Eleven
Asia
The hallway was dark but mercifully empty.
No people.
None of those shambling things.
But the acrid smell of smoke hung in the air, and I heard screams and sirens in the distance. Faint, but unmistakable.
I blocked it all out and stuck close behind Jack as we made our way down the hall and out through the administrative building.
Being outside felt like we crossed the finish line .
The relief came instantly.
And left even faster.
The courthouse and administrative buildings were surrounded by a courtyard that I always found beautiful. Maybe it was odd to think of “beautiful” in connection with government buildings, but this courtyard was special.
It always felt a little an oasis in the middle of all of the concrete.
On the weekends, I’d sit there with a book or watch old ladies power-walk the perimeter.
Now, the courtyard I loved so much was unrecognizable.
I tried to look everywhere at once.
Each thing I saw was worse than the last.
A fire in one of the trash cans burned so hot, the metal twisted in on itself.
An ambulance lay tilted on its side in the middle of the courtyard, its engine steaming and spitting.
I hoped we were far away when it finally exploded.
And the bodies…so many bodies.
Fully intact corpses, bodies that had been ripped to pieces, and everything in between all strewn on the verdant courtyard like so much trash.
Jack halted, his gaze on the ambulance. “There might still be supplies in there. Stuff that’s not so easy to find,” he said.
My fingertips tingled with anxiety. “Do we have to?”
I hated the way my voice trembled, but Jack didn’t notice.
Or more likely, he didn’t acknowledge it.
After a second, he shook his head. “Not worth it. Keep moving.”
He’d get no argument from me.
I stayed no more than a step behind him as we crossed the courtyard and continued down the cracked cobblestone sidewalk. Jack had drilled in the importance of cover, but there was no cover.
Only chaos.
More fires, more bodies, more vehicles twisted together like perverse art.
One scene stuck out.
A police cruiser lying on its side, the wheels still spinning. Sadly, nothing out of the ordinary during this horrid morning walk, except for the uniformed officer crushed flat under the vehicle.
An officer who was clearly dead.
And still moving.
His fingers clawed at the ground, seeking traction he’d never find, grasping helplessly to reach us. He had the same milk-white dead eyes that Jorge had.
When I saw Jorge, I felt grief.
What I felt now was rage.
Pity.
So many emotions, I couldn’t name them all.
The stew morphed into a pulse of energy that propelled me forward, intent on ending that thing.
I didn’t make it step before a hand clamped around my arm and yanked me back.
I tried to shake it off to no avail.
Dug deeper and tried to move.
Still didn’t make it a step.
I looked down at Jack’s hand manacled around my arm.
His grip didn’t even look that tight, but I knew I wouldn’t move until he allowed me to .
Teeth clenched, I practically snarled, “Let me go.”
It was the voice I used on convicted murderers.
Jack didn’t blink.
“Keep it together, Counselor,” he said.
His voice had the faintest edge, and so did his expression, but in the next second, it was gone.
“Leave it. We gotta keep moving,” he said, softer this time.
Even though he was talking to me, Jack looked at the officer.
There was something in his voice. I wasn’t sure what it was, and honestly, I didn’t have the strength to try to figure it out.
When I looked at Jack again, he was stoic and serious.
He was also right.
We kept walking.
I didn’t look back.
“Sorry about that,” I muttered, catching his gaze a few minutes later.
I hoped he saw I meant it.
He nodded curtly. “What happened? ”
I shrugged, trying to find words to describe what I felt.
Being at a loss for words was rare for me, but given the circumstances, I cut myself some slack. “I don’t know. Guess I just wanted to put it out of its misery. Plus, it could have gotten out and hurt someone.”
“No way,” Jack said.
He spoke with a certitude that made me bristle.
“How can you be so sure?”
“His spine was crushed. Even if he managed to break away—which would require him ripping himself in half—he can’t walk. So if he hurts someone, it’s because they wanted to be hurt. We need to focus on where we need to be and not get distracted,” he said.
“So it’s just that simple, huh?”
“Yeah. Just that simple.”
He said nothing else, but I could tell he wanted to. But he’d probably decided now wasn’t the time for a debate on morality.
I didn’t want to talk anyway.
The plan to go to Judge Hanlon’s gave me hope, a purpose. But seeing all this? It showed me what this really was .
Reminded me I couldn’t slip.
I told myself I was ready.
That resolve lasted about four more blocks.
“We can cut through the neighborhoods. More trees. Less through traffic,” I said.
Jack nodded, no doubt remembering the map I had drawn.
As we cut through one of the neighborhoods, I looked at the houses—each of them adorable and worth more than I’d probably earn in a lifetime.
Or at least they had been.
Something told me that the dead returning to life would be hell on property values.
I let out a low, grim chuckle, but my gallows humor didn’t distract me from thoughts about the people who’d lived here.
I wondered if the owner of the douchey extended-cab pickup got away.
Wondered the same about the owner of the even douchier electric car.
Wondered if the busybody who put the matching Private Residence signs on each lawn had?—
“Down there! Help! Please! ”
A frantic scream burst through the relative quiet of morning.
I spun, searching for the source of the voice.
Spotted a woman waving wildly as she practically hung out of the top window of a two-story house. Mid-forties, blonde, wearing a shirt with the logo of a boutique local gym. Her clothes, her hair, diamond earrings that glinted in the sun, all screamed rich.
But at that moment, the thing that struck me was her fear. The kind of terror that was foreign to me before yesterday but now felt familiar.
I knew better than to go to her.
I moved anyway, my heart lifting when she smiled through her fear.
“Thank you,” she called, her voice lifting. “My daughter—someone attacked her!”
And the next instant, another figure appeared.
She looked like a college-aged version of the woman—except her eyes were that vacant milky white I saw in Jorge.
“You have to get away from her!” I screamed, pointing at the woman’s daughter .
“Quiet,” Jack snapped, suddenly next to me. I had lost track of him, but now he again had my arm in his tight grip, locking me in place.
I didn’t try to shake him off. I twisted as best I could to face him.
“We have to help her, or—” My words were cut off by the woman’s blood-curdling scream.
A scream that was silenced as the daughter pulled her down and out of view.
Even though I couldn’t see them, I kept staring anyway, the sun burning at my back, my eyes threatening to tear because I didn’t blink.
“Move!” Jack said, his voice low and urgent.
It couldn’t have been long, but the world felt entirely different than it did before I spotted the woman.
I wasn’t sure how that was possible.
I knew what I’d seen, had evidence of so much worse, but that…
I let Jack lead me, and we moved quickly, his hand still on my arm. We were practically running until we were out of that neighborhood and into another and then another before he stopped .
Jack squeezed my arm. For a moment, his touch seemed almost tender, but then it shifted. His eyes blazed with anger and his voice was harsh when he finally spoke. “What the fuck was that?”
“She needed help,” I said.
He looked at me like I was the stupidest person he’d ever encountered.
“Help?” His laugh was cold. He huffed with disgust. “Listen close, Counselor. You can’t even help yourself.
You’re in as much danger as you’ve ever been in your entire life.
I’m in as much danger as I’ve ever been in my entire life.
It’s nice that you wanna—” he looked at me, his face still twisted with disgust “—help people. But that’s how you’ll end up dead. ”
I glared at him, but didn’t say anything else.
He paused for a moment longer, scanning the area for any threats. Apparently satisfied, he said, “Move.”
I did without speaking.
There was nothing to say, and I was certainly in no mood to argue. So we set off, and I again said a prayer that this would go smoothly .
A prayer that went unanswered.
We had made it another half mile when I heard the scramble of feet behind me. I turned, expecting to see more of those things, but instead, there were three people, two men and a woman. They looked frantic and approached us with a speed and desperation that had me on edge.
I glanced at Jack, not surprised when he wore the expression I expected—one that said there was trouble, but he was prepared for it.
“Can you help us?” one of the men said, getting closer and still walking quickly.
Jack stepped back. “No.”
The man kept moving closer, and it was only when he did that I noticed the wrench in his hand. He lifted it.
“Let me ask a different?—”
He went to speak but doubled over when Jack punched him in the ribs. The wrench fell out of his hand and clattered uselessly to the ground. Before the others could react, Jack picked up the wrench and swung. He made contact with the man's ribs—ribs that were certainly broken now .
I watched as he lifted the wrench, prepared to swing again.
“Jack, no!” I said, my voice high-pitched.
I was surprised when he froze, wrench still raised, and looked at me.
“They’ll leave,” I said, looking at him, then to the other three people. “Right?” I added, making eye contact with the woman.
She nodded, and then she and the others grabbed the injured man’s arms and limped away, his blood dripping onto the pavement. Jack stared at them, chest heaving with his heavy breaths. His grip on the wrench tight, like he was anxious to use it again.
“Let’s go.” Jack’s voice was low.
Dangerous.
He kept the wrench at his side as we moved, his grip giving away his rage.
Rage I suspected was directed at me.
“You have something to say?” I asked.
“Not now,” he said curtly.
“Yes, now,” I said.
His eyes were black with anger when he finally looked at me.
“Fine. You’re fucking naive and it’s gonna get you killed. I’m not gonna let it get me killed,” he said.
I bristled. “I’m not naive.”
“Fucking fooled me, Counselor.”
“If you think I’m naive, I guess I did fool you. But trust me, I know what this world is. I know what people are.”
“Is that so?” His stance screamed that he dared me to disagree.
I did.
“Yeah it is. So I’m not naive. I just haven’t given up,” I said.
I knew this was dangerous, knew that everything had gone to shit. But I wouldn’t let that take me, wouldn’t let it destroy the woman I fought so hard to become.
Jack frowned at me, but before he could speak, I kept going.
We walked on in silence, the tension between us was thicker than the smoke that hung in the air.
We didn’t make it more than two blocks before the world decided to call my bluff.