Plague Town (19 page)

“Oh, he screamed plenty after that, though. I could hear him even through the walls.”

She shook her head as if trying to dislodge the memory.

“When I backed out, those things were just... just flooding the halls again. Ian’s screams... they heard him. This—” She gestured toward the closet. “—was the closest door.”

I shone my flashlight beam in the direction she had indicated. Sure enough, there was a deadbolt on the inside.

“Why would anyone put a deadbolt on the inside of a storage closet?” I asked no one in particular.

The woman gave a faint laugh, surprising me.

“We had a janitor who liked to drink during his shifts, so he installed them on the inside of a few closets around campus so he wouldn’t be disturbed.” She reached out and fingered the bolt almost lovingly. “He was fired, but the administration never got around to removing the deadbolts.

“Lucky thing, that,” she added.

“That’s an understatement,” I said. How many more people might still be alive because of an alcoholic janitor? It was, excuse the pun, a sobering thought. “What’s your name?”

She took a deep shuddering breath before responding.

“Jan Blandsford.”

“Jan, I’m Ashley. And we’re going to need to get you out of here and to safety. Can you run?”

Another deep breath, this one determined.

“Yes. Yes, I believe I can.” She took a step and skidded on a piece of... well, some body part or another.

“Here, let me help you.” Gabriel stepped forward and put an arm around her to help her navigate through the mess.

“Thank you,” she said again, this time with what I could swear was a slight flirtatious note to her voice. Gabriel might not be a wild card, but he had a way of helping a woman deal with a life or death situation.

Just look into these blue eyes and you’ll forget
all
about it.
At least he was using his powers for good, instead of evil.

Lily dashed back along the hallway, pickaxe dripping
with gore. She skidded to a halt next to us, as happy as a kid on a really gross Slip’n’ Slide.

“Found some in the men’s room,” she said, only a little out of breath. “A couple more in one of the classrooms.” She hefted her axe with a satisfied grin. “I took care of them.”

Gabriel nodded.

“Good job,” he said. “Let’s find Kai and get out of here.”

As if on cue, Kai appeared around the corner at the opposite end of the hallway, the pronged end of his crowbar just as gore-encrusted. He grinned at us.

“Did I hear my name?”

Jan lifted a hand and smoothed a stray strand of hair out of her face. Obviously Kai had the same ability as Gabriel. But I’m pretty sure he never gave much thought to the whole “with great power comes great responsibility” thing.

“Everything clear down there?” Gabriel asked.

“Yup.” Kai smacked the crowbar against his open palm.

Suddenly Jan screamed. A lone female zombie staggered out from a doorway behind Kai, clawed hands clutching at his back and shoulders, black fluid running out of its mouth as its jaws gaped open.

Kai gave a high-pitched yelp and whirled around, smashing the thing over the head once, twice, and then a third time with his crowbar. There was an audible ‘crack’ on the third hit as the thing’s skull shattered under the impact and it went down to the floor.

Kai lifted the crowbar above his head like a spear and thrust the pointy end into the zombie’s head. Once he was confident that the job had been done, he walked over to us.

“Now we can go,” he said.

Lil and I looked at each other as he stepped past. Two minds with the same thought. We both smacked him on his ass, as hard as we could.

He turned, raised an eyebrow, and grinned.

“Why, thank you, ladies,” he said. “Normally I have to pay for that.”

“Hey, Kai?” I said.

“Yeah, Ashley?”

I smiled at him.

“You scream like a girl.”

Betty glanced at the clock on the Mini Cooper’s dashboard. Nearly four o’clock, which meant maybe an hour of daylight left. But at least an hour and a half drive still left before reaching Redwood Grove.

Sighing, she took another sip of lukewarm Starbucks coffee and wished yet again that the Mini’s radio worked. She tended to zone out, and music helped keep her focused. Hell, she’d even listen to talk radio or the news, though she usually avoided both like the plague.

Anything to distract her from worrying why Lil hadn’t been answering her cell for three days.

Brake lights blinked in front of her. Betty slowed and caught sight of a flashing sign to the right.
Freeway closed, detour ahead.

Resisting the impulse to curse, she went into her yoga ugia breath, forcing herself to stay calm as traffic slowed to a crawl—four lanes of freeway funneling down into one.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Forty minutes later she reached the exit. At the bottom of the ramp she saw what looked like an alcohol checkpoint, except it was manned by military personnel instead of cops.

This can’t be good.

Breathe in, breathe out.

She finally pulled up to the checkpoint, unrolling her window as the car drew abreast of a young male soldier. Betty pasted on a smile.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“Ma’am, where are you headed?” The soldier looked younger than Lily.

“Redwood Grove,” she replied. “I live there.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but that area is under quarantine at this time.”

Quarantine?
Betty shook her head in disbelief.

“You must be mistaken,” she said.

“No mistake, ma’am.”

“But my daughter’s there. She hasn’t called me—” Then she stopped as she understood the reason for Lily’s silence. “Oh god.” She looked up at the soldier, no more than a boy. “I have to get to my daughter.”

He shook his head firmly.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but no one is allowed in or out of the quarantine zone until further notice.”

“There has to be someone I can talk to!” she responded, trying not to let panic overcome her.

“Here, ma’am.” He drew a card out of his breast uniform pocket. “This is a number you can call to get status updates on anyone inside the quarantine zone.”

Betty took the card; it was a 1-866 number.

“You’ll have to move along now, ma’am,” he said, and he stepped away from the car, motioning in the direction she was supposed to go.

Betty nodded and hit the accelerator, following the detour signs until she was out of sight of the checkpoint. Then she turned off the main road and doubled back parallel to the freeway, crossing over to the west side a few miles south of the checkpoint.

It would take her a few hours, but there were old logging trails and back roads that weren’t on any maps. She’d try them all if she had to.

One way or another, she was going home to her daughter.

“Well done,” Simone said as we staggered through the front doors. I ached in muscles I didn’t even know I had.

Gabriel looked crappy again, his skin pale and running with sweat. We hadn’t run into Team B, but he’d already had confirmation via walkie-talkie that they’d completed their sweep, and had returned a short time before us.

Kai was supporting our civilian survivor, and Simone immediately stepped forward.

“Professor Blandsford!”

Jan’s eyes widened with recognition.

“Professor Fraser?” she rasped. “You’re alive, too?” She started quietly weeping as Simone enfolded her in a reassuring hug.

“You’re safe now,” Simone said. “Jamie will take you to get a checkup—you remember Dr. Albert, don’t you? And then you can have a shower and a hot meal.”

Never far away, Jamie stepped forward quickly and led Jan off toward the stairs.

“Oh, lord, a shower.” Jan started crying even harder. “I never thought I’d take another shower again.”

I sidled up to Simone.

“They’re not taking her to the med ward, are they?”

“Oh, good god, no.” Simone sounded appalled. “Dr. Albert will check her over to make sure there’s
no possibility of infection. If she’s clear, she’ll be given a room. If not, well, we’ll sedate her before taking the appropriate measures.”

Appropriate measures.
I shuddered. Waking up in that hellhole was something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.

Colonel Paxton appeared and beamed at us. At least I
think
he was happy. With his expression, it was hard to tell.

“How many zeds do you think are still within the confines of the campus itself?” he asked.

“Hard to say, sir,” Gabriel replied. “We’ll need to go out tomorrow and clear the rest of the buildings. We can take them two at a time, one per team. Open the main points of entry and lure out as many as we can before doing a room-by-room check.”

Paxton nodded.

“Excellent,” he said. “Team B brought back several survivors. Unfortunately some had been bitten, but at least two were uninjured.”

We went to shed our unimaginably filthy clothing, which was placed into hazardous waste containers. Then we were hosed down with some sort of disinfectant that smelled like Lysol and bleach on steroids, wielded by our hazmat-suited pals. Finally we went back to our rooms, wrapped in towels.

Lil and I thumb-wrestled for first dibs on the shower, and I won.

“It’s not fair,” she grumbled. “My thumbs are longer than yours, I should have won.”

“T’ain’t the length,” I replied, “It’s the dexterity.”

Lil stuck her tongue out at me as I shut the bathroom door, anxious to smell like something other than zombie guts or kitchen cleaner.

Hot water never felt so good, but I took pity on my poor filthy teammate and made it quick. Swiping my underarms with deodorant, I quickly put on a little moisturizer and
lip balm, slathered my body with lotion, wrapped a towel around myself, and vacated the bathroom.

My wardrobe choices were limited to yoga pants, T-shirts, tank tops, sweats, and long-sleeved olive-drab thermals. I had another set of combat wear, but I’d had enough of that for the night, even if it did look kind of ginchy.

I chose yoga pants and a thermal.

As exhausted as I was, I was also wide-awake and totally ravenous. I sat on the bed for a few minutes, listening to the sound of Lily humming slightly off-key show tunes as she enjoyed a long soak.

Next time I’d throw the damn wrestling match.

After five minutes or so of humming and an amazingly loud series of growls from my empty stomach, I knocked on the bathroom door, opened it a crack, and yelled over the sound of running water.

“Lily, I’m going to the cafeteria. See you there?”

She stopped humming.

“Okay!” As soon as I closed the door, the show tunes started up again, more off-key than before.

I definitely needed to look into earplugs.

The cafeteria was empty except for Team B—Gentry, Mack, Tony, and Kaitlyn—who were all seated and chowing down on what looked like steak dinners complete with salad and corn on the cob slathered in butter. I could see steam rising from the bread basket on the table. There were bottles of beer and wine lined up on a counter.

Oh, yummy...

No one else from my team was there yet. Probably enjoying nice
long
showers.

Tony saw me first and waved his fork in the air, sending a piece of steak flying off to the side, narrowly missing Gentry.

“Hey, Ashley!” he called out.

The rest of the group looked up. Mack toasted me
with a glass of red wine and Gentry wiggled an ear of corn by way of saying hello.

Kaitlyn just went back to her meal. You’d have thought all of the zombie killing would have given her an attitude adjustment, but no such luck.

I waved back to those who gave a shit, loaded up a tray with food, and took a seat near the end of the table. Close enough to be sociable, but leaving room for anyone else who might want to sit next to me. Like Lil or Kai... or maybe Gabriel.

“How’d it go?” Tony grinned at me, a Band-Aid over one eyebrow.

“Good, I guess,” I said. “Still alive.”

“Cool.” He grabbed a bottle of Dos Equis and took a swig. I guess if Tony was old enough to kill zombies for his country, he was old enough to enjoy a cold beer.

“What happened to you?” I gestured to the Band-Aid.

Tony turned red, took another swig of beer, and muttered something unintelligible.

“Dumbfuckzombippedabarbul.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“You don’t say.”

Mack chuckled.

“What he’s trying to say is that a zombie got up close and personal with one of his piercings. Guess it liked bright and shiny things.”

I gave a shout of laughter.

“Yeah, well...” Tony drowned his mortification with more beer, and shot Mack a pissy glare.

I grabbed a bottle of water and downed it in three long gulps, then poured myself a glass of Napa Reserve cabernet. Matt would have approved. I took a dainty bite of steak—actually, I ripped into it like a starving tiger—and followed it with a sip of wine.