It occurred to Ken that he owed everyone in the company his life, many times over.
Hope was still screaming, but her shrieks were no longer the fever pitch they had been a moment ago. As though when the monstrous bridges had been torn apart, so had whatever power held sway over her.
She quieted.
But there was still screaming. Not hers, but screaming nonetheless.
It’s not over.
Ken looked up.
And saw that some of the zombies had made it. Were on the cable above them.
And climbing down toward Dorcas.
51
There was nothing Ken could do. He could only watch.
Dorcas had saved him. Not just once, but time and again. Had dragged him unconscious through the most hostile environment, had protected him and provided for his physical and mental safety.
And now that she needed help the most, he could do nothing. Fate was playing a cruel game, making him watch from inches away and making those inches an infinite gap.
Two zombies had made it to the cable. One of them was missing a leg, the other was one that had flayed its way into the tunnel: no skin on its body, just gleaming, seeping muscle and bone.
They oriented themselves, then began sliding toward Dorcas as she hung below them.
“Down, down!” she screamed.
Ken started sliding, but they were on her before he had gone five feet. They were fast, too damn fast.
She screamed again.
“Down, doowwww….”
The last word elongated into a shriek of terror. He knew he should keep going, knew that there was nothing he could do for her. But he stopped.
He looked.
She couldn’t do much. She only had one good hand, and if she let go of the cable, she could die.
The things seemed to know it, too. Not moving too fast. Taking their time.
Getting into position.
They climbed down the cable, down onto her.
Not interested in knocking her off. No, they were going to change her. There was no doubt. As soon as one or the other of them brought its face in range, it would bite her. It would bite her and change her and the warm, brave, good woman Ken knew would be gone.
Then there would be three zombies on the cable instead of two.
Ken cursed and began reeling cable between his fingers, letting it pass through his legs. Not knowing how far he had left to go.
Definitely knowing that it didn’t matter. Because he only had seconds left. And that wasn’t enough time.
The remaining zombies, the ones that still held to the walls of the shaft, resumed their growls. As though urging on the two that were about to add to their ranks.
Hope started cooing again.
Ken looked at her.
She was smiling. She started to laugh.
And as bad as the thought of his own death was, the sound of his little girl laughing as doom poured down on them was infinitely, exquisitely worse.
52
Ken almost let go of the cable as what sounded like a pair of sonic booms exploded through the confined space of the shaft.
Boom.
BOOM.
And then infinite reverberations, echoes that bounced back and forth and up and down and became the entirety of Ken’s world for the space of an eternal moment.
He felt dizzy. He closed his eyes. Tried to find his center, tried to regain some semblance of self.
It didn’t work.
He opened his eyes and looked up in time to see one of the zombies, one of the things that had been about to bite Dorcas, let go of both her and the cable. It was the legless one, and as it fell Ken saw that it had somehow lost a huge piece of its head as well. Its face had turned inside out, a blasted crevasse ringed by bone and blood.
The back of its head was worse. Just a nub of spine, a bit of hair and skin.
It wasn’t dead, though. Of course not. Only people died in this horrible reality, this twisted waking nightmare.
The monsters went on forever.
The legless thing fell and disappeared into the darkness of the shaft, spastically clenching its hands and arms, its one leg kicking back and forth.
Ken wondered what would happen once it finally hit bottom.
He wondered if Maggie and Liz and Buck were still alive down there.
He looked up and saw Dorcas still struggling with the other zombie. The one that had no skin, only blood and muscle and bone.
It couldn’t bite her, not anymore. Like its legless brother, this zombie had lost most of its head – including its teeth. It had nothing to bite her with. But whenever one of these things suffered what should be a killing head trauma, they seemed to go insane. This one was no different.
So it wasn’t biting her.
It was beating her to death one-handed.
53
Ken tried to climb. He could have convinced himself that two of the things was too much to handle – especially when all it took was a single bite. But now, watching his friend be pummeled only ten feet above him….
Hearing her scream.