“Where, exactly, is your sister hiding out?” Tank asked. “And you still haven’t explained to me how you know for sure she’s alive. None of the phones have been working for a long time.”
“Her last known location was the Four Seasons,” Parrish said, not really wanting to have to explain more than that. “She’s likely still close to there.”
Tank opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off.
“Look, I know you think we’re taking a huge risk here, but I don’t think I have the energy to explain to you how we know or why it’s so important that we go,” she said. “I would appreciate it if you would just trust that we know what we’re doing and let it go.”
Tank raised his eyebrows and looked at Crash, who just shrugged.
“Okay,” Tank said. “I’ll take your word for it, and if you really want me to, I’ll stop trying to talk you out of it. You have to understand just how hard it is for me to think about you kids voluntarily walking into such a terrible situation. I’d rather you stayed here, where you’re safe.”
As if to contradict his argument, though, a walkie on his desk with a strip of red tape across it lit up. “Code red,” the man on the other side said. “All hands on deck. We have a horde approaching—”
Tank picked up the walkie and pressed the button.
“Jonathan, say again,” he said. “How many can you see?
There was no response. Just static.
Tank repeated himself, but he didn’t wait for more information to come through. He grabbed a set of rifles leaning against the wall behind him and handed one to Crash.
“Let’s get to the roof,” he said.
Parrish and Crash shared a look.
This was not good. And by not good, it was potentially catastrophic.
Had their actions at the hospital brought the wrath of the Dark One down on this small compound of survivors? Parrish would never forgive herself if the families sheltered here died today.
Static burst out of the walkie, but it was too jumbled to really hear. It sounded like a female voice this time, but Parrish only caught a few words like “horde”, “compound”, and “stations”.
“Damn this thing,” Tank yelled, throwing it to the ground. “We have to get up there.”
He took a few steps and then stopped all of a sudden, placing a hand to his temple. He shook his head, confused.
“What is it?” Parrish asked. “Are you okay?”
Tank took a deep breath and looked into her eyes. “I don’t know,” he said. “The weirdest thing. Like someone was talking directly into my mind. What the hell is happening here today?”
Parrish exchanged another look with Crash.
“Karmen,” he said. “She must be up on the roof. Come on.”
But Parrish only took a handful of steps before she heard Karmen’s voice in her own mind. Tank was right. It was definitely weird to hear someone else’s voice in her head. It was almost like she was wearing headphones and talking on the phone, but it was even clearer than that.
Like Karmen had opened a direct line into her brain.
Neat trick, but when the hell had she learned to do that?
It’s bad, you guys. Maybe thousands. Some have red eyes. Meet me in our room as fast as possible. Already on my way there.
Crash grabbed Parrish’s arm.
“Did you hear her, too?” he asked.
“What are you doing?” Tank shouted over his shoulder. “Get to the roof, and tell everyone you see on the way to grab their weapons and get to their stations.”
He disappeared around the corner, but Parrish and Crash didn’t follow him.
“I heard,” she said. “Let’s get to the room.”
They both took off running in the opposite direction from Tank, heading back toward the sleeping quarters. Parrish prayed Noah was in the room, or that wherever he was, he heard Karmen, too.
Parrish had no idea how long Karmen had been able to do something like that, but the girl had basically opened a party line into their brains.
That would come in handy. If they survived whatever the heck was going on outside.
Another horde? Red-eyed super zombies?
It had been less than twenty-four hours since they’d fought the last group of zombies at the hospital. The Dark One wasn’t giving them any breathing room, that’s for sure.
But this time, she was going after more than just the four of them. She was going after an entire compound full of innocent families.
“What’s our strategy?” she said to Crash as they ran through the hallways. “We aren’t going to be able to hide our abilities if we really want to save these people.”
“Damn, I didn’t think of that,” he said. “But you’re right. I just hope it’s going to be enough. Karmen said there were maybe thousands of rotters out there. I mean, I know she can be prone to exaggeration and drama sometimes, but I doubt she’d overestimate this kind of thing.”
“I don’t think so, either,” Parrish said, a knot of fear forming in her stomach. This was bad. “The group here can probably handle a good deal of the normal ones with the weapons they have, but if one of those super zombies breaks through the fence or scales the walls they built here, they could take out half the compound before anyone knew what was happening. These people are defenseless against zombies with powers.”
“We can’t let that happen,” he said just as they got to the room.
But when Parrish turned the knob, it wouldn’t budge.
She backed up to check the room number, but it was definitely the right room.
She tried the door again, but it was locked. She pounded on the door.
“Noah? Are you in there?” she asked. “Open the door. There’s a horde outside the walls.”
When there was no response, something inside Parrish twisted. What was going on here?
Karmen came running down the hallway, her eyes wide. “It actually worked, didn’t it?” she asked. “What are you both doing out here? Let’s
