To Be A Warrior

Chapter 27: I'm The Shark In The Water

"Five, Nadia, Amelia, Maxine," Sam pauses, his voice lowering to a simmering growl, "Nicole."

"Hm?" Nicole replies casually, and there's a pause as Sam takes a moment to gather his patience. I ignore the curious and slightly concerned looks Maxine and Nadia send me. For once I'm glad Amelia doesn't care.

It's been about six days since Nicole broke into the coms shack, but that doesn't mean the tension has eased any. If anything, it's only gotten heavier, especially since Nicole now knows I was telling the truth. She just has yet to say anything about it.

"You're almost to the coordinates Veronica gave us. You should see a perimeter fence at the end of the gravel road," He says, and while the others don't notice the boiling irritation lying under forced neutrality, I very much do.

"Have you heard back from her since we told her we got the computer core she asked for?" Maxine asks.

"Uh, well, I mean, not heard, exactly. I haven't spoke to her. No one has in weeks," He half-lies. "But she sent a message that she's finally tested the new build we got for her from Blackmoore Castle, and she's ready for us to bring the core here. Is it all secure, Nadia?"

"Still secure, Sam. And still weighin' down my bike." She revs the engine of her bike to pick up the speed to keep at a decent pace without risking of the core tipping. "Do we know why Veronica wants it?"

"Um, well, it's something about helping develop viable anti-V-Type strategies. Maybe she's had a breakthrough."

The zombies that have been following us for the past mile moan, as if they thought we'd forgotten about them. Amelia looks over her shoulder and sneers, revealing teeth that are far too white for someone in an apocalypse.

"I certainly hope she's had something."

Sam hums. "Yeah. Those zoms are still at your six, but you'll be safe once you're through the gate."

Nadia frowns as she looks ahead. "The still-completely-locked gate."

"Uh, well, that's odd." I can hear the confusion in his voice. "Veronica, are you-"

He's cut off by the shrieking sound of an alarm as the gate ahead raises at the speed of molasses. Metal grinds against metal, the sound almost as painful as the sound of the alarm.

"Could that gate raise any slower?" Amelia asks in annoyance and slight panic. When we reach it, it's just high enough that Nadia doesn't have to duck down to drive her bike through, but it's still continuing to rise even after we're through, and the zombies are only two minutes behind us.

Persistent bastards.

"Veronica, close that gate! Fast!" Sam demands, and the gate stops, staying in its place for just a moment before the it starts to lower at the same speed as before.

The zombies reach it, ducking down to go under, not caring about the way the gate digs into the flesh of their backs as they try to crawl through. Their eyes are only on us, eyes glazed over with death-eyes I'd seen time and time and again.

It still leaves me feeling sick to my stomach.

"The front door's straight ahead," Sam says. "All of you, run for it! Hurry!"

We keep running, heading straight for the front door that's only a minute away. The zombies behind us aren't fast, but they're not slow either. We have weapons on us, but the problem is the second we pull the trigger of a gun, the noise will be drawing more zombies towards us. Even locked outside the gate they can be dangerous, mostly because we have no idea just how strong that gate is, or how stable Veronica is.