The Sphere Chronicles: A Holding Kate Series Book (4 page)

“I wish I had the juice box that Thing Two gave me this morning,” I grumbled.

“Thing Two…” Roxi rolled over and rested her head onto my belly. “Thing Two,” she repeated and snorted.

We fell into silence. After a few, quiet moments, Roxi reached up and patted my head. “I’m sorry about your dad.”

My chin quivered. I bit my cheek to stop it. I turned my face to the back wall and pressed my fingers into my eyes. I was not going to cry. I blinked and focused on a row of cans on the bottom shelf.

“Oh shiz!” I sat up.

“What?” Roxi flailed her arms out, as I tossed her off me.

I burst out laughing. “We are seriously the luckiest biatches on the planet!” I reached for one of the cans and held it up for her to see.

“Kerosene?” Her mouth fell open. “We’ve been smoking in a closet full of kerosene?”

“What the hell does a janitor want with a whole row of that?”

“My dad kills ants with it.” Roxi shrugged.

“We’ve got to get out of here.” I giggled and shoved the can back onto the shelf. I heard it snap into place with a
tink
and
thud
. I imagined I could smell it now that I knew it was there.

Roxi opened the door, scanned the corridor, and said, “Clear.”

We scampered through the hallway. Just as we turned to push through the exit, I looked back and saw smoke seeping under the janitor’s closet door.
Man! I didn’t realize we had smoked the place up that bad!
I laughed as we jogged across the courtyard. We really were stupid to think we could smoke in a closet without it leaking into the hall. Good thing the nuns never returned to the abbey after classes started.

We’d just ducked into homeroom when the bell sounded. Then it sounded again and again.

Everyone moaned. Three bells meant a fire drill.

Sister Mary Margaret set the eraser down. “Okay ladies. Line up, single file, let’s get to our…”

BOOM!

An explosion rippled through the stone walls. Girls screamed and clung to their neighbors.

“Quickly!” Sister Mary Margaret pushed us out of the classroom, making sure we were all out. Then she ran ahead of us and led us out of the front doors into the parking lot.

We turned and saw black smoke billowing over the steep-shingled roof and curling around the bell tower and steeple. Roxi grabbed my hand. Her eyes were as big and round as mine felt.

Did we do this?

I suddenly felt very sober. I tried to remember where the last joint nub had rolled to and vaguely remembered it heading in the direction of the kerosene cans. But surely there was no way…

Suddenly, I knew. The kerosene can had spilled. That was why I smelled it so strong. The smoke under the door was not left over from our joints; it was smoke from the kerosene fire. We were screwed. Roxi and I had burned down the school!

Sirens drew nearer and all I could do was hope to God that no one was injured, or worse…

Strength seeped out of me, and I crumpled to the ground with my head in my hands. Roxi slumped beside me, and we stared at the billowing monster consuming the school and the church. I pressed my thumb into the new wound on my thigh, hoping for anything to distract me from the horror unfolding in front of us.

Sister Mary Margaret waved her arms at us. “Everyone, follow me. We need to move farther away.” The entire population of St. Mary Eugenia’s Catholic School for Girls backstepped to the park across the street. Roxi wedged her weight against me, and we levered ourselves up. Unable to take our eyes off the broiling black smoke, we gawked as we backed toward the park.

“Eunavae? Roxanne?” Sister Mary Margaret softly crooned our names.

I wrenched my eyes from the fire to meet hers.

“Are you okay?” she asked with an arched brow.

The fire engine squealed around the corner and lurched to a stop in front of the cathedral. Firemen spilled out and scurried around unrolling hoses and donning gear.

“I-I don’t...” I shuddered and felt a ripping sensation in my chest. “No, I’m not.” My voice cracked. “Dear baby Jesus, I’m not okay.” I staggered back and landed on the grass at the curb.

My chest convulsed, and sobs poured out of me. I cradled my face in my hands and grief erupted in a deluge of sobs and tears.

Yes, tears. I guess I was a wimp after all.

THE SPHERE DUMPED
the quantum travelers onto a high bluff. Corey reached for Kate’s hand, comforted by the warm squeeze she returned. He recognized this place.

“Oh crap!” Tara knelt down beside the weapons cache and flipped the latches.

“We’re back?” Kate whispered, flicking on her flashlight. It punctuated a rolling, patchy fog.

Trip passed the weapons out quickly while scanning the cliff and ocean far below the ragged edge. A crashing surf whispered up the sheer drop.

“You’ve been here before?” Caitlyn pressed into Kate’s other arm.

“Yeah, we came here right after we…” Kate stuttered. She flicked her eyes to Corey.

He understood she was unsure how much she could actually say about their three weeks of special ops training. “…moved out of the Chartreuse cabin,” he supplied. He took his weapon from Trip and secured the Gladius into the sheath strapped across his chest.

“Okay, heads up.” Dirk secured the ax at his belt and threw Kate her whip, then turned to descend the hill sloping away from the cliff’s edge. “Come on, we don’t want to be near that edge if the beast returns.

“Beast?” Caitlyn’s voice wavered as she hurried after Dirk.

Donnie and Mel grabbed handles on either side of one of the crates. Trip and Tara took the other crate, and they all followed Dirk down the hill.

“Where are all the people?” Kate leaned into Corey as they brought up the rear. She flashed her light around.

He shrugged and shook his head, eyes alert. Turning, he walked backward a few feet scanning the area around them.

Dirk paused at a level place overlooking a rolling canyon filled with dense fog. “I don’t want to get into that. Let’s set up camp here and wait until morning. Maybe the fog will clear when the sun rises.”

The team fell into their familiar routine. Twenty minutes later, four tents were arranged around a central campfire. Tara and Trip circled the campsite on guard while the others gathered near the edges of the fire ring.

“It’s weird that we just finished breakfast at home and here it is night.” Caitlyn shifted.

“Dirk, where do you think we are in the timeline?” Corey asked. Everyone stilled to hear the answer.

“What do you mean?”

“Do you think this is before the beast came out of the ocean or after?”

“Does it matter?”

“Well, yeah. If it’s before, when the sun rises, this place is going to be crawling with all those people. If it’s after, we may not see a sun on this world.”

“That’s right. The beast spewed that dark stuff everywhere, didn’t he? We could be in a world of perpetual night,” Donnie agreed.

“So it could actually be morning here, too?” Mel whispered.

“Could be.”

“I still want to know where all the people went.” Kate pulled Corey’s arm over her shoulder and cast wide eyes to the surrounding darkness.

“Are we just gonna…”

“Shh!” Dirk held up a hand to silence Caitlyn. “Did you hear that?”

Everyone cocked their heads to listen. A low moan sounded up the hill. The Keepers turned toward the sound.

Tara ran into the light of the circle. “Incoming!” She drew her sword, and Trip skidded to a halt at her side. Everyone stood, weapons in hand, eyes trained on the leading edge of fog.

Shapes began to emerge, a head, a shoulder, followed by other parts as people began to clear the fog barrier.

“Oh my God! What are they?” Caitlyn rasped.

Bodies staggered toward them, moaning and gurgling, dripping black ooze from multiple wounds. Limping and struggling, bones protruding from flesh-peeled fingers, they groped toward the group of teens.

“Are they z-zombies?” Mel murmured.

The group spread out shoulder to shoulder in a V-formation with Trip and Tara at the point. The first zombie reached for Tara, and Trip swung his sword across the zombie’s chest. It passed right through the zombie like smoke.

“They aren’t real, just phantoms.” He relaxed from his fighting pose, sword dangling at his side.

The zombie continued toward Tara and reached for her arm. Bony fingers wrapped around her wrist and sizzled into her flesh like acid. She winced and swung her sword to chop off the head. It rolled to the ground, and the zombie fell at her feet.

“It felt real to me!” Tara spat and cradled her burnt wrist.

Trip stepped to the next one, and his sword passed right through it again as though it were a mere ghost.

“I don’t understand.” It shuffled past him and went straight for Mel.

Donnie launched a knife. It flew right between its eyes, and the shape wafted around the blade and continued toward Mel. She jabbed it with her lance, and it yelped and paused, glancing down at the fresh wound oozing black fluid.

Kate snapped her whip at one crawling near her feet, causing another wound to form.

Corey lunged at a huge, misshapen mass except he only managed to step right through it. Attacking Caitlyn, it knocked her to the ground and climbed atop her body. Caitlyn didn’t move. Corey ran to her, slicing at the ghostly figure to no avail. The zombie leaned over and latched its mouth onto hers.

“Caitlyn!” he screamed. “Fight it off!”

She still wasn’t moving. He slipped on something wet in the grass near her head and went down. Crawling to her and screaming for her to get up and fight, his hand pressed into the wetness. Blood covered his palm. Caitlyn had hit her head on a rock.

“Kate, come help her! She’s out!” He sliced at the wraith to no avail.

Snapping her whip wildly at anything that came near her, Kate glanced at Corey and Caitlyn. She aimed her whip at the spectral being on top of Caitlyn. It released her mouth and wailed, turning its attack on Kate.

Corey held pressure to the head wound and quickly scanned the battle. It was the same everywhere. None of the men had any effect on the insubstantial zombies. Only the weapons wielded by the women would work. And they were quickly becoming overwhelmed by the vast numbers pouring out of the fog.

Kate screamed, and Corey’s heart lurched. He turned in time to see her go down into a pulsing sea of rotting, oozing flesh.

“Kate!” He rushed to her, swiping and jabbing. But his short sword didn’t have any effect on the vile creatures. They took turns clamping their putrid maws over her lips, sucking life from her mouth. He roared in anger and disgust, and redoubled his efforts, swinging at the wraiths.

Finally he dove headfirst into the phantoms and covered Kate with his body. He wrapped his arms around her and rolled until they were free from the apparitions. He dragged her to Caitlyn.

“Get them out of here!” he called to the others. “Get the girls away from them.”

Dirk and Donnie converged on Mel and dragged her to the campfire. Trip threw a kicking and flailing Tara over his shoulder.