Death Squad (Book 3): Zombie Nation Page 5

  For now, at least.

  Sooner or later, she had to attempt an escape. Despite Felix’s words of warning, there was no way she could simply shut up and accept her fate like this. Exhausted, she climbed underneath the duvet and found sleep easily. Under the circumstances, that was quite a feat in itself.

  7.

  HAWK

  “How are you doing today, Joe?”

  Zombie Joe stared at him with his big eyes. Dr. Archer hadn’t done any experiments on him so far as Hawk could tell. A regular old zombie with nothing to offer the world but fear and terror.

  “I’m feeling much better now, Joe. Can you tell the difference?”

  Joe made slapping noises with his lips. Hawk took that as confirmation.

  “Ten years younger? Thanks, Joe. I had no idea you had such a silver tongue.”

  The light blinked green and the door slid open. The gorgeous Dr. Archer entered carrying a paper cup of coffee. She looked between Hawk and Joe. “You know, talking to yourself is a sign of madness.”

  “Not if you’re me. I’m the greatest conversationalist in the world.”

  “According to whom? Joe?”

  “According to everyone.”

  The doctor arched her perfectly plucked eyebrow. Today she wore a loose-fitting blue dress. The woman could wear a sack and she’d look ravishing.

  Dr. Archer took a small torch out of her pocket and flashed it in his eyes, checking his pupils. “How are you feeling?”

  “Good. Great, actually. I can’t wait to get out of here and do the tango with you.”

  “One step at a time, lover boy.”

  “That’s my intention. One quick step after another with a rose between my teeth.”

  “I can see you’re feeling frisky.”

  “Like you wouldn’t believe.”

  “Limbs working okay?”

  “Everything is working okay.”

  “Feel up for inserting some hydraulics into your severed limbs? I’m thinking we’ll do your legs first. You’ve effectively lost the use of them already. If we make any mistakes, it’s better they happen there and not with your arms.”

  Hawk hung his head. “You took the wind out of my sails, doc.”

  “Sorry. I don’t expect any errors to happen, of course. But you never know with a complicated procedure like this.”

  “Just tell me everything’s going to be all right and I’ll be jitterbuggin’ with you by the weekend.”

  “It is the weekend.”

  “By midweek, then.” Hawk shot her a grin.

  Dr. Archer looked him in the eye. “The procedure should go fine. That’s the best I can do.”

  “Ever the realist. Fine. Let’s get this show on the road.”

  * * *

  The doctor laid the table flat. She wheeled a gurney over. The tools glinted beneath the powerful overhead lights. She put on a mask and goggles. She picked up a tool and got to work cutting away his rotting flesh.

  “Listen doc, I was wondering. Why is it I never see any of your co-workers around here? We’ve been here a few days already and I haven’t seen anyone but you.”

  “We decided the safest thing to do was for just one of us to come in contact with you. Your blood is highly contagious, after all.”

  “It’s not because you want to keep me all to yourself?”

  “That’s a part of it.” Dr. Archer tugged a large chunk of flesh off his leg and dumped it in a bin. “Any discoveries we make, my name gets printed first. With time, everyone else will be relegated to ‘et al.’”

  “You drew the short straw.”

  “Not from my perspective, I didn’t. I get all the glory. All right. I think I’m done with cutting away the rot. Now I’m going to start inserting the hydraulics.”

  “That’s what I usually do.”

  Dr. Archer was focused on her work and didn’t fully appreciate the joke. “Your bones are surprisingly strong. I thought I might have to replace them first but they’re good enough. In time, I might have to anyway.”

  Hawk blinked. “Dr. Archer, are you asking to see me again?”

  Dr. Archer chuckled. “Well, I don’t want anyone else taking all my glory, do I?”

  “So long as we’re both on the same page, I don’t mind a beautiful lady using me for her own purposes.”

  She laughed. “And what page is that? The center page?”

  Hawk took his turn to laugh. “You’re getting pretty good at this joke-making lark.”

  “Nice to see your libido hasn’t been affected by your affliction.”

  “If my libido stopped working, I might as well be dead.”

  Dr. Archer chuckled and concentrated on her work.

  “Can I ask you a question?” Hawk said.

  “I think we’re far past the getting-to-know-you stage, don’t you?”

  “Well, your hands are inside me. I guess we can tick that particular box.”

  Dr. Archer chuckled. “Fire away. What you want to know?”

  “What made you become a doctor? It seems just about the worst job in the world to me.”

  She shrugged. “I like helping people improve, making them get better.” She raised an instrument and showed it to Hawk. A pneumatic piston.

  “Your new leg,” she said.

  “Does it come in black?”

  “Only one color, unfortunately. Although, once we’re done, we can cover it with prosthetic material so it will look like skin.”

  “It’ll look more badass like this.”

  “You might have a slight limp with it at first. Until you get used to it.”

  “That’s nothing new. I’ve had a limp ever since I died.”

  * * *

  “Now may I ask you a personal question?” Dr. Archer said.

  “I was hoping you would.” Hawk help up his hands like a fisherman. “I’d say about this big.”

  The doctor slapped him on the arm. “Nothing like that!”

  “Go ahead. You can ask me anything.”

  “What was it like to die?”

  Hawk was silent a moment.

  Dr. Archer waved her hands. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry. It was a bad question—”

  “No. It’s okay. As a doctor, you must be curious. To know what the other side is like. You spend your entire life delaying people from entering it. I can only tell you what it was like for me. I’m sure the experience is different for everyone.

  “Death itself is not painful. Everything leading up to it though is excruciating. It’s coming down the tunnel and you can’t get off the track. You’ve probably seen death even more often than me. I don’t need to tell you how it goes at the end.

  “Most people are scared. They don’t want to die. They think about the things they’ve done, about the things they regret, the things they wished they’d done. But you also think about the things you’re glad you did. You take your last breath and let go.

  “Death isn’t a man or a supernatural being. He’s not a shadow. Death is sleep. You fall asleep when you don’t really want to. Your eyes are so heavy that the darkness is invited in. It swims into your mind. It’s empty, like someone turned out all the lights in the universe. It’s not cold and it’s not endless either.

  “You don’t move. You just float there. There were no hot flames or fluffy white clouds. No harps or pitchforks. People like to make things more complicated than they need to be. It really is as simple as closing your eyes and drifting to sleep.”

  The doctor had stopped fixing his leg and stared into space.

  “Is something wrong?”

  She had tears in her eyes. “No. No, it’s just. . . No one ever quite described it to me like that before. It doesn’t sound so scary.”

  “It’s terrifying until the last moment.”

  Dr. Archer nodded her head. “Hopefully neither of us will have to experience that moment until quite some time.”

  She fixed the piston into place. A low hiss as she tested it. “I’m finished with this le
g. Want to give it a try?”

  “You’re going to let me loose?”

  “Not yet.”

  She righted the bed. The errant flesh and blood from the dissection slid to the table’s bottom lip.

  “If I let you out, you’ll collapse on your face. We can work on rehabilitation later. For now, test the weight.”

  Hawk leaned on his foot and let it brace his weight. It felt good. Sturdy and strong. His other foot hadn’t been operated on yet. He could feel the difference. He eased more weight onto it. The piston absorbed the weight with a hiss.

  “It feels good.”

  “It’ll become second nature with time. I want you to do some basic weight exercises when you have the time.”

  “Doc, all I have is time.” Hawk looked at her uncertainly. He wasn’t used to people helping him. “Thank you, Dr. Archer. For everything. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  The doctor raised her eyebrows. “I think we both know the answer to that. Chase the girls.”

  Hawk pulled a face. “Me? How dare you!”

  The doctor held up her hands. There were caked in his blood. “Caught me red-handed.”

  There was a pause. It grew into an uncomfortable silence.

  Dr. Archer frowned. She thought it was funny. She opened her mouth to apologize. Hawk raised a finger. Then he roared with laughter. The chains rattled as he struggled to maintain his balance. Dr. Archer joined in.

  Hawk wiped a tear out of his eye. “Sorry. That’s just about the worst joke I’ve ever heard.”

  Dr. Archer grinned. Hawk smiled back.

  It’s funny where a random event can take you. Almost dying a second time had been a good thing for Hawk. He wouldn’t have met the doctor otherwise, and he couldn’t think of anywhere he’d rather be.

  A shame things couldn’t last that way forever.

  8.

  TOMMY

  The command tent lay crushed beneath the wing’s second engine. The fuel had leaked and set fire to the surrounding tents. A sheen of smoke caked the area. If this was where the colonel had last been spotted, it didn’t look good that he might have survived.

  “Now what?” Guy said.

  Tommy had no clue. “We have to find him.”

  “Come on, Tommy. You don’t honestly think we’re going to find him here? Look at the place. He’s gone.”

  “We have to try.” Because I don’t know where to go or what to do if he isn’t here. He’s the only one who might help us.

  They searched the rubble in the area. They found untold dead bodies. Tommy was the one unfortunate enough to come across a pair of zombies happily feasting on a body skewered by a tent pole. Tommy dispatched the undead and continued his search.

  By the time he was done, the others had made their own round.

  “Anything?” Tommy said.

  They shook their heads.

  “Wait. Where’s Jimmy?”

  “Over here!” Jimmy shouted from halfway up a particularly craggy mound. He waved them over. “I think I found him. Look.”

  Tommy scaled the incline, feet slipping on sliding slats.

  Jimmy was right. He’d found the colonel.

  * * *

  Colonel Maxwell’s face was visible through a gap in the rubble. His eyes were shut and his face was bloody. He didn’t look good.

  Tommy cupped his hands around his mouth. “Sir? Can you hear me? Sir?”

  There was no response—as Tommy knew there wouldn’t be. He bent down and removed the items from the top of the pile first, then strategically removed those most likely to cause a disturbance. Tommy eased each piece out before handing them to Guy, who passed them on to Emin and Jimmy.

  The more pieces Tommy removed, the less stable the structure became. He took longer deciding which pieces to discard next. A single wrong piece and the whole thing would come tumbling down on top of the colonel—and it might well sweep the rest of them up in the process.

  With each new shorn layer, Tommy leaned down and said: “Don’t worry, sir. We’re coming!”

  The rocks shifted under Tommy’s feet. He replaced the rock he’d picked up only a moment ago and got down on his hands and knees to push the rocks aside.

  Colonel Maxwell’s face was only a foot beneath the surface now. Peering at the precarious nature of the rocks surrounding his hero, he didn’t think he could remove another rock without displacing the entire shelf. He was playing a game of Jenga and he’d drawn the short straw.

  Without the colonel, none of them would be there. The military would have destroyed them long before anyone got around to testing them. The secret of their genetics would have been lost. They couldn’t fail him. They owed him.

  Then Tommy saw the solution to the problem, a way to hold back the tide of rocks from sweeping up the beloved leader.

  He climbed into the gap that gave a view of the colonel, careful to place his feet on either side of his head. Then he braced the weight of the rocks behind him.

  “Guy!” he shouted.

  After a few slips on the flinty rock, Guy poked his head over the side. “Yeah?”

  “Start removing some of the rocks from this side,” Tommy said.

  Guy took in the situation. “If I take the wrong one, you’ll be crushed.”

  Tommy smiled through strained teeth. “Then take the right ones.”

  Guy looked perturbed. He agonized over each rock.

  “Quicker,” Tommy said. “I can’t hold the rocks back forever.”

  Guy put his hands on one of the larger rocks. He checked with Tommy it was the right one. Tommy nodded. Guy worked the rock free and let it roll down the incline.

  Tommy grunted beneath the weight of the mound of rocks on his back. He felt the strain on his body but did not relent.

  Guy removed the rocks quickly, letting them cascade down the rockface. Within minutes he had removed enough to show Colonel Maxwell’s torso. His legs were trapped beneath another section. They would have to remove twice as much refuse to work him free. Guy didn’t hesitate to start.

  “Check him first,” Tommy said. “If he’s already dead, these rocks will be his tomb.”

  Guy gently placed his hands on the colonel’s throat, feeling for a pulse. It took a moment. “It’s there, but it’s very weak.”

  The old guy was still alive! He was tougher than he looked.

  “Check the rest of him,” Tommy said.

  Guy ran his hands over the great man’s ribs. He flinched back.

  “What is it?”

  “Broken.”

  “How many of them?”

  “Most of them from what I can tell. They’ve been pulverized.”

  Bad news. Trying to move Colonel Maxwell would result in the loss of what little life he still maintained. Guy daren’t touch the ribs for fear he might accidentally dislodge any bones that allowed him to breathe.

  Tommy peered down at the man beneath him. “Sir? Can you hear me? Sir?”

  The colonel didn’t stir a muscle.

  “It’s over, Tommy,” Guy said. “He’s gone. Let him die in peace.”

  Tommy was overcome with grief. The weight at his back suddenly felt impossible. His knees buckled and his back arched. He was a great man. The kind of man every soldier wished to be when they joined the military. A legend while he was still alive. But even legends die eventually.

  “Tommy, we have to go,” Guy said. “The rocks are too unstable. They’ll crush us too if we stay here much longer.”

  Tommy shook the worst of the desperation off and nodded his head.

  That was it. All their hopes of overcoming the Architect were over. Dead with the colonel. The best they could do was reduce the carnage he would inflict on the nation and the world.

  Guy climbed from the grave first. He reached down a hand. The moment Tommy took it and accepted Guy’s help, the rocks at his back would tumble and crush the great man beneath.

  Tommy reached up. Guy took it.

  “On the count of three,” h
e said. “One, two. . .”

  “Three,” a third voice said.

  * * *

  The voice was rough and gravelly, one they each recognized. They turned to the body crushed beneath the rubble at their feet. Colonel Maxwell was awake.

  Tommy’s eyes couldn’t have swelled any larger if he tried. Tommy released Guy’s hand and returned to his position as rockslide-stopper, reinvigorated with new strength. “We have to get you to a medic. You might pull through this.”

  The colonel coughed. Dust mixed with the blood leaking from his lips. His breath wheezed through a hole in the side of his mouth. “Tommy, look at me. I’ll never make it.”

  Tommy’s eyes were fiery. “We have to try, sir. You’ve come this far. There’s no reason you can’t go a little further.”

  The colonel placed a bloody hand around Tommy’s ankle. “I wouldn’t survive the journey. If you move me from this place, I’m done for.”

  Tommy shook his head. He couldn’t accept that.

  “Listen to me. You’re wasting time and I don’t know how much longer I have left, so I’ll have to be brief. No matter how dark the situation becomes, no matter how sinister the world gets, we always have a way of fighting back. The only question is, how do we make it count?”

  “We failed to stop the virus from spreading,” Tommy said. “It’s out there now, taking more and more innocent lives.”

  “That’s a burden you’re going to have to bear, I’m afraid. The zombies are merely the first wave of the attack. Our military will do its utmost to protect our citizens. They might even succeed. That is, if it were not for the leadership the Architect provides the beasts.”

  “Leadership? What kind of leadership? The zombies are mindless animals. They follow no one.”

  Blood caked Colonel Maxwell’s lips. “Because no master has come to claim them. Yet. A rabble is only a rabble when it is not guided. And that’s precisely what the Architect plans on doing.”

  None of this made any sense to Tommy. “But how?”