The Reanimation of Edward Schuett (36 page)

There was no sign of intruders at the Culver’s, but all the ATVs had returned. Edward noticed that, even in the group’s hurry to get back here, they had all still parked the ATVs facing away from the store. The better to escape, Edward realized.

Rae pulled the car into the Culver’s parking lot, making sure it too was lined up for people to get in easily from the main door and then go straight on out into the street. Cory had reported before they left the library that the two groups were close but not quite here yet, so there was at least enough time to grab all the supplies Rae had packed away inside. Rae ran inside with Dr. Bloss toddling along behind her. Edward, seeing the way he moved, brought up the rear and did his best to act as the doctor’s shield. If anyone from Merton was here yet and decided to take a potshot just for giggles, it would be better for Edward to get hit instead of the doctor. Edward could survive any body shot. He just hoped any theoretical snipers didn’t realize who he was yet and aim for the head.

Dr. Bloss, looking all around himself like the Culver’s was the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen in the world, ran right into Rae as soon as they got in. She’d stopped at the old registers and stared at something on the floor in front of her, but Edward didn’t see what it was at first. All he saw was Cory, Luke, and Jojo standing around with guns in their hands. Edward moved around Rae and Dr. Bloss to see that all weapons in the room were pointed at Larissa. The girl was on her knees in front of them with her hands on her head. There were tears streaming down her dirty cheeks, but no one looked sympathetic to her.

“What exactly is going on?” Rae asked.

“I caught her sneaking outside to make a call to someone. That’s how we found out,” Cory said.

“Did you check her phone to see who she was calling?” Rae asked.

“No, it looks like it’s programmed weird. Nothing I’ve seen before. Some really new model. But I did overhear her say something about where we’re located, and that you guys had gone to the library.”

“Did you ask her anything else?” Rae asked.

“No, we figured you’re running the show and would have a better idea what to be asking her.”

“Okay then, talk,” Rae said to Larissa. She snapped off the safety once again on Spanky.

“Please don’t kill me,” Larissa said.

“I’m not going to kill you,” Rae said, pressing Spanky’s barrel against her head, “if you start talking. Are you still working for Merton?”

“Yes. I’m so sorry. I never actually quit them. They gave me a job, to keep track of you. They’d never actually trusted me with anything important before, and I just wanted to prove I could do it.”

“I can’t really say I blame you. There might have been a time when I would have done the same,” Rae said, but she didn’t move her rifle from the girl’s head. “If you told them this was where we went, why didn’t they come after us sooner in the week?”

“You weren’t a high priority at the moment, except I guess that changed when that woman from the CRS called them and said Schuett was on his way here.”

“Woman? Which woman?” Edward asked.

“Her name is Dr. Chella. She’s the one that gave me the phone.”

“Fuck!” Edward said. “That bitch. I thought I was done with her.”

“Not exactly a friend of yours?” Rae asked.

“Only if friends like to cut each other wide open and inspect their insides.”

“Hmph. Typical of the CRS,” Dr. Bloss said. “Why cut a specimen wide open when all you really need is a hole large enough to reach in and feel around with? Can’t really see what you’re doing, but the joy of accidentally finding squishy new things is part of the fun.”

“I really hope you’re joking,” Edward said.

“I think I am,” Dr. Bloss said. “Can never be sure anymore, though.”

“How did she even know to look for Edward here?” Rae asked.

“I don’t know. Something about a map and a van.”

“Crap,” Edward said. “The computer in the van we stole must have still had the map we programmed into it. They must have found it.”

“I didn’t know, and I really didn’t care,” Larissa said. “I just did what I was told. Please, just let me go.”

“Not yet,” Rae said. “How long do we have before they get here?”

“I don’t know. A couple minutes, maybe? They’re waiting outside the south part of town, just far enough away that the patrols wouldn’t see them. I was supposed to give them another call once you and Schuett got back, and they would ambush the place. When I don’t call in, they’ll realize something is wrong.”

“Do we still have the phone?” Rae asked Cory.

He indicated the phone where it sat next to a register. “Right there. How do you want to play this?”

Rae looked back at Larissa. “Was there any other situation where you were supposed to call them?”

“Um. Uh, yeah, there was. If it looked like you were going to stay at the library for much longer, they were going to reposition and take you there.”

“I’m hoping you mean they were going to try taking us alive,” Edward said.

“Only Rae and the others. You that woman wants dead. They’ve got instructions to aim for the head. They never said anything about the old man, but I guess they don’t care what happens to him.”

“They will once they see what’s at the library,” Rae said. “But we can use that as our distraction.”

“But my research!” Dr. Bloss said. “Letting them have any of it would be like letting a child use a precisely tuned guitar as a hammer for smashing protons.”

“Doctor, I don’t think that actually made sense,” Edward said.

“Of course it does.”

“I’m sorry, Doc,” Rae said, “but it’s either sacrifice everything you have at the library or let them catch us. Cory, hand me the phone.” He gave her the phone, and Rae held it near Larissa’s ear. “Stop crying, and don’t do anything else to tip them off. You’re going to tell them that me and Edward are planning to stick around the library for another hour or so. If you do what we say, we won’t fill that empty little head of yours with bullets before we leave. Got it?”

She nodded, but before Rae could press the call button Edward grabbed her by the wrist.

“What is it?” Rae asked.

He could smell it all around them. That distinctive scent of meat, of prey, of everything that was other than him. “It’s too late. They’re here.”

“Everyone, get low!” Rae said. The ducked down by the counter, but there they could probably still be seen outside through the broken windows. It wasn’t just the smell now. Edward could hear movement all around them, the shuffling of fabric or the rustle of walking through tall grass.

“Larissa, how many people are out there?” Rae whispered.

“I don’t know. No one told me.”

Edward closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Twenty…twenty-four…no, twenty five. I think. Some of them might be farther away than I can smell.”

“Okay, that is just creepy,” Jojo said.

“Can you tell where they are?” Rae asked.

“No, not exactly. They’re spread all around.”

“No areas where they have more people grouped up than somewhere else?”

“No.”

“Not a very good formation,” Cory said.

“Yeah, well, what do you expect? It’s Merton.”

“They’re getting closer,” Edward said. “Any moment now, they’ll be coming on in.”

“Everybody cover the exits,” Rae said. “Cory, go to that window over there and concentrate your fire on the area away from the vehicles. Maybe we can get them to think we’re going that way, and then we go the other.”

“Won’t they see through that?” Luke said.

“Fuck, how should I know? Probably, yeah, I guess they would, but I don’t have any other idea.”

“I do,” Edward said.

They all looked at him. “Well?” Rae asked.

“Give me the phone,” he said. Rae handed him the phone, but she didn’t look very certain.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” she said.

“I haven’t had the slightest clue what I’ve been doing since I woke up in that Walmart,” he said. “Why start now?”

He pushed the call button and concentrated as the other end rang. After only one ring an all-too familiar voice answered. “We’re already in position. Now would be the time to get out of there if you want to live long enough to get paid.”

“You’re paying me now, Dr. Chella?” Edward said. “You know, I might have been more cooperative in Stanford if you’d done that sooner.”

“
You
,” Dr. Chella said. “Did you kill the girl?”

“Why do you automatically assume that’s what we would do?”

“I’ve read Neuman’s files. She’s the sort of loose cannon that would do something exactly like that.”

Edward smiled at Rae. “The good doctor doesn’t have a very high opinion of you.”

Rae rolled her eyes and made a jerking-off gesture with her hand.

“I’m assuming that means the feeling’s mutual,” he said into the phone.

“Doesn’t matter about the girl,” Chella said. “You’re surrounded and there’s no way out. We’re only here for you. If you come out quietly your friends can go.”

“That’s not the way your girl told it.”

“I can only speak for myself. Merton’s problems with Neuman are their own to deal with.”

“And what exactly happens to me if I do go out there?” Edward asked.

“I’d take you and Miss Gates back to Stanford. You for study, and Gates for trial.”

Edward winced. She still hadn’t realized that Liddie was gone. That didn’t matter right now. He was almost ready. He just needed to keep her talking.

“Study? Really? That’s certainly not what I hear you were trying to do when we left.”

“The president has had a change of heart. He wanted me personally to bring you in, as he feels you may be useful for other things.”

“As a weapon, right? A way to control zombies?”

Dr. Bloss mouthed the words
I told you so
to him. Edward ignored it.

“I’m not just a weapon or a thing,” Edward said. “I deserve the same rights as everyone else. You can’t use me in this way.”

“You are a zombie,” Chella said. “Legally you’re nothing but a dead body. And your dead body is now going to be property of the U.S. government.”

“I don’t think so. I’m leaving here. My friends inside are coming with me. And all my friends surrounding you are, too. If every single person out there doesn’t put down their weapons right now, then I will not have any problem with them eating you.”

All she gave in reply was a choked sound. He had to imagine the rest of her reaction. Right about now she was probably looking around herself and realizing she was no longer the one with the upper hand. While he’d been talking to her, he’d also been talking to every zombie within a two or three mile radius. He hadn’t been able to bring them all in—they’d become too spread out for that—but he’d been able to call back most of them. Through the pheromones he could tell that a few were still shuffling toward the Culver’s, but at least thirty others were in a ring behind Chella’s men. Every one of the Merton people had been so focused on keeping their guns aimed at the windows and doors that they hadn’t even paid attention the zombies quietly coming up behind them. Some of the zombies had gotten very close, up to almost ten feet.

Chella finally got enough of a hold of herself to speak again. “This is stupid. My people can take out these things before they can attack us. You’re bluffing.”

“I don’t think they can. Rae knows the ways of Merton pretty well, and she doesn’t seem too terribly afraid of them.”

“There no way you could do it without losing some of your zombies,” Chella said. “I saw the way you treated that creature back in the lab. You really do think of yourself as one of them. You wouldn’t put any of them in danger.”

“Maybe you’re right. I wouldn’t dare let most of them get hurt. The key word there, though? It’s
most
.”

A simple thought, a command released onto the wind, the scent of honey intended for one zombie and one alone. With the walls of the Culver’s in the way it took a moment for that one to receive the message, but it could still smell Edward through the open windows. There was a shriek through the phone, then it cut out as gunshots echoed outside. Everything went silent for a second, then there was screaming.

“Everyone hold your fire!” Chella shouted. “For the love of God, do not shoot!”

“This is it,” Edward said. “Let’s go.”

He stood up and walked to the door. Everyone else stood along with them, but they were all hesitant to move.

“Um, what exactly just happened?” Luke asked.

“Not exactly a good time to ask questions,” Rae said. “Just take advantage of it.” She started to follow Edward.

“Wait, what are we going to do with her?” Cory asked, pointing to Larissa with his rifle.

Rae stopped and went back to her. “A promise is a promise. But you stay in here until we’re gone. If I ever see your face again I’ll blow it off your head, got it?”

Larissa nodded.

The rest of them followed Edward out the door and stopped at the ATVs. Most of the Merton people had moved over to this side of the building, but Edward had made the zombies shadow them the whole way. All of them looked scared as all hell, but none so much as Dr. Chella. Her phone and a handgun were on the ground at her feet, but it didn’t appear that she’d had any chance to turn around and use the gun. The walking corpse that had once been Billy Horton was behind her, his hands tightly gripping her arms and his mouth only inches away from the skin of her neck. He looked like he was bleeding from his shoulder and side, the results of shots the Merton people had gotten off before he’d grabbed her. Edward had to strain to keep him in that position. The shock of being shot combined with the smell of fresh prey right in front of him was making Horton confused and hungry, but as long as nothing went wrong Edward thought he could keep the zombie under control.