Free Zombies II: Inhuman by Eric S. Brown Page B

simply left
Nate behind, the young man could prove far more deadly to him the
shambling flesh-eaters if what Thorne suspected about him were even
partially true. This man had to be dealt with now. There was no way
around it.
    Nate woke up and Thorne could tell without
even touching his mind that the young man was trying to move.
    "Don't bother," he whispered, "I've shut down
selected portions of your brain. You're not going anywhere soon. Oh
and you're also tied up," Thorne added almost as an
afterthought.
    "What the hell are you?" Nate asked.
    "I was just about to ask you the same thing,"
Thorne laughed. "Are you a speedster?"
    "A what?"
    Thorne sighed. "That's what they used to call
characters in comic books that had superhuman speed. Are you like
that? Is that how you got in here, killed the three dead, and got
back to me so fast?"
    "If I say yes, are you going to let me
go?"
    Nate's eyes went wide. "What the hell are you
doing man? I can feel you inside my head!"
    "Getting ready to let you go," Thorne told
him.
    Suddenly Nate could move. He sped up his
atoms and vibrated through the ropes which held his hands and feet,
snatched the blade he'd dropped, and froze in place as he swung it
at Thorne. The blade stopped inches from Thorne's throat. Nate
couldn't make himself finish the swing. He took a step back and
glared at Thorne.
    "I wouldn't try to run off just yet either,"
Thorne smiled. "I'd hate to see what happens to someone when they
trip if they move as fast as you do."
    "What do you want?" Nate demanded.
    "Other than your word that you're honestly
not going to try to kill me again? Let's start with how you found
me. Just what exactly are you doing here?"
    "I like to get out and have some fun okay?"
Nate waved the machete through the air finding he could move freely
as long as he wasn't thinking of harming Thorne. "Look dude, I just
want to go home alright? Let me go and I swear I won't chop off
your head or come after you."
    "You live around here?" Thorne asked shocked
that anyone could actually still have a home in the city.
    "It ain't the Ritz but we get by."
    "We?"
    "Yeah, we, man. What did you think you were
the last one left and all that crap?" Nate mocked him. "There are
four of us. We took over one of the local hospitals. We live on the
tops floors, made it where the deaders can't get up. It's about as
safe as anywhere can be these days."
    Thorne caught a glimpse of Nate's thoughts.
"The people you're staying with, they're like us?"
    "You mean freaks? Sure man, how the hell else
do you think we've survived?"
    Thorne felt more holes or deaders as Nate had
called them making their way into the warehouse. "How far is this
hospital?"
    "Couple a miles north of here, deeper in the
city. I can take you there if you think you can make it."
    "How? The city is overrun with those things.
There's no way we can make it by them all."
    "Speak for yourself. I can get by them easy.
As for you, I spotted a national guard APC abandoned just a bit
down the road. I bet it still works."
    "Fine," Thorne answered. "Let's move. You
take the lead but don't even think about darting off without me,
understood?"
    Thorne and Nate crept out of the warehouse
through one of its street entrances. They stood in the shadow of
the building with the sun rising behind them as Thorne took in the
scene. The dead milled about. He could see the APC setting in the
middle of the road. There were at least three dozen of the dead
between him and it and he knew there would be a lot more as soon as
they saw Nate and himself.
    "Hang tight." Nate told him. With a whoosh
noise and gust of wind, Nate was gone. Thorne heard the APC crank
up. Its engine roared to life and its massive wheels rolled over
one of the dead as it backed its way into a position to get turned
toward the warehouse. Nate must have kicked it into gear because
the vehicle roared its way straight at where Thorne stood
waiting.
    The dead were becoming excited. Dozens upon
dozens more of them