Plague World (Ashley Parker Novel) (34 page)

Heald got to his feet. The room was silent as he stalked over to where Gabriel and I stood. He planted himself right in front of me, practically nose to nose as he spoke in a quiet tone much scarier than his ranting.

“Maybe I should thank you for my change of diet,” he said, his breath rank with the smell of partially digested carrion. “And for my change of perspective.” He smiled. “Darwin had it right. Nature decides in the long run. The sheep are meant to be ruled by the wolves. And the wolves decide who is worthy to be kept in the herd.”

I’d had enough.

“Oh, for crissake, you couldn’t just go beat a drum in the woods somewhere?”

His hand cracked across my face, hard. I tasted blood and Gabriel made a lunge in his direction. Hands seized him before he could do any damage.

“And you,” Heald looked at Gabriel with a mixture of disappointment and disgust. “You were a good soldier. One of the best. But you’re weak.”

“Why?” I glared at Heald. “Because he wouldn’t switch diets?”

Heald smiled. “Oh, he did. But only to save you. And you, Miss Parker, aren’t worth the price he’ll have to pay.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look at him.” He gestured toward Gabriel, whose skin had yellowed again, beads of sweat popping out on his brow as if he was a junkie in need of a fix. “He’s tasted it. If he doesn’t eat more, he’ll continue to rot inside.”

Gabriel flinched at his words.

“You’re lying,” I said hotly.

“Am I?” Heald’s smile broadened. “His body craves human flesh now, because it knows what will keep him alive, from turning into a walking pus bag. He saved you, but not himself. One of these days he won’t be able to stop himself.”

“He’s right, Ash.” Gabriel’s voice was raspy, almost broken.

“No, he’s not!” I struggled against the hands holding me, wanting nothing more than to touch him, make him believe me by sheer force of will.

“Damn straight I’m right!” Heald turned back to Gabriel. “You
will
kill her one day, soldier. Make no mistake about that. There’s no turning back now.”

“We don’t know that!” Simone’s voice cut sharply through the room.

“He’s always responded to the antiserum,” she continued. “That means there is still a chance of stopping the progression.”

Heald tilted his head to one side as if considering her words.

“Too bad we’ll never know.”

With that he drew a pistol holstered at his side, aimed it at Simone and pulled the trigger. A hole appeared in her chest and she reeled back with a surprised “oh!” before crumpling to the ground. Nathan gave an inarticulate yell and knelt by her side as a banshee wail of pain emanated from the speakers.

The room was silent with shock. Even Crazy Eyes looked horrified, and Heald’s aide Sarah looked at him as if he’d suddenly sprouted two heads. Jamie stared down at the scene, mouth open, expression beyond aghast.

Heald lowered his sidearm and looked up at the screen.

“And fuck you too, you little traitor!”

Jamie fixed Heald with a deadly stare, even as tears streamed down her face.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” she said.

The screen went black.

The shit hit the fan.

As the cabal at the table started muttering amongst themselves, the sound of a not-too-distant explosion caught everyone’s attention. Then, Crazy Eyes pointed at one of the screens, and we all watched as a trail of light arced into the gates at the park entrance, still crowded with the undead.

Another muted explosion went off and the gates blew apart, along with some of the zombies. There were plenty more behind them, though, and those started pouring in past the gatehouse, overwhelming the stunned soldiers who’d been guarding it.

A soldier, a young kid who still sported adolescent acne on his chin and forehead, stuck his head into the room.

“Sir, those damn bikers are back! They’ve blown the gates and the zeds are coming in! There are hundreds of them, sir!” This was enough to bring the occupants of the table to their feet in a panic. The former candidate grabbed Heald by one arm.

“We need to evacuate!”

Heald shook him off impatiently.

“We’re safe down here.”

The man shook his head.

“We need to get out of here while we still can. Those things are going to overrun the place and if we don’t move now, we won’t be able to get to the helicopters!”

The others agreed, and they all began pushing their way toward the doors. But Heald crossed the room ahead of them, and stood in their way.

“I’m telling you, you’re safe in here,” he snapped. “If you go out there, you’ll only get in the way while my men are trying to do their jobs.”

“You’re the only one who’ll be safe if those things get in here,” the talk-show celeb replied, pushing his way past Heald and out the doors. He was closely followed by several of his compatriots.

“He’s right,” Crazy Eyes yelled. “You’re safe ‘cause those godless creatures can tell you’re halfway to being one of them. You’re a freak of nature!”

Heald’s eyes narrowed.

“You’re all sheep,” he said contemptuously. “Go ahead, leave. The wolves will bring you down soon enough. And I don’t need you anymore.”

At that moment, another soldier, this one in black commando garb and a visor pulled down over his head, shoved his way into the room, holding someone by the scruff of her shirt.

“Caught this one wandering the halls, sir!”

My head snapped in the direction of the voice just as its owner shoved his prisoner forward, her face obscured by a thick fall of brown hair. Almost afraid to breathe, I looked over at Griff, who gave a little nod.

“Lil!”

She looked up, those wide green eyes flashing fire from behind the curtain of hair as she saw me. I couldn’t tell if she was happy or pissed off, but it didn’t matter. The soldier shoved her away from him, and both of them pulled out pistols. They began to fire around the room. Bullets ricocheted off the walls and blew out video screens.

Members of the cabal gave panicked screams and scattered in all directions. The resulting chaos made it almost too easy for me to bring my heel hard down the instep of the guard who was holding me, yank my arms out of his grip, and hurl him against the wall with enough force to stun him. The men holding Gabriel released him to go for their weapons, but he turned on them with a feral snarl and smashed their heads together with an ugly cracking sound.

Tony and Gentry easily disarmed and incapacitated their guards. Gentry snagged one of the firearms and proceeded to calmly take out anyone wearing a uniform, while JT stripped off his disguising helmet and hurled it with unerring accuracy at the guy whose knee I’d dislocated. The asshole was pulling his pistol, and the helmet bounced off his wrist, giving me time to deliver another kick—this one to his jaw.

Say goodnight, Gracie.

I dashed over to Nathan, still crouched down by Simone. He’d stripped off his black T-shirt, exposing a network of scars over his back and torso, and was using it as compression against Simone’s wound, trying to stop the bleeding.

“Nathan?” I couldn’t bring myself to ask.

“Still alive,” he answered without looking at me. “We need to get her out of here.”

“Copter?”

He shook his head. “They’ll be overrun in no time, if they aren’t already.”

I looked up at the screens that hadn’t been shot out. Nathan was right. Most of the outside was already crawling with the walking dead. I saw several of the cabal members running across a parking lot, headed toward a helicopter, only to be pulled down by zombies converging from all sides.

On another screen, the talk show host pounded on the glass doors of the gift shop, zombies approaching him from behind. Frightened people stared from the inside while he was torn to pieces, his blood splattering the doors as rotting fists started hammering and pushing on the glass. The doors gave way as I watched.

On yet another screen, people pushed to get on board a pair of helicopters, rotors already spinning. Crazy Eyes was one of them, clawing with as much vigor as a hungry zombie to get to the front of the throng and climb up into one of the aircraft. She made it inside just before soldiers started shoving people back.

The helicopters rose into the sky.

It was slaughter, pure and simple, but I couldn’t bring myself to feel sorry for any of the people caught in the carnage. They’d drawn a really fucked up line in the sand, and chosen the wrong side.

“Ash, look out!”

I looked up in time to see Gentry smash a rifle stock against the jaw of a soldier preparing to shoot me from across the room. His finger pressed the trigger as he was hit, and the shot went wild, hitting Heald’s aide Sarah. She dropped without a sound, the shot a perfect bulls-eye in the center of her forehead.

Heald looked at his fallen aide, his expression one of shock. Then he swiveled his head in my direction, the grief wiped out by homicidal rage.

“You!” he hissed, a world of hate in that one word. “I should have shot you like a dog before you got lucky and survived the infection. Would have saved me a shitload of trouble.”

He raised his pistol and took aim.

“At least I can fix that.”

I dove to the side as he fired, the wind of the bullet whistling by my ear. I hit the ground hard, the impact forcing my breath out of my lungs. I rolled over onto my back and found myself staring down the barrel of Heald’s pistol. I saw my death in that black hole and in Heald’s eyes.

“Good riddance, Miss Parker,” he said, and he pulled the trigger.

As Heald’s gun went off with a sharp crack, a snarling figure tackled him from the side, propelling him into the table with bone-crunching impact and making the shot go wild. Gabriel’s hands wrapped around Heald’s throat, smashing the back of his head into the table once, twice and—

Another sharp report echoed in the room. I scrambled to my feet in time to see Gabriel stiffen and then slump over Heald, his grip loosening and then slipping from the general’s throat.

Oh, god, no.

Heald grunted and shoved Gabriel’s limp body off of his own. My eyes widened in horror as I saw blood seeping out from a hole in Gabriel’s stomach, the edges of his shirt scorched around the point of entry.

“Oh, no…” I whispered.

Heald whirled toward me and pulled the trigger again. I spun so that the bullet grazed my left arm, the Kevlar arm guard stopping it from hitting flesh. With my right arm, I grabbed my katana from the table where Heald had tossed it. I brought the edge down on his wrist and chopped right through skin, bone, and sinew. The gun flew to the side with a clatter. His hand fell to the floor with an anticlimatic plop.

Heald howled with pain, blood spurting from his wrist.

“You bi—”

I cut off his last word by cutting off his head.

My entire world narrowed down to Gabriel, who lay on the table in a spreading pool. Tossing my katana next to him, I knelt beside him as blood pumped out of the wound, welling up with each heartbeat.

“Don’t move,” I commanded, looking for something to use as a compress. “We’ll get you to Dr. Albert. He’ll fix—”

Gabriel turned his head and looked at me with those denim-blue eyes. He gave a little smile, reached out with one hand toward my face. The hand dropped as he gave one last wavering sigh.

* * *

And then… everything stopped.

The sounds of gunfire and screams faded out as I stared at Gabriel’s lifeless face, his eyes staring blankly up at nothing, his features relaxed, all the tension and strain leached out of them.

Death cannot stop true love
, I thought.
All it can do is delay it for a while…

I stayed at his side, one hand resting on top of his, the other smoothing the hair back from his forehead. Someone came up to me and said my name. I ignored them as I stared down at Gabriel’s beautiful, peaceful face, waiting for him to wake up and talk to me. I didn’t care if he was an asshole, either. He could rag on me for being late to class, or whatever he wanted, as long as he woke up.

As long as he wasn’t really gone.

“Ash…”

Gabriel’s hand twitched beneath mine.

“Shhh!” I waved them back. “Wait.”

I continued to stroke Gabriel’s hair as his hand twitched again, his fingers intertwining with mine.

Then his head turned and he stared at me with the milky-white, soulless gaze of the walking dead. His mouth opened and he reached out to pull me down toward that gaping maw, his grip tightening implacably around my fingers.

I shut my eyes and gave a long shuddering breath, an eerie echo of Gabriel’s last moment. Then I picked up my katana in a reverse grip and brought the point down into his right eye.

And that was it.

I stood up slowly, an icy numbness spreading from inside my chest to the rest of me. I felt hollow, the world suddenly distant and unimportant. I heard noises, people saying my name, but I didn’t care. They didn’t matter. Nothing mattered any more. Everything I’d fought for was gone.

* * *

“Ash,” someone repeated, “we have to get out of here. Place has been breached.”

I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to see JT standing next to me, Lil at his side. I looked around the room to see that the only people still standing were the wild cards, including Griff. Nathan had Simone cradled in his arms. Everyone else was unconscious, dead, or gone.

Something buzzed in one of my vest pockets. I fumbled for a moment and then pulled out Rooster’s smartphone.

* * *

Hey, little sister. Time to go. Meet us at North Island.

Viper.

* * *

I slowly came back to life and looked at JT.

“We need to get everyone out of here the way we came in,” I said.

Simone’s eyes fluttered open and she whispered something that only Nathan heard. He looked up.

“We need to get Dr. Albert, and as many blood samples as we can.”

JT nodded. “I saw the lab on my way here. We’ll hit it on our way out.”

Simone whispered something else. Nathan’s expression tightened and he turned his head toward Griff.