"The Commander," the head explained. It added, "I knew him before all this. We were friends."
Park whispered, "Why did he do this to you?"
The head gave a sad, wry smile. "I tried to free the prisoners," it said.
Park slipped from the east wing without being noticed. Hours later one of the trucks returned. Park lurked in the corridor and watched as the Commander and Greavey strode back into the palace. The two men conferred, then the Commander headed off in the direction of his suite. Park tailed Greavey down a hallway.
After a minute, Greavey turned. "Oh, it"s you."
Park sidled up. "What"s the situation?"
Greavey was grim. "The living are inside the walls. They"ll be here by nightfall. Tough b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. Militia types, called the Sons of Perdition."
Park knew of them. They had a ghastly reputation.
Greavey said, "The Commander"s gone to issue new orders. Where the h.e.l.l have you been?"
Park nodded at some metal piping that ran up the wall from floor to ceiling, and said, "Over there." Greavey turned to look.
Park grabbed the man and ran him into the pipes. Greavey"s skull-face rebounded with a crack, and he went down. Park straddled him, seized the man"s left wrist and cuffed it, then slipped the cuffs around the pipes and bound Greavey"s right wrist too.
Park dug through the man"s pockets. A keyring. Park hoped the head on the wall-Jack-had been telling the truth.
As Park made his way to the south wing, the Commander"s voice came over the loudspeakers: "Fall back to the palace. Defend the palace at all costs. I repeat, defend the palace."
Park spent maddening minutes navigating the unfamiliar corridors. Finally he clambered down a set of metal steps and emerged into a dim, grimy hallway lined with cells. He donned his mask and goggles, then moved from door to door. "Mei?" he called out. "Mei? Are you here?" Vague figures huddled in the darkness.
Then, from a cell he"d just pa.s.sed, a weak voice: "h.e.l.lo?"
She was there, her tiny fingers wrapped around the bars. He ran to her. "I"m getting you out," he said, as he tried a key in the lock. It didn"t fit.
"Park?" she said, unbelieving. "I thought-"
She stiffened then, as she watched him. In a near-whisper she said, "Take off your mask."
He tried another key.
"Park," she said, insistent.
He stopped. For a moment he just stood there. Then he carefully removed his mask and goggles, revealing his terrible skull-face for all to see.
Mei recoiled. "But... you"re one of them, one of his-"
"It was the only way," Park said. He tried another key.
Beside her in the cell, a skinny white man with curly black hair said, "I know you. You"re the one who captured me, who brought me here."
Mei said, "Is that... true?"
"Yes," Park said. He couldn"t meet her gaze. He tried another key, which turned with a click, and he slid the door open.
The skinny man tried to rush out, but Park stiff-armed him back and said, "Only her."
"No," Mei said. "We can"t-"
"Mei, come here," he told her.
She shook her head, withdrawing. Park looked down and saw that she was pregnant. She asked, "What"s happened to you? You"re-"
"I"m what I have to be!" he shouted. "To save you. Now come on!"
For a moment he thought he had her. She took a tentative step forward.
Then he heard clanging footsteps on the stairs behind him, and knew it was over.
The Commander strode into the hall, his rifle raised. Behind him came the skull-faced girl and Greavey. The handcuffs dangled from Greavey"s right wrist, and half his left hand was gone-he"d chewed it off to get free.
The Commander stared at Park with baleful eyes. There was a long silence. Then the Commander barked, "Get away from there!"
Park took a few steps back.
"Keep going! Move!" The Commander advanced. When he was even with the cell, he glanced at its occupants. "You brought us so many," he said slowly, to himself. "Why a change of heart?"
Park glared back, said nothing.
"No," the Commander declared then, with sudden triumph. "You"re not the compa.s.sionate sort. You only care about... one." He swung his rifle around so that it menaced the skinny man in the cell, and demanded, "Who"s he here for?"
The man shrank back, holding up his hands defensively. "Her! The girl! Please."
Park inched forward, but instantly the gun was back on him. The Commander said to Greavey, "Get her."
Greavey strode into the cell and with his good hand s.n.a.t.c.hed Mei by her long dark hair and dragged her stumbling into the corridor. He stood her there in the middle of the hall, then stepped aside. She trembled.
Behind the Commander, the skull-faced girl said softly, "Dustin, she"s pregnant."
"Not for long." He leveled his rifle at Mei"s belly.
Park stared at Mei, his sister, as she stood there right in front of him after so long, and he knew there was nothing he could do to save her.
Then the skull-faced girl shoved the Commander as hard as she could.
His rifle discharged, spraying rounds into the cement as he sprawled. The gun flew from his grasp and skittered across the floor, coming to rest at Mei"s feet. She spun and kicked it to Park, but not hard enough. The rifle slid to a stop near Greavey, who fell to his knees, grasping for it.
Park leapt forward and tackled him, and they went down together, grappling. Park wrapped both arms around Greavey"s meaty right bicep, pinning it. The man"s mutilated left hand brushed over the rifle"s stock, but couldn"t get a grip on it. The Commander scrambled to his feet.
Park pushed against the floor with his heels, pivoting him and Greavey. Park kept hold of Greavey"s bicep with one arm while with the other he reached out and s.n.a.t.c.hed the rifle. He shoved the muzzle up under Greavey"s chin and held down the trigger. Chunks of the man"s fleshy jowls spattered across the floor, and his body went limp.
Park rolled off him and came up in a crouch with the rifle aimed at the Commander, who slid to a halt just a few feet away. "Back!" Park said, and the Commander slowly retreated, holding up his hands.
Park said, "Mei! Come here."
She staggered toward him. "Park... we can"t-"
He held out the keys to her and said, "Get these G.o.dd.a.m.n cells open. Now."
The skull-faced girl approached him. The prisoners watched her with a mix of unease and wonder. She said quietly, "And the children. Please."
Park considered this. "All right," he told her. "And the children."
An hour later Park returned to the cell block with a duffel slung over his shoulder. The prisoners were free now, around twenty of them, and were armed with weapons from the trunk of his car. The skull-faced girl had fetched the children, each of whom was being carried by an adult. The guards had fled, and Park had taken care of the Commander.
Park said to the crowd, "You know the city"s under attack by an army of the living. They"re called the Sons of Perdition. You all know who they are?"
The crowd was somber.
"Anyone want to join them?" Park said. "Now"s your chance."
No one moved.
"All right," he said. "Then let"s get the h.e.l.l out of here."
They formed a convoy of vehicles and set out north, away from the fighting. Park drove his car, and the others followed. On the seat beside him rested the duffel, and in the back seat sat Mei and the skull-faced girl, each of them holding a child. At first Park was forced to barrel through cl.u.s.ters of moaners, but once he got away from the palace the streets were mostly deserted.
The skull-faced girl stared out the window. One time she spoke faintly, "I said I wanted children. I was just... I didn"t think... He wanted to-when they got older-make them like us. He-"
"It"s okay," Park said. "It"s over."
The girl fell silent.
"What"s your name?" Mei asked her.
"Ashley," she said.
The convoy pa.s.sed through the north gate without encountering any of the invaders. Park was faintly hopeful about slipping away unnoticed, but as he followed a two-lane road toward a cl.u.s.ter of wooded hills, a small fleet of pickups came racing out of the west, throwing up great clouds of dust.
"s.h.i.t," Park said. He hoped he could at least make it to the treeline before being overtaken.
He did. Barely.
"Get out," he told Mei and Ashley then. "Move to another vehicle." He pa.s.sed the duffel to Ashley and said, "Take this. It"s Jack. Look after him."
"I will," she promised.
Mei lingered. "How will we meet up after-?"
"Go, Mei," he said.
She insisted, "I don"t want-"
"I said go!" he screamed.
She gave him one last worried look, then fled.
Park backed up his car so that it blocked the road, then he got out, fetched his scoped rifle, put on his mask and goggles, and crouched in the shadow of his car. Behind him, the rest of the convoy sped away.
The pursuers drew near, seven trucks. Park lay his rifle across the hood of his car, then put a round through the windshield of the lead vehicle. The truck slid to a halt, and the others pulled up alongside it. Men with rifles poured out, taking cover behind the doors of their vehicles. Thirty guns, maybe more.
The driver of the lead vehicle, a giant man with a blond beard who was dressed all in black leather, shouted, "You shot my truck."
Park didn"t respond.
The man yelled, "You have any idea who you"re f.u.c.king with?"
Again, Park said nothing.
"Listen," the man called. "This is real simple. We saw you all coming out. We know you"ve got women. We need them, your guns, and your vehicles. And you"re all drafted."
They didn"t seem to realize that Park was one of the dead. Good. He shouted back, "We don"t want anything to do with your army."
"Drafted means you got no choice," said the man.
Park crept into the underbrush and took up a position behind a tree.
"Hey," the man called. "What"s your plan, huh? Just how do you think this is going to end?"
For you? Park thought. Like this.
He fired. The man"s body toppled against the truck, then slumped to the pavement.
Park crawled away as the other men started shooting, their bullets shredding the foliage all around him.
By dusk Park was down to his last bullet. It didn"t matter. He"d won. Thirty men had come charging up the hill after him, and he"d kept ahead of them, taking them out one by one. He"d dropped nine already, and there were moaners in these woods too who"d surprised and overwhelmed maybe two or three more. Mei and Ashley and the others were well away.
Park had been hit twice in the chest, and many more times in the arms and legs, but those scarcely troubled him. By now his pursuers must know that he was one of the dead, and they would be going only for headshots.
One of the men emerged from behind a boulder and crept closer, scanning the bushes. Make the last shot count, Park thought, as he eased his rifle into place and peered through the scope.