The Dying of the Light (Book 1): End (19 page)

Kim cleared the door, and I wasn’t sure whose bullets hit the zombie first, mine or Eaton’s. Crouched over the body of another luckless technician, it had turned our way as the door opened, but had time for nothing else as our shots splattered its brains all over the wall behind it.

Why am I completely unsurprised?
I thought as I recognized the technician I’d seen from my earlier experiences with Chauncey. Or rather, what was left of him. I didn’t even recognize the other one.

“Walker down,” I muttered as we crouched and moved into the room in formation, seeming to watch everywhere at once. Reynolds looked calm as he put two rounds in the head of the corpse on the floor.

“Charlie Six, report,” Kim said into her mike as she scanned the room.

“Charlie is all clear, ma’am. No sign of walkers on the second floor.”

“Roger. Rendezvous at east stairwell, first floor.”

“On our way.”

I looked around the room, but didn’t see any other active specimens. There were a few quiescent bodies on tables covered in sheets here and there, but nothing moving. The door to Chauncey’s cell was open, and I heard a soft clinking from inside.

Kim glanced at me, and I shrugged. “I think we’re clear, ma’am.”

“Oh, shit.” This soft comment from Martinez drew my attention, and I saw him looking at Reynolds, who was in turn looking at a sheet-covered body. Or mostly covered, anyway.

Oh, fuck me. They couldn’t have…
I walked up behind Tom and ever so slowly put my hand on his shoulder. He didn’t even flinch; didn’t move at all as he looked down at the man who had almost been his lover. Victor was laid out on the slab as neat as could be, grey and lifeless. I didn’t see the bite that had killed him, but the two holes in his forehead from a ‘neutralization’ order were clear enough.

There were no tears from Reynolds now, just a blank stare. What I saw in that stare scared me. Maybe he’d truly turned a corner and let Victor go that fast, or perhaps he’d just locked away all emotions.

Will we all become like that?
I wondered.
Empty, just like the walkers? Remorseless, fearless, the only difference being body temperature? God, I hope not.

I pulled Tom away, and sat him down in a nearby chair, where he just stayed still, lost in his own private hell. I looked up at Kim as she came over, gently laying her hand on his other shoulder.

“Gaines, Martinez, go meet up with Greer,” Kim said as she touched her mike. “Command, Alpha Six.”

“Command here; go ahead.”

“The building is clear, sir. No indications of activity outside the specimen room. Two walkers neutralized.”

“Roger, Alpha Six.”

We collected Reynolds and moved back outside the main entrance, Gaines, Martinez, Greer and the rest of Charlie team joining us. Maxwell met us once more.

“Well done, major,” he said as the clean-up crew moved past us in their bright white environmental suits and flamethrowers.

“Thank you, sir. Permission to speak freely, sir?” At the colonel’s nod, Kim continued. “Sir, what the
hell
is going on?” Maxwell raised an eyebrow, and Kim flushed. “Sir, I’ve
never
seen a walker turn that fast.”

“What do you mean, major?”

“Sir, he was practically completely turned by the time we got there. That’s, what,
maybe
ten minutes? The fastest I’ve ever seen — and the fastest recorded in the records you gave us — was well over an hour. So I have to ask: what the hell is going on?”

Though I’d never seen him stunned, I think that was the closest I will ever get. The colonel appeared as though he’d been hit right between the eyes; poleaxed, my granny would’ve called it. That expression didn’t last long, though, and was quickly replaced by one of anger.

“I am going to have a little
chat
with our dear friend Mr. Gardner,” he said, and stalked off. Commander Anderson looked at us and shook his head.
I’m sure as hell glad he’s not coming for me
, I thought.
Dude is
pissed.

Commander Anderson dismissed us, and we returned to our barracks, still keyed up from the excitement. No one said a word at Kim following me into my room, and I smiled at her as she turned back to me.

“Now where were we, Mr. Blake?” she asked, running one hand over my chest.

So much for going slow.

Chapter Ten

Fort Carson, Colorado

Reveille came
way
too early the next morning, and I opened my eyes and sat up to see the dawn breaking.
God, I hate mornings.

I looked down at Kim lying next to me, the sun turning her hair to molten fire, and the half-smile on her lips reminding me just how good a night it had been. I sat and looked at her for a while, amazed at this beauty I’d awoken next to, and remembered the feel of her against me the night before. How we had just seemed to connect on a deeper level than before, and I wondered whether it was just the death of Victor that had caused it, or whether we truly had turned a corner.

A little while later, Kim turned, trying to recapture the warmth I had taken away at sitting up. I smiled as I watched her stretch and yawn as she opened those emerald eyes, and she smiled back.

“How long have you been watching me sleep?” she asked.

“Only an hour or so. It was the snoring that really got to me, though.”

“Ass,” she responded, giving me a smack on the arm and smiling wider. “If anyone should be complaining it should be me. Where’d you put the cabin, anyway?”

Oh, sawing logs. I get it.

My brain doesn’t work too well in the mornings.

“Har, har, har.” I ran my hand up her side as the sheet fell away from her body, watching as the cold barracks air and the light touch caused her to flinch. “Hmm, I hadn’t realized you were that ticklish.”

I ran my hand under the sheet and squeezed, and she jumped. “Now
that
I knew about,” I said, laughing as she smacked my hand and covered herself more fully with the sheet. Just then, there was a brief knock at the door, followed by Tom entering, bearing a tray of steaming food. He raised one eyebrow, smirking, as he set the tray down on the room’s only desk.

Two cups for the coffee, I noticed. Subtle, isn’t he?

I grinned back at him, the grin of every man who’d just spent the night with a beautiful woman and found to his surprise — and possibly hers — that she was still there the next day.

“I was talking to the colonel this morning,” Tom said. “And he asked me to bring you something to eat. He figured you’d had a hard night, so to speak, and he thought I could use some mindless busy-work.”

I chuckled, and Kim just shook her head. “Little boys; you’re all little boys,” she said, sticking her tongue out at Reynolds.

“Don’t stick that thing out at me, darling. I know where it’s been,” he said, grinning from ear to ear.

Kim had the grace to blush and I laughed, which earned me yet another smack. I must be a glutton for punishment.

I looked up at Reynolds. “Any other messages from the colonel, Tom?”

He straightened and was the professional soldier once more. “Yeah, he wants us all in the briefing room at 0800 for a meeting with
Gardner
.” Sneering the last bit, he winced. “Geez, I hate that guy.”

Kim and I groaned. “Dammit, something about that guy just creeps me right the hell out,” I said. “What’s his deal, anyway? He’s like some sort of paper-pushing robot.”

“Well,” Tom said. “From what I hear, he’s going to be the one doing most of the talking this morning.”

Another round of groans, and I waved Tom out so we could get dressed. He chuckled and muttered as he left the room. “So much for
my
good morning!” he laughed as he closed the door.

I waved in the general direction of the drawers that had all our gear in them as I sat back against the wall. “Ladies first.”

Kim gave me that look that every man in the free world has seen from one woman or another; I knew I hadn’t fooled her a bit, but I wasn’t about to admit it.

What can I say? I like looking at beautiful women, and Kim was that and more. She pulled the sheet with her as she left the bed, leaving me scrambling for the blanket to cover myself against the chill air of the room. Snagging a couple pieces of bacon off the tray, she moved over to the drawers, letting the sheet fall to the floor as she picked out her clothes for the day.

I could only stare in silence as my brain turned itself off, leaving me to look like a drooling idiot as she dressed. She knew exactly what she was doing, too; a turn of the leg here, a twist of the torso there, and I was mostly a puddle of goo when she was finished.

Mostly.

She giggled and sat down to eat her breakfast as I stood to take my turn at the dresser. I dressed quickly, trying to think of baseball, cold showers, Margaret Thatcher naked on a cold day —
thanks very much for that, Mike Myers
— anything but her as I pulled my t-shirt over my head and salivated over the smell of the fresh coffee on the tray.

“So do you think he’ll be okay?” she asked me as I sat down.

“I dunno, really. It took me a long time to get over Rebecca, and this will be just as hard for him…” I broke off as I realized what I had said, and looked up to see Kim as stony-faced as I’d ever seen her.

Oops.

I’d really put my foot in it this time, and there was no way out but through.
Well, it had to happen sooner or later. Now’s as good a time as any.
I sighed and put down the coffee cup.

I composed myself and then looked her straight in the eye. Honesty was
definitely
the best policy here.

“Rebecca was the fifteenth walker I put down, and my fiancée. She and I had met a year or so before it all went to Hell in Fall Creek, and we were happy, for a time.”

Rebecca picked up the pale yellow sundress and scowled at it. It wasn’t her color, and far too thin, and
short
.
Trust David to pick out something like this
, she thought.
I really need to work on his fashion sense.
She’d have to wear something else underneath it, or at the very least a jacket, but she also knew she’d have to wear it today, or he’d wonder why.

And she couldn’t very well tell him he had the fashion sense God gave Michael Jackson, could she? She sighed and then smiled.
Still, he’s the best boyfriend you’ve ever had, girl. Shaddup and wear the damn dress already.

She had just finished pulling the dress over her head and settling it on her shoulders when she heard and felt Eric bounding up the stairs and around the corner, racing into the room and throwing himself on the bed. Her eight-year-old son looked up at her, his bright blue eyes shining underneath a mop of straw-blond hair.

“Mom, guess what?”

She ruffled his hair. “What, kiddo?” she asked as she pulled a silver watch that her father had given her out of her jewelry box.

“Aw, come on, you’re supposed to guess!”

She turned to him, one finger on her lips in a thoughtful pose. “Hmmm, let’s see. You’ve been kidnapped by aliens and they’ve replaced you with a robot?”

He laughed. “Nope!”

“Um, you’re actually a hundred years old but you pretend to be small so you can get out of paying the bills?”

“Nah.”

“You saw the scariest monster you’ve ever seen and now you know what you want to be for Halloween?” She said, grasping at straws as she took out a simple diamond necklace and laid it across her neck. It had been David’s Christmas present to her the year before. She hadn’t asked him what it cost, but she had snuck a look at the receipt and was astounded that he would spend that much money on her. Suddenly she realized how quiet the room was and turned around. Eric was staring at her, his mouth agape.

“Close your mouth, you’ll catch flies,” she said automatically, to which he responded as automatically.

“Better than your cooking, anyway.” Her lack of culinary skill had been a running joke in their small family for more than six months now. For whatever reason, she found it as funny as they did, and hey, at least it got her out of cooking. “How did you know?” he asked.

“Know what, babe?”

“That I saw a scary monster!”

She was momentarily nonplussed, and ran the conversation back in her head. “Wait, you really did see a scary monster?”

His eyes were huge as he whispered. “He was all gooshy like he’d been dead for weeks or something, and he made this weird moaning noise, and he wouldn’t go away. He tried to grab Brandt, but we got away. He was like a movie monster, mom.”

Now she was worried. Eric didn’t usually make up stories, so he must’ve seen something. “Where did you see this monster?”

Eric grew shifty, and Rebecca knew he was lying to her. “Um, over by the park.”

She walked over to her son and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Now, what have I told you about lying, Eric?”

“I know, it’s just…” The little boy sighed and sat up, looking at her. “Please don’t be mad, Mom. We were riding bikes near the mine, and Brandt thought he saw something moving in the shack.”