Genesis - Keith R. A. DeCandido [69]
But seeing him mobbed by the zombie hordes of fucking hell, watching him kick and scream and struggle to stay alive, she realized that, goddammit, Kaplan was part of the team, too, and she was not going to let these freakazoids take anyone else.
Not even Kaplan.
So she took aim.
And couldn't make a fucking thing out.
It wasn't tears, it was the fucking virus. She had it.
She couldn't see.
"Help him!" Alice yelled.
The words were painful to say: "I can't."
"What're you waiting for?"
"I can't focus! I can't see!"
She couldn't believe it. Six between-the-eyes shots in a target fifty feet away, but now, less than half that distance away, she couldn't tell where Kaplan ended and the zombies began.
If she missed, she'd hit Kaplan.
If she missed.
Words she'd never had to think before.
Suddenly, the Colt was ripped from her hands. What the fuck?
It was Alice. She shot two of the zombies in the head, which gave Kaplan the freedom to run up the fallen pipe.
Unfortunately, it put him about ten feet away, with no direct access to the vent.
"Kaplan—hold on!" Alice urged. "We're gonna come get you. We need to cut this wire, then we can throw it to him. Then we can go get him. Hold on!"
Rain thought Alice was out of her fucking mind.
Kaplan emptied that stupid revolver he carried as a backup. She missed the part where he emptied the Beretta. Or maybe he lost it in the crowd down there.
He had one bullet left.
"That's lucky," he muttered. Then he looked at the rest of them. "I want you to go."
"No," Alice said. "We're not leaving you, Kaplan."
"Yes, you are."
"No!"
"You can't kill all of them! I'm not goin' anywhere. I want you to go, now! Please, just do it! Just do it now! Please—go!"
For the first time since she joined One's team, Rain respected Kaplan.
She never would've given him the credit to take one for the team. Shit, she doubted any of them would.
Then again, they'd never come across anything like this. Nobody had.
Either Addison or Spence started guiding her down the vent. Normally she'd have told him to go fuck himself, but her vision was getting worse. She didn't trust that she wouldn't bump into a wall or some shit like that.
She heard a single gunshot.
Braver sonofabitch than she thought.
Now she was the only one left.
Twenty-Three
ALICE FORCED HERSELF NOT TO THINK ABOUT the gunshot she'd just heard.
As she crawled along the vent shaft, she tried desperately to banish the last image of Bart Kaplan she had: him putting the barrel of the gun in his mouth.
Part of her was angry at him for taking such a coward's way out. On the other hand, he had been bitten by those things, and they were coming after him.
At least by shooting himself in the head, he guaranteed he wouldn't be resurrected by the virus.
But she forced herself not to think about it.
The shaft dead-ended under a grate. She looked at Matt and Spence, who were right behind her.
No words were exchanged, nor had they been since they left Kaplan behind.
Getting into a squatting position, Alice slowly stood upright, pushing the grate slowly upward.
It opened into one of the corridors.
One thankfully short on undead employees of the Umbrella Corporation.
She came out first, holding Rain's gun at the ready. Spence was right behind her.
"Come on," Spence called down to Matt and Rain.
Matt climbed out first, then reached down to Rain.
"Give me your arm."
A limp, sweat-and-blood-covered arm reached up. He grabbed it and pulled. Rain managed to stumble out.
"Now up over my shoulder."
Even as she did what he said, she fell forward and threw up.
To his credit, Matt didn't bat an eyelash. He just waited for her to stop.
"Thanks." Rain's voice was even more ragged. It was amazing that she was still holding on. "Sorry I slapped you around back at the mansion."
Matt smiled. "It's all right. I probably had it coming. Just hold on."
Alice