Seven
No more than two steps out of the elevator, I spotted a new wave of problems brewing.
In the center of the garage there was a small staging area set aside for my team, though the rest of the space was being used by other squads and Keepers preparing to roll out on missions of their own.
In our area, Euna had already split off a dozen new copies and outfitted them all in combat armor that left plenty of breathing room for her to alter their size and shape for whatever we might encounter. The instant I saw her I was reminded of the pale zombified husk that we had faced back on the street. A twinge of trepidation coursed through my body and made me rethink letting Euna accompany us on this mission.
I bit down on the urge and refocused, continuing to close the distance between me and my team and doing my best to tune out Selene’s footsteps keeping pace behind me.
A full squad of Hunters in zombie-repelling chainmail and full body armor were positioned off to the side, ready to load up with us.
Agent Blitz himself was leaning against a vehicle that outwardly looked like a mail van but I knew from experience was probably decked out with all sorts of fancy gadgets. He had his lever-action infernal rifle propped up on his shoulder, and a black trench coat covering the rest of his tactical gear and weapons.
And of course a trio of Io’s magical drones were resting atop each of the three vehicles we had set aside for us. Each was currently disguised as a pigeon, but I knew their forms were highly adaptable based on whatever situation we might find ourselves in and Io had been working on upgrading them for months. I wasn’t even sure what all those little birds were capable of anymore.
But aside from the Hunters, Euna, Blitz, and the drones there was also the all-too-pregnant Tabitha. My werewolf girlfriend was wearing some ill-fitting tactical gear of her own and resting her favorite assault rifle on her hip, looking like she fully intended to go with us in spite of her bulging belly.
Oh shit, here we go.
“‘Where do you think you’re going?’” Were supposed to be the first words out of my mouth.
Instead, they came from Tabitha in a faux-deep impression of me. “Save it, hotshot, I’m the best shooter in the Bureau and you’re facing a horde of undead. You need me.”
I stopped in my tracks, my eyes darting between her and the dozen-odd copies of Euna standing around her. My heart skipped a beat at the horrifying thought of the same thing that happened to Euna’s copy earlier today happening to Tabitha, or our child resting in her womb.
No, I decided instantly. “Absolutely not. I’m not allowing the mother of my child into a war zone! You’re staying here. That’s final.” When two of Euna’s copies instantly sprang to Tabby’s side, ready to rise to the werewolf’s defense, I instantly cut her off. “In fact, neither of you are coming with me now. We were all in constant communication since before I got back, working through this problem, and you decided to spring this on me now? No way. Stand down, both of you.”
Tabitha and Euna both recoiled in shock and reached out towards me mentally.
I withdrew from them and snapped my fingers towards the squad of chainmail-wearing killers in front of me. “I’ll take the squad of Hunters and be on my way.”
A few months ago I faced down a whole platoon of these assholes who were trying to prevent me from interfering in Boris’s plans. Even though these guys weren’t the same ones who had tried to kill me and my girls–every last one of those fuckers was dead, I made sure of it– seeing them wearing the same badges on their shoulders did not exactly warm me to any of them. If they fell in battle, I wouldn’t bat an eye. But if I lost one of my girls? Eastport would have a much bigger problem than a couple zombies or some escaped ghosts on its hands. I’d tear the whole damn city down if it came to it. Brick by brick.
“Ryan?” Tabitha asked, sounding hurt.
Ignoring her, I turned to Blitz and indicated Selene with a thumb over my shoulder. “You’re with her. She needs help following up a possible alternative lead on these zombies,” I lied. “Treat any order from her as if it came from my own mouth, and don’t let anything happen to her. Understood?”
Blitz blinked at the terse note in my voice, but nodded solemnly at my command.
“Ryan, please. You need us,” Euna said, several of her copies converging on me and trying to hold me back. I lifted my chin and kept moving. Even combined, her strength was no match for mine, and I had made up my mind.
“I suppose you’ll still let Io’s drones accompany you, though? Just not us,” Tabby remarked, the note of pain in her voice amplified by a twinge of jealousy that felt out of place coming from her.
I halted and looked back at her. Tabitha’s mismatched eyes locked onto mine and my mind stuttered slightly. Standing there as fierce as ever, with my child growing in her belly, she had never looked more beautiful. But she had also never been so far away from me, at least not mentally, since after we bonded. My heart longed to abandon this mission, scoop up Euna in my arms, and march right back there to kiss Tabitha. To remind them both how I felt about them and that none of this was personal.
To tell them that I just couldn’t risk losing them.
But they wouldn’t understand. They’d try to argue. They’d waste precious time that would be better spent just going out and solving the problem myself. With three sets of monstrous powers under my belt, I was more powerful than any one of them. I was stronger, faster, and more versatile. Less vulnerable. I could handle more than them. They didn’t need to be in danger.
I could protect them.
“You’re both staying here. I’ll be back when the threat is handled.”
Without another word, I moved to the driver’s seat of the postal truck that Blitz had been leaning against and ordered the Hunters to load up. I refused to look back at my girls as I guided the truck up to the loading ramp.
Io’s voice cut in as we were forced to wait for the lift to retract, as too many other vehicles were busy being lifted up. Hey handsome? I get why you made Tabitha stay, and I’m with you. I told her you wouldn’t go for it. But why Euna too?
Because she’s vulnerable to these dark spores. The last thing I need is one of her copies getting infected and turning on the rest of us. I want you all safe and sound.
Okay but Euna is safe and sound. Her core is lounging over in the botanical section as we speak. Her copies are, for lack of a better word, expendable. Same as my drones, Io reasoned.
“Not to me,” I whispered aloud. None of you are expendable, Io.
I pressed down on the gas pedal and drove into position on the lift and signaled the lift operators to send up to Eastport’s surface streets. No sooner had I parked us on the platform then did the passenger side door suddenly slide open.
Selene, now wearing Tabitha’s tactical vest and bearing the werewolf’s signature assault rifle, pulled herself up into the truck. Blitz was right behind her.
“What the fuck? Don’t you have your own mission to go handle?”
“As a matter of fact, Hannah listed the exact graveyard you’re going to as one of the points of interest we were supposed to investigate with you. Makes sense as zombies and ghosts would share a common interest in a graveyard after all, but why not knock out two birds with one stone, right? I’m coming with you.”
I blinked, remembering those final moments of the zombie fight in the street. Selene screaming and crawling backward over the taxi cab car, trying desperately to escape that last zombie. If not for Hannah’s intervention I’m not sure I could’ve gotten to her in time to save her. I was fast, and she would’ve still been alive, easily. But one scratch or bite was all it took for these things to infect someone.
“Like hell you are! You aren’t trained to handle something like this.”
Selene shrugged. “No offense, but neither are you. No one is. I was listening to Doctor Carolyn and Lana speak after you headed out, and they said there’s never been an outbreak like this in Bureau history. Some minor trouble with a necromancer here or an awakened mummy there, but nothing like this. We’re all charting a new course here, Ryan, and it’s okay to admit you’re overwhelmed.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not overwhelmed. I just don’t want any of you in danger.”
“Tough. I’m not one of your groupies, Ryan. I don’t have to listen to you. Yet.”
There was a lot of potential in her usage of the word ‘yet’ that I was not entirely sure how I felt about. The wink she gave me as she walked past me to go sit with the Hunters did not help clarify my feelings on the matter either.
Blitz gave me an awkward glance. “You told me to follow her orders as if they were your own, man. I’m just doing like you told me.”
I waved the other Keeper further into the truck. “Whatever man. Glad to have you along,” I said dismissively. And, I realized, I was happy to have Blitz with me. I’d seen him fight and knew what to expect from him and he would be an asset on any mission.
So why don’t I feel the same way about him coming along like I do with the girls?
The obvious answer was that Blitz was a dude and I gave zero fucks about what he had between his legs. Not so with the girls. Tabitha, Euna, and Io all owned a piece of my heart. Hannah, too. Selene… I wasn’t sure about her. But that ‘yet’ had me starting to wonder.
-
Eastport looked like something right out of a disaster movie. Fires from random floors of various buildings all contributed to a thick cloud of smoke that choked all light from the sun blazing overhead. Emergency vehicles, some of which were actually disguised Bureau vehicles, sped back and forth throughout the city. Zombies crowded the streets. Civilians were clustered here and there.
The thing that shocked me was how civil everyone was being. Don’t get me wrong they were panicking and going through it, no doubt. But there weren’t nearly as many people turning on their fellow survivors as years of zombie movies had led me to believe. There were a few exceptions of course, but those were a statistical outlier. For the most part everyone still living seemed content to band together and help one another survive.
We stopped a few times to clear out a pack of zombies or direct survivors to the nearest Bureau safezone, but for the most part I just sped through the streets towards the graveyard as quickly as I could without crashing into anything or running any (living) people over.
Dusk was settling in as we pulled up and discovered the next plot twist in the growing list of bullshit that had plagued my day since I killed that chimera.
We were not alone.