Ex-Isle by Peter Clines (electronic reader TXT) 📕

The ex stared at her over a car and through the fence. Its dry chalky eyes never blinked, even as each snap of its jaw made the bearded skull tremble. Its fingers reached across the car’s roof and flailed a good two feet from the fence.

She wondered if there was something behind the eyes. Was it a mindless ex, or was there real hatred or anger? Legion, maybe, lurking and watching her and waiting for a chance to get some stupid revenge.

She took a breath and ignored the dead man. And the thunder in her chest. She forced herself to stand there with her arms tight across her chest and watch the scavengers leave.

Al yelled out another command, and the last few people climbed into Mean Green. Gibbs gave the battlesuit a thump on its skeletal arm, traded a few quiet words with Cesar, and limped back toward Danielle. His toes clinked on the pavement. “Didn’t think you’d still be here,” he said to her.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just that. I didn’t think you’d still be here. Figured you’d’ve headed back to the building by now.”

“I’m fine.”

Gibbs pushed his lips into a line and nodded once.

She made a point of turning her head to stare back at the dead man. Its teeth clicked together and metal glinted in its mouth. One of its front teeth was gone. An implant had broken off and left a thin pin of surgical steel in its place.

The northern garden and the interior gates of the Hot Zone closed behind him. Another layer of chain-link between her and the bearded ex. A guard stepped past Danielle and Gibbs to wrap a chain around the two fence posts. She looped it three times and then spun a quick-link shut on the two ends before running back to her post.

The battlesuit walked to the front of Mean Green and slipped in so it stood between the truck and the seam where the two gates met. It flexed its fingers. The exes reached for the exoskeleton through the chain-link.

The truck’s engine revved.

The latch clicked.

One shove from the battlesuit swung the gates open and knocked a dozen of the undead back. Two right in front managed to stay on their feet. The exoskeleton slammed a fist into each of them and sent them flying. It walked forward and backhanded two more zombies. Then it moved to the side and the truck rolled out, plowing down the exes still in front of the gate. Their bones crunched and snapped beneath the tires.

Ropes and pulleys closed the gates behind them. One ex stumbled inside the Hot Zone, a gaunt and gory teenager with an iPod earbud in its remaining ear. A guard knocked it down with a pole, and another smashed the dead thing three times in the back of the head with the stock of her rifle.

Mean Green rumbled forward a few more yards until the liftgate was close to the exoskeleton. A minute later the battlesuit was in the back and the truck was rolling down the street. They drove four blocks from Eden, a parade of exes trailing behind them, before Mean Green accelerated a bit. The truck turned a corner and vanished. The sound of its engine faded a minute later.

A deep breath rushed out of Danielle’s nose. She took a few steps back from the gate. The bearded ex had wandered off, lured away by the sounds and activity of the scavengers, even though it was on the other side of the Hot Zone.

Gibbs rolled his shoulders. “Want to go back and work on the crossbow?”

She sucked in another breath. “No,” she said. She took a few more steps away from the gate. “No, I’m going to go for a little walk.”

“What?”

Danielle pushed her arms down to her sides. “A walk. Just…” She forced an arm back up and waved at the garden. “Just around the garden. Get another look at the place.”

He looked at her. “You don’t have to do this.”

She clenched her jaw.

“You don’t have to pretend. I know what’s going on.”

She turned from the gate and walked away from him. It didn’t take him much effort to catch up, even with his mechanical foot. “I’m just going to walk around the garden,” she said. “Alone.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why not?”

He sighed. “Let’s just go back to the—”

“No!” She glared at him and jerked her head at the utility road that ran around the garden. “I’m going for a walk. I’ll be back in half an hour or so.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Of course I do,” she snapped. “You think I enjoy being like this?”

Gibbs shook his head. “No, of course not. I just don’t think—”

Danielle waved her arm at the building to cut him off. Anger made the movement easier. “I’m never going to get better if I spend every minute inside hiding. I’ve got to face this someday, so let me go for a damned walk on my own!”

She took a few ragged breaths while he stared at her.

“Okay,” he said. He didn’t look her in the eye. He swung his chin in a way that wasn’t quite shaking his head.

“I have to do this,” she said again.

“I get it,” he said. “I don’t agree with doing it right now, but I get it.” He turned away and walked across the lawn toward the building.

Danielle watched him go.

Then she took another breath, turned north, and started walking.

Not so much a walk as a shuffle. Her limbs refused to make big movements that would open them up and expose them. Her eyes kept darting to the small group of plots to her right, nestled against the lawn and the building. It was overgrown with corn and sunflowers and what looked like grapevines. They swayed back and forth in the breeze.

Was there a breeze?

The cold sweat washed over her again. Then the breeze hit it. She took another breath and another determined step.

The left side of the utility road was