Surge (49 page)

“Cory, she’s going to be fine,” I say and force myself to believe it too.

“How the fuck do you know?” Cory hisses. Knowing that his fear is coming off as anger, I keep my tone as calm and confident as possible.

“Because she’s Olivia,” I reply simply. “She’s been to hell and back, but still returns running to kick ass. One tiny piece of glass isn’t going to take her down.”

“Sorry to interrupt you, Jared,” Danny says from his front row seat, next to a wide eyed Sarah. “But that ain’t no
‘tiny piece of glass.’
It’s freaking huge.”

“Shut up, Danny,” John says and smacks him on the back of the head.

“Is she gonna die?” Kelly asks, and doesn’t the bitch sound downright giddy at the possibility. Cory goes to lunge at the car, so I distract him.

“Cory, I think she may be coming around,” I say. When Cory looks down to check out the unconscious Olivia in his arms, I mouth for John to
‘gag the bitch.’

“Livi?” Cory whispers as he strokes her cheek. Olivia swats at him, but her eyes are closed when she speaks.

“Don’t touch me.” It’s nothing more than a rasp, but Cory hears it clearly, and is taken aback.

“Livi, it’s just me,” Cory tries again. Olivia thrashes when his hand brushes hair away from her face.

“I said not to fucking touch me,” she snarls and swats his hand away again.

“Quit fucking calling her
‘Livi,’
” I say. “She’s obviously not all there, or she would have recognized you.”

“Fuck you,” Cory fumes. “She’s fine.”

“I didn’t mean that she’s crazy,” I revise. “I meant that she’s in shock, and doesn’t recognize her surroundings. Talk to her. Tell her that she’s alright, that she’s safe. Just don’t fucking call her
‘Livi.’
” Cory nods before giving it a try.

“Olivia, it’s Cory,” he begins. “You’re gonna be fine. I’ll keep you safe, I promise.”

“No!” Olivia shouts, and her thrashing picks up double time. “He’ll get you too! Run, Cory! Run before he comes back!” Cory looks a cross between devastated and pissed. I shove him aside and take his place.

“Cory’s fine,” I say and she stops fighting of Akio, who has sweat beading down his face. “He’s with John, you remember him?”

“The sidekick,” she answers and I laugh when John scowls.

“That’s right. Cory’s with my sidekick, and the twins, and Tommy.”

“And Travis?” Doesn’t something burn in my chest when I have to lie to her?

“Travis is fine,” I whisper. That was the wrong thing to say, because she starts shaking head rapidly.

“No he’s not!” Olivia screams and starts crying. “He killed him.” She curls herself into a ball, and repeats the same thing over and over again as she rocks. “He killed them both.” Then she’s making that awful noise which sounds like a dying animal, as she did back at the condo.

“You’re going to have to hold her down, so I can sedate her,” Akio demands and looks at me. I start shaking my head, no way in hell am I holding her down for any reason. “I can’t stitch the wound properly, if she isn’t still.”

“I can’t,” I say helplessly. I glance over at her hysterical form, and then the real shaking begins. Her whole body seizes, and shakes violently. “What the fuck?” I look to Akio for answers.

“She’s seizing,” he replies unnecessarily.

“No shit, Sherlock,” I hiss. “Why the fuck is she seizing?” Cory grabs her up in a bear hug and tilts her chin. I can hear her struggling to breathe, and it’s making me panic ten times worse.

“It could be from a combination of factors,” Akio answers in that goddamn Dr. Calm voice. “Shock, lack of sleep, epilepsy, stress, head trauma, pregnancy, diabetes...”

“Shut the fuck up with the Web M.D. shit, and help her!” Cory shouts. Olivia’s now foaming a mixture of blood and drool from her mouth. It has to be the scariest thing I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen some scary shit.

“I can’t,” Akio says and adjusts his glasses after taking an elbow thrown by Olivia’s seizing body. “It has to run its course.”

“It won’t run its fucking course if she chokes to death, you pompous prick,” Cory snarls. He turns his furious eyes away from the doctor, to look down helplessly at Olivia. He turns her body slightly to the side, so that the discharge from her mouth has somewhere to go, rather than trickling back down her throat.

“Come on, babe, breathe.” Cory strokes her hair with his free hand and whispers in her ear. I don’t know if it’s doing any good, but at least her body’s stopped it’s violent seizing. It’s now more of a twitch every few seconds.

“Jared!” Carlos shouts.

I tear my eyes away from Olivia to see what he needs. A few wheezers emerging from the woods is the answer to that question. Can this day get any worse? Standing up, I pull out my knife and jog over to help, since I’m useless when it comes to medical situations.

“Take the left two, I’ll get the right,” I tell the twins.

They nod before Carlos pulls out his own knife while Oscar readies his club and the three of us run over to handle the infected. Reaching the fat bastard on the right, I dodge his bloated swing and sweep his leg out. I hear a crunch that is nauseating, but I fight back the urge to puke and kick his head to the side to expose his temple. Smelly, fat bastard tries to take a bite from my boot, so I kick him again before sinking my knife into his skull to finish it off. I scan the woods to see if any more are coming out, seeing none I look over to see the twins deliver killing blows. Knowing that we’re sitting ducks out here, I jog over to the group.

“Cory, climb in the van with Olivia.” He glances up from her to look at me. “We’re just asking to be eaten if we stay here. So, climb in and someone else can drive the cars. I’ll find us a place to stay.”

“Alright,” he says and gathers Olivia up in his arms.

Sarah and Danny slide back to the seats the twins were in to let Cory inside through the slider. Once I have them both strapped into one seatbelt, since there’s no way in hell I’m prying her away from Cory right now, I shove Akio in the seat next to them. I toss the kit in on the floor so that it’s close by.

“Is she alright?” Whitney asks with a worried frown.

“She’s fine,” I reply. If I say it enough, maybe I’ll begin to believe it. “Just help as much as you can, alright?”

“Of course,” Whitney says readily.

Whitney climbs up to a seat closer to Cory and Akio so that she’s on hand if necessary. Marissa and Chelsea look ready to cry, I don’t know if they’re scared that Olivia’s infected, or if they think she’s going to die regardless of infection to suffocation. Either way is a hell of a lot better than the look on Kelly’s face. It’s pure delight. I’ve never wished death on someone so much in my life. I point at her and glare.

“Wipe that smug look off your face,” I snarl. “Or I’ll tie your ass to a tree and put a bell on you.” Kelly’s mouth drops open, but no words come out, so I ignore it and slam the slider shut. Leonard hops into the passenger seat so the van is now full. I motion for a frozen Tommy to follow me and John over to the twins.

“Someone’s going to have to drive the cars,” I say without preamble.

“I’ll guess I’ll have to take the Jag,” Oscar says with a sigh, like it’s a real hardship to drive a luxury car.

“I got the Beemer,” Carlos adds.

“Alright, Tommy, pick one to ride with and John take the other,” I say. “Carlos I want you in the middle and I’ll mow over any mother fucker that gets in my way.”

“Where we going?” Oscar inquires.

“No fucking clue,” I answer.

<~~~<~~~
~~~>~~~>

From the road signs, I’ve learned that we’re now in Maine. My guess is that last busy place that we were chased in wasn’t a city at all, but the town of Portsmouth, NH. True to word, I’ve run over every wheezer that gets in my way. Only two, but I wasn’t taking the chance of swerving around them, and having them dive in Carlos’s exposed moon roof.

We’ve been driving for about a half hour, but every minute that Olivia is unresponsive, is raging hell on my nerves. I’ve never been this stressed or panicked in my life, and at this rate, I’ll be grey within a month.

Seeing that the houses are becoming more sporadic, I pull up to the next one. It’s a small ranch style that’s surrounded by woods on three sides, but it looks untouched by the infected, so it’s worth a shot. I park the van, and order everyone to stay inside, before climbing out. I hear the other doors shut as I walk to the back of the van. I pick my crossbow from the pile of weapons, and make sure both my hunting and throwing knives are in place, then step aside for John to equip himself. Tommy and the twins already had their weapons strapped to them, but John and I only kept our guns on our person, so they’re waiting on us.

A nod to show that we’re set, and the five of us approach the house. Taking point, I move quickly to the front door, and take a page from Olivia by checking the mat. It’s empty, but the neglected plant in the pot has a key hidden underneath. Using it to unlock the door, I give it a push, and call out. No answer, rotten smell, or noise from anywhere inside is a good sign, but we still intend to do a sweep.

John, Oscar, and Tommy take the left side while Carlos and I take the right. We walk down the hallway, and open every door we pass along the way. It’s a three bedroom, one bathroom setup with a dining-living room combo, so we’ll be able to squeeze in for however long we need to. Best of all, are the barred windows in the bedrooms; most likely installed to put off burglars, but should protect against wheezers.

After making sure all of the rooms are empty, we check for an attic and basement. There are one of each, the attic is no more than a crawl space, and the basement is just your standard unfinished laundry room; so, Carlos and I jog back upstairs to give the all clear for our side. We find that John, Tommy and Oscar are already done, and waiting by the front door when we cut back through the living room.

“Anything?” I ask.

“Nah, it’s clean,” John answers.

“Good, let’s bring ‘em in,” I say and they nod. “Tommy, can you go prepare a room for Olivia?”

Tommy gives me a silent nod, but hurries to get a room ready. Jogging back to the van, I pull the slider open, and help Cory get Olivia out of the car. Once I have her in my arms, I hug her tight to my chest like I’ve been wanting to do for days, and ignore Cory’s waiting arms. He scowls, so I scowl right back, and walk toward the house with my precious cargo. Maneuvering the stairs slowly so I don’t trip and injure her more, I continue down the hallway, and call out for Tommy. He picked the first door on the left, so I enter and gently set Olivia down on the queen sized bed, while Tommy slips out of the room silently.

Cory climbs on the bed, and wraps himself around her. They look kind of ridiculous, since he’s over a foot taller. Or maybe it’s because I’m jealous of the ease he could do so, that makes me see it as King Kong holding the tiny lady on the skyscraper? I grab a chair and slide it closer to the bed before grabbing hold of her hand. Cory glares at me, but I ignore him and slide Olivia’s hair out of the way so I can see her beautiful face. Her usually sun kissed skin is a sickly pale, but it just makes her full red lips stick out like Snow White’s. Those damn fairytale fuckers had it all wrong. A measly kiss will not cure an ailing woman, the lying bastards.

Someone knocks on the door, so I tell them to come in. It’s Akio with Whitney behind him. He motions for me and Cory to leave, I shake my head. No way in hell am I leaving. Akio looks to the ceiling with what I can only guess is a prayer of patience.

“I need you two to leave the room so that I can undress the patient,” Akio says.

“No fucking way,” Cory retorts at the same time as my, “Fuck no!”

“I’m a doctor,” he counters.

“This isn’t a fucking hospital,” I hiss.

“What if I undressed her?” Whitney proposes. She must see that there’s no other way that Cory or I am leaving Akio alone with her.

“Olivia wouldn’t want to be naked,” Cory warns.

“I’ll dress her in something that doesn’t cover the wound,” she answers. “Then you can come back in, alright?”

We mutter our consent and each grab an arm to drag Akio along with us before closing the door. It takes several minutes of scuffling noises and drawers opening or closing until Whitney calls us back in. I nearly push Cory to the ground to get in first and hear Whitney’s stifled laugh. I don’t care; I’m more concerned with checking Olivia. When I look over and see her wearing a skimpy nighty, I nearly swallow my tongue. Cory shoves me out of the way before pulling a quilt up to her chin. Once he’s satisfied with how she’s covered, he takes my seat and reconnects with her hand. Finding my feet, I walk in a few more steps and stand at the foot of the bed.

“It’s no wonder the poor girl couldn’t breathe,” Whitney comments and we look at her in question. “I had to cut away twelve sports bras, six t-shirts, a turtleneck and her leather coat. I’m surprised she hasn’t died of heat stroke.”

“Twelve sports bras?” Akio asks with raised eyebrows. Whitney shrugs in response to say she doesn’t understand it.

“Never mind that,” I say. I already knew that she’s been flattening her chest, and that will be addressed later. Right now, I want her fixed and on the road to recovery. “Stitch her up and do whatever it is you do.”