Ashton Memorial (35 page)

She looked down at him and
put a hand on his shoulder. “Look around here and see if you can
find any trace of your sister or Park. I'll go check on the crazy
twins. Got it?”

“Got it,” said Dalton,
nodding. He ran off to check out the office and Angie turned back
toward the door. She nearly ran out after them, then thought better
of it. It would be better, she realized, if she found a weapon
first.

* * *

Lori snapped her head up as she heard the
door shut. She'd been pretending to sleep, head propped on her
chest as she sat upright in the chair. Her legs and back ached. She
longed to be free.

She looked quickly around the room to
confirm what she'd heard. Gregory was nowhere in sight. She heard
his footsteps receding from the door.

As quickly as she could manage, terrified
she would run out of time or be discovered, she fidgeted in the
chair until she got her hand in her hip pocket. She found the phone
and pulled it out. The screen lit up as she clicked the keypad,
showing a low battery and several unanswered texts from Ella. Ella
was worried and clearly upset, but Lori was relieved at the
evidence she was still alive. Or at least, she was alive at the
time the texts were sent. Lori pushed that thought down and opened
a new text message.

She typed furiously, hitting several wrong
keys and almost losing the message several times. Her hands were
wet and they slipped across the keypad, making typing harder than
usual.

She heard movement outside the door and
hurriedly sent the message. She was hitching up one hip to slide
the phone back into her pocket when the door opened and Gregory
walked in.

He saw her. And the phone.

“What are you doing?” he
asked.

“Nothing,” she said,
closing her hand over the phone and pressing it against her hip.
She knew it was too late. She knew he saw it.

“Is that a phone?” he
asked, stepping farther into the room and shutting the
door.

“No,” said Lori. She
pressed the phone further against her hip, trying to flatten her
hand out. Trying to make it look like there was nothing
there.

“Don't lie to me, Lori.” He
strode over to where she sat, leaned down and snatched the phone
from her hand. He looked at the phone, turning it over and over
again in his hand and frowning.

Then he spun and flung it against the wall
with such force it broke apart. The sudden violence of the motion
made Lori jerk in her chair.

He turned back, red
spreading across his face, and looked down at Lori. “I thought I
could trust you more than that, Lori. Not only are you just as
flighty as your sister, you're as deceitful as your
mother.”

Lori said nothing. She stared at the broken
remains of the phone in the corner. She felt her heart draining out
of her. The phone was gone. Ella was gone. Even if Lori could
figure out where she was now, how could she get the information to
Ella?

Gregory knelt down like he had before. But
this time there was nothing kind in his look. Now his kneeling
looked more like a crouch. Like a threat.

“That's it,” he said, his
voice almost a hiss. “I'm done trying to talk to people. Trying to
explain things to them. To you. I'm done explaining. You don't want
to understand, fine. Don't understand. But you will do what I say.
Everyone will.”

He stood and looked down at her. Lori looked
back, her breath ragged and her body sore.

“Everyone will,” he
said.

* * *

Caleb ran out onto the metal stoop of the
Communications Office, almost slipping in the rain. Tom's dead body
swung back and forth from the tree in front of him. Caleb ignored
it, looking around for Shelley.

“Shelley!” he yelled,
looking around.

He felt terrible for what he'd said. He
didn't know where it came from, what even made him think such
terrible things. He loved Shelley, he'd loved her since they both
were kids. Long before he'd even dreamed of going to college and
being a vet. He had always known it would be him and Shelley.
Always.

He heard her crying to his left. Farther
away than he would have liked.

“Shelley!” he yelled and ran off of the stoop, past
Tom's swaying body. Oh god, how it smelled. Caleb continued toward
the sound of Shelley’s cries.

The sound of Shelley crying cut into him
like something physical. He hated to hear it. He always had. And
now, now that the world was ending and nothing made sense anymore,
he hated it more than ever.

He took a few more running steps and saw
her. She was up by the red panda exhibit. The small, fox-like
creatures were one of the few animals at the zoo Shelley liked. She
had her back to him, looking into the exhibit.

He ran up to her and stopped. He knew she
heard him. She had to. She was just ignoring him, staring out into
the exhibit.

“Shelley,” he said,
quietly.

“These things are cute,”
she said, staring into the exhibit. “I like these guys.”

“I know you do,” said
Caleb, happy she wasn't screaming. He followed her gaze to the red
pandas. They were clinging to the trees in the exhibit, baring
their teeth and hissing at Caleb and Shelley. They growled and
snarled. Caleb felt like he was losing his mind. Rain fell lightly
around them and the adorable red pandas wanted to kill him and the
woman he loved. The world was over. Caleb knew it.

“I didn't mean those things
I said,” said Caleb.

“Yes, you did,” said
Shelley, turning to him. “But it’s okay. We decided we would be
together as kids. We didn't know. It doesn't mean we have to stay
together now.”

“But I want to stay
together,” said Caleb, putting his hands on her shoulders. She
tensed at first, then relaxed. “I love you. I've always loved
you.”

She started to cry. “I'm
sorry I don't love the animals like you do. I'm sorry I'm not like
the smart girls at your school.”

“Oh sweetie, sweetie, no,”
said Caleb, pulling her to him. They hugged, clutching at each
other desperately. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” said
Shelley. Then she jerked and let out a scream that clutched at
Caleb's heart.

“What is it?” he said,
jerking back and looking around.

Then he saw it. A corpse with no legs had
crawled its way to Shelley and sunk its teeth into her calf. Red
blood ran down her zookeeper pants and onto the walkway, mixing
with the rain in long thin streaks.

“Oh god no!” said Caleb. He
kicked the corpse away from her. Shelley screamed as the corpse
tore away from her leg, taking a large hunk of cloth and flesh with
it. It rolled onto its back, staring dumbly up at the rain and
chewing.

“Oh god oh god oh god,” he
said, holding her close. “We've got to get out of here. Get you to
a hospital. You'll be okay. You'll be okay.”

He felt her shaking her head against his
shoulder and he knew she was right. They heard what bites meant
before the radios went out. He knew Shelley was gone.

“No, sweetie, I won't,” she
said, crying into his shoulder.

He pulled back and put his forehead to her.
Her tears were hot and wet against him. He couldn't help it. He
started crying too.

“I'm so sorry,” she
said.

“For what?”

“For leaving you,” she
said.

“No no no,” said Caleb,
holding her tight. He knew they should be running. He knew they
didn't have much time. He could feel her blood seeping from her
leg, pulsing with heartbeat against him. But he knew there was
nowhere to go. “Please don't say that.”

“I'm so sorry,” she
repeated.

Groans came from all around them. Caleb
pulled back and looked. A group of corpses, jerking and shuffling
in the rain, were coming toward them. Fear gripped him briefly, but
then sadness overwhelmed it.

“You need to run,” she
said.

“No,” he said, moving back
and holding her close. “I'm not going anywhere.”

“I'm so sorry.”

“Please stop saying
that.”

He felt cold hands close on his shoulders.
He jerked and let out a sharp cry as cold teeth bit into the back
of his neck. The pain was worse than he could have imagined, but he
felt relieved. Now he would die with Shelley. It was decided and he
could relax.

Then Shelley screamed and he screamed too.
The corpses tore into them in a slow ecstasy of feeding. Hands tore
and mouths bit. He held Shelley tight as long as he could. Before
long he grew weak and dizzy. Shelly's screaming grew fainter. They
fell away from each other and onto the ground.

Caleb's head lolled around limply. He felt
things pulling on him, tearing at him. But the pain was duller now.
He knew he was going into shock. He felt cold. He couldn't hear
Shelley anymore. All he heard was groaning and chewing.

A corpse, an old woman with dark blood
matted in her blue hair, crawled over and looked down into his
face. She hissed. Then her head jerked sideways as a dart embedded
into it.

More shots were fired from
somewhere Caleb couldn't place. His head was swimming and he pawed
limply at the pavement beneath him.
No,
no,
he thought.
Let them finish
.

The corpses he saw from where he lay each
jerked and slumped, one by one, as darts thudded into their heads.
One by one each groaning throat was silenced. Finally, there were
no more. He heard footsteps approaching. Not the broken shuffling
footsteps of corpses. The steady pace of a living human.

The woman who had shown up earlier came into
view. Was her name Angie? She had a tranquilizer rifle and looked
around. Her son clung to her side.

Angie looked around one more time, then down
at him. She frowned.

Please
, he thought. He couldn't speak no matter how hard he
tried.
Finish it
.

“I'm sorry,” she said down
at him, cocking the rifle. She aimed it at his head.

“Look away, baby,” said
Angie. The boy did. Angie fired. Caleb felt a sharp pressure
against his forehead. Then nothing.

* * *

Maylee woke with a start and sat up. Her
back ached from the cold hard floor. It was raining hard outside,
making it too dark to know for sure, but she could tell it was late
morning. Park snored from the other side of the alcove. Ella was
nowhere in sight.

Then she heard Ella from outside, in the
rain. She was crying.

“Ella?” said Maylee,
climbing to her feet and grabbing her bat. She walked out, blinking
and sputtering in the rain. Ella stood, head down and staring at
her phone.

“What's the matter?” said
Maylee. She stepped closer.

Ella saw her coming and
wiped her eyes. Even in the gray light and pouring rain, Maylee
could see how red her eyes were. “It's Lori. She texted me and I
missed it. I missed it and now she won't respond!”

Ella held out the phone to show Maylee.
Maylee took it and stared at the screen. It showed a text from Lori
and several frantic ones sent by Ella.

“It's okay,” said Maylee.
“I'm sure it’s okay.”

Ella shook her head,
gulping down tears. “No. No it's not.”

“No, no, it is,” said
Maylee. She slid Ella's phone into her pocket. “I'm not stealing
your phone, I'm just making sure it doesn't get any wetter,
okay?”

Ella nodded.

“Now listen,” said Maylee,
stepping closer and setting her bat against the wall. “This way you
at least know she's still alive, right?”

Ella nodded, still sobbing but slightly less
so.

“And we'll get to the
office today, right? You said we were close.”

Ella nodded, calming
further. “Yeah,” she said, gulping. “We could have made it last
night if it weren't too dangerous in the dark. It's just that way.”
She pointed behind her, out across the bear exhibit and down the
walkway that led past it.

“Okay,” said Maylee. “See?
It's fine. We'll get there today, regroup with my mom, then we'll
find your sister. You did a good job getting us there.”

“Thank you,” said Ella. She
sniffed and wiped her nose on the sleeve of her jacket. “People
think I'm not good for anything.”

“I told you not to say
that,” said Maylee. “I think you're great. You're smart and funny
and cool and I like you.”

Ella stared at Maylee, then rubbed her eyes
and sniffed. She rubbed her hands on her pants. She looked like she
was about to say something. Then Ella leaned in and kissed Maylee.
Quick, awkward and uncertain. It was over in less than a second.
Maylee didn't know how to react. They both pulled back, staring at
each other in shock.

“Oh god,” said Ella,
stepping back. She put her hands over her mouth and her eyes grew
wide. “Oh god, I'm sorry.”

“No, no,” said Maylee,
stepping back. Her mind was blank. “No, it's...”

Ella backed up farther,
almost to the edge of the overhang. “I'm sorry. I...”

Then rotting hands reached down from the
upper level and closed on her head. Ella screamed. A second pair of
hands reached down and grabbed her head.

“Ella!” yelled Maylee,
rushing forward.

It happened fast. Ella was pulled upward,
her head disappearing from view. Maylee grabbed Ella's kicking legs
and pulled. However many corpses had hold of her, they were too
strong. Ella screamed and kicked.