S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND, Season One Omnibus (128 page)

He smiles and it's the smile of something evil.

I moan.
What did you do, Micah? What have you done?

But then his face changes, like some magic trick, and it's the same old Micah again. “It's cool,” he says. “I don't… I can't really blame you for doing what you did, leaving me behind like that. How could you know? I probably would've done the same.”

“
Whuh—where are you?”

“
On my way there, in fact. I just wanted you to know that I've got my full memory back now. I don't know what triggered it, but now I see everything with a clear mind.” He smiles once more. “I'm relieved to see you're okay. I was worried.”

My mouth opens. He doesn't look worried. I snap it closed again and my teeth make a clacking sound that reminds me of the Undead.

“
Anyway, sit tight.” His eyes flash as they shift a millimeter to one side of his screen. “Oh, hey there, Kel. Miss me?” He tries to smile, but it comes out a sneer. “How's everyone else?” Fake concern slips over his fake smile. “Did you get the treatment back to Jake in time?”

I feel Kelly take in a breath, and I know he's going to start yelling a split second before he does. The air in the room suddenly becomes very thin. “You son of a—!”

But there's a loud bang right then—not in the Link, but outside the room. It sounds like a door being slammed open.

Kelly and I jerk toward the sound.

It pongs through the building and out of the corner of my eye I see Reggie's body jerk in response. But that's all the reaction he makes, just that one twitch. He doesn't raise his head. He doesn't wipe away the drool from his mouth.

Shhhhh…shhhhHHHH!

“
What the hell was that?” Kelly whispers.

“
Sounded like the door to the outside.”

“
Wind?”

He looks at me with wide eyes. Of course he knows I don't know what it is either. He knows I
want
it to be the wind, just as he wants it to be, too.

The sound comes again, not quite as loud this time, just the bang. Then nothing.

“
Has to be the wind,” Kelly says. “Did you latch it when you went out earlier?”

“
Hey, what's going on there?” Micah asks through my Link. I thumb it off and stick it in my pocket.

“
What about the fence?” Kelly whispers.

“
Fence?” I ask, confused. The fence wouldn't make a noise like that. “What about it?”

“
Was the electricity on when you went out earlier?”

Horror flows over me, cold and hot at the same time, a river of ice water and lava that scalds and freezes all at once and I know suddenly what he means. “I—I don't know,” I stammer. “I didn't check.”

“
You didn't check? What do you mean you didn't check?
”

“
I was looking for Reggie!”

Two more thuds, these in rapid succession, though still not as loud as the first.

Kelly holds his finger up to his lips.

We stand without speaking or moving for several seconds, straining our ears for the slightest sound. But other than the rasp of Reggie's breathing, there's nothing.

“
I think it's the wind, Kel.”

He begins to edge his way toward the door, still holding a finger up to his lips. He gestures with his other hand for me to stay put.

“
It's the wind!”

“
Shh!
Quiet!
If it's the wind, then it's the wind. We need to be sure. Now stay here or—”

Bang!

My Link pings again right then and I yelp.

BANG!

…shhhhrrruuuupppp…

He looks at me, his eyes bulging wide. We both know it's not the wind. The wind doesn't make a dragging sound like that, not unless it's caught something and is blowing it around in an eddy. And even then…

But then Shinji comes to my mind. Shinji who left me miles away. He's back! It's Shinji trying to get back to me.
Shinji! Shinji!
I almost yell out his name. But reason returns and makes me see that it's just wishful thinking. Shinji's long gone, miles away—

and promises to keep

—
and if it was him, I'd hear the soft padding of his feet—

to keep

not this eerie swishing noise.

I slip over to Kelly and grab his arm, pulling him back. “It might be Ben.”

“
He's far away from here by now,” he whispers. “Miles away.” And when he says that, I almost squeeze his arm in half. He gives me a strange look—part puzzlement, part panic. A twinge of pain and concern. He tries to pry my fingers off his arm, but I won't let go. “Jess, you have to let me—
Ow!
Damn, you need to let go. I'm just going to go take a quick peek.”

“
I'm coming with you.”

“
No,” he insists. “Stay here.”

“
Let me get the knife.”

He turns around at me, his eyes flashing impatiently. I let go of his arm and he shakes the feeling back into it. I scurry to the table in the back where I left the knife and I grab it. Then I look around for the pistol. The last bullet is still in my pocket. Where's the gun?

In your waistband, stupid.

I reach around and find it. I don't remember putting it there. I must have done it when I went down for the smelling salts. Just holding it makes me feel better, even if it is unloaded.

When I return to Kelly, he's edged closer to the doorway and is just straining his neck to look around the jamb.

“
It's an IU,” he groans, ducking his head back in. “Must've wandered in.”

“
Just one?”

He nods. “But where there's one… If it was Micah out there, I'd smash him in—” But he doesn't finish this thought either. He doesn't have to. His knuckles turn white as he makes a fist and the muscles in his jaw bulge with the strain of his anger.

I touch his arm with the handle of the knife and he reaches over and grabs it without looking.

Bang!

Swish, shh…shhhhhhh…

A crazy thought bubbles up in my brain:
Why did it take so long for the zombie to cross the road?
Because it kept dragging its feet.

This is what insanity feels like.

My fingers fumble with the bullet as I try to load it into the gun. Kelly's hand sweeps back and finds my wrist and squeezes it warningly. The other hand with the knife in it gestures down toward the floor.
Keep it down
, it seems to say.
You're making too much noise
.

I fumble the bullet, try to catch it. It slips through my fingers and starts to fall away. Then it's almost as if everything shifts into slow motion. I see the thing drifting away, slowly spinning end over end, the bright coppery casing shining dully in the artificial light. Reflexively, I reach out to grab it, but I overshoot and it hits the back of my hand and bounces up into the air, flipping even farther away from me. But now I'm going after it, throwing myself to my knees, scrambling forward, and I can feel Kelly's fingertips slipping on the fabric of my shirt on my shoulder, digging in and losing purchase as he tries to pull me back. But I've almost got it, the bullet, it's right there in front of my eyes, flipping and twirling like a tiny yellow ballerina, or a dancing flame on a candle at a birthday party. I see my hand—it's so close—and then my fingers are starting to wrap around the bullet and I'm on my knees and the other hand is on the floor with the pistol in it and my Link is pinging again in my pocket though I'm ignoring it. And something makes a quiet swishing sound just outside the doorway and it draws my eyes away for just a split second, just enough of a distraction that my fingers close over empty space and the bullet tumbles away again like a mirage, a glowing ball of light.

Somewhere high above me, I hear Kelly gasp. He steps between me and the doorway, but there's a space between his knees, an opening through which, for just a single heartbeat, I can see before he blocks my view of the hallway outside the room. What I see there makes me stop. The whole world stops and stands still.

Before speeding up again.

The bullet hits the floor and skitters into a corner. Kelly shouts. The knife drops as he tries to push me back while simultaneously reaching in the opposite direction to pull the door closed. I fall away from him, though not from his push. I fall because my muscles lose all their strength. Then I'm scrambling backward like a crab as the first Undead steps through the doorway, its hands clawing for Kelly, raking his face. He ducks out of the way and kicks out and the IU crashes out through the door before being shoved back toward us by the approaching horde. The hallway is filled with them.

I'm distantly aware of my Link pinging again in my pocket, and somewhere in some dark corner of my brain I'm cursing Micah again. On top of everything else, he has poor timing. Kelly manages to slam the door closed, though it catches the hand of one of the Undead and snaps it off. The thing clatters to the floor like a child's rattle, like a giant brown spider. Kelly reaches for a chair and wedges it under the knob, panting heavily. He kicks the hand away in disgust.

He looks at me and there's a wildness in his eyes, insanity and terror and a recognition of the new reality of our situation. All of these things combine into one truth: hopelessness. Our only escape from this place is now packed with hungry zombies.

Ping.

I lift my Link to my eyes, thumbing it numbly, and expecting to see Micah there.

But it's not Micah this time. This ping is coming from Ashley. Something snaps into place inside of me, a moment of hope.

“
It's Ashley!” I jab at the screen to connect. Outside the door, the Undead moaning crescendos at the sound of my voice. Kelly tells me to be quiet. The door rattles behind him.

“
Ashley!” I hiss, “Are you okay?”

A face looms large in the screen, distorting by its closeness, then coming into focus. Ben smiles and my heart sinks. “Oh, that little bitch is a little busy right now,” he drawls. “Damn, but ain't you kids resilient. I shoulda killed you when I had the chance.”

“
Tell Micah when I'm finished with you, I'm going to kill him, too.”

Ben frowns for a moment, but he looks more amused than concerned.

I don't give him a chance to reply. “Where's Ashley? What the hell have you done to her?”

Ben's grin returns, even wider. “You really are one bossy little bitch, ain't you? Well, your friends cain't help you now; nobody can help you; it's too late. Not even Arc can help you now. Nothing.” He laughs and it hurts my ears.

“
I'm going to kill you.”

“
I just wanted you to know,” he says. He laughs again and now there's a different kind of insanity in his eyes, the type of insanity that whispers of inhumane pleasures and unpolluted evil. “Did you get the package I sent for you?”

My face goes ice cold. “What package?”

“
I guess not. Well, it'll arrive soon enough.”

“
What package?”

“
Just a little partin gift. Just wanted to make sure there weren't no loose ends. You can thank that gorilla friend of yours. I wouldn't have known to send it, but when I found his little love note he tried to send, then I knew Lena had fucked up. Again.”

I feel my face flush. The message Reggie tried to send Ashley did get through after all.

Kelly realizes this, too. I see his jaw harden. He quickly swipes an angry finger across his throat and mouths for me to cut him off, that we have more important things to worry about right now. But I'm too angry to listen. And I need to know about Ashley.

“
What did you do to her?”

“
Oh, I'm treatin her nice and fine, just like a lady should be treated. Oh, and ain't she a fine young lady, too.”

“
If you so much as lay a finger on her,” I scream, “I'm going to—”

The door shudders and the moaning grows frantic.

“
Disconnect the damn thing!” Kelly yells. “Screw him!”

“
Oh, turns out you did get the package, then,” I hear Ben say. “And you didn't want to say thanks? Shame on you.”

“
You sent them in here? How?”

“
Herdin them's just a little trick I picked up.” The scene shifts and I can see he's standing just outside the gate of the compound.

“
You're still here?”

“
Well, had to come back.” He shrugs. “Didn't want to, but you made me. So annoyin when people don't die like they're supposed to. But I'm off now for good. Goin to find that Father of yours. Gonna kill him, too.”

“
Asshole!”

“
Y'know, truth was, I wasn't sure whether to send flowers or zombies, then I remembered about that filthy mouth of yours. Ladies deserve flowers, and you ain't no lady. Hope you like them.” He cackles, stops. “But just in case they're not a good, you know, fit for you, I'm also sendin you a little something extra, sendin ‘em real soon. I'm a real thorough kind of gentleman, you see.”

“
You're no gentleman,” I sneer. “You're a monster.”

He laughs.

“
You're sweating,” I tell him. “You're not feeling well, are you?”