Dead Soil | Book 3 | Dead World, page 5
part #3 of Dead Soil Series
“Look,” Christine yanked on his lab coat to get him to stop once they were all in the light of the foyer again. “You can tell us all you want about this, it’s not going to make either of us feel any better about flipping a coin on my sister’s life.”
Jonathan sighed and let his face fall, his head nodding in understanding as he stared at his shoelaces. “I know. I get that. I wish I could offer you more. I wish the serum was perfected and it was a hundred percent effective. I wish it had been out a year ago before I lost my family and everyone I cared about.” His eyes clouded over with tears. He tried to hide it by avoiding eye contact but it was obvious as his lips puckered to stop from shaking.
Christine’s heart ached when she looked into the young man’s caramel eyes which swirled with unending pain and regret. “I’m sorry,” she blurted out, raising both hands in a shrug and then letting them slap against her thighs in defeat. “I’m sorry I’m being so hard on you when none of it is your fault. I don’t mean to. I’m just worried about my sister.” She hoped when he looked in her own piercing blue eyes that he saw her sincerity.
He sniffed and shrugged, moving his foot along an imaginary pebble on the tile floor. “It’s OK,” he muttered, not yet ready to face either of them with his grief still shoving its way up through his tightened throat. He tried to swallow but found it more difficult than usual. “It was my mom and dad,” he said softly.
Christine didn’t respond. She simply took a step closer and leaned to put herself in his line of vision. Her eyes encouraged him to talk more.
“Well, my dad died when I was ten so he didn’t have to suffer through any of this, thank God. He was a doctor.” Immediately, the intern’s eyes clouded over and his jaw tightened as he fought to keep the tears contained. “Colon cancer,” was all he could manage before one rolled down his cheek. He wiped it away in a hurry with the back of his hand. It’s always been my dream to follow in his footsteps, even before we lost him. I wanted to help others and make a difference in their lives like he did.”
“That’s a noble cause,” Zack said, relaxing in his stance a bit, a small grin finding its way to his lips.
Jonathan gave a quick huff of laughter. “Yeah, it was. Not much good I’m doing right now though running back and forth for the scientists here, helping to create a cure that doesn’t even work.” His eyes fell again.
Christine reached out and placed her hand firmly on his shoulder, causing the crestfallen boy to look up into her eyes. “Not yet it doesn’t. But it will.” She sounded so sure that Jonathan couldn’t help but be encouraged by her words. Christine released her grip on him and waited silently for him to continue with his story. Something she’d learned not only as a lawyer but as a survivor of horrors was that keeping things inside never helped you to heal from them. You had to say them aloud to release yourself from them, to learn to let them go and move on with your life. Jonathan needed to talk about how he lost both his parents before the grief consumed him so completely that he couldn’t go around faking smiles and laughter any more. Until he was stoic and cold like the man standing next to them. Christine’s eyes flickered over to Zack momentarily. He stood there, his arms folded, his feet spread slightly and evenly apart, waiting with no expression to hint what he was feeling inside.
“I was here at the lab working when we heard the news. My mom was at home by herself when these things started to come out of the woodwork, killing everyone they could get their hands on.” His lip quivered as he stared off into nothingness, lost in thought. “I don’t even know if she’s alive or dead.”
Christine wanted to say something to ease his worry; ‘I’m sure she’s all right’ or ‘there’s always hope. Don’t give up’, but the truth was his mother was probably dead. The chances of surviving in this world on your own was slim to none. Even with the help of others, Christine had seen so many fall to the devouring demons that wandered their once beautiful town. Friends, family, and everyone in between. No one was safe anymore.
Jonathan took a deep breath and blinked away the tears. He sniffed and looked around as if he’d just awoken from a dream. No doubt he’d been trying to recall the details of his mother’s face from when he last saw her, trying to remember the last words they exchanged. “I haven’t left this building once since we were put on lockdown a year ago. Our work is too important to risk one of us dying, Dr. Bhatt says. I hope that she’s right because hiding in here while everyone else dies out there makes me feel like a coward.”
Christine shook her head and reached for him again, this time grabbing his shaking hand in hers and squeezing it tight. “You’re not a coward. The work you all are doing here is going to save so many lives.” She spoke the words as if they were a promise more than bits of fleeting hope.
“What’s it like out there? I mean, what’s it really like? We have people who bring us our food and supplies and they never tell us. Men of few words not unlike your friend here.”
“Why do they bring you supplies?” Zack asked with a furrowed brow.
“Because of the work we’re doing here. They say they want to contribute to the cure in any way they can so they bring us food and water and medical supplies weekly whenever they have enough to spare.”
Christine’s heart warmed to the idea of there being people out there still willing to do for others, to give when they had so little left. A smile graced her lips without her trying to fight it for once.
“Well, to put it lightly, kid, the world is shit,” Zack said gruffly without holding back. “It’s a dead world out there where the living are the minority. We’re nothing more than prey, constantly hunted. Trust me, it’s not a world you want to be in. You’re lucky to have been spared from the world out there.”
Jonathan stared into the distance again, as if pondering Zack’s bleak description of the world outside the medical facility he’d been locked inside of for the last year. His head nodded of its own volition, his eyes unblinking. “Maybe you’re right,” he finally said.
As if he regretted asking the question in the first place, he changed the subject. “Dr. Bhatt has taken a look at that journal you brought in.”
This caught Christine’s attention. Her parted lips snapped shut as her eyes widened. “Who’s Dr. Bhatt?” Zack asked before she could open them again.
“Dr. Hemal Bhatt is the lead scientist in developing the cure. She personally analyzed the journal to see if there were any insights to be gleaned from the rantings inside,” Jonathan said casually, with no regard to the effect his words had on Christine.
Her jaw clenched so hard her head started to pound from the force. “Liam didn’t rant,” she growled through her teeth. “He was a genius. And I know for a fact the flu vaccine he developed with Dr. Hyde is the reason we’re in this mess. Dr. Hyde was patient zero and the answer to creating a cure that actually works is in Liam’s journal.” She felt Zack’s heavy hands fall on her shoulders as he hovered behind her, calming her with his silent presence.
Jonathan simply shrugged, returning so quickly to the façade he put on to avoid the pain he felt inside. “Maybe he was and maybe he wasn’t. I doubt it. Dr. Bhatt says there’s nothing there that she can find, but who knows? Maybe she’ll keep looking and find something.”
VI
Carolyn Bock raced down the dark hallway of the bunker until she caught up with Lee, Imani, Luke, and Svend. She reached up and grabbed Lee on the shoulder before he could place his foot on the first wrung of the ladder, turning him around.
“Here,” she said, shoving her sheathed bowie knife into his large hand. “You’ll need it.”
Lee looked down into the small woman’s eyes and nodded his head once. He didn’t know what to say. After everything he’d done, all the trouble and pain he caused, the people of his group still gave him the benefit of the doubt. They looked out for him as if he were still one of them and not a murderous outcast. The words hurled at him by the strangers of the bunker had started to take hold until he almost believed them. Maybe he didn’t deserve a second chance. Maybe he was evil for what he did and should be cast out or put to death for it. Maybe he was an abomination. But then he looked into Carolyn’s swimming eyes and he felt like himself again; the Lee who would do anything to save a life.
“Thank you,” he said softly with the smallest of smiles.
She nodded and then turned around, jogging back down the hallway until she disappeared again.
Lee stood there, looking down at Carolyn’s knife. The handle had a shiny wood grain inlay that gleamed in the torchlight Svend carried. His breath hitched in his chest as he realized Carolyn had just given him everything she had.
“Are we going or not?” Luke blurted out with his hands on his hips, looking from one face to another nervously.
“Yeh,” Lee said as he turned and climbed the ladder up to the world above.
Everything looked the same since they hadn’t been hidden underground for more than a day. The half-moon shone brightly from behind a clump of dark cotton clouds that moved slowly across its face. With no electricity in the world the stars shone brighter than ever before, like little holes poked in a big velvet navy cloth with light shining behind it. Lee climbed out and stood, taking a deep breath of the thick but fresh summer air. It was heavy with humidity, though cooler in the night without the sun beating down. He surveyed their surroundings while the others climbed out slowly.
The field used for harvesting looked tired and overgrown. That was how Mac liked to keep it so everyone would think it was abandoned. The last thing they wanted was another group of people snooping around, looking to insert themselves where they weren’t wanted. Of course, Mac was kind-hearted to the core and took in every stray wanderer he found, but he wasn’t an ignorant man either. He knew that a large group could be dangerous for the community and the safety he’d cultivated.
With Imani and Svend standing next to him, Luke on the other side of Imani, they stood in silence for a moment; waiting. There wasn’t a single corpse shuffling in sight. Everything was still. Quiet. Peaceful. Crickets chirped as the fireflies hopped from the tips of the waving blades of grass. Deep within the woods the cicadas sang their familiar summer song. But there was a small break in the tranquility as something shifted the dead leaves in the shadows of the trees.
“What’s that?” Luke asked, unable to hide the fear in his voice. “There’s something there,” he said, pointing out to the woods, “right at the edge there.”
Lee squinted, trying to see whatever it was Luke had seen but it was too far away.
“I thought I saw one of them,” Luke said, leaning closer into his daughter without thought. She nudged his arm away as it pushed against hers, gripping her nail-riddled bat tightly in both hands.
Svend reached to his belt and took hold of one of his battle axes, pulling it toward his chest and holding it there.
“I don’t see a thing,” Lee said so low it was almost a whisper.
And then there was silence again. They let it hang over them, enveloping them until the calming wave of safety washed through them again.
“Yeah,” Luke whispered low. “I guess it was nothing.”
“Maybe a deer or something,” Imani added offhand. She was tired of staring off into the darkness. Her only friend’s life was on the line and she wanted to get moving to save her. “Besides, if it was one of the dead it’d be too far away to be a threat,” she said, knowing it would soothe her dad’s anxiousness so they could forget it and continue on.
One by one, they turned from the woods and headed in the opposite direction. Lee remembered a little further south there was the St. Mary’s Hospital in Hobart. He’d done a night there when they were short-staffed and in need of nurses. He remembered the quick drive and calculated it would only take them about an hour to walk there if they didn’t get too distracted by shadows in the night. He led the way with Imani by his side. He noticed the little teenager did not walk too closely to him, keeping a steady distance between them about the length of her arm, which was about half the size of his. Her head didn’t swivel on her neck to see everything that was going on around them. She barely even looked over her shoulder to make sure the others were keeping up and nothing unwanted was following them. The grip on her bat was assured and ready. Though she was only fourteen, Lee could tell Imani had been the one to take care of herself and her dad through this apocalypse, and she was prepared to do it again if it came to it.
Imani looked at Lee with a sidelong glance. His hulking form cast a dark shadow over her, the moon glaring silver behind his head. It lit up the dark strands of hair that fell around his face in ribbons of waves and she thought for a moment he almost looked like a mythical being out of a fantasy story, like a warrior elf ready to battle a terrible race of monsters. She wanted to laugh ironically but restrained herself. Aside from the elf, she wasn’t too far off. One thing she felt for certain in that moment was that Lee was no killer. Even now, separated from Olivia, she could see the care and concern he carried for her. It sat heavy on his shoulders and dark in his eyes. She decided he had to think Olivia was being badly hurt for him to bring himself to do what he did to Rowan.
Luke walked alone in the middle, closely on the heels of his daughter and Lee. He had mixed feelings about the entire mission. On the one hand, he didn’t want to see Olivia die. It was nice his daughter had a friend, even if the older girl wasn’t the best influence for Imani, sleeping around with men twice her age. That was no reason for her to die. Sandwiched between two men at least six-foot-three or more made him all too aware of his short stature, which also made him feel all the more vulnerable and incapable when it came to thwarting attacks, human or monster. He gripped the rusted machete he’d been clutching since the first day he’d seen a corpse reanimate. He gripped it but had no idea what to do with it and was sure he never would. With a slow turn of his head, he peeked over his shoulder at the great Dane lumbering behind him. His heart picked up in pace to see the menacing man casually resting his battle axe on his shoulder and looking up at the stars following so closely behind him. He hoped he would never be on that man’s bad side; his or Lee’s.
“How much longer do we have to go?” Luke whined in a fearfully low voice.
No one bothered to answer him. They’d only been walking for a quarter of an hour. Imani rolled her eyes and kept her gaze forward. Up ahead rustling near the front door of an old farmhouse were a handful of the undead. She saw them before anyone else did, but Lee and Svend weren’t far behind. The three of them picked up their pace until they walked in a deadly line, their weapons gripped and ready to taste the black blood of the undead.
The one Imani spotted first, the one pawing at the window to try to make its way inside, turned to look over its shoulder. Though they were still several yards away she could hear the sickening crackling of its dried muscles working in its neck. It was once a man, average in every way with its slender body, generic tshirt and jeans hanging in tatters, and buzzed blond hair. She liked to think she was getting good at guessing the age of these things, even though they all looked like they were about a thousand years old. This one had to be about mid-forties. Her footsteps pounded up the four steps onto the front porch. The once-man opened his mouth to hiss but was cut off when her bat came down on the top of his head, the nails driving through to puncture the brain. Its mouth hung open as it stood there, as if it was in shock of what just happened. The moment Imani yanked back and freed her bat, the thing fell to the ground with a heaping thump.
Now it was on.
The other living corpses turned from the house, enraged, hungry, and desperate to taste the flesh that was so close. A young woman newly turned and not too ravaged reached out to grab Imani. Her wild eyes were bloodshot and she moved quicker than the decrepit ones. Imani took a step back just as Svend brought his axe down at the base of the once-woman’s neck where it met with the shoulder. Her head lolled to the side, hanging on by a few bloody exposed tendons. Her mouth still worked in growls and gurgles as if nothing had happened at all, her arms still outstretched. It hadn’t fazed her at all and she was still coming for them ferociously. Another whack of the axe and her head rolled onto the flat wood of the porch, the body crumpling where it stood. Imani brought her bat down on the woman’s head as it still growled, hissed, and bit at the air.
“Thanks,” Imani smiled and said in a hurry before rushing forward to take care of the one right behind Svend.
She swung her bat like she was attempting at a home run, embedding the nails in the right temple of a once middle-aged, slightly overweight man. When the body hit the floor she looked to Svend, her chest heaving and a smile spreading across her ebony face. There was a light gleaming in her eyes that told the giant Dane that a game had just started between them. He smiled back from beneath his bristly fair beard as he buried his axe between the eyes of another.
“That is two for me,” he said in his thick accent, holding up his fingers to make sure she knew he was winning.
“I think your first one should be a split,” she said as she shook the blood from the nails of her bat. “You took the head off but I stopped it for good.” She couldn’t contain the giggle that escaped from her dark lips.
He gave her a nod and the two strode down the porch past Lee who was wiping Carolyn’s knife off on his khaki cargo shorts.
“Good helping, dad,” Imani scoffed as she walked right by him, not bothering to give him a second glance.
Luke jogged behind them to catch up. “I could have but it looked like you all had it under control. I would’ve just been in the way,” he blabbered though no one was listening anymore.
Lee brought up the rear this time, following close behind Luke. “Should be another half hour,” he said, “Just keep straight.” And he let Svend and Imani take the lead just like that. They’d both proven themselves more than capable of spotting the dead and defending the group. As for Luke, none of them were sure why he was even there. He wasn’t sure why he’d volunteered to go along either. It was clear his daughter didn’t need him. She never had.
