Z 2136 (Z 2134 Series Book 3) (8 page)

Liam and Ana left Oswald and Katrina behind, heading off to their own room while the doctor led Katrina to the one he’d promised her just before dinner. She would be on the other side of the tunnel, a loud yell away if needed.

Her heart began to beat faster as Liam closed the door behind them. They were alone, and things would be good. She wondered if it would be different with him missing his eye, if maybe he would be self-conscious of his wound when he didn’t need to be. Liam was like that, fierce and bold, then suddenly shy without warning. He was a wonderful lover, though Ana really had no one to compare him to.

Alone in the bathroom, she looked in the mirror, pinched her cheeks, and again thought of her mother. Ana remembered her mom’s prettiest nighties, the ones her she had said were her father’s favorites. She remembered her mother telling her that one day she would have her own favorite nighties, more grown up than the little girl ones in her dresser then, and that her man’s favorites would probably be her favorites too. She remembered feeling excited. Now Ana wondered if she’d ever have a favorite nighty or even a shabby dresser to keep it folded inside.

She finished in the bathroom, then emerged in a long white bed shirt as Liam was stepping into the room. He closed the door and turned to Ana.

“Where’d you go?”

“Katrina came back, right after you went into the bathroom. She wanted to let me know she’d be sleeping with one eye open tonight. She thinks Egan might try pulling a fast one.”

“Do you think he will? Try something, I mean.”

“No,” Liam shook his head. “I don’t. I think he was telling the truth. He’ll let us go.” He sat on the bed beside her, peeling off his shirt. “Are you sure you want to come?”

“What?”

She didn’t want to talk. She wanted his lips on hers, then everywhere else. She wanted no words to interrupt them.

“That little girl could die.”

“So could Adam.” Ana traced her fingers along Liam’s skin, circling his nipple then dipping down past his waistline to tease him. “Please, don’t make me feel worse than I already do. Can we not talk . . . now?”

Liam opened his mouth, then swallowed his words like a good boy. He said, “You’re right,” then moved in to kiss her.

As his mouth found Ana’s and his hands cupped her breasts, months of tension melted to nothing. Liam pressed himself against her, lowering her down to the mattress and pulling the blankets over their heads like a tarp.

“I love you, Liam,” Ana panted.

He mashed his lips hard against hers, making love to her mouth for a moment with his tongue.

“I love you too,” Liam said—a long time later, when they were finally done.

Ana felt herself falling asleep, naked, his warmth against her skin.

This was the way it should be. Forever.

She usually fell asleep slowly, most of the time wondering what the next day would bring. But here in the warmth of the tunnels, lying safe in a bed, breathing long shallow breaths beside Liam, an ounce of worry seemed like a pound too much. Next to Liam, everything seemed more than OK. She had to get Adam, then everything else would fall into place.

Her father had always told her to enjoy the moments they had, because one day they’d be gone, no matter what.

Good advice she should finally start taking.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring? We are here now. Together.

Ana fell asleep.

When she woke, Liam was gone.

“Tell the truth,” Adam said. “Do you think we’ll make it?”

Colton peeked out the door and into the street. “I don’t see any zombies and the building is just a few more blocks ahead.”

“You didn’t answer the question.”

“No.” Colton shook his head without meeting Adam’s stare. “Probably not. But if we don’t try, we don’t stand a chance.”

Adam wondered if they stood a chance anyway. Colton had already told him what he expected to find. Based on what they’d seen earlier and the movement of the zombies, it seemed like the swarms were all headed toward the tallest building. Zelle was at the top. There would be plenty of fighting and pain before they could find her, if they were lucky enough to reach her at all.

Zombies were impossible to cut through once they started moving in a wall, and they’d be several layers deep so close to the building.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes,” Adam answered, as if he had a choice, following Colton out as light snow flurries began to fall in the darkness.

The empty street allowed Adam to imagine for a moment that they really could make it the rest of the way without running into anything else. Maybe they would find a way to get inside the building. Colton was a great shot. Plus, he was smart. He would think of a way. Maybe there was power in the building. Or an elevator that went to the top. It didn’t make sense that Zelle would have climbed so many stairs by herself. Adam had asked Colton how tall he thought the tallest building was. He’d said he didn’t know, so Adam had tried to count and had had to stop. He’d guessed forty floors. Unlike most of the other buildings in the city, the tallest one seemed mostly unbroken, with only a few windows missing near the top. Not only was it the tallest, but clearly it was the strongest too.

“I wonder if Hooper made it out alive.” Adam didn’t believe it, but it seemed like Colton had lost hope for both of them. Maybe saying impossible things out loud might make things better.

Apparently Colton didn’t subscribe to that philosophy, saying in a dead voice, “No, Hooper didn’t make it. No way. There were too many.”

“You never know.”

Colton stopped walking. He turned to Adam, pulled a small black square from his pocket, and jammed his thumb on the middle of it. A small blinking circle with the number “51” in it appeared and moved toward two other circles, “17” and “88.” Tiny chirps bleated from the box’s small speakers.

Adam asked, “What is that?”

“This is a mini-radar I got in The Opening Rush. It shows you a few blocks’ radius around your location. That “51” is the number assigned to Hooper’s bracelet in the game. These other two dots are us.”

“He’s alive!” Adam said, smiling.

“Well, maybe. We don’t know if he’s infected.”

They watched the dot coming closer as the bleats grew louder.

“He’s moving pretty straight forward,” Adam said. “Zombies don’t tend to walk like that, do they?”

Colton nodded. “Maybe the bastard did manage to get away. Let’s stay put and wait, though, to be on the safe side.”

The bleats grew louder. Both Colton and Adam looked down as a fourth dot, one without a number, suddenly appeared on the screen behind Hooper.

“What’s that?” Adam asked.

“Not good news,” Colton said. “Either a zombie or a bandit.”

Colton handed the radar to Adam, then knelt, swung his rifle in front of him, lowered his eye to the scope, and scanned the darkness ahead.

Adam asked, “Is it him?”

“Yeah! He’s running, he’s not too far. He’ll be here in a minute.”

Suddenly, there was more beeping and several more dots appeared on the screen, all behind Hooper, and none with numbers.

“There’s a bunch more dots,” Adam said, looking up to see Colton’s face, staring wide-eyed and slack jawed through the scope as he registered what Adam had seen on the radar.

“What?” Adam asked.

“He’s got a whole damned horde behind him.”

“Doesn’t he see them?” Adam asked, looking down at the now dozens of dots on the screen.

“I don’t know, but he’s going to lead them right to us.
Shit
.”

Every muscle in Adam’s body felt tighter as he watched Hooper appear at the end of the street. He was too far away for Adam to tell how badly he was injured, but he was definitely not moving like an infected man. He was alive and eager to catch up with them.

Hooper waved his hands and called out, “Guys!”

He seemed to be oblivious of the threat mounting behind him.

Adam turned to Colton, “Aren’t you going to shoot them?”

Colton said nothing, eye to his scope.

Just when Adam thought he would have to ask again, or else suffer death from anticipation, Colton pulled the trigger.

THWAP!

But it wasn’t a zombie he shot.

Hooper dropped to the pavement.

Adam stared, hardly able to believe his eyes.

“You killed him!” he said, still staring straight ahead as the zombies descended on the fresh kill.

Adam could hear their ravenous grunts as they tore into Hooper’s flesh.

Colton turned to Adam, put his hands on both Adam’s shoulders, and shook him. “Come on, or we’re their next course.”

With no time to mourn, they ran.

Keller opened his eyes to a raging headache and an empty bed. He threw the covers from his body, stumbled to his feet, and wandered out into the living room of their spacious City 1 loft, one of the more obvious perks of being The State’s Provisional Leader, a title he’d assumed even though Jack Geralt was dead.

The Elders decided it better to keep the illusion that Geralt was still alive rather than to appoint Keller as The State’s One True Leader. And, as Keller’s understanding of the power structure’s
true
inner workings expanded—a few Elders secretly pulled strings behind the scenes—the decision made sense to him. It also left him with his taste for government sour on his tongue.

Keller had never thought it would be possible to mourn his old life as City 6 Chief, a position he’d done everything possible to get promoted from. But mourn it he did, every damned day as he woke to City 1’s glistening paradise, all through the evening, and into the black of night when the burn of scotch helped send him to sleep.

Jacqueline was happy enough, with her new friends and shopping trips. She was living in luxury’s lap and couldn’t understand why Keller’s mood had been so consistently awful since they’d left City 6. Considering he had always promised this move would be the one thing that might heal what was broken, it was particularly troublesome. Things had been different between them since Joshua’s death. And though she’d never said it, Keller knew a part of her blamed him. Whether the blame was for not spotting the bomb or The Underground scum who planted it—or for The State’s policies which The Underground opposed—she’d not looked at him the same since losing their son.

So he had buried himself in his work while she—well, he never thought to ask how she tried to fill the void. As if they could pretend they weren’t hurting long enough to truly kill the pain.

“Promotion means a new life, Jacqueline,” Keller had said aplenty. “We’ll have different things to see and different things to do. Everything will be better.”

But nothing was better. Even though Jacqueline seemed happy when keeping herself busy with friends and shopping, he could tell in their moments alone that things still weren’t right, and now likely couldn’t be.

Just admit it: you’re thinking about Adam.

Despite just having gotten up, Keller poured himself a drink—a small one now, more later—to silence his inner voice. That voice wanted to dwell on betrayal and scold him for allowing the kid to get close, letting the kid occupy a spot in his heart opened by Joshua’s death.

Adam will never be half the man my son would’ve been.

But it wasn’t just Adam’s betrayal that kept him low. There was something else—something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He didn’t think it was the politics of City 1 leadership, at least not exactly. Keller had kissed ass as chief long enough to know how to play the game. Nor did he think it was the new stresses of having to deal with the privileged City 1 citizens and their many demands. So often he wished he could just take a few of them into an alley and set them straight. But his hands were tied: everyone in City 1 knew someone who knew an Elder.

Sometimes Keller wished Jonah had taken out more than 40 percent of City 1.

Really, what would have been the harm to The State if he’d taken out the whole damned city and left them to start over?

The law was solid, practical, necessary. It kept people safe. But it was poison to know that the people behind it were what they were. These esteemed Elders that he had only seen once or twice a year prior to coming here, he now saw on a daily basis. It was only when seeing them regularly that Keller realized just how screwed up and petty they were.

Rules weren’t just made to maintain power. They were also used to punish personal enemies, usually for the most trivial of things. These were rich, powerful men who were not used to being told “no.” And while Keller had yet to question his oath to The State, he did question those that held seats of power, and he wondered if improvements were possible.

And while he dared not say it publicly, he was on the lookout for an opportunity to bring new blood into the Elders Council, to find at least one other who truly believed in properly running The State.

Keller entered the kitchen and saw a note on the cupboard’s digital face.

“Gone out with Evia. Be back for dinner.”

Good, I can get nice and drunk.

Keller left the kitchen and went into his office. He sat at his desk and pulled the half-empty bottle of scotch from its home behind the bottom drawer, along with the tumbler he’d been using for days, pretending that Jacqueline didn’t count or notice it missing. Keller filled the glass and wondered
why
Jonah had unleashed the virus.

It didn’t make sense. It never had, and even a full tumbler of The State’s best scotch couldn’t make it so. No part of Keller believed the official story—that Jonah had decided to topple City 1 on his own to hit The State where it counted. While Keller could easily see some of the more radical leaders of The Underground pulling such a cowardly move, he couldn’t see it from Jonah.

Jonah was, despite his radical leanings, a good man.

No matter how angry Jonah was over his wife’s murder, his framing for the crime, or even Ana’s fate, Keller couldn’t imagine what would drive an honest man to murder so many innocents. Assuming The Underground
had
planned the attack—and Keller had no reason to suspect anyone else—he couldn’t think of a way they could ever have managed to drag Jonah into the scheme.

Yet somehow they had, and now nearly half of The State’s crown jewel was a memory.

Keller had studied the footage from Jonah’s attack over and over for hours at a time. The State wasn’t lying about the skeleton of facts: Jonah had definitely
done
the deed. He was the one on the train unleashing the virus. You could see the guilty horror all over his face. But Keller also thought that Jonah seemed uncertain and didn’t think it was The Underground that had given him the helpful shove.

But who exactly had forced his hand?

Someone helped Jonah get into City 1 and orchestrate the attack. Someone
inside
City 1.

Someone trusted by The State?

Keller assumed that the Elders had asked him to come here to get to the bottom of the crime, in addition to taking over as the Provisional Leader. But as he poked around, asking questions, his investigation was stonewalled by the Elders, who didn’t want a word whispered about an alternative possibility.

Go about your lives, ladies and gentlemen. Nothing to fear here in City 1.

But Keller was too smart to believe the lies he was forced to tell.

He took another swallow and wondered for the hundredth time, if not the thousandth, who his true enemy was, and when they might strike again.