Deadlocked 6 (25 page)

"Kim, stop!" said Hero.

"My son was mauled by one of your fucking experiments!"

"Kim, he wasn't the one that did it," said Hero, but I ignored him.

"I watched as they ripped his hand and foot off. I watched them eat him, and it was all so you could try to find me? Is that why you did that?"

Every bit of welled up hatred exploded forth. All of the repressed rage and depression that I'd suffered since the day my son was nearly killed now poured out of me. I screamed at the old man as I prepared to murder him.  "Is that why I was forced to watch them eat my son alive? Is that what you're saying?"

The trigger guard was pressed against his bottom lip as the gun filled his esophagus. If I could've shoved my arm down his throat and pulled his heart out, I would've gladly done it before crushing it beneath my feet. I'd never experienced hatred like this. This was what it felt like to lose your sanity. My world spun, and it felt like killing this man could still it once more. I pushed harder, and his jaw popped as he pushed at my chest. He clawed at me and fell to his knees as I pushed down harder, causing him to wretch and writhe beneath me.

Hero wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me back. I broke into sobs as I let go of the gun. My entire world shattered as Hero pulled me back. I collapsed into his arms and we fell to the floor as my gun clattered on the tile. He pulled me into his lap as I wailed in agony.

Every pain I'd endured resurfaced as the events of the worst day of my life sprang back with vivid detail. David was four years old at the time, and was a gorgeous little boy. My husband, Arthur, and I were happily married, and had spent the day together after returning from our separate missions. Arthur and Dustin were part of one team, while Hero and I were on another, and we'd been scouting a supposed military installation up near the ruins of Nederland the day before. Hero had dropped a few bombs into the airshafts, which was how Billy had instructed us to hamper their underground bases. Afterward, we returned to the High Roller camp to spend time with our families before heading out on another mission.

No one was certain why we were attacked, but many of us assumed it was as retaliation for the attack in Nederland. Empty trucks were discovered near our camp after the zombies appeared, and many of us concluded that the Greys hadn't simply happened upon us, but were planted there.

Arthur was cooking while I watched David play. I remember closing my eyes as the afternoon sun shone done on me. The sound of David playing calmed me. I fell asleep, and wasn't watching my son when the Greys snuck in. When I woke up, a creature was crawling into our camp from under one of the trailers. It grabbed my leg and tried to pull me under as I screamed out for help.

I've never been able to forget what happened next. In every nightmare I've had in the years since, this plays out with horrific detail. Most nights I wake up crying, the vision of what happened to my son still haunting me.

David was holding a plastic action figure that I'd brought back for him from a recent scavenging mission. It was a muscular man in armor, with a hard plastic body and soft plastic head. David thought it looked like his father.

My little boy cried out as he watched me being pulled under the truck, and I yelled at him to run.

That's when the hands appeared from under the truck beside him. The zombies had invaded our camp, and were crawling beneath the trucks. The Roller that was supposed to be on watch had been shot by a sniper from far off, and none of us realized he was dead.

I kicked at the creature that held me, but couldn't break free. I clawed at the earth, my nails bending as I tried to pull myself forward, but there were too many hands dragging me backward.

One of the monsters took David's hand, the one that was holding the toy, and bit into it. My little angel cried out to me for help, and I did everything I could to get to him, but the demons were too vicious. They ripped and clawed at my boy, tearing the skin from his bones as I watched.

A Grey put David's little finger into its mouth and I heard his bone crunch. The rotting corpse ripped his finger off.

"It's okay, Kim," said Hero as he held me.

"No it's not," I said as the memory of that awful day returned. "It's never been okay. I'm the reason David got hurt."

"No you're not," said Hero as he cradled me. "There was nothing you could do."

"It's not just that I didn't save him. The whole reason these fuckers attacked was because they were trying to get to me. It was all my fault. Everything's always been my fault."

Hero shushed me as I crumbled. The past couple years had been hell for me, and I was suddenly forced to realize it. The attack that crippled David had changed me for the worse. All of the demons that plagued me were set free, and I allowed hatred to consume every waking moment. I blamed myself for what happened, and would never be weak again.

My relationships fell apart. Hero partnered with Annie, and I always knew it was because he disliked the change he saw in me. Then Arthur and I started fighting endlessly as he sided with my mother. They wanted peace, and I had no interest in it. Our marriage never recovered, and I turned into a bloodthirsty soldier. Revenge was all I cared about, and would never settle for anything less. There would be no peace until I murdered everyone that might've been connected to what happened to my son.

I hated who I'd become.

"I feel so," I searched for the appropriate word, "broken."

"Hush up, girl," said Hero and then kissed my forehead. "It's going to be all right. You and I are going to make it out of here, and save the world. Okay? Hey, look at me." He put his finger under my chin and lifted my head so that we were looking at one another. "You're one of the good guys. Always have been."

"I have to get back to David. I have to save him."

Hero nodded and then winked at me. "There's a facility full of super charged, insane zombies out there waiting for us to go kick their ass. What's say we get to work, kid?"

I loved my partner. "Let's do it."

Levon Kline

I picked Kim up and held her waist. She'd broken down, and I'd been expecting this for years. I loved this girl, and had been with her since she was six years old. If we weren’t family, then no one is. When her son was attacked, she changed into a new person, and I knew it wouldn't last. This caring, gentle, beautiful girl had transformed into an emotionless killer, and I knew it would end up destroying her.

"Can you guys help us get out?" I asked the scientists.

"You can't make it out," said the lead scientist. "They'll kill you if you go out the front, and the rear entrance is flooded with the zombies. We're safe here for now. Jerald cut off our communication abilities, but Beatrice is headed here now. When she gets here and sees what's going on, she'll call in reinforcements immediately. We can wait for them to get here."

"How long will that take?"

He shrugged and glanced at the other two men. "I don't know. Maybe a few days. A week at most."

"Not a chance," said Kim. "They're planning on trapping the Rollers. We have to save them. Do you know what his plan is?"

"I don't know for sure," said the scientist, "but I'd bet they're going to try and force them into one of the towns where they're storing the bodies. Then they're going to release them. That way, they can search for corpses after everything is finished. Any of the dead that don't transform are possible carriers of the antibodies they're looking for; the ones that are in you."

I thought of the truck at the burning yard, the one that Kim had been driving. Hailey and Stitch were among the dead that hadn’t turned, and I wondered if that was because they were immune to the Popper strain.

"Then we need to get out of here," said Kim. "There's no way I'm staying and waiting for your friends to come save us."

"No." The scientist was earnest as he reached out to Kim. "You can't risk your life. You're too important. If something happened to you," he shook his head and was flustered as he tried to explain. "It would be catastrophic."

"I don't give a fuck," said Kim. "My son needs me. My family needs me."

'The world needs you." The old man was desperate to change Kim's mind, but I knew he was a fool to try. "You're the key to surviving this. I'm not overstating it when I say this: Every living creature on this planet needs you."

Kim looked up at me and grinned. "Did you hear that, Hero?"

"It must be nice to be so important," I said and smiled back.

"Look, you old fuck," said Kim as she glared at the scientist. "Nothing you say is going to stop me from trying to save my family. If that means you have to scrape up pieces of me with a shovel after I'm dead, then so be it. I'm
going to go do what I have to."

"Then at least let us take some of your blood," he said. "Maybe we can use it to create the antibodies. Please, be reasonable here. As soon as you open the door to the rear of the facility, you could release the worst plague this planet has ever seen."

"If I give you my blood, then we lose our bargaining power," said Kim. "As long as you need me, my family has a better chance of being safe."

"You're willing to kill every single living thing on the planet then? You can't be serious!"

I winked at the old man and said, "Not every living thing. Not the birds."

The old man threw up his arms and sighed, "Oh, that's just great. That's just great! You're both insane. I can't believe this. I can't fucking believe this."

"Well," I said, "you'd better start, because you're coming with us."

"What?" He stepped back as if I'd threatened him.

Kim got up and I followed after. She picked up her gun and dusted herself off as I faced off with the scientist. "You're going to help us find some guns, and then show us how to get out of here."

"There aren't any guns," said the old man. "That's why this is so stupid. There's no way you're going to make it out of here alive."

"Don’t' forget," I said. "You're coming too."

He shook his head. "No, I'm not. I'm not dumb enough to go in there."

"Sure you are," said Kim as she pointed the gun at him. "Come on, it'll be fun."

"You're both insane."

Kim started laughing and nodded. "Oh yeah, that's the truth. Now give your buddies a kiss goodbye, darling. It's time to move."

"I'm not going. You'll have to kill me."

Kim steeled her jaw and glared at him. "I will literally scoop your eyeballs out with a spoon if you don't shut the fuck up and start moving. Go ahead, test me. I've had a shitty day, and torture makes me smile." She paused and waited for him to respond. When he didn't, she added, "I'm in the mood for a few smiles." She glanced around at the three men.

"Just go," said one of the other scientists.

"That's right, pops," I said. "Welcome to the team. We've got shirts."

"You two are absolutely insane."

"Would you quit saying that?" I said. "I'm still kind of sane. She's the one that's crazy."

Kim smiled, and looked appropriately mad.

"If you go out the back," said the old man, "then you're going to be covered in the pheromones that attract the zombies. Even if you get out, every Grey within a mile of you is going to chase you down."

"What pheromones?" I asked. "What are you talking about?"

"That's how we got the zombies to retreat. We released them, and they chased the soldiers out, but then we had to make sure they didn't come after us. This facility was built with a failsafe when we were forced to start working on this new virus. The rear of the building has tanks full of the pheromone that we can release, which will attract all of the zombies, and then we were supposed to escape through the main entrance. Afterward, we could purge the entire place."

"But you can't just purge one specific area?" I asked.

He shook his head.

I jerked a thumb at him and shook my head at Kim. "Scientists. They're not all that smart sometimes."

"No shit," she said.

"So the rear entrance is flooded with these assfucks," I said. "Any idea how we can murder them all, mister…" I realized I didn't know the old man's name. "What's your name anyhow?"

"William."

"Hi, Willy. I'm Hero, and this is Kim."

He seemed surprised that I was offering my hand for him to shake. He did so reluctantly and said, "I prefer William."

"Okay, Willy," said Kim. "How are we going to kill these pieces of shit?"

"I don't know," said William. "We can't just kill them, we have to incinerate them. Honestly, you two don't seem to comprehend what we're dealing with here. We can't let the virus get out."

"Okay then," I said as I walked out into the hall with Kim leading William behind me. "Do you have any guns or bombs or anything like that around here?"

"No," he shook his head furiously as we walked. "Our guards took all of our guns and gave a few of us pistols. That's all we have."

"And Jerald killed the guards?" I asked.

William nodded.

"And you've got no backup?" asked Kim.

"No," said William. "You two are planning on charging into a group of zombies with nothing but a couple of pistols. It's suicide. You two are going to get us all killed."

"You're supposed to be a scientist, aren't you?" asked Kim. "Can't you build a bomb out of some of the shit around here?"

"I'm a geneticist, not a biochemist."

"Did you have janitors?" I asked.

"What?" He was perplexed.

"Janitors," I said as I made a sweeping motion. "You know, the mother fuckers that cleaned this place. You've got to have cleaning supplies around here, don't you?"

"Well, sure," he said.

"Okay then. Take me to their supply room," I said. "Let's see what we can find."

William led us along, but was stunned when he saw the bloody hallway that Kim and I had passed earlier. He stuttered as he pointed down the hall. "It's down there."

"All right," I said. "Let's go then."

"We can't."

"Why not?" asked Kim.

"The blood. We might get infected."

She sneered and shook her head. "Are you planning on licking the walls or something? Just stay away from the bloody bits."

"This is a terrible plan," said William.

I chuckled and started to walk down the hall. "Welcome to the team, Willy. We're not well known for our great plans."

He led us toward the janitor's closet, being careful to avoid every speck of blood along the way. I laughed at his cautiousness and pretended like I was about to start licking the walls.

"The snozberries taste like snozberries," I said, but Kim didn't react. "Come on, it's from Willy Wonka. Don't you two know anything?"

William reached a door and waved a card in front of it to release the lock. I went in and took a quick inventory of what they had.

"Okay, there're
some good options here," I said as I read the generic labels on each of the items.

"Are you some sort of bomb expert?" asked William.

"Yes," said Kim. "He's been doing this for years. Maybe you've heard about our crew dropping bombs down the airshafts of your facilities."

"Yes, I've heard about that." William nodded. "You never found this place though. We kept it pretty well hidden."

"Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've created," I said and glanced over my shoulder at them, expecting a reaction. They both looked at me as if waiting for me to make a point. "Seriously you two? Fucking Star Wars, man."

"Sorry," said Kim. "I only saw it that one time you forced me to."

"For crying out loud," I said as I gathered supplies. "I don't know how we were ever partners. I bet you didn't understand half the shit I said back then. All those great lines I used to use, and you would just smile and nod. You probably never understood a damn one of them."

"Come on, MacGyver," said Kim.

"You fucking know who MacGyver is, but you don't know my line from Star Wars? Shit, baby, I failed you. For real, darling."

"Don't worry," she pat my back. "I don't know who the hell MacGyver is either. It's just something you used to say all the time."

"No culture," I said as I started putting canisters of cleaner on the ground near the door. "I fear for the future."

"What is all this?" asked William as he inspected the cleaning supplies. "What are you planning on doing with this stuff?"

"Well, I can probably hook us up with a few Molotov's. That should be easy enough. If I had enough time to cool this stuff down I could make a few really nice little bombs for us, but I don't think we have time for that. And I'd need some Hydrochloric Acid too."

"I can get that for you," said William. "We used to keep it for testing the bacteria's resistance to stomach acid."

"No shit?" I asked and smiled, then shrugged. "Doesn't matter though. I'd need to cool everything down for a while. We don't have time for that."

"What about nitrogen cooling tanks?" asked William. "We've got those, if that would help."

I looked at the canister of acetone and smirked as a destructive plan presented itself. "Yeah, it might. It's worth a try."

We gathered the chemicals and William led us to a lab that had all the equipment I could hope for. I'd been making bombs for Billy out of any supplies we managed to scavenge, and creating them in a lab like the one in William's facility was far easier. Within no time, I'd managed to cook up a fair amount of Acetone Peroxide that we purified in coffee filters in the sink. I had Kim work on making fuses out of tissue paper, sugar, and a dash of saltpeter that they'd been using as a preservative. William stood gawking over my shoulder through the entire process, asking me questions about my methods. I finally had to tell him to gather some bottles and he returned with various glass beakers that he'd found in the lab's cabinets. He also brought some plastic bottles, but I told him I wanted the glass ones.

"Want me to scoop it in one of these?" asked William as he approached a pile of white powder that I'd left unattended as I prepared the next batch.

"Don't touch that!" I nearly dropped the mixture of cooled acetone and hydrochloric acid that I was filtering in the sink.

He raised his hands and backed away, startled and shaken by my anger. "Sorry, I was just trying to help."

"Yeah, well, go help somewhere else. This is the part where I need to concentrate. Why don't you make a few Molotov's? We're going to need those to start a fire after I toss a couple of these at our friends."

"This won't cause a fire?" he asked as he looked at the white powder I'd been collecting from the mixture.

"No. This shit just makes things go boom. And I mean, a really big boom."

"How much do we need?" asked William.

"Probably not more than that," I nodded at the pile of powder in front of him. "I'm going to make us a lot more though, just in case."

"Are you sure that's safe?"

I looked at him and started to laugh. "No it's not safe, man. That's the whole fucking point. Now go make me some firebombs, safety patrol."

He grumbled and complained about everything he could think of as he walked away. Kim came over with the tissue paper fuses and leaned on the counter to watch as I finished filtering the powder for the second bomb.

"Jesus, Hero. You're making too much. That's enough to blow up this whole damn place…"

She stiffened and I didn’t need to look at her to know that recognition had lightened her face.

"Don't get excited." I focused on pouring the mixture through the folded coffee filter. The excess liquid dripped into the drain below. The bomb was made with the white, crystalline residue that the cold liquid left in the filter. The remaining liquid didn't matter.

"Are you going to do what I think you're going to do?" she asked quietly and looked over her shoulder at William.

"I don't know yet."

"Do I get a vote?" she asked.

"Sure. Doesn't mean I'm going to do what you want, but if it makes you feel better to cast a vote then go for it."

"I say you do it," she said. "Blow the whole damn place straight to hell."

"And what good will that do us?"

"What do you mean?" She sounded more angry than perplexed.

"If we blow this place up, what will that get us?"

"Dude, are you turning into my mother or something?" asked Kim.

I was about to nod, but didn't want to send Kim into a rage, so I tried to explain what I was feeling instead. "You know that doctor you killed?"

"Which one?"

"The one with the ponytail."

"Yeah," she said. "What about her?"

"Her name was Faith. I had a chance to talk to her for a little bit, and she was going to help us get out. I mean, I'm not one hundred percent sure she would've, but she was pretty sick of the killing. She didn't have anything to do with the apocalypse, but she got stuck in the middle of it. Just like us."

"What's your point?"

"My point, babe, is that maybe all this time that we've been dropping bombs down on people in these facilities, maybe we were killing people that didn't deserve to die."

"Fuck that," she said quickly. "They deserved what they got."

"You mean like Celeste?"

She was incensed by that and scowled at me. "What's that supposed to mean? I never wanted to hurt her."

"Yeah, but she came from one of the facilities that I dropped bombs down into. That's how she was able to break out. What if I killed her?"

Kim watched me pour the liquid through the filter. "Collateral damage."

"Yeah, right." I poured the last of the mixture and then set the canister beside the sink. The fumes from the chemicals made me light headed, and normally I wouldn't have dared say what I said next. "Was David's injuries collateral damage too?"

"Fuck you." She stood tall and looked like she was going to hit me. She didn't, because she'd been partners with me long enough to know that it wasn't a good idea to hit me when I was carrying volatile chemicals. "That's low, Hero. Don't fucking go there."

"I'm not trying to piss you off. I'm just trying to make a point." I carefully set the filter on the counter and unfolded it. I was wearing thick rubber gloves that stripped me of any manual dexterity and I nearly dumped the powder on the floor. That would've been a deadly mistake.

I'd nearly killed us with clumsiness, and it took a few seconds for my heart to calm down enough for me to continue. "You and I have been doing this shit for years, and where's it gotten us? I've bombed a lot of people, Kim. I killed a lot of sons and fathers, mothers and daughters, and never stopped to think about it. How many of them felt like Faith did? How many of them wanted to put an end to this? Matter of fact, how do we know we didn't bomb a fucking preschool full of girls like Celeste? Think about that."

Kim was focused on what I'd said about David, and she still looked angry. "Everything I've done was for David. All I want is for him to be safe. I'd die for him."

"So would I. Shit, I'd die for you too, babe. That's not the point. The point is: What's the best way to keep him safe?"

"By killing all the people that would even think of hurting him."

I nodded as I set aside another pile of white powder before getting started on the next batch. "I'm with you on that, babe. No doubt. Only problem is," I wiped away the sweat from my brow onto the rolled sleeve of my hospital gown, "are you sure you're killing the right people? Because, if we're just killing everyone that might ever be a problem for us, then we're no better than the fuckers that started the plague."

That shut her up.

She walked away from me. I wasn't sure if she was contemplating what I'd said or if she was just too pissed off to continue talking. I focused on making the bombs, and the three of us worked in silence until everything was ready.

I watched as Kim searched through the drawers in the lab for anything that might be useful. Nothing caught her eye until she opened a drawer at the far end of the counter I was working at. She stopped and stared at whatever was inside and I watched as she reached in. There were syringes in the drawer, and she pocketed a few of them. I didn't ask her why.

Kim helped me wrap the four vials of Acetone Peroxide, and she didn't ask me about setting bombs to destroy the facility after we left. I thought that was a good sign, and hoped that she understood my mindset after what we'd discussed. We taped the fuses into the containers and I carefully stuffed them into a canvas bag that we'd found in the lab. William held two Moltov's, and Kim took the pistols.

"One problem," I said, embarrassed that I'd just thought of this now. "How are we going to light these fuckers?"

"I've got a lighter," said William. His arms were full so he motioned to his left pocket by nodding at it. Kim put one of the pistols down and reached into William's pocket. She pulled out a stainless steel Zippo.

"Badass mother fucker?" asked Kim as she read the inscription on the lighter.

"Yeah," said William. "I'd asked for a wallet with that on it, but my wife got me a lighter instead."

"Nice," I said.