kill his family?
He looked at
Maggie.
She hadn’t
noticed. She was too busy looking right and left, back and forth, trying to
see all the suddenly animated corpses that were trying to lurch out of their
seats and finding themselves held strangely fast.
Buck was doing the
same.
So was Dorcas.
Aaron was busy
wailing on another zombie. “What the hell are you people waiting for?” he said
through clenched teeth. “We gotta move .”
Ken found
Christopher’s eyes. The young man was staring at him. One hand on the nose
that Ken had accidentally broken. The other held a piece of metal. Something
similar to what Aaron had used to pin that first kid to the floor.
“Shit,” whispered
Christopher. Looking now at Ken’s hand.
He stepped toward
Ken. He shifted his grip on the metal to a two-fisted one.
Ken nodded.
“Knock it out of
the park, kid,” he said.
20
There wouldn’t be
time for goodbyes. Maybe that was best. Certainly it was fair – how many of
the billions of dead and changed had gotten to hold their loved ones,
say their goodbyes?
No, Ken just hoped
that whatever Christopher did would be sufficient to keep him from hurting
anyone else. From spreading this – what? Disease?
Shouldn’t it
have happened already? Shouldn’t I have changed?
Christopher took a
pair of quick steps, almost running. He held the piece of metal over his right
shoulder, winding up for a home run hit.
Ken felt himself
grow dizzy and hot.
I thought it
would feel cold.
When do I start
bleeding everywhere?
When do I start
screaming?
He heard Aaron,
still grunting away as he smashed back several undead who had reached the
aisle.
Maggie finally saw
Christopher and Ken. “What’s going on?” she said. Then she must have noticed
Ken holding his hand in front of his face. Her gaze flicked to the zombie that
was still gagged and bound to the ceiling by the oxygen mask.
Two plus two
equals….
Her hand went to
her mouth.
“Don’t you dare,”
she said a moment later.
“Don’t have much
choice,” said Ken.
He coughed.
Everything went
gray, then black.
He felt the floor
rushing at him.
21
Ken hit the floor
face-first. The surface was carpeted, but still rough and harder than he
expected. Explosions lit up the dark cavern behind his eyes when he slammed into
the warped surface.
“Ken!” Maggie’s
scream punched holes in the fog that blanketed his thoughts. “Ken, Ken!”
Sounded like she
was screaming louder. Either that or getting closer. Running toward him.
Don’t do that . Run away , babe.
Run away.
Someone grabbed
him. Flipped him over.
The explosions
dimmed to gray. A dark outline. Someone holding something. Christopher,
ready to hit him. Pound him to pieces small enough not to matter.
Good .
Christopher’s arms
dropped. Fast. No longer a home run, this was going to be a railroad worker
slamming home a spike.
And something else
slammed into Christopher. Knocked him away at the last second. Ken heard a
dull clunk as the bar Christopher had been holding bounced off the carpeted
floor only an inch or so away from his right ear.
Ken thought it was a
zombie that had knocked the young man’s hit askew. Then realized the attacking
shape was a short, stocky one. Wearing cowboy boots.
“Don’t!” shouted
Aaron. He kicked backward, sending another looming shape crashing backward
into flames that were licking closer and closer.
“He’s bit!”
Christopher screamed.
“I know it!”
“You know ?”
The shock in Christopher’s voice echoed the surprise bouncing through the
muddled wreckage of Ken’s own thoughts.
“Yuh.” Aaron moved
again. Another silent figure went flying.
“ He’s going to
change. ”
“Don’t think so.”
Aaron knelt and put a hand on Ken’s shirt, yanking him roughly to his feet.
“Then why’s he
acting like that?” This time it was Dorcas speaking. Not