Resident Evil_ Extinction - Keith R. A. DeCandido [89]
Clambering to his feet, Mikey ran toward the Hummer, even as Claire turned and shot another zomboid.
Then another impact, this on his side.
And another.
And another.
Overwhelming agony, worse than anything Butch had inflicted on him in an entire childhood of bullying torture, wracked Mikey’s body as the zomboids literally ripped him apart.
His last thoughts were of Claire.
The last thing he heard was Kmart calling his name.
Kmart would have thought that after all the people she’d seen die, she’d get used to it.
As she watched the monster zombies tear Mikey—poor, sweet Mikey, who never hurt another human being in his entire life—to pieces, after having seen them do the same to Cliff, Pablo, and Morgan, she realized that she hadn’t. And this less than a day after losing Otto, Betty, Dillon, and the others.
Kmart didn’t think she could take any more heartbreak.
Whirling around, she stared into the milky-white eyes and open mouth of L.J.
L.J. had turned into a zombie-ass motherfucker.
Screaming, Kmart tried to bring around her shotgun—oh, God, how could she shoot L.J., how?—but it was too cramped. L.J. leaned in to bite her, and she scrambled back, forced to abandon the shotgun.
Then another pair of hands grabbed her from below.
At first, she thought it was another zomboid, but it was just Carlos, climbing up through the hole in the floor. He pushed Kmart out of the way—
—and then L.J. bit him in the shoulder.
Carlos screamed, and so did Kmart.
Raising his. 45, Carlos shot L.J. in the face. L.J.’s head snapped back, and he slumped in the front seat.
Kmart couldn’t believe it. L.J. was the one who’d first called her Kmart. He’d been the one who always joked, always had a story for the kids, the one who kept them going. He couldn’t be dead, he just couldn’t.
She turned to look at Carlos, whom she had to admit to having a huge crush on, though that seemed immature and stupid right now. He had a big wound in his shoulder.
He was gonna die, too.
Bile rising in her throat, Kmart realized that they were all going to die here in this place that Alice said used to be a fun town.
TWENTY-SIX
Alice fought.
It had been a while since Detroit, which was the last time that the Umbrella Corporation had her under their control. It had been a while since she had to fight them.
Last time, she hadn’t been able to do it until after they made her kill Angie Ashford.
This time, she fought harder.
Alice had already been a hard woman, forged by her years in Treasury and as head of security for the Hive, tempered by the years since the T-virus spread, both through the Earth and through her veins.
She would not let herself be subject to Isaacs’s whims ever again.
For all the people who died in the Hive, from the five hundred employees to One and his commando team.
For Matt and Lisa, crusaders who wanted to bring Umbrella down.
For the entire population of Raccoon City, sacrificed on Umbrella’s altar of superiority.
For the people of this convoy who’d given their lives in an attempt to survive.
And for Angie.
Her eyes still worked, and she watched as the monsters tore the news truck apart and then did the same to Mikey.
She watched as L.J. turned and Carlos shot him in the face.
She watched as four more of the undead headed toward the ambulance, Peter-Michael and Joel managing to kill all four with their pistols, but not before one of them literally tore Peter-Michael’s head off.
She watched Dorian and Erica run toward the Eiffel Tower, hoping it would provide the same sanctuary that it had for Chase. One of the undead grabbed Erica’s leg, sending her crashing to the ground, killing her instantly. Dorian, wisely, kept running.
Alice could do nothing.
So she fought.
Pinto frowned. “Sir?”
Isaacs had been discussing the latest version of the formula with Margolin when Pinto interrupted. “What is it?”
“She’s fighting the conditioning.”
Dammit! He had been afraid of this.