Jake slunk along behind Max as they moved down the hallway of the makeshift medical labs. She kept stopping to sniff the air and was being guided by whatever it was she detected. The fact she seemed to be leading them towards gunshots concerned him. Even more concerning was that the blasts didn’t phase her at all. It was one of the downsides of hanging out with someone who seemed to be dead: preserving life was not a high priority.
When Jake pointed this out to Max, she rolled her bright blue eyes. “Think about it a second. If there’s a fire fight somewhere, that means there are two sides duking it out. One of those sides is likely to be willing to help. We just have to hope we choose the right side.” She smiled wolfishly.
Given what he’d already seen Jake was doubtful there was a side that would side with Max, but there wasn’t much else he could do. He would never make it anywhere alive without her.
The report of gunshots grew louder and they no longer had to tiptoe. Max approached a corner and ducked her head around, then gestured for Jake to do the same. He dared a look.
He saw two men, both of them aging, in their fifties or sixties by his guess, but very fit. Jake, with thirty or so fewer years, would never have challenged either to any kind of physical contest. They looked like brothers, both with green eyes and brown hair, though one of them was thinning up top just a tad. Both were in military uniforms. They were sitting against the wall, reloading their pistols. Jake wasn’t nearly furtive enough and the one with the thinning hair rocketed to his feet, the pistol drawn and aimed perfectly. The other, seeing his partner’s alarm, looked and furrowed his brow at them but didn’t draw.
The one with the pistol aimed jerked his head at them. “Get out here where I can see you,” he ordered. “Hands where I can see them, please.” Max slapped Jake on the shoulder derisively.
“You weren’t supposed to be seen!” she hissed.
“Well sorry Agent 99, I’m off my game today,” he snapped back in an unusual display of moxie. To his surprise, she snorted in laughter at that as they both emerged around the corner with their hands up.
At the sight of Max, the other man stood and drew his weapon too, training it unwaveringly on her. “Zombie,” he said.
“We’ve been avoiding that word,” Max said reproachfully.
Blinking at her in surprise, both men turned to Jake with questions in their eyes. He shrugged. A single bullet hit the wall as if to remind them they were in a firefight. The second man spun and fired his weapon down the hall in retaliation, but his bullet was not a simple reminder. Someone yelped, sounding more surprised than in pain.
“Okay,” said a disembodied voice pacifyingly. “Take your time.”
The older man turned back to them, his gun pointed once more at Max.
“I don’t know either,” Jake said to their looks. “All I know is that… she’s not like the others. And she’s not the only one.”
The first man looked at his partner. “Do you think this might have something to do with why your friend is here?”
“Could,” the other man said noncommittally, slowly lowering his gun. Jake noticed he didn’t holster it though.
“Look,” Jake said, his hands still in the air, which was really starting to hurt, “we’re just trying to get out of here. I don’t know what this Dr. Irons guy is up to or what he wants with Max but I don’t like it.” His voice was quavering more than he liked as images from the last few days flashed in his head like aan eight millimeter reel that had decayed in places.
The two older men looked at each other and there seemed to be a strange nonverbal communication between them. Maybe they were brothers. They both nodded.
“Well,” said the more verbose of the two, “if you’re against Dr. Irons you can come with us. We were headed back the way you came though. Is there an exit that way?”
Jake shrugged. “I don’t know. Max?”
“I don’t know either,” she admitted.
“Well, are there armed men that way?” the military man asked.
“Not that we ran in to,” Max replied.
“Good enough for me.” With that, the two men both fired suppressing shots around the corner to try to buy them some time, and then the four of them slunk back the way Jake and Max had come.