Empire Of Salt (33 page)

"Whoever is left will be expecting that. The plan has always been that if they ever lost control, the orders were to keep anyone from leaving at any cost. They'll be watching the roads the most closely."

The door slammed open so hard the glass cracked from the bottom to the top. Wind and rain roared from the rectangular mouth into the restaurant. Metzger scrambled towards the door, slipping and sliding along the floor. He almost had it closed when Hopkins entered the doorway. The wounded man punched Metzger in the gut, then kneed him in his face. Metzger went down, but not before the older man stripped him of his weapon and tossed it aside.

Hopkins's left leg was wrapped with cloth, already soaked red with blood. He yanked the door shut, shoving a barely conscious Metzger out of the way with his foot.

"
You
are a fucking pain in my ass."

Auntie Lin and Derrick remained at the table. Natasha, Veronica and Maude backed against the counter, knocking over a cooler, which clattered to the floor behind them. They ignored it, their eyes on Hopkins.

He smiled cruelly, his eyes twisted by pain and frustration.

Maude, on the other hand, stood tall and mean, with the look of a woman who had taken enough shit. Chin high, chest out, arms crossed.

Hopkins trained his rifle on her midsection. "Maude," he warned, "You better stand down. You don't want a piece of me or what I'm bringing. You want to get out of here, if you can. As far as I'm concerned, your job is over."

Natasha stole a glance at Metzger, but he was still down and didn't look like he was going anywhere. His lips were bleeding where Hopkins' knee had caught him.

"You are a fucker, Samuel. A royal fucker."

Hopkins laughed and nodded. "Tell me something new, why don't you?"

"He said go, Maude." Veronica said. "Get out of here. Save yourself."

Natasha looked startled at the idea.

Seeing this, Veronica added, "Seriously, Natasha. Maude needs to leave. Someone needs to know what happened here."

"He's not going to let us go." Derrick said, trying not to cry.

"Of course you are," Auntie Lin said as if it was a perfectly obvious thing. "You're going to let us go, aren't you, Mr. Hopkins?"

Natasha stared at her Auntie in disbelief. Was the woman trying to change his mind with the singular power of her will, or was this just insane hope?

Natasha caught Hopkins examining Auntie Lin with much the same expression. Then he shook his head and readdressed Maude. "You've only a short window in which to leave. You need to follow the little criminal's advice and get out while you have the chance and I'm in a good mood."

Maude shook her head. "I'm not going anywhere." She stepped over to Natasha and put her arm around her. "Where would I go, anyway? I've been here most of my life. What friends I have are here."

"Some friends. I left them bleeding in the street a couple of blocks back." Hopkins rubbed his leg with his left hand, holding the rifle with the other. He didn't seem to have the strength to hold it level, so it pointed towards the floor. "You kids have been a pain in the ass, you know?"

Natasha pursed her lips. "You've got more problems than us, Mister. Looks to us like you're losing control. Why are all your zombies escaping?"

Hopkins smiled grimly. "Power surges. Earthquakes. Sunspots. What does it matter to you?"

"So the green flashes are the surges?" Derrick asked. When Hopkins nodded, Derrick looked excitedly from Veronica to Natasha. "Grandpa was right. So was the Mad Scientist."

"Is Andy still making trouble? I suppose I'll have to talk to him next." Hopkins shook his head. "What's this about your grandfather?"

"He had a -"

"Derrick!" Veronica shouted.

"What did he have? What did he leave behind? A video? A book?" Hopkins turned to Maude, making a clucking noise with his tongue. "Shame on you. How did you let him write things down about this?"

"It was in code, asshole. How was I supposed to know what he was doing?"

"So you knew about the book, too?" Natasha looked stunned.

Maude smiled grimly. "I knew about everything, honey."

"It
was
a book," Hopkins said. "Where is it now?"

Veronica grinned. "We mailed it to the FBI with a note telling them to open it if we don't show up on their doorstep within three days."

Hopkins stared at her for a long moment. He aimed the rifle at her belly. "You kids watch way too much television."

"I'm serious."

"I bet you are. Just tell me one thing. I shut off the mail two days ago, so when in between then and now did you manage to get a package out when there was nothing coming in or going out?"

Veronica shook her head and bit her lip. She stared diamond-edged anger at the man, but kept her mouth shut. Finally, "You can't just shut off the mail."

"What? Like I can't just shoot you? Like I didn't kill the deputy?"

"Yeah." Veronica's voice was almost a whisper. "Like that."

"Then why not just kill us all?" Natasha asked. "Who's gonna care about the book then?"

"Call it a loose end. I hate loose ends. So tell me, boy, where is that goddamned book?" Hopkins started to step forward, then stopped when he heard the sound of a vehicle screeching to a stop outside. He stepped back and peered out the door. When he looked back he was smiling like a child. "This is going to surprise the hell out of you. You're going to love this."

Natasha saw that Metzger was coming to, but was being careful about it. He opened his eyes to briefly look around, then snapped them shut.

Hopkins stepped aside to let in two black-clad soldiers and the two zombies they led along behind them. The zombies wore bags over their heads. Iron shackles bound their feet and hands.

"I think it's time we play a little game," Hopkins said happily.

"Oh my God!" Natasha pressed herself against the counter as the creatures approached.

"No, you did
not
," Maude protested. "You aren't supposed to make them that way."

"I'm not supposed to do a lot of things."

Veronica inched away from Natasha and Maude.

"I see you recognize what these are," Hopkins said. "You'll find them hot and fresh out of the oven, so to speak. They haven't had the luxury of testing beneath the water yet. Of course, that also means that their skin is still intact." He look around at everyone in the room, then nodded towards the black-clad soldier. "The water's a good place to hide them from prying eyes, but it does horrible things to flesh, especially dead flesh."

The soldiers reached for the bags on the zombies' heads and removed them, revealing their identities.

"Daddy!" Natasha screamed. Tears ran down her face as she looked at the man who'd put her to bed and told her nighttime stories about fairies and elves and the boogeyman. Now he
was
the boogeyman.

For Patrick Oliver retained only a passing resemblance to the man he'd once been. He still had his father's nose; the curve of his jaw was shadowed in his son; even the eyes were the same shape as they'd been before, worry lines etched into his features. But the unholy yellow light that burned within them told of an entirely different being from the man who'd been father to Natasha and Derrick. The shriveled lips barely concealed gums that had receded so far that his teeth looked like fangs, and when he opened his mouth the sound that came from his throat was like the rustling of pages in a book.

"I believe you've met? Patrick, your daughter. Natasha, your father. Why don't you two shake hands?"

Natasha could almost feel her heart stop beating as she saw what her father had become. He wasn't holed up in one of the trailers, or out finding himself. He was lost to her forever, transformed into a zombie. Not only was Hopkins physically vicious, but fucking cruel with it.

"Well, without any more formalities, I think it's time for dinner. Thurman?"

The soldier nearest him let the chains restraining the zombies fall to the ground.

Suddenly Maude jerked a long-barreled pistol from behind the counter, like something out of a Wild West movie. For all the fear she'd shown when first confronted by the zombies, now she held it straight and true, with not even a quiver. "Get the hell out of here, Hopkins, and take your monkeys with you."

"Don't you think that's too late?"

"It's never too -"

The second zombie suddenly lurched towards Maude. She fired, her bullet hitting the creature dead center in its forehead. It stopped and rocked in place. The yellow of its eyes dimmed slightly, a look of surprise crossing its face. She fired again, this time catching it in the side of the head. The contents of its skull splattered against the black-clad soldier beside Hopkins and the zombie fell to its knees.

Then a third gunshot.

But this time it was Maude who went to her knees. Her arm remained stretched out. Her face slapped against the linoleum tile. Her sightless eyes remained open as blood drained from a hole in her temple.

Natasha recovered just in time to see her dad lunging towards her, his arms outstretched to embrace her in a way a daddy should never embrace his child. She leaped out of the way at the last moment as she screamed.

Thurman stepped back and pulled his pistol, but fell backwards with a clatter. Metzger had crept to the side and had managed to pull a fire extinguisher from the wall, and now swung it full strength at the soldier's knee cap. When the soldier hit the ground, Metzger brought the fire extinguisher down on his face twice.

On the other side of the room, Natasha dodged her father again.

Hopkins screamed for everyone to stop moving and only then noticed that Veronica had picked up Maude's gun and was training it on him. She fired, and the round struck the front door, shattering the glass. Hopkins ducked and brought his rifle to bear, but ducked again as Veronica fired once more. This time she missed as well, splintering the wood by the doorjamb. Hopkins dove out the door and was lost from sight. The second soldier followed, leaving them to the mercy of the monster.

That was all Metzger needed. He climbed to his feet, grabbing the pistol from Thurman's unmoving body and his rifle from where Hopkins had dropped it on the floor. He rushed to where Natasha was still trying to hold her father at bay, snatched a chair, and slammed it across the zombie's skull. It went down, but only for a moment.

"Come on. Before it gets up." He grabbed Natasha's hand and jerked her towards the back of the restaurant. Veronica followed, shoving Derrick and Auntie Lin in front of her. Soon they were out the door and into the night. The rain continued unabated, as did the wind.

Metzger looked left and right, then at the water. It flashed a brilliant neon green. "Shit! Where do we go?"

Veronica slammed her shoulder against the restaurant's door, forcing what had been Natasha's father back as it tried to stumble after them.

Natasha found several boards and, with Metzger's help, wedged them beneath the handle. It wouldn't hold forever, but it would buy them some time.

"Does anyone know where to go now?" Metzger asked.

"I do." Derrick straightened his shoulders, pulled a plastic bag from his pocket, and removed the map he'd been working on earlier. He squinted at it, then looked in an easterly direction. "Come on."