Foamers (17 page)

___________

Ashton leaned into the swirling white snow as her boots packed dirty waffle prints
into
the four inches of powder. She was dressed in a heavy blue Marmot jacket, a black
balaclava, and fleece pants, with a police-issue assault rifle across her back. Her
hands, which gripped a dead foamer by the ankles, were covered in black Under Armour.
At the other end of the foamer, Grace, similarly dressed in winter gear, held the
limp body by the wrists. Argos trotted beside them with his nose in the air.

The first building east of Lambian was the Paine Science Center, which was a scientist’s
heaven. In one of the rooms, Grace and Ashton had prepared an arsenal of microscopes
and slide prep materials on the blacktopped tables, before they had made their way
to the infirmary, where they had taken one of the less-damaged foamer corpses. Now,
as they were lugging the body up three flights of stairs, Ashton wished they hadn’t
picked the third floor. The logic had been that the third floor would allow them
to retreat in either direction, but that didn’t make Ashton like the stairs.

“Can we set her down quick?” Grace asked as they reached the third floor landing.

Bending at the knees, Ashton lowered the body to the ground and sat against the second
rail of the landing. She swung the rifle around to her front as she reminisced about
the amazing days she’d had with X. A sigh slipped out of her lips as she thought
of being back in the house.

“So, you and the cowboy a thing?” Grace asked.

“No.”

“You are. That’s awesome. He is quite sexy in that hat of his,” Grace said, giving
Ashton a shove.

Ashton shook her head. “I wish we were. I don’t know if X will cross my brother to
be with me.”

There were certain memories Ashton had engraved in her mind. The one that stood out
most was lying in bed with X. He had fallen asleep propped against the headboard,
making his chest the perfect place to rest her head. The slow metronomic
thump,
thump, thump
of his heart pumping blood through his body rocked her to sleep.

She could hear the
thump, thump, thump
as clearly as if she was still lying there.
Thump, thump, thump,
a smile spread across her face,
thump, thump, thump;
the joy
faded. The sound echoed through the stairwell. Argos stood at the top of the stairs,
growling into the darkness below. The footfalls of foamers rose to them, but in the
dim light, they couldn’t see how many there were.

“Shit,” Ashton said as her hands curled around her rifle.

Grace held the walkie against her mouth. “We need help. There’s a bunch of foamers.”

“
Get behind a locked door and wait
,” Kade’s voice crackled out of the walkie.

Ashton hurried toward the nearest classroom, Grace on her heels. The room had ten
blacktopped lab tables along the walls, leaving the center of the room wide open.
The white square flooring was covered in black scuff marks.

Argos waited at the top of the stairs, hair on end, muscles flexed, as he growled
at the nearing footsteps. Ashton clapped her hand on her quad and called the dog,
who reluctantly came inside the classroom. No sooner had he entered the room than
Alpha crested the last stair. As the behemoth bounded for the open door, Ashton
slammed it shut and pressed the small silver lock. She braced her back against the
door, knowing the effort was useless but trying anyway. Grace stood in the center
of the room, clutching her double barrel.

The door shook with the impact of a foamer. Ashton lowered her center of gravity
and bent her knees against the door. She doubted that she could provide any more
safety than the lock, but she needed to feel like she was doing something.

Over in the med bay, X dug a concealed handcuff key from the underside of his belt.

“Toss me the key,” Kade said.

“You need to stay here, but this is your rodeo. Tell me what I need to do,” X said,
collecting his weapons.

Kade was frustrated with X, but he knew Ashton and Grace didn’t have enough time
for him to argue.

“The science center is an oval layout. Go out our east exit and head straight there.
That will bring you into their stairwell. If you can kill the foamers, great, if
not you’ll have to get them to chase you,” Kade said.

“How do I do that?”

“It’s a little complicated. First let them see you, second runaway. Once you’re sure
they’re chasing you, you want to cross the first floor of the building and take the
other exit. If you head dead north you’ll end up close to stream bridge. Cross the
bridge and go left. You’ll circle all the way back to Lambian.”

“Not too complicated. Left foot, right foot, repeat,” X said, donning his hat.

“Soon as the girls are safe to leave, hit the call button on your walkie, and I’ll
direct them back. Good luck,” Kade said.

“Don’t worry.” X winked and was gone.

“Girls,” Kade said into the walkie. “Make as much noise as you can to keep them occupied,
and don’t stop. X is on his way.”

Back in the science center, Grace rushed to the nearest table and pulled a long metal
rod from a compartment. Holding it like a bō staff, Grace bashed the rod into the
furniture and stabbed it against the blackboard. As Grace shattered and smashed everything
in sight, Ashton continued to press her weight against the door. She was afraid to
die. The idea of not being able to see where her relationship with X would go crushed
her. With all the struggles they would have to overcome, namely her brother, she
felt he was worth it. As she braced against the door, she filled her mind with memories
of her time with X.

Ten foamers gathered on the other side of the door, and the three largest, who looked
like college football players, rammed their shoulders against the door in unison.
Each hit rattled the locked door with enough force to bounce Ashton out of her braced
stance. Her bad ankle throbbed as she fought each barrage. Her black knight better
hurry his ass up.

Down on the first floor, X quietly stepped through the propped-open door. Every nerve
in his body told him to rush up the stairs, guns blazing, and blast his way through
the foamers to save Ashton, but Kade’s orders prevailed. He counted ten steps from
the first to the second floor, totaling twenty steps to go without being detected.
At this point, he had no idea how many foamers he was up against, so he needed the
element of surprise in case there were more foamers than he had bullets.

He gently placed his toes on each step, keeping his back to the wall as he climbed
the stairs. The dim stairwell limited his vision, but he could hear every impact
of the foamers against the door. He stopped on the second floor, letting his ears
count a number, but all he knew was there was more than one. Drawing his pistol,
he ascended the last flight. The pounding stopped, and he froze in place, holding
his breathe. He scanned for shadows and movement, but wasn’t high enough to see the
next floor yet.

A large foamer crashed into him, knocking him off his feet and cascading them down
to the second floor. The impact sent his gun skidding across the landing. The foamer
landed on top of him, rendering him breathless. X focused as the foamer lunged for
him with a set of gleaming teeth. In a split second, X hooked his fingers inside
the foamer’s cheek, twisted its head to the side, and punched the carotid artery.

The blow stunned the beast long enough for X to roll free and take off running. Kade’s
plan sounded so much easier before he was performing the task. He hoped his altercation
with the foamer would be enough to draw the pack after him.

His feet slammed off every other step, while the troop bounded after him. He still
had his knife, but he knew standing and fighting against what sounded like a dozen
foamers was suicide. His first priority was drawing them away from Ashton. He hit
the first floor and found the exit blocked off by Beta and Pepper. Skidding to a
stop that cost him his footing, he caught himself on his hands and launched himself
away from the foamers. He slammed open the metal door that led into the classroom
section of the first floor. Finding his way across the floor by the glimmers of pale
light, he could hear the slaps of the bare palms of his pursuers.

Finally finding another set of double doors, X threw his weight into the handles,
rocketing the doors against the cinder block walls. In one stride, he crossed the
threshold and sprinted into the stark white. The wind and snow bit into his exposed
arms. The swirling snow limited his vision to only a few feet as he gained distance
from the foamers. It only took a dozen strides before he could no longer see the
building. In his haste to save Ashton he regretted not grabbing a coat. She was all
that mattered, though. He could endure a little cold to let her get away. Following
Kade’s instructions he pressed the call button on his walkie. His main concern now
was keeping the pack chasing him, so the girls could return safely. As long as he
kept running he’d be—

His feet went out from under him as he cartwheeled down a steep bank, splashing into
freezing water that instantaneously sucked the heat from his body. Of all the obstacles
he could have faced freezing water wasn’t something he wanted to face once, let alone
twice. Just when he thought he had found solid footing in the shallow creek, Pepper
tumbled down the bank and landed on top of him. Out of instinct, X caught her in
his arms and was surprised when she didn’t struggle against his embrace. Her mess
of red hair reminded him of Ashton’s as his feet clawed at the creek bottom, wading
to the edge. Nearing the bank, he could see the silhouettes of the other foamers
waiting at the top.

He knew he couldn’t get out of the water in that direction, but he didn’t want to
abandon the redheaded foamer to the water. She may have been a foamer, but letting
a woman drown didn’t settle well with him. It crossed his mind that the other foamers
would likely remain at the top of the drop-off since they didn’t seem to have the
hang of swimming, but that didn’t help settle his nerves much.

So he shoved Pepper onto the bank and then swam with the current across the narrow
creek to the opposite bank. He pulled his dripping body free and glanced over his
shoulder to see what had happened to Pepper. Dimly, he could make out her form on
the far bank, causing a sigh he hadn’t expected. Whether she was a monster, X wasn’t
sure, but he did know that if he had let her drown, he would be one.

Standing still allowed the cold to pierce his muscles, and it was only a matter of
time before the chase would resume. He ran into the white wall of snow, keeping the
creek beside him for reference, but far enough away that he would not accidently
slip back into the icy water.

X glanced back and saw the foamers form a pile, with the wet one in the middle, to
share their warmth. X continued along the creek, trying to remember the distance
to the next bridge. With each step, he slowed, as his wet clothes turned to planks
of ice. He focused his thoughts on Ashton, and how happy he’d be to see her again,
instead of his odds of making it back to the dorm. His primary concern was whether
the diversion had saved Grace and Ashton. He kept words like frozen, cold, hypothermia,
and death from exposure out of his mind.

The diversion had been effective. When the walkies rang from the call, Kade commanded
the girls to leave the science center and return to the east entrance, where they’d
find a ladder and harness. Upon their return they were instructed to grab the road
flares and mark the roof so X had a waypoint to guide him home.

Grace and Ashton followed the orders exactly as they were given. The two old friends
stood side-by-side on the roof of Lambian, searching for X in the billowing snow.
Even though they couldn’t see the ground, it didn’t stop Ashton from hunting with
binoculars.

“You love him, don’t you?” Grace said, opening an emergency travel kit.

“Kade. Yes. He’s my brother,” Ashton replied.

Grace removed a road flare out of the box. “You told me you had something to tell
me when you first got back. No reason to lie to me now.”

Ashton lowered the binoculars. “Yes, but please don’t tell Kade. I don’t know how
he’ll take it, and I’m not even sure if X wants me that way.”

“The man just ran a pack of foamers away from you. I think he might care just a little.”
Grace struck the flare and held the glowing end above her head. Even with the poor
visibility, a road flare would be bright enough to be seen from a half mile away.

Luckily, X was far closer than that, and the red flare turned the falling snow around
the roof of the dorm into what looked like a giant candle. He calculated that the
foamers had stopped pursuing. The wet clothes froze his skin, and he was having trouble
keeping his thoughts from going cloudy. The shortest distance between two points
is a straight line, and the shortest distance for him to get back to the dorm involved
crossing the creek again. As much as he didn’t want to get wet a second time, he
had no idea how far away he was from the next bridge. He climbed down the bank and
plunged back into the water. His mind was in such a fog, he didn’t remember making
it back to Lambian, changing out of his clothes, or getting to the med bay, where
he took a seat on the bed across from Kade.

Kade was completely taxed from having to remain chained to the bed while barking
orders that put everyone else in harm’s way. The job of assigning risk without taking
any was far harder than anything he had ever done before.

Throughout the entire journey into the Primal Age, Kade felt as if he’d only been
able to make bad decisions that got people killed. The entire time X was out there
acting out his orders, Kade was terrified X wouldn’t make it back. Now, as much as
X looked like he was frozen, Kade felt some semblance of confidence that everything
had worked out. Ashton rushed into the room and threw her arms around X.