Vix turned to see Randi step out from the shadows. The woman had taken to wearing a head wrap that Chaaya had shown her how to apply. It hid a lot of her disfigurement. When it had just been their little band, nobody had minded at all. Yet, as they gathered more people, it was often clear that her scars made folks nervous. Also, more than one child had broken into tears at the sight of her.
“You gave me a fright,” Vix gasped.
She instantly regretted her choice of words and began to stammer and sputter an apology. The woman waved her off with a sniff. “Don’t be silly, I know what you meant.”
Vix breathed an audible sigh of relief, but still felt a bit foolish. She could feel her ears tingle and knew that her face was red from embarrassment.
“Now that we have gotten over this silliness, I need you to come with me right this instant,” Randi said with a scowl.
“But—” Vix began.
Randi spun and cut her off. “Just come with me. I have something that I want you to see.”
Since the woman was not exactly prone to over-exaggerating or anything else of the sort, Vix shut her mouth and followed as she was asked.
The two women left the busy and noisy Shell Centre and made their way to the old Waterloo complex. In its day, it had been a massive rail hub. Over the years, the roof of the complex had caved in in several spots. That was the only reason Vix would dare enter such a place now. These days, large facilities were nothing more than enormous tombs.
As they entered, both women instinctively lit torches. Vix spied several heaps and piles of bones. She imagined the animals had done a lot of it, but some of the piles appeared to have patterns. She could not precisely make them out, but the stacking was too…organized. That was the best word she could think of.
“You see it, don’t you?” Randi asked.
“You are talking about the bones?”
“What else would I drag you here for? We certainly won’t be stopping in for a pint at The Hole in the Wall, now will we?”
Vix took a few cautious steps toward one of the piles of bones. It wasn’t until she got to within a few yards that she noticed the smell. She froze and let her eyes drift around the area. She knew the smell of cats—more accurately, their acrid urine.
Almost instantly, she began to spy the green glow of feline eyes peering back at her from the dark pools of shadow. She knew from a few past experiences that, for whatever reason, cats did not turn like the dogs. However, they could actually carry the zombie contagion and pass it on through a bite or scratch.
“Cats!” Vix hissed as she started to take a few slow steps back and toward the door they had entered.
“That is only the half of it,” Randi replied, not even bothering to whisper.
Vix bumped into the woman and let out a little yelp. She regained her composure and calmed herself enough to follow where the woman was pointing. Her eyes found an archway on the unsteady looking upper level walkway. Most of the safety barricade had crumbled in that spot, allowing an unobstructed view. What Vix saw made the discovery of the cats seem like nothing.
“Children,” Vix breathed.
She had to look closely, because she had a hard time making herself believe that so many zombie children could be amassed in one place. They were huddled close, and none of them seemed to be making any moves towards their direction.
“How many you figure there to be?” Randi asked, taking a step forward that Vix had to simply assume was due out of curiosity over anything else. In her mind, there could be no other reason to approach what had to be a few hundred zombie children.
At first, Vix had thought the number to be much less. However, after a few moments, the children began to file out of the darkness of several of the upper level shops and line the rails. Still, they made no move to come down; they actually seemed to be curious.
“There are so many,” Vix said through a throat that had grown tight with fear.
“And every last one of them is a child,” Randi pointed out the obvious. “Not a single adult in the bunch. I would guess the oldest to be around ten or so. That wee one over there can’t be more than two or three. Poor bugger can barely walk.”
Vix looked over to where Randi was now pointing. She didn’t actually need to since she’d already seen more than a couple that had to be barely past the stage where they had learned to walk. She started when she realized that she had actually taken a few steps forward to join Randi.
“This is madness,” Vix finally said. “But can I ask what made you think to venture inside a place like this? I thought we were supposed to remain near the Centre and assist with the work on the defenses.”
“I was just looking for supplies. I thought that maybe I could find some stuff to help shore up the barrier in a place like this. Never know unless you look.”
“But, can I guess by the fact that you have brought me here, that you came alone and made this discovery?”
“Okay, you have me there,” Randi agreed with a nod of the head. “But still, have you ever seen that many zombie children gathered in one place? Not a single adult up there. And then there are the cats.”
Vix shuddered. Yes, this was an odd pairing, but then, when she returned her gaze back to the children, she noticed the swishing tails of perhaps hundreds of felines weaving in and around the legs of all the zombie children. There was a ripple in the crowd and a single child stepped forward.
“What…” Vix started.
“…the bloody hell,” Randi finished.
“Is this what you wanted to show me?” Vix whispered.
“Well, not exactly. I was simply going to show you those little bone structures. I swear I had no idea about
this
madness.” Randi took a step back towards the exit, her hand reaching out and taking hold of Vix’s elbow to guide her around what looked like most of a rib cage, pelvic bone, and upper thigh.
“You think they did this?” Vix gave a nod to the children still filing out of more of the dark archways of long empty shops and stores.
“That seems as likely as anything.”
“So, what do we do about it?”
Randi eyed the one child that had come forward from the group. It had been a boy. He looked to have been seven or eight. Any shred of clothing he or any of them had owned had long since deteriorated or been scuffed away over the years. This one still wore what looked like one hiking boot on the left foot. Maybe that was what had set this one apart and made it some sort of King of the Zombie Children. Randi had no idea, but she did recognize a leader when she saw it on any level. The other zombie children actually made way for this one to come out front. Now, as she and Vix backed up for the exit, it watched with its rheumy eyes like it was waiting for them to do something.
Vix reached behind them for the shell of what was left of the door that they had pushed aside just enough for them to enter. There were actual doorways that had been ripped open with nothing remaining, but that meant deviating from their course which, at the moment, was the straight line that was the shortest distance between two points.
At last, they squeezed out. Vix went first; that allowed Randi the chance to get one more look. The children had not moved. Their leader still stood at a break in the upper guardrail where a section had fallen or been torn away. His arms hanging loose at his sides, his head tilted as he seemed to be regarding them and waiting for something.
The two women turned and ran across what had been York Road and followed the train tracks until they reached the street that took them back to the Shell Centre and their friends. It dawned on them both almost instantly that they had been able to hear the sounds of the fortification being built all the way over at the Waterloo complex. That meant that the zombie children could more than likely hear them as well.
“Why haven’t they come for us?” Vix asked.
“I have no idea, but I don’t want to count on our luck holding. We need to tell the others.”
“Then what?”
“I have no idea,” Randi muttered as they continued running home to share this news.
***
“The dome is basically a wash,” Siggy wiped his face with the towel Ronni handed him. It was difficult to tell if the streaks that were carved through the soot on his face were from sweat, tears, or both.
“At least some of you made it,” Ronni said after taking a drink from the canteen.
“You are gonna have to forgive me if I am not quite up to speed on just accepting the death of so many people that I was close to.” Siggy turned and walked over to a group of survivors rescued from the dome complex.
“Don’t let him bother you,” Henry said coming to stand beside Ronni and Chad. “I am sure he appreciates all that you people did to help us.”
“I just can’t get over the fact that this place was within just a couple of miles of our little resort,” Mark said with a shake of his head.
There was a pause in the conversation. Chad let it go on for a few minutes before he finally spoke up. He turned to Mark and cleared his throat to get the man’s attention. “So, how much trouble are we in?”
“Oh crap,” the big man groaned, rubbing his face with his hands in a scrubbing motion that only smeared the dark smudges of soot and made him look even more haggard. “Can we just forget that one? I think you made up for it.”
“But we violated some major rules,” Chad insisted.
“Jeez, Dad!” Ronni snapped. “He is cutting us some slack.”
“Tell ya what,” Mark pushed away from the tree that he had been leaning against and walked over to Chad, “let me see your hands.”
Chad extended his hands and Mark struck fast, slapping them with a loud smack that caused a few heads to turn. He yanked his hands back, sucking in a gasp between his teeth.
“What the—” Chad exclaimed.
“Feel properly chastised now?” The security chief turned to Ronni. “Do you need chastising as well?”
“No!” Ronni shoved both her hands behind her back and even took a few steps away from the man.
“How about you two get back to your vacation?” Mark suggested.
“I still can’t get over the fact that you have carved out quasi-resorts for people to go to in the fu—” Henry started, but his teeth clicked shut and he flushed a bit as his eyes darted to Ronni. “Umm…I mean the
freaking
zombie apocalypse.”
“The weather looks like it is turning,” Mark said after giving Chad a pat on the shoulder. “I would guess there is going to be some nice powder by morning. Why not go up to the lodge and tell them I sent you and said that you two should be given one of the rooms. Have them set you up with your gear tonight and hit the slopes first thing in the morning. We just got in some really decent snowboards from a trader that came through. He found them up in Oregon. There were the ruins of some sort of community that apparently tried to make their home in the mountains of all places. Even better, I guess it was the old lodge where they filmed that movie,
The Shining
. From the looks, they went under less than a year ago. Anyways, I guess there was a shitload of old skiing and snowboarding gear. The trader remembered us and brought a bunch back.”
“Can we, Dad?” Ronni spun to Chad, her face beaming with excitement.
“I guess so,” Chad shrugged.
“Try not to sound too excited,” Henry laughed. “Look, you guys know what you did, and under any other circumstance, yeah, it would be your asses, but I think we can let it slide this time. Now, go have fun.”
With that, Mark headed for the closest group of dome refugees with Henry. Once he was gone, Chad turned to Ronni who was almost hopping up and down she was so excited.
“What?” Chad asked, an eyebrow raised quizzically.
“I have always wanted to snowboard since I was little,” she gushed.
The pair returned to their cabin and gathered their gear. While he was sort of looking forward to the peace and quiet that the cabin would have provided, he could not deny his daughter this little luxury of a room in the lodge.
When they arrived at the lodge, the place was abuzz with news of the dome. Most people were incredulous that something of that nature could be so close without anybody realizing it. To Chad, that was not such a big deal. After all, it wasn’t like people were out scouring the area these days. And if the government had wanted to keep it hidden from the techno-crazed society that had existed before the zombie event, how less likely was it that it be discovered with things being as they were these days.
Once they were checked into their room, the father and daughter decided to come down to the dining room and join in the community meal. They had barely sat down when the first of the dome refugees arrived looking shell-shocked and confused. That meal turned into a bit of a welcome-and-indoctrination party for the new arrivals. Chad soon found himself working the floor with his daughter as they served hot soup and fresh bread.
When a few of the refugees recognized Chad and Ronni, they became a magnet as the former dome residents flocked to the pair in order to express their thanks. By the time everything settled down, Chad was exhausted. Ronni seemed fine and had even arranged the checkout of all the gear they would need for the next day.