Omega Days (Volume 1)

TWENTY-NINE



Mission Bay



Alden looked up with a weak smile. “It’s okay. I never…expected to…get this far.” He looked past Xavier at the horde of corpses slowly closing on them, following since they had dropped from the freeway. “You should…get going.”

Xavier shoved the Bulldog into his waistband and knelt beside the school teacher. “We need to get you someplace safe.”

“Are you f*cking crazy?” Pulaski pointed at Alden. “He’s a dead man, and we’ve got to keep moving. Kill him or leave him.”

“Shut up.”

“He’s been dead weight all along.”

The priest looked at the pipe fitter and bared his teeth. “I said shut up.”

“F*ck you! I’m done taking orders from you!” Pulaski pointed the 9mm at Xavier. “Give me that pistol. Do it slow, or I’ll blow your black ass away.”

Xavier glared at him, saw murder in the man’s eyes, and slowly handed over the Bulldog.

Without taking his eyes or the gun off the priest, Pulaski said to Tricia, “I’m getting out of here. We keep going until we hit Third Street, then cut north and cross the canal at the ball park. The marina is right there. You coming?”

The girl’s hands were clapped to her mouth, eyes darting between the two men, not moving.

Pulaski curled his lip. “Well f*ck you, too.” He spit on the ground. “F*ck all of you.” Then he was on his feet and gone, running past the overturned armored truck and out of sight.

Xavier lifted Alden in his arms. “We’re going to find someplace close to hide, where they won’t see us. They’ll pass us by.”

“No! Xavier…this is…stupid.” The teacher tried to resist, couldn’t. “Put me…down.”

The priest ignored him and started towards the sidewalk, away from the campus. “Come on, Tricia.”

The girl didn’t answer, and Xavier stopped, looking back. She was no longer huddled against the truck, but was walking towards the campus, hands still pressed to her mouth.

“Tricia!”

She kept walking, and then broke into a run, holding her arms wide, a rising wail coming from her that made a shiver run through the priest.

“Tricia, no!”

She crossed the curb, and then was running across a lawn, straight towards a dozen corpses. They turned and moved stiff-legged towards her.

“No,” Xavier whispered, still holding the man in both arms as the rain mixed with his tears. He watched her run to her death.

“She’s made…her choice,” Alden said.

Xavier watched until she reached the knot of zombies, and then looked away before he had to see what came next. He headed up 16, in the direction Pulaski had gone, but didn’t see the man anywhere.

“Xavier…”

The priest shook his head. “Don’t talk for a while, Alden.” He kept walking, the horde behind them closing with every step, more of them over on the grass kneeling in a big circle and fighting over fresh meat.

Mission Bay was an odd mix of industrial area, high rise condos, apartment buildings and construction sites. As the terminus for both Caltrain and the city’s light rail system, it was not uncommon to see luxury buildings backed up to warehouses, and neatly groomed parks adjacent to truck depots. More than a few high rise balconies had HELP or ALIVE signs painted on sheets hanging over the sides, and many of these same balconies were occupied by corpses, bumping against the railing or wandering in and out through sliding doors.

Xavier stayed on the sidewalk, the UCSF campus slowly passing on the left, wondering how long it would be before the dead saw them and attacked, knowing he would go down swinging the crowbar, protecting a man beyond saving. But they made it all the way to where 3 Street crossed north to south ahead of them. Beyond was a wall of high rises. The waterfront would be on the other side.

“Just a little farther,” Xavier said.

Alden shook his head, eyes closed and jaw clenched. “Please,” he gasped, “put…me down.”

Xavier carried him across the street, seeing corpses walking in the rain to the right and left, but none immediately ahead of them. They went into the lobby of a condo, where the gray of the day cast the room in deep shadow. Nothing came at them, and he set Alden down on a couch near the concierge desk. The teacher groaned and sagged back against the cushions.

“I’m going to find something to bind that wound.”

The teacher gripped his wrist. “Stay with…me…for a bit.”

Xavier crouched beside him and said nothing for nearly thirty minutes, letting Alden get his breath back. The man’s face eventually relaxed, and when he spoke it was soft but unlabored. “You’ve been in charge for weeks,” he said, “but now you’re going to listen to me.” He was pale, eyes sunk in darkening hollows. “I’m not going to get better.”

Xavier started to shake his head, but Alden squeezed his wrist again.

“We both know what’s going to happen. I’d ask you to kill me, but Pulaski stole your gun.” The teacher smiled. “I don’t think you’d do it anyway.”

“I won’t,” Xavier said quietly.

Alden nodded. “I do want something else, and then I want you to leave. Give me the last rites.”

“I’m not a priest anymore.”

“Bullshit. I don’t know what happened to you, or why you think that. It doesn’t matter. Besides, I don’t think that’s the kind of thing you get to decide.”

Xavier just looked down.

“Do this for me.”

“You’re not even Catholic, are you?”

Alden laughed softly. “Nope.”

“Then why?”

“Please?”

Xavier looked into his eyes, looked at a man who had been nothing but a stranger and was now a friend. “I don’t have any oils for the anointing. And you’re supposed to make confession first.”

“So since I’m not a Catholic, it won’t matter if you take some shortcuts.”

Xavier said nothing for a time, and then closed his eyes and murmured something Alden couldn’t hear before making the sign of the cross. “Repeat after me. My God, I am sorry for my sins with all my heart. In choosing to do wrong and failing to do good, I have sinned against you whom I should love above all things.”

Alden followed along.

“I firmly intend,” Xavier continued, “with your help, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads me to sin. Our savior Jesus Christ suffered and died for us. In his name, my God, have mercy. Amen.”

“Amen.”

Xavier then placed a hand on Alden’s head and the other over his own heart, closing his eyes. “May the Lord in His love and mercy help you with the grace of the holy spirit. May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up.” He opened his eyes to see Alden with a small smile on his face. “I don’t know what good you think that did.”

The teacher closed his eyes, still smiling. “It wasn’t for me.”

Xavier held Alden’s hand until the man fell asleep, his breathing becoming labored again and his body temperature rising, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead. He started tossing a bit, murmuring words Xavier couldn’t make out. The priest set the man’s hands together on his chest, made the sign of the cross again, and went out into the rain.