The implications of that hung in the air.
“You’re saying they’re dead?” asked Chong.
“There are places to hide,” said Joe weakly. “And Riot knows every one of them.”
“Maybe,” said Reid, “but that doesn’t change anything. We don’t have the manpower to take the compound back from the dead, and we can’t call for help. The reapers trashed the communications center. And we’re running on the backup generator because they destroyed the main power plant.”
“We can’t be stuck down here,” said Benny, banging his fist on the metal tubing of Joe’s bed. “Our town—”
“Your town might as well be on the far side of the moon,” said Colonel Reid. “Those balloons were filled with the mutagen. It’s a red powder, sticks to everything. Until the mutagen weakens the infected through decomposition, we’re trapped. I just hope the generator lasts long enough for that to happen.”
“We have to get out of here,” said Nix sternly. “We have to try and find Riot and Eve, and then we have to get back to our town.”
“To do what? Four kids can’t save a town,” said Reid. “And from what Joe told me about Mountainside, it’s indefensible. A flat field and a chain-link fence is no defense at all.”
“Yeah,” said Nix bitterly, “I guess you found that out here. The minefield beyond the fence didn’t stop the balloons, and sensors inside the fence couldn’t alert anyone because everyone was sick. The reapers just waltzed in here.”
Reid’s face darkened.
Nix dug her journal out of her pack. “See this? I’ve been collecting everything there is to know about zoms, and about the way people fight zoms. I’ve also asked Joe about a million questions about tactics and strategies. If I can get home to Mountainside, I can help them get ready. Earthworks, deadfalls, spiked walls, fire pits . . . I understand this stuff. It’s all I’ve been thinking about.”
“She’s not joking,” said Chong. “If we can get out of here, we might actually be able to do something to help our town. We need to
find a way out of this compound.”
Reid started to shake her head, but Chong cut her off.
“My family is in Mountainside,” he said, and his voice held an edge Benny had never before heard there. “I’ve been through too much hell over the last month to want to debate this.”
“He’s right,” said Benny. “Look, Colonel, your soldiers are either dead or recovering from the plague, so right now I think there are more of us than there are of you. We’re going to get out of here. The question is whether you help us, in which case you get to lock the door behind us, or you don’t help us, and you take your chances with whoever or whatever walks through that door.”
The moment stretched as Reid looked from Benny to Chong to Lilah to Nix.
In the silence, Joe Ledger spoke. Benny knew that he had to be in terrible pain, and yet the ranger imposed a degree of control over his voice that spoke to an incredible strength of will. Like Tom’s. Unique in its own way, but also like Tom’s. Brothers of a kind.
“Jane,” he said evenly, “I know what you’re thinking. These are four teenagers. Kids. Benny’s stitched up and looks like he was thrown down an elevator shaft. Chong—hell, a few hours ago Chong was willing to eat people. Lilah’s been punched twice in the face by a powerful adult male. And little Phoenix—she’s not even five feet tall and looks like she’s ninety pounds of red hair and freckles. Kids, sure. And who are kids compared to what’s out there? Kids aren’t able to do this kind of thing.”
“That’s just it . . . they don’t stand a chance out there.”
“If I thought that, I’d crawl out of this bed and tackle them myself. Or I’d sic Grimm on them.”
Grimm said, Whuff.
“So, yeah, they’re teenagers, but let’s face it . . . they’re not kids anymore. There was a line in the sand somewhere, and they each crossed it. Look at them, Jane. Look in their eyes. Every one of them is a seasoned fighter. They’ve been in battle. They’ve killed. Humans and zoms. I couldn’t have found or saved Monica without them. And if it wasn’t for these four young samurai, we’d all be dead in the hall downstairs, or we’d be shambling around looking for a hot meal of human flesh. Because of them we still have Archangel, which means, like it or not, these kids may actually have helped save the world. The actual world, including the part you’re standing on with such self-righteous indignity.”
The room tumbled into a big well of silence.
Monica McReady shook her head, but it was more in exasperation and helplessness than in protest. Reid stood foursquare at the foot of the bed and said nothing.
Finally she said, “How? Tell me that, Joe. How do we help them get out?”
“I’m working on that. Jane, can you get the hangar doors closed?”
“They are closed,” she said. “We sealed the place while you were in surgery. The, um, girls helped.”
Benny already knew about that. Nix had told him while they were waiting for Reid and McReady to join them. Once the exterior doors, including the big hangar doors, were closed, then it was a matter of going room to room, hall by hall, tracking down the dead and any stray reapers and cutting them down. Grimm was with Reid and the girls, and even though he was bruised from Brother Peter’s kick, the monstrous mastiff had been as useful as a pet tank. He smashed into zoms and cut them down, leaving the wounded wrecks for Nix, Lilah, and Reid to finish. The whole process took five grueling hours.
The worst part was clearing out the hangar. There were more than a hundred zoms in there. Colonel Reid had to do most of the work with a machine gun, and the girls offered backup and protection while she reloaded.