“Concourse C. Gates C1 through C36. Air South. Midwest Express...”
He was all throat, and she watched it undulate as he slurred: “You should have died in Plainville.”
He was reaching down. His dirty glove was reaching around for the nape of her neck. She was low and practically lying on the floor. There was nowhere else to go. He gripped the back of her head, the tongue and throat of his mouth yawning toward her, finally claiming his good night kiss.
The train stopped. The doors began to open and a form, a blur, only partially realized over Zero’s shoulder, hurtled through the doors nearest her. She saw Maryk’s face and its expression of pure homicidal rage as his fist came down driving from behind his head, burying a syringe needle deep into the base of Zero’s slender neck.
Zero keened and fell back and away from the force of Maryk’s blow, and Maryk crashed into her on the floor of the train, his bag skidding across to the wall.
Maryk rolled off her. Zero was sitting up, twisting his head to look at the syringe jutting out of the top of his shoulder as though inspecting his collar for lint. With his opposite hand he wrapped his thin fingers around the barrel, and in one motion jerked it out.
Doing so kicked loose pellets of his blood which lolled through the air of the train. They fell like bullets at the floor near Melanie’s feet.
The syringe in Zero’s hand was still loaded, the plunger fully extended. Maryk hadn’t yet forced it. The poison had not been delivered.
Zero looked at her, his open mouth howling. He jumped to his feet and held the syringe out like a sword as he lunged at her.
Maryk was on his side by then, crouching. His left shoe came up strong and flat against Zero’s thin chest, and Maryk extended his knee and Zero sailed flailing four or five seats back through the car. The syringe jerked out of Zero’s hand and landed dancing in the center of the aisle. He fell sprawling behind it.
Zero cried out, or giggled, then flipped over and grabbed his tablet off the nearby seat. The doors were still open and he fled crawling out of the car. Melanie saw him slide between the corner of the platform and the end of the train. He was escaping into the tunnel itself.
Maryk stood and lifted her to her feet. “Did he get you?” he said.
“I’m all right.”
“Did he get you?” His eyes were murderously bright.
“No!”
He stood staring and panting wide-eyed as though he didn’t believe her.
“Caution. Doors will not reopen...”
Maryk looked to the rear of the car. “I’m going after him,” he said.
He grabbed the bloody syringe and his bag and rushed out, clearing the doors just as they slid shut. The train started ahead again automatically and Melanie stood and stumbled against its motion, moving to the rear window of the car. Maryk’s shadow emerged into the dark light of the tunnel, bag in hand, and as his silhouette faded away, she sagged to the floor, safe finally, fighting for a mouthful of air.
Maryk sprinted after Zero’s shadow lurching between the rails as the tunnel began collapsing around him. Loose stones shifted beneath his feet. He stumbled and felt the sensation of a tremendous weight shifting inside his head. His claustrophobia only amplified the debilitating force of the cascade.
He tried to follow the echoing footfalls but lost track of Zero ahead. What he thought was the end of the tunnel turned out to be a yellow safety lamp on the wall and this disappointment drained the last of his energy. He wandered off the twisting rails into a wall recess. He slid to the grimy ground there with his legs out flat in front of him.
Zero is close and ready to infect. Get up.
Maryk could not. He was spent. The full force of the cascade was pressing on him.
He pulled his tablet from his bag. He opened the screen and hoped the signal would carry through the tunnel. He posted Zero’s location to Freeley just as the tablet slid off his lap to the floor. His breath was coming in gusts and his chin rode the pitching of his chest. The ground lifted and drifted like a loosely moored dock. He had speed in his bag but it was too far for him to reach now. He could not move at all.
Zero will escape onto the airfield and the runways beyond.
Maryk saw a shadow standing out on the dark tracks. The shadow was small and crooked and it moved a step closer and caught some of the sulfurous light from the wall.
It was Zero. His mask was still hanging from his scrawny neck and Maryk saw his mouth chewed open to his throat. Zero had wondered why he was not being followed. He had come back for Maryk. He stood there staring. In the yellow light his red eyes blazed.
Maryk tried to make his right hand move toward his bag. But the weight of his bones anchored him to the tunnel floor. He felt as though he was underwater. He felt as though the entire world was underwater.
Zero stepped up near Maryk’s feet. He lingered there. He was wary of a trap.
Get up. You can fight. There — your foot moved.
Zero had kicked it. Maryk’s chest heaved as the cascade paralyzed him and he stared up at Zero.
Zero came another step closer. He moved tentatively like an animal suspicious of a human’s offer of food.
Maryk had never known such utter exhaustion. He felt dead.
Stop him. Now or never. He will infect the human race. He will infect you.
Zero stiffened suddenly. He sucked in a trembling breath and gripped the base of his neck as a bolt of pain evidently seized him. His red eyes blazed until it passed.
Maryk managed to force out two words. “You’re... sick,” he said.
Zero came forward. He crouched at Maryk’s side. He was close enough for Maryk to reach out and touch him if only he could move his arm. Fetid breath groaned through Zero’s disfigured mouth.
“You created us,” he said.
He bent closer. He was obviously in great pain. His blood-red eyes were gleaming and he was going to infect Maryk. His open mouth formed a gaping smile. He was dangerously close to Maryk’s mouth and eyes.
They were face to face. Zero was reaching into the pocket of his windbreaker. He was pulling out something for Maryk to see.
Stay awake. Stay awake.
Maryk struck the back of his head against the tunnel wall to keep his eyelids from dropping shut. Zero was holding something small in his dirty gloved hand.
What is it? What is it?
He pulled out an inhaler. At first Maryk did not understand. Then he recognized the prescription sticker taped over the barrel.
Melanie’s inhaler.
He uncapped it. “It is time,” Zero slurred. “She is mine now.”
He brought it trembling to his decrepit mouth. His eyes remained fixed on Maryk as he tasted the mouthpiece with his ruby red tongue.
The ground was rolling over and Maryk hung off it. He was blacking out.
Melanie.
Zero sucked liplessly on the open end of the inhaler as the echoes of voices and footsteps came from deep within the tunnel. Zero’s moistened eyes narrowed. He removed the inhaler from his mouth and strings of drool clung to his chin. Maryk’s bag was open next to him. Zero dropped the inhaler inside. Then he stood and was gone.
The Test
Maryk stirred and felt a hand release his own. He jerked as though to fight and then opened his eyes on the bright grayness of a ceiling. He was on top of a table inside a small room. His neck was weak. His limbs resisted movement as though he were buried in sand.