The Rabid (21 page)

December 20

"This
is an incredibly terrible idea." I looked up at the hospital through the
rain-soaked windshield. The wipers flicked back and forth with an audible tick.
Lisa unbuckled her seatbelt.

"We have no others."

"I'm sorry, what?" I
tore my eyes away from a shadow passing in front of a second story window.

"We have no other
ideas." Lisa stated her sentence slower than the first time.

"No, I know." I gave my
tone a higher pitch. "I'm just sayin' this place is probably haunted by ghosts
and demons and Willem Dafoe, so it's up to you whether or not you actually need
medicine."

"You are a strange man,"
Scott said from the backseat.

"Baby Face is right." I
let out an exaggerated sigh. "We need a plan."

"I never said—"

"Medical supplies have specific
closets, don't they?" Another kid who'd come with us piped up next to Scott.

"Normally." Lisa nodded.

"This place has three
floors, Doc Hotness. Where do we start?"

"Hey, don't talk to—"

"Not now, Sierra." I put
my hand up, not taking my eyes off Lisa.

"We start on the first
floor."

A sort of frustrated
anger bubbled up inside of me. She was treating me like a kid again. And I was
pretty sure I wasn't born the day before, so I broke my gaze with her and
looked back at the wheel.

"Junkies have probably
already cleaned this place out. We probably won't even find anything."

"Well, we have to try."

"Took the words right
outta my ass. Sierra! Protein bar me." I put my hand back, palm up and wiggled
my fingers at Scott.

"What?"

"Turning slowly, I tried
to keep my voice at an animated control. "You wanna give me a protein bar from
the bag or you wanna keep making lovey eyes at my doctor friend, here?"

Scott sighed and began
to dig through my backpack.

"I doubt anything is
really on the first floor. That's probably the lobby and maybe a lab or two. So
we can probably just poke around the back a bit and head upstairs," Lisa
explained.

"Okay, sounds like a
plan."

"There are no protein
bars in here." Scott interrupted us from the backseat.

"What is in there?" I
faked a roll of my eyes at Lisa.

"Fun Dips."

"And...?"

"That's all, man. You
have like eighteen packets of fun dip in here. What the fuck?" Scott's voice
began to rise into what sounded like a panic. Oh, now he didn't trust me. Just
because I liked sour candy.

"Listen to me, Sierra!"
I turned around to face him. He was hilariously pale. "What flavors are in
there?"

He seemed confused by my
sudden curt tone, so he took a moment to answer. "Uh...cherry and blue."

I sighed. "Blue's not a
flavor, Sierra."

"Blue Raspberry, Jesus!"

"Gimme a cherry."

***

I'd forgotten how good
Fun Dips were. Especially the cherry ones. I was really enjoying my packet
while Lisa searched a back office and we stood watch. Lucky clawed at my leg.
He wanted some too.

"Do you mind?" Scott
glanced at me from his side of the door.

"Nah. Want?" I held out
my backpack.

"No." Scott shoved it
away. "I mean do you mind finishing that thing up. You're really annoying me."

"You kidding? These
things are rare today. And these are the ones that change color, see?" I showed
him the blue stick.

"Do you ever get tired
of being fucking weird?"

"You know..." I tilted
the packet back until most of the sour powder fell into my mouth. "The
statistical probability of you surviving this mission is slim to none. Given
how you were just introduced."

"What the fuck are you
talking about? Slim to none isn't even a probability measure."

"I tossed the candy stick
into my mouth. "You just upgraded to 'divided by zero'."

Our other companion snickered.

"See, Chuckles over there thinks I'm funny. What's your name anyway?"

He flashed an unhealthily toothy grin. "Everybody just calls me by my last
name. It's Tango."

I felt my brows shoot up. "Well, hell. Now I can't give you a nickname."

Tango laughed again. "If you really want to be different, you could use my
first name. Tinder."

I dropped the spent packet to my feet and kicked it away. Lucky ran after it,
sticking his nose inside. "Like...building a fire Tinder or finding romance the
not-so-old-fashioned way Tinder?"

"My parents were survivalists, so the first." His tone suggested mild smugness
at his own short comings.

"Well, Tinder Tango, it's nice to meet you. You want a Fun Dip?"

Lisa stepped
out of the office, holding a bottle of some liquid. "Well, I found insulin. It
may come in handy, but it's not what Gregg needs. We need to keep looking." She
tossed a glance at all of us. "What's going on?"

"What do you mean?" I
played ignorant.

"I mean Scott looks like
he's ready to commit a felony." She pointed to him while looking at me.

"I don't like his mouth,
Lisa. He's gonna get us in trouble."

Lisa put her arms out
before the kid could take a shot at me. "Jack has saved my life many times,
Scott. He's very handy with his weapon."

"Shh... Not in front of the
children, honey." I winked at Scott, but he rolled his eyes.

"So what do we do now?" Tinder Tango looked at each one of us. "Upstairs?"

"Yeah...about that." I put a hand on my trusty shotgun. "I saw someone or
something up there while we were outside. Tinder Tango, you and me should head
upstairs to check it out. Sierra, you stay here."

"Now, hold on a second! I'm just as capable as you are!" Scott was whining.
Whining made me want to vomit up all my Fun Dip.

"Well, there can't be that many. I mean, the door was closed and there's none
of them down here. Maybe Scotty and Lisa should just come with us." Tinder
Tango had a point. There weren't any Biters on the first floor. And I'd only
seen one shadow. If there were living junkies up in the place, they probably
would have ambushes us when the Scott kid started whining.

Lisa pushed past us and started up the stairs. I bounded over to her, grabbing
her upper arm in a gentle hold. "Whoa, there, Foxtrot."

For some reason, saying her nickname to her made my heart do a somersault. She
looked into my eyes as if the feeling was mutual.

"We need the medicine, Jack."

I stared at her a moment longer, trying to search for an answer to all our
problems in her face. When I couldn't find it, I looked back to Scott and
Tinder Tango who were whispering together.

"Let's do this, kids."

They stopped whispering long enough for Scott to toss me a grin. "Anything you
say, Juliet."

I allowed my mouth to fall open comically accompanied by an exaggerated gasp.
"Oh my shit! You're learning, Sierra!"

As everyone began ascending the staircase, I stopped the little shit in his
tracks and lowered my voice enough so the others couldn't hear.

"Listen to me, Scott. This isn't some fucking Yoga class you can just squirrel
your way through. We're talking about face-biting monsters. They don't care who
you are, what your fucking name is or how old you are. They will kill you
without so much as an angry grunt."

Scott looked me up and down with a sneer, then backed an inch away. "Whatever,
man. You act like I'm doing this for you. I'm doing this for Lisa."

"Yeah? Aren't we all?"

"Difference between me and you is that I'm still fucking her."

It took me a moment to understand just what he'd said to me. How could that
have been right? Wouldn't Lisa have told me? This kid? Really?! He was such a
punk.

"I'm gonna shoot you in the ass."

"That's cute." Scott turned and started up the stairs after the other two.

"God, I wish you wore a red shirt today."

"Whatever."

With each step, the air became hotter and more putrid. The smell of rotting
paper and mildew was enough to choke a small child. That was morbid.

About halfway up, I heard the distinct shuffle of booted feet. I stopped
everyone and got in front, pushing my back against the wall. It seemed as if
the world was holding its breath.

The sound came again. It sounded metallic — like someone hitting a tuning fork
against a railing. Then the howl met us. It was pitiful, just like every other
time I'd heard it.

"I got a plan." Tinder Tango moved past Lisa and Scott to me. "Scotty and I can
go this way and you and Lisa go that way." He jerked his thumb toward the sound
of the Biter first, then pointed down the safe-looking part of the hallway.

"Are you serious? Have you ever shot a gun, Tinder Tango?"

"Tango's got a good idea. let's just do it." Scott was beginning to get on my
last nerves.

"Listen, guys, I realize I'm not Chuck Norris here, but..."

I was cut off by another loud howl of the Biter. And in the midst of that
ear-piercing music, Scott and Tinder Tango got it into their heads that it was
the perfect time to defect. Scott yelled, "Go!" and the two of them rushed past
Lisa and me toward the sound.

"Jesus Balls. Come on, Lisa."

"Right behind you."

With shotgun in hand, I began down the hallway toward where Scott and Tinder
Tango had run. Babysitting made my head ache, but they were the only volunteers
willing to go. But what good were volunteers when they didn't even listen?

"Hey, Lisa, I know there's been a lot of tension between us." We were finally
alone, so I took that as an opportunity to ask her about what the kid had said.
I peered into an empty room, then moved on.

"What happened to you and me sucks ass, I'll say that, but it wasn't just my
decision." I passed another empty room. The Biter was now quiet. "But that kid
said something to me that I don't like." I was almost to the end of the
hallway. "If I ask you a question will you be one-hundred percent honest with
me?" Another empty room on my left. And silence behind me.

"Lisa?" I turned to find empty space where she should have been on my heels.
"Mother fu—"

"Help!"

The cry came from my right. I spun back around and ran toward the end of the
hallway, Lucky on my heels. At the very back was a circular room full of cages.
Some of them were empty, but others had Biters locked up in them. Scott and
Tinder Tango were in the middle of it all. An enormous Biter with pounds upon
pounds of flab was standing over Scott, ready for a meal. Tinder Tango was
backed against and open cage, white as a sheet.

"Hey,
Bitch Tits!" I cocked my shotgun as the heavy Biter turned toward me. "Come get
some."

The thing roared something fierce and began lumbering toward me. The footsteps
boomed on the concrete floor, almost shaking the entire hospital building. And
I took my time. I savored the moment when the big nasty thing would hit the
ground dead because of my awesomeness. So I waited until he was about two feet
away before I pulled the trigger. Buckshot sprayed in an arch, hitting him in
the chest.

"He stumbled backward for a moment, but then regained his composure and
started for me again. Before I could aim, Lucky leapt on the Biter, sinking his
little teeth into the thing's neck.

But he was so small. All the Biter had to do was shrug him off. With a whip of
a hand the size of a baseball mitt, he flung my companion across the room where
he hit the wall with a thud, then slid to the floor.

"Lucky!"
I turned back toward the overly stuffed rabid man and aimed again. I fired, splitting
open his fat head and lodging metal pellets in his jaw. Indeed it was pretty
satisfying when he hit the floor.