Whimper (22 page)

Zoe patted the girl on her shoulder and made sympathetic sounds. The girl made a strangled, hiccupping sound as she resumed her story. “I fell asleep. Migraines always wear me out and I was so tired. I woke up a few hours later and went out to ask if anyone knew what was going on. My cell phone didn’t have any signal. My friend, Becky, is two doors down from me—was two doors down from me,” she corrected raggedly. “I went to talk to her, but she wasn’t feeling well. She said she felt like she had the flu, and thought maybe she was having a bad reaction to the shot they’d given her. A lot of the girls were wandering around. No one knew what was going on and everyone was hungry. Somebody said that the CDC was supposed to be having food delivered to all of the buildings, but nothing showed up. So many of the other girls weren’t feeling well that I decided to go back to my room. I didn’t want to catch whatever they had.” She laughed, a high pitched, hysterical bubble of sound. “I locked myself in my room with a book and my headphones and went back to sleep. I didn’t wake up until the next morning. I was hungry, so I opened my door to see if there had been any food dropped off yet.” She swallowed hard. “There was blood. Blood splattered and smeared everywhere. I thought it was a prank for a second, but it was so quiet…and then I saw Renee—parts of Renee,” she hiccupped. “I must have made a noise, maybe I screamed, I don’t even know, but they heard me. They heard me and they came running. I heard them coming and I was so scared I ran back into my room and shut the door, locked it behind me. When they started slamming against the door, I moved my dresser in front of it and then the bed and the desk. I moved everything I could. They kept hitting the door over and over and screaming…horrible, animal screams. I wouldn’t have thought it was people if I hadn’t seen the news the day before. It was too
animal
. I hid in there until the thumping finally stopped and everything went quiet again. My room is on the third floor. I kept trying to figure out a way I could climb down, but there was nothing to use and nothing to hold on to.”

We reached an intersection in the tunnel, giving the girl a chance to pause in her story while we cautiously checked our surroundings. Zack peered around the corner then crept up to the double door on the far end of the T to peek through the small windows in the doors. He motioned for us to move forward along the side of the hallway. I slipped up next to him, raising an eyebrow in question. Zack pointed at his eye, then gestured toward the window. I leaned towards the window, careful not to lean against the door or move it in any way. The fluorescent lighting in the hallway was softly flickering, much as it was throughout the tunnel system. A few of the lights were out entirely here, creating shadows that seemed to shift and bob. “I can’t tell,” I mouthed, shaking my head. “We could make noise, watch and see?”

Zack thought for a moment, considering, before he nodded. We moved back over to the side with the girls. “Zoe, when we’re in place, you kick that metal trash can over there and then get ready. If anything makes it past us it’ll be up to you.”

“There hasn’t been any sign of any of them down here so far,” the lunch lady protested, looking both nervous and offended.

“Better safe than sorry,” Zoe pointed out, heading for the trash can.
Zack and I took up positions on either side of the double doors as Zoe angled herself to attack the metal can.
She bounced the can off the concrete block wall causing a loud
clang
. The sound echoed throughout the tunnels. “Ooops,” Zoe cringed, realizing she’d made a bit too much noise. We all froze, watching and listening for telltale footfalls or screams. Nothing changed through the windows but the twitching shadows. After several tense breaths, we started to relax a bit.

“I think we’re good. I don’t see anything coming after us anyway. How much further do we have to go?” I asked Zack.

“Should only be a few more minutes,” he answered. “Ready?”

We all huddled back up and moved through the doorway cautiously. After getting jumped last time, we were understandably twitchy. When we made it the first twenty feet or so, I let myself breathe normally again.

“Mandy, how did you get out?” Zoe asked softly. I was curious myself, but Zoe cared enough to find out the girl’s name. She probably knew all kinds of things about her by now. She has that open, approachable air about her people like. I always come off as too busy to care, probably because that’s how I usually feel.

The girl, Mandy I guess, sniffled a bit. “I don’t really want to go into all of it. Basically, I had to go out through my hall and down the fire stairs. But, most of them had gone away by then. Everything was busted up. Most of them were gone, but not all of them. I’ve never hurt anyone before. I was never—I never even got into a fight in high school! I can’t believe I made it. One of them fell over the stair railing. Another I had to hit, but I stumbled onto the door that led down here and found a few of the others. We’ve been hiding ever since.”

“Did you come into contact with their blood?” I barked, unable to gentle my voice before the words snapped past my lips.

Zoe shot me a dirty look and gave the girl a quick hug. “I’m so sorry, Mandy. You did what you had to do to survive. You didn’t do anything wrong.” She turned to me. “If she’d been exposed, she would already be showing symptoms. Leave it alone.”

Argh. I hate leaving it alone. Any one of these people could be harboring the virus and become symptomatic. They were all ticking time bombs.

“I was working when campus went on lock down and they wouldn’t let any of us leave. Saw one of those little brats go totally ape shit and start tearing into people. No way I’m being eaten by some snot nosed college kid, no offense, so I grab this ax and I came down here. I take my smoke breaks down here. It’s quiet. Worked out okay so far,” the lunch lady added with a shrug. “I didn’t touch any blood either.”

I couldn’t help but smile. I liked her. Zack stopped up ahead, grinning as well. “This is our exit, people.”

“You want us to wait here until you come back?” Mandy asked nervously.

“We have the key. We’ll be back, but I have no idea how long it’ll be. You two stick together and head back to the group. We’ll find you when we’re done,” Zoe answered for us. The two ladies said their goodbyes, looking relieved to be leaving us behind.

The three of us stood together, staring at the door that would lead us back up into the muggy night. Another rumble of thunder rolled overhead, underscoring the tension that was building back up.

“Maybe I should change my clothes now, in case we run into anyone on the way there?” Zoe wondered aloud, fidgeting with her bag.

“I still don’t understand why you want to dress up,” I protested. “We need to move quickly and you need to stay out of sight. How is being in a skirt and heels going to help that?”

“I need to have a plausible excuse for being there if we do get caught. I’ll leave the heels in my bag for now, but I’m changing before we’re out in the open. You’re the one who keeps telling me we might be walking into a trap after all.”

Frustration poured through my veins, making my face hot. I willed myself to calm down and slow my racing heartbeat. My supply of meds was running low. I couldn’t afford to keep burning through them, but I couldn’t afford to skimp on them either. I jerked my pill bottle out of my pocket and dry swallowed three capsules. The slow release medication would help keep my temp low and some of the aches at bay. I needed to be able to move easily. I snuck a glance at Zoe. She was shimmying a skirt up over her dark yoga pants and sneakers. She’d better be able to move in that thing.

Zack quietly paced by the door, lost in his own thoughts. We had about a block to cover out in the open, and I was growing increasingly nervous myself.

“Okay, I’m ready,” Zoe announced. She was now wearing a dark grey high-waisted skirt with her navy blouse.

“You look great. Now you can apply for a mortgage after we get done fighting zombies,” her brother responded with irritation. “Can we get moving now?”

Zoe didn’t bother to answer. She simply glared as she re-secured her bag and holster, leaning against me for balance as she did so. “You look nice,” I whispered, breathing in the scent of her hair and skin. I might never have the chance again, so I tried to commit that scent to memory—warmth and sunshine with vanilla and hints of citrus.

She smiled. “Ready to kick ass and take names?”

I smiled back, but I didn’t feel ready. I felt tired, worn down, and weary. If we had to do any ass kicking out there, I absolutely did not want to have to know their names as well.

I rechecked my holster and hitched my skirt up. We could do this. It was going to be okay. If we ran into trouble, the three of us could handle it. Zack and I had been going to the shooting range with our uncle since we were ten. I could hit any target I needed to. Targets—not people. Right. Breathe.

Zack cautiously opened the door. The outside lights were off on this building, thank God, and the door swung open with barely a squeak. He stepped into the gloom, motioning for us to follow behind him.

The stars were gone, covered over by heavy, angry-looking storm clouds. Streaks of lightning criss-crossed the sky, and static filled the air.

“Great, this is sure to stir them up,” Elliott muttered. “It’s like turning on a freaking strobe light over our heads.”

Heat lightning. As muggy as it had been the last several days, it was amazing we hadn’t had a storm like this yet. The rain might cool things down finally. Maybe it could even wash away some of the gore staining campus. I flashed back to the bloody sidewalk in front of Firebrand and the first time I felt Elliott’s intense gaze on my back. It was only a few days ago, but so much had happened.

We walked as a group, Zack leading and Elliott and I flanking him from behind. Zack had his handgun at the ready. He looked like a rookie cop on a TV show, primed and ready for action. The weight of mine was reassuring, but it didn’t feel right to have it out and to wave it around campus. I’d use it if necessary. Probably.

“I keep meaning to ask, Elliott, where did you learn to fight like that?” I said quietly. If we didn’t talk at all, I’d lose my mind.

“Like what?” he asked, distracted by the movement of the shrubs blowing in the gathering wind.

“The football guy at the bar, you took him down when five police officers couldn’t. It was amazing. Where did you learn to do that?”

Elliott looked uncomfortable, a lopsided grin on his face. “I took karate classes when I was ten and I’ve had a whole lot of anatomy courses. Other than that, it was pure luck. I’d love to claim bad ass status and tell you I knew right where to hit him to incapacitate him, but I was actually going for his throat.”

Right. I would have felt much better about this entire endeavor if I
hadn’t
added that piece of information to the total picture. “Well, let’s hope your lucky streak continues!” I squeaked with fake optimism.

“Shhhh!” Zack hissed in front of us, his hand up in the air. A flash of lightning lit up a small cluster of figures standing on the concrete path. Their backs were to us, but they jumped and thrashed at each other every time the sky lit up.

We froze, trying to blend into the landscaping. My freaking pale legs were probably glowing like the damn moon. I was going to get eaten because I hadn’t bothered to tan all summer. And here I thought I was being healthy by avoiding skin cancer.

“Move slowly, while it’s dark, that way,” Elliott breathed, his voice as quiet as possible. He barely nodded his head toward a line of small trees along the path to our left that might screen us a little from the group. There were at least four of them, but I couldn’t make out anything else in the shadows.

We crept sideways, struggling to watch our footing and the threat in front of us. Both Zack and Elliott reached out repeatedly to keep me from stumbling over plants or whatever. I was clearly the weakest link at this point. We were almost there when Zack jerked me to a stop, his breath catching.

“More,” he mouthed, eyes wide. I turned my head to see another pair of figures emerging from the side of the building we’d just passed, and they were heading our way at a rambling shuffle.

Elliott caught sight of them about the same time that I did. We were caught in the middle between the two groups with very little cover. If they hadn’t been so distracted by the sky, we probably would have been mauled already.

A thunderous boom shook the ground, and the world went daylight bright. All around us, pained shrieks spilled out. The light hurt their eyes, but as we immediately plunged back into darkness, they spotted us.

“Run! Run!” Elliott urged, grabbing my hand and taking off down the sidewalk. Zack was tearing along right beside us. “Where?” he panted.

“Working on that,” Elliott gasped. “Open to ideas!” We raced past a shuttle bus shelter, but the open glass hutch wasn’t going to give us anywhere to hide.

“We’re close to the garage,” I panted. “If we keep going we might make it to the fence.”

A scream from behind me forced me to pour on more speed. They were closing in on us fast. We’d never make it. Only one building stood nearby and we had no way of knowing if we could get inside or if there would be any safety if we did. I was so turned around and panicked I couldn’t even remember what building it was.