Page 20 of Alpha Infected
“Sssh! I’m not one of the infected. Not completely. I need you to be quiet and I’ll help you find Jessica. Understand?”
The woman’s eyes were still wide with fright. But she nodded.
“Good. When I take my hand off your mouth only speak in a whisper.” He slowly dropped his hand. “Who is Jessica?”
“My six-year-old daughter. I brought her to work with me because she didn’t want to go back to school after her dentist’s appointment.” Her voice caught on a quiet sob. “I had no idea this was going to happen.”
“How did you get separated?”
“We were hiding in a janitor’s closet. But we were in there a long time and she needed water. I told her to stay put while I went out to get some. But I ran into some of those... things.” She shuddered once before continuing. “They were blocking my way and I had to hide until they moved on. When I finally made it back, she was gone.”
The woman pressed a hand to her mouth to quiet her sobs as tears spilled down her cheeks.
Ice figured the little girl had probably gotten scared waiting so long by herself and went to look for her mother. “Do you have something of hers?”
“Yes. Her sweater is in the closet.”
“Let’s get it.”
He followed her down the hall to the small janitor’s closet where they’d been hiding. Inside, a little orange sweater was tossed over a wet floor sign.
Ice picked up the tiny item of clothing. He brought it to his nose and sniffed, familiarizing himself with her scent. The girl was human so her scent wasn’t as strong as a shifter child’s would be. But hopefully it would be enough for him to find her.
“I’ll track her,” he said as he handed the sweater back. Before he started his search, he prepared her for what they might find. “You know she may not be alive. Or she might have been infected.”
The woman gave a shaky nod, renewed tears welling up on her lashes. “I know.”
“Here.” He withdrew his Colt from its holster and held it out to her. “Do you know how to use this?”
“No.”
“Take it.”
After she gingerly accepted the weapon, he gave her a quick explanation on how to cock and fire it. Ordinarily he would never give a gun to a civilian. And an untrained one at that. But she needed to be able to protect herself.
“I don’t know how much time I have left before the virus takes over. If I do change and I come at you, don’t hesitate to shoot me. In the head so that I go down. And protect yourself from any infected that try to attack you.”
She stared at the gun in her hands then looked up at him.
“Okay.”
“All right. Let’s go.”
They set off with her at his back. Mindful of the timeclock he was on, Ice moved in a steady jog, searching for the scent from the sweater. It wasn’t long before his senses discovered it below the smells of death in the building. He followed it down a short hallway.
In the last room on the left, Ice heard the snarls of an infected. And just below that, the sound of a child crying. That had to be Jessica.
“She’s in there. Wait here,” he directed the mom.
Ice leaned around the doorframe to scope out the situation inside. The room was some kind of lab. There was an infected wearing a white lab coat trying to get at something on top of a cabinet.
Its target was a little girl dressed in a pair of orange overalls and a white turtleneck printed with pumpkins and black cats. Her raven black hair was in pigtails tied with orange and white yarn ribbons. She’d managed to climb on top of the cabinets above a long counter and had wedged herself into the small space between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling.
Thankfully the infected’s brain was too fried to realize it could climb up on the counter to get to the girl. It just kept jumping and swiping at her.
Ice hated to kill in front of a child, but he didn’t have a choice. He took aim and fired, hitting the infected in the back of the head. It jerked forward then crumpled to the ground.
Ice holstered his weapon then rushed over to retrieve the little girl. He held his arms up.
