Dead Hunger IV: Evolution (58 page)

“I didn’t ... say that,” said Rebecca, her shock turning to confusion.  “Kill the man.”

“Rebecca,” said Hemp.  “Can you hear me?”

“Yes,” she answered, her eyes desperate.

“Do you feel compelled to do anything?”

“No,” she said.  “I’m just … I’m sorry!”

Hemp went to her and knelt down.  “What do you feel?  Do you hear something?”

She looked at the zombie on the table, who stared at her.  The vapor had ceased, but the creature’s vibration intensified yet again.

“
Kill him now
,” she muttered, but she did not move.

Hemp took Rebecca’s hand in his and squeezed it.  “You’re okay,” he said.  “Relax, Rebecca.”

He looked at
Kimberly, a question on his face.

“I don’t hear anything
,” she said
. 
“
Just the vibration.”

“Kimberly, how old are you?” asked Hemp.

“I’m forty-seven.”

Hemp’s mind whirled.  The thoughts and questions came faster than he could process them, but one stood out above the others.  “Kimberly, can you still bear children?”

She shook her head.  “No, I had a hysterectomy four years ago.  I had some stuff going on in my uterus that I didn’t want to worry about.”

“Okay,” said Hemp.
  “That explains a lot.”

“Kill them now!” shouted Rebecca.  Then: “I’m so sorry!  I’m not saying that!”

Hemp squeezed her hand tighter.

“It’s alright, Rebecca.  We need to move you away from her.  I need to know
how far away she can reach you.  Come on, now.”

Hemp stood and the now sobbing Rebecca stood with him.  He put an arm over her shoulder and opened the door into the adjacent hallway that led to the bar.  The people standing near the door
in the hall
looked horrified, no doubt overhearing the screamed words
from within the lab
.

As he moved Rebecca through the crowd, they pushed one another to stand away from the woman with the glowing, red eyes.  They had clearly had enough fear for one lifetime.

Once in the main bar, Gem and Charlie rushed up to them.  They looked at Rebecca.

“Is she okay?” asked Charlie.

“I’m not sure yet.”

“I feel better,” she said.  “I’m sorry for saying those things.”

Hemp looked back at the lab.  They were only twenty or so feet away from the room now.
  Whatever powers of telepathic control the creatures had over
uninfecteds, either male or female,
was substantially dependent on proximity.

“Do you hear her now?” asked Hemp, his arm still around her shoulders.

She shook her head, breathing deeply.  “No, not now.  What happened to me?”

“She was issuing commands,” said Hemp.  “Simple commands.  What I might refer to as primordial.”

“She wanted me to kill everyone.”

“Who wanted her to kill everyone?” asked Gem.

“My captive,” said Hemp.  “The new female.”

“Holy shit, Hemp,” said Gem.
  “And she said it?”

“Rebecca repeated her commands,” said Hemp.

“Double holy shit.
  Your new zombie sounds like a shit disturber.
”  Gem leaned close and whispered in a conspiratorial tone, “Yo
u want I should kill her?
”

“
No, Gem, but she is a
shit disturber, to say the least
,” said Hemp.  “But the bright side of this is that
Rebecca
didn’t attempt to follow her instructions.”

Charlie stood in front of Rebecca and lifted her chin, looking into her gaseous, red eyes.  “The vapor did this?
  Like Lisa?
”

“Yes, but she was on the new wafers, created partially from that vapor.  I’m not certain, but I believe it allows her to repeat the commands, but doesn’t compel her to act on them.”

“How do you feel?” asked Charlie, stroking Rebecca’s cheek. 

“Better,” she said.  “I don’t want to go back in there.”

“You don’t have to,” said Hemp.  “As long as you can absolutely confirm that you never felt any urge whatsoever to actually obey her.”

Rebecca shook her head.  “No!  I would never hurt anyone!”

The crowd around them, who had already compacted away from them, tried to move even further back.

“Everyone, it’s okay.  Rebecca’s okay.  We just completed an important experiment, and Rebecca has helped us all.”

The murmuring in the room
immediately
took on a more
settled
tone.  Some of those who knew the girl move
d
in
to touch her
soothingly on the shoulder and arm, thanking her
in low tones.

Hemp spoke to Rebecca again.  “Okay, you heard the words and spoke them, but there was never – not even a brief moment – where you felt you didn’t have control of your own actions?”

“No, Hemp,” said Rebecca.  “I just said what came into my head.”

“Get her settled.  I want to produce more of the new wafers, and afterward, I want any women of child-bearing years to take it right away.”

Gem moved in and took Rebecca by the arm.  “Come with me, sweetie.   We’ll get a cot cleared off for you.”

Charlie walked with Hemp into the hallway.  Midway through the crowd of people, she stopped and turned him toward her.

“So what’s the deal?  The creature had the ability to order her to kill everyone?”

Hemp nodded.  “Both Kimberly and Rebecca were exposed to a heavy dose of the new vapor after taking the new wafers.  Kimberly seemed not to be affected at all.  Rebecca repeated the commands, but unlike Lisa, she didn’t act on them, or try to.”

“That’s good, right?  Are you sure it was because of the
wafer
, or because of something in Rebecca?”

“I suppose there’s a chance it could be an internal, moral code issue, but I doubt it,” said Hemp.  “Lisa knew well enough that opening that car door would result in danger to her mates, and she still opened it.”

“There’s a huge fucking difference between opening a door and killing someone.”

“Not when opening the door could result in the same thing, and Lisa knew it.  She could not resist, in my mind.”

Charlie shook her head.  “I wish I could help.”

“I want you to take the wafer, Charlie.  Gem, too.  The components are very similar to the other wafers, so I believe they’re perfectly safe.”

“When they’re ready, bring us one.”

“When they’re ready, I’ll bring you far more than that.  Every woman in her child-bearing years who has not had a hysterectomy needs to be on them.”

Charlie nodded.  “I looked out the door a few minutes ago.  The fire looks much closer now, and I heard explosions.”

Hemp’s face was grim.  “Flex said they’re coming.  Fleeing the fire, I suspect, but once they get down here, our presence is going to be a
powerful
draw to them.  They
will
com
e here, I have no doubt.”

*****

The cars, most of which had some fuel in the tanks, erupted just as Flex had hoped
, and the homes they had set aflame had, for the most part, become engulfed by them.

Flex, with Nelson driving and Dave riding shotgun in Gem’s car behind them, sped up
Centre Street
, swerving around stalled and crashed cars, looking at the fruits of their labors. 

“I think we have it,” he said into his radio.  “There’s no way through unless they’re wearing fire retardant clothes.”

“Good call, Flex,” said Dave.  “It should slow them down.”

They had created a new fire line, and
as they had done the work,
the wind had shifted somewhat.  It now blew from the northwest, which would drive the new fires they had set away from Three Sisters Bar.
  Any
back burning would occur slowly
though, which would have helped their cause.  If and when the creatures ran into an impassable area, they would have
to
retreat from the fire to find another path
through; another way to reach t
hose who dreaded their arrival
.

Flex hoped it would be enough. 
It was all they could do, and it was time to get back to his family.

He threw his arm out the window
, pointed his index finger to the sky,
and gave the guys behind him the universal signal for “spin it around.”

Once eastbound on Centre again, they put their pedals to the metal.

When Flex reached
Rumford Street
, he feathered his brakes, warning Nelson behind him, then cranked the car to the right and hit the brakes hard. 

They were there.  Beyond the flames, heading in their direction, was a massive flood of bodies.  The streets were now almost lit as though by daylight from the massive fires burning all around them, and they could see what appeared to be liquefied, asphalt streets, which were in reality, ratz moving among the assemblage of walking dead.  Some had drawn ahead of the crowd and reached the firestorm, their bodies
aflame
as they pushed on as far and as fast as they could.

“They’re going to have to backtrack,” said Flex.  “They’ll burn if they try to get through.”

“Let’s hope so,” said
Bell
.  “Hit it, Flex.”

Flex
punched
the gas again and Nelson matched his speed as they burned rubber on the turn from
Centre Street
to
Main
and headed
south
past the State House.

Two minutes later, they parked the cars in the center of the
bar parking lot
in an attempt to
minimize any
damage from the coming flames.

Just before they arrived, West was able to awaken Eddie, who was oblivious to the plan they had just executed.

He could hear about it later.
  They helped one another into the bar, and found they could barely get through the door, the crowd of desperate survivors had become so dense.

Flex saw Gem immediately, standing beside a girl lying on a cot.  She waved him over.

“Be still, stupid fucking heart,” she said, hugging him.  He put his arms around her and rested
his
cheek against her head.

“You smell like fire,” she said.  “God, I’m glad you’re back.”

“I don’t know if we helped, but we tried to block them.  They’re coming, Gem.  It seems like all of them.”

She looked up into his eyes.  “Flex, what about the girls?  What about us?”

Flex shook his head.  “I don’t know.”

“I hate those words.”

“I do, too.”

Gem slid her arms around his waist and squeezed him. 
She whispered in his ear: 
“Flex, I’ll do anything to save my family.  Can we go?  We can just leave, all of us.  Take the two cars and get out. If we can’t save everyone, we have to worry about us, right?”

What Gem said went against Flex’s nature.  He remembered what they had agreed to when they first left Jamie’s house, right after it all began.  If they saw any children in danger, they would have to remember that the most important child to them was Trina.  She came first.

But did the sheer number of people crammed into this bar in a last ditch effort to stay alive outweigh their own need to protect just those that meant the most to them?

Flex didn’t need long to think about it.

“You’re fuckin’ A right.  I can jam like seven in my truck, plus whoever wants to ride under the bed cover.  Maybe two or three more.  You can take five, easy.”

“
Trina, Taylor,
Me, Charlie, you, Hemp, Dave
and
Serena
.  Who else?”

“Nelson’s a good kid,” he said.  “Him, too.”

“That’s nine.”

“Think Hemp and Charlie will have a problem with it?” asked Gem.

“She may have someone else she wants to bring with,” said Flex.  “But for now, nine it is, if they’ll go.”

“It’ll have to do,” said
Gem.  “
I guess w
e need to let
everyone know we’re going, and suggest
they all
make a quick plan of their own, too.  I don’t see any reason on earth they should sit around waiting to die.”

“If nothing else, what we just did gives us a little more time to organize.  Not much more.”

“I’ll run out to the car and check the trunk.  Hey, Flex.”

“Yeah?”