Foamers (12 page)

Argos collided with a man who had a crusted red mouth and wrestled him to the ground.
John fought his shaking body as he snatched his rifle and aimed point-blank at the
creature’s head.

He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger. After the gunshots, the creature was
still. John pushed himself to his feet as more monsters closed in from the other
two hallways.

The closest one, a stick figure of a girl crawling on all fours, leapt for Tiny’s
back. The barrel of John’s rifle swung around as he held down the trigger. The spray
slammed the girl into the wall, and the force lifted the barrel toward the ceiling.
As John leaned back with the rifle, his foot slipped in his vomit and he crashed
backward, the dull thwack of his helmet hitting the floor echoing in his ears. The
air rushed from his lungs as a foamer jumped knees-first onto his chest. A warm liquid
ran down his legs, followed by a splatter of blood across his face as Tiny’s knife
slit the creature’s throat.

Her delicate fingers curled around the helmet strap and roughly hoisted John to his
feet. “Go get the others.”

John ran to the door then stopped. The other two weren’t with him. He wasn’t a coward.
He spun around, letting the end of his rifle find the nearest target, and closed
his eyes as he pulled the trigger.

Kade yelled in pain. John was terrified to open his eyes. A body slammed him through
the first door, then the second. He tripped over his own feet and fell down the steps,
landing on the sidewalk.

“Get up!” Tiny yelled at him. Before his mind knew what his body was doing, John
was on his feet and staring at the embodiment of rage. “Go get the others.”

John’s feet bit against the concrete and he felt the cold air blow by him as he ran
for the dorm. His shoes pattered across the road and he launched over the curb, landing
softly in the grass.

Mick stood next to the skeleton of what was once the ambulance. He was stripping
the panels for Grace to use in her fireplace. John stopped and put his rifle on his
knees, catching his breath as sweat and vomit burned his eyes.

“Are you hurt?” Mick asked.

“Not my blood. Those … things … foamers … They’re everywhere.”

Mick pulled his police jacket off the ambulance frame and tossed it on. He grabbed
his walkie. “Grace, we’ve got an emergency.”

Mick checked the pistol on his police belt and grabbed John by the shirt, dragging
him back toward the infirmary.

“I was told to run away,” John said.

“And I’m telling you we’re going back,” Mick said.

Cresting the steps, gunfire and wounded screams escaped through the doors.

Inside, Tiny stood in the center of the lobby, Kade leaned against her legs in a
sitting position and Argos beside him. They were entirely surrounded by a perimeter
of foamers. Each creature was skittish, like a newborn animal unsure of what to do
without guidance. The foamers seemed to be waiting for one of their kind to take
the lead, but were all too apprehensive to be the first to approach their attackers.

Tiny fired her last three-round burst at an advancing foamer, adding it to the pile
of bodies. Some of those bodies were dead, others were dying, and some were merely
wounded. She slung the empty rifle across her back and switched to her pistol and
knife, while Kade reloaded his shotgun.

“It’s me, it’s me, it’s me!” Mick yelled, bursting through the doors. The foamers
holding the line between the door and Kade scattered out of the way while Mick and
John rushed into the center of the circle. John felt as if he was surrounded by a
pack of hungry wolves. The foamers all leered at them with foaming red mouths, sizing
up their meal.

John felt a soul crushing weight of guilt when he saw the two bullet holes he had
put in Kade. The wounds were just above his hip and on the outside of his quad. As
Kade worked the action on the shotgun, John couldn’t help but marvel that everyone
here was a badass.

A foamer rushed at them, and Kade unloaded a blast of buckshot into the beast’s face.
The troop became frenzied, and all at once, the ring closed on them. They opened
fire, hoping to turn back the wall of flesh, but their ammo wouldn’t outlast the
attack.

“Tiny. John. Get him out of here,” Mick said as he drew his baton from his belt.

“No fucking way. You guys make a run for it,” Kade said as Mick smashed his baton
across the nearest foamer’s head.

“Tiny,” Mick said in a calm, cool voice.

“Grab him,” Tiny said to John as they each snagged Kade under an arm. Kade refused
to go easily and squirmed to free himself.

“See you on the other side,” Mick said.

He opened fire on the foamers blocking the door, causing them to scramble. John and
Tiny dragged Kade out of the infirmary, leaving a red trail behind with Argos chasing
after them.

Mick knew his chances of making it through the doors were slim, but he had given
Kade the opportunity he needed, and that was more than anyone had ever given him
before. He spun around as the swarm descended on him. He didn’t waste his time counting
them and went to work cutting their number down. Slamming the baton against the throat
of an approaching foamer, he spun away to the next creature, crashing the handle
down on its head. As he kept rotating, he swiped the leg of a charging beast and
sent it crashing into the others. Continuing his tornado-like spinning, he popped
off two more shots, dropping a foamer with each one. The third shot clicked empty.

As his death seemed inevitable, Mick could at least make peace with burying the regret
that he had never told Lucas how he truly felt. No one had ever known. And now no
one ever would.

But even as his mind was starting to give up, his body would not. Without losing
momentum, he tossed the pistol away and grabbed the collar of the nearest foamer,
ramming his knee into its chest. Shoving the foamer to the ground, he made a run
for the door, but one of the foamers tackled him from behind. As he fell beneath
a sea of bodies, he clung to the thought that the Primal Age wasn’t for people like
him, it was for people like Kade.

Outside, they were halfway back to the dorm when Kade finally broke free. He pushed
his way onto his feet, but Tiny tackled him. He wanted to dislodge her and get back
to the fight, to get back to Mick, but he knew that he couldn’t harm her even if
his life depended on it.

“Stop. You can’t go back,” she said gently, like a mother consoling a sick child.

He couldn’t fathom why Mick would die for him, he who was already dead.

“I’m going back. He’s not dying for me!” he shouted.

John’s stomach turned as he realized this was his fault. If he hadn’t shot Kade,
then Mick wouldn’t be in there right now. Mick was going to die because of him. Mick
may already be dead because of him. He couldn’t let that happen. He would not let
that happen.

He took one lead-heavy step forward.

“Kid, don’t think about it,” Kade hissed, still trying to wriggle out from under
Tiny.

She glared at him with dagger eyes that made him want to curl into the fetal position.
“I’m not digging two holes.”

“Tiny,” Kade pleaded.

“Mick made the choice. I won’t let you waste that.”

“Please.”

“We need to get you back so I can patch you up.”

“I won’t leave him.”

“He’s gone, Kade. Honor his sacrifice.”

The doors burst open, and Mick sprinted out with a Taser in one hand and his baton
in the other. A flood of foamers poured out behind him in every direction, like
a herd of spooked deer with their tails in the air. Kade tried to put himself in
one of their minds. Mentally there were only a few days old and had spent those days
trapped in a building. Their experiences couldn’t have been anything more than instincts.

“He’s alive. Now get up.” Tiny lifted off of Kade and helped him to his feet.

“They’re coming,” John said, watching a group of foamers bound toward them on all
fours.

“Give me your rifle. Run back. Drop the gurney and safety rope,” Tiny said as Mick
caught up to them, sweating and panting.

John passed off the rifle and ran for the dorm. Tiny and Mick took Kade under the
shoulder, and the three hurried as best they could after John.

Three foamers loped in a straight line, gaining on them. Their four-legged run was
clumsy like a fawn.

Gunshots reverberated off the buildings as one of the approaching foamers was hit,
and then the next one, and the next. Kade looked toward the roof, where Grace was
perched with a hunting rifle.

At least he made one correct decision, Kade thought as they reached Lambian.

* * *

Kade wore only his boxers as he lay on one of the dorm beds, with Tiny hovering to
repair his wounds. The bed was fitted with a white sheet, which reminded Kade of
the school nurse’s office. Argos stretched on the floor, his head resting on his
paws, while Mick and John stood by the door.

Kade ignored whatever orders Tiny spouted at him and was just happy John didn’t have
better aim. John had grazed his upper hip with one shot and had put a second one
a little deeper through the meat of his quad. At this point, he would survive; it
was just a matter of healing.

“Mick, what were you thinking?” Kade asked.

“I was thinking I should save your life. You’re welcome, by the way.”

Kade was dimly aware that Tiny’s hand clamped him against the table. “You shouldn’t
have come back for me.”

“I don’t see you yelling at Tiny for staying with you.” Mick pushed away from the
doorframe and stepped into the center of the room, where Argos watched his every
move.

Tiny laughed as she held Kade in place so he couldn’t undo the work she had done.
“He knows better.”

“Still, why shouldn’t I have saved you? Are you the only one who’s allowed to risk
his life for the rest of us?” Mick said, closing the distance to the bed.

“I’m already dead.”

“You’re still breathing. The risk I took wasn’t for you, it was for the group. You’re
our leader,” Mick said, keeping his voice level.

“I never asked to be the leader,” Kade snarled in response.

“That’s too bad, because we’re following you.” Mick backed away. “Tiny agrees with
me, so does the Stray, and Grace, and I’m sure if Ashton and X were here, they would
as well. I did what was best for the group.”

At the mention of Ashton, Kade felt his strength falter.

“Don’t do it again,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Mick gave him a nod. “For not being the leader, you sure like giving orders.”

“I think you owe Grace an apology. She proved her loyalty today,” Kade said.

“Yes, sir.” Mick’s face went blank, but he saluted and stormed out of the room.

“You’re still here?” Kade snapped at John.

John hurried to the bedside, but Tiny pressed him away.

“I’m sorry, sir,” he said.

“Don’t sweat it,” Kade said, his voice softening. “You don’t have to stay here, you
know. Tiny tells me I’m going to be fine.”

“I have nowhere else to go.”

“I’m sure one of—”

Kade fought for his next word, but couldn’t grasp it as Tiny injected him with painkillers.
It felt like a good idea to close his eyes, so he did.

* * *

Kade lay on the bed, staring at the blackness of his eyelids. He felt a warm cloth
run along his side. Lethargically, his eyes opened to reveal a mass of red hair dangling
over him.

“Ash?” he whispered, still feeling groggy from the drugs.

She gave him a coy, fishhook smirk.

“You made it back?” He reached out to touch her, but his hand passed through her
like a cloud.

Languidly, her head shook side to side.

Kade’s heart pounded against his rib cage as his anxiety gripped every nerve in his
body.

“You’re alive?”

She gave one single nod, still wearing the same smirk.

“Where are you?”

Reaching down, she placed one of her small hands on his heart. He couldn’t feel her
touch, but immediately felt the tension in his body release as a warm ball of energy
grew with each pulse.

Ashton’s shade moved away from the bed and began to dissipate as something rocked
his body.

“Find me,” she whispered and disappeared.

Kade’s hand darted out and snatched her wrist in a vice-like grip.

His eyes flew open and he found himself staring into the wide eyes of Grace. His
fingers pressed to the bone until his brain synchronized with his body and he released
her arm.

“I didn’t mean to startle you,” Grace said.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Stretching to his left, Kade felt the pull of his stitches. They had the dull ache
of healing, as opposed to the sharp pain of a fresh stitch. He wiped the grogginess
from his eyes. Outside, night had settled and was accompanied by light flakes of
snow. He had to find Ashton, but how could he convince everyone that he had to follow
a drug-induced vision?

Grace’s eyes stared at nothing as her face tensed. “You can’t do worse than my brothers
… Mick was on his way to relieve Tiny from guard duty, and he asked me to see
if you needed anything.”

She’d
had
three brothers; he wanted to make sure he never had to refer to his sister
in the past tense.

“Why didn’t he come himself?”

“He didn’t think you’d want to see him.”

“I appreciate you looking in on me, but I have all I need. I haven’t asked you how
you’re handling your brothers’ deaths,” he said.

Grace stared at the wall. “I think it’s best to leave the past in the Old World.
It’s time for a fresh start.”`