When The Light Goes Out (42 page)

It was no way for him to be thinking, because he had no right to choose who was to live, and who was to die. He hadn't the right to decide who deserved it, no matter how justified his reasoning was. It was cold, possibly cruel thinking. But a strategic replacement here or there, and sooner or later he'd have all the proof he needed.

Certain things were shifting, with the force of the zombies slamming up against the door as he crept down the stairs, silent as a mouse. The fact that certain things were moving, while other things remained immobile told the boy exactly what he'd best reposition. A chair wedged awkwardly between what might have been a cabinet and the wall. A broom, angled diagonally through the rungs of the chair, under the cabinet, to keep it in place. The moment he shifted those two items, everything seemed loose, and he made to move quietly back up the stairs.

Until there was a rather large thumping noise, and a shout of horror. Something about, "Oh my God, Excel!"

He ran up the stairs then, wondering desperately what happened while he was gone. It hadn't even been that long. He'd been quiet, yes, but certainly not slow. Bumping into everyone who had the same idea as him, everyone who was wondering why Serena sounded like she was having a breakdown again. The door flew open, and the first thing anyone saw was blood.

Excel's blood.

"Oh my god!" It might have been Lila who screamed, Blaz pushing past everyone to get to the prone and bleeding form. "What happened?!" "Oh my God. Oh my God," Serena chanted, covering her face, and an expression of absolute horror.

He didn't buy it for a minute.

"What did you do?!" He screamed, almost rushing through the crowd to throttle the hysterical girl, certainly intending to try, but hands grabbed and restrained him. "George! Calm down!"

"But, Excel"

"Shush. Excel will be just fine."

There was definitely something about her.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

"Fell?"

"Yes! Oh, it was terrible. It was like Excel completely lost balance or something." "While sitting?"

"I don't know why. It just
happened
! I rushed straight over to assess the damage, and then you guys showed up."

I groaned, and felt every eye in the room on me. Trying to sit up was the biggest mistake of my life, because my mouth was filled with lint once more, but this time my head felt five times its normal size. Fell. Was Serena saying that I'd fallen down? I didn't did I? No. I hadn't. I remembered her pouncing, and some blurry stuff (although I might have deserved whatever it was; to an extent) and then I was waking up to a conversation about falling down. Or was that a dream? Could it have been? No. Not even
my
mind was quite that cruel to me.

"Excel, don't try to move. You hit your head pretty hard." "Yeah, you were even bleeding."

"Bleeding?"

"The skin broke. It appears superficial; head wounds always bleed horribly." "Am I going to be okay?"

"Yeah, you're going to be fine."

And I
really
wanted to believe what they were telling me. I really, really with all my heart wanted to believe that I was going to be okay. Except Serena was giving me a look that could kill a rock. It made my stomach heavy, and I'd barely registered what was going on before I was rolling over, throwing up impossibly so. There shouldn't have been anything
to
throw up, but I was, and several people had to excuse themselves from the room. Not that I blamed them. Heck no, I didn't blame them.

"How'd I hit my head?" "You fell, Excel."

"No." "No?"

"No," I said, however firmly this time. My throat hurt, on the outside it hurt. The skin. My face hurt as well, and I was almost positive that I was right. "No, I didn't fall. Serena attacked me."

There was a moment of silence, before Billy, Luke, and Jared all burst into laughter. Ian and Malachi looked at me oddly, as if trying to figure how serious I was. Serena gave me a deadly look, but I figured she wouldn't attack me, again, with my friends in the room. The memory wasn't entirely clear, but the image was there. I recalled the girl digging her fingers into my throat, trying to kill me. She'd been upset about "Criss."

"I didn't attack you, Excel. You must have had a dream while you were out." "No, I"

"Hush, Excel. Lay back down before you give yourself a headache." "I already have a headache."

"Want some Advil?"

"I don't want to pass out again."

"Excel, that was because of the sedative you were given" "I'd really prefer not to take chances, alright?"

"If you say so. But if you want a" "She
attacked
me."

I couldn't believe it. There I was, dizzy with a head wound, and everyone in the room was brushing my words off like they were the words of a nut job. George looked like he kept trying to get to me, but Ian had a surprisingly strong looking grip on his shoulder surprising for a man who'd been shot in the chest several times. In fact, Ian was standing by himself which was a bit of a shock. He must have been recovering, at least a little. And I was getting rather upset by the looks I was receiving.

"Excel, please be serious," Jared spoke with a grin. "Serena doesn't
attack
people." "Yeah," Luke agreed. "She's got absolutely no upper body strength."

"Yeah. I did notice that," I conceded. "Probably why she didn't kill me when she was
strangling me
. I couldn't
breathe
! " "I didn't"

"If everyone will shut up." And everyone turned towards Billy. "I've got the perfect solution." "Really?"

"What is it?" "Spill, old man."

"If she really tried to strangle you, Excel, there would be marks, would there not?" "Yeah!"

My throat, front and back, was thoroughly checked. It didn't take very long, only a few short moments, and then Billy was clicking his tongue at me. I wanted to slug him, but I didn't. I wisely thought it wouldn't have been a very good idea (especially with
his
hands still on my throat.) Luke came over next to check, made the same noises, and shook his head at me.

"No marks, Excel." "But I'm telling you"

"Excel!" I flinched as Malachi snapped at me, narrowing soft brown eyes in my direction. Really he did look like the man from my dream. Except, Malachi looked irritated. "If there are no marks. There are no marks. Stop trying to get Serena in trouble."

"But I'm telling you the" "Enough, Excel. Okay? Enough."

Before I knew it, I was left completely alone with Pixie, and George. The insulting part was that
they
were told to watch over
me
. As if I wasn't practically two educations older than them. They barely waited for the door to be shut, when they both scrambled over to me, poking and prodding at my neck for reasons I didn't initially understand. As it turned out, they wanted to either prove, or disprove my story themselves. They didn't
want
to take the word of the adults.

George had told his story to Pixie, who officially avoided Serena and her lackeys (as I chose to call them. I mean, she was obviously the brains of the operation. So to speak.) The two seemed a little disappointed in their searching my throat for bruises until I let out a wince, and threw my hands up to fend them off. They figured it was all the proof they needed, and Pixie was running out the door.

"You okay, Excel?" George asked, sounding extremely small, and extremely scared.

"Yeah, sweets, I'm fine," I tried to assure, but now my throat hurt badly. And my back was one giant pain. And my head was
still
throbbing. I was half tempted on telling the lot of them to take me out of my misery; leave me to the zombies. At least then the pain would eventually go away. Unless, of course that is, zombies feel pain. I didn't know. "Just fine."

"You don't look fine."

"My body's one collective ache, love."

"Oh," He stared. "But you said you were fine." "I
am
fine. Just a little sore. It's okay"

"What'd you say?" "What?"

"Why'd she attack you?" "You believe me?"

"I was.. uh.. eavesdropping on your conversation with her. At first I mean. After Malachi left you there I sort of snuck over to the door to listen." "What'd you hear?"

"Everything up until 'leave Malachi alone.' As if she can control you or something." "That pissed you off too?"

"A lot."

"I asked who Criss was." "Criss?"

"Yeah, I heard her and"

"I'm
coming
Pixie. Jeeze, stop pulling. That needs to stay attached to me," Jaden sounded completely frustrated from the other side of the door, effectively cutting off my explanation. "Why didn't you just get Malachi?
He
wasn't the one trying to get into the bathroom."

"You were closest." "But I gotta pee!" "Tough noogies."

I let out a bark of laughter right as the door pulled open, Pixie leading Jaden, half leaned over, into the room. He was doing the most interesting potty dance, but looked at me determinedly, as if trying to see what was needed. His eyes narrowed when there was no apparent injury, but he still knelt beside me, shifting my neck around.

"Okay, so what's wrong?"

"I dunno," and I grinned. "You
really
gotta go?"

"You
think
?! What the hell was I called
in
here for?!"

"To check Excel's neck, silly!" Pixie giggled, shifting my head, and pointing. "It hurt her right there."

"Okay, okay. Move. I'll take a look."

Both Pixie and George moved out of the way, Jaden moving into their place to take a good look at me. He was visually frustrated maybe five minutes later, leaning in closer, and closer until I was sure the damn boy was going to bite me. I wouldn't have been able to fight back much, as it were. And Pixie was reading my

"Pixie!" I snapped. "Put that down! It's not nice to read other peoples stuff without their permission." "Dustin was reading I before."

"Well I was asleep, and not able to catch him." "So
he
was allowed to read it?"

"No. But now that I know who it was, I'm going to kill him next time I see him." "No!" The girl cried. "Don't kill him!"

"By kill, she means make extremely uncomfortable, Pixie. Don't worry," came Jadens reassuring voice. My throat was stroked in a comforting manner for a moment, before Jaden lifted his head once more. "One of you guys get Malachi."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

Pixie ran out of the room again, and George came over to see what Jaden was looking at. I wished there'd been a mirror, because I was officially curious. Malachi hadn't believed me before, he'd taken Billy's words at face value. Jaden obviously wanted to show him something though, something that presented a worried expression in the corner of my eye.

"Jaden?"

"You've definitely got a mark, Excel." "A mark?"

"I don't see how Billy missed it." "On purpose."

"What?"

"Maybe he missed it on purpose." "George!"

"Hey, it's a possibility."

"It's just not good to doubt the people you're wi-"

Something, somewhere, crashed loudly. A door, perhaps, I thought. I hadn't realized that splintering wood has a distinct noise, but it's what came next, and the only thing I could think of was that the zombies had gotten in. They'd gotten into the building from the first floor, and dammit we were fucked. There were probably still zombies on the roof of the clinic, and regardless we didn't have the ladder anymore. I didn't remember seeing one when we'd finally gotten across.

"Jaden"

"I don't know."

"How secure was the first floor?" I asked. "The windows, the doors"

"All firmly locked, and as barricaded as we could get them. Trust me, we did everything we possibly could to get those things safely shut after letting Serena, and Billy and them all in."

"Couldn't have left them outside?" "Excel!"

"Just a question."

"Jaden, I don't really have time," came Malachi's voice from the doorway. "The zombies are breaking down the blockades trying to get to us. We've got the lower stairwells entirely barricaded, but it's only a matter of time. We don't even have any food up here."