Eat the Ones You Love (The Thirteen Book 2) (28 page)

“What sorts of things?”

“People mostly. Sometimes they tell me things I already know but I’ve forgotten.”

“Who do you see?”

“It’s usually Rafi’s father, Griff. He died.” Her voice was flat and Jenny knew not to probe any further.
 

“Dad did all of this,” said Jenny.

“Yes.”

“He did it all. Left us there on purpose, me and Casey. Brought you back. Kept Mom doing…whatever the fuck she was doing. He’s still doing it. All these kids, he’s running the whole fucking thing. He lied to me.”

“Yes.”

Jenny stopped walking. Sarah looked at her and Jenny felt the jolt of recognition. Sarah was gnashing her teeth just as Jenny was, she had her fists clenched tight and there was anger in her eyes.

“I know what we are,” said Jenny. “I know what they’ve turned us into. It’s not human, not anymore. I have to embrace it. I have to be…”

“An animal,” said Sarah. And a slow smile spread across her face. A mad smile with too-bright eyes.
 

“Yeah,” said Jenny. “We have to stay together. Do you understand?”

“We’ll never be apart again,” said Sarah. She reached out and Jenny took her hand.
 

“We’re going to rip them apart,” said Jenny. “And we’re going to find your son.”

“It’s going to be one hell of a fucking party,” said Sarah. Jenny looked behind them and saw the blood-covered children smiling, too, standing among the eerily silent rotters.
 

“Come on, kids,” called Jenny. “It’s time to eat.”

THIRTY-SIX

There were so many dead. Sarah picked up a gun lying next to a soldier face down with a chunk ripped out of the back of his neck. They had to step around the corpses. The shooting had stopped but they could sense Living nearby. There were so many heartbeats that Jenny felt an odd skip of excitement run through her. A few days ago the feeling would have revolted her, and she would have struggled against it, but this is what she was now. Embracing her nature felt liberating. She remembered Abel telling her much the same at their first meeting, just as he was about to eat Sully.
 

Abel appeared now, smiling. “Are you going to finally do it?” he asked. “Are you going to stop running from who you are?”

“Yes, ” Jenny smiled.
 

“You’ll have to. There are so many of them.”

“They’re not real,” said Sarah. And Abel wasn’t there anymore.
 

“I know,” said Jenny. “But I like them.”

She could smell blood. It was fresh and alive. Jenny looked at Sarah. She smelled it too. The children were quiet behind them. They could see the double doors that led to another wing of this underground lab.
 

The noises grew closer. A repetitive
click, click, click.
Jenny motioned for the others to wait. She saw the keycard reader on the door, and occasional shapes moving behind the door. There were so many Living on the other side. She could feel them like one giant collective pulse. And something else, too. Something that felt like a rotter, but not quite. Pain, fear, hunger. She narrowed her eyes as she realized.

“Trix is in there,” she said. And suddenly she felt the hunger grip her. She felt the red creeping in and the anger balled up in her stomach began to spread. She looked back at the children, looking back expectantly. The rotters stood so still that they seemed almost otherworldly. They followed as if they had no idea why. It came as easily to them as breathing to a Living.
 

“They have your friend,” said Sarah. “The rotter who’s not a rotter.”

“You just described both of us,” said Jenny. “Don’t touch her.”

“I don’t want anything dead,” said Sarah, taking a shaky step toward the door. Jenny wrapped her fingers hard around her sister’s arm.

“Not yet,” she said.

Click. Click. Click.

A man was panting as he got closer, groaning with every click. There was a wet sound along with the noises, too, like a wet towel hitting the floor. Jenny could barely hold herself back. The smell of blood was wrapping itself around her until she felt intoxicated, but she forced herself to be still.
 

He finally came into view. Young and handsome with a buzzcut, and pain and blood all over his face. His eyes were rimmed red and Jenny looked down to see he was leaving a smear of blood behind him. The clicking came from the guns he was using as crutches because his right foot had been torn off. The stump was wrapped in cloth, cinched with a belt as a tourniquet. He approached the doors with something like hope. He began to go faster and Jenny felt a moment of human empathy and hurt for him.
 

Trix,
she thought.
Nothing else matters.

He fumbled for a card key, as the guns clattered to the floor, and hopped toward the card reader.

“Take him,” Jenny said to Sarah.

As the doors opened the man had only a moment to scream as she fell on him.

“No! Please! We didn’t do this!”

Sarah, mad with hunger, ripped into him so fast and hard that she barely got a few mouthfuls before the soldier died. Jenny felt the rotters growing restless. It wouldn’t be long now. The doors closed on the man’s body and he was still holding his card, covered in blood. Jenny stepped over him and Sarah stood, gore dribbling down her chin. She smiled with bloody teeth. Jenny stepped into the wing and looked around. Maybe a hundred Living here. They were hiding, she could tell. Waiting for it all to blow over. Waiting for all the scientists and doctors and administrators to die. Waiting for the freaks to run away. Jenny reached down and plucked the soldier’s key card out of his unmoving hand. Then she pushed open the door, shoving the man’s corpse against it to hold it open. Looking over her shoulder she took in the children, the rotters, all twitching and shaking with hunger and need.

“Now,” she said. She stepped out of the way and let them come.

The children ran in like it was Christmas morning, their faces shining with joy under dried and crackling blood. Then came the rotters, slow and stinking, but just as determined.
 

The doors opened into a dim hall, the floors shining black instead of the white of the hospital, the doors on either side reinforced with hefty locks and no windows. And it was so quiet. Sarah moved to follow them, but Jenny held her back. Her sister looked at her with shining eyes.
 

“Something’s wrong,” said Jenny.
 

“What?”

“They’re expecting us,” said Jenny. “Listen. Can you hear the heartbeats?”

The children and the rotters were headed straight to the back. Jenny could feel them there, so many Living.
 

“Let them shoot their big guns,” said Sarah. “They can’t hurt us.”
 

Jenny just shook her head and watched the children enter the room at the end of the hall. The rotters had barely started filing in when the soldiers opened fire. The shooting was louder than any explosion she had ever heard, and sent a shudder down her spine. The shots just continued as a sulfurous smoke poured out of the room and filled the hall. She could hear the men whooping and laughing underneath the chaos of the shooting.
 

Jenny stepped toward the room and Sarah grabbed her arm.

“Trix is in there,” Jenny explained. “I’m not leaving her.”

Sarah’s eyes flicked to the door. “You’d die again for some rotter bitch?”

“Yeah,” said Jenny. “I fucking would.”

“I’m coming with you.”

Jenny shook her head. “Wait here. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I’m hungry.”

“I know,” she said, squeezing Sarah’s hand before letting it go. “I’ll be back.”

Jenny shouldered the gun and started along the corridor wall through the smoke.
 

“Warnken didn’t say anything about any kids,” a voice was saying. “Fucking zombie kids, man, what the fuck? What are these freaks doing to people here?”

“Just do what you’re told,” came an older man’s voice. “Start cleaning this up. I don’t want a bunch of rotter stink in here when all this shit settles down.”

Jenny walked slowly and quietly. There were so many hearts beating. Twenty at once, she thought.

“What do we do with this fucking thing? Why are we even keeping this rotter here? She’s creepy, man. Like she understands us or something.”

Jenny stopped and listened.

“Warnken just said to keep her here. Hide her, she said. I guess she was part of some of that Anna Hawkins bullshit before she got infected.”

“Why does Warnken want her alive?”

“I told you, stop asking questions.”

“Seriously, boss. Why would she want us keeping a rotter bound and gagged? I don’t get it.”

The old man hesitated. “She said she wanted to question her.”

“Boss…”

“I know, the bitch has gone off her rocker, but we follow orders. We’re survivors and it’s gotten us this far. The old man has gone completely off the deep end and he’s taking Warnken with him. But we still follow our fucking orders. Understood?”

Jenny stepped up and pressed her back against the wall outside the door. Twenty men. Living. So soft and squishy even with all that armor. Their heads would burst like melons on a sidewalk. She gripped the gun half as big as she was. And she swung around quiet as a mouse…

Sarah was already there, standing in the doorway. She had a gun in each hand, one braced against each shoulder. The men froze, looking around. Jenny could see that they had set down their weapons as they'd started hauling the rotter bodies toward the door.
 

“A penguin walks into a bar,” Sarah said, her voice gleeful.

“What?” Jenny said.

“Have you heard this one?” said Sarah. She was looking at one of the young mercenaries in a black jumpsuit. He looked like he couldn’t be more than 15 years old. He raised his hands slowly. The smoke was slowly clearing, revealing a very large conference room. The children had been shot in their heads. Jenny saw a little girl twitch.
 

“They don’t know what the kids are,” Jenny whispered to Sarah.

“Penguin walks into a bar,” Sarah said. “Says to the bartender, ‘Have you seen my brother?’ Bartender says, ‘I don’t know, what does he look like?’”

Jenny saw a door at the back of the room. She stepped past Sarah and walked into the room. She stepped around the young men with their hands in the air. They watched her with narrowed eyes. When she came to the man with gray hair at his temples and lines around his eyes and mouth, she stopped. She felt a smile spread.

“Hey, boss,” Jenny said, placing the gun gently against his temple.

The man tried to keep his breath steady but Jenny could feel his heart, like the flutter of wings.

“Do you know what we are?” said Jenny.

“Yes,” he rasped. He glanced at the others in black. He was worried what they would think of his fear.
 

“What do you think we are?” said Jenny.

He turned his eyes toward her, hesitating before he spoke. “A mistake,” he said.

“What did he say?” said Sarah.

“He said we were a mistake,” said Jenny. “What exactly do you mean by that,
boss
?”

“Hey, we’re just the hired hands, working for food, a roof over our heads,” he said. “The old man shouldn’t have done what he did to you. To any of you. But we weren't responsible. The old man is the one you want.”

“You’re talking about my father,” said Jenny.
 

“Your father?” he said, confused. “Grant Hawkins?” He chuckled and Jenny pressed the gun firmer into his temple. “Not your father, though he’s the biggest asshole of them all.”

“Who the fuck are you talking about?” said Jenny. “I thought Warnken was in charge.”

“You don’t know?” said the man and looked genuinely flummoxed. “Warnken works for the big boss. No one really knows his name. I’ve seen him around, but no one’s allowed to talk to him. He’s real strange.”

“I heard he was a Righteous,” said a young black guy.

“No way, he’s into Voodoo,” said another man.

“Where do I find him?” said Jenny.
 

The men exchanged a glance.
 

“Tell her,” said Sarah.

“Upstairs,” said the old man. There was a sort of secret reverence in his voice that seemed odd.

“Upstairs?” said Jenny. “Where the fuck are we?”

“You’re in the goddamn Pentagon,” said the man. He nodded towards the ceiling.
 

Jenny looked at Sarah, but she didn’t seem very impressed. She was licking her lips and staring at the very young man’s pulse jumping in his neck.

“Where’s Trix?” said Jenny.

“Who?”

“The rotter girl you’re keeping. Where the fuck is she? Is she behind that door?”

“Yeah, she’s in there. Why do you want her?”

“Fucking open the door.”

The old man shook a set of keys out of his pocket. Jenny watched the floor as the children began to twitch. The soldiers hadn’t noticed them yet. A little boy blinked his eyes at the ceiling. The old man unlocked the door and stepped inside. Trix was cuffed to a chair at her wrists and ankles with a ball gag shoved in her mouth. She looked rough. She hadn’t eaten. Her skin was starting to sag and her eyes had gone full white. Jenny was surprised at how happy she was to find her. Trix looked as though she was not the least bit surprised to see Jenny.

“Let her go,” said Jenny.
 

“Are you sure? She might be dangerous…”

“Let her the fuck out of that chair.”

He took the gag out of her mouth and Trix worked her jaw, moving it in circles. She met Jenny’s eyes as the old soldier uncuffed her ankles. Trix rubbed her wrists.
 

“It’s about fucking time,” Trix said. “What in all the fucks took you so long, cheerleader?”

“There were a few complications,” said Jenny.
 

Trix looked down to see the old man had fallen over and was staring at her with wide eyes.

“What the fuck? Uncuff my ankle. Jesus Christ.”

“It’s like he’s never seen a talking rotter before,” Jenny said, smiling.