“Simon.” Tessa wrapped her arms around him. She was taller than him, and his head rested comfortably on her shoulder. He let her hold him, resisting the urge to pull away and pushing down the guilt. He deserved this small happiness. After a moment, he tentatively wrapped his arms around her, keeping his head on her shoulder and wishing she would never let go. He couldn’t remember being hugged like this. It wasn’t as if Zeke and the guys were giving out hugs, and his memories of his sister were murky at best.
The hug had to end, and it was Tessa who ended it. She pulled back and smiled shyly at him. He matched her look with one of his own, sniffling and using his sleeve to wipe his nose, a disgusting habit that he couldn’t break, even with her looking at him. She reached out and wiped a hand across his cheek, pushing away the wet trail of his tears. Instead of pulling back, she left her hand cupped to his cheek and took a step towards him, her body almost touching his.
Simon’s heart jumped to a rapid jig. She was so close. It all seemed so familiar, like it was set up for something, but he couldn’t quite remember what. Tessa leaned her face closer to his and he remembered. This was what people did before they kissed. His hands began to sweat. He couldn’t be positive, but he was pretty sure he had absolutely no kissing experience, and she was older. That meant she had probably kissed someone before. He could only hope that she didn’t remember it.
He shut his eyes as she closed the space between them. Whatever happened now, he didn’t want to see. Her lips pressed to his, warm and just a bit wet. Without thinking, he pressed his lips against hers in return. Simon’s hand moved up to rest awkwardly on her shoulder. Tessa’s head was pressing his glasses into his forehead, but that was nothing more than a dull throb as the rest of his body swayed with happiness from the kiss. When she pulled back, he slowly opened his eyes, blinking a couple times and adjusting his glasses while she smiled shyly. It was all he could do to stay standing; he still felt dizzy.
“I’m sorry.” Tessa looked away after a moment of his silence. “I don’t know why I did that.”
“Oh, no!” Simon’s brain finally reengaged, and he hurried to do damage control. “That was great.” He grinned widely. A thought crossed his mind and his grin faded quickly. “Unless it wasn’t, for you I mean. I don’t think I’ve kissed anyone before.”
“It was nice.” Tessa’s smiled. “You kiss . . . better.”
“Better?” Simon’s forehead wrinkled. “Better than who?” He was afraid he already knew the answer. The memory of Dodge’s touch on her shoulder that morning came back to him.
Tessa bit her lip and looked down. Simon’s heart sank; she kissed Dodge, he knew it. What else had they done?
“Better than before,” Tessa said. The response was so different than what Simon expected that he stood blinking at her.
“Huh?”
Tessa sighed. “You kiss better than before. You know how you said I never talked to you? You were right. I avoided you because you were the only person I remembered.”
“From before?” Simon’s head swam at the idea.
“Yeah,” Tessa said. She blushed. “I really liked you, but after we kissed you told me you liked-” she frowned, trying to come up with the name. “I can never remember the girl’s name. I didn’t remember your name was Simon either. I thought if I ignored you, I wouldn’t start to like you again. Then you were just always there and after what you did today, killing that zombie at the hospital, I couldn’t help it.”
“I must have been a real idiot to not like you.” Simon grinned. “Geez, the things we remember.”
“Yeah.” Tessa hesitated then leaned forward to kiss him lightly on the lips again. It was over as fast as it began. “Let’s go back.”
They made their way silently out of the apartment building and over to the hospital. The sun was high in the sky and even with a slight breeze the day was beautiful. Simon hardly noticed though. For once he didn’t hear, or think about, the zombies outside the wall. He was too busy replaying the kiss in his mind to notice anything, or to try to make conversation. He thought maybe his lips had been too dry, but she said it was good. Just thinking about it made him tingle all over again. He would have to come up with a cool way to tell Zeke about it when they got back to the hospital.
*
The sight of the hospital brought reality crashing back to Simon. His good mood faltered. They hurried through the empty halls, very aware of the silence and the death it represented. Halfway to the lab Tessa took Simon’s hand, holding it firmly in hers. As they neared the lab, the sound of voices echoed out to them, breaking the silence and the tension.
“Simon!” Zeke grinned as Simon and Tessa stepped back into the lab. “We found the mother load.” He motioned to the bowl that sat in front of Tommy and him. It was a large salad bowl, filled practically to the top with access cards. “We went into this one office and they were all just hanging there.”
“Nice.” Simon slapped Zeke’s hand in a high five. He and Tessa added their key cards to the bowl.
“Everyone found cards?” Dodge stepped into the lab with Tech. They both held handfuls of access cards. Dodge’s face was like stone, but Tech looked sick.
“You okay?” Simon asked Tech, concerned.
“Yeah man, you look about to toss.” Zeke grinned.
“I’m good. We searched all the rooms here.” Tech’s face was pale. “Those rooms just smell pretty bad, and the people are in rough shape.”
“It was bad,” Dodge confirmed with a nod. Simon caught a softness in his eyes for only a moment before he was back to business. “I need you set for this though, Tech. Can you handle yourself?”
“Yeah,” Tech said, though he looked far from able. It seemed more likely he would pass out.
“Let’s head down then. Grab your guns.” Dodge took the bowl of cards and led the group down to the door.
“Is it going to work?” Tessa asked suddenly. “I mean do you really think it’s hooked to the generator?”
This made everyone pause for a second. Dodge and Tech exchanged a series of meaningful glances until Dodge nodded. Tech turned to Tessa.
“Whatever is back there has to be important, so I assume it would be hooked to the grid. They would have probably needed to get to it even if the power was down.”
“And if it’s not important?” Simon asked, worried Tessa could be right.
“Then we wasted a day.” Tech shrugged. “Did you have anything better planned today?”
“I guess not.”
“Tessa, can you scan the cards?” Dodge held the bowl toward her.
“Sure. I just slide them in the slot, right?” She took the bowl and leaned her bat against the wall.
“The light will either come up red or green,” Tech said. “Green means the card worked.”
“Really?” Tessa mocked.
“I suppose it’s obvious,” Tech muttered, blushing.
“No worries, Princess.” Zeke slapped him on the shoulder. Tech glared.
“I didn’t know that meant it worked,” Tommy said helpfully. Simon was pretty sure he wasn’t just saying it. Tessa gave Tommy a look and started to say something, but thought better of it.
“Whatever.” Tessa rolled her eyes. “I can do the cards.”
“I figured you weren’t actually stupid,” Dodge said with a half grin. “Everyone else; guns ready. Anything could be in there. When it comes up green, I’ll lead the way in. Tessa, you take the rear.”
“Okay.”
It took a moment, but everyone got their weapons raised. They held them with minimal shaking and pointed them at the door. The cold gun in his hand brought back memories Simon didn’t want, but he did his best to push them to aside as Tessa tried the first card. Red light; she tossed it towards the stairs.
She tried each card as quickly as possible, one after the other coming up with a red light; access denied. Simon began to sweat as he thought about what could be behind the door. It was a toss up whether to focus on that, or the last time he held a gun. He glanced at Zeke. The older boy was watching him closely. Zeke gave Simon a small grin and a chill out motion with his hand. Simon nodded and tried to focus on the moment. He watched Tessa with the cards.
Just as Simon’s arms began to ache from holding the gun ready, the green light blinked on. There was a momentary lapse as no one moved, surprised a card had worked. Dodge sprang into action. He jumped forward and took the door handle.
“Here we go,” he muttered as he pushed the handle down.
17
Haven Medical Base
Dodge opened the door with amazing speed, or at least that was Simon’s first thought. Then the zombies came. Five of them stumbled out into the hallway as the door opened. They had been pressed to the door, waiting the whole time. If zombies could be surprised, then these were as surprised to be out of the room as the kids were to see them. The zombies recovered more quickly.
Within a second of tumbling through the door, the zombies were up and clawing at Dodge and Zeke. The half rotting corpse of a woman latched onto Dodge. She jumped on him and wrapped her legs around his waist. She clung to his shoulders as she tried to sink her teeth into his throat. Dodge shoved her away, one hand on her neck, the other still clutching the gun which was buried in her stomach. Dodge stumbled through the door into the room beyond. Once clear of the small stairwell, he pulled the trigger. The sound of the blast momentarily deafened him and sent a shudder through the woman. She held tight and was snapping at his neck again in seconds.
The zombie that went after Zeke didn’t bother standing, just clamped down on Zeke’s leg. Its head shook violently as it tore through Zeke’s jeans. It managed to take a good sized bite of Zeke’s leg before Zeke could stop screaming and think through the pain. He pushed the barrel of his gun to the thing’s head and pulled the trigger, miraculously not shooting off his own foot. The thing fell off his leg and Zeke reeled to the ground. His head spun in pain and confusion.
Tessa stepped through the door after Dodge with the bat held high. He still struggled with the woman. She hadn’t let go of him, but he was keeping her mouth from his neck. She tore at his neck with her dirty nails. Red lines of blood began to flow, driving the woman into a further frenzy. Dodge’s back was to Tessa, and she knew there was no way she could hit the woman without knocking out Dodge as well.
“Dodge, turn her towards the door,” Tessa yelled over the noise from the other room. Without any questions, Dodge turned so that he was pushing the woman toward Tessa. Tessa took a better grip on the bat and swung with all she had. The bat connected, issuing a hollow, wet crack and the woman dropped to the ground.
“Jesus,” Dodge breathed. He stepped away from the woman for a moment to catch his breath, and then stepped back to her. He held out his gun. As she lay twitching on the ground, he fired two more rounds into her head.
Simon held back a zombie even as another one went after Zeke. He wasn’t having much luck. The zombie was a full grown man, not a huge one, but he had a good two feet on Simon. Simon backed up the stairs as quickly as he could, looking for anything he could hit the man with. If he tried to shoot the thing, he was sure he’d end up shooting someone else in the small stairway. With no other weapon in sight, Simon swung halfheartedly at the thing with the hand gun. The zombie grabbed his wrist and bit down on his forearm.
Simon screamed in pain. He sank to the steps as the thing shook its head. Blunt teeth tore the skin on Simon’s arm and worked their way into muscle. With no other choice, Simon switched the gun to his left hand and fired into the zombie’s skull. For a moment the tearing continued, and then the zombie’s jaw relaxed, flapping open as the thing fell half on the stairs and half on Simon. Black spots dotted Simon’s vision as his injured arm was crushed between their bodies.
Simon glanced over the rail and watched helplessly as the other zombie tore into Zeke’s throat. It latched on, teeth puncturing skin, shook its head, and bit deeper. Zeke’s scream echoed in the stairwell. He beat at the thing, his hands flailing wildly as he tried to push it away. Tech ran over and kicked the zombie in the stomach. The thing paused for only a moment, looking over its shoulder and baring its teeth. It was all the time Tech needed; he fired a round through the thing’s skull. The zombie flopped lifeless to its side.