Now I did.
“Why?”
“Because I can,” he said. “Maybe I owe you one and I don’t like owing people nothing. You made me into death incarnate.”
“I didn’t do anything but run some tests.”
“You said they could let me go. That’s enough for me. I’m tryin’ to do you a favor.”
“It wouldn’t be that simple,” I said. “If he thinks it works, Colonel Shelly will expect me to have dozens of exes outfitted with the Nest. Maybe hundreds. You can’t—”
The ex’s grin faded. “Don’t you tell me what I can’t do. If I wanted, every dead thing for three miles would pick up a rock and beat their own skulls in. Or anyone else’s.” He glared at me with his dusty, scratched eyes.
“I don’t want any—”
“I can find them for you.”
He spoke with such certainty it made me shake. “What?”
“The soldiers at the fence,” said the ex, “they’re talking about you and your kid. You think your girl and your old lady got away, right? That’s what they’re saying.”
“Colonel Shelly is—”
“He’s fucking stringing you along’s what he’s doing. You really think he’s going to send his people out to look for corpses?”
“They’re not dead!”
“Sure they’re not, doc,” he said with a smile. “And I’ll help find them. I got a thousand eyes here in the desert. If I see them, I’ll let you know where they are.”
“You…you’d do that?”
“Hey, doc, familia is everything, you know?”
I knew it was wrong and I didn’t care. I could tell he was as mad as me in his own way—in a dangerous way—and I didn’t care. I just wanted to know Eva and Madelyn were safe and be done with the Nest project so they would all leave me alone and I wouldn’t have to think.
I looked the dead man in the eyes. “What do you want?”
“Just tell them the thing works. Tell ‘em I’m still kinda slow, so they won’t expect much. Then I’ll be free to move around.”
“That’s all?”
“We may need to iron out some details later,” he said, “but that’s all for now. Deal?”
His right hand bent up under the strap, ready to shake on it. A gentlemen’s agreement.
I reached down and unfastened the strap.
Chapter 23
NOW
“So,” growled the ex, “we meet again and all that shit, eh, dragon man? Bet you weren’t expecting this.”
St. George pushed Sorensen behind him. “How the hell did you survive?” he asked the dead man. “Cerberus killed you. We burned your body with a few hundred other corpses.”
“And I got better.” The ex laughed. It was a dry sound. “I’m Peasy, esse . Patient zero. D’you think I’d go down that easy?”
“You’re not patient zero,” said St. George. “You’re patient zero’s first victim, a street punk and a murderer who lucked out and got superpowers.”
“It wasn’t luck,” said Sorensen. He cleaned his glasses in a half-hearted way. “He was one of the Krypton subjects before I took control of the project a few years ago. I thought we’d flushed all the synthetic hormones and steroids from his system, but when he was exposed to the ex-virus they reacted in unforeseen ways.”
St. George glanced over his shoulder at the older man. “You did this to him?”
The doctor shrugged. “I didn’t stop it from happening to him, if you care to make the distinction.”
“Don’t matter to me,” said the ex. The dead man’s eyes blinked as they tried to focus. “What the hell happened to your head, dragon man? You look like a sick altar boy or something.”
“So how did you survive? Where are you hiding?”
The dead thing grinned. “That’s the cool thing. I’m everywhere and nowhere. I been like this since that bitch tore my head off. Hell, if I’d known that redhead was you, I’d’ve ripped your head off yesterday.”
“What?”
Peasy grinned. “Got her,” he said. “And believe me, I been thinking for months now about—”
* * *
“—all the things I’m going to do to you. I don’t even know where to start.”
Danielle batted at the desiccated arm. “Fucking murderer,” she snarled. “I’d do it again. Give me half a chance and I’ll tear you to pieces.”
The dead soldier leered down at her through dusty eyes. On some level she knew how vulnerable she was. All flesh in a room full of exes. He could do anything to her. Anything at all.
But all she could think of was Gorgon. About his twisted body as a monstrous giant dropped it like a used napkin. About finding it half-eaten the next morning and crushing the oversized skull of the thing that killed him.
She reached up and smacked the dead man across the jaw. It laughed at her and bent her back further over the table. She swung again and it grabbed her wrist.
“Know what I’m going to do, puta ?” It shook her arm. “I’m gonna let them eat your hands.”
A few of the exes in the circle trembled. They lowered their guns and their teeth clicked a few times. They turned to look at her.
“Gonna let them bite your fingers off one at a time. You ever see a zombie when they get someone fresh? If you’re bleeding they’ll sit there and suck on it. It’s liquid meat to them.”
All the teeth chattered. Two dozen exes. None of them moved, but they all stared at her.
“And if you start to get weak,” said Peasy, “we’ll just burn you. Stop the bleeding that way. Then maybe I’ll let them eat your toes. You like that, bitch? Bet you’re one of those toe-sucker freaks.”
She twisted her arm free and screamed at him. Her hands flailed back on the table looking for a screwdriver or a prybar. There was nothing. She tried to keep things clean and tidy.
“And when I’m bored with watching you cry,” he said, “I’ll just divide and conquer. Pull off your legs, your arms, and—”
* * *
“—then her head. Maybe I’ll save her skull, put it up on a mantle or some shit.”
“You’re with Danielle now,” said St. George.
“Oh yeah. These idiots put me on guard duty around her armor. You guys pissed off the Army something harsh.”
“If you hurt her,” said the hero, “I’ll crush your skull.”
It grinned at him. “I got a hundred thousand skulls, hero. And a billion more waiting for me to move in.”
“There’s nowhere you’ll be safe.”
“Well, good for me I’ve been nowhere for months now,” cackled the ex. “I’m the new zombie virus, dragon man. Now, you got any last words before…BITCH!”
* * *
“You got any last words before—”
Her fingers closed on the laptop and she swung it over her head. The cables caught, just for a second, but then the USB connectors popped free and she brought the metal and plastic case down on the dead man’s skull. The corner gouged open the flesh from the middle of his forehead across his brow ridge and forced his eye shut.
“BITCH!”
She didn’t wait to see how much damage she’d done. She let the computer drop, dove under his arms, and skittered away across the floor.
He growled and all the teeth in the room stopped chattering. The exes turned as one and tracked her movement across the floor. Their arms raised in perfect sync and pointed at her. Peasy turned and snarled. His face was covered with dark, clumpy blood. He took a step, and the exes stepped forward with him.
Danielle had the M16.
She rolled over and fired. He wasn’t even six feet away, bending down to grab her. The first two rounds caught him in the chest. The third in the Adam’s apple. The last one punched through his nose and out the back of his skull. His face sagged and the ex collapsed in a pile.
“Don’t work like that anymore,” said another one of the exes. This one was a woman. Its hair was shaved short and there was a ragged bite mark on its left forearm. It sneered at her from the circle of dead soldiers. “Don’t you get it, big girl? I’m the big one now. Way too big for you to kill.”