INFECTED (Click Your Poison) (60 page)

“It’s just so goddamned final,” Tyberius says with anger.

All eyes look to Cooper. You can tell she’s floundering for something to say, but whether it’s to blame herself or to shirk any responsibility, you couldn’t say.

“Oh, shit—all our stuff!” Sims yells suddenly.

Deleon forces himself to his feet, struggling in spite of the firecracker that burst into his chest only moments ago. You hurt like hell, and he took the brunt of the shockwave, so you know getting up is a feat. “I need to get my pack. I can get it,” Deleon says, staggering forward.

“No way, Doc. Not worth it,” Cooper answers with a hand against his chest.

“You don’t understand—my work, my life, everything!”

As Guillermo and Tyberius pull Deleon away from the fire, Sims offers you a hand and you take the opportunity to rise to your feet. With each passing moment you regain more and more of your strength, but you still feel like you got hit by a city bus. A city bus covered in flames.

“Let’s go,” you say. “Something like this will surely draw them in.”

“Sorry, kids, naptime is cancelled!” Hefty shouts with a wry smile.

•
 
Stagger away from the flames.

MAKE YOUR CHOICE

“T
his dolly might help,” the engineer says, indicating a wheeled cart, large and flat. You nod your thanks and clear the sound equipment off the thing. With a fresh clip loaded into your shotgun—what is that, number three?—you prepare to head out. Lucas agrees to escort the engineer while Rosie gets the rope from the jeep. You take the rear with your ungainly cart, but the hall isn’t all that full of zombies yet, so it shouldn’t be too bad.

Rosie takes the lead, pelting off headshots at those in the hall with her massive pistol. If any weapon is oversized for the small punch it packs, it’s this one. But with a one-hundred round capacity, it’s necessarily so.

The ghouls fall down before her with ease, and since she’s got ammo to spare, she’s putting two slugs in each cranium before they fall to the floor. The hall is fairly wide, but these bodies are still cluttering the way before your cart. You press the handlebar down to pop the front wheels up, then lift to go over with the back wheels. It’s tedious, but you make it past the corpses.

At the turn of the hall, passage is impossible with your cart. Lucas Tesshu’s grenade toss made certain of that. Instead, you’ll have to progress back and forth from the entrance to the power room to ferry the water jugs over the carnage.

Your three companions rush out the front door, leaving just you and death inside. You run to the power room, ensure it’s clear, then sling your AA-12 to free up your arms. The jugs are painfully heavy, and you can only shuttle one at a time in an awkward, humping jog.

As your drop your fifth jug off on the dolly, there’s an undead woman waiting for you there. You backpedal toward the power room while unslinging your shotgun and taking aim. Making sure your line of sight won’t cause collateral damage to the jugs on the cart, you blast her away.

One more jug oughta do it.

•
 
Meet up with everybody by the tower.

MAKE YOUR CHOICE

“Y
ou’re funny, I like that in a janitor.” Dr. Phoenix says. “But you may want to have your hearing checked. I said there would be
no
human testing.” He opens a safe and starts putting his files into it, while adding, “Hurry up and finish. I’ve got places to be.”

•
 
“I’m surprised you’re still here. If I were you, I’d be taking my own wonder drug, then partying it up like I
wasn’t
gonna live forever.”

•
 
Finish mopping while he hides anything of use. Next stop?
Deleon’s office
!

•
 
Finish mopping while he hides anything of use. Next stop?
Rodent Testing
!

MAKE YOUR CHOICE