"Runner Five, over here!"
I glance around, confusion flooding my mind and face at the familiar voice. This isn't right.
"By the fence, not the bushes. What are you doing over there?"
I spot her only a few yards away, I head over to her cautiously.
"Honestly, we haven't got all day," Amelia says, and my confused look morphs into a frown.
"I know. I've been waiting here for ten minutes," I say, but she ignores my comment, her slightly annoyed look twisting into... nervousness? That's the closest emotion I can match with the smile on her face. And it is a smile, not the infuriating smirk she wears whenever she knows she's gotten on my or someone else's nerves.
"You're looking well," She says, and if I didn't know any better, I'd think she was actually being sincere. "I did tell Janine to make sure all the runners have been getting adequate rest. Having said that, whenever I give her advice, she looks at me like I've just offered her a fresh handful of steaming vomit, so I probably can't take any credit."
"Where's Milo? He's the New Canton runner I was supposed to meet up for the exchange," I say, straight to the point, although calling my son a New Canton runner leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
Amelia sighs. "Yes, I see you're carrying the Fort Canton post bag, and just so you know, Fort Canton is usually what we go by now. But, yes, I must admit that was a little ruse on my part to get you over here. Milo won't be coming from Canton to meet you here. At least, not for a while."
I visibly tense.
"Don't worry," She says quickly. "I thought you could say when you got back that he'd kept you waiting, you'd been chased by zombies, something of that sort."
"Give me one reason I should stay here," I all but growl, and Amelia huffs through her nose, looking slightly frustrated, but still holding that bit of nervousness, as if she knows she actually needs me for... whatever this is, and she also knows she has nothing she can hold over my head to make me do it.
"Look, you don't have to come with me today. Obviously, I asked for you to be sent over here so we could talk," She says, and my eyes narrow. "I've been thinking of this for a while, but after that fiasco with Evans and Jones a week ago, it seemed more urgent. I think they really did have an A.N.N.I.E. core, by the way. It's just the sort of thing your friend Veronica's been looking for, and it would have been useful to both of us if we'd been able to work out how to get Jones on our side. Especially now.
"Look, I hope you've known me long enough to understand that I never do anything without a reason, especially when that reason involves running. It's not my idea of a leisure activity. But I have something to show you. You can just press that button on your headset at any time to call Sam, and that would be alright. I like Sam, actually. But I'd rather just talk to you alone for a little while, Five."
My muscles coil, unease clawing at the creatives of my mind. "The fact that you're okay with me calling for help makes me feel even less secure, along with the fact that you're being extremely vague about what you want to show me. How do I know you're not like, going to sell me out to the Last Riders so they'll leave New Canton alone?"
"Fort Canton," She corrects, "and you can't bargain with anarchists, Five. I've tried before in the apocalypse. It never works out."
I sigh, grabbing my backpack strap while internally screaming because I know I'll regret this if I go, but I'll regret it even more if I don't.
"Fine," I grumble, voiced laced with increasingly mounting dread. "Lead the way."
"Oh." She sounds surprised, as if she didn't actually think I would agree with this. Me and her both. "Alright. Good. Uh, just follow me down this track. We'll need to be quick so you're not missed at Abel."
"So, are you going to tell me where we're going?" I ask, only a few steps behind her.
"Oh, yes. We're going for a tour around scenic Battenbury, just the two of us."
I choke.
She... she must be joking, right?
My stomach drops when I ask her and she shakes her head. Why the hell would we need to go to Battenbury? What could she possibly have to show me that's so important? Battenbury's where we saw the first V-Type bite a corpse and bring it back, not to mention the poisoned gas, radiation and diseases that were there with the normal zombies before the V-Types arrived! Going anywhere near there is a no-go!
My fingers twitch, and every fiber of my being screams for me to call Sam. I asked for a radio silent operation today because it was an exchange mission and I wanted to be able to talk to Milo privately. I thought that maybe if there was only us, it would be less awkward, and we could really talk it out and I could convince him to come home.
I internally groan. Of course! Amelia probably told Janine Milo would be the New Canton exchange runner so she would send me and I would request radio silence. She put out the bait and I took it like an idiot!
"There it is," Amelia says as we reach our destination. "Veronica threw up some concrete walls around Battenbury when she spotted the V-Types multiplying there." She laughs. "I say walls. I think it rather looks like someone heaped some spoonfuls of porridge lumps all over the place. I've had some people carve steps into the outer layer of porridge so we can run around and observe the scene without putting ourselves at risk."
A noise of uncertainly crawls up my throat, but I still follow her as we start our ascent. Each step onto the concrete adds to the mounting anxiety. Why am I doing this? Why am I trusting her?
I know why. My curiosity outweighs my better judgement. It's a terrible trait that aligns with my recklessness and impulsive decision making.
"Porridge is a rather appropriate metaphor, actually," She continues. "Did you ever read that story when you were a child, Five? "The Magic Porridge Pot?" Someone wishes for porridge, and the magic pot just keeps on giving and giving until the whole town is full of porridge." She laughs again. "I think of that sometimes. Sigrid and Van Ark and the dippy, hippie Moonchild all wished for something. Eternal life, or happiness, or power. And the magic zombie pot just kept on giving it to them until it killed them."
"Uh-huh," I say, unsure where she's going with this.
"Obviously, I enjoy the finer things in life, but I do think you need to know when to say enough, when to cash your chips in and leave the table. Always have an escape route, Five. That's my advice to you."
"Are you speaking about that in general or in this situation?" I ask. "Because, trust me, I definitely have a few escape routes planned for when you decide to sell me out."
She doesn't look happy with my reply, but with a sigh and an eye roll, she gestures to the ramparts. "After you... Look down there. Do you remember Battenbury before? It was quite the cornucopia. Zombies with the plague, zombies with the pox, zombies with feet instead of faces, zombies with faces instead of feet. Zombies melted into walls, zombies melted into each other. Now what do you see?"
"I..." My brows draw together as I look at the zombies below, all growling and snarling. It's animalistic, the way they roar, and the way they move, it's... "They're all V-Types. Every one of them."
"Yes. That variant of the virus has written over everything else." She grabs my hand and gives it a tug. "I don't think it wise to stay in one place for long. They'll notice us eventually. And you'll note that some of them don't have heads. I don't know how they spot people, but it's not with their eyes. We'll go clockwise around the town together. Come on, Five. Run."
She lets go of my hand and starts off, and I follow, every so often glancing down at the zombies below. It's weird. All of them seem to be at the wall, not like before when Battenbury just had fencing. Before the zombies roamed the entire city, but now all of them are at the wall, as if they know they're trapped.
I tilt my head to the side when I spot a zombie with bright yellow eyes. That's not really a V-Type trait. Their eyes don't change colors, and to have yellow eyes.... The closest I've ever seen to that is Catherine, but her eyes where a gold. This is an almost sickly bright color-not normal, not human. There are a few more like that, but not many. All the yellow-eyed ones seem to be on all fours.
What makes them different?
"I don't think I've ever asked you how you escaped from the zombies the first time, Five."
Amelia's words catch my attention, and I look at her with a raised brow.
"You tried several times when you first came to Abel. You wanted to know my name."
"Oh, yes, but you never told me about your life, really. I know you told some of the others-Sam, probably Janine, but not me. I knew your reasons weren't the same as others who don't like to talk about it. Others were simply embarrassed that they survived when others died. Nothing to be embarrassed about. We did the right thing! What were we supposed to do? Stay and die with everyone else? And then we'd all be dead, and the whole world would just be rotting corpses wondering around. I'm not embarrassed, anyway. I did what I had to do."
That's what we all say, I think bitterly.
"I was visiting the Xia-Hifa office the day it started. Not officially. Brent and I had broken up by then. But I still had access to the buildings, and there were various business interests that brought me there. I had them showing me some new upgrades to various pieces of technology, and one of the lab technicians-what was her name? Tara? Rosie? Mia? I-I don't know. Some name like that. Two syllables, rather pretty. Cindy? Taylor? No idea. Anyway, she started to cough.
"Now I had heard something about a plague already. Not enough, but something. I like to keep tabs on any development which might have a business opportunity buried in it. There had been reports that the European Rescue Force had incinerated a hospital full of plague victims the day before. I suppose your lookalike, Chrysalis, may have been a part of that. Anyway, it seemed unlikely, but I pay for unlikely information.
"There was something about Taylor's cough. Well, we all know that now. You know, the way their eyes bulge when they cough? We were all in a sealed, clean room looking at... what was it? They were very proud of a new chip or something. A new tablet or something. I never cared until they could tell me what it did. And Taylor started coughing. And the cough turned into a growl-"
She pauses at a particularly loud roar one of the V-Types release, and I blanch when I look down. Not just because of the height, but because of what the zombies are doing down there.
All the zombies are digging at the wall, scrabbling at it bit by bit.
"It's meters thick concrete, but they're making a dent," Amelia murmurs, and I can do nothing but watch in horror.
I notice one who's worn its finger bones down to the first joint, and it still keeps digging, trying to wear away at the concrete. And they are, even if it's just a little bit.
"That's what we're dealing with. And they won't be deflected." Amelia looks at me expectantly. "Give me your scarf."
"What? No," I reply, and she scowls, jerking her hand in emphasis.
"Just give it to me."
"No."
She reaches out to take it herself. "I don't even see why you're wearing a scarf. It's still quite warm out."
"It was nippy when I left. Stop it!" I say, grabbing at it when she manages to get her hands on it.
"It's just a scarf. I'll get you a new one. There are teams of people knitting away at Fort Canton," She replies, yanking it off me, nearly choking me when she does.
"No!" I yell as she tosses the scarf down off the wall. I glare at her. "Jody and Penelope made that for me."
"Like I said, I'll get you a new one," She says. "Now look. Any normal zom would have looked up when that scarf fell. Movement, color-zombies turn their eyes, but these V-Types weren't distracted."
I blink, trying to work out how that can be possible. They do nothing but keep digging, occasionally stopping to sniff the air.
"They'll find it eventually, stuck in the mud, but for now they're just burrowing away, trying to get at us. Come on, Five. Let's move before they notice us."
•
"Do you remember the Glass Protocol, Five?"
My jaw clenches. "How could I forget about the hybrid monster that's tracking me because it has my DNA?"
She tsks at my sarcasm. "I suspect whatever Veronica did to A.N.N.I.E. has slowed it down, but I'm sure it'll be back. It's a horror. I knew they were doing DNA tracking at Xia-Hifa, but I didn't know how exactly they'd weaponized it.
"Honestly, if I did know how it worked, I'd call it off for you. I mean that... Well, what I mean is that I'd tell you exactly what price I'd charge you for calling it off, and I would absolutely do what I said I'd do when you did your part."
I scoff. "Sure."
"A life like mine doesn't work if people don't believe you're going to do what you say you will." She frowns. "I think you understand that."
I don't like the way she says that. "What do you mean?"
"Well, the reason you stayed silent about your life before coming to Abel was because you were-possibly still are-afraid of someone, and you're afraid of them because you believe they will do as they said they would if you don't keep your mouth shut."
I simply tsk in reply.
"Anyway, back to my story. We were in a clean room with a woman turning zombie, and I'd heard a presentation on this DNA tracking device. And one of the reasons I was in the building was to pocket one of the call buttons for the Glass Protocol. Nice little things about the size of a credit card. Break the glass seal at the top, point the device at whoever you want, then tell the Glass Protocol to pursue them. I'd slipped one into my pocket when we were going through the labs. I was willing to bet A.N.N.I.E. wouldn't stop me on the way out of the building.
"Anyway, I obviously broke the glass and pointed it at Taylor." She pauses, clearing her throat. She almost looks uncomfortable as she continues. "A.N.N.I.E. was very efficient back then, before her priorities were scrambled. She always kept me absolutely safe, got me out of the Xia-Hifa building. But the Glass Protocol didn't care about anything else. When it arrived in that room, it was... well, you've seen it."
"Not really," I say with a shrug, and she deadpans.
"You know what I mean, Five. Everything when dark. There was something there with us, black and darker black and fog." She pauses. "I could have grabbed some of the others and taken them with me, I suppose, but A.N.N.I.E. was whispering in my ear telling me where the exit was. I ran and closed the door behind me. I locked them in with the zombie, and with the dark thing that keeps coming after you as long as it has your DNA. I'm sure some of your Abel Township do-gooders would say it was very shocking, but I don't think I have a single thing to regret." She frowns at the disapproving look I give her. "I did what I had to do."
"And so did I! It doesn't mean I don't feel guilty about it." I sneer at her, my chest bubbling with an anger laced with bitterness and repulsion. "Sometimes we do bad things to survive, but that doesn't make those things any less bad. It just shows that in the circumstances there was no other way. I did a lot of bad things in America to survive. I killed innocent people to protect my friend and sister, but that doesn't make it okay. My reasons didn't make it good. Those people still died."
I sigh, knowing that no matter what I say, her mindset won't change. Trying to argue will only be a waste of breath for me.
But my attention is drawn back to the zombies when I hear some of them roar. They have been groaning and growling since we got up here, but this time it's louder, angrier, as if the zombies want to be heard.
It only takes a quick glance to see them all turning their heads to look at us. There's something there in their eyes, something determined, different than the normal void that clouds regular zoms' eyes.
"Great, they've spotted us, or smelled us or-I don't know-tracked us via our DNA," I say, taking a step back.
"We should probably keep moving before they work out how to climb walls," Amelia says, and I find myself agreeing with her. With how determined those zoms seem, it might not take long for them to figure it out.
I mean, they already have been trying to dig their way out. This wouldn't seem like anything new, but they all were digging, as if they all knew they were trapped. This isn't like the wall Sigrid built. There were constant people on both sides, and the scents confused the zoms. And even with that, they weren't all at the sides of the wall. They still wandered aimlessly.
These zoms want out. It's like they know people are out here, which isn't zombie-like at all. As soon as zoms lose a person's scent, or the lose sight of them, or can no longer hear them, they wander off, as if they forgot they were there. They have the mentality of a toddler-when something is no longer visible, they forget it exists.
These zoms though, it's like they have cognitive ability, more so than the S-Types.
"Listen, Five, as you can guess, I haven't brought you here for the good of my health," Amelia says, and I resist the urge to scoff.
"Obviously." A flicker of glance down below, and the sight of how far down the ground is and the zombies now swarming to follow us sends a shudder down my spine.
"I wanted to show you what these things are really like en masse. This is the safest place to view them, which is not to say it's exactly safe."
"So, you've seen this before?"
She nods. "Yes. Once one of them sees you, they all start to converge. They're all heading for the wrecked building in the center of the town. Big windows. It used to be a swimming pool. One of the struts has collapsed against those houses, do you see?"
I tip my head to the side in confusion. "I don't... are they trying to climb the strut?"
I watch as they blindly grip at the strut to bring themselves higher. The one in the front has no head, and it waves its arms wildly around until it grabs the underside of the roof of another building. It pulls itself up.
How the hell-
"The longer we stay here, the closer they'll get to us. I don't know how they know we're here, or how they work together." She shivers. "It's almost like they're one organism, like a climbing plant creeping along a wire, sucker by sucker."
I suppose that comparison could be accurate, although these zombies aren't creeping. No, they're going much too fast for that. The lead zom tries to get to a higher building, but it's too far for it to reach, and it falls. The zombie behind him stops, then turns and starts to head for a different building, as if it wants to take the long way around.
"Did that zombie just learn from the first one's mistakes?" I squeak, and Amelia nods, looking equally as terrified.
"I think they're faster at it now than they were last time I was here. Come on, Five. Clockwise. Run!"
I pick up my pace, my eyes never leaving the masses of zombies, all running across the buildings as they try to get to us. This shouldn't be possible. Zombies shouldn't be able to learn! They're dead! The S-Types were only somewhat cognitive because bits of their brain hadn't been rotten away. The fast zoms weren't smart, just controllable via tones.
But these zoms... Just what are we dealing with?
I watch as the zombies continue climbing. They're staring straight at us-well, more specifically, straight at me.
We need to get out of here.
I look ahead for one moment, a choked noise leaving my mouth when I see a bit of the wall is blocked, too high for us to climb over and continue without majorly risking a fall.
"Uh, Amy?"
"Ah, yes. My people did warn me about this," She says calmly. "Don't worry. They've put a timber walkway up for us over the town. Do you see how it branches out in two forks? We are not as far ahead of the V-Types as I would have liked, Five... I think they're learning. Every time I come here, they spot me a little faster."
I want to argue about going across this walkway. I don't see how it's safe. It looks so weak, so unstable, but I see how the zombies have finally stopped moving from building to building. They're on a building directly beneath the walkway, and they're piling on top of each other, trying to reach the underside so they can pull themselves up.
If they get up on that walkway, we'll have to turn back, and then they'll find the stairs and we'll have possibly hundreds of V-Types out in the open.
I run on the walkway, hating how there are no handrails.One slip and down to the V-Types we go. But we have no choice.
"Two walkways," I mutter, looking at Amelia for a quick second. "Once they pull themselves up, we can split down the walkways, pull a McShell maneuver. They'll end up falling right off."
She nods. "My thoughts exactly. I'll take the low road; you take the high road."
A zombie pulls itself onto the walkway behind us. It has no head. The others below it are grabbing at our feet.
"Split, now!" I command, and we both go down our walkways. I glance behind me, waiting to see the zombie that's pulled itself up tumble off the walkway.
But it doesn't. It just... turns. It heads after me, and so do the zombies below me. They keep following me, trying to grab at my feet.
"Five, don't look down!" Amelia yells through my headset. "Just keep running! Hurry, before any other zombies pull themselves up! Go!"
•
I scream as I throw myself onto the wall's edge, kicking the walkway out from under the zom. It lunges, just barely missing me before tumbling down, slamming into the side of the wall before falling. The entire walkway collapses. It crushes some of the zombies, but they still claw and scratch their way out from the rubble, roaring from what could almost be described as frustration.
Amelia reaches me and takes my hand, pulling me to my feet.
"Well done, Runner Five. Very swift work," She praises, but the response I give her is not so kind.
I grab the front of her shirt, pulling her close as I glare at her, my vision turning red.
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't throw you off this wall right now!" I scream, and she laughs forcefully.
"What are you-"
"Do you think I'm stupid? Do you think I wouldn't know why all the zombies came after me?!"
She huffs, knowing she's been caught. "Okay. Yes, I did suspect that dropping your scarf down there earlier would somehow key them in to chasing you, not me. DNA, maybe, or something else. But you did very well, and we're both still alive, so everything's fine!"
My grip tightens, my glare getting harder. "You don't know what monster you would have created if I had been bitten."
"What do you mean?" She asks.
"Nothing. But if you ever do that again, I won't hesitate to snap your neck, capiche?" I let go of the taller woman, and she dusts herself off.
"Listen, I respect you, Five. I didn't bring you here to put your life in danger. Well, not more danger than you voluntarily put it in every day, anyway. I wanted to tell you a few things."
I cross my arms, already starting to walk away, trying to find the stairs back down to safety. "Then get on with it. My patience is now running extremely thin."
"Number one: you need to know what these things are. They're not just another kind of zombie. They're working on a totally different principle to the zombies we've encountered before. Even the ones with no eyes or nose can follow. Noisemakers don't work, McShell maneuver doesn't work. They self-organize. Janine may talk about bringing the country together, but you know who's working together? The zombies!
"Which brings me to point number two: I think you need to understand what the Last Riders represent. They are driving the country apart, and the country was doing a good enough job of breaking itself apart anyway. All the talk of peace conferences and fair trials and mercy missions giving the cure to outlying communities-none of that is working! Not fast enough to unite the country. It'll be everyone for themselves soon enough.
"Evans and Jones demonstrated that. Ordinary people have been fed so much misinformation that they can't tell fact from fiction anymore. That's not a country you can unite! At least, I don't think so. What's the point of developing any protocols for working with the V-Types if no one will listen when you tell them?"
I open my mouth, but my face crumples. I can't find an answer.
"Look, we all have to do things we don't particularly like at times like this, don't we? I'll never ask how you survived the first time, never again. And that's number three, just between us: you must think about how you personally are going to survive, Callista."
I look back at her. "W-What?"
"There will always be a place for you at Fort Canton," She says, pausing when she sees my shocked face. "Just think about it."
I shake my head. "No. I can't leave Abel. I have two kids there. My husband is there. I can't be selfish. I can't think about just my survival."
"And how has that worked out for you?"
"I'm still alive, aren't I?" My words are clipped, short. "And I'm bringing Milo back too. You can't have him, nor me."
"Like I said, think about it." She turns her gaze ahead. "And look, here we are. Steps back to terra firma. Milo will be waiting with the Abel Township post bag at the bottom of the hill. I'm sure he'll be happy to see you, even if he won't admit it.
"And you know, you can tell who you like about this, or not. Well, you might think of telling Veronica that the McShell doesn't work anymore. She might find a way to save us. A.N.N.I.E. was the only person I could rely on, once upon a time. Either way, my offer still stands."
"And my answer is still no."
She smiles softly, amused but also... disappointed? "It's time to start thinking about how you're going to live through this one, Five."
"I don't need to. The only thing I have to worry about is the zoms."
"You realize there are other things that can kill you," She calls as I start my descent down the stairs. I look at her over my shoulder and smirk.
"I'd like to see them try."
A/N: Here you go, guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I have one more week before I start school again, so I'll probably only be able to write 2-3 more chapters before then. After that it'll go to one chapter a week. Just wanted to let you know.
Please be sure to vote and comment! Thank you and have a blessed day!