Zompoc Survivor: Inferno (15 page)

“Good thinking, Beth,” he said. “Let’s get on that.” He led the way toward a parked car and the rest followed him. I frowned as I stepped up beside a bemused looking Hernandez.

“Who the hell was that and where did she come from?” I said.

“Dunno,” Hernandez said with laughter in her voice. “I think they were a little cranky from hunger. As soon as they got some food in them, it was like they were different people almost.”

“I like this version. Can we keep ‘em?” I said.

“God, I hope so. How’s the kid?”

“Angry,” I told her. “I guess I should have expected that, but I thought I’d get to deal with denial first.”

“What about you?” she asked. I looked over at her. “Dude, I spent two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. I know what it’s like losing friends. And I know survivor’s guilt when I hear it.”

“Look, as much as I hate to admit it, he was right,” I said. I heard a little heat creep into my voice, but I couldn’t stop it. “Ever since we crashed in this fucking hellhole, I’ve been proving he made the best choice.”

“And you still think the better man died back in Nevada,” she countered. I didn’t have a comeback for that. “You gotta stow that bullshit thinking, Stewart. All that crap about him giving his little girl a gift that you told her? He gave it to you, too. Someone gives you something like that, you show some goddamn gratitude, and you prove you were worth it every damn day. You got that?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said slowly. “I got it.” She turned and grabbed a can of Sprite from the stack on the floor and tossed it to me.

“Good. Have a soda.”

“Thank you,” I said. “Do I need to prove I’m worthy of this?”

“Nah,” she said as she grabbed a can of her own. “I think you already earned that one.” I laughed and popped the top. Just the smell of soda, even after only a couple of days, was a pleasure all its own. And even lukewarm, it was pure nectar to my taste buds. My first impulse was to gulp it down as fast as I could, but I had no idea how long it might be before I’d get another taste of it, so I forced myself to take it slow. With the memory of how casually I’d dumped Porsche’s soda out a few days ago suddenly replaying itself in my head, I reached down and grabbed a can of Dr. Pepper and a couple of cans of Coke, then grabbed a bag of peanut M&M’s, Amy’s favorite.

Once I’d stashed the Dr. Pepper and one of the cans of Coke in my backpack, I went looking for Amy. She hadn’t gone far; she was sitting with her back against the Humvee’s driver’s side front tire. Her eyes came up to look at me through her dark bangs as I set the candy and the drink down beside her, but she didn’t say anything. I searched for words, but nothing seemed right.

“I uh…um..” I started to say, but whatever brilliant statement I’d had in mind died somewhere between my brain and my tongue.

“Me, too,” she answered. My lips pursed together and I nodded, then I started to head back to the opening where I could see City Hall. “Thanks, Dave,” she said as I passed. I looked back at her and for some reason I was surprised when she wasn’t holding up what I’d left for her.

“Any time,” I said. Feeling like we’d just had an hour long conversation, I went to the front of the Stryker and leaned against it. As I sipped my soda. I tried to figure out what exactly we’d just said to each other, and if I’d heard the same things Amy had.

“Excuse me, Mr. Stewart?” I heard Miss MBA’s voice from my left. I looked that way to see her poking her head around the side of the Stryker’s nose. When I didn’t open fire on her either verbally or literally, she stepped into view and flashed a thousand dollars of dental work at me.

“You can call me Dave,” I said and gave her a half smile of my own, figuring being nice couldn’t hurt, especially if she was going to do what I thought she was.

“Uh, look, I’m really sorry about how I treated you earlier,” she said. If she had left it at that, I would have been happy, but she went on. “It’s been a really bad few days. I watched my husband turn into a zombie, my whole world just came to an end, and until you showed up and helped us get out of there I had two choices open to me. Neither one was very pleasant, if you get my drift.”

“Hard labor or being someone’s whore,” I said. “Neither one is very appealing. And it’s cool, I get it. The world just ended. I’m sorry about pulling the gun, but you get how it is when someone’s threatening your kid.” She ducked her head and tucked a strand of hair back behind her ear before she looked back at me and took a step closer.

“I also wanted to…thank you. I mean, for rescuing me…us,” she said. She laid her hand on my chest and closed the distance between us until our bodies were almost touching. Even through my shirt, I could feel the warmth of her through my clothes, and I could feel her breast brushing up against my arm. “You got shot at trying to save us. That at least deserves a kiss.” She leaned in close and turned her face up to me, then her lips were pressed against mine. As kisses went, it should have rated a lot higher than it did. Her mouth was soft and warm against mine, and her skin was hot as she pressed her curves against me. My body noticed a hundred things. The way her breasts pressed against my chest, how she ran her hand down my side, how her hip pressed against my crotch. For a few seconds, I was too stunned to move. For that moment, the kiss was just a kiss. Then her other hand wrapped around my waist and slid up my back, and her lips parted to let her tongue probe against my mouth. My hands came up to her face…and I pulled away, much to my libido’s disappointment.

“Miss Simmons,” I said.

“Call me Beth,” she whispered. Her eyes were half closed and she’d parted her lips again, making them look very kissable.

“Miss Simmons. No.” She blinked and stared at me, her jaw slack in disbelief. “That isn’t how I work. Even if I
wasn’t
in love with Amy’s mom, I couldn’t do that.” Her eyes went wide and she backed up a step.

“I can’t believe I just did that,” she gasped. Her hand went to her lips as if she couldn’t believe what she’d just been doing with them. “I thought…because it was just you and the girl…”

“It’s cool,” I said with a smile. “No harm, no foul. I probably should have said something sooner.”

“I’m sorry, I’ve never done anything like that before,” she said quickly, then turned and hurried back around the side of the Stryker. I let her go, not sure what I’d say that wouldn’t make things worse.

For the next couple of hours our refugees slowly settled in, and Kaplan set up watches in pairs. I grabbed a couple of ibuprofen tablets from the stash of over the counter pharmaceuticals we’d grabbed from the store and racked out on one of the Stryker’s padded benches a couple of hours before the first watch was scheduled to begin. Almost as soon as I laid my head back on the bench, it seemed like someone was shaking my foot to wake me up. Hernandez’s grinning face greeted me as I raised my head, and I flipped her off. Still I sat up and yawned, then grabbed my armor and my rifle. I was still rubbing sleep out of my eyes when I stumbled out the back of the vehicle to find Hernandez waiting with an equally bleary eyed Phil.

“It’s been pretty quiet,” she told me as I shrugged into my armor. “No walkers, no survivors. Radio traffic’s died down, too. The Disciples just have a couple of patrols out. Sounds like they lost one that was coming this way.”

“What’s it like inside the wire?” I asked.

“Little more active,” she said with a bemused smile. “Few folks wandered off and got busy in a couple of the bigger cars over on the south side. Had to break up a couple of arguments before everyone got settled; been quiet since then. Kaplan wants one person on the barricade at all times. Grab some snacks and a couple of sodas for your shift and keep an eye on each other.” We nodded and headed for the barricade after we grabbed snacks and a couple of cans of Dr. Pepper each.  Ruth was waiting by the barricade with the shotgun slung and a pistol belted on over her silk blouse. A bandolier of shotgun shells was draped across her shoulder. Her gaze was fixed on the west side of the garage as we approached, and she didn’t seem to notice us until we were almost to the barricade.

“Take a load off,” Phil said. Ruth turned to look at us and gave us a nod, but she didn’t move.

“Something doesn’t feel right,” she said softly, as much to herself as to us.

“It’s been a long day, Ruth,” Phil said gently. “Get some rest. I promise you, a few hours’ sleep and you’ll be a whole new woman.” She turned her gaze on him, the same blank look I was sure I often had when someone didn’t get what I was talking about. Her eyes turned to me, and I nodded to her.

“Be careful,” she said as she walked back toward the row of cars that had been turned into makeshift bunks. Phil leaned up against one of the cars and looked down the ramp, then turned to me. In the uncertain light of the fires outside, his grin was a white slash across his face.

“So, you turned Beth down,” he said casually. I turned to him with a frown on my face and a slack jaw.

“What?” I said when I regained the power of speech.

“She came back from her little talk with you saying you were queer,” he said. “So, I figure she made a pass at you and you turned her down.” I shook my head. I hadn’t intended to talk about it, but it sounded like she’d made it public knowledge with her remarks on my sexuality.

“She didn’t know my girlfriend was still alive,” I said, still trying to defend her dignity for some weird reason. “That’s all.”

“That’s some serious dedication, brother,” he laughed. “I’m not sure if I could have passed up getting some well-earned hero sex.”

“Easier than you’d think,” I said thoughtfully. “Getting laid isn’t something I think you earn.”

“Man, you have got to be kidding!” Phil said. “I didn’t do half what you guys did, and I’ve already had three girls offer to ‘thank’ me ‘til my balls fall off! After we get done here, I’m gonna see how much gratitude I can handle.”

“Just not the way I work,” I said.

“Whatever, man. More for the rest of us.”

Like Amy, Phil was able to talk about nothing endlessly. Unlike Amy, he didn’t seem to have an off switch for it. For the next hour, he talked and I made listening noises. I learned about both of his marriages and divorces, and most of the time he was on the Kansas City Police force. And his favorite place to get barbecue, his favorite beer, his favorite everything. He was just getting to the climax of a story about kicking down a door of what he thought was a domestic violence situation, only to find a professional domme and her client in the middle of a session, when his voice faltered and he looked behind me. I turned to see Amy shuffling our way, rubbing her eyes with one hand and cradling a soda can with the other.

“Couldn’t sleep,” she murmured as she worked her way under my arm. “Kept having bad dreams. This zombie kept asking me who I was, said he was coming to get me.” I hugged her to me and kissed the top of her head.

“Sorry, kiddo,” I told her. “Tell ya what, if you’re going to be up for a while, go get that case I put in your pack when we were in the hospital.” She headed back to the Stryker with a little more enthusiasm, and moments later came back with the tan case. I opened it and turned it toward her.

“Is that for me?” she asked.

“Yup. Nine millimeter Browning, or at least a close copy,” I told her as I dropped the magazine and pulled the slide back. I showed her how to load it and release the slide, then had her practice with an empty magazine. By the fourth time, she had the process down pretty smooth, so I had her load the two spare magazines from the box of ammo in the case. She was yawning when she slid the last round into the third mag. “The recoil on this is slightly less than on my forty-five, so you should be able to handle it a little better. Once you get a little stronger, you can move up to the Colt again if you want. Tomorrow, when we have more people awake ,I’ll show you how to field strip it and clean it.

“Thank you, Dave,” she said with something like her old smile. She stepped up and kissed me on the cheek, then grabbed the case and headed back toward the Stryker.

“Most girls like teddy bears or security blankets,” Ruth’s voice came from behind us.

“I’m very progressive,” I said as I turned to face her. “I’m going for the world’s deadliest dad award this year.” Ruth’s laugh was short, not much more than a courtesy to acknowledge that she knew it was supposed to be a joke.

“You’re up late,” Phil said. “Figured you would have been either sleeping or letting off a little steam.”

“Hardly,” she said with a grim smile. “After what I’ve seen the past few days, I think my libido is as dead as most of this city right now. And I’m too restless to sleep. Not unlike the young lady there.” I turned to look over my shoulder, and that was where things started to go horribly wrong.

I caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye, but before I could even glance that way, something had streaked across the ramp. It flew into the air in a shallow arc and landed on our level inches from Amy. She barely had time to turn toward it before it grabbed her and jumped back down to the ramp. In the time it took all of that to happen, I wasn’t able to do more than grab the M39. Whatever it was scampered around the corner with Amy over one shoulder as I brought the rifle up.

“Amy!” I yelled as I vaulted the makeshift barricade.

“Go get the others!” I heard Ruth say as my feet hit the ground. I heard gunshots below us, followed by a scream of primal fury and pain. More shots followed as I sprinted to the bottom of the ramp, and I heard a gurgling scream that was punctuated by a single shot. Behind me, I could hear the sound of someone else running, their bare feet slapping against the concrete as I rounded the first corner. Whatever had grabbed Amy had been faster than anything I’d ever seen before, and I couldn’t see her on the next ramp. My brain shifted gears as I realized I didn’t have the speed to catch up to her, but I did have a way to make up for lost time. Step for step, there was no way to catch up to whatever had grabbed Amy, but I didn’t have to run down the ramps. I turned toward the edge of the ramp and jumped the railing, letting my momentum carry me between the two levels to land on the next ramp going down. There was a twinge in my ankle as I tried to stop my momentum and reverse course, then I was dropping down onto the next level. Having learned my lesson, I turned my inertia into a roll and surged back to my feet to do the same thing again. This time, when I rolled to my feet on the next ramp, I found Amy standing over the corpse of whatever had grabbed her. It looked human, but its skin was bright red, and steam was rising from its flesh. Bright red blood was pooled around its emaciated looking body as it lay with its disjointed looking limbs in total disarray. Amy’s face was slack in shock as she watched the thing before her twitch, and she didn’t seem to know what was right behind her.