Broken Lands (Benny Imura 6)

“Not all of them are test subjects. I have friends in this town.”

“Oh, well, feel free to stay and die with them, Max,” sneered Collins. “Personally, I’m going to get this data to the base and then head east to the other lab.”

Other lab? It was the first Gutsy had heard of that. Karen Peak hadn’t mentioned it, which suggested that it was something kept secret from everyone but a select few. Gutsy wondered how the captain was planning on getting through the dead attacking the town.

“What happens if the Night Army wipes out the whole town, Bess? What then?”

Collins’s voice was ice cold. “Then we’ll get the big guns from the weapons cache, come back here, and wipe them out, and after that we’ll have a whole town full of stage two test subjects. Imagine all you’d learn from that, Max.”

She heard the doctor gasp. “You’re actually insane.”

“Oh, grow up,” said the captain. “Don’t pretend you really care about anyone here. Friends or not. Not after all you’ve done for the project.”

“What I’ve done has been for the good of—”

There was a sharp sound of a hard slap and then Collins spoke in a tight voice. “Don’t you dare preach to me, Doctor Morton. You’re a monster and so am I. Monsters are exactly what we need to be. It’s what we’ve had to be since the End. It’s monsters like us who will save whatever’s worth saving in this messed-up world. If that means killing every single person left in this state, then that’s what I’ll do, because right now hard choices and big-picture thinking are the only way we have even a chance of winning. Now stop whining, help me collect all the research, and let’s get out to the base while we still have time.”

Gutsy pulled the door open and stepped inside. The doctor and the captain froze. She looked at the half-filled duffel bags and then up at them. She knew they could see the truth in her eyes. They knew that she’d heard them.

“Gutsy,” said the doctor quickly, “it’s not what you think. . . .”

“Shut up,” said Gutsy. “You’re a doctor. You’re supposed to help people. You disgust me.”

She turned to face the captain, who did not look particularly worried about the presence of a girl with a bloody crowbar and a big coydog. Collins laid her hand on her holstered pistol.

“And you, Captain Collins,” said Gutsy, enjoying the way the Rat Catcher’s eyes suddenly flared, “if you think that you’re going to be safe at your secret base . . . well . . . I have some bad news for you.”

The captain narrowed her eyes. “What are you talking about?”

“I just came from there,” said Gutsy. “It’s gone.”

“What do you mean ‘gone’?”

“I mean gone. I watched it blow up. I watched the Night Army eat all your men. You have nowhere to run to.”

Sombra growled.

The captain glanced at the dog, and again her eyes widened. “Killer . . . ?”

Sombra barked once. It was not a happy bark.

“Is this your dog?” asked Gutsy.

“It belongs to one of my men. Did you steal it, you little rat?”

“No,” said Gutsy. “You’re wrong. His name is Sombra and he’s my dog. He’s my friend.”

Sombra bared his teeth and hot spit glistened on his fangs.

“Cap, it’s getting bad out there, we really need to go,” said a voice, and Gutsy turned as a soldier entered the room. “What’s going on? Whoa, hey . . . Killer? You found my dog? Holy—”

With a snarl that sounded like a werewolf more than a dog, Sombra leaped at the soldier. They crashed backward through the door. The soldier’s scream was piercing and filled with terror, confusion, and pain.

Then Gutsy heard a metallic click behind her and spun around to see Collins pointing the gun at her face.

96

THEY FOUGHT THEIR WAY ALONG two miles of tunnel. The hall became so choked with the dead that they had to abandon their quads and fight on foot.