When zombies attack in movies, cars are overturned and everything’s on fire and people are screaming. But when there are zombies, no one has time to flip their cars, commit arson, and you certainly don’t want to scream lest you like the company of the hungry undead. Really, these zombies weren’t dead. It was more like these zombies were just really sick people and the effects were irreversible. Parasites infected their bodies and turned them into meat craving individuals who’ll do anything to get their share of nutrients. The parasites’ waste poisons the body and in time, the infected person’s body decays as his or her skin dies due to the toxins in the waste. So they’re living zombies, but end up dead much quicker than you’d expect. However, I think they die somewhere along the road to decay and the parasites somehow can still use the muscles for a coupla weeks post mortem. But these zombies will eat vegetables too—they just can’t eat fruits because of the pH levels in any fruit. I’ve discovered that the more they eat vegetables, the closer to being uninfected they become. However, once infected, there’s no going back.

           My partner, Walt, is a zombie. He’s a strict vegetarian and has to wear a mask over his mouth and nose to be allowed into the city. Sometimes he gets out of hand, but he’s usually pretty manageable. The nice thing about these zombies as they can live like normal people as long as they watch their diet. They keep their personalities, but when the zombies decide they’ve had enough of being sick or die of outside causes; personality gone. Needless to say, I need to keep Walt on a tight leash. Walt’s incredibly friendly—scarily so sometimes, but sarcastic—and is pretty obedient. But right now he had shoved me into a stack of metal transportation crates and was having a hard time not ripping our target to pieces. I stumbled to my feet, ignoring the blood gracing my eyelashes, and slammed the butt of my gun across the back of Walt’s head.

           I yelled, “Getta hold of yourself!”

           He snarled, “I’m trying!” I called for backup and quickly cuffed the target,, but she reeked of pheromones.

           She maniacally laughed, “Infect me! The parasites are the new gods! They will save humanity!” I belted her across the face as I heard Walt let out a loud groan. Her lips cracked open and blood seeped out from the crusty skin. Her eyes found me and I felt a sharp pain in my arm. “You’ll understand!” I looked down and saw the neon green line in my arm that slowly crawled through my veins. Walt looked to me helplessly, another noise escaping him. He took a hesitant shuffling step towards us, but cringed as he edged forward. I scrambled to pick up my gun and fired at his knee, but it was empty.

           I cried, “Shit!” I looked around and grabbed the lady, dragging her quickly across the cement floor of the dock storage unit. She squirmed against me to make me let her go as Walt continued to follow us with his bloodshot eyes. His shoulders sagged a bit and he took in a deep breath, smelling the air. His eyes focused on us and his sneakers squeaked on the damp ground as he started deciding how to pounce. Pouncing zombies were worse than hungry zombies. Pouncing zombies were people like Walt who succumbed to the parasites’ hormones and toxins for short spurts of time when the conditions were right. They started out in a weird fixed state like hungry zombies, shuffling and groaning a bit and watching prey. But then they would charge and with their fight-or-flight response out of commission would rip anybody to pieces within seconds, always aiming for the throat and heart first.

           I couldn’t wait for Walt to pounce. I needed to figure out something quick or the infection of a parasite wouldn’t even work on us. Walt tensed, his shoulders squaring and eyes narrowing. His cheeks lifted to show his lips curling under the mask. I checked my phone—three minutes had passed, two more until backup showed up most likely. Then Walt moved. I quickly pulled out of the way and hid behind another stack of crates. There was a loud pang of metal and I used my phone to look behind the stack. He’d charged into the main garage door and had put a huge dent in it. I paled as he raised his head to sniff again, keeping quiet to hear better than usual. I looked around and found a light box. I pulled the heavy switch and harsh fluorescent lighting filled the unit. It got rid of shadows and I heard Walt let out an angry noise. His eyes were generally always dilated to their full potential and couldn’t take the light. I heard glass shattering as he screeched and broke a long light nearest the door.

           The door on the other side burst open and backup filled the room. Walt made a growling noise. I looked to Pennington, the captain, and saw his motion for me to get over there. I dragged the woman over to him and he quickly hissed, “You smell disgusting.”

           I raised the lady up by her collar a bit and replied, “Talk to her. She’s the one who injected me with pheromones.” Pennington sighed and motioned to one of his guys. A plastic wrapped bag of celery, carrots, and radishes was thrown to Walt. The movement triggered a pounce and tearing into the vegetables, Walt calmed down and came back to his senses. He quickly put his sunglasses on and rubbed his eyes. Pennington took the lady while I went to Walt and helped him up from the floor where he busied himself with popping a radish into his mouth. I couldn’t see his grey eyes behind the shades or his mouth under the mask, but it was easy to see he was upset by the way his brow furrowed. I asked, “You okay?”

           He nodded and answered, “I think so. I’m really super sorry, Max. I didn’t mean to.”

           “I know you didn’t, but you owe me dinner.” He nodded and we got into my car. Walt quickly fixed his loose curls of auburn hair. Walt always fretted that he looked like mess all the time, but my wife always fawned over the way his curls fell. Walt wore a dark blue tee with “Zombie Corps” written on it around our logo. He had on a red jacket and acid washed jeans with sneakers. “How does Chinese sound?”

           “I think some grease would be good. Put my bug to sleep, y’know.” I nodded and started the car. I knew that Walt was going to ask one question. I didn’t rush him to ask it though. He was quiet for a few minutes before asking, “So did I…hurt anyone?” And by hurt, I’d grown to learn the he meant the following; disemboweled, decapitated, performed a heart transplant without an organ donor, infected, quartered, or had torn anyone’s windpipe out. I’d answered that he’d started a fire once or twice before and that he had killed a puppy, which had made him cry and question his existence. But I handled it this time and he was okay.

           “Nope. You’re in the clear.” A bit of tension left him in a small sigh of relief and I heard him mumble a thanks to someone. I pulled up to our favorite Chinese dive and we went in. The lighting was always dim in here and Walt took off his glasses, tucking them into his pocket. We took a seat and Yuhn waved to us from behind the counter. Her husband, Feng, was busy chopping something behind the glass window that kept grease from hitting guests. Yuhn came over to our table in a yellow qipao with green and red flowers on it. Her black hair had some silver in it and it was pulled into a tight bun. She set two glasses of water on the table and smiled at us.

           Her accent heavy, she chirped, “Good evening! Usual?”

           I nodded and answered, “Please, but we need an extra cup of grease.”

           “Okay. I back with food.”

           “Oh wait—gÇ’u yÇŽole wÇ’ de kùdāng.” Yuhn snickered, covering her small smile with her finger.

           “Dog bite balls?”

           “Wait, what?” She laughed and went back to tell Feng what to make. I sighed and saw Walt grinning at me wickedly. I pointed at him and sighed, “Don’t you start.”

           He put his hands up and laughed, “I didn’t say anything! I think it’s great you’re trying to woo a married woman who can barely speak English while you can barely speak Chinese. What would Aren say?” I shook my head and looked to a picture of a garden on the wall next to a picture of the Three Gorges Dam. Yuhn set our food down and before eating anything, Walt pulled down his mask and swallowed down the thick grease. His eyes shut tightly and his tongue stuck out for a moment before he drank half his water down. “Ugh. Grease.”

           “Hey, at least you won’t freak out for sure for a coupla days.” I took a bite of my chicken and Walt pulled his mask back up quickly. I’m sure it was annoying to have to eat with a mask on when in public, but I never really got to see what Walt looked like under the mask. Even when he pulled it down to drink, the glass covered his features. I’d determined that Walt was probably incredibly handsome. He seemed to be without his mouth visible anyway, but I’d most likely never know for sure. Walt got serious and with broccoli in his mouth asked, “How are people getting that pheromone stuff? No matter what I do, I can hardly keep my wits around that crap.”

    “Dunno. I’ll have to ask Evel. I bet she has some information on it.” Walt’s eyes slid over to a booth in the corner.

           He pointed with his fork and said, “Or we ask Grady.” I stole a glance over my shoulder to Grady. Grady was one of our informants. He knew everything about everyone and what they were doing illegally, but he tended to be expensive. Grady was a round man with two chins and a redness to his face. He always smelled like alcohol, smoke, and sometimes rat urine. He wore a brown tee and shorts, sweat stains under the pits and between his man-tits and shoulder blades. He had thinning blonde hair and watery looking beady blue eyes behind frameless glasses. “Maybe not though. He looks pretty wasted tonight.”

           “Who knows? I’m just gonna enjoy my dinner and go home to my wife.”

           “And then get up at midnight and call me asking about the pheromones, right?” I felt my cheeks flush. I shrugged and nodded. We finished our dinner over a conversation about Aren being pregnant. I could tell Walt was entirely too excited about me being a father—I didn’t have a brother so he’d volunteered as uncle and godfather before Aren had even gotten pregnant. Not that we minded that much. Aren treated Walt like her brother anyway and he was my best friend, so we’d been more than happy to tell Walt he was our kid’s godfather. Plus Walt had pulled his puppy eyes (which always worked) and with his dilated pupils, he did them perfectly. So we woulda caved anyway. Walt paid and I dropped him off at his apartment building before going home. I lived in the district of the city reserved for people who protected the city. So it was full of cops, judges, firemen and women, EMTs, and Zombie Corps personnel like myself. My house was in the middle of the neighborhood. It was a large white and grey stone house with a couple of picture windows in the front.

           I went in and saw Aren watching the news on the couch. She was a little red to the face and her blonde hair was messy, but wet. She was in her pajamas and had a mug of tea next to her. I wrapped my arms around her from behind and softly said, “Hey baby.”

           She kissed me back and laughed, “Hey sweetheart.”

           “Doing workouts?” She nodded.

           “Getting ready for labor. We’re two weeks away from the date, Max.” I smiled and patted her shoulder before going upstairs and showering and putting on my pajamas. I joined her to watch the news, patting her leg as I sat down with some tea of my own. “So how’s Walt?”

           “Good. I think he’s more excited about having a theoretical niece or nephew than getting a cure.”

           “He called this morning to ask how I was feeling.” I snorted a bit and wrapped my arm around Aren’s shoulder. She moved my hand to her belly and whispered, “Our baby is ticklish. Move your finger a little.” I rubbed my thumb on her skin and felt a small kick. Aren smiled down where my hand was and set her head on my shoulder. “I can’t wait to say hi to our baby.” Aren went to bed soon after and I was tiredly watching the news. I was about to turn in when the screen went to static and a woman with pale features appeared on the screen.

           She started, “Citizens of this plagued world, the end is nigh and the solution is here. The worms are here to save humanity. They have come from an old god and are the new creators of this world. Give yourself over to the new gods of this world and you will be saved! I am looking for followers of this new order. Find a follower and ask for change! Ridiculous names like zombie and undead have infected our world and anyone who discriminates with such menial names will be destroyed. We—“ The screen cut back to the news. I blinked at the TV and turned it off, setting the house’s alarm on high before going to bed with my gun under my pillow.

2: Chapter Two

The next morning was hectic. HQ was bustling with questions about the sudden override on the air last night. Walt was a bit panicky when I got to our office. He was at his desk, fiddling with a pen and looking like he hadn’t slept a wink. I waved to him and yawned, “G’morning.”

           Walt shook his head and snapped, crying, “It’s not a good morning! My life was threatened three times this morning on my way here! And more people are using those damn pheromones! Do you know how hard it is to force yourself to drink an entire quart of grease in one night so the smell doesn’t bug you?!”

           “Calm down, man. I’m sure you’re just haywire from last night.”

           “Max!”

           “Okay, I’m sorry. Has Evelyn dropped off anything?” Walt shook his head, trying to regain his composure. I sighed and sat at my own desk, turning on my desk lamp to find what I needed in the lowlight of our office. I got to work, filling out some miscellaneous reports that were overdue. Walt played with his pen, watching me quietly.

           Finally he mumbled, “Max, I don’t wanna hurt you.” I glanced up and raised my eyebrow. “I don’t think I should be your partner until this pheromone thing is taken care of. I don’t wanna hurt you or Aren or anyone, okay?”

           “Don’t be ridiculous. This pheromone thing will blow over.” Walt opened his mouth to speak but became distracted as the door opened to Evel. Evel was our boss, a woman who’d aged gracefully with thin creases in her skin. She had cold brown eyes and her bluish black hair was up in ponytail. She wore a pinstripe pantsuit with a powder blue blazer and her ID badge clipped to her lapel. I smiled and said, “Hiya boss.”

           Evelyn nodded to me and replied, “I need to speak with you in my office.” Walt and I exchanged glances and he slipped on his glasses before leaving the office. HQ was flooded with bright light unless you were in someone’s office like ours where we kept the light down so Walt didn’t have to wear his sunglasses while working. We passed other zombies that wore masks and sunglasses. Their ages usually fell in the range of about 21 to somewhere in the late 40s. Walt was 29, technically 35, but his body wouldn’t actually age with the parasite releasing antioxidants to keep aging extremely minimal if any happened. Evel’s office was doused in UV light and I heard Walt make an uncomfortable noise before Evel switched the UV lights off. We took a seat in the white egg chairs facing Evel’s glass desk. She slid a file to me and clasped her hands together curtly. “Gentleman, I’m sure you heard the terrorist that broke airways last night.”

           I asked, “Terrorist? She didn’t make any threats.”

           “We received the rest of the transcript in the mail early this morning. She’s threatened to blow up research facilities as well as release a new form of the parasite to the public. Their organization has been the distributors of the pheromone injections that have made all our zombie, no offense, agents lose to their parasites. They’ve threatened as a whole to put the pheromones into the water system. It would be incredibly dangerous to think they’re just bluffing.” I nodded and Walt fiddled with his hands. “We will be requiring Walt to wear a special mask dipped in a lime solution to keep the smell from reaching his brain.”

           Walt blurted, “Ew!”

           “I apologize for trying to keep the public safe at the request you only wear a different mask.” Walt looked at his feet and mumbled an apology. “In the case Walt does give into his parasites, you are instructed to detain him by any means necessary and as always, Max, killing him is only and in every case, a last resort. Am I clear?” Walt and I nodded. “Now, we’ve gotten information that a private pheromone distributor is here in town. That file contains all the information we’ve wrangled on this case and you are to defend that information like it were your own child. You are excused.” Walt and I left her office and returned to ours where a biohazard package containing a mask sat on his desk. He sighed and turned away from me, holding his breath while he changed masks. This new mask was a light blue color and Walt coughed furiously after putting it on.

           I laughed, “Is public safety worth it?”

           He choked, “No. This is so gro-ss.”

           “Well, we have work to attend to.” Walt leaned back in chair and rubbed his face with his hands before turning on his computer and checking the alert page. I opened the file as I asked, “Anything new?”

           “Nada. What’s the file say?”

           “Uh…nothing specific—mostly vague information. Most likely from an informant.”

           “Huh. What’s this distributor?”

           “Dunno. Looks like we’ll have to go to shipyard.” I kept reading the file until something struck me funny about it. “Hey Walt?”

           “Yeah?”

           “It says the operation happens out of the Montreal. Is that the same boat that went down six years ago?” Walt nodded and closed his eyes, pulling back information. Walt was good at remembering pieces, I was good at putting them together.

           “Yup. Sunk thirty klicks past the harbor. The density of the water rushing in added weight while the boat was already at its limit and managed to cave the deck. 60 people died, 40 of the bodies were never recovered; two of them were found on the coast of Italy nine months after the incident. The boat was punctured by a radical group’s bomb and the explosion is estimated to have killed more people than the water actually did. In any case, it was pulled to the coast for repairs, but was never finished due to passive aggressive threats and similar incidents happening on an international scale.”

           “Think it’s the same group?” Walt shrugged.

           “Who knows? I don’t think they ever caught anybody from the group other than a handful of people that fessed up.”

           “Well, we need to get over there. Do you think it’s safe during the day?”

           “Safer than night, yeah. Shady business happens in the dark, Max.” Walt smiled a bit and slid on his shades as we locked up our office to get to the harbor. The harbor was a hotspot for criminal activities. With larger problems facing the world, drug dealers could easily bring in their product through the harbor without having to get it checked out unless you were in China, South Africa, or Norway. Walt and I had busted a few cases here on accident, although regular drugs weren’t exactly in our jurisdiction. We usually had to turn those cases over to the police since we only and (generally speaking) strictly stuck to cases relating to the parasites, a zombie, or something that could be considered crack-pot. The FBI and CIA took themselves too seriously to handle weird cases and the police departments had been watered down to slightly-smarter-than-moronic people with a strong sense of justice, so these cases were too complex for them. I’d investigated murders meant to look like vampire killings, ventriloquists that said the puppets told them to kill their loved ones, and drug-smuggling monkeys. It was a long lista weird when you worked for something that had been sci-fi up until six years ago.

           And speaking of six years, I’d found it almost too much of a coincidence that the shipyard incidents happened internationally at the same time the parasites were taking over people. Also, this group said they could make stronger parasites—did they make the original ones or find them or use it to their advantage? In any case, we pulled up to the harbor office and flashed our badges as we cut through the lobby area and to the water. Turning right and walking the length of a few blocks, we came to the water where retired ships gently bobbed in the even waves. It was unsettling, but I was happy we hadn’t come here during the night. Walt looked around and discretely slowed a step to use me as a shield without looking like it. I rolled my eyes and smiled a little bit anyway. We kept walking until we saw a large dark grey military sorta ship with Montreal written in stenciled crimson letters on the side and a maple leaf next to it.

           Now why was there a Canadian ship in American waters for retirement? Who knew. Maybe it was just too expensive to cart back or something, but it was here and it was suspicious. I could feel Walt watching me for my next move behind his glasses. I pointed two fingers and swept them to the left, receiving a nod in response. Walt and I pressed ourselves to the side of a ship called Pelican Dreams and felt it move a little, the thing an empty case of metal. Still, it held and barely moved more than it should’ve been. I let out a breath of relief, seeing Walt’s eyebrows move in worry that I hadn’t been sure what the outcome would be. I brushed off his doubt and peered around the ship. I stopped and whispered to Walt, “Two armed guards outside the main door. The door’s lowered and open—it looks they’re preparing to move the stuff. Can you handle them?”

           Walt harshly answered, “Why me?!”

           “Because you’re, y’know…” He sighed and made a little noise before nodding. “Great. Hurry along now and then come back, okay?”

           “If they don’t kidnap me, sure.” I pushed him along and watched using my phone as a mirror as he waved at them. The two glanced up and pointed their guns before lowering them upon seeing his glasses and mask. They welcomed him and Walt managed to pull them to what I’m assuming was a blind spot. He belted one across the face and then used the unconscious guard to knock the other out. He pulled them to another ship and then trotted back to me. He sighed, “That was easy.”

           “Too easy.”

           “Oh my God. Don’t even go there, Max.”

           “What?”

           “You’re 5’7”, weigh 180, and have eyeglasses. Don’t use that line.”

           “Oh whatever. I thought appearances didn’t matter?”

           “Not usually, but being cool doesn’t generally work for you.”

           “Fine. Was it surpassingly easy?” Walt nodded. “Wonderful. Let’s get a sample back to the lab.”

           “I thought—”

“Figured you’d be more compliant if you thought we’d have fun.”

           “Aw, Max! I toldja to stop lying to me like that!”

           “I never said we weren’t.” He folded his arms and let out a huff. We went in the ship and quickly took a package of the neon syringes. We walked back to the car and tucked them under our uniform windbreakers kept in the backseat. Walt watched out the window, upset that he really hadn’t gotten any excitement and end this whole pheromone thing. The guy could pout as much as he wanted, but I wasn’t about to go out of orders with two feet dealing with these maniacs. We got back to HQ and dropped the pheromones off at the lab, running into Jess while we were there. Jess was one of the forensic people, but she wasn’t the head honcho. She was in charge of substances like drugs, chemical weapons, the works. She wore her uniform; a dark blue jumpsuit with the white logo for Zombie Corps printed on her right peck. Her dark brown hair was in a small ponytail and she had some makeup around her brown eyes. She smiled and offered a broad wave then a flirty finger wave in Walt’s direction. He happily waved back and I thought about somehow forcing them together. Jess was a zombie too, but she wasn’t as affected and her eyes were normal. But like Walt, she couldn’t eat meat and had to wear a mask.

           The parasites in her head made her skin break out (especially on her hands) and she sometimes had to wear vinyl gloves because she was now extremely sensitive to latex. The two would be good for each other. Even if Walt could be just oozing sarcasm sometimes, he really didn’t have a backbone. But Jess was very headstrong and was the epitome of feminine power. The two complimented each other well and I’d seen them get into heated arguments, Walt usually lost, but Jess was quick to forgive him. However, Jess almost always had a guy hanging around her and Walt was a shy person around girls, so he probably didn’t have the guts to ask her out. Jess asked with that crackling quality to her voice, “Why’d the cat drag you in?” Walt laughed a little, a pink color coming to his cheeks.

           I bluntly drawled, “Nice to see you too. We just turned in those pheromone syringes.”

           “Oh yeah? I hate these masks. I’m not gonna be able to smell my stir fry now!”

           I chuckled, “So do what you should and make a sandwich.” Jess narrowed her eyes at me and smacked me in the shoulder.

           “At least I finished college.”

           “At least I’m not scared of commitment.” She rolled her eyes and pushed past me, making a beeline for Walt.

           “Hey Wally. What’s new?”

           Walt shrugged and answered, “Nothing really. My neighbor got a cat and it likes sitting outside my window and watching me.”

           “Really? You should let me come over and see this cat.”

           “Well, I-I…” Walt trailed off in incoherent mumbles and pulled at his collar nervously. Jess giggled a little and waved to us after a quick goodbye. Walt rubbed the back of his neck, avoiding eye contact with me behind his dark lenses. I waved him off and started the walk back to our office. Almost back to the cooped up, stuffy, plexiglass walled square of desk, the last thing I needed was to run into Walt and mine’s biggest competition. But there were Hardy and Mera waiting out our door. I groaned and Walt asked, “Did I infect you?”

    I sighed, “Wish you did. Good enough excuse to avoid those two.” Walt looked back to where Mera checked her watch, shifting her weight impatiently. Mera had dark red hair like Walt’s, but hers was redder than his nearly brown shade. It was cut in a well trimmed pixie style and she had glittery mint nails this week. Mera wore a tight fitting red running shirt and black skinny jean legging things with her combat boots. She wore a violet mask, obviously one of her custom ones since she could afford that unlike lotsa other agents here. Her sunglasses were designer with three diamond studs on either side of the lenses where the arms started and were tinted a weird pink color. Next to her was Hardy who always struck me as a Yale grad more than a Zombie Corps agent. Hardy had sleek black hair slicked back and dark brown eyes shaped like almonds. He wore a dark green polo and khakis with white sneakers on and his PDA (yeah, still uses one) clipped to a belt loop in a black case. He saw us and nudged his partner, getting a lip curl from her before she looked at us.

    We approached them and before I even took a breath to speak, Walt grunted, “I’m having a shit day, so turn around and leave.” With that, he went into our office without a second glance and I heard the familiar creak of his rolling chair. I smiled sheepishly as Mera raised a brow to me for an explanation.

    I just sighed, “Guess it’s been hard since the broadcast.”

    Mera irritatedly breathed, “Yeah, thanks for your concern dipshit.” I just rolled my eyes and shifted to lean further from her.

    “What d’ya want anyway? It’s not like you two to hunt me down to steal my lunch money or call me names.”

    “Ha ha. Always the funny one. And I guess you might be right for once. We need your help.” I bust a gut upon hearing this.

    Through tears and rolls of laughter, I managed, “What?! You need my help?!” Hardy grabbed my collar and aggressively lifted me from my doubled-over position. Mera held up a hand he released me, cracking his knuckles in a fluid motion a moment later.

    “Look DeFran, I’ve hired my own forensic team. I think they’re much more capable than the team here and they need a pheromone sample. We saw you and Remsie walk in here with a case, so we’re taking one.”

    “Yeah, but I turned them in.”

    “Did you? Well go back to the lab and get us one.”

    “No. Get your own damn sample. Walt and I risked a lot getting those syringes.” Mera gave me one of her looks, peering at me over her shades. See, Mera’s eyes weren’t as bad as Walt’s, but weren’t as great as Jess’s. Her main problem with the parasites was swelling in her feet that made her shoe size change between eights to tens daily.

    “Only you didn’t because the pack was right in the door, barely guarded.”

    I gave her a look and asked, “How’d you--”

    “Remsie’s easy to distract. Hardy had no problem bugging him.”

    “You’re a bitch. Get your damn taps off my partner.”

    “I don’t think we should. We’ve gotten quite a bit of information among breaking protocol to more...personal things.” She shot a look down to my crotch and I felt my ears grow hot. Last year, I’d gotten a leech on my junk and had fainted. Walt said he had to pluck it off, but had his sunglasses on so he didn’t see anything. I’m sure he said that to make me feel better since it’d been night when that happened and we’d been in the middle of a swamp, but he hadn’t readdressed the issue since, so I left it. “We’ve been following daily broadcasts of you two for what, three years now?” Hardy noded and I folded my arms tightly.

    “So what? You don’t remove the taps, I don’t get your syringe.”

    “You don’t get the syringe and everyone gets to hear all the exploits of you and Remsie at ten, noon, and three.” I ground my teeth. “I don’t think we have a problem, do we? Hardy’s excellent at getting rid of problems.” He cracked his neck this time, his usual icy, submissive, and silent glare falling on my neck before tracing down to my heart. I quickly looked away and shook my head. “Wonderful. For not being a zombie, he does have an affinity for sadism. Now then, you be back here at five o’clock sharp with my syringe and we won’t have an issue.”

    “I’m telling Evel.”

    “What a preschooler. Five pm sharp.” She turned shortly, Hardy following after her like the hulking puppy he was. I slammed the door to our office going in. Walt gave me one of his frozen I-hate-you-so-much looks that he only reserved for nights when I taunted him with meat or the promise of a free meal.

    He asked, “I thought you were taking care of it?”

    I cried, “Jesus! Is everyone a mobster today? What is this?!”

    “It’s called tension, Max. It happens when international security is in the hands of a dough ball and a sadist.”

    “I am not a dough ball.” He shrugged.

    He murmured, “You ain’t skinny.” I shot him dagger eyes I’d been practicing for my kid. They’d started to work on Walt recently, getting his more apologetic and pliant nature to surface. It worked really well when he got worked into a mood like today’s events had. He glanced between me and his shoes, dropping his head a bit, and mumbling, “Sorry. Didn’t mean anything by it.” I smiled a little and he let out a groan of exhaustion, slouching into his chair. “So which one of us is going to the lab?”

    “The both us. I’m not facing Jess alone and I know you’ll chicken out.”

    “Don’t wanna.”

    “Too bad.”

    “Ma-x.”

    “You can come over for dinner and I’ll ask Aren to make macaroni salad.” He unfolded his glasses and slid them on his face, lazily standing up and waiting for me so we could go get the syringe.

3: Chapter Three

Walt was trying his hardest not to crack up and start bawling. I knew how he felt about lying, especially to really intimidating people like Jones, the head of the forensic department. Jones was a towering 6’6” with a good three feet of shoulder span and his body thickly packed with muscle. Arm hair grew on him like a gorilla and he a had a thick beard, looking like the poster child for the term “manly man”. He had on his uniform, a navy jumpsuit with the logo like Jess’s, but he wore a white lab coat over it and had his high clearance badge clipped to the pocket. His small blue eyes watched us under bushy black eyebrows and his mustache moved as he asked, “Why do you need your sample back?” I nudged Walt, at a sudden loss for words as my mouth went dry. Jones moved his dwarfing gaze to Walt. Walt rubbed his elbow nervously, trying not to make direct eye contact with the authority of this situation. “Do you really think I’ll buy anything you’ll say? Evidence is evidence and none of it goes back out when it comes in. Now why are you here asking for a syringe?”

    Walt incoherently mumbled, “Because Mera put a wire on me and now we’re being blackmailed.”

    “Speak up, Remsie. I can hardly understand you.”

    I answered, “Mera’s being an asshole and says we need it or everyone can tune into our tap three times a day.”

    “Tap?”

    “She had her lapdog wire Walt.” Jones gave us a curious look before one of his eye ferrets lifted slightly and he still didn’t blink, holding his stare on us.

    “Why don’t you just remove it?” I felt Walt’s eyes boring into me. Boy, was he unhappy today. “Let me have your glasses, Remsie.”

    Walt objected, “But my eyes are--” Jones grabbed Walt’s glasses anyway, getting a cry of surprise, hatred, and pain all mixed into one from Walt. Walt squeezed his eyes tightly and covered them with his hands, whimpering quietly. I guided Walt by the elbow as Jones motion for us to follow him down the spotlessly white lab corridor. Every ten feet or so between labs, a new lab area with a glass  wall looking out onto the hall came up and the hall started to look exactly the same no matter which way we went after three labs passed. I had no idea where we were and certainly no idea that HQ was even this wide or long to begin with, but we continued on the same floor in the same hall for a few minutes before coming upon a solid metal red door. Jones took us in and set Walt’s glasses on a conveyor belt, putting them under a little metal arch that had a thin screen on the side. Sure enough, there was a bug in the arm of Walt’s glasses with three expensive microphones and two transmitters. Jones sat down with the shades, leaving Walt and I to awkwardly stand off to the side while he pried the tap from the plastic.

    After ten minutes of grunting and pulling, the bug came free of the arm and Walt gratefully slid his glasses back on, muttering about his retinas being burnt. Jones asked, “And you didn’t notice it because?” Walt shrugged. Knowing he wasn’t the most intelligent or the most observant person, Walt could easily explain a lot of his mistakes with a few words pertaining to his soft and hard awareness. Jones snapped, “Now don’t come back here asking for evidence to be returned without orders from Dals or higher. Am I understood?” I offered a salute and Walt nodded, doing his discrete thing where he hid behind me without being obvious about it. Jones had a habit of making any grown man feel like a third grader with one sharp look and a nostril flare, so it was no wonder Walt was intimidated and using me as a shield. Having other people around always made him feel safer, especially when it was me.

    As we made the hike back to the office to finally get some work done, Walt used me more as a security blanket, staying quiet and sticking close. Labs scared him and it was easy to realize why, but I always found it funny that he thought I could protect him against hundreds of scientists loaded down with all sorts of drugs and security clearance. As soon as we finally made it back to our office, I tossed him a carrot from my mini-fridge, which he happily accepted like he was getting a cookie for being good or a dog biscuit for pooping outside. Walt had this weird connection between me and carrots and his safety ever since we’d met. I guess I couldn’t call it weird since I’m the one who trained him like a pet the first few weeks we knew each other, but the fact that he stuck tight to that habit was a little bizarre. We sat around doing “work” like most field agents here did before a report from the lab came through on the fax machine.

    Walt and I played rock-paper-scissors over who’d have to pause their game of Bejeweled to get the report. Walt lost and picked up the papers, tossing them on my desk before dropping back down in his chair like that had sucked all his energy away. I sifted through them and finally summarized, “Looks like the pheromones come from parasite mating chemicals. Guess where we have to go?”

    Walt shook his head and warned, “Don’t say it.”

    “Say what?”

    “You know what and don’t say it.”

    “Lockdown area?” He gave me a look to freeze Hell over before glancing away and looking to his nails nervously. “Walt, you’ll be fine. So long as you’ve got your ID card, they’re not gonna trap you in the fence.”

    “Well what if it gets lost while we’re in there? I can’t leave without proof that I’m a pouncer, not a hungry zombie. Or what if a hungry zombie corners you and I’m off somewhere else?”

    “You’re not supposed to leave my side and I’m not stupid enough to let you wander on your own in a lockdown area.”

    “But what if we get separated?”

    “By what? A hoard of shuffling withering corpses? We both have guns and you can tear them to pieces like wet paper.”

    “They’re people too, Max! Don’t talk about them like animals. They’re people too.” Walt looked down and let out a damp sigh, starting to think about our first encounter. He’d been terrified the first time we met. He’d been wandering about aimlessly as a hungry zombie for two months before he was herded into a lockdown area and ran into me there. Somehow, Walt had managed to shamble from Beatrice in Nebraska to here and that was a long way to walk for a normal person.

    “Well we should get going if we wanna get there and back before sundown.” Walt nodded and stayed stoic as we left for the lockdown area. We got there about twenty minutes later and after half an hour of security tests and customs, we made it through the rusty, steel, chicken-wire gate. The lockdown areas were sections of cities isolated and quarantined by the Zombies Corps. Hungry zombies lived in them, moaning and meandering and bumping into the fence when they reached the limit of their secluded housing. They were kept under large sheets of tarp and only lit by previously installed streetlamps so the zombies didn’t have to worry about going blind. The actual area was only the center of several rings of security and safety walls and fences and buildings. The fence around the area was electric and could sense pressure and if it were a zombie or normal person touching it. When a normal person touched it, they got a small shock to stay away. When a zombie touched it, they got a hard shock that jolted their entire body and small metal spikes shot out from pores in the fence, deeply sticking any flesh in contact with the fence. Walt had some tiny circular scars on his hand where he’d been stuck more than a few times and hated the idea of TASERs.

    Going in, the loud creaking of the gate stopped and the fence rattled and shook for a few seconds afterwards with a loud metal crash from the gates closing. Walt was now actually clinging to me, holding my squishy upper arm in his hands tightly. Due to his strength and inability to control it, having a skittish zombie was not always ideal and I’d probably have large black bruises where Walt gripped me. A loud roll of moans is what answered the gate closing and the echos of shuffling steps filled the rather desolate space. Walt let a small noise escape him and he was trying not to sniff loudly, but did so anyway to detect any zombies that might venture too close. He had this weird thing for protecting me almost too much and if a zombie so much as showed up in Walt’s incredible night-vision, he’d growl and snap and bite and maybe even take a charge at it until it decided to leave us alone. But it didn’t seem like anything had picked up on his radar yet, so he still clutched my arm as I tugged him along.

    We had to find one of the egg pouches that was attached to some of the hungry zombies from time to time. They were neon green sticky sacs that looked to be made out of goopy mesh and super glued to a host. The color of the pheromones being the same color of the pouches made sense now, but finding a hungry zombie around here that was nourished enough to host a pouch would be difficult. The lockdown area had once been a real part of the city, so discarded cars and homes and business lined the streets. It smelled like rotting garbage and flesh and spoiled fruit and dairy products. Walt’s grip tightened as we rounded another corner and a soft snarl left him. I glanced back at him and asked, “What is it?”

    He whispered, “Smells hungry, but it could be a pouncer too.” And those were even worse than a normal pouncer. they were hungry zombies, but could seem to be completely harmless until you got close and they pounced without giving any signs of pouncing in the first place. “Stay back.”

    “Walt, calm down. I have my--” Walt pressed me into a wall and shielded me with his body, his arms wrapped around my shoulders protectively. His heartbeat quickened when a shadow slanted across the next building over and the shambling footsteps of a zombie bounced from wall to wall. I reached back for my gun and Walt tensed more, his body becoming completely rigid as he froze pinning me to the wall. A moan filled the street and a half-decayed zombie dragged herself toward us. A neon green meshy lump wiggled off her bicep and secreted a syrupy brown substance. Her eyes slid over to us, lost and confused about her surroundings and Walt locked eyes with her, starting to cut her down with a glance. At first, the zombie continued in our direction, but the louder Walt growled, the slower her pace became. He dropped his arms from me and squared his shoulders to take her head on if it were necessary. She stopped altogether and turned around finally, worming away. I quietly hissed, “We need that pouch!” Walt shot me a look and crept up behind her, pulling the pouch off with the sound of ripping velcro. He dropped it in one of the biohazard bags stored in his pocket for his discarded masks and sealed it, wiping his hands on his jeans.

    He impatiently asked, “Can we leave now? I don’t wanna be here.”

    I shook my head and answered, “We need one more.”

    “We’re not gonna find another though! We should just count our stars that we found one within 45 minutes of being here.”

    “C’mon.” I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him after me. Walt dragged his heels until I let go and then gripped my shoulders with either hand.

    He shakily said, “Max, we should go.”

    “Stop being such a baby.”

    “I’m not a baby! I’m just saying that a Big One might be around here. I can smell it.”

    “It might just be a whole bunch of zombies mobbed together.”

    “We don’t live in mobs though--we don’t handle each other’s company the best.”

    “That’s not how you act around Jess.” His fingernails dug into my arm and it stung a bit, but I’d flustered him. “Anyway, if there were a Big One, it’d be taken care of.”

    “No it wouldn’t! Only pouncers can handle Big Ones and even then, it takes a pouncer that can keep their control around other zombies. I know you don’t get how hard it is, but--” I held up a hand to silence him, looking at the looming creature in front of us. Walt looked up too, snapping from his complaining to meet eyes with the Big One sitting against a building. Big Ones were zombies that had never been human--they were the result of an egg pouch. Egg pouches could only carry one to three eggs, and only one survived in a clutch. Big Ones were the parasites’ offspring when an asexual reproduction used a nourished host to create a malformed blob of humanoid worm. This one appeared to be sleeping, but with its acute senses, I’m sure it was only feigning to draw us closer. Big Ones ate humans, infected or otherwise, and also their own kind. Walt was tightly clamping a hand over his nose with the scented mask to keep the pungent scent from reaching him.

    A scent even more effective than pheromones was that of a Big One, usually sending a zombie into a trance-like state so it could eat them. Walt choked, “Let’s go around.”

    I shook my head and replied, “No can do. There’s a blockade one way and a dead-end the other. This guy was smart parking it here.” The Big One opened three of its five eyes, each a different color. It opened its toothless mouth and shook windows and knocked dirt from walls as it stood on the two legs and three feet it had. “Shit.” It looked at Walt and its stomach in its chin rumbled, the fatty skin quaking and quivering. It took an uncoordinated move to us, Walt and I had to dodge as it nearly toppled and crushed us. Walt produced a bottle of really strong deodorizing cologne from his pocket, dousing the mask in it and coughing a bit. His eyes were wide and he grabbed me, starting to tug me ferociously from the Big One. It swung the leg with two feet over us and blocked our way back. Walt was starting to panic, which was never good for keeping his control. At least he’d downed that grease last night or I’d have to deal with a pouncer and a Big One. Walt finally shook away his fear and entered his bad ass mode, specifically reserved for moments like these. Walt never took this route very often, but when my life was endangered and with no easy escape, his guard dog nature took the wheel and he attacked anything other than me that so much as twitched. Because of this hair trigger side of Walt, I had to keep him from giving into it by shooting down whatever it was that had surfaced this mentality. Or at least pretending like I would until the right time came along.

    He coolly grunted, “To the alley.”

    I sighed, “Let me help, Walt.”

    “I said to the alley.” I gave him a look and pulled out my gun. “Maxwell.” I clipped in a fresh magazine. Walt added, “I’ll push you if I have to. This isn’t something you can do without me and I’m not letting you leave Aren and your kid so soon.”

    “You can’t keep control of yourself like this.”

    “I’m not gonna say it again.” I prepared for the worst and stayed put. I knew the worst Walt would ever dish out on me when he got like this was a scolding and hectic, frustrated words all slurred together. He shot me a look and cried, “Max!” If I pretended not to hear him, it was better than letting him flip out. But this time he wasn’t going to be passive about it and grabbed me by my collar, chucking me into the alley. I fell into a roll and stopped myself before hitting a dumpster.

    I yelled, “The hell was that?!”
    “I told you to go over there and stay safe!”

    “You can’t throw me like that! I’m your boss!”

    “Hardly! Sod off and hide!”

    “No!” Walt, infuriated, stamped his foot harshly and shoved his fists by his sides. “I’m not listening to you. You’re not the boss of me!”

    “Oh my fucking God! You’re gonna get killed and it’ll be my fault and they’ll throw me back in here and I’ll get eaten and Aren will be a single mom and your kid won’t have a dad and she’ll fall in love with someone else and--”

    “I highly doubt that.”

    “Look at yourself! You’re the opposite of attractive!” Walt had a habit of throwing out useless insults when he got perturbed. It was just a way to push me into pliancy, but it never worked so I had no idea why he still tried it from time to time. “Would you just shut up and--” Walt let out a cry as the Big One pulled together all its motor skills to grab him in its one meaty hand. Walt squirmed and pushed against it. Now was the time to let him spiral into gallant anger. He gave me a look of pure hatred and screamed, “Fucking do something you fat ass!”

    I shrugged and nonchalantly answered, “Thought I was supposed to hide?”

    He shrieked, “FUCK YOU!” By irritating him enough and letting him get captured by the Big One, Walt was going to get into a pissy mood on top of his protective nature and go on a rampage in this weird sort of state slightly resembling that of a pounce. So now I hid. I took cover in an empty dumpster, watching between the lid and edge as Walt ripped one of nine fingers from the hand of the Big One. It howled in pain and he started beating the Big One’s face to shit with the finger before the finger was beat to a pulp of bloody flesh. Walt discarded the finger and fought his way out of its grasp, punting a dent into its nose and gouging out two eyeballs. He fell off and scrambled to his feet, eyes bloodshot. He looked for something else to pulverize, the next thing in his way being the Big One’s foot. Walt slammed into it and went through it, bringing down the Big One. Walt continued through the brick wall of a building and the Big One fell on three, crushing them in a cloud of brick and dust. I heard glass breaking in the store Walt had burst into before he went through the opposite wall and slammed into the dumpster. I let out a small squeak as his fist shot through the metal like a hot knife machete through butter.

He threw trash cans at the Big One and plucked a streetlamp from the ground like it was nothing. He impaled the Big One and then kept stabbing it until the post got stuck in a bone and the Big One let out one last breath. Walt panted heavily and rapidly, body shaking in rage. Before he ripped anything else to complete shreds, I popped out from the dumpster and ran to him with my gun trained on his ankle.

    I quietly said, “Calm down now. You got rid of it.” Walt snapped his attention to me and he grimaced looking down at his shoulder that he’d gotten caught on a brick. “We still have some work to do here now, okay?” Walt still watched me and for a moment; I’d seriously thought he’d gone into pouncing mode. But then he nodded and after using energy to take out the Big One, leaned heavily into me and sniffed me frantically. I patted his back and said, “You’re okay now.”

    Walt mumbled, “Max.”

    “Yep. That’s me, buddy. Come on back.”

    “Max.” I nodded again, waiting for him to come back to his senses. I’d only had to resort to using Walt as a tool instead of a partner a handful of times, but the result was always different. Sometimes it only took him a few minutes to collect himself and sometimes it took hours and he even had to take off work. “Max Max Max Max.” I felt his hands start feeling my ass and I gave him a weird look before remembering the carrots I’d brought along to keep his nervousness at bay. “Max give carrot.” I sighed, hearing the lack of grammar in his speaking. That was a sign that he’d be like this until we left the area. “Carrot carrot carrot carrot carrot--”

    “Here.” I interrupted his “complex” train of thought and handed him the carrot. Walt stuck it under his mask and loudly crunched into it, not minding the blood coating him and matting down his clothes and hair. He looked around, his pupils absolutely humongous in the dark, watching for anything. I pulled him along as he ate his treat. We had to waltz around for another three hours until we found a pouch and I ran out of carrots. Walt was starting to get back to his old self by the time we got back to my car, but he was exhausted from taking out the Big One and took a power nap on the way back after searching me for more vegetables for ten minutes. When we got back to HQ, I dropped off the pouches and returned to the car with Walt and mine’s things. I shook him awake with a nudge and set his stuff on the ground before handing him a wet nap. “Clean yourself up. Aren’ll have a heart attack if she sees you like this.”

    Walt yawned, “I’m so tired though.”

    “Yeah, I know. Thanks by the way. I think I have some of your clothes at my place so you can change before dinner, alright?” Walt nodded and did a little cat stretch before taking the wipe and cleaning the crusty blood from his skin. “How’re you feeling?” Walt shrugged and rubbed a glob of bone and blood off his elbow.

    “I could be better.”

    “Sorry, I’m outta carrots.” He smiled a bit, tiredly laughing. “You were insatiable! Every five minutes you asked if you could have a carrot or sniffed me or said Max over and over until I gave in.”

    Walt added, “But you only brought three and I started crying and hugging you.”

    “Every time.”

    “Can’t blame me--carrots are my kryptonite.” I smiled and started to drive home as Walt cleaned himself up. He changed his mask quickly and put it in a biohazard bag. When we pulled into the neighborhood, Walt had me stop at a large highlighter orange bin. He peeled off his sticky shirt and threw it in with the biohazard bag. We finished the drive to my house. I had Walt sneak in through the back so Aren wouldn’t scold us for getting dirty at work. We kept two spare changes of clothes for Walt here just in case he needed to ditch the infection district in a moment’s notice. He came back downstairs in an old tee and clean jeans, throwing his pants in a biohazard bin down the street. Aren was busy browning some meat for stew when Walt came back. Walt waved at her happily and chirped, “Hey Aren.”

    Aren glanced over her shoulder and gladly replied, “Hi Walt. Max didn’t tell me you were coming over otherwise I wouldn’t have made meat up.”

    “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be okay.”

    “Sweetie, I don’t want you to be left out.”

    I coughed, “Macaroni salad.” Aren shot me a look and then nodded.

    She sighed, “I guess macaroni salad won’t take that long. Is that alright?”

    Walt clapped his hands and cried, “Hot dog! I love your macaroni salad!” Aren laughed and then slid me the recipe.

    “And since Max suggested it, he can make it.” I groaned and Walt smiled at me in amusement. Making it didn’t take that long and it sat in the fridge while Aren started making the base for dinner. Walt and I went to my office where he sat on the little couch kept in there and I took a seat in my rolling chair.

    Walt asked, “So what now?”

    I asked back, “About what?”

    “About this case. We got the egg pouches and followed our only lead, so now what?”

    “I dunno. Maybe we try to bust that pheromone distributor.”

    “Nah, they’ll hand that over to the higher-ups. Do you think we should--”

    Aren called, “Boys! Dinner!” Walt and I stopped talking about work to go eat dinner. Aren hated it when I brought work home or even mentioned it in the house usually. She said I worked a violent job and she didn’t like to think about losing me. Aren had been trying to set up job interviews for me since she got pregnant so I would be there for a our kid and never really risk my life on a daily basis. But nothing beat the thrill of working for the Zombie Corps and I couldn’t just leave Walt. I was the reason he was out of the lockdown area and if I left, they’d boot him back there. Walt left after dinner, claiming he had to go set out food for the neighbor’s cat so it didn’t meow all night. I helped Aren clean up and we fell into our normal routine of watching the news or reading or knitting for a coupla hours before going to bed with pillows dividing us.

4: Chapter Four

~~
At four in the morning, there was a loud rumble. I didn’t hear rain, but passed it off as a late autumn storm and started to drift off again when the phone rang shrilly. I groaned and slammed my hand on my alarm clock at first, but when that didn’t help, I picked up the phone and fumbled with it. I groggily answered, “Yeah?”

    Walt was on the other line, screaming, “Max I’m coming over unlock the basement door and make sure everything is closed tight and then set your alarm on high--”

    “Walt?”

    “Didja hear me or not?!” Walt’s voice was shaky and strained. It wavered on the verge of cracking into sobs, but I was too tired to read into it then.

    “Calm down. Tell me--” The line went dead to loud beeping. “Walt?” I sat up and asked again, “Walt? You there?” I hung it up and then processing the screaming over the line, cried, “Fucking a!” I dashed downstairs, taking the last two on my back. Running to the back door, I grabbed my gun and hit up the alarm panel to set it on high. I locked everything and then went to the basement door. I waited in tense silence for half an hour, nearly vomiting from suspense.

    Abruptly, the door rattled and I heard Walt yell, “MAX! LEMME IN!” I threw open the door and pulled him inside, double bolting the heavy metal door. Walt doubled over to catch his breath, but tightly clamped a hand over his mouth as I realized he wasn’t wearing a mask. He had a deep gash in one leg and dirt stuck to blood covered his hands. He weakly managed, “They bombed my building.”

    I asked, “What? Who?”

    “They did! That group! They bombed my building with pheromone cases and my neighbors went mental! Then the pheromone cases combusted and the fumes from them set everything on fire and blew the building.” Walt had faint scratches and soot streaks across his skin. His clothes had been burned on the edges and a singed dark blue duffle sat at his feet. “I couldn’t save her…” Walt’s voice cracked and he dropped to sitting position, holding his knees. “I tried, but I couldn’t. She tried to kill me and I couldn’t save her. She went right out the window and then the building collapsed and…” Walt trailed off into louds rolls of crying and held out a silver ring with a bright yellow stone on it. I recognized it immediately as Jess’s though I didn’t get to see it often because of her gloves. “I tried. You have to kill me, Max.”

    I took the ring between my fingers and sighed, “I’m not gonna kill you. Why would I do that?”

    “Because I killed her.” I dropped the ring, my entire hand going numb as I held the last memento of Jess. “I tried saving her and I couldn’t. She went out the window. I didn’t mean to make her go out the window.”

    “What’re you talking about? You said she went--”

    “I pushed her. She was trying to kill me and I tried to knock her out so she wouldn’t get thrown in the lockdown area, but she used my force against me and I lost my balance and pushed her right through the window. I killed her! I killed her, I killed her I killed herIkilledherIkilledher--” I grabbed Walt by the shoulders and looked him square in the eye.

    “Shut up, Walt. You didn’t kill her. You were just trying to help her.”

    “But I did! She fell three stories because of me and I coulda kept her from the explosion, but I pushed her and she fell right where the bomb was and broke her legs and set it off and--”

    I sharply barked, “I said shut the fuck up!” I slapped him harshly, reopening a clot on his face. “You need to get ahold of yourself. I won’t let them toss you out.” Walt’s lip quivered and he held his face absently. I looked down at him, his form shaking under crying stronger than he could handle at the moment. I sighed, “I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”

    “N-no, it’s fine. I deserve it.” He held himself weakly and his eyes fell on the gun in my hand. “Please Max.”

    I tucked my gun away and curtly replied, “No. You need a shower and some fresh clothes…” Walt kicked his duffle.

    “I managed to get some stuff before the building went, but I don’t have any masks.”

    “Then don’t wear one.”

    “I can’t do that! Aren’s pregnant! I can’t risk infecting your kid!”

    “It’ll be fine.” Walt shook his head. “Fine. I’ll grab you a towel to tie on, okay?” Walt nodded and went up to the shower. I rubbed my forehead, noticing Aren standing against the wall next to the basement door in the kitchen. I looked to her and asked, “How much did you get?”

    She tiredly answered, “All of it. You should’ve woken me up and I could’ve tried to see what was going on.”

    “Sorry babe.” Aren draped her arms over my shoulders and kissed my jaw softly. I hugged her tighter, a sudden epiphany coming to me. Walt was much more dangerous than perceived. There was no way in hell they’d let him back into lockdown now. He’d be shot on the spot or detained in HQ. “I don’t want to lose my best friend.”

    “They won’t cart him off. You know well just as well as me that they need you two. I hate the job you do, but you do a good job of making me hate it by being two of the finest agents I’ve ever met.”

    I snorted, “You sound like my mother.”

    “Oh shush. Walt can stay here and anyone who tries to take my baby’s uncle away gets a hole added to their head, okay?”

    “I’m not shooting anyone who doesn’t deserve it.”

    “Well anyone who thinks Walt’s a bad guy needs another hole to hear and see with.” She smiled at me, a yawn breaking this new expression of my wife. I’d never seen Aren so fired up on the subject of being violent. She’d been fired up about non-violence before, but now she was all over defending Walt. That’d make things easier. She quietly laughed, “What’re you thinking about?”

    I cracked a lopsided grin and answered, “That we’ll be vegetarians for a while.” Aren chuckled softly and held onto my hand for a few seconds before going back off to bed. Walt came downstairs, clothed and with a towel tied over his mouth and nose. I sighed, “We should talk about this.” Walt mumbled an apology and sat down at the kitchen table while I made coffee. “So tell me what happened again.” Walt shook his head furiously and tightened his grip on himself as he shrank into the chair. His voice was muffled from the cloth, but it didn’t stop the shaky insecurity coming through that dripped off every sound he made.

    He quietly explained, “Jess was over and we were on the couch. She’d been asleep for maybe an hour or so when I heard a helicopter really close to the building.” The hospital and police station weren’t anywhere near Walt’s place and the news station didn’t use helicopters. Also, with Walt’s couch right near the large picture window, you’d think he woulda saw the copter. “Then--well there was just a really loud crashing noise and then some hissing like when your tire goes flat and lets out air. This bright green smoke started to fill the apartment. I had my mask on because I didn’t want to make Jess’s infection worse. She has such pretty eyes…” Walt trailed off here and let out a heavy sigh, the sagging of his shoulders pulling his slouch further.

    “Keep going.” I pushed a mug to him and looked down into it, looking afraid to drink it in case it was laced or something.

    “Well the mask was coated in cologne because the bottle opened in my pocket. I couldn’t smell the gas, but then Jess woke up and just--she snapped, Max. One minute she was herself and the next she had her hands pushing into my face and nails in my skin. She was trying to strangle me or pull the mask off or both; I couldn’t tell. But then little blisters started forming and popping on her skin and realized the stimulant was eating up her body from the inside out. If I’d just gotten her out…” Walt choked on a small sob and squeezed his eyes shut tightly, covering them with the bottom of his palms.

    “Walt, stay with me. What happened?”

    “I grabbed her by the shoulders and tried to knock her out. I went to throw her at the bookshelf, but she swung around and I was put off balance. She went through the window and then the building blew up. I-I…” Walt stopped to let out a loud whimper and gripped his biceps, trying not to completely break down. “I went downstairs t-to get her b-but the brick h-had crushed her!” He stumbled off to the little half-bath between the kitchen and dining room. I heard loud vomiting a moment later. I pinched the bridge of my nose. This would be a long few weeks. Walt returned a few minutes later, looking even more miserable than the time I took his homemade salad and covered it in chicken broth. It was just meant to be a prank, but it turned out that he hadn’t had food in over two days and like I said, hungry zombies don’t make good company. He sat back down and took down a sip of coffee to wash the taste from his throat. He finally mumbled, “I killed her.”

    I shook my head and bluntly said, “I’m not saying it again; it wasn’t your damn fault. You can stay on the couch tonight, okay? We’ll sort this out in the morning.”

    Walt sniffled, “It is morning.”

    “You know what I mean.” I handed Walt a pillow and a blanket. He curled up on the couch, making small crying noises as he cradled Jess’s ring in his hand. The next morning was incredibly hard to face. I went out early, my stomach twisting in knots as I purchased a pack of the disposable masks. Walt was awake and staring at his feet, fondling the ring absently. His hair was disheveled and now his bruises showed. They were large blobs of black and dark purple, swelling over an eye, part of his lip, arms, and neck. The worst of the small scratches were a red-brown on his face, dried blood staining the skin around the cuts. I tossed him the pack and yawned, “Morning.” He offered a wave with his fingers and tied on the mask. He broke the string on one to tie the ring around his neck and tuck it under his shirt. Persuading Walt to go to work that morning is one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced, but eventually I bribed him with the promise of the bag of humungous carrots my neighbor had grown and given to me.

    When we walked in, Walt was immediately ripped from my side by higher-ups and taken in for questioning and swabbing for DNA and the likes. I looked down the corridor they’d dragged him through. Higher-ups never had much grace about anything around here. I went to our office and sat in my chair, letting out a soft groan as I relaxed into it. Not having much sleep the night before and now the terrorists becoming active was going to make my life so much harder. And I had a kid on the way in a coupla weeks. Well, fuck all sorts of duck.

 

5: Chapter Five

~~
Walt returned a coupla hours later. He was still really shaken up with a lime green mask on. He had a line of bandages on his arm accented with dark purple ink--most likely injection sites. He took a nervous seat in his chair and it wasn’t hard to notice how rigid his spine had become. He shifted his eyes over to me and then quickly looked away. Walt had news, but he wasn’t going to tell me. I decided I could coax him out of his shyness with a carrot. As promised, I handed him the bag of carrots from my mini-fridge under my desk. Walt took it, every movement stiff and limited. I asked, “What’s up?” He shook his head and turned on his computer, not paying me any outward mind.

    He grunted, “My arm hurts.”

    “Looks like it. You’re not contaminated with anything or infected even more, right?”

    “No.” A silence settled over the room. Walt’s side was tense and seemed like it could be sliced like a hot knife through butter. My side was more awkward and I was really curious as to what Walt’s news actually was.

    “Anything happen?” Walt clicked his mouse, probably opening a blank document to stare at and ignore me with. “Anything about...y’know...Jess?” Walt’s eyes slid to me and I noticed that his pupils weren’t as large as usual. It seemed that the grey was more of a silver color when his pupils didn’t push his iris to a darker shade. His skin also didn’t seem as flushed as it usually was. Zombies were infected and as such, they tended to have perpetual fevers that lightly flushed their skin. But Walt’s skin was barely flushed. If anything, it seemed like it was just warm in the office, not in Walt’s body. “Wa--”

    “Nothing fucking happened, okay Max?”

    “Shit man, calm down. I was just curious. You seem kinda...off.”

    “Yeah, okay. Usually after I kill my fucking date and then learn about--I’m just tense. That’s all and it’s none of your fucking business.”

    “Think you could drop anymore bombs?” He gave me one of those looks and curtly turned back to his work. I let out a small whistle and drawled, “Hey Max, it’s not like you’re my only friend ever and my family’s all missing.” Yes, it was a dick move. Yes, it would make Walt get all pissy with me. Yes, it would get Walt to give away clues. I’m sure he liked to remain mysterious from time to time, but Walt was just too outgoing to keep any sense of mystery about himself. Any time he was set off or beaten down, something new about him might come up and using that information, I could get more. Walt slammed his fists on his keyboard, the black typing box cracking into two jagged edged pieces.

    He screamed, “Notchur fucking business, Max! Maybe I’m not what I thought I was! Maybe I’m not a fucking zombie! Maybe I’m not even infected with parasites!” He dropped down in his chair, the mini-rant seeming to snuff out his anger. He pushed his hands through his hair. This news needed to be described to me, because I seriously had no idea what any of that meant.

    Like a jackass, I just asked, “What?”

    Walt turned a finger in the air and mumbled, “T-they said I’m not like the others. I’m more dangerous ‘cuz there’s not even a parasite in me anymore.”

    “What does that mean?” Walt shrugged and shook his head, looking absent.

    “I’m not sure. Don’t ask me.”

    “It might just be a ploy to get rid of you.” Walt scoffed a little and rubbed his forehead gruffly.

    “I’d think that too, only I failed all the infection tests. I’m still a zombie and I’m not even a zombie.”

    “So what?”

    “So there’s no cure! Th-there’s no cure…” I opened my mouth to say something, but stopped. Walt bit down on his knuckles until he drew blood. “I don’t wanna die like this. I just want...hot damn. I can’t do this right now. Leave me alone.” Walt picked up his jacket from the back of his chair and slid on his glasses, probably going up to the roof. I didn’t chase after him or anything. That had to be a stone setting in him right now--no matter what he did, he could never grow old, never have kids, never have a relationship with anyone uninfected, live in a shitty apartment under 24/7 surveillance, and once he died by being shot in the face most likely, his body wouldn’t rest until it couldn’t even twitch. It was even making me depressed thinking about it. And to think he’d never enjoy a burger again. I sat around with nothing to do at the moment until Walt came back. His knuckles were split and clotted like he’d gone and beat the hell out of something and he left his sunglasses on as he took a seat. He grunted, “Sorry.”

    I waved my hand and replied, “No, no. It’s fine. You needed a breather. So tell me, what does this mean for you?”

    “I become a lab rat, I guess. Don’t wanna be locked up in one of those stupid glass rooms though.”

    “You’re not gonna be locked up. I won’t let that happen.” Walt’s eyes arched in a skeptical way at me.

    “What’re you gonna do?”

    “Shoot ‘em.”

    “Yeah, right.” Walt smiled a little and watched me with hawk-like intensity. “You’d lose your job if you did that.”

    “So? They send you away, I go away. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.”

    “I bet Aren’d be thrilled if you did quit.” I laughed and little and a snicker came out of Walt. “Anyway, I just have no idea what I’m supposed to do with the rest of my life. For all I know, I could live theoretically forever. That’s a really long time.”

    “Bet you could get good at doing something.”

    “Like what?”

    “Basketball maybe?” Walt snorted and sighed, stretching back into his chair and scratching under his mask with a finger.

    “Doubt it. I was never good at basketball.” I smiled and shook my head, going back to my work. I could feel Walt’s eyes on me for a few minutes before I met his look and he turned his head quickly, pulling his sunglasses off and shaking out his hair a little bit with a hand. Going back to an intense game of chess against an AI, Walt looked back at me and set his chin on his hand, curiously watching me calculate every move. “So why didja sign up for this job in the first place?”

    “What do you mean?”

    “I mean that you don’t seem like the kinda person to put his life on the line and work with zombies like myself. If anything, you might be in strategics, but I don’t think you have enough common sense for that.”

    “Aw, thanks. And I’m here to get away from my parents. We never really got along and I didn’t want to be a lawyer, so I moved here and picked up a job in the mailroom. Then a couple of the lab zombies escaped and I managed to take them down without harming them, so I became a full-time agent.” Walt just nodded and went back to his computer. Mine let out a shrill ding and I looked to the screen, a new file popping up on an automatically opened window. “Walt.”

    “What?”
    “They found the people who did it--who bombed your place.” Walt was already out of his chair before I told him we were going. In one swift movement, he grabbed his jacket and then me, pulling me out of the office. I fumbled with my keys before unlocking the car. Walt jiggled his leg impatiently as the adrenaline rush made everything he did faster and more powerful. He had his glasses on and even I could tell how hard he was biting his lip when a small spot of red showed on the green mask.

    He hissed, “Hurry up hurry up hurry up…”

    “I’m going, I’m going. Not all of us can just speed.”

    “I can’t even drive.” I shot him a side glance oh-really look and he looked out the window as we pulled onto the expressway. We reached a quiet neighborhood and Walt had a hard time believing that terrorists lived here. It wasn’t quite a suburb, but was very close to it. Crows cawed and the houses had Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations up and pumpkins on their front steps. We continued another three blocks before I parked a block from an elevated ranch house. We got out and discretely hid in the shrubbery in the yard behind the house.

    I whispered, “What do you smell?” Walt let out a soft groan. “Got it. Where’s your cologne at?”

    He managed, “It spilled, remember? That’s why the bombs didn’t work on me.”

    “Great.” I looked around and finally saw a chihuahua sniffing about the bushes. If a lightbulb could’ve gone off over my head, it would have. I picked it up, scaring the shit out of the little rat of a dog. Walt let out a surprised cry as I ripped his mask from his face and set it under the dog’s nibble-bit. I let out a shrill yelp in its face and felt warm liquid soak through the mask and onto my hand. I shooed the chihuahua and handed the mask back to Walt as I wiped my hand on my jeans. “Here.”

    Walt cried, “The hell I will!”

    “Just take it.”

    “It has dog piss all over it! I don’t want that on my face!”

    “Well it’s either that or--” Something cold pushed through my hair and to the back of my head. I looked up to a very strong looking woman in a tight tee and jeans with a mask and shades on. Her gun clicked as she readied it to send a bullet through my head. I sighed and dropped the mask and Walt stood up with me slowly. Then without warning, he spun his leg around and clipped her in the jaw. She grabbed his leg and threw him, but he caught himself in a black-flip in midair. Man, I wish I could do that. Walt landed cleanly and grabbed a hose, kicked the spigot and sending water flying out of it. He doused the woman and with a second to make his move, pinned her down and broke the hand she held the gun with. Then he was thrown off and with her second to make a move, she brought a heel to the back of his neck and then kicked him upside the face before ramming his head into the spigot. Walt staggered to his feet, but she had the hose tightly pulled over his neck until he fell unconscious from having his air cut off. She turned to me and I nervously laughed, “Let’s not get too crazy here, okay?”

    She growled, “Who the fuck are you?” I took in a deep breath to even out my voice and my thinking. I flashed my badge and ID.

    “Zombie Corps; King of Clubs agent, Max DeFran.”

    “Oh? You’re here for that bombing, aren’t you?”

    “Well look at you figuring shit out! You made my best friend homeless and killed his girlfriend, so I’m here to take you into custody.”

    “Not today, fat-ass.” I sighed and pulled my gun from its holster. I was so caught up in their fight that I’d totally forgotten about being armed. I made a note to apologize to Walt later and held my gun out straight with a small bend in my elbow to keep the recoil from being too harsh. “You’re going to shoot me?”

    “I will if I have to. Otherwise, put your hands behind your back and stay quiet.”

    “You have to read my rights--”

    “I’m not police, sweetheart.” She glowered at me and surprisingly gave in. I cuffed her wrists with special handcuffs she couldn’t break out of them and gave her a small injection to keep her from flipping out. I picked up Walt by the collar and lugged his unconscious body down the street. I noticed a person watching from a window with a look of terror. I less than gracefully pushed Walt into the passenger seat and then shoved the lady into the backseat. Back at HQ, Walt and I sat across a wide and short metal table from the woman we’d arrested. After running her fingerprints, we now had her file sitting open in front of us. Looking at her now, she was somewhat aged with thin wrinkles in her skin and a serious fold in her brown from furrowing it so much. I asked, “So, Rebecca, care to tell us how you were involved with the bombing?”

    She bluntly answered, “I planned it.” Walt squirmed in his seat a little and his grip tightened on the ice pack he held to the back of his head. Like Rebecca, he was chained to the table to keep him from leaping over it and pulverizing her. His chain jingled a bit as he tugged on it. Rebecca smiled at seeing him react and continued, “It’s really just for the best. They were infected for a reason.”

    I snapped, “For the best my ass! Are you aware of how many people you killed? How many infected?”

    “We both know you call them zombies. And yeah, I know. But they took one for the team. Did you ever stop to think this might be an issue of rights? Because I got sick, I can’t drive, I have to live with cameras in my home, I have to go through numerous tests to go visit my cousin twenty minutes away, I’m not allowed to go into certain buildings, I have to go through demeaning processes to even get married, I can’t move without government approval...it’s a lot, Mr. Max. I’d rather not have to go through it anymore.” I had to admit she had a point. For a crazy bitch, she made an awful lot of sense. “And I’m not insane. If I’d known they were taking my plans seriously, I wouldn’t have planned it so well. See, I have reasons for doing this. My boss though; she has no reason. She’s not even a zombie and she wants to eradicate the human race!”

    “But she won’t convert herself?”

    “Convert? That’s an odd way to put it. But you’re right. She won’t. You’re in charge of your buddy over here, right? Zombies are easy to control and if she has enough of them, she’ll have an entire military of superhumans that can’t actually die unless they’re burned or decapitated or lobotomized.” I sat back in my seat, taking note of Walt’s silence. It was easy to read him now that his defenses had gone down. Walt agreed with her and was starting to see her side better than ours. “It was that bitch’s fault that my sister and her husband died. They were in that building and--” Rebecca stopped and swallowed down something, but I couldn’t tell what emotion she was keeping from us. Not as strongly, she continued, “I’ll help you. Keep me out of her hands by locking me up or detaining me or--I don’t care! I’ll help you stop her.”

    “That’s an interesting proposal. You had a gun to my head and beat up my pal over here just…” I checked my watch. “Two hours ago. What makes you think I’d agree?”

    “You’re out of options. I was the only person living in that house and burned all my contacts to her. Basically, the only lead you ever had was me and now you’ve got me and there’s nowhere else to turn. You want information and I want protection.” Walt nudged my leg. He was giving me a look to say yes. “And in any case, how was I supposed to know you were agents? I just thought you were goons sent after me to kill me or take me in.” I sighed and tapped my fingers on the table, trying decide what to do.

    Before I could say anything, Walt coolly said, “We’ll help.” I snapped my head to him in alarm and socked him in the shoulder. “Jess is dead and Rebecca’s family is dead. I bet lots of people lost someone they cared about and if Rebecca knows how to stop them, we will.” Rebecca smiled victoriously as she was led away and Walt and I walked back to the office. When we got back, I sat in my chair and folded my arms loosely, watching Walt as he rummaged through his fridge to find his salad.

    I asked, “This isn’t just about Jess, is it?” I fished my own lunch out and Walt took a bite of lettuce as he answered.

    “She’s right, y’know.”

    “About what?”

    “About the whole rights schpiel. It’s almost like I have to pass a full physical to go to the closest grocery store. The “infected” store is a mile further and all their produce is rotten anyway and they charge way too much. Why do I have to give a blood sample to get a cucumber while some stoned guy can waltz in and buy things to make meth?”

    “Well--”

    “And let’s say at some point in the near future, I wanted to find an apartment that actually exists now that mine’s gone. I have to wait five days to six months for a piece of paper telling me I can have a roof over my head. And even then, I have to spend my money on installing cameras for “public safety”. It’s illegal to have a shared feed in a bedroom or bathroom unless you’re like me. Do you know how irritating it is to take a shower and know that some guy in DC is watching you wash your balls? Do you know how self-conscious you get when that same guy is watching you and your date? It’s weird, Max! And it’s creepy and no one likes it!”

    “Okay, you have a point. But--”

    “But nothing! Maybe they aren’t so crazy.” I shot him a skeptical look. “Okay, so yes, the bombing and drug thing is a bit…”

    “Wrong?”

    “Over the top. But the point isn’t crazy!”

    “Agreed. Mostly.”

    “Well that’s because you’re not sick.”

    “It’s probably because I’m not insane, buddy.” Walt scowled at me before playing with his sunglasses. “I get it though. You don’t want to be “discriminated” against.”

    “That’s scraping the tip of the iceberg there. You’re white and male and work in a high government position. I’d bet you’ve never faced discrimination.”

    “I have a...cookie pouch.”

    “But most white male adults aren’t made fun of for that. I’ve seen pics of you in highschool--you weren’t fat then.”

    “I’m not fat now!”
“But you ain’t skinny.” I pinched the bridge of my nose and shook my head. “Sorry. I got carried away.”

6: Chapter Six

~~
We were at the dinner table, everyone being quiet. Aren had this rule that when Walt was over, you weren’t even supposed to think about meat. She never wanted to make him feel bad, so she had cooked some veggie stir-fry with extra peanuts for protein. Walt looked up from eating some rice and laughed, “It’s okay to have meat around me, y’know. Your kid needs the nutrition.”

    Aren waved her fork and said, “No, no. I don’t want to make you feel out of place.”

    “It’s really good, Aren.”

    “Thanks, Walt. I wish Max complimented me on my cooking as often as you do.” She gave me a look and I smiled sheepishly.

    I coughed, “The nuts go well with the...uh...peppers.”

    “Thank you, hon.” She smirked a little bit and I knew it was either a; the pregnancy getting to her mood or b; I’d forgotten to run the wash again this morning. And I think it was b.

    I sighed, “I’ll do the laundry after dinner.”

    “You mean now?” I looked between Aren and Walt. Aren was smiling smartly and Walt was holding back snickers, but failing to do so. I dropped my fork and went downstairs to the utilities room. As I threw Walsh’s jeans from last night in the wash, I noticed something fall out of them. It was a small paper card not much bigger than any normal business card. But it was printed on odd feeling paper and had some words on it, but I couldn’t read what it said; only feel the lines of the letters. I turned it over in my hands a few times and wondered where Walt would’ve gotten this from. I did, however, notice a very small picture in the corner on the backside of the card. It was hard to make out in the dim light, but it appeared to be a biohazard symbol with crossbones. I recognized it immediately from the symbols on the syringes and the newscast and on the door of the house today. A few things came to mind upon seeing the logo of the terrorist group. First, Walt could be working for them. His speech on civil rights and the way he just agreed to help the people who killed Jess and displaced him could be strong evidence of that. Second, the terrorists had some decent marketing if Walt were working for them. It took a lot to get a good guy like Walt to hurt good people.

    I tucked the card in my own pocket and went back upstairs after starting laundry. Aren had left for a yoga class and Walt was humming to himself as he washed dishes. I watched him for a moment before he finished and drained the sink and dried his hands. I said, “This fell out of your pants. Did you want it?” I offered the paper card up and Walt took it quickly, shoving it in a pocket. I gave him one of my looks and he glanced between the floor and my look, shrinking away. “Why do you have that?”

    “I, uh...hrm…”

    “Are you working for them?” Walt frantically waved his hands in front of me.

    “No! Oh my God, no! It’s nothing like that! I was just...I mean they have these--these support group things. I mean, they’re not really “support groups” per say, but--” He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “They’re just helpful. I can meet other people like me and make friends and I don’t have to worry about flipping out...you just wouldn’t understand.”

    “You’re saying you support them then?”

    “Well yes--I mean no--yes? I do support the peaceful things that they do, but not the bombings and exposing everyone to the virus and--”

    “Virus? What d’ya mean virus?” Walt tightly shut his mouth and looked to the backdoor. “What’s going on here Walt?”

    “Heh, heh...nothing?”

    “I’m not buying it. Sit down.”

    “Ma--”

    “Sit.” Walt nodded and took a seat, nervously twiddling his thumbs. He wouldn’t look at me as I took a seat across from him and tapped my fingers on the table. “So what’s going on? And you better get your story straight. I’m not taking any chances and if I think you’re suspicious enough, you’re going into custody, understood?” Walt nodded and sighed, tightly shutting his eyes for a moment. “Now , why do you have the card?”

    “They’re helping me. I’m having lots of problems right now and all they’re doing is helping me. It doesn’t cost anything and I’m not obligated to do anything in return.”

    “What’re you getting help with?”

    “I-I…” Walt looked down to his shoes before squaring his shoulders and standing again. “You’ll have to take me into custody.”

    “Why?”

    “Just do it, Max. I’m not telling you anything.”

    “Walt, I swear to God that if you turn out to be working for them--”

    “I already told you I’m not. But you’re not getting much else out of me.” I sighed and went upstairs to get the handcuffs. Walt was waiting patiently. He put his hands behind his back when he saw me come downstairs. I fastened the cuffs around his wrists and pulled him out to the car. Walt got into the passenger’s seat and I started for HQ.

    “You know I don’t like this.”   

    “Sorry. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

    “What’s going on? Okay, outside of the group and whatnot, what’s going on?”

    “You wouldn’t understand. You’re not a zombie.”

    “Is this about civil rights?”

    “Nope. It’s just something personal.” We reached HQ, though it was already locked up tight. I scanned my ID and let the little machine take a drop of blood before letting Walt do the same. After 6:30, the doors shut and locked along with most of the agents going home and the windows barring up. From the first level, I could see the bright light on Evel’s floor (yeah, she had her own floor). I would need her permission to put Walt into a cell. Walt and I went upstairs and to her office. Evelyn had stripped down to an undershirt and her grey pencil skirt. Exhaustion brought out her age just a little more and she looked thoroughly surprised when she saw us. Walt smiled and chirped, “Hiya boss.”

    Evel bluntly replied, “Remsie. Why are you in cuffs?” Walt shrugged. Evelyn looked to me and I shook my head frantically.

    I answered, “He had a the terrorists’ business card on him and said he’s affiliated with him, but he won’t tell me anything. He just told me to arrest him.”

    “Well. I’ll open up a cell…”

    Walt shook his head and answered, “Maximum security, please.”

    “Remsie?”

    “You’ll find out why, I promise. But you should probably hurry. I’ve only got 15 minutes.”

    “15 minutes for what?”

    Walt sharply answered, “I said you’ll find out.” Evelyn nodded and went to the back of her office to a double-sided elevator. We went all the way down to the sub-basement’s sub-basement’s sub-basement. Evelyn opened up one of the plexiglass doors, bright light flooding the dim corridor. Walt cringed and screwed his eyes shut. Evelyn apologized and helped him put on his glasses. After closing the door, Walt said, “Okay. Now lock it tight, turn out the lights, and get as far away as possible.”

    Evel snapped, “I don’t appreciate the secrecy, Remsie.”

    “I know.” Evelyn gave him a look. “Just hurry up and go. And make sure to turn the lights out or it’ll hurt.” Evelyn put a powerlock  on the door and switched out the lights as we left the corridor. We were only up to the main floor when we heard loud screeching from the basement. Evelyn and I hurried up to her office and security locked it from the inside. Evel turned on the camera feed in night-vision mode and we took a seat, watching what Walt was doing. If I hadn’t escorted Walt to the cell, I wouldn’t have believed it was him. His muscles pushed against skin, tearing it and bruising him. Blood dripped from the opening welts and gashes and Walt’s eyes were completely bloodshot. He threw himself against walls, screaming and yelling out before completely running out of energy and crashing on the floor, bloody and soaked with sweat.

    I cried, “What the fuck?!”

    Evel quickly answered, “I should call Jones. This isn’t good--has he been directly exposed to pheromones?”

    “Not recently, I don’t think.”

    “Are you sure? This is how they act when they are injected with pure pheromones.” I thought about any chance there’d...been...Rebecca. In the backseat. With the windbreakers and the syringes. If I’d missed just one of those little syringes when turning them into the lab, there’s a chance Rebecca got to it and injected Walt. “DeFran? What’s going on?”

    “Rebecca injected him.” But that still didn’t explain the card. Why did he have that card? This had nothing to do with the card!

    “The bomber?” I nodded furiously. “We’ll open interrogation in the mo--”

    “No need. I know what happened…”

    “But?”

    “What?”

    “You trailed off. What else is there?” I couldn’t risk getting Walt turned into a high profile prisoner. Why hadn’t he told me he’d been injected? Did he know? “DeFran. I will order you to speak if you won’t do so willingly.”

    “Right, sorry. This has nothing to do with the fucking business card! I have no idea why he didn’t tell me! What the hell’s going on?” We looked back at the feed and saw his unmoving heap on the floor. “Are you gonna call Jones?” Evel nodded and picked up her phone, pressing one of her speed-dial buttons. I dropped my head under my hands and looked to the floor. I needed silence. “What’s Walt thinking about? It’s like he’s completely different these last days…”

    “I couldn’t tell you, but you should try to get to the bottom of this. I don’t like where this is going.” Great. More added to the plate of a child, terrorists, and Walt’s recent sensitivity. I nodded and watched the screen for any sign of motion. What wasn’t he telling me?

 

7: Chapter Seven

After spending the night in Evel’s office waiting for Walt to show signs of life, I was a mess of smelly clothes and exhaustion the next morning. Walt was patiently waiting for us to let him out, sitting on the little cot built into the wall. Evel had called Jones who promptly did a little check up on Walt. After Walt was patched up and stitched back together I made him go with me on a coffee and fresh clothes run. While we were driving, I asked, “So you didn’t tell me you were injected because…?”

    “I didn’t want you to panic. You’re mean when you panic.”

    “That’s all? That’s the reason you didn’t tell me that there could’ve been a fresh outbreak?” Walt shrugged, wincing as a wound rubbed on his shirt sleeve.

    “It’s just…I didn’t want you to yell at me. I don’t like it when you yell at me.” I rolled my eyes and let out a sigh. “Sorry, Max.”

    “Well it doesn’t explain why the hell you had the business card.”

    “The cards are laced with something.”

    “So you carry it around?!”

    “It’s not like that! I swear it’s not! They’re laced with a pheromone neutralizer. Kinda like a scratch-and-sniff perfume ad. All I have to do to get them is show up at meetings.”

    “You know where the meetings are and you didn’t call me?”

    “Well you’re not involved in this.”

    “Not involved?! Not involved?! I’m pretty fucking involved!”    

    “Jesus! Stop yelling! It hurts.” I glanced over at him. “Being injected makes my hearing better. Stop yelling.”

    “You deserve to be yelled at.”

    “I know I do, but can you wait like, two hours? I’d like it a lot.” Walt looked out the window and then sighed, “And I’m not exactly...what you think I am.” I glanced at him briefly and gestured for him to continue. “So turns out I’m cured. There aren’t any more parasites in me, I’ve failed all the zombie tests.”

    “That doesn’t make sense.”

    “Yeah, I know. What happens is my brain has become the parasite and it doesn’t register as a parasite. It’s like evolution has destined us to all be this way. The virus that causes the brain to shift is spreading like wildfire. I’m going to the meetings for the cards that neutralize the pheromones now that I’m more sensitive and they help with the coping. I’m gonna be like this forever, Max. I’ll have to end up doing myself in if I want to be dead. Now that my brain’s the parasite and parasites have regenerative properties, I can’t actually ever die. Only wounds created by my own body will heal normally. Everything else will be accelerated.”

    “And you flipped out last night because you were injected?”

    “Partially. But my body needs time to adjust and--I can’t stick around much longer, Max. Every time my muscles start strengthening, I’ll flip out like that. I need to go somewhere I can be safe and so can everyone else. The cards’ addresses change and every address leads to a haven for zombies like me that have evolved.”

    “You basically evolved over a few years?” Walt nodded.

    “As soon as you have a parasite, the virus starts gestating. You’ll turn too one day and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.” Walt set his head against the window. “You’ll be one too.”

    “There has to be a cure.”

    “There is a cure for this! But the UN has decided not to release it. They want this, Max. They want everyone to become zombies and--” Walt took in a deep breath. “We can’t stop them. You and I are just slightly advanced agents. There’s no way we can just bust into the UN HQ and demand treatment for everyone evolved.”

    “What makes you say that? We’re only five hours out.” Walt paled and looked over at me, shaking his head as a I smirked.

    “Hell no. I refuse to break into an international political building with you and demand drugs.”

    “I’ll give you a carrot.”

 

Seven hours later, Walt and I parked on the side of the street, looking at the numerous flags in front of the UN HQ. Walt groaned, “This is a bad idea. Let’s go home.” I shushed him and pulled my binoculars out of the glove compartment. “Ma-x.” I handed him a carrot and he chewed on it slowly, trying not to shake so much. The last person left and Walt and I got out, going to the doors. I pulled on the door, but it didn’t budge. Walt pointed his half-carrot at the lock and noted, “Zombie-Pro 3500. High-end security system that releases electricity using sensors for parasites based on skin oil. Let’s scoot.” I grinned and looked over to Walt. “What’s with that look?”

    “Well you can break steel ship doors, so I bet you can break this door.”

    “But the electricity!”

    “But it can’t pick up on your brain.” Walt stopped and mulled this over before sighing.

    “You’ll get us shot.” He grabbed the handle and effortlessly yanked the door from the hinges. Alarms started. “See, look what you made me do.”

    “Shut up and get inside!” I pushed him in and around a corner, looking for a way to get out as I heard the stomping feet of security.

    “Hey Mr. Genius, it’s the UN; they have cameras.” I looked up as a lens zoomed in on us and a laser point found its way between my eyes. “Get down!” Walt pushed me down as the camera let out a little click from the bullet it’d shot.

    “Since when can they do that?!”

    “Is that really important?!” Walt pulled the bullet out of his shoulder. More red lights spotted the walls and we ran with little dents following every step we took. We rounded the next corner and all that was left of the gun wound in Walt’s shoulder was a small blotch of scarring tissue. I pulled my gun from my waistband. Walt glanced over and cried, “We’ll be thrown in for life if you flash that!”

    I grinned and replied, “You were committed when you started working with me.” Walt rolled his eyes and then pressed us both to the wall as guards stormed the hall. “Ready Freddy?” Walt took in a deep breath and focused.

    “Hell yes.” Walt shot off along with a bullet from my gun. Walt swiped a fist from the middle of his chest around, sending a few guards into submission.

    I hollered, “Non-lethal!”

    “Because that matters at this point!” He kicked a few more and took in a coupla bullets to his abdomen. Walt yelled, “Max!” He had been restrained by two massive guards and by the looks of it, they were zombies too. I kicked my gun out in the open and held my hands above my head. I was grabbed from behind and watched as they injected Walt with a clear liquid. He fell asleep quickly and bags were put over our heads. I was marched for a while before being sat down and cuffed to a metal chair. The bag was removed and I noticed Walt unconscious in the chair next to me.

    I snapped a glare to a tall figure shadowed in the low light and snarled, “What’d you do to my partner?”

    The figure answered in a deep voice with a thick French accent, “He’s only be sedated as a precaution. You’ll have to excuse the lighting--we’ve been having technical difficulties for a while. That’s probably why the lock didn’t work…” The lights flickered on around us and we were surrounded by men and women in a circular room, representing different countries. “Ah, there we go!” The man turned out to be tall and lanky, sort of a bean pole if you ask me. “Now why did you break in?”

    I gestured an elbow to Walt and answered, “He needs the cure and you guys have it. I guess it’s common knowledge in his demographic.”

    “There must be a leak somewhere.” Clue: whoever was in charge of the terrorists had to be a UN rep or someone pretty damn important. “Why didn’t you call for the cure?”

    “So you could deny it? No thanks.”

    “And so you forced your way in and abused officers of the law to wind up being caught.”

    “We knew we’d get caught. Hell if I know where you’re keeping this antidote.”

    “It’s not an antidote. It’s a prototype cure. We can give some to your friend for your efforts, I suppose.” The surrounding audience nodded quietly. “But you will be punished.”

    “Wait, wait! I’m sorry, I haven’t been honest.”

    “With what?”

    “We were here in an investigation. According to page 546, section C, part 5, line 19, you’re supposed to put the building on lockdown until federal agents show to take the assailants into custody. And you didn’t. So really, you should be punished for unjust holding of criminal offenders, breaking protocol, and endangering all the ambassadors here.” The man paled and the audience murmured. I never thought Walt making me memorize the protocol would come in handy.

    “What’s your rank?”

    “King of Clubs.” More murmurs. “One bust away from Ace; care to give me my promotion?” The man shook his head along with the audience.

    “That won’t be necessary. What can we give you?”

    “I’m an officer of the law, sir. I don’t take bribes. The promised medicine will be administered to every infected individual and you’ll be taken into custody along with your security. Guess what they did wrong?” The man stayed silent in confusion. “Using force before a weapon was even revealed.”

    “Well you--you had a concealed weapon!”

    “I have a license. Now then, cure him and I’ll be calling for company.” The man sighed and weighed a gun in his hand. He outstretched his gun arm and pushed it into  Walt’s hair and to the base of Walt’s skull.

    “That was a bit rash of you, officer. This is the only cure.” I squirmed in my seat, trying to stop the guy. I screamed and closed my eyes tightly as  the man shot. I felt tears stinging my eyes and opened them, my jaw dropping. Walt’s eyes were bloodshot and there was a crunching noise as Walt crushed the gun and then the man’s hand before pulling his hand off altogether. A couple of people vomited. I tried hard not to myself.

    Walt growled, “The fuck are you doing, Frenchie?” The French guy was screaming and holding his bloody wrist. Walt grabbed him and crushed his throat in one hand before throwing the body all the way to the back of the room. People started to flee the room and Walt dropped his hand, looking for someone else to kill. His eyes met mine and he sighed, “I’m kinda sleepy.”

    I screamed, “You just killed a guy!” Walt glanced back and shrugged.

    “So what?”

    “So you killed a guy! An ambassador for fuck’s sake!”

    “He was trying to kill me.”

    “Yeah, but you ripped off his--” Walt grabbed my throat and I clawed for air. “W-Walt…”

    “You’re trying to kill me too, aren’t you?” My eyes crossed and I felt blackness starting to take over, but I was suddenly released as Walt grabbed a guy who had a gun trained on him. I coughed and raised myself up to see Walt tear into the flesh of the guy. Walt turned his attention back to me and swallowed the lump of human flesh. “I’m hungry.” I got out of the way as he grabbed for me. His movements deteriorated to being clumsy and uncoordinated, but he was still strong as all get out and hungry.

    I yelled, “Walt, stop! This isn’t you! Fight it!”

    “What’s there to fight? I’m this way now! I’m nothing but a parasite and I always will be!” I saw tears mixed with hints of blood start to drop from his face.

    “No you’re not! You’re my partner and my best friend!”

    “I--I can’t be though! I can’t do this anymore!” Walt dropped to his knees and put his forehead on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. “I can’t live like this anymore. Just kill me already, Max. I deserve it now.”
    “I won’t.”

    “I’m begging you!” I crouched down by him and rubbed his back. How does one console an emotionally unstable zombie? “P-please, Max. I don’t wanna hurt anyone else.”

    “I won’t let you.”

    “You always say that! But look at us now! We’ve broken into the UN and I’ve killed two guys and almost you.” The man Walt bit started to stumble up to his feet, eyes glazed with hunger. “I’m sorry!”
    “Hey, we won’t worry about it right now.”

    “But--” The man grabbed at me and I managed to pull away. Walt grabbed my arm protectively and sniffled, punching his fist through the other zombie’s mouth and out the back of its skull. “B-but I’ll be put in lockdown.”

    “That isn’t going to happen. I’m not about to let them take you away.” Walt threw his arms around me, and being a significant amount taller than me, made the hug awkward. He blubbered and I was in charge of comforting him. “Calm down, buddy. You’re not in any trouble. Well, not yet anyway.”

    “What’s Aren gonna say?! What if I can’t be the uncle anymore?!”

    “I’ll talk to her. Let’s get home.” Walt and I snuck out the back and he curled up in the back seat, crying into a windbreaker. When we managed to get home, Aren wasn’t happy in the slightest. As soon as we entered the house, Walt grabbed her tightly and started apologizing and crying even more than he had out of the three hours he spent sulking in the car. Aren looked over at me as she hugged him back and asked, “What did you do to ruin him this time?”
    I cried, “Nothing!” Walt’s a really awful liar though and Aren used this against the both of us.

    Aren softly asked, “Walt, where have you two been all day?”

    Walt sobbed, “I’m s-sorry! M-max made us b-break into the UN a-and I almost killed him! I’m sorry!”

    Aren snapped at me more than Walt, “I wish you did.” I paled and wrung the bottom of my shirt nervously. “Walt, honey, why don’t you go clean up a bit. You’re a mess.” Walt nodded and wiped his nose on the back of his hand going upstairs to wash his face in the bathroom. Aren moved her attention back to me and growled, “What did he say you did?”

    I answered, “Uh...what’re you talking about? I heard that we were invited to the UN.” Aren lowered her eyes. I sighed, “I’m on the couch tonight, aren’t I?”

    “You guessed it.” She folded her arms for a moment and then hugged me. “I’m happy you’re safe. But you’ll be arrested, won’t you?”

    “Nah. They won’t mess with us now.”

    “Max, what happened?”

    “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

    “Don’t go keeping secrets from me.”

    “It’s not a secret, I just won’t tell you. I should probably go check Walt.” She shot me a look as I heard the shower stop. I went upstairs and knocked before pushing open the door. Walt had pulled his pants back on, but his back was turned to me and the nasty bite mark scar on his shoulder was completely evident.

 

8: Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight:

 

He asked, “You never really wait, do you?”

    “Well...no. Anyway, are you feeling better?”

    Walt nodded and sighed, “I just needed to cool down. It’s been a stressful last coupla weeks, huh?”

    “You could say that again or a bajillion more times. Um Walt?” He pulled on his shirt and sniffled a bit. “About this disease; does it make you get violent?”

    “I’m violent anyway.”

    “Yeah, no shit. But I was just wondering if your sudden self-perseverance…”

    “That’d be more nerves being fried. You know how tense I get. Besides, I asked you to shoot me. That’s not how you persevere. Aren’s not mad, is she?” I shook my head. “Thank God.”

    “She’s mad at me. I swear, she treats you like her own kid sometimes.” Walt grinned and turned out the bathroom lights. They came back on and he turned to switch them off, but they turned red and started to flash. There was a loud noise followed by the house shaking.I ran downstairs and found Aren clutching to the banister.I yelled over the loud thundering, “More bombs! Get downstairs!” I helped Aren down the stairs and Walt grabbed one of my spare guns I kept in the kitchen, training it from entrance to entrance before following us downstairs. All the houses had special bunkers built into them for zombie outbreaks, but they could be used for bombs. The last bombing had been unexpected and they hadn’t had time to set the sirens off, but now they had and Walt was grimacing because of it. The sirens were meant to disorient the parasites by using intense noise, but thank the Lord Walt’s parasites were gone or I’d be dragging his ass too. We got to the bunker and I bolted the door before we continued into the second part of it, which was a small space with bunkbeds on either wall, a supply of food and water, and then more doors and all encased in heavy duty metal. I helped Aren sit down and then called Evel.

    She picked up and frantically asked, “Are you alright?! They’re dropping bombs on your street!”

    I nodded and said, “I’m fine. What’s going on?”

    “The last bombs dropped were just for threat, but something happened and now they’re targeting our top agents, more specifically, you.” Clue: whoever was in charge of the bombs must’ve fled the UN when Walt went on his violent streak. “What did you do?”
    “Walt and I went to the UN looking for the cure to the new parasite mutations.”

    “I swear I’d fire you if I didn’t need you so much. You and Remsie get your asses down here right now.”

    “Yes’m.” I hung up and kissed Aren quickly. “Babe, I gotta go to work really quick, but I’ll be back before you know it.”

    Aren hugged me tightly and said, “Don’t get killed.”

    We kissed again and I said, “I won’t. Walt, let’s go!” Walt nodded and we opened up a trapdoor in the floor of the bunker that led to the underground tunnel system. The tunnels were meant to keep everyone connected safely during the outbreak, but had long since been abandoned. Don’t get me wrong, they were still in great shape. They were just really creepy. The tunnels were dark and cool and concrete enforced. Walt gripped my arm tightly, the loud echoes of our footsteps making him flinch. I found my flashlight in my pocket on my keys and clicked it on, creating a circle of LED blue light on the concrete and exposed steel. I heard shuffling noises and Walt pressed me into a wall as a hungry zombie stumbled our way. It lifted its head up and sniffed noisily, snapping out of it and becoming more like Walt. The zombie was a girl, probably around fifth grade or so.

    She had dark red hair in a dirty braid and a torn pink blouse and grey skirt on. She was barefoot, one of her toes broken, and a tear in her shirt revealed a fresh bite mark that was crusted over with scabbing and festering as pus and blood leaked from it. Walt relaxed and faced her. Her eyes were cloudy as she tried to pinpoint our exact location. Walt gently said, “In front of you. Walk 15 steps.” She nodded and limped towards us where Walt took her hands in his own and helped her sit. He tucked a few loose strands from her hair and asked, “What’s your name?”

    The girl shook her head and finally whimpered, “I don’t know...where are my parents?” Walt glanced up at me and I pulled out my phone to call Evel about the stop, but I didn’t have any service.

    I sighed, “No go. We should take her with us.” Walt nodded and the girl jumped a bit as he picked her up under the shoulders and held her like a little kid. She sniffled and began to quietly cry in his shoulder.

    She sobbed, “Who are you? Where are my parents and my sister?”

    Walt quietly shushed her and answered, “My name is Walt. I’ll take care of you until we find them, okay?” She managed a nod and gripped his shirt tightly. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the girl. I patted her head gently and swung my flashlight back out to the end of the tunnel we were in. Walt comforted the young zombie as we walked and I kept trying for cell phone service. As soon as the girl was asleep, Walt sighed, “Max, we have to give her a name.”

    I waved him off and said, “It’ll come to her.”

    “You don’t understand--I don’t remember half my life. You lose memories when you’re hungry and when you snap out of it, you can only recall bits and pieces. She’s all alone and I can take of her, but I want to give her a name.”

    I thought well we pressed on and asked, “Katy?”

    “Too cliché...Hesper?”

    “The hell kind of name is that?”

    “Well it used to be very popular, believe it or not during the late 1700s. It means the sun and I think she’ll be warm and bright just like it.”

    “You’re way too sentimental to be so violent.” Walt rolled his eyes and stopped in his tracks. I gave him a look before quickly turning off the flashlight and freezing. A hoard slept in the back corner, all piled together. Most of them were decayed to half of themselves with jelly-like flesh, but a few were whole and fresh. Hoards were dangerous. One zombie or maybe up to three was never a problem, but when 20 zombies were piled together, they started to share one common goal, all their parasites releasing pheromones. Walt looked behind us and grabbed my arm as we heard a few of them moan. Walt boosted me up to a surface door and pushed me through. He put Hesper up next to me and then clambered up himself, slamming the door.

    Above ground was in shambles. The bombs weren’t just my street. Buildings were collapsed, fires burned, glass covered the street, and a green haze fell low to the ground. Walt quickly put a spare mask over Hesper’s face. She’d woken up when he’d thrown her through the surface door. She clutched to Walt’s hand as more loud explosions erupted across the city. HQ was only a few blocks away now. Walt put Hesper on his back and we ran through the streets. I took out my gun and shot at the zombies who’d gone haywire from the gas. Walt broke down a rusted fence and as it crashed, a hoard mixed with another in front of us. Walt panicked and yelled, “Max, I’ll throw you up on the roof!” I nodded and Walt grunted as he threw me up to a ladder. I gripped it, feeling my finger snap. I winced, but bit back the pain and climbed up to the roof.

    Walt wheeled up and leapt for the ladder. He made it, but his weight combined with Hesper’s made the ladder squeak loudly. A bolt bent and came loose. I heard a loud cry from Walt as his shoulder dislocated. He yelled, “Kiddo, you need to climb up!”

    Hesper shook her head and cried, “I can’t! I can’t feel anything!” Walt looked around for an alternative and dropped down a rung. He swung from the ladder and tossed Hesper on the roof next me. The next bolt came loose as his weight pulled it out. Hands grabbed at his feet and he screamed as their nails dug into his leg and pulled him down. I trained my gun on the zombies clawing at him, but there were way too many.

    I picked off a few before Walt yelled, “Max, stop! You’re making them--” Walt’s grip slip and there was a heavy thud as he hit the ground. I screamed and leaned over the edge of the roof.

    I yelled, “WALT! WALT!” I looked down and spotted a clearing in the swarm of zombies where they sniffed Walt’s limp body experimentally. I fired off more shots and they scattered. I held my breath and realized Walt wasn’t going to come back. Even if he could regenerate, that fall was way too much. It probably fractured his skull and scrambled his brain. I slouched back and started to cry. Hesper was sniffing furiously on her roof. I looked over as she screamed. I nearly screamed too as a Big One brought a fist down on her building. I jumped to catch her, breaking the fall into a pile of garbage bags. I hit my head and lay on the ground, unable to focus as vertigo overtook me. Hesper clung to me and I vomited before looking up at the Big One. It was bigger than the last I’d encountered with rolls of loose skin and six eyes placed sporadically on its whole body. It had three nostrils, seven hands across four arms, and one leg with somewhere around 15 large toes. I paled and looked behind me, wishing Walt would regenerate soon if he could. I looked down at Hesper and swallowed down the rest of my vomit and fear, wobbling to me feet.

    The Big One’s eyes snapped to face me as I raised my gun and shot at the largest of the eyes. It let out a screech and brought down several hands on us. I ducked and used the hands as a cover to not be squished. I scrambled to climb out of the crater as it swung again. I grabbed a large rusted piece of metal pipe and stabbed it in the eye. It cried out again as I pulled the pole out and swung it, cracking the pole across the apparent end of its blobbish head. It stumbled to the side by the force and I wondered how I got so strong. I looked down and saw Hesper guiding my arm, offering her my strength. I asked, “One more time, okay?”

    She nodded and yelled, “It’s gonna die!” We moved back and I scooped her up, charging it. I set her on the ground where the pole catapulted us up into the air. I quickly put Hesper over my shoulder and we stab the pole into the center of the Big One’s head. It stumbled before collapsing backwards. I caught my breath as the sirens stopped and everything settled. I fell to my knees and couldn’t help but start to cry as Walt still hadn’t twitched in the slightest. I threw up again and fell heavily to my side, the hit to my head kicking in over the adrenaline. Hesper shook me frantically before I felt myself being dragged to a little hiding spot in a back alley. I vomited more before I lost consciousness.

9: Chapter Nine

When I woke up, Hesper was curled up on my side. We were in Evel’s office and I had bandaging around my head and my finger was in a splint. Hasper had half an apple on her lap and was wearing one the jumpsuits, but it was a bit big on her. Her abdomen had been bandaged and she was clean, revealing her freckles. Evel was sleeping quietly on the other side of Hesper in a navy pencil skirt and an untucked yellow dress shirt. I sat up and groaned as my head spun. Evel opened her eyes and yawned, “Don’t move. You have a bad concussion.” I relaxed back against the wall and flexed as much as I could. I was sore as all get out. “You’ve been out for about a day and a half now.”

    I managed, “Walt…”

    “He’s in the isolated ICU behind the back wall.”

    “Is he…?”

    “Hardly. Jones told me he could regenerate, but it’s taking a while. He had some heavy damage. Also, who’s this girl you found?”

    I opened my eyes again and breathed out, “Hesper...found her in the tunnels…”

    “I see. Her eyes have some damage, nothing that can’t heal though. She’s healing on her own.”

    “That’d be thanks to Walt.” I managed to stand up and made it to the back wall. “Let me see him.”

    “He hasn’t been consci--”

    “I don’t care. I need to see him.”

    “Okay. I called your wife. She’s okay and is staying with a few friends a few hours out. Sounds like the bombing was everywhere we have agents.” Evel opened up a patch in the wall and scanned her fingers and offered a drop of blood to it. “We’ve taken a lot of casualties. Mera and Hardy are missing along with a few higher ups. Jones has been in and out since the bombs started. He’s been taking care of--” Evel’s door opened and Jones came in with a few supply backpacks I recognized from the emergency lockers. He looked more determined than usual as he set the backpacks on the ground.

    He snapped to the seat and said, “Have a seat, DeFran.” I looked to Evel but she nodded. I sat down and winced as Jones shone a flashlight in my eyes. He clapped in my ears until I told him to stop. “Follow my finger.” I sighed and rolled my eyes, but did it anyway. “You’re doing better. When you first got here, you couldn’t even form a sentence. Remsie on the other hand...he’ll take some time.”

    Evel cleared her throat and said, “I’m letting Max see him now.” Jones nodded and Evel stayed out as Jones and I went into the room I’d never knew existed. It was small and stank of disinfectant. Walt was tightly tucked into a narrow hospital bed with a breathing mask on. His brow was furrowed and his eyes were closed. I went to the side of the bed.

    Jones said, “He’s been in and out.” I nudged his hand. It was cold and bruises splotched his skin. His eyes opened slowly and the mask hissed as he took in a deep breath. He looked to me and managed a wry and exhausted smile.

    I said, “Hey buddy.” Jones offered me a chair when I started to lose my balance. I sat down and Walt watched me.

    He croaked, “I-I’m sorry.”

    “Walt, it’s okay. You took that fall for us. I’m sorry I couldn’t help.”

    “Y-you fought a B-Big One?” Walt closed his eyes and they opened again with a ragged inhale. I nodded and held his hand.

    “Hesper helped me.”

    Walt shifted and managed, “Good girl.”

    Jones stood behind me and asked, “How do you feel today? Better?” Walt made a tiny nod. “I’ll give you another shot.” Jones went to a white cabinet and I sighed heavily.

    I quietly said, “We fucked up.”

    Walt whispered, “Even if we did, we’ll fix it.” I looked up as Jones moved my hand to get to the IV line. He injected a clear liquid into it. After a minute or so, Walt let out a deep, relaxed breath and his eyes closed heavily as he fell asleep.

    Jones said, “He’ll be out for a while. In the mean time, Evel needs to speak with you.” I nodded and Jones helped me to my feet. I sat on the floor in Evel’s office and was offered a bottle of water and a few crackers with an aspirin tablet. Hesper was up and playing with Evel. She looked up and sat down next to me, leaning on my arm. Evel dimmed the lights and a projection of a world map expanded over the wall.

    Evel said, “We traced back the bombs to here.” A little red dot started to blink. “Do you know where this dot is?” I shook my head. “The UN building.”

    I asked, “UN? Aren’t they supposed to be peaceful?”

    “That’s just it. We received this recording last night.” I listened as a track begin:

 

Recording beginning:

 

N-no--stop!

 

As if you prick. <Gun fire>

 

You killed her!

 

I’ll kill you too.

 

Who are you people?!

 

We’re the new rise--the Tomb Party, if you would. You people and all your anti-zombie laws; we’ll kill you all and take over if we have to. Now, one of my moles said a few of your agents broke in yesterday. That’s a problem because we can’t have people snooping and getting in the way.

 

I didn’t have anything to do with that!

 

Like I care. Give me the access code to the bunker.

 

No! No I won’t! <Bone snapping> AGH! You bit me!

 

Deal with it, pal. You’ll give us those access codes soon enough. The great mistress controls all your parasites!

 

Not all zombies have parasites anymore though! That won’t work!

 

Those are the dangerous kind. We’ll reinfect them and then use them as muscle. No one escapes the great mistress.

 

Recording ending.

 

I breathed, “What the fuck was that?” Evel clicked to the next screen. It showed the UN, a video taken hours before it was being shown to me. Heavy duty trucks and jeeps were parked outside. Zombies wearing masks were flocking to the doors with weapons. They dragged uninfected people behind them on chains and fought through the army by biting the soldiers. Mobs knocked down the flagpoles and broke into the front doors. The camera zoomed in on the top of a building where a tall woman in a yellow catsuit under a long black coat with a chain around her hips watched the chaos.

    Evel explained, “This is the distress call we got last night. We’re making the assumption that this woman is the “great mistress”. I used the face identifying program through the infected files. Her name is Remora Grant. She has a doctorate’s in poli-sci and was a politician. She was an ex-pat who moved back here about the time of the ship attacks six years ago. She was married, but was put on trial for the murder of her husband. She has an interest in diseases, especially the outbreak. Reports say she studied stem research for a while and moved to Africa to research and study parasites similar to those in infected individuals. She’s incredibly violent and should be considered armed at all times.”

    “Am I going in to find and kill her?”

    “I’m saying you should kill her as I’m not supposed to say that, but do you really think one more body will affect anyone?” I smiled and Evel continued, “This is a search and destroy mission. It’s highly classified and I assume you already know how to get into the UN. Remsie will go with you once he’s healed and Hesper will stay here. Don’t kill anyone you don’t need to. We believe missing agents are either being tortured or held captive. We received a note this morning, nailed to Jones’s car. The water mains are their next target in 48 hours.”

    “But Walt--”

    “His back is healed. It’s just bruising and some broken bones. If we give him a catalyst, we can speed up his healing process so he’ll be done in a few hours. By the time you reach the UN, he should be ready.”

    “Are you sure?” Evel shook her head, but I knew it was a stupid question. No one was too sure on anything right now. “Alright. I’ll get ready.”

    “Great. Jones.” Jones nodded and went back to the ICU room. I kneeled down by Hesper and tucked some hair behind her ear the way Walt had.

    I explained, “Kid, Walt and I need to go for a while. You’re staying here with Evel and Jones. We’ll be back hopefully in a coupla days.” Hesper nodded and I went to the ICU room. Walt leaned on me as we grabbed a supply pack. We went down to the lockers and changed into the tight black clothes. They absorbed sweat and light and were Kevlar lined. Walt changed his mask, grimacing as he used his dislocated shoulder. I put an over-the-shoulder ammo belt on and grabbed an extra gun. Walt put two in his waistband and we put on our combat boots. We hadn’t used our lockers in forever due to lack of dangerous missions. Walt’s legs were mostly healed. He hobbled next to me as we got into the car. I sighed, “Ready to go learn about world domination?”
    Walt growled, “School’s in, bitch.” I smiled and started the car.

10: Chapter 10

Walt’s shoulder made a really sickening noise as he managed to get it back in place so it could heal. It was the only thing left that needed to heal and it was taking its sweet time to do so. I looked up as he made a little grunt of pain and let out a quiet sigh or relief. He grunted, “Never again am I throwing a small child on a ladder.”

    I laughed, “Sounds like a plan.” Walt looked up as we entered city limits.

    He sighed, “This is really happening.” I nodded and took a moment to think about incentives to not get shot, tortured, or bitten. Well, those in themselves were pretty decent incentives. But I had Aren on my mind and my baby. Walt was going to be the uncle and godfather and I’d be a dad. I had a family to think of, but I knew there wouldn’t be one to return to if Walt and I didn’t finish this mission. Walt finally said, “Hey Max, if we don’t make it outta this one, I need you to know you’re the closest thing I remember to a family. You and Aren and your kid.”

    I sternly said, “We’re gonna make it. Don’t worry about that.” Walt nodded and offered his fist. I grinned and bumped it as we pulled up to the UN building. Flaming SWAT cars were lined up in front of where the semi-circle of flags had stood just the day before. Walt and I exchanged looks before getting out. Walt looked around and found an opening in the stream of zombies. He wrapped his arms around me and held me closely to make me smell like  him as we walked with the rest of the group. They hardly noticed, most of them in a complete daze. Walt looked at them and tightened his grip as we entered. We broke from the central stream into a side hall. Walt moved silently to the corner and went around first before motioning for me to follow.

    We quietly rushed down the hall until we came to a “Authorized Personnel Only” sign on a heavy metal door. Walt pushed it open, revealing a metal balcony and stairs over a very big storage room. We duck as a silver streak moved in front of us. It cut through the railing, causing a chunk of it to crash to the cement floor below. We heard a harsh chuckle and looked down to the floor where a scrawny kid a few years younger than me stood with two long swords in his hands. He had a mop of blonde hair and wore a dark green face mask. He had on a black trench coat with a chain wrapped around his bicep. He had on dark brown cargo pants and a tight blue shirt. He beamed and asked, “The agents, I presume?” I recognized his voice from the audio recording. My knowledge of boss levels narrowed down two options. Either a; he’d be the end of Walt and I or b; he’d be so easy it’s stupid. I hoped for the easy one.

    Walt growled, “Who are you?”

    The man balanced a sword on the tip of his finger and answered, “Name’s Eli. And you are?”

    “The one who’s gonna fuck you up so bad, you won’t even have half your brains when I’m done with you.”

    Eli laughed, “Are you a zombie too? Boy oh boy mister! I can’t wait for you to teach me a--” Walt pointed two fingers at Eli and lifted them up as I shot Eli’s hands off. Eli screeched in pain. Oh yeah, this would be easy. “What the fuck?! That’s against the rules!”

    Walt cooed, “Looks like you haven’t evolved yet.”

    “Of course not! Then I’d be enslaved to be--” He shut his mouth tightly.

    I grunted, “Sport, we already know all about it. Walt, need to stretch out your muscles to make sure everything’s functioning?”
    Walt laughed, “When don’t I need that?” He leapt over the railing and landed cleanly on his feet. He punched Eli through the gut and threw him into some boxes.

    Eli screamed, “MERCY! MERCY!”

    Walt harshly chuckled, “You want mercy? I’ll do this as fast as I please.” He punted Eli’s head off and picked it up. He threw it behind some boxes with the body and motioned for me to jump. Walt caught me and we continued through a door into the next long hallway. It was dimly lit and the perfect cool temperature for zombies to function their best. Walt seemed a little more confident, walking in his element. I followed quietly after him, keeping an eye behind us for a hoard or what could easily be another pussy like Eli. I stopped as I heard a soft chorus of moans and groans and made sure my guns were loaded. Walt whispered, “Where’s that coming from?”

    I shook my head and answered, “Not sure...keep going.” He nodded and we used the sides of our feet to walk, reducing our noise immensely. The noise grew louder and the cement above us cracked.

    Walt cried, “Shit!” He ran to cover me, but it was way too late. The ceiling cave and I put my arms over my head, crouching low to the ground. I glanced up and saw Walt trying to support a large chunk that would block us in if it fell, but it would crush him.

    I yelled, “Get out from under there! We’ll find another way out!” Walt rushed out from it, barely getting out in time. We were both knocked back as the large piece crash to the ground, leaving nothing but a three inch gap in one corner between the rest of the intact ceiling and the wall. I looked around and noted, “Something tells me this wasn’t part of their plan.” Walt nodded and helped me up. He brush his hands off on his pants and we walked to the big piece of cement. He punched it experimentally, breaking his hand. It took a few minutes for all the bones to mend and I pulled myself up to the gap. “Okay, so there’s a small space here…”

    Walt proudly said, “We could grip it and pull the rock to where the ceiling is gone.”

    “Yeah, except it’d crush us if we did that. Besides, I guess we threw a party.” Walt followed my gaze to where a hoard was starting to stumble towards us and drop to the level we were on. Walt and I stood back to back with our guns ready. As zombie dropped down, Walt shot at their knees and shoulders. I shot at the ceiling above the caved one to maybe create a blockade.

    Walt finally said, “All of ‘em are...down…” I paled, seeing their limbs regrow. Walt’s virus was infecting them. He shakily asked, “Max, what do we do?”

    I shook my head answered, “No fucking clue.” I looked at the boulder blocking our way and quickly said, “Pull on that rock, but keep out of the way so you don’t get rolled under it. I’ll hold them off.” Walt gave me a worried look before I snapped, “Hurry!” He nodded and jumped up to the gap, tugging on it. The rock started to slowly scoot with Walt as he had to climb down and then back up to avoid being crushed. I shot at the zombies, managing to keep them at bay. And then I felt it.

 

It was teeth in my skin.

 

It was ripping a large piece of flesh from my arm.

It was a parasite transfer.

11: Chapter 11

Walt screamed my name. I hit the floor, shock over taking me as I felt a burning in my arm that spread up into my head. I couldn’t breath, all my muscles contracted causing the hallway to become much darker to me. Then it was just as bright as a regular room as my muscles relaxed. Walt stood over me and felt my neck. He put an ear over my heart and then shook me. Was I dying? I didn’t think I was. I just felt a dull ache in my arm where the teeth had dug in. Walt looked up protectively, picking up a small, palm-sized chunk of concrete. He roared in fury and threw it, driving it through one zombie’s head as if the skull were wet paper. It lost velocity and clunked into another head, damaging the brain. Blood leaked out of the hit zombie’s ears, nose, and eyes before it toppled over. Walt grabbed me and put me over his shoulder before setting me against the wall further from the zombies. He rammed against the concrete until he dropped to his knees in misery. The hoard advanced, shuffling aimlessly.

    I breathed heavily, my lungs full of a goopy substance that I could feel flooding my throat. My fingers were cold, my face was flushed. The parasite rid my body of an excess fat, my belly burbling into thick muscle I’d developed through my work. My muscles in my arms went rigid before the stiffness melted into firm strength. My toes twitched and the numbness that had swept over my body at first gave way into waves of pain. I screamed loudly, my muscles going rock solid. They crushed in on my bones and my blood vessels burst. Dark bruises splotched against my skin and then spread before shrinking again. Walt had pulled a first aid kit from his backpack and was fumbling with a gauze patch. He gently put it over the bite wound that’d started to be covered in thick, rubbery, brown and pink scar tissues on the edges as the blood seemed to crystallize in the clot. He kept his back to the hoard, blocking my view of it. I could smell them--the putrid scent of decaying flesh and I could hear the peaks and lows of harmonic moans that formed a language of their own. Walt shakily whispered, “Dontcha worry, Max. I’m here. I’ll fix this.” He picked me up delicately and pushed me up into the hall above us.

    He swung up himself and put me on his back, starting down the hall as the floor cracked. I mumbled, “Walt, what’s Aren gonna say?” It was a law that infected and uninfected people couldn’t be in a legal marriage. I’d be forced to live in another district completely and I wouldn’t be able to see my baby until the baby was ten, the age when immunity to parasites developed enough.

    Walt shushed me with, “Don’t start. She won’t say anything. You’ll be okay.” From his tone, it was obvious he said it more to comfort himself than me. I was being pretty calm for just being bit, but my body hurt so much, I couldn’t throw a fit. “I know it hurts, but it’ll be over soon.”

    “Walt, don’t shoot me.” He shook his head furiously.

    “I wouldn’t do that. No one would. You’re too nice.”

    “And you can’t make anymore fat jokes.” Walt smiled, but it was forced.

    “Maybe we should go back…”

    “How? There’s a hoard waiting for us and ahead of us are more psychos.”

    “Well, I, we could find a way, right?”

    “We still have a mission though. Besides, if we give up, the both of us will have to work for a lady who thinks bugs are the new world order.” Walt nodded, a fresh look of determination spreading over his features.

    “You’re right.” He pushed open a door and stepped out of the way quickly as an electrical arc jumped at him. He peered in the room, the lights not being on. It didn’t matter anyway since we could both see more than well enough in the dark. A tall woman in all pink and red waited for us. She had long blonde hair that faded into dark pink in a high ponytail. She wore a tight pink sleeveless hoodie and ripped dark red jeans. She had on a pair of dark pink boots and a short red overcoat with a chain around her neck. There was a silver metal rod slightly resembling a high-powered TASER with pink detailing on the side. Walt set me down and said, “I’ll take care of this.” I fought back the pain and managed to get up to my feet. I teetered and Walt steadied me, giving me a strict look. “I said I’ve got it.”

    I shook my head and answered, “Not on your own. We’re a team, jackass.” Walt pleaded with me for a minute before I held up a hand and staggered in first. After my first steps, I hacked up a glob of the sticky stuff in my throat.

    The woman looked disgusted before asking, “Newbie?” I nodded and she sighed. “It’s not you I’m after anyway. I need you.” She pointed at Walt who cluelessly pointed at himself. She nodded and explained, “Our leader thinks you’d make a valuable asset to the Chains.”

    I snorted, “That’s what you call yourselves?” She glowered at me and I laughed, “I’m sorry, but the Chains? Sounds like that band...the Kinks. So maybe you can sue somebody for ripping off a technique you ripped off, but I don’t think you can actually do any real harm.”

    She growled, “We’ll see about that.” She raised the weird weapon and pointed at Walt. He did a one-handed flip out of the way as a large arc shot towards him. Showoff. She clicked her tongue and waited for him to come out of his hiding spot. She moved around the airduct he’d moved behind and then left the corner empty-handed. She pointed the weapon at me and called, “Come out or I--” I shot her through the chest. She looked down in surprise and I paled as it started to heal. “Did you think I was like Eli? Did you think I wasn’t reinfected?”

    I shrugged and nodded, sighing, “Thought it was a bad thing to be reinfected.”

    “It’s immortality, you idiot! There’s nothing bad about that!”

    A cold voice snapped, “I’d disagree with that.” Rebecca entered from the hall into the room. She wore a tight green tee and fitting jeans with her hair in a braid. She had on a long ebony coat and a chain around her leg, a long katana in her hand and another sheathed on her back.

    Pinkie laughed, “Becca! I’ve been waiting for you to come back!”

    Rebecca pointed her sword at Pinkie and with an edge ordered, “Shut it, bitch. Now where’s Walt?” Pinkie shook her head. Rebecca looked at me and I gave a look to say I didn’t know. “Fantastic. I come here to give him the one weapon he can use to end this all and he’s gone. Alright Uke, I guess it’s just me and you.”

    Pinkie, or her name was Uke, laughed, “About time. You’ve always wanted to undermine us. It’s about time I was allowed to get rid of you for real.” The two had a stare down and I stayed out of the way, pressing myself to a furnace. Rebecca suddenly dove for the ground as Walt swung down from a pipe and kicked Uke up the face, breaking her nose. She staggered back and caught her balance, looking for him as her nose cracked back into place. Rebecca ran forward while Uke was distracted and ran her through with the blade. Uke shocked Rebecca, but both of them fell to the ground. Walt came back on the scene, hefting a cinderblock above his head. He threw it, catching Uke in the side of the head as she tried to stand again. It crushed her skull and took her back down.

    Walt breathed, “That should buy us some time. Max, are you okay?” I nodded and looked away from Uke. “She’ll get back up soon enough.” Walt put me on his back again and smiled at Rebecca, though it was forced. “Thanks for the help.”

    Rebecca stood in front of us and said, “Oh no, no, no. I’m coming with you two.”

    “Look, this is a search and destroy and frankly, you don’t have formal training.”

    “Frankly, you have not only one casualty, but also no chance. Sneaking around won’t work. Lera’s blind and has a special adapter to help her hear better. She’ll hear you from a mile away! You don’t have the slightest odd to get past the daze gas she uses anyway.” Walt raised an eyebrow.

    “But you do?”

    “I’m immune, duh. She only gave immunity to her favorites. Besides, she trusts me.”

    “But I thought--”

    “It was a coy, dumbass. You’re such a softy.” Walt frowned and reloaded his guns in thought.

    He finally shrugged and mumbled, “I guess.”

    Rebecca smiled and snorted, “Thanks Machismo.” Walt tensed a little at the title, but Rebecca started to walk ahead of us, guiding us through the ins and outs of the building. I glanced at my watch every now and then as the hours passed. I didn’t think we were even close to the actual building anymore. We’d long since broken past the cement and aluminum duct rooms of the UN building and had started on a long corridor of cement with dim ceiling lights. I was starting to drift off when Walt set me down and leaned against the wall, panting a little. Rebecca turned back around to face him and asked, “Are you okay?” Walt nodded and held up a hand.

    He sighed, “Just give me a minute. It’s the virus, I think.” Rebecca shook her head and knelt down by him. Walt’s breathing only grew more ragged and forced. His hands shook a little as he searched for the bottle of water in his pack.

    Rebecca snapped, “Stop moving. It’s not the virus.”

    I asked, “What do you mean? What’s wrong?”

    “I can’t tell. Is he uninfected?” I shook my head. “You’re sure?” I nodded and she bit her lip in confusion. “Something’s not right. He has a few pieces of grey hair and he’s not as strong as he was.”

    “Grey hair? The guy can’t age though!”

    She drawled, “I know that. Fucking idiot.” I folded my arms tightly and crouched down next to Walt. His eyes were squeezed shut and his breathing had lessened to little pants. “Walt, was it?” I nodded and she held Walt’s face between her hands. He opened his eyes, which were bloodshot. “When did you start seeing symptoms of the virus?”

    He wheezed, “Few days ago. After the bomb on my building.”

    “And how has it been? Feeling weaker?” He nodded. “Longer to regenerate?” Another nod. I looked between them as Rebecca pulled a white box from her own bag. Inside was a portable blood lab and a series of small syringes and needles. She picked a finger pricking device and drew a drop of blood. The little hole took 15 minutes to heal as she tested the blood and did a few different tests. She finally grunted, “Your parasites are gone.”

    Walt coughed, “I know they are.”

    “I mean, there’s not even residue...how dark is this hallway?” I looked around for a comparison myself. It was bright like a room with an open window.

    Walt managed, “It’s dark. Like a subway tunnel.”

    “And how cold is it?”

    “Freezing.”

    “Thought so. Max, we’re leaving him here.” I glanced up at her in alarm. “He’s curing himself. If Lera finds out about him in the slightest, he’s a goner. A handful of zombies cure themselves, but they die shortly afterwards from the revert back to being uninfected. Assuming he makes it, he’ll be completely normal. It happens when they manage to breathe off the daze gas and pheromones. The brain goes into overload to fight past the parasites, releasing enough hormones to not only stay in power, but kill off the parasites. That’s why there’s no cure--the hormones to kill them are unique to the host.”

    I cried, “We can’t just leave him here! These place is swarming with zombies! If they catch onto his scent--”

    She pursed her lips and forcedly said, “I know that. It’s more dangerous to carry him along. Especially with the company I’m expecting.”

    I threw my hands up in the air and yelled, “Well too bad!” I picked him up and he winced as I bruised his arm.

    He choked out, “Jesus, can you be more aggressive?” I waved him off and marched ahead of Rebecca, giving her no choice but to follow. Walt and I had a quiet conversation as Rebecca covered our back. Walt whispered, “Max, just accept that she’s right. I’m totally slowing you down and I’m holding you back. I don’t want you to have to cover me if we come under fire or something, okay? I’m fine this way.”

    I sighed, “Walt, you’re coming with me, we’ll get out of here just fine, and then we’ll get you help. You’re finally back to being human and I don’t plan on letting you die because of it.” Walt stayed quiet, breathing heavily and watching the walls for a while. He really wasn’t doing well at all. In fact, I was scared to move him much further for the sake of being further away from a safe exit as far as I knew. I glanced over my shoulder and called, “Hey, how much further?”

    Rebecca grunted, “Just a while, dumbass. If you hadn’t decided to carry around the paper weight, we’d be there by now.”

    I sharply replied, “Shut up. You don’t even know him. He’s not a paper weight.”

    “You’re right, he’s practically dead! I forgot that corpses and paper weights just aren’t the same thing. I say we put him out of his God damn misery. Poor guy can hardly breathe. He’s like a cat that got hit and is being dragged by a dog.” Walt’s gripped tightened a little.

    He whimpered, “I know I said it before, but please don’t shoot me now.”

    Trying to comfort him, I said, “Wouldn’t for the life of me, buddy.”

    “Was that sarcastic?!” He hoarsely coughed after the miniature panic and limply lay on my back.

    “You okay back there?” He coughed again and nodded. “Good. I’m not gonna shoot you and I’m not letting anyone else do it.” Walt smiled sadly and closed his eyes, letting out a soft breath. I thought he was dead for a minute before his eyes opened again.

    “Max, I really don’t think I’m getting out of here.”

    “Fuck that.” He managed a tiny smile and looked ahead of us, paling. It was obvious what exactly he was paling at. A gargantuan of a man stood in our way. He had dark skin, lightly tinted blue, which tipped me off that he was from the first wave of outbreak. His skin had large patches of black linen where chunks of decayed flesh were being held to him. His eyes were milky, though sharp as all hell and his nose was exposed to the cartilage on one half. The progression of the parasites had led him to have rippling muscle that showed under his skin at some points. He was missing teeth, not wearing a mask obviously, and was clad mostly in leather. This included a shirt that reminded me of Mortal Combat, a pair of tight pants, and his boots. He had a long sword in one hand and was cracking his knuckles in the other, making us look to the exposed bone in his hand. Rebecca pushed Walt and I out of the way as he launched at us.

    She screamed, “Get outta here! This guy’ll have your head in a heartbeat!” She barely dodged as he shot back at us, a flash of black and blue. “I said go!” I nodded and started to rush forward, but Walt’s weight and height was dragging me a little. Rebecca cried, “Leave him and I’ll watch him, but you’re the only guy here who can do shit to Lera and you’ve got to get out of here! Take this!” She tossed me an orange biohazard bag. I nodded and gently, but briskly left Walt out of the way. The guy was in awful shape, incoherent, and only half-conscious. I hesitated to leave, but did so anyway, charging down the hall with the bag flopping against my leg.

12: Chapter 12

After around 15 minutes, I had to stop for air. I was still adjusting to my newfound fitness and wasn’t used to the endurance I’d been gifted with. Everything still hurt from the actual change, but the urgency had taken it off my mind. I was just happy this was a one-way path to somewhere or I’d be so fucking lost. I took a swig or two of water from my bottle and tucked it back into my bag, looking ahead of me. Just a bit further. I could see a small door far up ahead, but if I kept running, I’d be there in no time. Closer to being done, closer to getting help. I could see why Walt was so worried for my well-being after that bite. Not only was it causing searing and throbbing pain is places I didn’t realize had sensation, but it was wearing me down faster. My body was not very good to host the parasites. It was short and still had some fat the parasites weren’t able to get rid of. I sighed and picked up the pace again when I heard dragging behind me. I glanced up and turned around, screaming in fury.

    The goliath I’d run away from was close now. He dragged Rebecca and Walt behind him. Rebecca still fought at his grip, even though her throat was slit. It wasn’t enough to kill her immediately, but enough time and it would. It wasn’t healing either. Walt was tied up carelessly, like he could do harm. The man smiled at me and dropped them less than carefully. Walt groaned and Rebecca warm around uselessly in her own bind, blood spreading out on the floor under her. He grunted, “I believe introductions are in order.”

    I gritted my teeth and snapped, “Fuck you.”

    “That’s not a very good first impression. My name is Grundy, for obvious reasons.”    

    “What a sick joke.”

    “It wasn’t a name I picked. I didn’t remember my own when the bitch snapped me out of my hunger. She started calling my Grundy to tease me.”

    “If she’s a bitch, why do you listen to her?”

    “That’s just it; I don’t want to. I’ll help you.”

    “But you--”

    “Had a recording device on me. I can’t be very treacherous when she can hear and track my every move.” I relaxed a little and he further explained, “Rebecca made sure to knock it off. I slit her throat before the bug was taken off along with tying up your friend here. I must say, he’s in very poor condition.”

    I nodded and sighed, “I know. But he’s practically my brother.”

    “I understand completely. Eli and I were like that once.” I straightened my arms again. “I want to thank you for killing him. He’d taken a turn for the worse. He was once in the same boat as me--drawn to irrational protesting by the promise of privacy and rights. I couldn’t tell you when he became so violent. I understand you may want to hurt me now, but here’s my plan; bite Becca to give her the virus you received from your friend before his antibodies froze it and then we’ll go into together. We both know you don’t know how to work the weapon given to you by Rebecca.”

    I glanced down at the bag and asked, “A bloody bandage?” He nodded and Becca struggled to get her words out.

    She choked, “Don’t believe him.” I retracted my hand.

    I narrowed my eyes and quietly said, “I’ll hold onto the bag.” He nodded and sighed. I went over to Becca.

    She whispered, “That bandage will get rid of Grundy too. Don’t let him touch it. He’s okay to trust though.” I gave her a weird look. “I know I just said it. Look, just rub some of your spit on my arm and this’ll heal. Walt and I will stay back and then you two can come back for us, okay?” I glanced over at Walt who was awake and fumbling to get the rope off. “If Grundy were lying about wanting to take down Lera right now, he’d’ve kill you two and me by now. He’ll tell you how to use the bandage, but as soon as you open it, the both you get out of there.” I nodded and glanced down at the bag before spitting on my hand and rubbing it on Rebecca’s hand. She wiped her nose and eyes with it and nodded.  “Good. You two need to get going. Oh, and try to think of a better name for him.”

    I nodded and said, “Will do, lady. We’ll be back, okay?”

    “You better fucking come back or Imma hunt you down. Understood?” I nodded and she smile again.

    “Good.”

Grundy cleared his throat and asked, “Rebecca, are you sure just wiping the virus near your nose and eyes will work?” She nodded.

“Trust me. I know how this works in and out considering I was the one who invented the parasite and the virus.”

I yelled, “You?!” She nodded.

“I was sick, Max. Really sick. I needed a way for my body to last while I found a cure. Lera’s my cousin who was living with me after a rough divorce. We were both in the biochem field at the time. I didn’t think she’d steal my sample…”

I sighed, “Fine. We’ll get back to this later. Actually, let’s take Lera in rather than killing her.”

Grundy patted my back and with resolve said, “No can do, my friend. The only way to detain her is to kill her. Let’s get a move on then.” I nodded and we started down the hall again. “I know what you’re thinking. How is an uninfected blind person so powerful? The problem is she’s very influential and even past that, she knows how to play her cards. She’s also incredibly intelligent. Even more so than Rebecca, which is why Rebecca was kept on such a tight leash. If Rebecca weren’t forced into working with the Chains, this problem wouldn’t have happened. Now that Lera thinks Rebecca is in prison, things can start really moving.”

“Then why didn’t you just punch Rebecca?”

“It’d be too obvious with the way I fight if I merely punched her. As soon as this over, I want you to arrest me. I don’t want any court credit for helping you. I’ve murdered so many people and committed so many crimes, sometimes I wish I would spend eternity in prison. I deserve everything coming to me. If you kill me, I won’t be able to amend for my crimes.” I nodded and glanced at my watch.

“We don’t have much time. Let’s get this over with.” Grundy nodded as I added, “But you need a new name. Not Grundy...if you could have any name in the world, what would it be?”

He shrugged and asked, “Do I really need one? Names are pointless to me. I don’t even think I deserve a name.”

“I’ll just call ya Dog Shit then.” He snorted a little.

“Okay. So maybe you can just call me Solomon--”

“Isn’t that--”

“Less obvious than Grundy? Yes. Prepare yourself.” I nodded and we pushed open the door at the end of the hall. I was immediately hit the heavy scent of mint and strong medicine. Humidifiers lightly purred and hissed inside the room, creating a wet, warm, and a steamy environment inside the room. The lights were black light and there were bottles upon bottles of various bases, soaps, and disinfectants lined up along the wall on neat metal shelves. Solomon explained, “Lera is very ill herself. Rebecca released a bug completely exclusive to Lera’s genetic makeup. It’s been incubating for six months and in late, it’s been taking her down.” I nodded and looked around, readying my gun and the bag. “That bandage will wipe Lera out. Make sure to do it quickly.”

A weak voice said, “I can hear you, Grundy.”

Solomon laughed, “Well good! I sure hope you can hear me you bitch.” As Lera focused her attention on Solomon, I snuck behind a full rack of test tubes and cleaners. I froze when I saw Lera. She could’ve only been 18 or so, seriously just a kid. She was pale, thin, and delicate. Her face was hollow from a mix of apparent nutrition issues and severe loss weight. If I didn’t kill Lera, her illness would. Dark traces of mucus tracked from her eyes to her jaw and even under her neck. Her skin was like paper, easily torn and nearly transparent. Every bone and vein was easy to see in her body and she was in a plastic biohazard suit. It didn’t sit right. Solomon pointed to me and said, “He’s going to kill you. Behind you.” I motioned for him to stop, but the electric wheelchair swiveled to face me. Her eyes had gone blind, milky and a white-blue color.

She whispered, “You’ll kill me?” I nodded, though unsure of my answer. “Well?”

I shakily said, “I think so.”

“I wish you would. What started as a mere fight for rights to the family company turned into WWIII. I’m no longer in charge. There’s one person above me. She gives the orders to me.”

I cried, “You people don’t make sense! If everyone in charge is hated, why follow?”

Lera quietly answered, “They’ve promised us something. I was promised a cure. I really did have good intentions at first. I was going to make myself immortal, use it to take over the company, and reform health and science worldwide. Think about it; no more plague or disease or starvation. Third world countries could’ve had relief that lasted and was worth something! Surely you know how fickle justice and benevolence are. Good intentions for a bad cause, right? You’ve killed people, I’ve killed more...neither of us wanted to. It’s just part of who we’ve become.”

I sighed, “Maybe so, but this got out of hand. How’d it do that?”

“I’ll tell you in an interrogation room, agent. Please, I’m begging you! Bring me to justice! Help me get help for this condition I’m in! I can help that friend of yours and so can Rebecca. There’s an explanation for this whole mess, though it’s not entirely too rational.”

“What makes you think I trust you? You’re a fucking terrorist sweetheart.”

“I know...I know…” She resolved into defeated cries. Jesus, this girl really was helpless. I set the bag on the floor.

“Maybe...maybe I can get you help. There are a few conditions though. You have to own up to everything, turn in the real wizard behind this freakshow, and explain everything. You and your cousin will be condemned to make a cure. Understood?”

    She glanced up at me and happily said in her sobs, “Of course! Yes! More than--” A gunshot went off. I glanced up at Walt who leaned heavily on the door frame, panting hard with blood coming out of every opening.

 

13: Chapter 13

He collapsed to the ground in a sweaty heap. Solomon closed Lera’s eyes carefully as I ran to Walt’s side. I picked him up and lay him on my lap as his breath grew shallow. I asked, “What were you doing?” He choked on a glob of thick fluid in his throat and my questions were no longer the priority. He closed his eyes and I pressed my ear to his heart. I could hear everything going on in his body. Muscles struggled to do their job, his heart started to slow, the streams of blood rushed around with less oxygen than usual. The tips of his fingers started to turn a purple color as his body tried to save oxygen. I put my hands on his chest and pumped with his diaphragm. He searched my face, something sickening behind his eyes. I looked up as Rebecca pushed me out of the way and put the breathing mask on Walt that was hooked up to a ventilator in the room. Solomon finished wrapping Lera’s body and knelt by me, mostly holding me back as Walt fought for his life.

    Rebecca cut a slit into Walt’s throat and used a pair of tweezers from the first aid kit to pluck out pieces of something white and chalky. She sealed them in a small bag and wiped some sweat from her forehead before suturing the hole back up. She relaxed against the wall and Solomon went to her aid as we noticed long gashes in her arms. Rebecca explained, “I tried to stop him. He was too scared, said you couldn’t do this on your own. He got away and I thought he was going to shoot Solomon.”

    I looked over at the blanket that held Lera’s body and sighed, “We should get out. Do you want your cousin’s body?” Rebecca shook her head. She pulled the ventilator out from the wall and found the portable version of it. Solomon held Walt carefully with the ventilator as I doused the blanket in gasoline. I lit it on fire and we watched it start to burn before leaving the long hall. Outside was quiet except for birds and far-off helicopters. Long grass swished back and forth in the wind as if nothing had happened. I called Evel and we sat in the grass, watching the sunrise. A helicopter landed around 45-minutes later. Evel had cleaned up incredibly. She wore fresh clothes and had fixed her hair and makeup. Hesper played with one of the miniature dummies forensics used. She’d put clothes on it and hummed to herself. I climbed up into the helicopter and got out the gurney from the wall. Solomon gently stretched Walt out on it. Rebecca gave me a mini check-up before taking a seat.

    Evel looked us over and asked, “You’re infected, DeFran?” I nodded, thinking about my family. “We’ll work out something with your wife.”

    I looked away and said, “I’m not leaving them.”

    “I know you aren’t. I can pull some strings and I’m sure this fiasco brought some issues on rights into the spotlight. That should probably help your chances of getting your way.” She looked to Rebecca and Solomon and said, “You two are going away for a while.”

    Rebecca cleared her throat and crisply offered, “With all due respect, I’m the only medic you’ll meet who knows how to help Walt. If you don’t want your agent dying, I’ll have to take care of him.” Evel pursed her lips and finally nodded. “Good.” Evel stayed quiet, doing some of her string pulling from the tablet she kept on her. She was still on it when we landed, a very determined expression on her face. Rebecca stood over her and finally said, “This still isn’t over.”

    Evel met Rebecca’s look as she stood and simply said, “Understood, but you’ll respect me in my place of work.” Rebecca smirked and the two shook hands firmly before Rebecca and Solomon took either side of the gurney and unloaded Walt from the helicopter. Hesper tried to go with him, but I grabbed her shoulders and scooped her up.

    I sighed, “Boss, I’ve gotta take care of some personal business.” Evel nodded and I left the helicopter. I pulled out my phone and called Aren.

    She answered with, “Where the hell are you?! Are you okay? Is Walt okay? You haven’t been answering your phone at all--”

    I quickly said, “I’m okay, except…”

    “Except?”

    “Look, can you come pick me up? I’m at HQ. I have a couple of problems, two of which you’ll see when you get here.”

    She stayed quiet before saying, “Fine. But you better have an explanation.” I hung up and went inside, getting a mask for myself. The front desk had two separate glass bowls. One of normal suckers for kids and visitors and another of suckers made entirely from vegetables. I grabbed an eggplant one and Hesper picked out a kale flavored one. They didn’t taste too bad, but I could tell I’d be missing fruit and meat pretty quick. We went back outside. Evel had gotten Hesper a pair of sunglasses and mine had amazingly survived the exploits of the last few days. We both put them on and waited for Aren. She pulled up, but stopped shortly when she saw me. She got out of the car, completely dumbstruck and on the verge of tears. I waved sheepishly. She cried, “Max?! Max! What--what on earth did you do?!” She grabbed me in a tight hug and I rubbed her back, feeling my own tears come on. Okay, so maybe it was just me, but this whole infection thing was making me way more sensitive to everything going on. No wonder Walt cried so much. Hesper stood awkwardly to the side, waiting for my hand to free up so she could hold it again. Aren kissed my cheek and then crouched down when she saw Hesper. She tucked some of Hesper’s hair behind her hair and asked, “And what’s your name?”

    Hesper quietly answered, “Evelyn calls me Hesper. She said Walt found me, but he and Max were busy.”

    Aren looked to me and I explained, “She was in the tunnels. Walt picked her up and Evel took care of her while we were working. And about Walt...we’re not sure he’s gonna be alive much longer.” Aren clamped her mouth shut and looked between Hesper and I. She finally set a hand on Hesper’s head.

    Aren sighed, “After our baby is born, bite me.” You know it’s the girl of your dreams when she’s willing to give up her good health for you. “For right now, you look wiped out and I think Hesper needs somewhere to settle for a while.” We got in the car and I kept an eye on my phone for an update on Walt. The big street cleaners and restoration crews were almost done patching up the neighborhood. They worked really fast though, so it didn’t come as much of a surprise. Hesper was fascinated with the huge vehicles and the people in fluorescent orange jumpsuits planting flowers and using tongs to drop things in large biohazard bins. It felt nice to be home.The first thing I did was shower. It hurt to scrub the clot off the bite mark, but it healed into a scar once it was reopened. I flopped down on the bed and smiled as Aren started to rub my back.

    I sighed, “You’re doing so much more than I could ever bear to ask you.”

    I sat up and set my head on her shoulder as she sighed, “Hesper’s fast asleep in the guest room. You should try to get some sleep.” I nodded and looked at my phone. Aren took it from me and put on the nightstand, kissing my forehead. “Honey, Walt’s always in trouble. Stop worrying for a moment about him and worry about yourself.”

    I smiled and sighed, “You’re right, but it’s just…” Aren kissed me on the mask.

    “I know, it’s scary. But I’m worried about you. Walt’s in good hands getting the help he needs. I can’t do anything for you right now except tell you what to do.” She got up and sighed, “I’m turning out the light and shutting the door--get some rest, Max. I’ll be downstairs working out if you really need me, okay?”

    I laughed, “But I do need you.” She smiled and kissed me one more time before leaving. I sighed and stretched out on top of the blanket. I had just started to doze when my phone’s HQ alarm went off. I groaned and grabbed it, not expecting what I saw. My phone lit up with a picture of Walt holding a gun to Rebecca’s head just outside a hospital room. He was grinning wickedly. I unlocked my phone, watching the livestream video of the security footage. I winced as the video lagged behind the audio of a gunshot. Rebecca’s body crumpled in choppy video and Walt’s face swung up to the camera. He shot the camera,causing my screen to go black. Another day, another dollar, right? I scrambled from my bed with my gun and pulled on my shoes and shades. Aren called after me as I grabbed her keys and went to her car. I got in and immediately remembered why we had separate cars. Aren had a thing for manual clutches, something I’d never learned to drive. Aren opened the driver’s door and pulled me out. I cried, “Babe, I need--”

    She snapped, “Shut up and get in. I’ll drive.” I smiled and jumped in. She sped down the expressway as I reloaded my gun. The car screeched to a stop a block from HQ. Also, her car wasn’t licensed to go past federal barricades.

    I cried, “You need to get through! Something’s not okay with Walt--” I was flattened to my seat as she ground the gears and burst through the wooden barricades. People moved out of the way as I rolled out from the car and she took off for home. An official tapped me on the shoulder. I flashed my ID and explained, “My wife dropped me off.” He blinked to the car turning the corner, failing to stop me as I jumped the concrete barricades. I sorta liked this new physical fitness, but I wasn’t trying any of Walt’s moves yet. A lot of the desk runners were grouped together, making statements, but most of the agents were still inside. The glass on the doors had been shot out and the lock broken. I went in and nearly tripped on bodies. Shrapnel from a grenade stuck in some bodies and had scratched the tile on the floor. I looked up as I heard loud laughter. Walt was balancing precariously on the half wall that served as a railing on the levels above me. His eyes were bright and he carried a gun in his hand still. The stitches had been redone and now a thick spot of gauze was taped there.

    I called, “Walt! What’re you--” He paused and I paled as he stared me down. I moved out of the way as he shot at me. I shot back and he took a bullet to the shoulder. I found cover behind a support column as he erupted in laughter from the shot in his arm. I caught my breath and swallowed down any regret I’d have if I hurt him. I ran from my cover as he tossed a grenade down.

    He sang, “Ma-x! Come on out!” I looked over to Solomon tapping his fingers on the floor. I barely got out of open fire as I ran to Solomon’s side.

    I asked, “What the fuck is happening?!”

    Solomon shook his head and said, “The shock was too much and a good portion of his brain stopped functioning before Rebecca got it back. He’s completely insane.”

    “Yeah, no shit!”

    Walt laughed, “I know you don’t give up that easily, Maxy! But you know who does? Your wife does!” His voice became sinister as he growled, “I bet she’d let me into the house.” Solomon restrained me as I tried to run out and shoot Walt from his perch. More laughter escaped Walt. “Aw c’mon, buddy! Let’s have a little fun! I did tell you I love to dance, right?”

    I turned to Solomon and hissed, “What the hell do we do?”

    Walt chirped, “Well, do it the easy way or--you know what, you finish the sentence for me!” Solomon pushed me behind him as Walt came out from the corner, spinning the gun on his hand. He beamed with something cruel in his eyes and asked, “Doesn’t all this feeling make you beg for a smoke right now, Max? Wish I had one right about now. But readers don’t dig smoking, do they?”

    Solomon asked, “Readers?”

    Walt nodded and pointed somewhere as he explained, “Dontcha know about the book, Max? Problem is, our writer says she’s about 18.5 thousand words short of being an actual real novel.”

    I growled, “You’re fucking insane!”

    Walt giggled, “A little brain damage and honey, I think the kids need a shrink!” His face became emotionless as he continued, “But seriously, every situation is just too convenient to be chance and real, ain’t it? I mean, I could totally shoot you right now, but as the first-person protagonist, there’d be some bullshit reason why you come back.” He grinned wickedly as he said, “But I’d like to test that theory, wouldn’t you? First things first, how ‘bout a nice cliffhanger?” Walt shot Solomon between the eyes. I narrowly missed being crushed by him as he fell backwards. Walt blew on the barrel of his gun and sighed, “Too bad he was so old. First-waves can’t get the virus. So Maxy, dearest, before I end this whole thing, tell me why you don’t do it yourself? I’ll hand you my gun.” Walt gave me the gun and a fresh clip. “Shoot me now and one of your problems is solved. Don’t and, well, let’s just say the password to the armory was no near the level it should’ve been.” I looked at the gun and then to Walt’s bright face. He snickered, “You’re a little static--why not some moral ambiguity up in here, Maxy dear?”

14: Chapter 14

I looked at the gun and then to Solomon. Walt picked at his nails impatiently. I asked, “How the hell are you even standing?”

    Walt shrugged and answered, “I’m not a doctor and I shot the one who could tell you. Anyway, get on with it.” He spread out his arms wide and nodded at the gun. “So any time now would be cool or are you gonna make this difficult for everyone?” I looked to the gun and swallowed. I couldn’t shoot Walt, but I needed to. “Five, four, three, one!” Walt snatched the gun back and shot at my feet, purposely missing by just an inch or two. He set his head on the barrel and snickered, “You know, I knew you were pretty stubborn, but this is just stupid. If I wanted, I could kill you right now!” I drew my gun and Walt snorted. “I could shoot your hand, take your gun, and fuck something up.”

    I pointed my gun at him and snapped, “I don’t need to explain myself to you.”

    He balanced the gun on his foot and laughed, “Of course not! I never asked for a damn explanation anyway, Maxy dear. But as all goes, I need to split.”

    “Where are you going?”

    “Not sure yet, but I’ll tell you when I get there, ‘kay? Oh, Mera’s got a bounty out for you!” I gave him a confused look. “She’s offering the person who finds you a chance to be less hated by her. Also,” Walt shot the fire alarm. The sprinklers started and the sirens started sounding on top of the security breach alarm. Walt winked and said, “Catch ya later, Maxy dear.” He went up the stairs and it was then I noticed how bad he was limping. I moved to go after him, but Evel caught my shoulder.

    She asked, “Why didn’t you kill him?” I bit my lip and looked for a reasonable explanation, but I couldn’t find him. “When this is done, your rank is dropping a level.” I nodded and checked my watch.

    I asked, “What the hell happened in the two hours I wasn’t in the building?” Evel pulled me to the stairwell. We went through a small door built to match the wall. Inside was a panic room completely outfitted with a fair supply of weaponry and fire extinguishers and first aid kits. The room was quiet from the security alarm and the fire alarm. She sat on one of the benches with a control panel to manage the doors, windows, and lights from safety. She messed with some switches before setting it down, taking a deep breath, and checking her gun.

    She explained, “He was pretty much dead when we got him to the medical wing. Rebecca managed to get his brain back online, but it’d been without oxygen and he wasn’t getting enough air in anyway. He started flipping out on the operation table--laughing, seizing, blabbering on and on, and he became incredibly violent. He killed Jones and two interns before I made Rebecca leave the room. She said his adrenaline was insane. He managed to get himself out of the operation room, but had a heart attack. It pushed him completely over the edge and the adrenaline let him move around in his condition. At this point in time, he’s either dead on the fifth floor or is dying somewhere. We should’ve just let him die. You should’ve shot him, DeFran.”

    I sighed and managed, “I can’t though.”

    “I understand he’s your friend, but I will send Mera and Hardy after him if you won’t go.” Man, if Mera got her hands on Walt--I nodded and reloaded my gun.

    “I’ll do something then, but I can’t promise I’ll kill him.” Evel rubbed her forehead and finally nodded.

    She threw her hands up and huffed, “Fine, but you call if you need backup and if I didn’t have so much on my plate, know that this wouldn’t be acceptable.” I grabbed a strap of grenades and packed a backpack with two extra guns and ammo. I left the room and looked up the stairs. Floor five, right? I ran to the landing of floor three, only nearly missing getting my head taken off by the door as Mera pushed her way in with Hardy behind her. They were packing some serious heat, and I don’t just mean weapons. She was absolutely livid. She snapped her attention to me and Hardy picked me up by the straps of the backpack.

    Mera growled, “And where the hell are you going?”

    I answered, “I’m taking care of Walt.”

    Mera shook her head and snapped, “Remsie’s mine, dickweed. You just sit here and wait like a good boy.” I fought Hardy’s grasp, but he held fast. I finally shoved my gun to his forehead. He dropped me and cracked his knuckles. In an irritated sigh, Mera drawled, “Look, there’s no time for you to get in everybody’s way like you always do. Hardy and I are taking care of Walt and you can go sell cookies somewhere else, okay?”

    I punched her and screamed, “I have orders and you’re not touching him you lousy bitch! You’re an awful excuse for someone who’s supposed to be in charge of keeping the population safe!” Hardy reached for me, but I punched him in the gut. He wheezed out a tiny breath and made a grab at me. I ducked and shoved Mera out of my way as I flew up the stairs. Mera and Hardy ran after me, looking for their revenge. I threw open the fifth floor door and heard it lock. Evel’s work, most likely. Mera and Hardy pulled and pushed at the door, but it didn’t budge. I took comfort in the fact that I wasn’t having my face crushed in right now. I held my gun tight to my side as I carefully maneuvered the broken glass. I heard the sound of a grenade going off somewhere down the hall. Glass shattered, bones broke, screaming prevailed. I grimaced and regained my composure. I pressed myself to the wall and managed my breath as I slinked down the hall. I paused at the corner and focused on my hearing. There was Walt’s bat shit laughter, someone screaming for him to stop, and then Walt screamed after a gunshot. I turned the corner and froze. Walt’s arm had almost been shot completely off. Dead bodies of agents and runners littered the hall.

    I assumed he’d had them hostage beforehand or they’d been trapped during the lockdown or even were hiding together and assumed to be dead anyway. The one survivor of the massacre was only barely alive, hardly able to lift her gun. Walt kicked it out of her hand, almost losing his balance in the process. He shot her in the head and then tried to open the window. I called, “Walt, that’s enough!” Walt turned back to me and fell to his knees, holding his dangling arm on with his free hand after he dropped his gun. I ran to him with my gun drawn. He was pale and sweaty and blood stained the skin around his eyes, nose, and mouth. He wiped some blood from his nose, only streaking a larger stain across his skin. I kneeled by him and said, “You’re under arrest.”

    He harshly laughed, “Fuck that.” He shot me in the chest. I gasped and fell backwards. I wasn’t expecting that at all and not to used to the feeling. I was stupid, getting that close to him. I underestimated him. He grabbed one of the heavier guns I’d brought with and started smashing into the glass. When that didn’t work, he shoved a grenade in a dead body and put it on the sill before pulling the pin. Half the body hit me and the other half went through the broken window. My chest healed nicely and I drew my gun. Walt started to clamber out the window. I closed my eyes tightly and shot him. There was a short cry out and then the heavy sound of a body hitting the cement roof below. I bit back tears and kept my gun at my side. I dared to look out the window. There was a bloodstain and an arm, but no Walt.

    I screamed, “What the fuck?!” I jumped the sill, stabbing my hand on a shard of glass. I pulled the glass out and looked around. There was a messy blood trail leading to the exterior first aid room and armory. The door was open and I could hear Walt shuffling around inside among the sounds of falling IV stands and weapons. I pushed the door open just a little more. Walt looked back at me as he finished torching his arm with a blowtorch. The bleeding stopped and it smelled like burned flesh. He continued quietly patching himself up. I held my gun up and asked, “You realize what I have to do?”

    Walt sighed, “Yeah, I know. Look, my arm is gone, I’ve really got nothing going for me, I’ll probably be dead in a few days anyway...is it really worth shooting me? You took off my dominant hand. Honestly, you’d be kicking me when I’m down for the count. You’re always going on about being heroic.” He gave me a dangerous look and softly asked, “What do you think the heroic thing would be to do in this situation?”

    “Don’t pull that shit with me, Walt. You’re in hot water and you know it.”

    “No shit, Max. This is what we call a tactic. I’m appealing to your emotional side.” I took in a deep breath and relaxed in a tense way, prepared for the barrage of things he’d throw at me from our years together. “I’m your best friend, Max. Me, Aren, and Evel. That’s it. So why don’t you set the gun down? You aren’t going to shoot me. That’s been made clear already.”

    I bluntly said, “I did shoot you.”

    “With your eyes closed. You can’t take this seriously. Even if I had knife to your throat, you wouldn’t do anything but pray.”

    “You’re wrong.”

    “But I’m not. I know everything you hold dear. I know what makes you get up in the morning, I know why you do this job, I know where your family lives. So I’ll strike a deal with you, Max.” Walt was right about me not being able to shoot him and he knew it. I couldn’t just put Aren and our baby in harm’s way though. “I’ll take your silence as curiosity. Give me Hesper and I’ll leave. I won’t hurt anyone I don’t need to. I won’t go after agents or their families. You can trust me, Max. When have I lied to you in a destructive way?” He had a point.

    I sighed, “Walt, my being is at stake here. What if you are lying?” Walt sighed and dropped every piece of anything that could be used as a weapon on his person.

    He put his arms up and said, “Have it your way then. But you’ll be making enemies, Max. I have connections in places that would put even my best cases to shame. If I go, they’ll come out. You don’t want that against you. These people won’t hesitate to hurt your family. You’ll have a crisis bigger than this whole shit pile on your plate. Do you want that? In any case, why would I lie to you? You saved my life. I would be eaten by a Big One most likely if it weren’t for you. Aren’s always been nice to me. I’m a little jealous in a way. The most useless people always get everything; love, power, happiness...and look where I am. Half dead and under arrest. My deal still stands.” I took in a deep breath before Evel’s voice crackled over the radio built into my backpack.

    She said, “DeFran, we can’t take this risk. Let him go.” Walt smiled sadly.

    His voice shook as he said, “You heard the woman. You don’t say no to people like her.”

    I sighed and dropped my gun, “Fine. Deal.”

    Evel offered, “Remsie, we can get you help. You need it.”

    Walt dropped his hands and wiped away a tear before sniffling and saying, “No can do. I’ve been here long enough anyway. Evel…” Walt just shook his head. He finally whispered under his breath, “I’m sorry this didn’t work out.” Then more clearly, “Thank you for hearing me out. Max, I’ll see you ‘round.” He picked up a walkie-talkie and changed the channel. He quickly said, “Alright. I’m out.” He struggled up the ladder to the roof a few levels higher as a large helicopter came flying in and hovered. Walt grabbed on and a slim woman in all black slid down the ladder, helping him up. He saluted me briefly before disappearing into the copter and being carried away. The only noises left were the front doors being shattered and the sirens. I sighed and jumped when my phone rang.

    I answered, “Hello?”

    Aren screamed, “The baby’s coming! Get here now!” I hung up and got into one of the outfitted cars with sirens to part traffic as I sped to the hospital.