Deadman's Switch & Sunder the Hollow Ones (27 page)

“I said I don't know.”

“Christ.” I run my hands through my hair. It could be any one of us. It could be someone else running around outside of Long Island. I point at Tanya and say, “You need to take care of her before she turns. You won't be able to control her once she does.

Stephens swallows and nods. This time he doesn't argue. Yet he still sits there without moving.

I go into the kitchen and retrieve a butter knife from a drawer and lay it in his lap. It's good enough to do the job, yet won't be much of a risk to the rest of us. “You did this to her. Now you can undo it. Clean up your mess. If you don't, I will. Five minutes.”

He doesn't move. He doesn't pick up the knife.

“Make sure you sever the spinal cord.”

I turn away from him then and head for the kitchen, leaving Micah behind.

The crew is gathering up their packs and filling them with whatever food and drinks they can find in the cabinets to carry. They're just about ready to leave.

Everyone looks up when I walk in. Jake immediately straightens and crosses his arms in defiance, preparing himself for the outburst he expects me to launch into. The others look away. I can almost hear the Old West music, the lonely whistle that signifies the onset of an old fashioned duel. God, I'm exhausted.

“Jessie, listen—” Kelly begins, coming to my side.

I wave him off, my eyes never leaving Jake's.

Jake lets out a breath and says, “It's nothing personal, it's just—”

I extend my hand across the table and he flinches. “You better bring them back alive,” I say. “Or I will hunt you down myself.”

He hesitates a moment before grasping my hand. I'm tempted to yank him over the table and onto the floor to beg for mercy. I could easily do it, and I think he knows this because his grip tightens slightly and his eyes narrow.

“Be quick and safe,” I tell him. “All of you. Micah and I will ping you when we figure out how to get back through the wall.”

Kelly gives me an almost imperceptible nod. Jake relaxes noticeably. I feel Micah come up behind me. I'm glad he's there. I don't feel so alone now.

Jake shoulders his pack. “I really hoped it would work out between us, Jessie.”

I stare at him long and hard and am about to reply when there's a thump and a muffle cry of anguish from Stephen in the other room. Ashley closes her eyes and shudders. It's over. Tanya's gone for good this time.

Jake's face burns with shame. He made a promise back there in the airport, one he couldn't keep. Everyone is aware of this. And yet they're willing to follow him.

“She wouldn't have been able to leave here anyway,” Kelly quietly says, his eyes burning darkly and his chin set in a grim line. I hope he doesn't really mean it, because to do so would be to admit that he'll never be able to leave here either, and I just can't accept that. He may be a carrier. He may be stronger and faster because of whatever Stephen gave him. But as long as he's not under Arc control, there's still a chance we can live a normal life.

Christ. Who are you kidding?

But then there's another sound from the living room, an odd strangling noise, followed by a wet smacking, like somebody pounding pizza dough. Confusion comes over all our faces and we turn. Ashley lets out a gasp.

Tanya is bent over Stephen. She looks like she's kissing him.

“What the hell?” Jake exclaims.

Tanya's head shoots up and her hollow eyes peer straight at us. In her mouth is a chunk of flesh from Stephen's neck. She lets him go and his body judders to the floor, his legs shooting out like he's been hit with an EM pistol. The butter knife slips unused from his fingers.

He waited too long.

 

Tanya launches herself from the couch
, aiming straight for my throat. Kelly shoves me out of the way and I slam into the refrigerator and slide dazed to the floor. The room erupts into a chaos of colors and motion and noise. Someone trips over my legs and falls to the floor next to me. Reggie's face swims into view shouting at me.

Over by the entryway, Kelly and Tanya are doing some kind of strange jitterbug, and, for a moment, I wonder when he learned to dance. But then he slams her head into the door jamb and there's a sickening crunch as the wood splinters, bleeding a dark red.

Not the wood, her skull.

It doesn't slow her down at all.

She's one hell of a party animal, ain't she!

“Get out of here!” Kelly screams, jarring me back.

Jake grabs the tablet off the table and runs outside, slamming the door open. Ashley follows, hot on his heels.

“Get back in here,” I mumble, blinking hard against the pain in my head. I can't seem to get my legs under me. “God damned cowards.”

Kelly's got his hands wrapped around Tanya's throat; she's snarling and hissing. Flakes of dried blood crumble off and shower his arms. She lunges, trying to kiss him.

Bite
, I mean. She's trying to bite his face.

His arms shake against her newfound strength; I watch, helpless, as she slowly overpowers him.

Reggie grabs the corner of the table and flips it across the room. It draws Tanya's attention and her head turns. She bares her teeth and utters a groan that seems to come from the pits of Hell. The blood drains from Reggie's face and he hesitates.

“Jesus Fucking Christ, she's strong,” Kelly grunts. He tries to lift her so he can slam her back down again, but she's as tall as he is and he can't get any leverage. He ends up teetering to one side and knocking into Reggie, who slips on a wet sponge on the floor and crashes to the floor.

Except, I realize with dawning horror, that it's not a wet sponge. It's the piece of Stephen's neck.

Micah reappears, swinging the bolt cutters at Tanya's head.

“Don't hit Kelly!” I manage to shout. Micah pulls back, then swings for her legs instead. The blades smack into her thigh, slicing through her pants and deep into her muscle. She tilts, then corrects and continues to push Kelly down. The second swing hits her flat along the flank with a sickening
thunk!
The wire cutters go flying from Micah's hands and land in the other room.

By now I've managed to get groggily to my feet. I do a clumsy sweep kick and Tanya's feet go out from under her. It's not pretty, but it connects, and both she and Kelly fall, hands still around each other's throats. As she lands, the back of her head hits the tile floor and bounces back up into Kelly's face. There's a loud
crack!

They say you can see when someone's lights go out. Something about the eyes. That's what happens right then to Kelly. His lights go out and he crumples right down on top of Tanya.

Reggie's there in an instant, dragging him off of her. He plants a foot on Tanya's neck and yanks, stripping Kelly out of her grip. She writhes on the floor, unable to escape, snapping her teeth and scratching at Reggie's legs.

“Get him out of here!” he shouts to Micah. “Run, Jessie!”

Micah grabs Kelly's limp form under the arms and drags him out of the kitchen.

I look back at Reggie. Tanya's thrashing like a stuck snake and Reggie's got that
What the hell do I do now
look in his eyes. The way her tongue keeps pistoning in and out of her mouth doesn't help dispel the image.

“Bind her hands!” he yells at me.

There's nothing in the kitchen to tie her up with, so I stumble down the hallway and into the parents' room. I find a closet full of old neckties and grab a handful.

“Take your time,” Reggie says crossly.

“I'm going as fast as I can,” I snap back.

He's holding onto the countertop to keep from slipping, putting nearly all of his weight on the one foot. Tanya's still thrashing and growling. A normal person would've choked to death beneath Reggie's foot, but Tanya is not a normal person. And now she's not a normal Undead.

I manage to get one of the ties around one of her hands and knot it. Bringing the other close enough to it is no easy task, but I finally manage by using Reggie's leg to restrict her movement. I wrap a second tie around both wrists and cinch it as tight as I can.

“Now her feet.”

“I'm not dumb, Reggie.”

Micah returns from tending Kelly. He bends down to help. “I think he'll be fine. Just got his bell rung. Hell of a knot on his forehead. Lucky he didn't break his nose. But he'll be back up and with us in a few minutes.”

I give him an impatient look. “A simple, ‘He's okay,' would've sufficed.”

We finish with Tanya's feet and get her rolled over onto her stomach. I feel weird treating her like this. I have to remind myself that she's no longer here. All that's left is a mindless monster.

Micah takes a couple neckties and brings her ankles up behind her as far as he can. I wince, but he doesn't seem to even be thinking about what this would feel like to a living person. Then he ties them to another loop around her neck.

“Like roping a calf,” he says.

“You might've been a cowboy once,” Reggie says, inspecting the mess. Micah's tying job is ugly but effective. “But you sure as hell were never a Boy Scout.”

“Speaking of Boy Scout,” I growl, “looks like ours chickened out. And you want him to lead you to Jayne's Hill?
Seriously?
”

“Jessie…” Micah says, warningly.

Reggie gives me baleful look. “You're better off here anyway, Jess. You'd be bored if you came. Once we get inside and Kelly finds the mainframe, there's nothing for you to do.”

“It was Ashley who put you up to this, wasn't it?”

His mouth snaps closed.

“I knew it.”

“No, it wasn't.”

“Jake?”

He shakes his head and stands up. He won't look at me. “It was Kelly, Jessie. He doesn't want you to get hurt. He wants you to stay here.”

“Get hurt?” I sputter, getting up in his face. “What the hell just happened here? How could I get in any more trouble than what just happened? You
know
I can handle myself!”

Kelly appears right then in the doorway, rubbing his forehead. He looks a little dazed. I walk over to him, but he holds up a hand to stop me. Reggie slips out past us.

“I need you to stay and figure out a way to get through the wall, Jessie,” Kelly says. “You can't do anything to help us once we get to the mainframe, but you can work with Micah here. And maybe you can get something out of Stephen.”

“Stephen's dead.”

He shakes his head. “No, I just checked. He's still breathing. But I don't think he's got much time left. Looks like his neck is pretty torn up.”

“Great, another fucking IU to put down.”

“He won't turn. Remember? He's immune.”

Reggie returns then, dragging Jake and Ash with him. “We need to leave now,” he says. “It may already be too late. Daylight's fading fast.”

He glances nervously at the window, at the golden streamers of evening sunlight spilling in. The dust we raised swims lazily around in it, giving the scene a dreamlike feel to it.

“It's now or be stuck here till morning,” he finishes. Then he turns and addresses his next words to me. “Jessie, please. You'll be more useful here.”

“Yeah, stay the hell away from us,” Jake snarls. “You're bad luck.”

Reggie's hand shoots out and catches Jake on the side of the face and he stumbles back against the counter. “You don't get to talk to her like that, asshole,” Reggie snarls. “Do you understand me?”

Jake glares at him without moving.

“We may have agreed to go with you, Pukeboy, given how you're all survival trained and shit, but so far you haven't been much of an inspiration as a leader.”

Jake swallows.

“Good. I see you understand. Now, there's one last thing you need to do before we go, Jake.”

“What?” he answers, his voice dripping resentment.

Reggie reaches over and snatches another knife from the butcher block. He flips it over and hands it to Jake.

“You need to finish what you started.”

 

“Is he tied up good?”
I ask.

Micah nods. He kicks Stephen's foot, prompting a groan of misery from the prostrate figure. There's a crude bandage on his neck, some socks from a dresser in the other room stuffed into the hole and held into place with duct tape from the garage. His face is ashen and twisted in pain, and a pool of blood is beginning to congeal underneath him.

“Good, because I don't trust him when he says he's immune.”

“The…vaccine…” Stephen murmurs.

“Don't waste your breath,” I tell him. “Whether you are or not, it doesn't matter to me. Frankly, I can't understand why it should matter to you either. When you die, it's not like you'll know.
We
will, but not you.”

His eyes flutter open. He gives me a resentful look.

“You should have thought about that before you went and did what you did to us in the first place,” I continue. “And then you should've listened to me when I told you to take care of Tanya while you still had the chance.”

“She…wasn't…dying.”

“Yeah, well, you were wrong about that, weren't you? She died, all right and then she
un
-died.”

He struggles to lift his head. “You're a…heartless bitch.”

“No,” I reply, “I'm actually a real softy. You've just gone and rubbed all my marshmallow coating away.”

Stephen stares blankly at me. Micah chuckles from the chair, where he's monitoring the others' progress with the tracker on his Link. They've been gone forty-five minutes now and are more than halfway there.