PRIME (11 page)

Almost as one, everyone stepped back from the window. They had seen enough. There was silence as looks were exchanged; no one wanted to voice what this would mean for them, for their survival. With the things out in the sunlight there would be no safe time to move about the city, no safe time to replenish supplies if need be. Alice could see the reality setting in and felt her heart sink. Zero saw her face from where he still sat at the table, half his sandwich in hand. Alice opened her mouth to speak.

“No,” Zero said. “Not one word until I finish this sandwich. I need one damn good thing in my day.”

10

John Kahne Medical Center

“This is a disaster.” Jake pushed a hand through his thinning hair as he stood at the window. He was unable to take his eyes off the scene below. Every part of him wanted to argue that it couldn’t be real. He found that oddly optimistic after everything he had witnessed in the last couple months.

Grace pushed herself away from the window and sank into a thickly padded arm chair. Her chin dropped to her hand as she mulled over what she had seen. Quigley left the window almost as soon as he noticed what was going on outside. He half sat on the desk, tapping one foot impatiently in the silence. Finally, he could take it no more.

“What are we going to do?” Quigley asked.

Before anyone could answer, Grace’s office door slammed open, crashing into the wall and startling everyone in the room. They relaxed when they saw it was Alice; behind her stood Cale and patient Zero. The three had a shell-shocked look on their face, making it obvious that they had seen what was down below. As the last warm rays of sun slipped away over the dead, Jake turned away from the window. Even in that moment Alice looked good. She wore a tight white t-shirt and khakis. Jake had to pull his eyes away from her perfect little body. He looked at Grace and spoke in his most commanding tone.

“We’ve got a real problem on our hands now.” Jake leaned against the window, the glass still warm on his back.

“Well no shit. You figure that out all on your own?” Zero asked. Jake glared at him. The man was a degenerate and he couldn’t figure out why Alice had brought him to Grace’s office.

“Zero,” Alice snapped. She turned apologetically to Jake. “He’s stressed about all this, Jake.”

“Well, not to borrow his words, but no shit.” Jake glared at her, angry at her innocence. “We got a damn army out there. Now they can wait there twenty-four hours a day.” Alice frowned at his outburst. God help him, Jake thought it was cute. Part of him wanted to grab her by the arm and haul her off to a private room. He shook his head, trying to clear away the thought.

“Everyone calm down a minute, please,” Grace said. She hadn’t moved yet and was still considering all the options. The others stood quietly as she thought for another moment. She looked up. “We’ll have to leave here. We should have left before, but we were comfortable. We got stupid.”

“Where the hell are we gonna go?” Jake asked. He glanced at Alice, but she wasn’t looking his way. She steadied Zero as he swayed a little on his feet. Damn man couldn’t even stand up on his own, what the hell did she see in him? Jake scowled and crossed his arms.

“Back to the base? Coda?” Quigley guessed.

“Right,” Grace said with a short nod. “Coda is better supplied than we are here and better prepared to withstand that onslaught.”

“How are we going to get out?” Cale asked quietly.

“There are tunnels.” Grace stood and went to a cabinet behind her desk. She pulled a set of keys from her pocket and slipped one into the lock. The lock turned and the door swung open. Grace reached inside and pulled out a set of blue-prints. She spread them across her desk. The others crowded around, watching as she pointed out their one escape route.

“We can leave through the basement,” Grace said. “This city has a street map of tunnels underground if you are in the know. We use these tunnels to get us as far as possible. If we get a mile away from the hospital, we’ll be past the worst of it. We know those things out there are drawn to us. We can move more quickly than they do, and if we are underground they most likely won’t sense us moving until we’re gone.”

“Sounds simple enough,” Jake said.

“Too simple,” Zero said. Anger boiled inside Jake and he resisted the urge to slap Zero’s hand away when he reached out and turned the blueprints to look at them. “Where do these access points lead to?” Zero asked, obviously oblivious.

“Bits of the subway system, sewer system, and other government buildings,” Grace said. “What are you worried about?”

“Access doors mean access to the zombies too, if they are getting smarter,” Quigley said.

Zero nodded. “Exactly. We could end up in a worse position.”

“Without being able to go out, our food supply will last another month at best,” Grace said. “The gas for the generators probably won’t even last that long. At Coda there’s enough food to keep a full base fed for a year, it’s regulation. For us that would last at least two. Also, they have solar panels that power battery banks.” She stopped and looked around for anyone to argue.

“It’s not going to be easy getting there,” Cale offered the closest thing to an argument.

“Not at all,” Grace said. “But it’s our best bet for the long run. Do we all agree?”

Alice and Quigley nodded immediately. Jake and Cale were slower to respond, both still obviously weighing the pros and cons of the idea. “Zero?” Grace asked.

“Give me a second.” Zero sat pouring over the maps, his fingers tracing over all the possible routes.

Jake looked with surprise at Grace. Why on earth was she asking Zero’s opinion? The damn women had all gone mad. Jake turned and walked to the window again. A hand rested on his arm. Jake almost jumped at the unexpected contact. He looked down to see Alice looking up at him with her big brown eyes.

“You okay?” she asked softly.

“Of course,” Jake said. He glanced over his shoulders at the others, but they were all leaning over the maps with Zero. He reached out to rest a hand gently on the soft curve of Alice’s back. “How’re you holding up, sweetie?” He managed a smile.

“Alright.” Alice stared out the window at the dead below them, but Jake was only looking at her. He had to fight to keep his hand steady on her back. Every nerve in his body wanted to move it lower. “I’m a little scared about leaving.”

“Haven’t we always kept you safe?” Jake asked. Alice looked up at him and smiled. God, she made him feel like a teenager.

“Jake?” Quigley called. When Jake turned, Quigley was watching them. “Why don’t you guys come back?”

Jake let his hand fall away as Alice turned and headed back to the others. She leaned in close to Zero, and Jake clenched his teeth.

“I think it’s our best option.” Zero slid the map away. “But once we get to Coda we oughta look into the transmission Cale reported. We gotta find a way to end these guys. Don’t know about any of you, but science isn’t my thing.”

“We agree then,” Grace said. “Any transmission Cale received may have been received at Coda and automatically stored, though as far as I know there is no one left there.”

“Will the zombies have overrun the place?” Cale asked, leaning back against the desk.

“I doubt they’ve overrun it,” Grace said slowly.

“She’s right,” Quigley said. “We’ll find some dead men I believe, and perhaps a handful of zombies trapped inside, but so far ours haven’t shown the intelligence you witnessed at Culex. We can only assume those within Coda are there by chance. Once we are there we can seal ourselves tight into one of the main buildings. Those buildings were made to withstand an offensive strike from overseas. I am sure they can handle these things.”

“And if not?” Zero asked. Everyone waited for the response.

“Then we’ll be no worse off than we are here. This building was a hospital first off, we took it over because it was central and so we could stop them from burning the bodies. It was never our intention to stay here.”

“Good enough for me,” Zero said. “Alice, you trust these guys’ judgment?”

“They’ve kept me alive so far,” Alice said with a smile. Jake returned it broadly. “My worry is the kids.”

“It’s not too far through the sewers. Most of them should be able to walk it fine,” Quigley said.

“I know that,” Alice said. “But they will be terrified, that’s my concern.”

“I think you’ll find those children are tougher than you expect after everything they’ve seen,” Grace assured her. “They’ll be alright. They are better off scared than dead.”

“Right,” Alice agreed.

Still, it seemed harsh to her. The kids were virtually alone. The adults took turns keeping an eye on them, but none had parents. Most lost their entire families; there was only one pair of siblings among the survivors. Alice wished there was more she could do to help them. She saw Simon every time she was with them. Even in the small face of the only girl.

11

Haven Medical Base

Simon sat in the empty library, reading in the dying light of the setting sun. He found ‘Lord of the Flies’ with only a little effort, read the back, and then sat to skim through the book. By the time he was halfway through he had begun to actually read and was quickly sucked into the book. His eyes burned from lack of sleep and the nonstop reading, but he continued on. He was thrilled by the story and terrified that they would become like the boys in it.

He shifted in the overstuffed armchair. He was near the end and thought he’d finish before the sun disappeared completely. Of course, he could turn on the lights, but it wouldn’t be the same, not to mention it was one more set of lights sucking juice out of the battery banks. He could still turn them on though, and daily he thanked God for the solar panels.

He was so engrossed he didn’t notice Dodge until he sank into the chair beside him. He smiled slightly when Simon jumped. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

“No, it’s fine.” Simon rubbed at his eyes under his glasses. They felt hot from staring at the book.

“What are you reading?” Dodge asked and Simon tipped the book so Dodge could see the cover. Simon blushed slightly, but Dodge smiled wide. “Ah, a classic.”

“I don’t think I ever heard of it, you know, before everything,” Simon explained. “I wanted to know what you were talking about.”

“You’re a smart kid,” Dodge said. “Tech and Zeke weren’t lying about that. So, do you think we’re like those guys in the book?”

Simon thought about it a moment, though in truth he already knew his answer. “No. Maybe a few of us are. I think we could have become them, but you pulled us back from that.”

“That’s a whole load of confidence to drop on me.” Dodge brushed a hand over his hair. “Just remember, kid, we’re all the same. Ain’t none of us any better than the others, and we’re in this together.”

“I know that.” Simon nodded.

“Wanna come with me then?” Dodge stood. He still wore his clothes from the service. They were a rumpled mess.

“Where are you going?” Simon looked up at him, unwilling to set aside the book.

“Got some things to discuss and plans to make, you know.” Dodge shrugged, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “I thought you wanted to be a part of it all, didn’t you?”

“Are you sure?” Simon looked down at the book. “I don’t want to mess anything up.”

“What are you talking about?” Dodge frowned down at Simon.

“You said before that I wasn’t big enough to help,” Simon said, squeezing each word out. “I guess after what happened with Noah, I kinda agree with you.”

“Simon,” Dodge said. Simon lifted his head to look at him. Dodge crossed his arms and sighed. “I pushed Noah. I made that mistake. You never would have done that.”