Revenence: Dead of Winter: A Zombie Novel (30 page)

     As they opened the door, Will and Patricia rushed inside, both of them weeping.  Will cradled James in his arms, and Shari could see that the boy was alive but bleeding from a wound on his neck.  Patricia had a faint wound on her cheek, its shape reminiscent of human teeth, and a few drops of blood beaded up along the curved line of tooth marks.  Shari's heart sank. 
Both well alive,
she thought, knowing from experience that they would likely live for days or weeks with non-lethal bites wounds.

     More undead could be seen and heard nearby, quickly approaching.

     "Come on," Shari said.  "Let's get them to E.R."

     As the next week wore on, a dichotomy was occuring in Dr. Liu's infirmary.  On the one hand, Maximus recovered from the effects of his head trauma, though he didn't yet know that it was the doctor himself who had hit him.  On the other hand, however, the young boy and his mother declined in health, beginning to succumb to the effects of their slow transformations to undead.  Will began drinking heavily, which, according to his brother, was a vice for him.  Jessica, the twin sister of young James, was mostly raised by her Uncle Damian and Aunt Jenna from that point on.

     The entire community was beside itself with collective rage as the details surrounding the incident began to spread among the population.  Dacee had questioned Shari and all those who were present.  In the end, it seemed, Dacee had faced the unpleasant conclusion that her on-again, off-again lover would have to be stripped of his power.

     "You guys in security will have to figure out for yourselves who's gonna fill his shoes," Dacee had told Shari in private.  Since none of Shari's co-workers had been remotely interested in the position, Shari became the somewhat unwilling volunteer.

     At the Halloween party, Shari sat until the wee hours of the morning with Daphne and several others.  They lounged in the ballroom, everyone wearing a scavenged costume.  Shari wore a jumpsuit from her favorite video game, along with a functioning gas mask.  Daphne, not one for dressing up, wore a mask consisting of a pair of glasses with a false nose and moustache.  The air was thick with debauchery and body heat as inebriated party-goers celebrated being alive and protested the death lurking all around them.  There was music, though it didn't pulsate at the decibel of a party in the pre-zombie world.

     Shari stretched back in her seat, comfortable in her roomy, yellow and blue jumpsuit.  She gazed at the crowds of people filling the ballroom, living individuals.  She was filled with horror as she considered the fact that she was the one responsible now for their security, and worse still, that of the sleeping children across the street.

     "I can't imagine being inside Maximus' head," she told Daphne.  "Being the type of person who likes having authority just for the sake of having it.  I've only been responsible for books up 'til this point.  Now every decision I make is intrinsically related to the safety of all these people.  People who are alive, and need to stay that way."  She sighed, being sure she made eye contact with Daphne as she continued.  "I don't think I can do it without your help."

     Daphne shrugged, smirking as she rolled her eyes.  "What else do you think I have to fill my time besides keeping peace with you?"

     The two relaxed and enjoyed the night, despite their worries.  They chatted with the group at their table, passing around joints between everyone but Daphne, though even she was happy to partake in the convivial atmosphere in her own socially limited way.

     As the hours wore on, Shari came to terms with her new role as protector of the settlement. 
Every single one of them,
she thought. 
I hope every single one of them is still here to see next Halloween.

    
Throughout November, there were only a few minor incidents with the sadists.  Shari was fairly certain that they were mainly being sent to gain intelligence on the complex, with whomever had sent them knowing fully well that the front lines, at the very least, would be obliterated.  On each occasion, she had seen opposing members sneak away once the fighting had begun, aiming their cell phone cameras at the building as they fled to the northwest.  After Patricia and James had passed away, Will had poured himself into his drinking and his work, working with the weapons department during most of his waking hours.

     As the fall wore on, carrying the winter ever closer, more and more of the undead continued their exodus southward.  Of the ones who remained, they lost more of their mobility as the temperature dipped ever lower.

     Shari had been in the habit of visiting with Merlin on a regular basis since taking up the role of head of security. 

     "How are you feeling?" she had asked as she entered his cell the week after Halloween.

     "How do you think?" he had muttered in response, his voice hollow and his visage that of someone who had lost their will to live.  "If I close my eyes, I can almost see the bright blue sky falling down on my face.  Maybe Merlin's ready to feed the worms and trees."

     "You think this'll make you feel any better?" Shari had asked, revealing a baggie containing around a half-dozen carefully rolled joints and a decanter of steaming coffee.

     He had scoffed passively.  "I doubt it.  That doesn't mean Merlin doesn't want any, though."

     In the end, he had been slightly more receptive and helpful after having smoked and imbibed caffeine.  Shari was certain that forming a bond with him and gaining his trust would prove useful when a real confrontation did occur, provided that she would extract pertinent information from him regarding the sadists.  In the meantime, she gleaned as much as she could from him.

     "They took Navy Pier, did I tell you that?" he asked her one morning in late November.  The complex, other than the hotel, was kept around fifty-five degrees since the weather had turned cool in an effort to conserve resources, and Merlin shivered as he spoke, his dishwater blonde curls brushing his shoulders.  Shari turned on a space heater on the desk, noticing for the first time that he was handsome in a unique way, at least when he was bathed and relatively lucid.  The down side was that he seemed to be perpetually depressed when not in an extremely altered state of consciousness. 

     "I heard something about Navy Pier having had a settlement," she said in response to his statement.  "Were there a lot of people there?"

     "Yeah," Merlin said, "and there still are, far as Merlin knows.  Real people, not just sadists.  Sadists killed a lot of them when they came in, but you know those guys.  They kill some, make their point and recruit the rest.  Mostly for fighting or fucking."

     "How many people are there?" Shari asked.

     "Not sure about that," Merlin said.  "Probably in the hundreds.  Last Merlin heard, they wanted to try and take Lake Pointe Towers, too.  And I've heard they're also inside Willis Tower, but Merlin can't confirm that."  He was referring to the tallest building in the city, and the second tallest in the country, towering at over one-hundred stories.

     "I haven't noticed anyone in there," Shari said.  "Me, or anyone in security.  And we look at the skyline all the time, in detail.  I'm not saying I don't believe you, just that they must be good at hiding."

     "You're not thinking like a sadist," Merlin said.  "They see you.  That makes it easy for them to hide.  The city's big.  Sadists shroud themselves in it.  They're the snakes in the grass, and you're all field mice."

     "Yeah," Shari said.  "Or at least that's what they think."

     Later that night, she sat around with most of the security team, plus Dr. Liu, Dacee and Phoebe, in a quieter, more private sitting area than the generally bustling commons.  They drank, smoked and talked strategy, as they had on a few occasions, knowing that a full-fledged sadist attack could happen at any point.  Shari and Phoebe sat at the bar, discussing explosives, when Dr. Liu ambled up, beer in hand.

     "So how's Shari?" Dr. Liu asked, sitting on the barstool next to hers as the group mingled and socialized.

     "No complaints," Shari said.  "How about yourself, Don?"

     The doctor grinned.  "Busier than a one-armed surgeon in a zombie apocalypse." 

     Shari smirked, her eyes on her ashtray as she flicked ashes into it, a nervous habit.  "That's pretty busy."

     "You're one of the only people in this place who hasn't asked," the doctor said.

     Shari glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.  "I assume you mean about your arm."  The doctor nodded.  "I don't know," Shari said, shrugging.  "I usually leave it up to others to bring up stuff like that on their own, if they want to."

     "Ha, that's a rarity," Dr. Liu said, tilting his back his beer bottle.  "Most people have to give in to their curiosity."

     "Okay, you twisted my arm," Shari said, blushing a little at the unintended pun.  "Sorry."

     "It's okay," the doctor said with a laugh, "I basically set you up for that."

     "So what happened?" she asked.  "Was it before the apocalypse, or after?"

     "After," the doctor replied.  "I was out scavenging with Maximus and some of the other security people.  They told me they didn't want the surgeon going scavenging, but the thing is, they were planning on hitting up a medical center down the block.  That was before we made it to the hospital across the highway to the south.  I got all sorts of supplies from there, a whole truck worth, but before that I didn't have much to work with.  I wanted to see what was at the medical center, and the scavenging team wouldn't have known what to take.  Well, as it turned out, I wound up getting bit just below my right shoulder on the way back to the convention center.  I had what I needed on hand to perform an impromptu amputation, to try and keep the infection from spreading.  I had no choice but to do it, right then and there, in the back of an empty fleet van in the street.  At the time, I wasn't even sure if it would work, if I had removed the arm in time to avoid infection.  It was a nerve-wracking few days, waiting to be sure that I wouldn't turn.  Well, obviously, I came through it, minus an arm."

     "But you're left-handed?" Shari asked.  "I'm only assuming because you seem to do pretty well with that hand."

     "I do well enough with it," Dr. Liu said.  "But no, I'm not left-handed."  He smiled.  "I mean, I guess I am
now
, right?"

     "I suppose so," Shari said, grinning and looking down at the ash tray on the counter beneath her, gently flicking her ashes as she and the doctor spoke.

     "We have some news," Hugo announced, the doctor beside him, as they entered the lounge area purposefully.

     "What is it?" Shari asked as Hugo sat beside her, and the Professor to his other side. 

     "We've been trying to bounce a walkie-talkie signal off the moon for awhile," Hugo said.  "That way, you can reach parts of the globe that would normally be way out of range."

     "Yeah," Shari said.  "I've heard that can be done.  That, or you can bounce it off the ionosphere at night."

     "We haven't tried that one yet," the Professor said.  "It worked with the moon earlier, though.  We talked to someone in Japan."

     Those around them stopped talking, turning their full attention to Hugo's story. 

     "Cut the music!" Shari heard a voice hiss, while a small crowd gathered around.

     "Holy shit," Shari said.  "What did they say?"

     The Professor shrugged.  "His english was a little broken, but it basically sounded like there's nothing left there.  I mean, no big groups of people.  He said he hasn't seen anyone alive since summer, and he hasn't heard from anyone on the radio who's remotely close to him."

     "How awful," breathed Brenda, a middle-aged former housewife from Texas who now served on McCormick security, her eyes glistening with tears.  "To be all alone in this."

     "It really makes me appreciate all you douchebags!" slurred a particularly inebriated woman in her early twenties near the back of the small crowd.  She gathered the two males nearest her in a drunken hug. 

     The Texan smiled, rolling her teary eyes at the younger woman and the two young men beside her, who weren't far behind in their level of impairment. 

     "The more things change," the Texan whispered to the person next to her, "the more they stay the same."

     Most of those gathered resumed their mingling, filling the lounge with light chatter.

     "Keep doing that," Shari told the Professor and Hugo.  "If we can contact enough people, maybe we'll be able to get some networking going one of these days."

     Hugo nodded, sipping a soda.  "Hopefully next time, we'll have better news."

     Shari was on the west side of the complex a few days before Christmas, helping to install a wall of concrete blocks just inside the mostly glass facade facing Indiana Avenue.  As they finished the eighth layer, she heard the crackling of her walkie-talkie, carrying Lemar's voice over the airwaves.

     "Me and the rest of the scavenging team are stuck underground near Webster Park," he said.  "We were headed back from the Loop when we heard what sounded like a shit ton of sadists headed our way."

     "McCormick security, I need you all to take your positions," Shari said.  "I repeat, McCormick security, take your positions.  And I need all the civilians evacuated to the south building."  She addressed Lemar again as she headed out the western-facing entry area and started northward, up Indiana Avenue.  A light snow had begun to fall.  "Did they see you guys?" she asked Lemar.

     "I don't think so," he replied.  "They started passing overhead a minute ago, and it doesn't sound like any of them are stopping."

     "Headed this way, I presume?" Shari said.

     "Yep," Lemar said.  "I'm guessing at least in the dozens, but maybe a hundred or more.  And there's something else." 

     As Shari reached the northern boundary of the west building, where Cermak Road ran east to west, she could see small crowds of undead already beginning to make their way southward toward the complex.  Most of them weren't moving very quickly in the freezing weather, although a few seemed fairly fresh, able to move at a light, jogging pace.  Shari wondered where they had come from, supposing that there must be far more survivors left in the city than were generally observable. 
How many are there alive out there?
she wondered in a distant part of her mind.

     "Something else," Shari repeated.  Her ears began to pick up the sound of the motors approaching from the north.  "What is it?"

     "There was something we heard above ground, just before I radioed you.  And I don't mean a motorcycle."

     "Like what?" Shari asked.

     "Something unusually big," Lemar said.  "We didn't see it, but I'm guessing from the sound that it was some sort of truck.  I wish I could tell you more.  It should be in your snipers' line of sight any second now."

     "Alright," Shari said into her walkie-talkie.  "Radio back if there are any developments." 

     "Will do," Lemar responded.

     Shari paused, remembering the incendiary rounds Anthony had given to Hugo.  She raised her walkie-talkie again.  "Hugo," she said, "do you still have those dragon's breath rounds?"

     "I have them stashed with the shotgun," Hugo said.  "You want me to go get them?  It should only take me a few minutes to get to the Lakeshore Drive entrance."

     "Yeah," Shari said.  "If we can manage to stop this truck headed our way, we can probably roast the fuckers inside.  But when you get there, radio security so they can meet you at the entrance.  I don't need you trying to come out here in your civilian gear."

     "On my way," Hugo's voice crackled from the speaker. 

     Shari placed the radio in her pocket, hurrying across a narrow throughway that led to the north building.  She grasped the keyring attached to one of her belt loops, unlocking a steel security door and taking the inner staircase to the roof.  As she stepped outside, she noticed that the wind had died down almost entirely, and the light snow had intensified.  The city was quiet and still, insulated by the quiet, heavy snowfall. 

     She made her way to the northern edge of the roof, grabbing her sniper-modified AK.  She gazed through the scope, looking down Lake Shore Drive.  Near Grant Park, roughly a mile and a half to the north, she could see the lines of motorcycles and ATVs preceding an orange snow truck.  Sections of heavy-gauge metal had been applied to the truck, covering the side windows and most of the windshield.  The wheel wells were well protected with metal plating as well, with additional strips stretching from one wheel to the next, thereby protecting most of the undercarriage from the sides.  A large V-plow was attached to the front, preventing the snipers from shooting the under side of the car from the front.  The motorcycles began to part to either side of the street, an unzipping effect, and each one sat idling as the armored snowplow passed and continued on to McCormick Place.  Shari raised her walkie-talkie.

     "How's that evacuation coming?" Shari asked.

     "I have all the children here already," Dr. Liu's voice said from the speaker, "as well as most of the other vulnerable ones.  Most of the able-bodied grown-ups have made it here, and the last few will be arriving within the next couple minutes.  I sent a few people out to comb the north and east buildings, check for stragglers."

     "I have Maximus with me," Dacee's voice said from the radio.  "I'll keep an eye on him, but I thought we would use all the fire power we can get."

     Shari paused, ambivalent about the prospect of Maximus roaming free.  She knew, however, that Dacee was right.  They could use all the help they could get, especially when it came to skilled shooters.              

     "Okee-dokee," she said, eying the approaching truck.  "Daphne, what's your location?"

     "On my way to Lake Shore Drive now," Daphne replied.  "Just got my riot suit on."

     "Do what you can for now to keep order in there," Shari said.  "Wait there 'til you hear word from me, because we'll need you out here at some point."

     "You're the boss," Daphne muttered into her radio.

     "Hugo, I need you to hurry with those rounds," Shari said.  "Are all my explosives people in place?"  She heard a round of affirmative respondes from her radio.  "Alright," she said, "wait for word from me.  It won't be long."