Again she held the hammer up and this time Gabriel took it, though somewhat hesitantly. “Are you… sure?”“Yes,” she responded, matter-of-factly.Gabriel twirled the hammer in his hand, still uncertain. “I, I don’t know…”“Please, Gabriel . I don’t want to be one of those creatures. I just want it to end. I don’t think I have long. I can feel the disease eating away at me. My fever is growing. Just, please, stick around a little while and then… then end it.”Gabriel nodded. “’Kay…” he squeaked, barely able to get the word out.“Thank you,” Sara said, and rGabriel ef seemed to sweep over her. She closed her eyes and turned her head away from him.Gabriel returned to his spot by the door and waited.After a time, he realized he had drifted off to sleep again. He seemed to be doing that every time he sat still for more than a few moments. These past few days had to have been the most exhausting of his entire life, and no doubt that was taking its toll on his body.He looked over to Sa
Despite his difficulty, he was able to break through the zombie mass and he burst out into the street. By now, sweat was pouring down his face and his heart was pounding away inside his chest. His breath was heavy and labored as his chest struggled against the weight of the bag’s strap. He grabbed a part of his shirt and tried to wipe the sweat out of his eyes, but it was of little use as the shirt itself was already soaking wet. Gabriel tossed away the mostly useless pool cue and pulled the bag off his shoulder. He reached inside for the next available item.He pulled forth a frying pan.Frowning, Gabriel almost simply tossed this item away as well, but taking a quick look around at the approaching hordes of zombies he decided he did not have the time or luxury of second guessing. Besides, he told himself as he hoisted the bag back up over his shoulder, he had also doubted the crowbar before finding it surprisingly useful.The frying pan quickly proved its worth. While the light, s
Here they had been relatively stopped in their progress. Between leaving the apartment complex and arriving in this town, they had run into relatively few zombies. Mostly they found themselves dealing with the occasional straggler, but never large groups like they had seen at the apartment complex. Not until they got to the town.At that point they were forced into a dilemma. They needed food and ammunition to keep going, and maybe a map if they could find one, and the town was their first chance for such a resupply that they had come across in a while. However, the high volume of zombies in the town had certainly made the prospect of going in seem more like suicide than salvation. After watching the town for only a little while, though, they noticed that the zombies seemed to be generally moving in one direction: north. So they decided that if they mostly kept behind the zombies, moving quickly and quietly, drawing as little attention to themselves as they could, then they might just
He did not have much success.Bright morning sunlight fell over the prone form, coaxing it back into the waking world. The figure, Gabriel , stirred and, with great resentment, opened his eyes.His entire body hurt. His head hurt, his throat hurt, his back hurt. His hands felt a little like they were on fire. He tried to wiggle his toes and immediately winced. Even his toes hurt. With immense effort he rolled over, and to his surprise found himself on the floor. He pushed himself up and glanced around. For a moment his heart seemed to stop. He did not recognize his surroundings in the slightest. He was in a small, square room. About halfway up all four of the walls they turned into windows that stretched to the ceiling. On one wall there was a door, and on the wall opposite there was a console with various monitors and switches and other controls. There were two chairs below the console.On the floor was a mattress – the one he must have slept on – and it was tied up in a thick rope.
Gabriel opened his mouth to protest, and then closed it again. Jay was right, that was how it had happened, basically. “Yes, but they…” he started, but realized it was pointless and stopped. He let out a sigh of defeat. “Fine,” he consented, “I’ll do it. I’ll wait for your prison sentence. Where’s Robert now?”Jay tapped on the wall next to them. “Inside. But he won’t be for long. If you’re gonna do something, do it quickly.”“Yes, mother,” Gabriel muttered. He turned and hurried off around the back of the building, and then broke into a slow run across the field. His body immediately began protesting the exertion and he dropped back to a quick walk. Once he reached the dormitory he hurried inside. The rGabriel ever himself and used the sinks to freshen up a bit, even though in his heart he felt that nothing short of full immersion could possibly hope to wash away the grime of the past few days. On his way out, almost as an afterthought, he grabbed his bag of supplies and weapons. H
When he reached the top he burst through the door and into the room. Gabriel was standing, leaning against the console, looking through binoculars at the tree line across the street from the base. He barely glanced at them as they entered.“Okay, Gabriel , what the hell is so important?”Gabriel finally stepped back and held out the binoculars. “Take a look for yourself.” Gabriel made room for Robert as the older man grabbed the binoculars and took up the lookout position. “Sorry, I only have one pair of binoculars. I did only invite one person up here though.” Jake shot Gabriel a vicious look. He coughed and shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. “However, you can basically see it all well enough with just your eyes. Just take a look out along the tree line.”Jake and Aliyah lined up next to Robert and peered out. At first, Jake saw nothing, and then after a moment she saw what looked like movement. She thought it might just be her eyes playing tricks on her.Then, fin
Before him was a wall lined with computers.“So, these all work?” he asked. The excitement tightened his chest so much he was barely able to get the words out.Paul was busy messing around behind one of the computers. “No, just this one,” he answered, nonchalant, completely oblivious to Gabriel ’s demeanor.“Oh,” responded Gabriel , his heart and shoulders immediately sinking.With a flicker and hum the screen to the computer Paul had been working on sprang to life. “Excellent,” he muttered to himself as he sat down in the nearest chair. Then, to Gabriel , he said, “I didn’t want to use up too much power at once by letting a bunch of computers I didn’t need run all at once.”“Yes, that would be awful.” Gabriel ’s voice was flat and emotionless, as though he were no longer able to work up the energy to be expressive.Paul’s fingers blazed across the keyboard in clearly familiar patterns. The computer beeped some noises as it loaded up the operating system. “Here, come take a look at th
The door had a thick metal handle and no lock. It had no window or door jam, but instead smoothly slid into the wall with only the slightest of seams to give away that it was even there at all. Even with the metal handle, it was almost invisible.Jay pulled on the handle, but the door did not budge. On the wall next to the door was a panel that looked like a key card reader. On the reader was a small, red light. It was dim, almost imperceptible, but it was definitely glowing. Jay rubbed his finger across its surface. The light being on meant there was power running to the door. Which meant whatever was beyond the door Paul had considered important enough to make sure he would continue to have access to it. He also considered it important enough to block access to everyone else, since he could’ve left the power off and the door open or at least unlocked. This, he knew instinctively, was the secret Paul was hiding. This was the mystery Jay had sensed since they first arrived.If only he