Containment (23 page)

Without a word, Malachi brought her down with a single pull of his trigger, the bullet finding its way through her forehead and out the back of her skull.

“Thanks, Malachi.”

“Don’t mention it.” He wanted to say that he hoped that those three bullets would start him on the path toward trust again. Malachi, however, would never have been able to fully verbalize that sentiment. It wasn’t that clear even for him. How could he possibly be able to communicate it to someone else?

Jerry said, still leaning back on his heels, “That’s not what I was smellin’ and I can hear them now too.”

“Them?” asked Claire, a grimace spreading across her face like a very aggressive rash.

“Yeah.”

“How many Them?”

“A few...at least.” Claire moaned.

Dr. Caldwell said, “So maybe this isn’t going to be as easy as we’d hoped.”

Art sneered under his breath, “I knew it. Now we’re fucked.”

Forgetting the acid that was building in her stomach like a toxic storm, Claire shot him a look and very nearly growled at him. “Don’t worry, Art. I’m sure you’ll find a way to get yourself through this.”

“Stop it goddamnit!” Neil spat. “We don’t have time for this.”

Meghan asked, “So now what? Do we wade into there and hope that Jerry’s “few” is really just a few? Or do we go back around and just hit another pocket somewhere else?”

Art interjected, not even attempting to disguise the contempt in his voice, “Or we could just go back.”

Neil repeated, “Or we could just go back.”

Everyone looked surprised and a little confused.

He shrugged his shoulders and said pointedly, “Folks, mine aren’t the only ideas here. Going back is definitely an option. I personally think that going back to Charles’ now would be selfish of us and draw the damned zekes right to him. I think it’s nice to have that refuge behind us if we need it, but I think it should be a last resort. We can go back to another house and board it up like we did before. But also like before, I think it would just be a matter of time before they sniffed us out and then we’d have to escape again but this time on foot. At least now, we’re moving on our terms. I will say though, that the longer we sit here debating it, the more danger we’re in.”

“Why don’t we go into one of these buildings and see if we can get a better view of our surroundings?” Emma suggested. “Maybe then we could choose a way through town.”

Dr. Caldwell smiled. “Now that’s a great idea.”

She smiled doubtfully. “It is?

Neil nodded and replied, “I think it’s a helluvan idea. I’d say the one where our friends here came from is off the list, but what about one of the others nearby?”

Meghan asked, “How do we know which one?”

Malachi said, without changing his expression or looking away from the road ahead, “Locked doors.”

“What?”

“Look for locked doors.”

Dr. Caldwell, again beaming, said, “You’re a genius, Mal.”

Without any further delay, they ran across the street to a tallish, nondescript, giant rectangle of a box with a door on the front building. The big glass door was locked and looked unmolested.

Jerry suggested, “We could go around to the back of the building. I think there’s a parking lot, another entrance, and some office windows on the ground floor back there. I think we should go in one of the windows. Even if we break it, we can close and bar the door of the office the window is in. Regardless of what we do, I think we need to do it now. They’re probably just around the corner up the street.”

Meghan said, “Then why the hell are we still standing around talking about it?”

Just a few minutes later, they were climbing the stairs to the top floor and a possible view of the streets and open spaces around them. There was a certain sense of security about being back inside but none of them were fooled into believing that they were actually safe.

Even with flashlights and the scant light coming in through windows, it felt like they were journeying deeper and deeper into a cave. Appearing to be both following and preceding, their footsteps echoed the entire length of the stairwell, prompting them on more than one occasion to pause and determine that they were still alone in the building. The silence that ensued each time they stopped was worse than the cacophony of sound that preceded it.

Out of breath and sweating, they arrived at the top floor to find the door was locked. To make matters worse, there wasn’t a window on this door as there had been on the doors behind them.

Claire asked, “So now what?”

Neil leaned his shoulder into the door and pushed as hard as he was able but there wasn’t even so much as a shudder by the door on its hinges. He and Jerry stood back away from the door and threw themselves against it with much the same result. They were about ready to do it again when Malachi’s hands found their shoulders and restrained them.

“Why don’t all of you go back down the steps a couple of flights and let me have a go with this,” he said, holding up a shotgun.

Neil, smiling in the dark, said, “Now why didn’t I think of that?”

“I’ll need someone to hold a flashlight up here but everyone else can wait down there. You folks might want to cover your ears. It’s gonna be loud in here.”

He was right. It was loud. Their footsteps were nothing compared to the roar from the gun. Luckily, however, it worked. Malachi and Dr. Caldwell kicked the door, which swung back and forth on its hinges, trying to mimic its rustic cousin, the saloon door.

The hallway into which the door opened led to several larger conference rooms that were positioned on each corner of the building’s top floor.

Dr. Caldwell said, “I think we’ve got pay dirt here.”

Emma mused playfully, “What, you a miner now?”

“Ya gotta have a hobby.”

“And yours is mining?”

“No.”

“Okay, now I’m totally confused.”

“I prefer to think of it as suspense rather than as confusion.”

“Whatever it is; I’m there.”

“I watch a lot of History Channel and lately they’ve run some shows about the history of mining.”

“Lately?”

“Well, you know. Before, when GCI cable wasn’t on permanent hiatus.”

From down at one of the conference room doors, Jerry said, “I think this is the one. Door’s still locked. Malachi, you want to do the honors?”

Malachi stepped up and eyed the door for a second or two. He took a deep breath and exhaled loudly as he pounded the bottom of his foot hard against the door just above and to the right of the door handle.

The door flew inward heavily, slamming with a thud against a comfortable looking chair parked a little too far away from the long, heavy, dark table that sat in the middle of and dominated the room.

Jerry shrugged his shoulders and said with a smile, “Ya gotta give it to him. The man’s got a way with doors.”

Neil smiled and entered the room. It had a solid two walls of windows looking out over much of downtown Anchorage. As he approached the window he said over his shoulder, “You guys have gotta see this.”

If he didn’t know any better, he could have mistaken what he was seeing for a very well attended but subdued rally for grey people. There were hundreds of the ashen skinned monstrosities loitering in and around an intersection at which sat an open parking lot on one corner. The mass of ghouls didn’t move much. Every now and again, the crowd was collectively affected with tics and spasms that sent arms into the air and heads turning and twisting. It was one of the most inorganic things he’d seen them do to date, aside from the killing and eating of anyone and everyone around them that is.

As Jerry and Malachi stepped up, Neil said, “I guess it’s a good thing we looked before we leapt, huh?”

Jerry dropped himself into one of the very soft looking plush office chairs situated around the table. The chair swiveled awkwardly as he turned himself to get a look out the window. Now seeing the spectacle, Jerry leaned forward in the chair to truly take in the scene below.

The few seconds of awed silence was cut when Jerry remarked, “How did anyone get anything done having a meeting with this view? Jesus, I don’t think I’d be able to concentrate on a thing being said up here.”

Leaning back and with just the slightest hint of a smirk on his face he asked, “Did you say something, Neil? What about jumping?”

“Funny. So now that we can see better, I guess we won’t be heading that way. Better to learn that from up here than down there. What about that way?”

From behind them Meghan asked, “What’s down there?”

Jerry said, “I think it speaks better for itself than we ever could. Come hither.”

Neil laughed and said with a warm smile, “Boy, that chair has really had quite the affect on you. Hasn’t it your majesty?”

“Let’s just say, my good man, that I could get used to having the finer things in life.”

“You don’t say.”

“You could too if only you worked as hard as I did when I was a young lad. I started out with nothing...and yet here I am today...at the top of the world. Well, at the top of this building anyway.”

Neil rolled his eyes and started to step away. He asked Meghan, “Where is everyone else?”

“There are clean bathrooms up here with toilet paper and water in the bowl. Where do you think everyone else is?”

Using the conference table as it was intended, the entire group found themselves sitting about the dark oaken monolith to discuss their options. The discussion had ebbed and flowed; the few ideas truly embraced by everyone examined and evaluated from every possible angle.

Art still persisted that going back was their best option. Unfortunately, that was the only opinion he shared...and shared and shared and shared. Even Jules felt like he was being a little obsessive and repetitive. She probably would have even said he sounded like a broken record, if she had been familiar with the expression.

“Okay, okay,” Claire said. “We get it. You think we should go back. We hear you loud and clear. Since none of the rest of us agree with you, maybe you should just stop bringing it up or take off by yourself. Nobody’s gonna stop you. You can head on back and be safe if that’s what you want to do.” Claire spoke in her typical fashion that she reserved for Art alone. She simply did not like Art and she didn’t care who knew, including Art. “Why don’t you do something constructive for a change, like shut up?”

Art’s glare was full of poison but he declined to respond to Claire’s barbs.

Trying to defuse a bomb that had already detonated, Neil asked, “Other suggestions?”

Dr. Caldwell said, “How about the Atwood? The Performing Arts Center? And we could use the sky bridge to go across to the Egan Center.”

Meghan asked, “Won’t the Egan be bad too?”

“I don’t think so and neither should the Atwood. With the new Dena‘ina Convention Center opened, the Egan kind of lost its status as a primary civic collection point. I mean, how many events have switched to the new joint already? How many concerts or whatever have any of you been to at the Egan recently? Any? I know most of the conferences that I attend, if they aren’t at one of the area’s hotels, they are usually at the Dena'ina lately. It’s all about new and shiny when it comes to hosting. And the Atwood is just a big theater. It has no emergency appeal or function to my knowledge. I think we should be good at both places.”

Emma finished with, “Okay, but how do we get there? We can see the bastards over there, but there’s no telling what’s on the other side of those buildings there. For all we know, there could be groups of those things at every corner...in every alley...everywhere.”

“It’s probably better that we just assume that,” Jerry said. “What’s the saying, hope for the best but plan for the worst?”

Neil added, “I think that should just be our motto from here on out.”

With the exception of Art, who merely held his dissenting opinion to himself, everyone agreed that, without any other options seemingly available, Dr. Caldwell’s suggestion made the most sense. They plotted a course that took them from building to building until they reached the Atwood.

On the run again...

They emerged into the back parking lot of the building to find a trio of the fiends loitering amidst the yellow parking stripes. The awkward, stutter-stepping nightmares came at them like faded and weary but persistent salesmen. And they weren’t going to take no for an answer. Meghan screamed when she saw them, stumbling awkwardly backward into Claire who also screamed.

Malachi stepped forward with his pistol at the ready but Jerry interrupted with, “No! Don’t use a gun. It will only draw more attention to us.”

Art asked sarcastically, “You want us to use bad language?”

From behind them, Dr. Caldwell said, “No, I think these will do,” and handed Neil an aluminum baseball bat.

Neil said as he walked away from the group, “Get the kids back inside. They don’t need to see this.” To Dr. Caldwell he said, “How we going to do this Doc?”