Surge (111 page)

“You’re damn right it isn’t,” he agrees. “I call first training session, as soon as we get back.”

“You’re on,” Olivia promises. “Now, give me my damn shield.”

She walks over to reclaim her dog catcher, and directs Victoria toward the door. The infected creature resists the movement, but after relentless prodding, turns forward and follows Olivia’s lead. We head back in the direction we just came from, passing the door that we found Olivia in, before she continues on.

“No, no snacking,” Olivia orders Victoria when she makes a lunge for the corpses on the floor. Victoria’s hand makes contact with the boot of the one with the steak knife in his chest, before Olivia pulls her away. “You’ll spoil your appetite, and I have plenty of disgusting men for you to munch on. Now, come on, you greedy bitch; you can wait five more minutes, it won’t kill you.”

“You do know that she can’t understand you, right?” Patsy asks. Olivia pauses to glance at him.

“Wanna bet?” Olivia asks.

“Yeah,” he says.

“Fine, if I’m right, then you teach me your sensei’s knockout technique,” she says. “But if you win, I’ll convince Gia that you aren’t that bad.”

“I don’t need your help,” Patsy retorts.

“Have it your way,” Olivia says as she starts walking again. It takes less than a millisecond for Patsy to reply.

“Fine, I agree to your terms,” he mutters. “Now, show me that she understands you.” Olivia flashes him a triumphant grin.

“She can’t, but I still won, ‘cause I got you to admit that you like Gia,” Olivia says and skips down the hallway.

“I did not,” Patsy denies as he chases after her. “I merely said that I would agree to your terms. Nowhere in there did I admit, or say anything about Gia.”

“Pat-sy and G-ia, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g,” Olivia sings as she skips. “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a ginger in a baby carriage.”

“Nuh-uh, no love, no marriage, and no damn kids!” Patsy replies.

“You’ll see Patty, you’ll see,” she says. “Now, be vewy vewy quiet, I’m hunting wabbits.”

“Sure, Fudd, you hunt your damn wabbits,” he mumbles.

Olivia continues to the end of the hallway, and off to the left. When I turn the corner, I see that there’s a set of wooden stairs, that thankfully look a little more preserved than the set Patsy and I used coming in. It’s proven to be so, when Olivia has me and Patsy back off so that she go first and lead Victoria after her. Icky Vicky protests the backward movement, but Olivia pulls on the pole, and Red doesn’t have the ability to resist. Reaching the top of the stairs, Olivia turns the knob slowly with her left hand and keeps a firm hold on the dog catcher with the other.

Giving the door a small push with her foot, she peers through the crack, and listens for a few seconds. Satisfied with what she sees and hears, Olivia pushes the door open a little more and slips through, dragging her wheezer shield along with her. Olivia disappears for a minute before we see her hand wave us to come up. Patsy goes ahead of me, so I’m the last to reach the landing, which is essentially another hallway upstairs. I can see off to the left that there’s a set of double doors like the ones I saw Olivia come out of earlier, so I’m betting that way would be the kitchen. I was expecting at least one guard to be at this door, since Cole seems like the kind of guy that would appoint several men to guard his most precious possession; meaning Olivia, but I don’t see anyone.

It’s when I look to the right, that I see the man with a slit throat, slumped over in his chair. And another one bites the dust. Counting the ones Olivia took out downstairs, which was five; plus this one, that means that there are at least six other men inside by Webby’s count. Not too bad of odds for us to end this quickly, and with minimal risk of casualties on our side.

Olivia taps a finger to her mouth as she passes Patsy the dog catcher and points for us to go into a room across the hall. I’m about to protest that I’m not about to hide in a room while she goes off alone, when I hear footsteps. A light shove from Olivia forces me in the direction of the appointed door, but I grip her hand and try to pull her along. Her eyes flicker between me and the hallway, before she signs out something. Having read her hand signs for almost two weeks, I know that she’s saying that she has an idea.

Olivia points at the body, then me, and finally the door. I nod in understanding, and grab the body on my way toward the room that Patsy went in with Vicky. Olivia pulls the door shut behind me, just as I hear the footsteps getting louder; indicating that whoever was coming is getting closer. I pull the dead raider out of the way, and press my ear to the wall.

“What the hell are you doing up here?” A male voice questions. It’s followed by stomping footsteps coming down the hallway.

“I needed to use the restroom,” Olivia answers.

“Too damn bad,” he retorts. “Get the fuck downstairs, before I toss you down them again.”

“No thanks,” she says. “It’s dirty, and there are spiders down there. It’s gross.”

“It’s dirty,” the raider mocks. “Afraid of a couple of spiders, are we? I’ll give you something to be afraid of.”

The steps pound further in Olivia’s direction, and I hear flesh being hit. I don’t know who’s hitting who, but I’m not just gonna sit here while Olivia fights some asshole who is undoubtedly double her size. I go to pull the door open, only to have it swing open with Olivia pushing the raider directly at Victoria. The wheezer pounces on her meal, making the guy open his mouth on a shout. Said shout is lost somewhere in his throat, when Olivia sinks her knife in it.

“Toss me down a set of stairs, you prick,” she hisses and kicks the still struggling raider in the balls twice. “Goodbye, Hal, you spineless mother fucker.”

Even as he’s bleeding out life’s blood on the floor, I see the raider’s eyes scrunch in pain from her assaulting his dick. Victoria laps at the bite she gave the guy, before ripping off a chunk of flesh from his shoulder. His orange jumpsuit, which I can now read the MCI-Cedar Junction; a maximum security facility in Massachusetts, gets dyed a deep red color. From the amount of blood that’s flowing from Olivia’s knife, and Victoria’s chow fest, I’m not surprised that the guy dies within thirty seconds.   

“Cedar Junction,” I say and point at Hal.

“Yeah, he’s one of the ones who escaped with Cole,” Olivia replies as she swipes her knife clean on Hal’s pant leg.

“So, he was here before?” I ask. Olivia nods to confirm it.

“Yup,” she says with a pop on the
‘p.’
“His crimes were numerous, but his penance was small, as was his penis.”

Olivia stomps on his crotch, even when the guy is already dead, so I take it that particular piece had a part in her torture. I feel like bringing him back to life, just so that she can hurt him more, but there are still plenty of the fuckers left that she can make pay for their crimes against her.

<~~~<~~~
~~~>~~~>

“Are we leaving her to feast then?” Patsy asks, as he watches Vicky dig into Hal’s stomach.

“No, we’re gonna interrupt her meal, but we’ll give her seconds,” Olivia answers. She holds her hand out to Patsy. “I’ll take her.” Patsy hands over the pole, and Olivia drags Victoria off of the body. I look at Hal’s body.

“Should we stab his brain?” Olivia cast a quick glance at Hal, and shakes her head.

“No, he was too far gone for the blood to heal anything,” she says and points at his blood. “If that had started tinting black, then he might have turned, but it’s still red.”

I nod in understanding, since I’m not accustomed to seeing the infection run its course in person. Usually I kill the person after they’ve already turned animal, but I’m learning. I’m also curious as to how the infection affects the person; meaning what decides which type the person gets. Is it the attacker that decides it, or is that person’s genetic makeup? Good question to ask Olivia, since she seems to know a lot about them, but I’ll have to hold it off for now.

“If we cut through the kitchen, we can head toward their sleeping quarters faster,” Olivia says. “I don’t know where Cole’s is, but I had a tour of the lackeys’ earlier.” The fuck? I take the pole and pass it back to Patsy, before cupping her bruised cheeks, and tilting her head back.

“You alright?” I ask and search her face. “Any of these fuckers touch you? If they did, I’ll rip out their intestines and strangle them.” She places her hand over mine, and gives her head a slight shake.

“Later, alright, I just want to get the fuck out of here,” she says as a non-answer. When she goes to break the contact, I duck down to her level and hold her gaze.

“I wanna know.”

“Please,” she whispers and her eyes fill with tears. “Can we just go?” I nod and pull her in for a hug.

“We can go.” I feel Olivia bury her face into my chest, and take a deep breath, before stepping back.

“So, are we going through the kitchen then, or are we just gonna take them head on?” Olivia asks. She keeps her eyes trained on her knife, and holds the handle in a white knuckled grip, so I know that she’s trying to focus on there here and now.

“Whatever you want to do,” Patsy replies and hands her back Vicky when she reaches for the pole. “But let me give the Cap an update, I haven’t talked to him since we found you in the basement.” Olivia nods her consent and leans back against the door, before closing her eyes.

“You sleep at all last night?” I ask as Patsy radios in our status. Olivia, with her eyes still closed, shakes her head.

“Haven’t slept in three days,” she says.

“Sorry.” She opens her eyes and tilts her head to the side.

“What’re you sorry for?” Olivia asks.

“Because if I weren’t a dick, then I would have been there to keep you company.”

“It’s fine,” she says with a wave. “I can’t be dependent, it’s not healthy.”

“What if I’m the dependent one?” I ask. Her eyes come back to meet mine.

“Are you?”

“Absolutely,” I agree. “I haven’t been able to sleep without my comfy cuddle buddy, which happens to have a built in heater.” Olivia laughs at little at that. “I’m serious, do you have any idea how uncomfortable it is sleeping on a lumpy couch? It sucks and I kept waking up shivering.”

“Maybe we could fix that when we get back?” Olivia proposes. “But only if you can’t handle the lumpy couch, and I can’t have you getting sick on me. After all, what will little Junior do without his daddy?”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” I say and rub the back of my neck. “But Dennington wouldn’t take no for an answer, so I thought me being taken might throw her off.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she says with a smile. “I thought that it was pretty damn funny, just next time, you might wanna let me in on it, alright?” I nod, isn’t this girl just about perfect? “Did it work?”

“Um, no, she still wants to break her off a piece of my Kit-Kat bar.” Olivia laughs, drawing the attention of Vicky, but she shakes the pole until Red settles back down.

“Don’t worry about Denise,” she says. “She’s already on my shit list for what she’s doing to Webby, so I have no problem snatching that bitch bald.”

“I heard a little about that,” I say. “What is that she’s doing to Webby?”

“She’s blackmailing him,” Patsy replies. I turn to face him, and he tucks away his walkie before continuing. “Did you notice anything when you were at the compound?”

“That you guys have an aversion to introductions?”

“There’s that,” Patsy agrees. “But what about the people, did you see a pattern?” I think back to the people I saw.

“The women are ravenous for male attention,” I say.

I see Olivia’s face go blank, I can’t tell if it’s to hide jealousy; which I’m kind of hoping for, or anger that I might have been uncomfortable in our new home. Olivia seems more of the type to care about my comfort level, but it would be nice if she felt territorial over me. Not in the,
‘I’ll stab a bitch for looking at you,’
kind of way, but the
‘That’s my man, bitch’
kind of way. Shut up, I want her to want me as much as I want her, and what better way to show it, than by glaring at any female who comes within six feet of me?

“Not that I want anything to do with them,” I continue. “But they seemed to mug any male under thirty who walks through your gate.” I point at my face. “Have you seen me recently? I’m not the best thing since sliced bread, but they were acting like it.”

“Yeah, we’ll come back to that at later date,” Patsy says. “Back to the comment about under thirty. How many people did you see that were over forty?” I think back to the Mess Hall, since that’s where I saw the most people. I remember Melly, and...that’s it. Just Melly was over forty, where the hell are the rest of them?

“Just Melly,” I say, and then I remember the commander. “Morales, too. We brought Whit and Mike with us, and they’re over forty.”

“Okay, concentrate on Melly,” Patsy orders. “Why do you think that she’s the only person over sixty that’s with us?”

“Because she’s a survivor,” I puzzle out. “Elderly don’t last that long outside the walls, but she’s not that old, and she had Webby to help her.”