When Night Falls (14 page)

“Mari?” Jerol croaked, his ruddy face washing of all color as his wife’s head lolled in his direction.

Scarlett opened her mouth to scream a warning when Marvius attacked. It was so fast. Too fast. There was no time to stop it. No time to do anything but watch as Jerol’s eyes bulged and his entire body went ridged. Blood spewed like a broken faucet from the massive chunk Marvius tore from his throat. It rained down the front of his shirt and soaked the steps beneath his feet. Kiera screamed as it hit her in the face. It was that that jolted Scarlett awake. She thrust Marvius away and scrambled backward, nearly tripping on Kiera as she tried to put some room around herself as everything caved in around her. Her breathing pulsed in her ears, a fierce beat that matched the discord of her heart.

“Scarlett!” Rolf’s voice cut through her panic.

It snapped her back to the danger she was in. Her head shot up, her eyes searching the sea of monstrous faces until she found his. His beautiful brown eyes met hers and she was struck by the unhampered terror she saw in them. So wild and untamed, she could almost taste it.

They were separated by a full flight of stairs, separated by no less than a dozen drooling and diseased creatures. Plus the third wave that came at him from the other side. He was surrounded, yet the terror she saw wasn’t for his own life.

“I’m coming!” he shouted and blasted the creature closest to him.

Scarlett opened her mouth to tell him to save himself when sharp talons sunk into the flesh of her upper arms and tore strips as it shoved her into the wall. Somewhere over the ruckus she heard Rolf’s cry out her name, but the rumbling groan from the creature holding her muffled it. Teeth yellowed and rotted gnashed and snapped inches from her cheek as she strained her body to ward it back. She tried to twist her head away, tried to kick out, but it had her pinned.

“No!” The rage in Rolf’s voice shook the stairway. It snapped like the end of a vicious whip and rang with desperation and fear.

Her own heart was palpitating with regret, so much regret. It was stupid now and the worst time to think about, but she wished she’d let him kiss her that afternoon behind the corn stocks. If she were to die at that moment, she would never know how it would have felt. Then there was Hunter. He would never know what happened to her.

Then, just as she was certain it was all about to end, the creature was yanked off her. It stumbled down two steps before the top of its skull was crushed in by an iron pipe.

Kiera squeaked and dropped the pipe. It hit the step with a clang and rolled. Scarlett dove after it and snatched it up before it could roll down the stairs. She raised it quickly and started swinging, bashing in as many in the head as she could before it became apparent there were just too many.

“Kiera!” She grabbed the other girl by the arm and dragged her up the steps along with her. “Get the door open,” she said. “Open it. Now!”

“What about Rolf?” Kiera shouted.

Scarlett kicked creature in the gut and sent it rolling down the stairs. Her head came up as she searched for those brown eyes.

They met hers again over the carnage and she knew she couldn’t leave him.

“Go. You go,” she told Kiera, giving her a shove.

“What? Alone?”

“Do you want to die?” Scarlett snarled at her. “Go! I’ll cover you.”

Sniffling, Kiera ran to the door and slammed her hand down on the scanner. Scarlett heard the locks disengage and the door swing open as she turned to face the creatures.

“Scarlett, go!” Rolf shouted at her as he backhanded an infested then shot it. “Go with her!”

Stabbing a creature in the chest with her rod, Scarlett shook her head. “I’m not leaving you.”

The pipe was slick with blood and sweat, but she held on to it with every ounce of strength she had in her. She beat every infested that came up the stairs until her arms burned and she was sure she’d die from exhaustion. She wasn’t made for fighting. She hadn’t been trained to kill. It only took one creature to body slam her and the other to pin her down when she hit the landing on her back to end her brave attempts.

Dazed and sore, she couldn’t find the strength fast enough to fight, not even to shield herself when they climbed on her, their rancid stench filling her nostrils. She tried to cry out, tried to breathe, but they were crushing her lungs. It was pure stubbornness that had her twisting her torso and elbowing one in the jaw. She grabbed the other one by the throat and held on even as its skin melted into her hand and caked beneath her nails. With her free hand, she searched for the pipe she’d dropped. Her fingers closed around it and, in a single, fluid motion, drove it into the creature’s temple, where it lodged.

The first one grabbed at her, but she shoved it off and rolled, coming up against the door Kiera had gone through. Breathing hard, she kicked out, catching the infested in the face with her boot. Its nose shattered. Blood spewed, but it kept coming at her. She kicked again and again until it dropped and lay motionless.

Below, the boys were driving back the ones coming towards them from the deck below while simultaneously struggling to take down the ones making their way up towards Scarlett. There weren’t as many between her and Rolf now. The stairway between them was littered with fallen and decomposing bodies. More lay strewn in pieces at their feet and down the second row of stairs. Blood painted everything a violent shade of red that would forever haunt her dreams. It dripped from the railings and rained down the walls to form thick puddles beneath their feet. The stench of it had turned the air sour so all they could breathe was disease-ridden blood.

Scarlett struggled up to her feet, swaying as her head spun. She breathed hard through her mouth as she worked to keep upright. Her weapon was still wedged in the brain cavity of an infected. She was empty-handed but she still took a step forward.

“No!” Rolf slammed the butt of his enforcer into the face of an infected, then kicked it to the ground before stomping down on its head. “Get back, Scarlett.”

“Rolf—”

“Find Kiera!” He said to her. “Find her and stay with her until we come get you.”

She started to shake her head. “No, I—”

“Go!” he growled.

Mac charged up the stairs as the ground rumbled beneath their feet and another swell of infected charged at them. Without missing a beat, he zapped an infected in the back of the head and body checked another over the railing until he stood next to Scarlett. His hand closed over her arm.

Rolf tried to follow the path Mac had made, but no less than six infected moved to take over. They trudged on the fallen bodies of their comrades, uncaring. But it was those bodies that kept them from climbing up towards Scarlett. It was what kept the alive ones rooted several steps below her. They couldn’t climb over without sliding back down. But they were learning quick that they could crawl over.

“Mac! Go with her,” Rolf instructed, working with Jack and Lance to cut down the crowd. “Keep her safe.”

Mac gave a nod and began dragging Scarlett back.

“No!” Scarlett wrenched free. “We stick together. You said—”

Those devastatingly beautiful eyes rose up and found hers. Determination sparked off their rich surface. “I’ll find you, Scarlett. I promise.”

She had no strength to stop Mac when he disengaged the lock on the door and shoved her through. The last thing she saw was Rolf bare his teeth and plunge into the bloodthirsty horde and get swallowed. Then the door shut between them and there was nothing.

Chapter
Fourteen

“Why did you do that?” The heels of her hands slammed into the well-toned muscles of Mac’s chest. Her frustration sang like sharp barbwires up her arms to course down her spine. “Why … I have to go back. I have to—”

He grabbed her around the middle and pulled her away from the scanner when she leapt for it. He shook his head rapidly.

“We can’t leave them out there!” she screamed. “We have to help.”

Again, he just shook his head, his face full of grief.

A sob escaped her before she could stifle it. “We can’t leave them!” she cried.

Mac continued to just watch her, his lips drawn into a thin line of sympathy. But she didn’t want his sympathy. She wanted him to move so she could get to Rolf.

A soft scuffle in the distance momentarily distracted her attention, and Mac’s. They both stiffened as they turned to scan the room. She doubted either of them had paid much attention when flesh-eating monsters were trying to chew on their skin, but they noticed now. The room was completely unfamiliar. It was dark and cold and held the faint scent of sulfur, melted copper, burnt human hair and paint. A chill stole through Scarlett as she realized just where they were. What room they’d stupidly stumbled into. 

Mac’s hand closed over hers and he pulled her back, tucking her behind him. His free hand tightened on his enforcer.

The thing in the shadows shuffled again. Scarlett’s hand tightened in Mac’s.

He turned his head and caught her eye from over his shoulder, his glinted in the semi darkness with a subtle warning to keep quiet. He nudged her back, propelling her until her back struck the door. He released her hand and made a staying motion.

“No!” she hissed, grappling to grab him again. “Stay together!”

He patted the air the way one might pat a dog on the head in a familiar,
stay put
gesture. Then he pointed at the scanner, then at her, then at whatever was behind him. She didn’t speak sign language. No one really did anymore. With the technology able to detect and cure a fetus in the womb, what parent would willingly opt to have their child come out less than perfect? But Scarlett knew what he was telling her. Run. Run and leave him, leave him like she had left Hunter and Rolf.

She opened her mouth to tell him she wasn’t leaving another person behind when the thing grew closer. Mac turned away from her and raised his enforcer. Scarlett held her breath.

“Mac!” A blonde flurry burst out of the shadows and slammed into Mac.

It happened so fast that not even Scarlett saw it coming until Mac had staggered back three steps. His arms flew around the tiny figure clinging to his waist.

“Kiera?” Scarlett inched closer and peeked around Mac at the other girl.

Kiera pulled back but kept her arms around Mac as she turned big, startled eyes towards Scarlett. Then they swung past her, searching.

“Where’s Rolf?”

Scarlett dropped her gaze.

“You left him out there?” Kiera shrilled, detangling herself from Mac to storm over to Scarlett.

“I didn’t have a choice!” she snapped back. “I wanted to stay—”

The soft scurry of feet broke through her explanation. Mac’s weapon hand jerked up again. He used the other to motion Scarlett and Kiera back.

“No!” Kiera darted in front of him, hands up. “It’s okay. They’re friends.”

Scarlett started. “They? Who’s
they
?”

Kiera twisted her head around to the wall of black. “It’s okay!” she shouted. “They’re with me.”

From somewhere behind her, something zapped like the harsh crackle of electricity being used on a faulty wire. The lights overhead flickered then burst to life, drowning the room in its dim glow. Scarlett squinted, then blinked in surprise at the room that was revealed.

It looked like a gentlemen’s lounge where men could go to smoke cigars and drink whiskey. Those rooms no longer existed as smoking was banned and drinking could only be done with a permit, but she’d read about them.

There was a solid wood bar on her left and a sitting area with soft, leather chairs and a wood fireplace on her right. Straight ahead was an enormous, arched opening that led into another section and from that section, people were filing out. Men and women and children, they inched forward in a tight crowd. They looked scared and hungry, but most of all, they looked apprehensive as they took her and Mac in.

“Survivors?” Scarlett murmured quietly.

“They came down here trying to get to the pods, then got stuck because of those things out there,” Kiera explained.

Mac turned to Kiera. He jabbed a finger at the crowd, then used the same hand to touch her face and brush back her hair and peer into her eyes with concerned intensity. It was such an intimately personal gesture that Scarlett felt momentarily embarrassed to be standing there witnessing it.

Kiera shook her head. “I’m okay.”

Mac seemed to relax. He let his hand drop and faced the crowd again. He slowly holstered his weapon, then splayed his hands across his chest, then point to the marshal’s sash around his arm.

The crowd didn’t react for a moment, but very slowly, they parted and a tall man in his late forties, early fifties, stalked through. He had a kind face with soulful hazel eyes and a neatly cropped mane of salt and pepper hair. His skin reminded Scarlett of a potato, light brown and riddled with pockmarks. He carried himself with regal confidence and it was clear he was the man in charge.

“I am Silos. Commanding
operator.”

Scarlett waited for Mac to take charge the way Rolf always did and realized a little too late he couldn’t.

“I’m Scarlett. This is Mac and you’ve already met Kiera,” she introduced.

Silos took them in one by one, his appraisal quick, but she knew it was thorough. The neatly trimmed triangle of hair around his mouth flexed as though he were chewing on something. Very slowly, his mouth opened. But no words came out when there was a loud gasp from somewhere in the crowd and her name ricocheted off the walls like an explosion. Scarlett stared as the crowd was rudely shoved and jostled and a figure stumbled free of its tangles, face flushed, hair in disarray, and glasses askew. Green eyes alit with joy met hers a split second before an all too familiar grin split their face.

“Hunter!”

She had no recollection of running to him and throwing herself into his arms but that’s where she wound up, held tightly to his chest as she sucked in the comfortable smell of him.

“God, Red!” he breathed into her shoulder. “I’ve been worried sick.”

Sniffling back tears she had no memory of shedding, Scarlett nodded. “Me too!” She raised her head to search his face. “Are you okay?”

He tightened his hold around her. “Fine now. I am so sorry—”

She shook her head. “Not your fault.”

“I tried so hard not to let you go.”

“I know.”

“The crowd just kept pushing and I couldn’t—”

She pulled back and took his face into her hands. She wiped away the tears and smiled up at him. “It’s not your fault. Everything’s fine now.”

“Not to interrupt, but nothing’s fine.” They turned to the sound of Silos’ curt voice. “Or have you forgotten the horde of flesh eating monsters outside the door?”

Scarlett lowered her arms and took Hunter’s hand, unwilling to let him go now that she’d found him.

“Are they still out there?” a woman asked, clutching a small boy to her skirt.

Scarlett hesitated, but slowly nodded. “They seem to be coming from the boiler room. They’ve taken over deck ten as far as we know and both emergency stairways.”

“Then we’re trapped,” a man panted, his voice bordering on hysterical. “We’re going to die in here!”

His exclamation had the others stirring. A child cried. People shouted profanities and prayers. Scarlett tightened her grip on Hunter, fully expecting a riot.

“People!” Silos put his hands up and the room instantly hushed. “So long as we are breathing, there is always hope! We will survive this.”

Scarlett had no idea how he could be sure of this, but he sounded confident and his confidence seemed to smother the low flame that had begun to rise.

He turned to her small group. “You look like you could use a place to rest. Why don’t we get you some food and water? Then we can talk.”

“We have friends out there,” Scarlett interrupted. “We need to go back—”

“That isn’t an option.” His gaze shifted to the door behind them before returning to them. “If the stairwell is as overflowed as you say, then we cannot risk the lives of all these people. We can only hope that they will find their way to us.” He made a waving motion with his hand and a pretty girl of about fifteen slipped out of the crowd to stand at his side. “This is Tamiya. She will show you were to clean.”

Tamiya smiled at them and waved with her hand for them to follow. Scarlett glanced at Hunter, silently questioning him with her eyes. At his nod, she followed the girl with Mac and Kiera at her heels.

“What happened?” she asked Hunter as they passed the dispersing crowd towards the chambers beyond the doorway. It was a series of more lounges that had been converted into sleeping quarters.

“That whole night is just one messed up blur,” Hunter muttered, shaking his head. “I saw you slip and go down. I tried like crazy to get to you, but it was like trying to fight a stormy ocean. People were shoving and then we were in the stairway. Next thing I knew, people were screaming and those things were everywhere, eating people!” His jaw muscles bunched. His nostrils flared as he sucked in a breath. “Someone opened the door to deck seven and I followed. Several of us tried to go back out for supplies and to search for more survivors, but those things always knew. It’s like as soon as you leave that door, they can smell you.”

“They can.” She told him about the ones they’d faced in the vendor level and how they had sniffed the air like animals on the hunt.

Hunter shook his head. “What the hell is going on, Red?”

“I don’t know, but Rolf’s out there. I have to find him.”

A frown creased his brow as he looked down at her. “What?”

“He saved my life, Hunter. He risked his to find you. He’s not a bad guy.”

“I never said he was,” Hunter replied, turning his face forward. “What he is, is an asshole.”

Scarlett scowled at him. “Why would you say that?”

Annoyance flickered behind his eyes as they dropped down to her. He darted a glance to the two walking quietly behind them before lowering his head and hissing quietly into her ear, “I don’t like the way he looks at you.”

She blinked in surprise. “What? How does he look at me?”

“Like a guy with a girlfriend shouldn’t look at another girl!” he bit through his teeth. He straightened. “I have no love for guys like that.”

What could she say to that? How could she explain to him that she’d probably encouraged those looks and liked them? He’d be so disappointed in her. Hell, she was disappointed in herself.

“It’s complicated, Hunter,” she grumbled and winced when she realized how much she sounded like Rolf.

“Whatever,” he muttered. “He just better get his shit together. That’s all I’m saying.”

The corridor went on for a while before they finally stopped at a makeshift kitchen and eating area. There was a second chamber off to the left, separated by a door that led into a marble bathroom. Tamiya told them to take as long as they needed then walked away.

Kiera darted in first and shut the door behind her. Mac leaned into the wall next to the door and waited as Hunter pulled Scarlett aside.

“Tell me what happened after we got separated.”

With a heavy sigh, she did, reliving every gruesome moment of her time without him, although she left out the part where she slept on Rolf’s lap. When she got to the end, Hunter whistled through his teeth.

“Wow!” He rolled his tongue over his lip, a gesture she knew well when he was hesitating on something.

“What?” she prompted.

He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Nothing.” He slipped his hands into his pockets and threw a glance towards Mac. “So, Jack made it, huh?”

Scarlett raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, and he’s an asshole, by the way.”

The moment she said it, she felt horrible. The guy could be dead and he had saved her life.

Hunter’s eyebrows winged up. “Jack? No way. He’s a total sweetheart.”

She had to bite her lip to keep from grinning. “Says you. He was a jerk to me.”

He grinned a little, rubbing a hand over his jaw. “Guess he might need a spanking.”

“Ugh, ew!” She turned away from him and slammed her hands down over her ears. “Don’t need to hear that.”

She heard his snicker just as the bathroom door opened and Kiera strolled out. Mac offered her a small grin before glancing at Scarlett and gesturing for her to take the washroom next.

Unwilling to give up the opportunity to scrub off the infected blood caking her, Scarlett took the opening given to her. She slipped past the two and closed herself into the small room. She stripped off her bag and clothes and tossed them into the corner as she stepped into the cylinder chamber. She didn’t even bother assessing the damage in the mirror. The shower struck her instantly as the sensors located her weight. She adjusted the temperature and scrubbed every inch of herself until her skin glowed. She dried off quickly and redressed in a fresh pair of clothes from her bag. Her old things hit the disposal and vanished from sight.