PART THREE NEW ALAMO
No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.
—MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT
12
ALETHEA SIGHED HEAVILY AND SAID, “Am I the only one who’s starting to think we’re all cursed by witches?”
“I like witches,” said Spider vaguely.
Gutsy shook her head. “No. This is just cause and effect. And some bad decisions. Chong should have kept his drugs with him all the time.”
“Sure,” said Alethea, “go tell that to Lilah. Bet she’ll appreciate the criticism. She seems like a very understanding kind of gal.”
Gutsy almost said, Well, it’s what I would have done. Then something occurred to her.
“Hey,” she said, touching Nix’s shoulder, “maybe we’re panicking over nothing. Karen’s daughter, Sarah, is infected too. She gets regular medicine from Dr. Morton to keep her from turning. Maybe he has a stash of it somewhere.”
“Had,” said Ledger sourly. “You saw his office. He’s missing, presumed either dead or with Collins.”
“Okay,” said Gutsy, “but there still might be a supply of pills somewhere.”
Everyone brightened and even smiled, but then Spider raised his hand. “Guys, I don’t want to be a downer here,” he said, “but I seem to remember someone saying that the pills were made at the base, and that Morton only brought in some at a time.”
The brief bubble of elation burst at once, and if anything, everyone looked even more stressed and scared than before.
Gutsy cleared her throat and attempted to inject some optimism into the moment. “We should have asked Doc Morton if there’s another base or lab anywhere around.”
“What we should have done,” said Karen bitterly, “is kept him on a leash. God, my daughter could die because we didn’t think this through.”
“We’re all in shock,” said Gutsy. “And I’m afraid we’re acting like it. Making bad decisions.”
Ledger shot her a quick appraising look, then nodded. “You’re right. What makes it worse is that Sam and I should have been calling the shots here. This is what we do.”
“Used to do,” said Sam.
“Doesn’t matter. This is on us,” insisted Ledger. “And being clumsy ends right now. We need to find Morton, and if he’s dead or gone, then we need to find someone in this town who can step up and figure out a way to make those pills. Do you have a pharmacist?”
“Sure,” said Karen. “Manny Flores.”
“Okay, then he’s our fallback. But first things first: Collins or one of her cronies was here. Someone had to have seen something.”
“I’ll go find Manny,” said Karen.
After she left, they began grilling the staff in that part of the hospital. When that yielded nothing, they tried outside. One of the nurses on break pointed to the alley at the back of the building.
“He went down there,” she said.
“Was he hurt?” asked Ledger.
“Morton? No, I don’t think so. But I heard someone tell him there was an injured kid. Not sure if there was a bite or not, but the doctor took his bag. Danny was with him.”
Danny was the guard assigned to the doctor.
They all headed to the rear of the hospital and down the back alley, but there was no one in sight. Then they heard the cries, filled with hopeless agony.
Sombra and Grimm bounded forward, and everyone else ran after. They rounded a turn that opened into a small cement courtyard that was used as an informal break area. Plastic chairs were scattered around as if a storm had swept through. They saw Danny and Morton locked in an awkward embrace, moving together in a graceless and terrible dance. Danny’s clothes were slashed and soaked with blood. His eyes were vacant, his mouth smeared with red as he tore at the doctor’s shoulder with a snarling, hungry mouth.
13
SAM DREW A KNIFE, BUT Gutsy got there first. She swung her crowbar in a fast, tight arc and caught Danny on the temple, knocking his head sideways, breaking the connection of the bite. The zombie staggered and Gutsy struck again, this time with more raw power and precision, and shattered the back of the guard’s skull. The creature sagged and then toppled over, his face and limbs settling into a terminal slackness.
Morton dropped to his knees, clamping a trembling hand to his torn shoulder, weeping, pleading, begging for help. He had smaller bites on his face and neck and even his scalp, and his eyes were feverish and jumpy with blood loss and shock.
As they all variously knelt or stood around him, Gutsy felt such a deep conflict tearing her up inside. On one hand, this was the man who’d carried out Collins’s orders to infect Mama with a deadly disease. This same man was responsible for half the bodies buried in Hope Cemetery. By any measurement he was a monster, a hateful and callous murderer. He was evil.
At the same time, though, he was powerless. His strength and his ability to do any additional harm had been bitten away. Even if there were a doctor left in town who could operate on him and repair the damage to nerve and vein and muscle, Morton was doomed—and he knew it.
Captain Ledger crouched in front of Morton, forearms resting on his knees. “Well, ain’t you a sight, Doc. This is a case of irony literally biting you. If we didn’t need you, this would be funny.”
Morton whimpered.
Ledger used his knife to cut some cloth from Morton’s lab coat, then folded it and pressed it to the man’s shoulder. “Hold it in place, Doc; you know the drill. It’s not that bad. None of these bites are. No major veins or arteries. Bet it hurts, though, and later I’ll find some time to get all weepy about that.”
“Hey, guys,” called Spider, who had knelt by the dead guard, “this is weird. Danny’s been stabbed. There’s not a single bite on him.”
“He’s right,” said Sam.
“Well, ain’t this a pickle, Doc?” murmured Ledger. “Looks like somebody knifed Danny and then sicced him on you. Isn’t that interesting as all heck? Tell me—did Bess Collins come to pay you a social call?”
“B-Bess… ?” stammered Morton, confused. “How c-could she? She’s locked up. N-no… it wasn’t her.”
Ledger frowned. “Who did it, then?”
“I don’t know. Two strangers. Teenagers, I think.” Morton hissed as pain shot through him. “They wore hats and had cloths over their mouths.”
Ledger studied him. “Curiouser and curiouser.”
“Collins must have more of her goons in town,” suggested Benny. “She must have sent them.”
Ledger tapped Morton’s chest. “You got something to say about that?”
“How would I know?” whined Morton. “They didn’t exactly come here to make speeches. They had knives, they… they killed that guard and knocked me down. I… I must have blacked out for a few seconds. I woke up when he—it—attacked me.” Tears ran down his cheeks, turning pink as they passed through smears of blood. Morton shook his head. “It all happened so fast. I didn’t even see them leave. They were strangers. I never saw them before.”