Z 2136 (Z 2134 Series Book 3) (21 page)

As the door went down, the siblings screamed. Sutherland met the girl’s eyes one last time and he winked.

Then the men followed Sutherland toward The Station, ready to reclaim Ana and kill every other fucker inside.

“Your
dad
?” Adam asked Zelle.

“Zombies attacked, and one of them bit him. I was on my way downstairs to find him some food. Do you guys have anything?”

“Yeah, we’ve got some stuff.” Colton patted his backpack. “Where is he?”

“On the top floor. Is he going to be OK?”

“How long ago was he bitten?” Colton asked.

“It’s been eight days.”

Adam and Colton’s traded looks that more or less said the same thing—
it’s only a matter of time before he turns.

He wondered if Zelle knew. The girl was bright for her age, but that didn’t mean she understood how the zombie virus spread, especially if her parents kept her from watching The Games as Adam remembered them doing.

Colton opened his pack. “Let’s see if we can help him.”

The girl thanked Colton. He turned to Adam, “Go get your gun.”

Adam ran back to get his dropped gun, then followed them upstairs, watching their lights—Zelle’s flashlight and Colton’s gun-mounted bulb—bounce off the walls. They’d found the girl, but Adam couldn’t shed his sense of doom, weighing heavier with each ascended floor. He couldn’t shake the feeling that they’d encounter more danger as they progressed—including the nightmare of the girl’s undead father. Adam wondered if Zelle would try to stop them from doing what would have to be done if her dad had already turned.

Adam remembered her father as a nice, soft-spoken man. Though also in City Watch, he was definitely brainier than the average Watcher. Despite that—or because of that—Adam was surprised to learn Daniel was Underground and wondered if his father and Daniel had both been traitors at the same time.

Adam followed Zelle and Colton as they climbed higher into the darkness. At each floor, he half expected to meet Zelle’s zombified father. But they reached the top without incident, arriving at a door blocked by two old filing cabinets and a chair awkwardly balanced on top.

“I wanted to make sure Daddy was safe,” she said. “The zombies aren’t smart enough to figure out how to unblock doors.”

“You’re a smart girl.” Colton grabbed the first cabinet and dragged it aside. Adam helped, listening for sounds behind the closed door.

Zelle didn’t hesitate, though, and pushed the door bar, leading them onto the top floor.

This hallway, like the one where they’d found Zelle, was T-shaped. Walls of the first few offices on the left had been blown out, as had the windows in the rooms beyond. Cold wind and snow poured through, chilling the hall.

“He’s down here.” Zelle led them to a closed door at the end of the hall with more furniture—this time a bookcase and chair—stacked in front.

“Daddy, we’re here!” Zelle pulled the chair away as Colton dragged the bookcase aside.

“Stay here,” Colton said before she could open the door.

“Why?”

“He may not be . . . the same.”

“What do you mean?”

“You said your father was bitten, right?”

“Yes,” she said, looking up at Colton, scared. “Why?”

“Do you know what happens to people who get bitten?”

She shook her head no.

Adam felt his heart breaking.

How could he not tell her? Warn her? He should’ve told her to run so he wouldn’t wake up one night and eat her.

Adam stared at the girl’s big blue innocent eyes, terrified as she searched Colton’s for answers. Zelle was only eight, nowhere near ready to face the world on her own. Maybe Daniel didn’t want to scare her or thought he could outlive the bite.

Adam couldn’t judge—it wasn’t his daughter.

Colton kneeled and put his hands on Zelle’s shoulders. “Sometimes when people get bitten they become zombies.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head, “he’s not a zombie.”

She tried pushing past Colton, but he held her firm. “Let me check on him then. Maybe I can help. Better safe than sorry.”

“I want to see my dad!” she yelled, trying to break free of his grip.

“Please, hold her.” Colton looked up at Adam. “Don’t let her come in until I give the all clear.”

Colton shoved the girl into Adam’s arms and rushed into the room, shutting the door behind him.

Zelle tried to wriggle free, but Adam held her tight.

“It’s going to be OK.”

“Let me go!” she cried out.

“Please,” Adam whispered, trying to calm her. “It’s going to be OK. Colton’s just being careful. You remember me, don’t you?”

She turned and looked up at Adam. He held his grip on her shoulders just in case. She nodded.

“You know I’d never lie to you. Right?”

She nodded again. “I’m scared.”

He released her, holding Zelle’s eyes with a subliminal,
Please don’t run
.

“It’ll be OK.” Adam wondered if Colton was killing her zombie father even as he made this promise.

No, things aren’t going to be OK. But we’re not about to stop fighting. Not now, or ever.

Wind howled as it whipped through the hallway. Zelle pulled her long black coat tighter around her tiny frame. As she did, Adam noticed that she wasn’t wearing the same blue coveralls as the other contestants. While her pants could’ve passed—especially in the dark hall—for the same blue as Adam’s clothing, her shirt was green.

“What happened to your coveralls?”

“What coveralls?”

“Like mine. The ones they give us when we play The Darwins.”

“What are you talking about? I’m not in The Games.”

“You’re not?” Ice ran up Adam’s spine.

Why did Colton say that Zelle was in The Games if she wasn’t?

Why hadn’t he mentioned her father?

“Was your father in The Games?”

“No,” her brow furrowed. “Why are you asking if we were in The Games?”

“How did you wind up here?” Adam felt on the verge of knowing what had been bothering him since they’d entered the building.

“We left City 6 a month ago. We’re on our way to Eden.”

“What’s Eden?” Adam asked, figuring it was The Gardens that Colton said they were looking for.

“A safe place in the mountains. Daddy and I had to leave when City Watchers found out he was in The Underground. We barely made it out of The City. When we saw that The Games were in The Outback, Daddy said it was too dangerous to leave, and that we had to hide here and wait for them to end. Then we ran into zombies.”

Adam’s uneasy mind flashed on several things at once: Colton lying about Zelle, how conveniently he’d had a store of weapons and a device allowing him to tap into The Games’ raw feed, how he’d shot Hooper when he perhaps didn’t need to.

Now he was alone in the room with the girl’s father.

Colton!

Adam grabbed his blaster and threw open the door.

Zelle’s father was lying in a pool of blood, sprawled in the corner with a blade through his skull.

Where’s Colton?

Adam felt the blow to the back of his head and fell to the ground.

Charles stared at the woman on the other side of the glass. He needed the glass between them, even though it made him feel like the hypocritical coward he was. He should be able to stand by the table without the window creating a divide between them but couldn’t, at least not without feeling like a monster.

“You’re doing what you have to do,” Father Truth said, his own eyes fixed on the glass.

“Did I say I was uncomfortable with it?”

“Your body is saying plenty.”

Charles let it go, not wanting a back and forth exchange with anyone, especially Father Truth, who could be exhausting in his delight for verbal sparring. So instead he said, “How is she responding?”

“Better.”

“That’s good,” Charles said, as if he cared about the woman on the table rather than about the small changes in her blood and what they might mean.

“And is this latest variation with Ana’s blood?”

Father Truth finally turned. Charles saw the movement in the man’s hazy reflection but held his stare to the glass.

“Yes. This is the last sample from Hydrangea.”

“Do you think the new blood will behave differently?”

Father returned his eyes to the window. “We’ll see.”

So Egan forced himself to continue looking.

The woman was strapped to the table. Her face was an empty sack of sagging flesh, with hollow eyes and an unfortunate—and surely accidental—smile. She looked glazed. Drugged. Gone from her body. The woman lurched up from the table, yanking at her restraints. Her crazed eyes found his and Charles tried not to blink.

Dr. Oswald stood behind her, checking the woman’s blood pressure.

“She’s somebody’s daughter,” Charles said.

“Yes, she is. Probably someone’s sister as well.”

Charles was almost surprised anyone answered him—he hadn’t thought he had said anything out loud. “This isn’t right,” he muttered, hating what he was doing.

They had started out innocently enough. The Barrens were filled with plenty of people deserving of death. People they could snatch up and inject with the virus. For a while, that was enough. But winter neared as they circled the cure, and potential subjects became harder to come by. Now here they were.

“What did she do?” Charles asked, nodding at the glass, wanting Father to say something awful, even if they both knew it wasn’t true.

“Does it really matter? She’s here.”

“Yes,” Charles agreed. “She is.”

Father turned from the window. “Are you looking for someone to tell you that this is all right? To ease your conscience, say it’s fine to infect people so long as they’ve committed a worthy crime?”

Charles turned from the glass and looked down at the dwarf. “Something like that.”

“You value my opinion, Charles, too much for me to blow smoke. Wasn’t it
you
who said that morals must sometimes be abandoned in service of the greater good?”

“Put like that, I sound like The State.”

“We’re all human, doing what we must to protect our interests—whether it’s for power or family, the aims aren’t too different.”

“I’d like to think that because it’s for family that makes me less of a monster.” Father said nothing. Charles pressed. “Right?”

“
I
think so . . . for whatever that’s worth.”

“It means plenty, old friend.”

Charles punished himself by staring silently through the window for a few more minutes. Then he finally made the excuse that Father had been waiting for, telling him that he’d be in his office even though they both knew he’d be looking in on Calla.

“Please keep me informed of Dr. Oswald’s findings.”

“Of course.”

It didn’t take long to find Calla. She was in the garden, walking beside Ana, both of them laughing. He pressed his back to a wall and watched his daughter, wondering if she could ever know how often he was a bird in her life’s tree, perched high to see whatever he could.

There had been so few times in Calla’s life when she seemed truly happy. Charles wondered how she could be so pure of heart, how Calla’s soul could still be sweet after having been shredded so early with the loss of her mother. The girl was undaunted. She deserved to live, and that’s exactly what he kept reminding himself as he pictured the innocent woman strapped to Oswald’s table.

Out in the garden, Ana said something that he couldn’t hear. Calla laughed, then laughed louder.

Charles thought back to the time they were wandering The Barrens on her birthday. She had been unaware that she was turning five. He had known that Calla’s birthday was coming and had wanted to tell her, had wanted her to celebrate though he’d known it meant nothing to her. He had even wanted to somehow make Calla a cake but had known that was absurd.

That night she had snuggled against his chest, lightly snoring, while Charles had whispered “happy birthday” and softly kissed her head. As happy as he’d been to have her in his arms, he’d also been angry that night at the frustration of not being able to even note the passing of time in his daughter’s life—such things no longer had meaning in this godforsaken land. Yet, he’d stifled his anger in the morning. He had stopped counting days from that moment forward, knowing that no matter how much he tried to assign such things importance, they no longer mattered at all. But that was on the surface. Below, his rage boiled and continued to seethe until he met Jonah—the man who had shown him that life could be lived another way. Now Charles nursed two constant thoughts: he should have wished Calla “happy birthday” and kept counting days, and he should have said “sorry” to Jonah for hating him so.

He couldn’t wish Calla a happy birthday now—she wouldn’t know what he meant—but Charles
could
tell his daughter that he loved her and pull her closer like he should do more often.

He stepped away from the wall, about to do just that, but a chirp from his com pulled Charles away.

“What is it?”

“Someone has spotted intruders in the east entrance,” Father said.

“Any idea who they are?” Charles’ heart began to beat faster.

“Men with guns . . . a lot of them.”

Light burned his eyes and chased the fog from his brain.

It was bright enough to be morning or even late the next day. Zelle was sleeping beside him on the ground—bound and gagged. He couldn’t move his arms, his hands were tied behind his back, and he felt numb in the shoulders. But his mouth wasn’t gagged.

Adam sat bolt upright, turning, searching for Colton, but the man wasn’t in the room.

It seemed like they were still in the bank building but in a different room from where Colton had killed Zelle’s father. Light spilled through the filthy window and lit the city’s gray mass. Adam looked back at the girl.

She didn’t seem to be hurt, so at least Colton wasn’t a total monster. He’d knocked them out and tied them up. At least he hadn’t murdered them yet.

Adam leaned closer and listened to make sure she was breathing. He would have woken her to ask what had happened, but with a blue rag gagging her mouth, Zelle would have nothing to say. Instead, Adam looked around, searching for something to help him break free from the plastic ties binding his wrists, the same ties used by City Watch when they were out of metal cuffs.

He was about to stand when the door opened. Colton stepped in, holding two bottles of water with orange DARWIN GAMES labels in one hand, a blaster aimed at Adam in the other.

“You’re awake.”

“What the hell is this all about?” Adam glared at Colton.

“Don’t be upset. I’m doing this for your own good.”

“What are you talking about?”

Zelle woke, yelling into her gag as she lashed out with her limbs.

Colton kicked her feet. “Stop!”

She did, eyes wide and watery as she looked up.

“What’s going on, Colton?” Adam asked again.

Colton squatted across from them and unscrewed one of his bottles, probably from his Opening Rush supplies. He held the bottle to Adam’s lips. “Take a drink.”

Adam took four gulps before coughing.

Colton turned to Zelle. “I’m gonna remove your gag, so you can have a drink. If you yell, scream, or cry, I’m putting it back on and you won’t get any water. Understand?”

Zelle nodded, fear at war with sanity in her stare. Adam was surprised she’d not snapped already.

Colton leaned over, untied her gag from the back, then held the bottle for her to drink.

“What’s going on?” Adam repeated for a third time. “What do you mean
for my own good?
”

“No matter what happens next, remember one thing, boy: I saved your life. Well, me and Hooper.”

After Zelle finished the bottle and Colton pulled it from her lips, she yelled, “You killed my father!”

“He was a zombie, darling, otherwise he’d be here with us right now.”

“He didn’t look like a zombie,” Zelle yelled. “And you stabbed him in the head!”

“Trust me, your father had turned. Now keep quiet or it’s back to the gag.”

Zelle looked down.

Adam was getting frustrated at Colton’s evasions. “What do you mean you did this
for my own good?
”

“Your father was a good man. I believe you are, too. But there are consequences for breaking the law.”

“Breaking the law?” Adam’s voice climbed higher than he wanted. Then something dawned on him. “Wait. Are you with The State?”

Colton nodded. “Yes, I am. I was tasked to find Zelle and her father, then The Gardens.”

Zelle stared, too afraid to speak.

“So you lied to me? To get my help?”

“I knew she’d be more likely to trust you than me. Especially with Daniel alive. He would’ve remembered me from City Watch.”

“So you killed him?”

“No, he was turned. I swear.”

Zelle put her face down, crying. “No he wasn’t.”

Adam asked, “And Hooper? Was he with you?”

“No, he was just another player in The Games.”

“And that’s why you killed him? Because he would have stopped you from doing this?”

Colton shook his head, “Shit, Adam. Is that how little you think of me? I came back and saved your ass from those bandits after you ran off like a fool! I didn’t have to do that. I could’ve kept going and found Zelle myself. But no, I came back—for you.”

“You
just
said you needed me to convince her.”

Colton met his eyes harshly. “There were other, easier, ways to convince her.”

Colton looked at Zelle. Tears streaked the girl’s face. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an orange cloth.

He reached out. She flinched.

“Just trying to help.”

Colton brushed her cheeks free of tears, almost as if he wasn’t a heartless bastard who had murdered the girl’s father before tying them up.

Adam asked, “What are you getting out of all this?”

“I’m doing my job, Adam—I’m getting the order and protection for me and my family that The State provides. Like I said, a number of Underground people have fled to The Gardens. We want to find it and bring those terrorists to justice.”

“And what of the people living there?” Adam asked. “You’re just going to attack them?”

“Only if they fight. That’s where Zelle comes in. As a show of good faith, we’ll bring her to The Gardens and she can stay, assuming they’ll have her.”

“And what about me?” Adam asked.

Colton turned his head to the side and was quiet for a moment. Finally he said, “I’m not sure what’s going to be done with you.”

Adam thought of Ana and wondered if he’d see her.

“Hold on a moment, will you?” Colton stood, walked over to Zelle, and untied her hands, then Adam’s. “Don’t do anything stupid. I’ve relayed our location to The State. They’ve got hunter orbs standing by to escort us out of here.”

Colton went to the door and stepped outside.

Adam reached for the second bottle of water and offered it to Zelle. She finished wiping her tears, then took it.

“I’m sorry,” Adam said. “I had no idea.”

“Do you think my father was really—” She couldn’t finish.

Adam wasn’t sure. He was wrong about Colton. The man had been playing him, with Adam too stupid to see it. And yet, he liked to believe that though Colton was bad, he was not evil and would have a hard time killing an innocent man.

Yeah, tell that to Hooper!

Hooper was about to get us all killed . . .

Adam argued with himself, weighing his moves. He could attempt to disarm Colton and might succeed if he could catch the man off guard. But if he failed, Adam was sure that Colton—or the orbs—would kill him.

Too, it seemed as if Colton was arranging to get them out of The Outback. So even if he managed to kill Colton, what then? It wasn’t as if he knew how to get out of The Outback. And there was no way he could survive long with the girl. Colton, despite the recent turn of events, might be their only chance of escaping The Outback alive.

But at what cost?

Adam couldn’t imagine many things worse than dying in The Outback and wasn’t about to risk the girl’s life on a chance that he
might
be able to take the man out. So he decided he would follow along and look for an opportunity that made more sense in terms of their survival. Still, he wondered why he was being pulled from The Games, and about the purpose of
his
rescue.

Almost as if in response to that thought, Colton stepped into the room holding a com to his mouth. “Yes, he’s right here.” He handed the com to Adam. “It’s for you.”

Adam put the com to his ear.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Adam.” The voice that he could never forget sent a chill through his body.

Keller.