Deadman's Switch & Sunder the Hollow Ones (19 page)

“It's not the IUs I'd like to beat,” I say. “It's the people from Arc. Did you bring me anything like that?”

He reaches behind his back.

“A golf club? Really?”

“It's called a Big Bertha. It's light but packs a powerful punch.”

“It has a name?”

Kelly laughs. “A Big Bertha for my badass Jessie. And did you see the price tag?”

I whistle.

“Come on. Let's go find the others.”

“When are you planning on telling them?” I ask.

Kelly stops for a moment. He gathers his pack and bat without looking at me. Then he walks off.

We find everyone already sitting or lying on exercise mats in the middle of the store.

“We're not leaving,” Ashley declares. She's rubbing her sore feet. “Not until we've had a chance to rest first.”

Kelly checks the time on his Link. “It's a little after three o'clock. If we rest for an hour, that'll leave us about five hours of daylight. But we need to be out of here by four, no later, so we can get in at least three hours of walking before we hole up for the night. I'll set my Link to ping in an hour.”

“Already did it,” Ashley says.

“Someone should keep guard,” I say.

Reggie cracks an eyelid. “It's just for an hour. And I set up a bunch of stuff around all the doors. If anyone—or anything tries to come in—we'll hear them.” He raises something that glints in the gloom. “And I've got this.”

I shake my head. At least he found a knife. It still doesn't quite make up for the Anaheim Ducks jersey he's got on, but it comes close.

I lower myself to the floor, groaning from the stiffness and aches. As soon as my head hits the mat, I'm out.

† † †

The sound of falling objects doesn't fully wake me. Not right away, anyway. I hover in that in-between vacuum that isn't quite awake, but not quite asleep, either, where breathing is impossible. And so is screaming.

I'd been dreaming of our escape from Long Island City, the dive through the Midtown tunnel. We'd made it halfway through when we were blocked by a mound of storm wash. After the boys cleared a way through it, most of us managed to make it to the other side before the whole pile collapsed. Jake was stranded, but we couldn't afford to stay and dig him out because our air rebreather cartridges were quickly dying.

I remember the hollow-sounding racket the pile made as it shifted behind us. The sound outside of me in that store only pulls me further into that old memory rather than jarring me from it.

“Jessie?”

I jolt awake. There's movement around me and my skin prickles. I hear the rustle of clothing, the sound of feet running. Then there's a crash somewhere in the darkness and someone cursing. A struggle.

“Jess? What the fuck is going on?”

It's Ash, whispering beside me. I'm already on my feet, but she's pulling me down.

“Why the hell is it so dark?”

“It's night.”

“What? I thought you—”

“Shh!”

I pull out my Link and groan when I see that it's well after midnight.

“Shut it off!”

“I thought you set an alarm.”

“Quiet!”

More footsteps, then another crash and more cursing, muffled this time. There's the sound of something soft being hit, an “
Ooof!
” and a cry of pain. Then a beam of light stabs the darkness.

“Damn it, Jake,” Kelly whispers. “Turn that thing off!”

The harsh glare of the flashlight is replaced by the soft glow of a Link, then the boys' faces appear in the gloom, Kelly first, followed by Jake, finally Reggie. In the middle of them is another figure, his head held down, hidden in the shadows.

“We caught him in the doorway,” Kelly says.

Ashley gasps. “Micah? Was he trying to leave?”

But it's not Micah. It's Stephen. And he'd been trying to sneak in.

 

 

“He's hurt,”
Kelly says.

In the wan glow from Reggie's Link, I can see the dark, sticky sheen spreading over Stephen's arm and down his side, bubbling up on his bare skin, forming a rough, blackened crust. As they pass us, I see that the back of his shirt is also darkly stained.

“He's been bitten,” Jake cries. “Get him out of here! He's infected.”

“It's a scrape,” Kelly hisses, “not a bite. Now be quiet.”

He gestures to the dressing room. “Get him in there where we can use the flashlights. Try and block the opening with something, a blanket if you can find one. We don't want to attract the IUs.

“Light alone won't draw them,” Stephen says, grunting as Reggie pulls him. “Shit! Take it easy, man. That side's sore, too.”

“Think I give a crap?”

“You should.”

“Fuck you.”

“What happened?” I ask. “How did you escape?”

Kelly bars me from getting any closer. “Let's take a look at his wound first,” he tells me. The look in his eyes contradicts the assurances he was just giving to Jake a moment ago. He's trying to protect me in case Stephen is infected. “I'll see how bad it is.”

“What do you want me to do?”

His eyes drift past me toward the windows at the front of the store. “Just keep an eye out. Check the doors.”

“You think Arc is out there?”

He shakes his head. “They'd have to stop, too, once night fell. No telling how close they are, but they won't come after us until the zoms crawl back into their holes.”

He turns to Ash and opens his mouth to say something, but then he thinks better of it and turns away. He's disappointed with her for screwing up with the alarm. But even in the darkness it's easy to see from her body language that she's deeply sorry. I feel bad for her, but Kelly's right to be angry. All the time we might've gained running from Arc yesterday has now been completely erased.

After checking the doors, I go and look out through the front windows. But it's completely dark outside. No street lights. No starlight. I stand there a moment trying to understand where the stars have gone, when suddenly the sky flashes, igniting the thick storm clouds for a moment. And my heart nearly stops when I see the figures shuffling around in the parking lot. There are at least a dozen Undead.

I hurry away, anxious to get out of sight. I thread my way through the aisles to the changing rooms. The murmur of voices comes to me. Jake and Tanya are standing just outside, holding a tarp over the opening to block any light from escaping. I suspect they're really doing it so they can listen in.

“I told you,” Stephen is saying, “I ran when everyone else ran, same direction as you guys did. But the next thing I knew I was flying through the air, crashing down off the side of the road. I was pushed.”

“By an IU?”

“They weren't that close to us. No, I don't know who it was. They pushed me from behind. I flipped over the guardrail and was sliding down the gravel. Tore me up something good.”

“Nobody would push you.”

In the darkness, my eyes meet Jake's. He holds the stare for a moment before turning away. “It wasn't me,” he mumbles. The thing is, I know he's right. He and Tanya were out in front, screaming. I was helping Micah. Which leaves Reggie, Ash and Kelly.

“He's lying,” Reggie growls. “Why would any of us push you?”

Why indeed, especially since he still hasn't told any of us exactly where we'll find the failsafe program. Why would we want to get rid of him until he had? And yet…

All I can keep thinking about is Kelly telling me someone pushed him over the railing at the Manhattan end of the Midtown tunnel, back when we were first thinking about breaking in. Nobody knew if the tunnel was even open. We were there because we'd had nothing better to do, poorly prepared to do a decent job of checking things out.

And the next thing we knew, Kelly was in the water. We'd all thought he'd jumped, but afterward he told me in secret that he'd been pushed. Since then, I've wavered between doubting him and knowing with absolute certainty that it had to have been Reggie.

Reggie just being stupid. Reggie being petty.

No
, reason argues. Reggie wouldn't do something like that. Could he have?

Could he have pushed Stephen?
Why?

I hear a low curse. “You're ripping off my skin.”

“Well, at least one part of his story appears to be true,” Kelly says, apparently ignoring Stephen's complaints. “The skin on half his back is scraped off and there's a buttload of gravel still stuck in his shoulder.” He raises his voice a little to ask, “Jake, is anyone else out there besides you and Tanya?”

“I am.”

“Get some water, Jess, and a bunch of towels and some bandages. And something to pick out these stones.”

“We're going to waste good drinking water on this piece of trash?” Reggie snarls.

Kelly ignores him.

I gather the requested supplies and a smaller version of the same Anaheim Ducks jersey Reggie is wearing and slip them underneath the tarp. For the next couple hours, no one speaks. Stephen hisses and grunts as Kelly and Reggie take care of him. When they're finished, they shut off the lights and emerge. It's nearly dawn.

Stephen's wrists are bound with the laces from a pair of boxing gloves. Reggie shoots darts at me from his eyes when he comes out. He strips off his jersey and stalks off to find something else to wear. Jake and Tanya give me a quizzical look and I just shrug, too puzzled to even smile.

“Now,” Kelly says, nudging Stephen toward our sleeping mats, “you're going to tell us how you managed to escape those IUs. They were everywhere.”

“I'd like to know how he found us,” Jake adds.

I think I have an answer to the second question. I was sure I'd seen something coming over the crest of the overpass just before we went around the corner of the building. It had to have been Stephen. But if there's one question he needs to answer, it's the one nobody has yet asked:

“Why did you come back?”

† † †

“Why
did
you come back?” Kelly asks.

“If you think I tried to run away, you're wrong,” Stephen says. “I could've gotten away from you kids a half dozen times already.”

“Kids,” Jake sputters. “That's a lot of bullshit coming from a guy whose hands are tied up.”

Stephen shrugs. “Then why do you think I came back?”

“How the hell should I know?”

“Keep it down, Jake.”

“Mr. Corben said it best back there at the airport: We need each other.”

“Somehow I doubt that,” I say. “You were ready to die back there. You pulled the deadman's switch. Remember? That sort of weakens your argument about wanting to live.”

“You wouldn't have let it happen,” he says, smirking.

“Easy to say now,” I tell him. “You nearly shit your pants when that blade came down. Whatever this little game is that you're playing, it almost bit you on the ass.”

His smile falters.

“I was simply making a point.”

“And what's that?”

“That you're not a murderer, Miss Daniels.”

“Really? Because I'm the one who killed your Nurse Mabel.”

“Anyone who kills for self preservation is not a murderer. The more relevant question is, would you kill when your life isn't on the line, as was the case back in that room. I don't think so.”

His accusation steals the air from my lungs. It's practically the same claim Jake made about me.

“It's nothing to be ashamed about,” he tells me. “But it's something you'll have to overcome if you're going to leave here alive. I guarantee you: you will have to kill one of your own before you can leave.”

Jake steps back in surprise, tripping over his own feet and falling into a rackful of clearance items.

“Why are we even wasting our time with this guy?” Reggie asks. “All he does is talk in circles and riddles. I haven't heard a single thing out of him that helps us.”

Stephen chuckles. “I've already given you the biggest clue.”

“What?” Reggie asks. “That we need to go east? That's helpful. Or that Jessie is going to have to kill one of us. Ooooh, spooky. I hope it's not me.”

Kelly puts a hand on Reggie's arm to quiet him. “We know we need to go to Gameland,” he says.

The only one of us who shows any surprise at this is Jake. And maybe Tanya.

“We can't go there,” Jake says. “The place is infested with Controlled Undeads!”

Everyone else had pretty much come to accept that we were headed there, even if we still don't know exactly where and how we'll get in, or what we'll do once we're inside. It's the reason we stopped making a fuss about coming this way. Deep inside, we knew. We always knew.

“Now, you need to tell us where the failsafe program resides.”

Stephen doesn't hesitate. “Same place
The Game
codex resides.”

“Jayne's Hill,” Kelly says. “Right smack in the center of Gameland.”

“Correct. Underneath it, in fact. Deep down
inside
the hill.”

“Of course,” Kelly says. “It's the only place Arc would feel is safe enough to keep something like that from people like us. That's where we need to go to hack into the failsafe.”

“You know we can't just walk into Gameland,” Jake says. He just won't give up. “And you are aware, aren't you, that it's crawling with Players?”

“We've already dealt with IUs.”

“These will be different. They'll be controlled.”

I turn to him. “Controlled by people who've never even set foot in Gameland. No matter how good the VR is for
The Game
, it doesn't compare with actually being there in person.”