access tunnels or something here as well. Or there is always the sewer.”

Zero shook his head as they headed for the front door. “I don’t like it. Aside from whatever we run into in the sewers, we won’t know what we’ll come out into until it’s too late.” They stepped into the brisk day. The clouds had floated in since Alice woke, and now the whole base had a dull gray look to it. The temperature was mild, but a biting breeze rolled through, causing Alice to pull her sweatshirt more tightly around herself.

“Let’s talk to Gabe.” Cale’s lips pressed together in a thin line and they hurried to the rec center.

It took longer than they expected to find Gabe. He wasn’t in the cafeteria with the group and no one knew where he was. Finally, Alice thought to duck into the library. They found him nursing a cup of coffee and working his way through a thick book in one of the wing-back chairs. He looked happy to see them, as if they weren’t all trapped on the base and were only friends bumping into each other.

“Well, hello.” He carefully slid a bookmark into place before setting the book aside on the table. “What can I do for you?”

“We found out where the signal is coming from.” Cale didn’t waste any time on pleasantries.

“You did?” Gabe looked elated. “Wonderful!”

“Yeah. We’re gonna need a car of some sort.” Zero crossed his arms and leaned on the nearest table. “Something armored if you have it.”

“I’m afraid we don’t,” Gabe apologized.

“Crap.” Cale scowled.

“Well hold on,” Gabe said soothingly. “Can any of you fly?”

Gabe’s solution turned out to be simple. They would fly in. There were two small planes on the base. Gabe had no idea if either were functional and no idea how to fly one, but he saw no reason why someone else couldn’t try. Indeed, it would be quick and easy to fly out over the zombies and land in Haven. It would be deathly simple.

Except the only one with flying experience was Cale, and that had been ten years ago. He had hated it. Everything about flying was wrong. If people were meant to fly, they would have been born with wings. Cale had never wanted to learn how to fly, but his dad was an avid pilot, so Cale had pushed down his fears and learned. He had been good at it too, but each little rumble of turbulence made his heart leap and beat wildly.

“I’ll do it,” Cale assured them grudgingly, as they hurried down the main hallway. “But I’ll need a manual or something, some way to read up on the whole operation. They should have them on the computers. Everything was going electronic.”

“So you just hop back on the computer, read a bit and we take off?” Zero sounded more than a little leery. “Sorry if I don’t seem too excited, but this isn’t like a car. You lose control of the plane, and it’s gonna be bad.”

“I can do it,” Cale assured him again, even though he didn’t feel at all sure himself. “It’s like riding a bike.”

“Uh huh,” Zero said dubiously. “Why don’t they teach you how to do it when you’re five then?”

“Guys,” Alice interrupted. “It’s our best option.” It was the only option as far as she could tell.

“Yeah, I know.” Zero nodded. “That doesn’t mean I can’t be scared shitless about it.” He grinned. Alice shook her head and smiled.

“We’ll all read up on it,” Cale offered. “That way if I forget something, maybe one of you will remember.”

“That’s reassuring,” Zero said, just as they approached the computer room. “No really, I feel better.”

“Stop being a smart ass.” Cale shoved Zero through the door, following close behind. He paused, a smile freezing on his face. “Do you hear that?”

They all stopped just inside the door, listening to a series of sharp beeps coming from the direction of the desk. For a moment the only thought in Cale’s head was ‘bomb’. Almost simultaneously the truth dawned on all of them.