Resurrection: A Zombie Novel, - [ereader manga .TXT] 📗
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More were coming. Hughes shot one clean through the head with his rifle. Kyle swung his crowbar and broke one of their arms. Annie swung her crowbar and hit one in the ear. It went down instantly.
Frank hit one right in the nose with his hammer.
Hughes shot another one through the chest.
They were almost finished. Only a handful remained.
They’d make it. They’d be okay.
Everyone except Carol.
Annie swung her crowbar at one of the last three remaining—this one also a man—but she swung too early. Her blow connected with nothing. She felt her shoulder go out.
And he was upon her.
He knocked her right over and onto her back. She damn near cracked her own skull open on the pavement. He was right on top of her, his mouth open wide and baring his teeth as if they were fangs.
“Annie!” Kyle shouted.
And then something happened. Something she did not expect, something she did not intend, something she did not even think about. It just happened. As if someone or something else was in control of her body and mind.
She bared her own teeth and lunged for the infected man’s throat.
The next two things happened at precisely the same instant. Kyle said, “Jesus Christ!” and Hughes put a round through the infected man’s head.
He went limp and collapsed on top of her.
Kyle pulled him off.
Hughes came running, rifle in hand. “Jesus, girl. Did you try to bite that thing?”
She had indeed tried to bite him.
Annie watched as Hughes and Kyle set Carol down in the flatbed. Everyone else piled in after, except Frank, who climbed into the passenger seat. He said he did it so Hughes wouldn’t have to sit up front by himself, but Annie assumed Frank just didn’t want to ride next to Carol. He looked at her like she was leaking virus, which wasn’t far from the truth.
Annie didn’t worry about that at all. It wouldn’t matter if she recontracted the virus. Her body knew how to fight it, so she sat next to Carol and held the poor woman’s hand and didn’t care if the others thought she was reckless.
Hughes started the engine. “We’re just going a couple of blocks down the street for right now,” he said as he lightly stepped on the accelerator.
“Finally,” Parker said as they started to move, “we’re clear.” Then he punched Kyle hard in the mouth.
He shouldn’t have done it. He knew he shouldn’t have done it, and he regretted it instantly, but goddamnit Kyle had to be the dumbest person he’d met since all this shit started.
“Parker!” Annie said.
“The fuck was that for?” Kyle said and wiped his mouth.
Frank turned around in the passenger seat.
“S’going on back there?” Hughes said from the front.
Parker ignored everybody but Kyle. “You know damn well what that was for.”
Kyle pulled his hand away from his mouth and licked blood off his lips. “What’s to stop me from bashing your head in with this crowbar right now?” Kyle said, his face twisted.
Parker pointed his gun at him. He wasn’t going to shoot Kyle, and the weapon was empty anyway, but he wasn’t going to just sit there and take a death threat over a punch in the mouth.
“For God’s sake, you guys!” Annie said.
Parker lowered his gun. Kyle lowered his eyes.
“You damn near got us all killed back there,” Parker said. “You did get Carol here killed.”
“All right!” Annie said.
Carol groaned.
Parker knew he should have apologized, to Carol as well as to Kyle, and he should have done so at once, but he didn’t.
“I got Lane and his boys to stand down when they were ready to throw us all out,” Kyle said in his whiny little voice. “And I’m about to take us to an island where we’ll be safe and where we can start over.”
“You disarmed me,” Parker said, “when I stood our ground against Lane. And you refused to kill Roland or Robby or whatever the fuck his name was when you had the chance.”
“Okay!” Annie said. “Can you guys do this later? Right now we need to take care of Carol.”
Hughes slowed the truck. Parker hadn’t paid the slightest bit of attention to where they were or where they were going. They’d stopped in the middle of an intersection. On one corner was a mini-mart, on another an ex–Chinese restaurant with its windows smashed in. Two gas stations took up the other corners.
“We stopping for gas?” Parker said.
“We’re stopping for Carol,” Hughes said. He turned off the engine and stepped out of the truck.
A hush fell over the world. All Parker could hear was a slight breeze in his ears and a ticking sound from the engine. The air smelled decent and fresh. Nothing dead was anywhere near them.
Hughes put his hands on his hips and stared hard at Parker. “You guys want to go at each other later, that’s fine, but right now you save it. Frank, we have any water?”
Frank hopped out of the front and unzipped one of the backpacks. “Just gear in this one. But, hey, we still have the night vision.”
Thank heaven for small mercies, Parker thought to himself. He didn’t care about Carol. Not really. He knew he should. He just didn’t. She’d been a burden all along and would have continued being a burden if she hadn’t been bitten. He felt a small twinge of sympathy for what she was going through, but he wouldn’t miss her. Not really.
He would have felt differently about it a month ago. Hell, he’d have felt differently about it two weeks ago. He didn’t know if the old Parker or the new Parker had it right. The old Parker was more humane, but the new Parker would last longer.
Frank fished a bottle of water out of the backpack and set it down next to Carol.
Annie held Carol’s hand and stroked her forehead. The girl was reckless.
“Careful,” Parker said.
“Shut up,” Annie said. She wouldn’t look at him.
She’d have to vigorously wash her hands with soap and hot water, and where would she find any hot water? Parker made a mental note not to touch her until she was clean. Not that he had any intention of touching her. He could only imagine her reaction, especially if he touched her right now.
“So what do we do?” Kyle said and wiped his mouth again. He wasn’t bleeding much. Parker hadn’t hit him that hard.
“Let’s just sit here a while,” Annie said. She stroked Carol’s face with one hand and held Carol’s hand with the other.
“I’m sorry,” Parker said to Carol. “About what I said a minute ago.” It was true that Kyle had gotten her killed, but he shouldn’t have said it out loud. She wasn’t dead yet.
Kyle glared at him. He wasn’t getting his apology. Not now, anyway. Probably not later, either.
“It’s okay,” Carol said. She sounded weaker already. Maybe she was just tired or resigned or numb with shock over what happened.
“How you holding up?” Parker said.
God, what a stupid fucking question that was.
Annie glared at him.
“I’m sorry—”
“Just shut up,” Annie said. “Go walk around the truck or something.”
He sort of liked Annie. She was a tough kid, and she wasn’t stupid. He’d need to behave a bit better now that she was around. He didn’t care if Kyle hated his guts, but he didn’t want any more rebukes from Annie.
How long would they have to sit there in the middle of the intersection, though? Were they just going to wait for Carol to die—or to turn?
No one seemed to have any idea how long they’d be there or what exactly they were supposed to be doing. Carol obviously wasn’t coming with them on the boat. And how were they supposed to get to a boat, anyway? They couldn’t drive to Olympia with the roads so packed with cars. Parker wasn’t even convinced that they should go to Olympia. Thousands of those things would be hunting in a city that size. There had to be a smaller marina on Puget Sound somewhere.
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