Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife) (29 page)

At least he’d argued to attempt saving a life against orders, that earned him some points, quite a
few actually, that was why she would follow his lead. He pulled the door open and a wall splattered
with red was the first thing to confront them, it seemed to make Triple-F draw up short. He stood there
for a bit as if debating suddenly whether this was the best idea, but then the screaming took up again and
he took the step through the frame. It was probably blind luck that nothing was there to greet them, then
again if they were revenant’s on this floor maybe all the screaming had drawn them away. So that in fact
meant it was more then likely that this wasn’t the best idea that Triple-F had ever had, but at least, unlike
Wheatly, he was willing to put his ass on the line for a stranger.

He kept them moving at an even pace and from the general gore and blood everywhere she
wouldn’t guess this floor was empty. Whoever was screaming was probably doing it for a very good
reason. Triple-F seemed content to make sure that the left side was clear so Jennifer tried to make sure
she checked the right she was attempting to ascertain that a room in that direction was clear when she
stumbled into Triple-F again, at least this time she knew for certain it wasn’t because she hadn’t been
paying attention. "Hey," she whispered at him, "we need to keep going," she didn’t imagine they had
long for this, whoever was screaming was likely in danger of getting eaten and when Tom figured out
they hadn’t delivered her outside it wouldn’t take him long to come looking. He didn’t say anything, and
she finally took the time it required to notice that his eyes were practically bugging out in shock, she
turned to her left. She didn’t think she’d really taken note of what floor they were on until that moment.
Now that she thought about it she wasn’t entirely sure how that was, there were children’s drawings all
over the place. But if none of that had gotten her attention this certainly did, to her left were viewing
windows, she’d never been on this floor before but knew without having seen it that the view behind
those windows was the nursery. They were on a floor that not only was for children, but had at some
point held babies, the nursery windows were coated with random smears of blood along the glass.
Cradles were emptied and bloodied and she tried really hard not to look or identify anything that was
lying in those beds or on the floor. Clearly Triple-F had not thought to ignore the details because it
looked like he was trying really hard not to lose his lunch.

"Oh my God, oh my fucking God," Wheatly started chanting from behind her and judging from
Triple-F’s pallor he wasn’t far behind on the freak-out parade. Yesterday she might have joined them,
today she’d shot two of her best friends and there was a child screaming somewhere nearby, today she
didn’t have time for this. She was going to say something, she wasn’t sure exactly what, maybe she was
just going to tell Wheatly to shut the fuck up but as soon as she turned to him he bolted down the hall.

"You’ve got to be kidding me," she gave her attention back to Triple-F and she could tell if she
gave him the chance he was right behind his friend. "Would you man the fuck up, we have to go get
Private Wimpy before he gets himself killed." But Triple-F just glanced from those empty blood soaked
cradles back to her, like he thought she was out of her mind. "Fine do whatever the hell you want," she
spun on her heal and started making her way back down the hall, maybe Wimpy had made his way
back out into the hall, he’d been running pretty fast. Of course life was never that easy, like the minute
she thought he could have gotten away safely the sound of rifle fire exploded down the hall. The sound
was like an alarm going off, it was familiar because an M16 was a regular part of her own arsenal, his
screaming, that was not familiar and it was the first and probably the last she would hear it. She broke
into a run, determined to do whatever she could, but when she got around the corner she knew exactly
how he’d gotten himself killed. "Oh fuck," she raised the Beretta, shot the one chewing into his arm in
the head, but ten more took it’s place. The hall was basically a round-about, when they’d entered
through the stairwell it had been clear. The mass of corpses in front of her must have been stumbling in
this direction because the door was swarmed with them now, and Wimpy had run straight into their
hungry jaws. She shot two more but those things had dragged him into the mass and she could hear him
screaming but she couldn’t see him.

"WHEATLY!" Jennifer looked back at Triple-F who was right behind her, still freaking out, he
was holding the M16 up like he was going to shoot but never did. Maybe he thought he’d hit his friend,
at this point he’d only be doing the guy a favor, so she wasn’t sure why he hesitated. He shouted again
but the screaming had stopped and the number of corpses that couldn’t get in on the Wheatly feast were
quickly stumbling and swarming to get to them over the ones that were too busy eating.

"Come on," Jennifer grabbed Triple-F’s collar, glad that he didn’t try to put up resistance, as
soon as she had him pointed in the opposite direction he moved away from the revenant’s on his own.
Jennifer turned to shoot anything that was too close before taking off after him, she supposed she was
glad this was the first she’d seen of this large a number, was missing all of Whiskey at this point. When
they reached the mid-point where the nursery sat silent and potentially empty Jennifer grabbed Triple-F
by the belt, "here." She ordered him, this time and likely only because he’d just watched someone he
knew get eaten alive he did as he was told. He hesitated in the door way so Jennifer pushed him in and
yanked the door closed behind the two of them. If they were lucky, and she wasn’t counting on it
because her luck these days sucked, the revenant’s would keep walking. She crouched by the wall,
forcing him to do the same by yanking on her hold on his belt, he tried to stand as soon as he got another
good look at what was all around them. Jennifer kept her hold on his belt, if he wanted to stand he was
going to have to struggle for it, he didn’t try. Especially not when Jennifer motioned for him to look up
and he noticed the chain line of undead shuffling by. She hadn’t been entirely sure that ducking down
would work, had partially assumed it would work because in her last encounter with Dimitri she had
been out of sight out of mind for him. Clearly it was the same for these, only they were slower, and very
possibly dumber. Ethan had seemed sure that whatever this was took longer to completely overtake a
vampire, considering the ex-vampire had been more inclined to run from damage than run at it she might
have to agree.

Jennifer hated thinking it, but whoever had been screaming before wasn’t screaming now, "we
need to get off this floor." When she looked to Triple-F he was still looking up at the window as if
waiting for one of those things to stumble past and look down at them. "Hey you with me here," she
waved her hand in front of his face and he would probably have jumped up if she didn’t still have a hold
on his belt.

"I didn’t believe it, didn’t believe it had happened before, when the Lieutenant said you’d seen it
before, that he’d seen it before. How do you stop this," he seemed to be really asking and Jennifer
wished that she could tell him, but she’d been five, she had no idea how you stopped the zombie
apocalypse once it had seemingly already started.

"You start by surviving it, Triple-F," he didn’t seem to take notice that she was referring to him
when she said the nick-name she’d appointed him, which was probably for the best. "Right now we
need to work our way back to the stairs, the real question at the moment is whether we go back the way
we came or risk trying to get to the stairwell on the opposite side. I think it would be better to circle
back given we’ve no idea what the other stairwell looks like but I’m open to suggestions." She waited
to see if he was going to say something but he didn’t, "can you handle this, I need to know you can
cover my back."

"Yea, yea I’m good," but he stumbled over the words, he was a bigger mess then Palmer had
been, and unlike then she had no way to put him safely in the center.

"Okay, just keep it tight, we don’t want anything cutting us off from each other right?" He
nodded and she really wished Tom had brought Brook with him to bring her back, she could really use
him. She waited until she scanned what she could see of the viewing window before releasing Triple-F’s
belt and slowly getting to her feet. After a beat she motioned for him to follow suite and to her relief he
did so quickly. She made her way back toward the door, but instead of heading back toward the stairs
she made to follow the mass of revenants. Her hope was that they kept moving, if they circled back
around she wanted to be behind them not stumbling back into their path. She was glad that Triple-F
seemed too busy trying to stay close to notice that she was taking them away from the exit.

She became aware that she was moving them too fast when they neared the corner and the
revenant mass was slowly making its way around the next bend. Some of them nearly fell over one or
two small mutilated forms on the ground in front of the elevators, but paid them no mind, apparently
what little was left was inedible. Jennifer waited watching them shuffle over the slick floor, crushing
bloodied pieces of what she knew had once been children beneath their feet. The mass was mostly
around the corner, practically gone, but one of them must have heard the whimper when she did. It
wasn’t loud, not really, only loud enough to catch the attention of one while the rest shuffled on past the
corner. Jennifer watched it drag it’s feet back towards the elevator, it wasn’t until then that she noticed
that one of the doors stood slightly ajar, the elevator from what she could tell caught halfway between
floors. "Crap," she swore to herself, so that was where the screaming was coming from, as if on instinct
it knew where to go and made its way to that small opening, without pause as soon as it stuck it’s face to
the hole the child that was hiding inside started screaming. "Damn-it," she looked back at Triple-F who
seemed to have pulled his shit together enough to nod and she rushed out into the hall. She could have
grabbed the thing by the collar and dragged it back, but they didn’t have long. If the kid hadn’t
screamed she might have tried to kill it quiet, there was no point in that now. She simply charged out
into the hall, shot the thing in the head, and when it didn’t collapse because it had jammed it’s head and
shoulder into the hole, she grabbed it by the lab coat and yanked it free.

"Shit," she could tell even before Triple-F started cursing, from all the guttural noises revenant’s
seemed to make when they thought a meal was in reach, that they had seconds to get this kid. If the kid
hesitated they might be forced to leave, and who knew how long they’d have to wait to try again.

Jennifer looked up into the elevator opening, took note of the blood at the lip and didn’t have to
wonder where the little eaten bodies had been dragged from. This entire situation was why she’d
chosen not to join Tom’s group, she wanted to save lives, she wanted to help people, she didn’t think
that anything could be worth what she’d seen on this floor. She had to believe that if the zombie
apocalypse was happening, if it could really be stopped, the only way couldn’t be to leave innocent
people to die, she didn’t want to win anything like that. Jennifer could barely see over the bloody lip,
her lack of height prevented it but she could make out the child huddled into a corner. "We might only
have one shot at this, KID," she called because trying to be silent was pointless, "give me your hand and
I’ll pull you out." She gave it a second which was about all the time she could afford before repeating
herself, "Kid give me your hand!"

"Leave ‘em," Triple-F prompted from behind her but to her relief he didn’t try to run off, he
started shooting the mass stumbling its way back around the corner. "There’s no time," he shouted,
Jennifer took one look over her shoulder and knew he was right, if she gave it even a minute those things
would be on them. If it was just her she could risk her own neck, probably would, but it wasn’t in her to
ask Triple-F to do the same.

"Fall back," she gave the order but hesitated to follow it herself, again to her surprise Triple-F
seemed to notice and hold his ground. "Damn-it," she pulled herself away from the elevator doors, "go,
fall back," she turned back toward the revenant’s and fired, there were too many to take down, even
with Triple-F’s M16 to slow them down. "GO!"

When the things were within near feet Jennifer took a step back and as if the child suddenly
realized they were leaving a tiny hand stuck out of the door, "PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME!"

"Fuck it all," Jennifer swore, looking to Triple-F to see if he could handle this.

"I’ll cover you," he offered, that was good enough. Jennifer emptied the Beretta into several of
the Rev’s that got too close, used her last bullet on one that was about to take a chunk out of that tiny
hand. When it went down she knew it was up to Triple-F to keep them back just long enough. Jennifer
jumped forward and laced her fingers around the tiny wrist, she gave a hard yank and thankfully the child
was small enough to slip through the opening without more effort, which would have probably gotten
them both killed. She couldn’t take the time to give the little kid a once over, just make sure it kept it’s
feet when she yanked them both out of reach. "Come on," Jennifer waited to move back, she wasn’t
going anywhere without Triple-F, if she had to, and she really didn’t have the time to, she would reload.
"Move!" At this he seemed to realize if he waited much longer he was going to end up blocked in, they
were too close. "This way," Jennifer kicked an exam room door open, Triple-F made it into the room
behind her, but when he tried to slam the door the revenants were too close behind him. Jennifer
dropped the kids hand, was on her way to help him get the door closed when the kid who’d been
shocked into silence started screaming.