Zombies Ever After: Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 6 (21 page)

“Shouldn't we be up there? Telling people to steer clear?”

Sparks seemed to think on it. Victoria thought he was going to
answer, but when she turned to him, he was looking elsewhere.

“I think we need to warn everyone,” she said with
finality.

Eventually, the girl moved on. Victoria released the breath she
didn't know she was holding, as the brightly-dressed student fell out
of view.

Sparks remained noncommittal.

She figured it was another ten minutes before he spoke.

“Ah, there you are,” he said to someone behind her.

Terry and Jill ran up carrying a large blue container between
them.

“This thing is so heavy, I thought I was going to bust a
nut,” Terry said quietly.

“Me, too,” Jill said with a laugh.

“You guys ready?” Sparks asked them.

They agreed, but Victoria became instantly worried. “Wait a
second. You're going to start a fire?”

“You got a problem with that? You said those zombies were a
huge threat. These buildings are ancient. We start a little fire in a
front room, and the whole thing will burn. I'm sure of it.”

“Um, yeah, that's probably true. But my friend is on the top
floor. He won't survive if you burn the place to the ground.”

“Look, Vee, I appreciate you calling this to our attention,
but our alternatives are pretty thin. We can either go in shooting,
and maybe kill them all, and maybe lose some of us,” he swept
his pointer finger to their small group, “or we can light a
little fire and enjoy the sight of burning zombies from the comfort
of far away.”

“That's what I choose,” said Terry happily.

Victoria smacked her forehead. “I should have done this
myself.” She knew it was foolish to say, but it was her first
thought.

“Our priority is protecting the camp, not your sissy
scientist. And besides,” Sparks continued, “there are men
who want to shoot us hiding somewhere nearby. It will take a few
seconds to toss the fuel and run. It could take hours to clear a
building that size. We could get ambushed at any point along the way.
What do you think has better odds for my people?”

The demeanor of the trio around her was enough to dissuade her
from continuing her line of reasoning. They were right; she was sad
to admit. She wondered if she could go and get other helpers from
elsewhere in the camp, but there was no time to be picky.

“Will you give me a few minutes to try to warn him? He's
watching on security cameras. I can get a message to him.”

Sparks tossed the butt of a Newport. He had the half-empty pack in
his hands to grab another. “Makes no difference to me. Unless
I'm missing something, the zombies are good and locked on the inside.
As long as no one comes along with a key, we can afford to wait. And
watch.”

“I'm going over that way,” she pointed to one of the
dorms behind her. “They have a tunnel that goes underneath this
parking lot. I know that tunnel is on the cameras.”

“We'll cover you as long as we can,” Sparks added.

“Thanks.” She stood up to go, weapon in hand, but felt
she needed to say something more. “I'm, uh, really sorry I got
your people shot, sir. But I think saving this one scientist may make
up for that. I think he can save us. Save our families.”

Sparks took a long drag. “My family is already dead. But
thanks for trying to make things right.”

Victoria turned and ran for the dorm. She couldn't bear the pain
of the man.

On the run, she checked her sides as best she could. Short Guy
could be anywhere. Behind any derelict car. Behind any tree. Up in
any window. She pushed it back and ran forward.

The front doors were unlocked, as expected. A couple of students
stood in the foyer, munching on the energy bars they'll all been
given. They looked as miserable as she felt. The early light of dawn
reminded her of her sleep deprivation.

“Hiya,” she said with all the cheer she could muster.
Their eyes were drawn to her rifle, and her earlier sadness morphed
into anger. They recoiled at the sight of the gun, as if she were
carrying a little demon with her. This far into the disaster she
figured it had to be obvious to everyone still alive that guns were
their only true salvation.

Or spears, rebar, shovels, or…

She could list a lot of zombie-killing tools, but none were as
efficient and safe to the user as the gun.

They'd spent too much time on campus, under the protection of
people with guns, to recognize things had changed.

She thought about the incongruity for as long as it took her to go
down the stairs to the tunnel system. Only when she was at the bottom
did it strike her she had no light source.

5

The tunnels were almost pitch black. Fortunately, planners had
anticipated just such an event by placing small opaque windows on the
ceiling that let in some of the light from above. The morning was
still very young, however, so not much light made it down. It wasn't
solid darkness, at least.

The rifle fortified her resolve as she shuffled along the tunnel.
She had an irrational fear there were steps ahead of her, though the
thought of putting steps in such a confined and dark area almost made
her laugh.

In the light of day the tunnels never seemed very long, but now…

She took many minutes to walk the distance she covered in seconds
when she ran across the parking lot above her. Various side tunnels
joined hers, though her destination was directly ahead. When she
thought she'd certainly gotten to the end, she did see the end
another twenty or thirty feet ahead of her. The gate, which Hayes had
said he locked, was there. But it had been partially opened.

Oh no.

She felt the weight of zombies behind her. Could they have gotten
by her in the darkness? Were they in other tunnels? Suddenly, the
thought of going on didn't seem so smart.

While she considered what to do, a form came out of a dark corner.
She raised the rifle so she had a good bead on it.

But it didn't lunge at her. It appeared lost.

The form was someone she recognized from the experimental group
from the day before, and from the video feed tonight. The teen girl
wore a darling red sundress. It was a type of clothing unheard of out
in the world anymore, so here in the safety of the campus, it got her
noticed.

But as she came into focus, her beauty was gone. Her ashen gray
skin was terribly mangled on the side of her head and face. Her neck
carried the telltale signs of massive trauma—a zombie had
recently infected her. And here she was, in the sights of Victoria's
rifle, doing nothing.

Her finger hovered on the trigger. She wanted to pull it. She was
certain she was going to pull it.

After I see what she does. Then I kill her.

The zombie had to have noticed her. It was getting lighter every
minute, and the two girls were now only a handful of feet from each
other. The girl in the red dress turned and faced Victoria—she
stared at her, or in her direction, for a long minute. She sniffed
the air. She cocked her head. It was as if Victoria was invisible.

She paid attention to as many details as she could. The girl had
to be something special. A new kind of zombie, as Liam would
undoubtedly say. But what would he call her?

After several minutes, the girl turned and walked into the metal
gate. It seemed to readjust.

Is she blind?

It would explain everything. A blind zombie would depend on other
senses to find food.

But it hadn't done very well using those senses. Victoria had made
sounds and had to smell like something. Besides the perfume still
lingering on her clothes, she'd been sweating like crazy since she
began her escape from the zombies, then from the pair of NIS jerks.

Blind, and deaf?

That seemed closer to the truth.

She chanced moving closer to the zombie. The blood on the girl's
neck glistened. As more light filtered down from above, the more
ruined the girl appeared. From one side she almost appeared
normal—save the grayish skin—and from the other, she was
a horror movie. Yet, Victoria could imagine her mostly as a normal
girl caught up in the events of the night, the same as her. Only one
girl was under restraint, while the other was free to escape the
calamity. A blind and deaf person would have had a very rough time in
the Zombie Apocalypse…

It sobered her thoughts.

“Do you hear me?” she said before she had time to talk
herself out of it.

“Ah,” she said much quieter. “You do hear me.”

The girl turned her way.

She moved sideways as fast as she could, making sure she held
tight to her weapon. Her finger was next to the trigger. Ready.

As she feared, the zombie turned to where she moved. It had seen
her, after all.

It could both see and hear her, yet didn't attack.

The zombie snapped her jaw—clacking her teeth loudly. She
seemed to lose interest in Victoria and turned back toward the gate,
and the research building from which she came.

“I don't know what's going on here,” she whispered to
herself.

But she knew.

No. That's impossible.

Hayes said as much. Showed it to her on the screen.

No. It can't be. That would mean…

The zombie jumped and barked in a high-pitched chirp. She nearly
dropped her gun.

A man came down the steps of the research building firing a rifle
over and over into the red dress girl. It only seemed to anger her.
She exploded from her standing position and charged the man. Shot
after shot went into the girl, some of which exited her back as
Victoria watched in stone-like terror.

The man's rifle clicked loudly. He was out of ammo. Instead of
reloading on the fly, he continued toward the girl with purpose.
That's when he saw Victoria near the gate.

“Just a minute, my dear. I'll be with you.”

It was Short Guy. He had a bandanna over his ruined right eye.

The red dress zombie was perforated, but her head was intact.
Zombies can be put down in many different ways, though the head is
always a requirement to take it out of action completely. However,
that doesn't mean it can magically move and attack even after the
rest of its body is destroyed. Her leg appeared shattered, her arms
didn't work, and the holes in her backside were soaking the rest of
her dress in blood. She barely made it to Short Guy, and it took him
one solid crack with his rifle stock to put her down for good.

He kept coming toward her.

“Now it's your turn, you little bitch.”

6

“I don't think so.” She raised her rifle.

He stopped in his tracks. In the dim light, it was hard to read
his face. The anger was there but also surprise. With a swallow, he
seemed to try a new tact.

“There's going to be a wave of zombies coming down behind
me. Then they'll take you to Hell, where you belong.” His empty
rifle fell to the floor.

“I don't think you understand who goes to Hell,” she
said sadly.

Would Hell be anything like this night?

She forced herself into the moment. Having philosophical debates
over her feelings would not help keep her alive. Only the gun in her
hand was doing that, now.

“Well, you'd better arrest me so we can both get out of
here. They're coming.”

“Why? Why would you let them out?” She took a step
back as she spoke. He took a step forward.

“Easy. Rid the world of the filth out there in the camp. A
few zombies get loose. Poof. Problem solved,” he laughed.

“What's so funny about that? You can't just go around
killing that many people for no reason.”

He looked at her with the same eyes she'd seen in that Colorado
forest. “Sweet thighs, you have no idea what's going on, do
you? You probably think this is gonna pass. We're all gonna survive
and then rebuild. Am I right?” He laughed sarcastically. “We
haven't even gotten to the real in-your-face killing, yet.”

She took another step back. She was close to the gate. He
continued to slowly move forward. Her gun remained trained on him,
but it didn't seem to evoke the same fear she'd have felt had their
positions been reversed.

“I can see by your eyes you don't get it. Why would you?
This is a rebirth. A renewal. Of mankind.”

“With zombies?” she croaked. Screams echoed in the
tunnel. They came from behind Short Guy, up in the building. Distant
gunfire cracked up there, too.

“The zombies were God's will. A test. We're passing that
test, by the by.”

“Don't move another foot,” she said with her rifle
pointed at his chest.

“You think I'm afraid of you?” He wasn't stepping
toward her with haste, but he wasn't slowing down. “I eat girls
like you for breakfast.”

“I will shoot you.” She knew she would, but she didn't
want to. She had another idea in mind for him. But it would take
time…

Not sure if it was worth it, she took a chance and fired the gun.
She expected a loud bang, but it was only a dainty snap. She wasn't
aiming at Short Guy. She only wanted to scare him.

Her sudden action did appear to startle the NIS agent, but not for
very long.

She wanted to close the gate on him, but the diversion didn't
work. He was only twenty feet from her. They both seemed to size up
the situation and came to wildly opposite conclusions.

Short Guy charged her.

Victoria steadied herself, then pulled the trigger several times
as fast as she could.

The sound from the gun reminded her of the guns she'd used with
Liam, back in the early days. The little pistols they'd used had .22
caliber ammunition, which was easy to carry in big bricks, but
required precise aim to do any good against zombies.

Round after round went into Short Guy's chest, but he marched on
with a wicked smile on his face.