The End Came With a Kiss (20 page)

"That's the last dart, so we need to get moving. If either of these two wakes up, I have nothing left to sedate them."

"That's all of ‘em?" asks James.

I cock the gun and look in the chamber. To my relief, one dart remains. "I stand corrected," I say, sliding the gun back in its place. "There's one left."

Harry plops Luci down on top of the boxes on the other cart, and says, "Then we better make this first run count."

I get behind my wife's cart, and James lifts Ashlyn into his arms. We squeak our way to the double doors and move cautiously down the shiny white hallway to the doors that lead to the office spaces. The floor has a gentle vibration to it, but the sound of the loopers is distant.

"Let's wait here and time them," I say, looking at my watch.

James sets Ashlyn down behind the carts, and Harry looks out the porthole of the right side door. The floor is vibrating more now, and the sound of the growling and screaming loopers is increasing. I can almost see them in my mind, running full tilt through the wide open hallways like an olympic track team in street clothes. Their faces tortured. Their voices ranging from dark guttural growls to sustained war screams. The floor is shaking now. Up and down. Faster and faster. The angry horde is nearing the doors.

Harry is tucking himself into the corner to reduce his visibility, but he peers out, his face like stone, his eyes like fire. I understand why, because his strong hand rests on Luci's leg as she quietly watches him from a box on the cart. He is like a daddy grizzly, prepared to protect his young at all cost. I pity the looper who decides to make that little girl a target.

The loopers are past now, and I set my timer. None of us make a sound as we wait for them to come around again. There is almost silence at one point, but it doesn't last long. Soon the sound returns and grows to full volume as the loopers run by a second time.

Harry looks at me expectantly.

"We have about two minutes." I bring my radio up to my mouth. "We are on our way Lau. Get those doors open!"

Harry backs through the door and pulls his cart out into the wide hall. I get behind and push mine out in front. James trails behind with Ashlyn in a fireman's carry. We push forward a good twenty feet before I motion them to stop. The next space is wide open, and the loopers will be running past on the other side, if they’re not there already.

I peek around and look. I can hear them loudly, but I don't see them yet. They have not emerged from the hallway that runs parallel to this one. Even at this distance, we can feel the shake of the floor.

Suddenly the first few burst into view, running in a sprint past the elevators on the far wall, their hands flat, their arms swinging like trained athletes in a triathlon. In groups of three to six they fire into view, digging into the carpet at full speed.

When the last of them emerge and disappear, when the walkway on the other side turns into a hallway again, I climb behind my cart. "Okay. It's clear." We heave forward and push by the cubicles on our right, down the long walkway to the next short stretch of hallway. My legs feel like they're on fire, and my breath is pushing out in a labored rhythm. The room is a hollow hum around me. My whole focus is getting the cart safely to the lab—getting my wife safely to the lab.

Suddenly there is a loud crash behind me. I twist around. Harry's cart is on its side, and little Luci's leg is sticking out from under a desk next to the wall, with crates crammed in under it, pinning it to the underside of the desk. Harry is on his back. A looper is scratching wildly at his face. James is just on the other side, frozen, with a look of horror on his face.

I pull up on the dart gun in my belt as I run forward, but it doesn't pull free. It's snagged. I twist and wiggle it and it jerks free.

Harry brings a mighty fist up, and the looper, who is fairly large himself, takes the blow in the nose without so much as a blink. It’s a useless effort on Harry's part. The dead don't feel pain or, at least, they don't feel much pain.

I aim the dart gun point blank at the loopers back, thinking the drug will enter his system faster if I shoot him near the heart, but immediately recognize that as a stupid thought and lift the barrel up. THOOMP. The dart hits him behind the ear, but I don't wait for it to take effect. I dance to his right side and kick his shoulder with everything I have.

He flails to the side, and Harry rolls over on top of him. His thick fingers grip the looper by the shirt, and he starts slamming his back against the floor, over and over, as the looper’s hands dig into Harry's arm.

James rises up on the other side of Harry, Ashlyn no longer on his shoulder, with his pistol aimed to fire at the looper's head.

"No!" I shout. "That will bring the others back on us."

His head rises up with a shudder; his expression is panic. "What do we do?"

"Grab his wrist!" I say, leaping for the arm on my side and pinning it to the carpet. James does the same on the other side. "I shot him in the neck. Give the drug a chance to do its job."

Harry presses down on the man's chest and slides down to hold his legs in place. Slowly, excruciatingly slowly, the looper begins to weaken, and his body becomes still.

I push off and start pulling at boxes. "Luci!"

Harry rises and pushes the desk back. Luci looks up from the darkened pocket between the boxes and the desk. There is blood on her forehead and blood on her shin where the boxes and crates had pinned it.

Harry's big hands lift her out like a backloader and pull her up into his large arms. "Are you okay, sweetie?" The little girl doesn't make a peep, but a tear runs down the side of her nose.

"Let's go," I say. "We have to go!"

James is already lifting Ashlyn back onto his shoulders.

Harry hugs Luci and looks down at his overturned cart.

"We'll come back for it," I say, pushing on mine. "Help me push this one."

We've lost precious time. The loopers may already be heading back our way. Is it wise to press forward? If the loopers see us enter the lab, they'll group at the door, pounding and slamming their bodies to get in. We'll be trapped in there with no way to get back out and get the supplies. On the other hand, if we turn around and don't make it back to the loading room corridor before they see us, they'll push through those swinging doors and rip us to shreds. Our only option is to get into the lab before they see us.

"Push! With everything you've got. We have to get into the lab before they see us!"

Harry does his best with his one free arm. The cart is rolling at a good clip now. But I can already hear the sound of the sprinting screaming mob growing louder. They must be reaching this side of the building. At any moment, they will be on this wide walkway.

I shout to James, "Get the door. Get the door! Here!" I say, holding my key card out to him. "Swipe my card on the box."

He huffs underneath the weight of Ashlyn's body as he snatches the card and jogs ahead. He swipes the card and pulls the wooden door open. Harry and I line the cart up to push it in. Lau is at the inner glass door, holding it open.

It’s a tight fit, but the cart squeezes through. Barely.

"What took you so long?!" says Lau as I roll through the doorway.

"We got sideswiped by a looper."

His eyes round as he looks at Harry. I'm not sure if it is because of his immense size or because I forgot to mention the little girl, but Lau is clearly on tilt. This is not what he signed on for.

"They saw me!" says James, coming in last. "I'm sure of it!"

I look at the cart for something to cover the window of the outer door. Ashlyn's leather coat is tucked between a couple of boxes. That will work. Now something to hold it up. Duct tape. Where did we put the duct tape? I catch a sliver of silver peeking out from the end box. My hands shoot out, one grabbing the coat, the other grabbing the duct tape as I bolt for the doors.

The inner door is glass, and fragile, but the outer door is thick oak. If I can cover the window, they might grow tired of beating the door and move on.

"Lau! Help me tack this up on the window!"

"Me?" he says, shuffling nervously.

There's no time to deal with his quirks. I swing the glass door open. "James, help me tack this up!"

I drape the coat over my arm and start picking at the duct tape. The floor is shaking now, and I can hear the loopers clearly. They're close. I drop the duct tape and slam the coat against the window, spreading it with my hands to cover the glass. James will have to do the taping. There's no time. My eyes scan the edges to see if I've covered it all.

James is behind me now. "Grab the tape and get the bottom first." I press in on the bottoms with my elbows to seal it so the light can't leak out.

The loopers begin pounding, and fear snakes through my gut, pushing shivers out through my legs and arms. I feel them smacking the glass. I hear their growls and screams vibrating through the wood. James has one corner pinned and is working on the next. Something impacts the door, and my heart constricts.

"Come on!" I whisper.

James rips off another piece and seals the entire bottom edge.

The pounding and scratching is increasing. The rest of the group has caught up with the first. They’re all pressing in to scratch and punch the door.

I slide my arms to seal the sides as James works his way around. Finally, it is sealed. James and I back up into the lab and close the glass door.

"You think they'll give up?" asks Harry, still cradling Luci in his arms.

"If they do, it won't be for several hours."

"Will that door hold for hours?" asks James.

Harry looks around the lab. "We could reinforce it with something."

"Yes, we could," I say, "but any noise we make will fuel the loopers more. We just need to hope it holds and wait for them to give up."

"What if they don't give up?" says Harry. "That glass door won't hold them for more than a few minutes, if that."

"You said you're good with your hands, right?"

He nods.

"We have an Acetylene torch. Could you make a barrier out of these metal tables over here so we can cover the inner door if they get through?"

He looks at the folding metal tables stacked against the wall, and then examines the wall around the glass door. "Yeah. If I have enough time I can even make it so it will clamp onto the frame of the door, but what about Luci?"

I ease her out of his reluctant grip. "I’ll take care of her. She'll be just fine."

He combs her bangs back with his thick fingers. "Is that okay with you?"

Luci stares vacantly.

Strange. Besides the one tear, she hardly reacted at all to being pinned under the office desk, or to the pain of the wounds she received. I wonder if this state of shock is having a deadening effect on her nervous system, or if she can feel every bit of it but can't find the will to respond.

Harry bends down and kisses her on the forehead. "Don't give Ben any trouble now," he says jokingly. "He's going to patch you up."

21

As I’m getting the second bandage on Luci, I notice Ashlyn is awake and scanning the room. I rub the shin bandage to seal the tape firmly. "There we go. You're as good as new."

Her eyes flit up to mine for a moment, but then slowly sink back down to a comfortable stare.

"What is Harry doing?" asks Ashlyn, her throat noticeably hoarse.

"Building a barrier to protect us from the loopers outside."

She seems to notice now the sound of pounding and scratching and the subtle addition of wood splintering. James stands guard at the door with our arsenal of weaponry. Lau remains on the far side of the room, monitoring Katherine on the medical bed.

"Why don't you just go ahead and shoot them all? They're going to die anyway." Her face and eyes are devoid of emotion.

I leave Luci sitting on the lab table and walk over to Ashlyn and crouch before her.

"Is there any humanity left in there?"

Her face scrunches. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Do you even feel bad about what you did?"

"What? This starvation? I didn't do this. Cartwright did."

"But you were okay with forcing this mutation on the world without its consent."

"I already told you, we didn't have a choice."

"Did you know there would be a war? That people would die?"

Her eyes smolder like coals in a fire. "If the dead had awakened with their minds intact, none of this destruction would have happened. But something went wrong."

It is a plausible story, and, I have to admit, it does lessen my hatred for her, but she was still aware that the compound causes death. She still conspired to transform the entire world without its permission.

"Even if it had gone as planned, what you did was wrong."

"What do you want from me, Ben? You want me to tell you you're right? That we should have revealed ourselves to the world, and let them make the choice?"

"We had the right to know."