Part 21 (1/2)
Dejah smiled and waved. ”I'm alive. Thirsty though. Y'all take care of David. He's the one with the st.i.tches on his gut.”
”Don't worry, we're keeping an eye on him.” Shaun winked at David. ”We just loaded soft drinks. What sounds good?”
”How about a c.o.ke?”
Shaun opened a knotted bag and dug around until he found a red can. He popped the top and handed the cold can to Dejah. ”Here you go. Still cold.”
”Thank you so much! I didn't know we had delivery here.” She laughed. ”Such quality service. Do you have steak? Maybe a nice New York strip and baked potato with b.u.t.ter?”
Shaun grinned. ”How about ...” he dug around in a second bag, ”some Hot Skins Pork Rinds and a bag of Lays? Top of the line, for the lady, of course.”
”Of course,” Dejah gave him a groggy smile.
”You coming with me to get the other bags, Romeo?” Kathryn asked, a bit of impatience edging her voice. She stood, one hand on her hip, outside the helicopter, waiting. Dejah looked past Shaun with a questioning look. He realized Dejah hadn't known anything about Kathryn before now, but there'd have to be time for introductions later.
Shaun turned to Kathryn. ”Sure. Hey, Dejah, we'll be back in a few minutes. I need to help Kathryn get the rest of the food.”
”Go on, I'll be fine.” She leaned back in the seat, drinking her soda.
As soon as they were away from the helicopter, headed back toward the main building, Shaun scowled at Kathryn. ”That Romeo comment was out of line. I'm not in love with her or anything. She's like a mom. She saved my life.”
Kathryn shrugged. ”She seems to need a lot of attention, that one.”
”None that she wants. All Dejah wants is to get to her daughter. The rest of this c.r.a.p just keeps happening to her. It's not her fault.”
”Whatever you say, Romeo.” Kathryn rolled her eyes and stepped up the pace to the metal building intent on retrieving the final bags of snacks and sodas.
Once inside, Kathryn seemed antsy. Shaun noticed her discomfort. She was eyeing a unis.e.x restroom just down a side hall, next to a drinking fountain.
”I hate to do this, but it's gotta happen. I'm going to have to use that restroom while we're here,” Kathryn said.
The side hall where the bathroom was located was well-lit and decidedly without menace. Still, the quietness in this place seemed pregnant with dark possibilities. They couldn't see all the way to the end of the hallway from this angle, but it was close enough to the door they could get out if a zombie horde emerged from the back of the building or one of the offices. So far so good, but there were no guarantees their luck would hold.
”Okay,” Shaun said, voice heavy with trepidation. Since he'd chugged that soda, he felt the urge too. d.a.m.n it, maybe not such a smart idea. ”I'll keep an eye out while you go, then you can stand guard for me.”
Kathryn nodded and walked the hall. She slowly pushed open the door to the restroom. The door closed behind her.
He listened for a moment. He couldn't hear anything inside the bathroom.
”Is it okay in there?” Shaun shouted.
Kathryn didn't answer. Maybe she didn't hear me. Shaun sat, alert and ready, on the edge of the sofa, not really expecting any trouble, but not entirely trusting they were safe either. He felt a surge of relief when he heard a toilet flush.
Kathryn emerged, drying her hands on paper towels.
”Your turn.”
Shaun slipped inside the room. Light bathed the room in the bright glow of florescent magic. The bathroom was the average public facility: metal stalls, low to the ground porcelain toilets that had seen cleaner days. Two sinks were grimy and edged with rust. One of the faucets dripped, echoing in the room. He grasped the metal pull on his zipper.
He was taking a p.i.s.s when the drip drip drip of the rusty sink was drowned out by unmistakable sound of gunshots.
”d.a.m.n!” Shaun finished in a hurry, readied his pistol, pulled the door open a crack, and eased his gun around the doorframe, looking through the hall toward the sofas where Kathryn was waiting.
Kathryn was no longer there. The bags of food and drinks were torn apart, their contents littering the tiled floor, cans rolling every direction.
”s.h.i.+t,” Shaun hissed in a whisper, and backed into the restroom. It was the one room in the building where he could be certain he was alone. His own breathing was louder in his ears than he wished as he listened to the sounds around him. Was she hiding? Should he call to her? Uncertain of his next move, he cursed under his breath.
He peered though the hall again and caught sight of a gray-trousered leg and boot rounding the corner. It was a Sickie. He came into Shaun's line of vision. The zombie's uniform marked him as one of the airport maintenance crew. His nametag said he was Bill. Bill wasn't looking too good.
Bill opened the narrow door leading to the janitor's closet and was ripped to shreds by a sudden burst of gunfire. Kathryn leapt from the closet, screaming a primal shout. Kicking the body of the infected fiend to the floor, she ran toward the green sofas. ”Shaun!”
Shaun looked in both directions and then ran toward the shouting Kathryn. ”I'm here,” he shouted as loud as he dared. If there was one infected, it seemed likely that others would be in the near vicinity. ”Let's get out of here!”
They ran for the door. Just as they made it outside, seven infected maintenance men poured from a side door in the building, heading toward the helicopter pad. On the other side of the chopper, three Sickies came around the fueling truck, shambling straight for David and the waiting helicopter.
David stood, tensed, hands cupped over his eyes, staring toward the corrugated metal building.
”Go! Go!” Kathryn shouted. She gestured wildly toward David and the chopper. More zombies filed from the hanger. The place was alive and swarming with the monsters.
David ran around the helicopter, jumping into the c.o.c.kpit through his door. Shaun ran faster than Kathryn and clamored into the backseat, panting.
”Come on Kathryn!” he shouted out the door.
Kathryn struggled with a man in a gray jumpsuit who grabbed onto her jacket at the edge of the landing pad and was holding on despite her best efforts to dislodge him. She pivoted, ramming the b.u.t.t of the gun into the Sickie's head.
David started up the chopper. The noise drowned out Kathryn's shouts.
Sickies came from every direction.
Kathryn struggled to reach the helicopter. She frantically yanked against her captor's grip, trying to get clear before the others caught up. It was futile; three more zombies rushed ahead of the staggering group. They fastened their blood-smeared hands around her arms and pulled her to the pavement. A deep crimson stain spread across the arm of her jacket, and the fabric was ripped free revealing b.l.o.o.d.y flesh. Grimy fingernails left deep gouges in their wakes, curled runnels of skin peeling from the rivulets.
Kathryn kicked the head of a zombie on the ground, its hair dangling in patches from leathery scalp remains. Its skin seemed to have dried on its body, the ruined flesh of its eye sockets swimming with maggots where flies had planted eggs as it slept. She bashed in the drooling face with her heel. For every infected person she managed to do in, another one latched onto her.
A woman in a blue business suit and lighter shade bluish-gray skin clutched Kathryn's hair and pulled. Kathryn screeched and twirled, beating the woman with her fists. The businesswoman lost her footing, and fell, but took a sizeable clump of Kathryn's hair with her.
”We've got to do something!” Shaun screamed. David pushed the barrel of the rifle through the open window and tried to aim for the heads of the infected, but he couldn't get a clear line. There were too many of them and now they couldn't see Kathryn. Every few seconds they could see her hand or foot, but no clear visual.
”Shoot, d.a.m.n it! Shoot!” Shaun shouted.
”I can't see where she is.”
”It doesn't matter, man. If she's getting eaten by those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, she's going to want to be dead anyway. You gotta take the chance. Shoot them!”
David popped off a few rounds, catching a couple of the infected work crew in their backs. They fell to the ground around the trampling feet of the others, but their absence did little to slow the onslaught of terror enveloping Kathryn.