Dead and Dead Again: Kansas City Quarantine (27 page)

“I’ve got time for both,” Tripper
countered.

“Aaagh.” Calvin added, throwing his
hands into the air in disgust. When his knuckles slammed off of the roof above
him, he post-scripted a nice, “Damn it!”

“You ok over there, baby?” Athena
asked.

“Yes. Just bent one of my fingers
back a bit. Go down that hill there, then straight east, Trip.”

“That’ll take us across the parade
route,” Tripper warned. “We don’t know what we’ll find up there in that part of
downtown.”

“It’s mostly clear,” Gus called
said over his mic on the tower. They could hear the wind whistling past him.

“Aren’t you supposed to be on your
way down?” Calvin asked.

“We can’t get the motor to work
right. It won’t move by remote.”

“Well, you can’t stay up there all
week,” Calvin noted brilliantly.

“No Chiz,” Gus replied with a touch
of sarcasm.

“I just mean that we’ll have to do
without if it won’t work.

“I’m talking to Hef on the radio.
He’s going to tell me how to fix it as soon as he checks the schematic. But I
can move it manually for now and it has power so I might as well use it to help
you guys get around. It’s mostly clear back to your street.”

They rode in silence until they
reached the street Calvin wanted. Tripper was still staring ahead as it
approached.

“This is it.” Calvin pointed.

“What, no it’s the next one,”
Tripper argued.

“It’s this one, Tripper!” he
insisted.

“Shit.” Trip jerked the wheel of
the vehicle and skidded them around the corner.

Luckily, Quinn did know his way
around this part of the city and had already slowed behind them. They entered a
familiar-looking area of residential homes. The packs of basket-pushing
scroungers were no longer in sight in this area, probably having finally
returned to their individual bases to hide until the danger had passed.

The gun-toting gang members still
stood solemn sentry on each aging street corner and the aggravated glares aimed
towards the passing vehicles suggested the men were even less inclined to let
them pass this time. It was perfectly understandable. These people had a job to
protect their individual blocks and they weren’t happy letting anyone pass
without permission, or at least some discussion. Fingers fidgeted uneasily
close to triggers and Calvin saw two young black men in red jerseys nearly
fight up the nerve to step out. They pointed their guns at the convoy, but the
serious-looking dual machine guns being brandished in their general direction
gave the people in the vehicles an extra diplomatic tool, and another free
pass. Those men didn’t have to know they were facing a couple of mere nail
guns—incredibly deadly nail guns when aimed correctly—but nail guns just the
same.

“Let’s go another way next time,”
Scooter suggested casually.

“They’ll stop sitting on street
corners when they realize just how many of those things are out there,” Athena
noted.

“Maybe. But they’re still here for
now. We’ll take another route next time.”

“If you say so, Calvin,” she
acquiesced.

The rest of the return trip was
uneventful, seeing only a few small groups of Shufflers and Gimps and one
Lurker that Sarah took out by filling its legs so full of steel that it fell
out of the alley so she could pepper its skull until one nail finally finished
the job. They could ignore the slow ones, but the Lurkers and other fast movers
needed to be put down so they couldn’t hurt anyone else.

“Fortress or Dungeon?” Quinn asked
as they neared the river.

“Fortress,” Calvin suggested. “We
need to drop off Brick and have him checked out, then we’re going right back
out for Lucy and Lola.”

Instead of pulling in front of the Library,
this time Trip drove them back and forth while the turrets re-killed the sixteen
undead scattered throughout the street and park. Quinn backed the ambulance,
stopping a few feet from the entrance. Those in the Hedgehog jumped out of
their vehicle and ran inside, squeezing between the large ambulance and the
wall. Quinn then backed against the columns, leaving no gap.

“Trip, you’re clean so get to the
balcony and cover the street,” Calvin ordered.

“I can do that,” the doctor called
down.

“I’m sure you need a break by now,
Doc,” Calvin looked up at the older man.

“Actually, I need to talk to you,
Calvin,” the doctor shot him a grim look.

“We need you to take a look at
Brick first,” Calvin pointed to the ambulance.

“It’s ok,” Joel put a hand on his
shoulder. “Athena just coaxed him out with a Snickers bar. He looked like a
monkey going after a banana.”

“He’s actually talking now,” Sarah
said. “Don’t you ever worry about him, Calvin,” she added—a little bitterly,
Calvin felt.

“Don’t forget that we’ve still got
to go after Lucy and Lola,” she reminded them, eyes mere slits as they followed
the retreating Brick as he strode boldly behind Athena downstairs to the infirmary.
Athena had a lot of medical training and had helped the company set up the
little medical facility and had even helped run it for a while until they had
hired a full time Registered Nurse.

“Go see what the doctor wants,
first,” Sarah coaxed him on.

“I’d still have him check Brick when
you’re done, though,” Boomer suggested.

“Right.” Calvin rushed up the
central stairway into the lobby just inside the patio.

“What is it, Doc?” he asked,
rubbing his fingers through his long blondish hair.

“I’ve confirmed everything. They
are doing it, Calvin,” the doctor hissed angrily.

“Who is doing what?”

“The wall. I have confirmed it. The
wall is going up around the metropolis. One hundred miles, give or take. And
then a second wall at 200 miles is being prepared. Also, all outgoing
communications have been severed and will remain so until they decide to open
them up again.”

“What? Why?”

“They don’t want anyone calling for
help from the outside until the walls are in place. They can’t allow anyone
from inside the One-hundred-mile radius to escape. As of twenty minutes after
the plane crash, orders were given for all outgoing vehicles to be stopped and
all flights rerouted back inside.”

“What happens if they refuse to
turn back?” Calvin asked.

The doctor simply returned a stark
gaze.

“I…see,” Calvin responded
tentatively. “What about your ride?”

“Yes. Someone will be taking me to
a facility located just inside the fence. They adjusted the wall in that area
so I can still get where I was going.”

“Ok. I was wondering how that was
going to work.”

“Apparently there are volunteers
waiting there for me.”

“I think it’s best we don’t mention
any of this to the others for now. If they think we’ll never get out of here
they might be more inclined to give up.”

“My thoughts as well.”

“Listen, doc. We’ve got a guy
downstairs in the basement that I need you to look at. He’s taken quite a shock
from all of this. Might be coming unglued. Athena is down there now, but she’s
not a doctor…” he trailed off hesitantly.

“I’ll go check him out right now,”
the doctor promised with a smile.

“Thank you, sir.”

* * * * *

“Hmm, blood pressure is fine,”
Athena nearly whispered, speaking to herself as she pulled the stethoscope from
Brick’s muscular arm and unwrapped the cuff.

“How are you feeling now, Brick?”
She asked, rubbing her palms and fingers down the sides of his face and through
his hair to check for bumps and a temperature. She looked deeply into his eyes,
looking for any dilation or spasms.

“I feel fine, baby doll,” he schmoozed,
reaching a big hand out to pat her firmly on the butt.

She slid skillfully away from his
hand and grabbed a thermometer, sticking it unceremoniously into his mouth. The
handsome athlete reached out with his other hand and grabbed her, catching her
off-balance and pulling her close.

“C’mon sweet lips. Calvin’s not
here. Let’s squeeze one in. You know you’ve been needing it for so long,” he
joked.

Or at least she thought he was
joking. “Cut it out,” she only half-laughed, jerking her shoulder out of his
grasp and stepping over to the table to get a towel to help him clean up. Her
blood rose, pulse pounding in her chest, but she was used to difficult patients
from her time helping in recovery wards.

“You may have PTSD. You should lie
down and get some rest.”

“I’ll lay down if you lay with me,”
he suggested, pursing his lips and running a finger down her shoulder.

“Stop it Brick!” she brushed his
hand away and pushed down on his shoulder, forcing him down onto the edge of
the cot.

“Ooh, two minutes and you’ve
already got me in bed,” he cooed in a silky voice.

“Stop it or I’m not going to help
you,” she demanded, hands on hips.

He dropped both hands innocently to
his sides and frowned up at her. “Sorry,” he replied. “Listen, I don’t know
what was wrong with me out there. I’m just trying to keep things light here.
Forgive me?” he asked, blinking, offering his best ‘sorry, baby’ face, the one
he used on girlfriends who had learned of his cheating, but he still wanted to
sleep with them one more time and then dump them, hard.

“Fine,” she breathed, releasing a
breath she hadn’t known she had taken. “Here, let’s get some of that grime off
of you,” she said.

Reaching out with the towel and
waiting for him to help, she sighed in exasperation when his hands remained at
his side. Becoming agitated, she reached out and snatched his shirt, dragging
it up his fit torso. She then grabbed the towel she had already soaked with
cold water and began wiping some of the grime off of his broad shoulders, rubbing
down his powerful, well-tanned arms and scrubbing over to his well-defined
chest, scrubbing hard to remove the sticky mud and gunk from when he’d crawled
up the hill into the park. Brick started making his fish face again and she had
to pull back once more. He was clearly receiving messages Athena wasn’t sending
out, because this time he slid both arms high around her waist, trying for an
embrace.

“C’mon, Athena,” he cooed. “I know
you feel something here,” he breathed smoothly. “You know I’ve always had a
thing for you,” he admitted.

But she felt a more sinister purpose
in his words, something colder, a menace waiting in the embrace. Ducking under
his overtly friendly lunge and turning, she backed away, looking around anxiously
for something to use to defend herself, her panabas still sitting in the lobby.

“It’s just a hug for saving me,” he
breathed heavily. His eyes now burned with feverish desire she had never seen
before. He was usually so charming, but now as he leaned forward, she could
only think of running. Taking two great jumps back into the doorway, she slammed
into the doctor as he entered whistling.

“Oh, hello, Athena,” the doctor
said cheerfully, his friendly face open, unaware of anything out of the
ordinary. “Calvin said I have a patient. Is this he?”

Her eyes snapped back to Brick, who
now appeared as cool as Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson walking away from an
explosion in slow motion, as if nothing at all had occurred, leaning his broad
shoulders against a medicine cabinet to one side.

“Yes, doctor,” she replied, keeping
most of the shaking from her voice. “His…his name is Brick. Stephen ‘Brick
Wall’ Jacobs. He’s a quarterback and he’s had a few concussions already. He
might have taken another one today, though I can’t find anything and he says he
hasn’t hit his head. But he clearly seems to have some head trauma. He’s
certainly not acting like himself.”

Brick favored her with his most
charming smile and winked. It seemed innocent enough, but a shiver shook her at
some unspoken thing waiting deep within those deep blue oceans, something new,
menacing leering over the doctor’s shoulder. Another shiver ran unbidden up her
spine—and it wasn’t a good shiver like when Hephaestus wore a Speedo or when
Calvin did his Superman pose in his underwear on the end of the bed just before
ruining it with the most ridiculous superhero dance anyone had ever invented.
Brick may not have been bitten, but this outbreak had certainly changed him.

“I’ll check him out now,” the
doctor pushed her away. “Why don’t you go up and see Calvin. I think he wants
to get going as soon as possible.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” she gushed
relief, giving him an appreciative hug.

* * * * *

“Brick’s not going to do us any
good out there, Calvin,” Sarah was arguing on the upper patio when Athena
walked up.

“I know,” Calvin admitted unhappily.
“The doctor just called up and said he needs some rest. Look, he responded to
Athena best. Let’s leave her here with the doc to help Brick. They can take
turns keeping an eye on him and watching the front. The rest of us can bring
back the girls.”

“I think I need to stay here, too!”
Sarah said in a rush, eyeing Athena apprehensively, noting something out of
place, a shadow on the open prairie of her always sun-kissed face.

“Yes!” Athena agreed immediately.
“Sarah should stay with me.”

“Ok, what’s up?” Calvin asked
suspiciously, eyes oscillating between the women.

Grasping for any reason to have
another person present, she disposed of several lies, and then her eyes lit
with purpose. “I think we need to make a real meal for everyone.” And she
didn’t have to lie; it was a good idea.

“And I don’t want to leave Athena
here alone to deal with all of that,” Sarah colluded, just knowing she needed
to.

“Boomer is here now. He’s worth
both of us together, anyway.”

“I think you’ve both done very well
so far,” he countered honestly.

“Everyone will do better with a
good meal in their bellies, Calvin,” Athena argued.