Flip This Zombie - Jesse Petersen [76]
Dave snapped forward with a rather feral snarl, dragging me behind him as he rolled up on Barnes.
“Hey!”
All of us stopped and turned because it was The Kid who had spoken. He held his gun level to Dave’s face and he said, “Let’s just go to the room and we’ll talk this all out there. Okay?”
Dave was tense as a board as he shook his head in disgust, but he followed The Kid, forcing me to back along behind him, my eyes once again on Barnes.
“Is he your real kid or is this one of those ‘New World-New Family’ deals you see so often in the camps?” I asked with an even glare for Barnes. I still couldn’t believe they were related, no matter what Robbie said.
He stared back at me evenly. “Oh, he’s very much of my own flesh,” he said with a smile. “Don’t you see it in our eyes?”
I shook my head. “I guess I never looked closely enough.”
He nodded. “Well, that was your mistake, I suppose. One of many I’m sure you’re reviewing in your head right now and kicking yourself for them.”
I didn’t get to respond because we moved into a room. This wasn’t a place I had seen during my tour of the facility the previous day. But then, as Barnes had said, that had been my mistake, too. I had been willing to believe that what he showed me in those first dozen or so rooms was true and had never guessed that it was all a manipulation. He’d made the gamble that I’d give up when so many rooms he showed me were anything but sinister.
Stupid me, his bet had paid out at least double. But then, I’d never done so well in Vegas anyway.
The room was big, with bright lights above that made the sterile white walls all the more painfully stark. I blinked as I looked around. There was a big window on one side of the room that looked into a lab. On the other walls were large doors, but they didn’t look like they opened on hinges, but rather slid up and down.
Barnes backed up to the door and lifted his shotgun to his shoulder. “Now, Robert, please do untie Sarah and David. And don’t try anything, you two, because I will shoot you without hesitation.”
I bit my lip, glaring at the doctor as The Kid unlooped the ropes around our wrists. Once we were able to break apart, Dave and I turned to face each other, each rubbing our raw wrists and looking at the other. There was no need to say much, we’d been together long enough to read something of the other’s mind and mood.
Neither of those were filled with very positive thoughts. As the door we’d entered slammed shut behind Barnes and The Kid, I reached out to take Dave’s hand. I shook my head.
“Sorry. This is my fault.”
His brow wrinkled and he stared down at me. “Not likely. The only one at fault here is that prick and his brat. They were the ones who preyed on your desire to find some kind of hope in the future.”
I dipped my chin as heat flooded my cheeks. “Yeah, well, so much for that, huh? I mean, I should have stuck with your way and only trusted what I could see around me. See where hope got me? Us?”
“Hey.” He lifted my chin with his finger. “I like that you have hope. When you believe there’s a future out there… it kind of makes me think that maybe there could be. There can only be one cynical jerk in this partnership and it’s me.”
“Very sweet,” came a voice from the speakers that were mounted around the room.
We both looked at the big window that faced into the adjoining room. Barnes was now sitting at a desk behind the glass, holding a microphone as he stared in at us.
“Where’s The Kid?” I asked.
“Still worrying over him even though he’s entirely capable of taking care of himself?” Barnes asked, and I thought I detected a hint of surprise in his tone. “He went out to collect the specimen you caught for me, Sarah. And by the way, thank you for that.”
“Thanks for almost getting me killed with your freak machines, asshole,” I snapped as I took a long step toward the glass.
Dave caught my arm and held me steady so that I couldn’t waste my energy going for the window.
Barnes shook his head. “I didn’t actually