'I'm very proud of you, and I love you.'
'DADDY! NO!'
'I love you more than infinity.'
He turned back to Ob.
Weeping, Frankie pulled the screaming little boy inside the shelter, and slammed the door shut. The clanging steel echoed in the sudden silence.
Hell, Pigpen had said, you could set off a bomb right next to it and that steel wouldn't buckle.
Jim hoped the old vagrant was right. He'd started out on this quest to save his son.
He'd succeeded.
He thought back to what he'd told Martin inside Don's garage.
I'll sacrifice myself before I'll let those things get my son.
Ob kept smiling.
Jim grinned back, even as the pain surged through him and his blood continued to flow.
The zombie craned his neck upward, studying the reinforced steel walls.
The other zombies closed ranks again, gathering around him. They pointed their weapons at Jim. Their stench was masked by the smell of the sewers, and Jim guessed that was how they'd snuck up on them. Don's corpse leaned against the tunnel wall, the head dangling at an impossible angle.
'Did you think you'd be safe inside that tin can?' Ob asked. 'You humans amaze me. So determined to survive, when the alternative would be much easier.'
Jim fingered the trigger, stroking it slowly. 'What alternative?'
'Having the good grace to die, and quickly. What do you live for? What is there to look forward to? Cancer? War? Famine? We offer a much better choice, don't you think?'
'No thanks.'
'It doesn't matter where you hide. Did you really think you could escape us underground?'
'I started this underground. I reckon I'll finish it underground too.'
Ob laughed. 'You aren't the first. The slaves in Egypt and Rome lived and died in the mines. I remember the Sumerian priests, who lived in underground dwellings, and used tunnels to visit one another. Poor bastards weren't allowed to see the daylight, and only ventured to the surface after dark. The Crimeans hid underground during the Tartar invasions. You are no better than a lowly worm. Your kind always cowers beneath the earth, Jim Thurmond.'
'My boss and my fourth-grade teacher called me Thurmond. Everybody else called me Jim. You don't know me, so don't call me either.'
'But of course I know you. Your friend Baker's memories are my own. I know all about you and Martin. Where is he-inside with the others? No matter. You escaped me once, but it ends here. I'm going to enjoy killing you, but I think I'll keep you alive long enough to watch as I pull your son's intestines from his stomach and feed them to him.'
Jim's eyes flicked up to the ceiling and then back to Ob. Ob noticed the movement and looked up as well. He laughed, and then stepped closer.
'Praying to your God? He can't help you now, Jim. All He can do is watch. And when we've killed the rest of you, and my brothers are freed from the Void, His screams will be like thunder and His tears will be like rain. And then, when the second wave is over, we will drown His creation in fire.'
Jim rocked backward on his heels. 'Well, you're half right.'
'What do you mean?'
Jim tilted the flamethrower upward and squeezed the trigger. Orange fire erupted from the nozzle and engulfed the gas mains in the ceiling above them. There was a bright flash of light. Jim closed his eyes as the heat blasted against his face.
'More than infinity, Danny ...'
On the streets above them, the earth moved.
The rain had stopped.
EPILOGUE
The motherless child and the childless mother awoke in the darkness. The cat lay between them, purring and twitching in its sleep. Frankie turned on the flashlight, thankful that the shelter had included batteries among the stockpiled supplies.
She rose, and checked the door. Remarkably, the reinforced steel had withstood the blast, but the door had twisted in its frame. The second night, undead rats had burrowed through the wreckage and tried to squeeze in through the crack. She'd fought them off, and then used a tube of silicone sealant and some boards to seal it off. She'd found both in a storage locker. It wasn't a marvel of engineering, but it was enough to keep the smaller zombies out.
So far ...
She made her way across the room, and rummaged through a cardboard box, producing a package of freeze-dried corn. She tore the wrapper open with her teeth.
'You hungry, Danny?'
