Zombie Patrol (16 page)

* * *

Moments later, Stetson emerged from his room dressed as a janitor. The guards outside nodded to him. Janitors often came and went; the guards didn’t keep track of them. They were assigned to watch Stetson, after all. Not janitors. David Stetson used PA Cheryl’s smock to carry an array of blood vials. They let him pass.

* * *

Stetson slipped silently up to one of the two guards stationed outside the Agent in Black’s office/hospital room. He’d commandeered a fire extinguisher from a hallway and, without hesitation, brought it down hard at the back of the guard’s head. Fully utilizing his heightened reflexes, he simultaneously pulled the guard’s semi-automatic from his hip holster, and before the second guard could turn around, David Stetson shot him behind his right ear.

* * *

Dr. Robert Kaplan heard the commotion.

He panicked and ignored protocol. The Agent in Black was extremely ill, yes, but Kaplan took it upon himself to open the office door.

Mercifully, Kaplan died instantaneously from the bullet Stetson put between his eyes.

The infected scientist knew there was no time to waste. He crossed the room, lifted the Agent in Black onto his shoulders, and jumped through the office window.

We were in the basement.

I watched as my brother and friend devoured two heaping plates of top sirloin, hash browns, eggs and toast. Jared and Anna weren’t too far behind, wolfing theirs down as well. Just one big, freaky family eating in the basement with two of its guests handcuffed to support beams.

I even sat down in the cellar and enjoyed Carla’s great breakfast. Until now, I hadn’t realized just how hungry I was.

Anna sat at the bottom of the stairs, peppering her Uncle Joe and Mike with questions about their well-being. Carla and I listened carefully to their answers, but the two Navy men revealed little. Yes, they were feeling better. Yes, they felt a little weird still, but also super alive. Mike let it slip that he felt stronger than ever, which I should have taken as a good sign, but for some reason, it didn’t sit well with me. Mostly because, a few hours ago he didn’t look fine. He looked murderous.

When Anna was satisfied about their well-being, she started in with a discussion of the space rock. I was pretty sure they told her the truth. Their story was wild, yes, but it made sense.

After breakfast, Carla and I coordinated a trip to the showers for the two LCs. They were filthy, and it was the least we could do. Anna couldn’t watch as we took them back to the cellar, but she blew her uncle a kiss and he caught it, smiling.

I decided that I’d missed enough work. I certainly didn’t feel like working, but I kept my sickness to myself, for now. Also, I knew that someone would put two-and-two together if Anna and Jared didn’t soon show up at the zoo where they both worked and studied.

I promised my brother I’d be back in a few hours, and with more food. He smiled, I thought, a bit too cheerily. Either way, I felt like crap leaving them down there in the basement.

He still wasn’t right. Something was off. I had to be sure he was safe.

Worst brother ever,
I thought, as I locked up the house.

Since Carla’s personal car was parked a few blocks away, we parted ways at the driveway, and Anna, Jared and I would hike back up to the observatory. I was tempted to give Carla a hug, but two things stopped me: one, my own awkwardness in front of my daughter, and, two, the fact that I wasn’t feeling well.

After all, whatever I had, I didn’t want to give it to Carla.

* * *

The morning was cool and sunny.

Almost too sunny. I averted my eyes, wishing I had remembered to grab my sunglasses. Birds filled the surrounding trees, twittering loudly. A strong scent of juniper filled the air. I loved juniper. As we hiked, we went over our story should anyone ask. We were all getting over some kind of bug. In a way, this was the truth. Anna agreed not to talk with any more government agents if any approached. She promised to stay with Brice or any one of the other zoo employees, even while doing her homework.

* * *

It was a busy day for everyone.

Carla was emotionally exhausted, but thankful that she had a day shift. She had a feeling she’d be at Jack Carter’s that night. Despite the crazy circumstances, he was growing on her. Big time.

Anna had some work to do at the zoo. She really wanted to go to the observatory, but she’d been given the responsibility of cleaning some of the snakes’ environments. She loved snakes, although Jared did not. He’d gone home to shower and change, making her promise him not to do anything stupid. For once, she kept her promise.

It was a good thing for her that she did.

* * *

I worked a long day inspecting various grounds at both the zoo and the observatory. I also took the time to check my simple living quarters at both places. Both places seemed undisturbed. But that really didn’t mean anything, did it? Not when you were dealing with elite government agents.

Mostly, I felt watched. Maybe it was paranoia, or lack of sleep, or both. I was also feeling progressively worse, and it was all I could do to finish my shift.

I ate ravenously, despite my sickness. It may have been paranoia, too, that cautioned me to use cash. People were tracked all the time by credit card usage, weren’t they?

* * *

Joe and Mike had waited just long enough for everyone to leave the house in Los Feliz. Then Joe pulled a couple of bobby pins out of his pocket that he’d swiped while showering. Years ago, he’d studied to be a locksmith before joining the military. As Joe liked to tell people:
there were no locked doors
. At least, not with him around. Five minutes later, sweat dripping from his brow, the handcuffs snapped off.

He did the same for Mike, and the two were gone before Lieutenant Commander Joseph Carter’s older brother came back to check on them.

I left my truck at the observatory and hiked down.

Yes, I liked hiking down from the observatory. It cleared my head after a long day of work. And it wasn’t so far that it was exhausting, but it was just long enough to unwind and enjoy nature. I was a park ranger for a reason. I loved being outdoors, immersing myself in the natural world. Except the hike now seemed to take longer than usual. At one point, I actually thought I was lost.

Lost? On trails I had hiked for years?

Anyway, when I got home, the cellar was empty, and the handcuffs were scattered on the ground. They’d been opened. Next to them, I saw the twisted bobby pin.

Joseph, of course.
Shit.

Holding my gun with both hands, I worked my way through my house, checking rooms. But they were gone—probably long gone.

God, I was tired. I had to think logically, clearly. I poured about a third of a cup of instant coffee into a mug of water. I drank it down and forced it to stay down. If the coffee didn’t do the trick, nothing legal would.

Anna would be devastated. I paced in my kitchen, feeling like shit, and feeling stupid that my brother had duped me. Then again, what had I expected? I’d locked him up like a goddamn criminal.

I continued pacing, running my hand through my hair. I felt awful, worse than I had in some time.

Where had my brother gone? We were in the hills of Los Feliz, just a hop, skip and jump from Los Angeles. They could be anywhere.

And they were infected. They were still sick.

My every instinct told me they’d put on a show for me. Christ, I was an idiot. Meanwhile, I wasn’t thinking straight myself. They needed help, except I hadn’t figured out how to help them. No one had found an antidote, not yet anyway. Not from the reports I was hearing.

And they were wanted.

Yes, it had been better to keep them on the down low. Maybe they could ride out the sickness. Maybe all of this would blow over.

Or maybe the world was going to hell in a hand basket.

It was late evening. I’d had a long day. I would have been tired anyway. Today, I’d found a pot farm in the back woods, which we were going to wipe clean later in the week. I’d also found a dead deer. It had been thoroughly mangled, and that had concerned me. It had been torn from limb to limb, and eaten. In particular, something had cracked its skull open, and eaten its...

I shook my head and shuddered and, for some damn reason...

My stomach growled.

What the hell was wrong with me?

Yes, my brother and friend had needed help, except they were wanted and were dangerous and I had made an executive decision to keep them hidden and safe from hurting themselves and others.

But they had gotten better. Yes, they had.

And they had fooled me.

Perhaps they were better.

Perhaps.

But I doubted it.

I needed to tell Anna that her uncle was gone, but not over the phone. My daughter just wasn’t stable enough to hear this over the phone. Hell, I wasn’t feeling very stable either. And I wasn’t thinking clearly either.

I started to text Anna to meet me at the observatory, but checked that thought. Right now I didn’t want her wandering anywhere by herself. Not even with Jared. Instead, I texted that I’d pick her up in an hour. If I hurried, I could make it.

I filled a couple of water bottles, grabbed my flashlight, and headed back out to the trails.

* * *

Lieutenant Commander Joseph Carter still had good intentions.

Joey, as his family called him, would beat this thing, whatever it was. He turned up the radio in the car he’d stolen. Laughed. It was kind of ironic that he’d learned how to hotwire a car in the Navy. The Navy had prepared him for a lot and disciplined him in ways he never would have on his own. He’d been rewarded, promoted for his excellent skills and performance. And he knew his best shot at getting better was to turn himself in. He was sick, contaminated. He knew, could feel it. But he didn’t care, and as the minutes piled up, he cared less and less. About himself...or others.

No, that was not quite true. He still cared enough to keep fighting this. At least, a small part of him wanted to keep fighting.

The other part of him, well, it wanted to feed.

And—he swallowed hard—it wanted to kill. Yes, to kill and feed on fresh meat. Human meat. Yes, human meat sounded perfect. Just perfect.

What’s wrong with me? Good God, what’s wrong with me?

Too bad that Mike wouldn’t come. Joey had a bad feeling about his friend. But it was too late now. Joey only hoped that Mike didn’t do too much damage. He believed Mike’s promise to stay away from Jack and Anna. As they parted ways on that quiet street, Mike had said he would take his own chances. There wasn’t anything Joe could do about that now.

Onward and upward.

Joey found himself stuck in a sig-alert on the 5 Freeway going south. He grew impatient. He was hungry. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. He wanted to get out of the goddamn car, walk over to the closest vehicle on the freeway, reach inside and...

Joey smiled...then frowned.

Calm down, calm down.

He decided to pull off the freeway and eat. Yes, good choice. Luckily, he’d taken enough cash from his brother’s nightstand for gas and a little food.

He parked at a Carl’s Jr. Maybe a six-dollar burger would help, but he doubted it. Entering the place, Joe sniffed. He smelled burgers, fries, meat. Lots of meat.

Human meat.

Shit.

His olfactory registered something new. People. Standing in line, he hungrily sniffed the woman in front of him. She gave him an irritated glance. Joe backed off, concerned now. The urge was becoming stronger. Jesus. He gripped his hands behind his back. He’d planned on eating inside the diner, but his senses were too sharp right now. So were his cravings. He ordered, grabbed his bag, his drink and ate in the car.

The freeway was still stop-and-go. Joe felt a slight headache coming on. He still felt good.
Just as long as I can stay away from people,
he thought. He had debated leaving a note for his brother, then finally decided against it. What was he going to say, anyway? “Hey, it was nice being locked up in your cellar, big brother. Let’s do it again sometime.”

He still had his phone in his jacket pocket. He drummed his fingers and considered calling his brother now. Surely, both phones were being monitored. Should he risk a call? Were they actually listening to his calls? Did they really care that much about him, in particular? Surely there were others infected like him. Maybe they had bigger fish to fry.

Finally, after a half-hour of internal debate, he called. Jack answered on the first ring. He sounded winded. “
Joey?”

“Yeah, it’s me, bro
.”

“
Where the hell are you? Christ, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Jack. I’m on my way to the Seal Beach Base.”