Dan breathes deeply through his nose. “I think we have to do it. With the car.”
The woman immediately shakes her head violently. “No, I can’t. I won’t. You can’t make me!”
“I know it’s tough, but we might be talking about the fate of the world. If we don’t—”
“I just lost my husband! And now you want me to run over Siva? Forget it!” She turns the key and starts the engine. Suddenly, she seems very adamant. “I’m going to the police now. They’ll have to handle it.”
“I lost my sister too,” Dan says quietly. “If we drive off now, we might lose more of our friends and family members. We might lose everything.”
The woman has put the car in gear, but now she hesitates, staring stiffly out the front window.
Dan can tell how she’s fighting an internal battle. “Was she your daughter?” he asks.
The woman shakes her head. “She was my husband’s. I … I guess I cared for her, but we didn’t get to build a very close relationship. Janjak was very protective of her, since her mother died a few years back.”
“What’s your name?”
The woman looks at him. There’s the hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth. “Linda.”
“She’s already dead, Linda,” Dan says softly. “It’s just some crazy disease keeping her body moving. You would only be giving her peace.”
Linda nods in resignation. “I’ll try. I can’t promise anything. But I’ll try.” She places her hands on the wheel, but makes no attempt to drive anywhere.
“You can back it up,” Dan says quietly. “If you do, I think she’ll walk in front of us.”
He’s not sure Linda has heard him, and he’s just about to repeat, when she suddenly slams the car in reverse and backs up several yards. The zombie girl, as Dan predicted, staggers out right in front of the car and follows them. She’s a pretty terrifying sight to behold in the sharp gleam of the headlights.
Linda turns them off.
“Good idea,” Dan mutters and fastens his seat belt.
Linda whispers something under her breath, too low for Dan to pick it up. Then she puts the car in first and steps on the gas. The tires spin violently, gravel is banging against the underside of the car as it lunges forward.
Dan senses the figure of the girl right before the front end of the car collides with her. He even feels the jolt all the way up his seat. The zombie girl is flung forwards and tumbles across the courtyard, rolling over several times. Linda—to Dan’s great surprise—doesn’t slow down, but keeps on the gas and hits the girl again. This time, the tiny body goes underneath the car. It feels to Dan like driving over a curve stone. He is jerked back and forth in his seat.
Then Linda hits the brakes. As the car comes to a halt, she’s still clutching the wheel and staring out the windshield. Her voice is stiff as she asks: “Is she dead?”
Dan turns to look back. He can make out the girl in the red gleam of the rear lights. She’s not moving.
“I think she is.”
Linda gives off a sound somewhere between a sigh and a sob. “Let’s get out of here …” She’s about to drive off.
“Wait,” Dan says. “There’s still Thomas.”
TWENTY
Linda really steps on the gas. The headlights follow the curvy country road. The car races through the summer night headed towards the town. Neither of them speak.
Dan can’t quite relax. Even though it’s actually over, it’s not really. He’s constantly listening for sounds from the trunk.
Was it a mistake?
His thoughts are oddly dissolute. Like he can’t really collect them. Perhaps it’s due to exhaustion. Perhaps hunger. Or shock. A single question keeps presenting itself, though.
Was it a mistake to bring him along?
He’s not sure. But what else could they have done? Run him over like they did the girl? He was still alive, for God’s sake. Dan heard the faint, rattling breath as he, with the help of Linda, lifted Thomas up into the trunk.
Linda breaks the silence. “Do you think they can save him?”
“I don’t know. It never works in the movies. There’s nothing the doctors can do, because there’s no vaccine.”
Linda throws a look into the rearview mirror. “What do we do if he … wakes up?”
Dan runs a hand through his hair. “I have no idea.”
They speed past the town limit and the first houses appear on each side of the road. Linda slows down as they reach the somewhat comforting light of the streetlamps. The streets seem only sparsely trafficked. At the first traffic light, Linda runs a red light.
“You’ll have to tell me the way,” she says. “I’m not from around here.”
Dan guides her through town. They reach the hospital.
“Pull over here,” he says, pointing. “This is the A&E.”
Linda parks, pulls the handbrake, but keeps the engine running. She looks at Dan. “I think it’s best if you explain it to them.”
Dan unbuckles and steps out of the car, avoiding stepping on his injured foot.
The glass doors of the building glide open, and a young man in scrubs comes out. “You can’t park here. It’s only for ambulances.”
“We have a seriously ill person,” Dan says, hobbling to the trunk.
The man looks down at his leg. “It just looks like a sprained ankle to me. You’ll have to get her to remove the car, so we—”
“It’s not me,” Dan interrupts and opens the trunk.
Thomas is lying there, in fetal position. His eyes are closed, his mouth open. A string of drool has run from his lower lip, and the skin is completely white. Thomas is obviously dead. And at the sight of him, Dan is struck be deep terror. Suddenly, he realizes how stupid it was to bring Thomas to the hospital, and just how dangerous the situation is.
What was I thinking?
The nurse shoves him aside. “Geez, what happened?” He reaches down to feel Thomas’s neck. “I can’t find a pulse. Don’t
