Free Z Children (Book 2): The Surge by Eli Constant, B.V. Barr Page B

I wondered
how long the monster would chase the insect, how long it would be distracted.
    I
didn’t have to wonder long.
    Seconds
later, the Z pounced, slamming his fingers around the tiny bug’s body and
screeching in triumph. Bringing his domed hands to his eyes, he peered into a
small gap between his fingers.
    Then,
in a lightning-fast motion, he slammed his hands against his mouth. When he
brought them down again, they were no longer shaped into a small cage. And the
insect was gone.
    Now,
I’d eaten worse—in the field, when wildlife gets into your food, you suck it up
and swallow them down (roaches in brazil come to mind)—but watching the boy
play predator and eat the insect made bile rise in my mouth. It was just a bug,
just a damn bug, but I wanted to shoot the Z over it.
    Maybe
it was because watching the monster chase the bug was too child-like. It was
something I’d seen children do—so fascinated by ants on the sidewalk. I didn’t
like it. If they were dead creatures, horrible and blood-thirsty, then they
should not be allowed innocent actions and awareness.
    I
turned and sat down with my back against the door and took a minute to think. Chris
stood over me, rocking on the balls of her feet with nervous energy. I had to
close my eyes to block her and her movement out so I could focus.
    Going
in the cafeteria was suicide and I wasn’t much into that. Reflecting back on my
training, I recalled what one drill instructor had beat into my brain with a
single-minded ferocity. “Over, under, around or through, Noob! There is always
a way and your brain is your best weapon in war. Learn to use it!”
    There
is always away, I thought. Even in a world full of Z’s, though? Without
intel, a schematic of the hospital, and with a useless split-tail in tow? “Over,
under, around or through,” I murmured under my breath.
    “What?”
Chris’s voice was small and frightened.
    “Nothing.”
Opening my eyes, I looked at her. “Doc, you got an option B for an exit?” I
cocked a thumb at the door behind me. “There’s no way in hell we’re going out
this way. Suicide alley if I ever saw one.”
    Chris
leaned over me to look through the windows. I hadn’t realized she hadn’t seen
what I had. “Oh…oh, my God. There are so many.” Her voice was a
squeaky-whisper, yet it carried down the under-construction hall behind her.
She stepped away from the door as if that short distance would offer some
shield against the scene in the dining hall.
    “Well?”
I pushed, not really expecting a tactically-sound or rational answer.
    “No,”
she admitted, shoulders slumping. “They weren’t here before. I swear they
weren’t. When I came for tea…” Chris’s eyes darted from me back to the window.
“Oh, no…oh, Fran.” Her gaze drops and I can see that something has given her an
emotional blow.
    “Friend
of yours?” A nod is enough answer for me.
    “Do we
head back? I mean…if we can’t go in there?” The look on Chris’s face was a
mixture of fear, frustration, and just a hint of steel—that’s what she’d need
to survive this, steel.
    “Probably
not the best idea in the world.” Trying to keep the conversation calm, I stood
up and rolled my neck and shoulders to ease some of the tension there.
    “What
else can we do? Going back has to be safer than in there.”
    “I
made a lot of noise getting to you. I’ve got a feeling that there’s just as
many behind us as there is ahead of us.” My tone was still even. I needed her
to stay even-keel and focused. I wasn’t sure she was the type of woman who
could hold it together if I didn’t stay completely levelheaded.
    “Then
what? What do we do?” she shout-whispered at me, her voice right on the edge of
changing into a yell.
    “Not
sure.” I pause and look at her firmly, “but if you lose your cool and get too
loud, it might not matter what we do, ‘cause they’ll be coming at us from all
sides. Just give me a chance to think this