Free Web NovelChapter 348: Atlantic Theatre [1]
Tommy.
No doubts about it. That was him.
Second time I’d seen him in Atlantic City, and neither time had been under good circumstances. Seeing him standing among Callighan’s men sent something cold through my chest, not quite anger, not quite surprise. Something in between that didn’t have a name.
I couldn’t condemn him for it, though. Not yet. Not without knowing how he ended up there. Lucy had her reasons. Everyone still breathing in this world had made choices they wouldn’t have made before, done things they’d have never imagined doing. I knew that better than most. Tommy had been my classmate, I knew the kind of person he was, or at least the kind he used to be. Half the guys in our class painted him as someone he wasn’t, mostly out of jealousy, that petty background noise you tune out after a while. But underneath all of that, he had a moral core. I’d seen it.
The problem was that was before. Before the outbreak rewired everything. Before survival started asking questions that decency alone couldn’t answer. That virus had changed people in ways that weren’t always visible from the outside, myself included. Whatever I thought I knew about Tommy, it lived in a world that no longer existed.
Still. What the hell was he doing here?
I counted at least ten of them total, spread loosely across the area. The one running the show stood out immediately, tall, blond, tattoos climbing up both arms and disappearing into his collar. He had his weapon leveled at Theo and the other two, wearing a twisted smile that didn’t reach anywhere near his eyes.
He was directing them forward. Moving them somewhere.
Theo and his people weren’t fighting it. Hard to argue with a barrel aimed at your chest. They moved reluctantly, feet dragging just slightly, but they moved.
That was the part that bothered me most. He wasn’t executing them on the spot, he was taking them somewhere. Which meant this wasn’t random. There was a destination, a purpose.
Maribel had been right about it, as expected it was too suspicious.
"Finally—"
Out of breath she appeared besides me.
I grabbed her before she could finish the word, pulling her against me and pressing my hand over her mouth in one quick motion.
We weren’t that close but we weren’t far enough that a raised voice wouldn’t carry. Silence was the only real advantage we had right now.
"Hmmffhh—!" She shoved against my grip immediately, muffled indignation coming through loud and clear even without actual words.
I held up one finger to my lips.
She stilled. Looked at me and gave a short, tight nod.
I let her go.
She stepped back fast, eyes cutting toward me with a glare, then she followed my gaze out toward the group and her expression shifted completely. Her eyes went wide.
"That’s... those are Callighan’s men," she said under her breath.
"Yeah. And the three being held are Margaret’s people. The ones I’ve been trying to find," I said.
She stared for a moment, jaw working slightly. "What are they doing out here..."
"Moving somewhere. I don’t know where yet," I replied, watching the blond man gesture again, herding Theo’s group further along.
"I knew it." Her voice hardened. "They’re up to something. We have to follow them." She was already shifting her weight forward when I caught her arm again.
"What... again?!"
"From that distance, with that many of them, you will get yourself killed. Do you understand that?" I kept my voice low but didn’t soften it.
"I’m aware of the risk—"
"No. You’re not." I said. "I’m going to try to get Theo and the others out of this. That’s already complicated. You add yourself into that equation as someone I also have to pull out of the fire and it becomes something else entirely."
"I don’t need you to pull me out of anything," she said, arm tensing under my grip, ready to shrug me off again.
I didn’t let go. I looked at her straight.
"I already told you, I am not standing here watching you die for no reason. If we’re doing this, we do it together, and we do it my way. I’m the strongest one here and I have the ability to get us both through this and get them out as well. So you listen to me." I held her gaze. "That’s not negotiable."
Somewhere in the back of my mind I was calculating how hard it would be to knock her out clean and tuck her somewhere out of sight until I was done. I wasn’t proud of it. But I wasn’t entirely ruling it out either.
She held my stare for a long moment, something working behind her eyes. Then she looked away.
"Fine," she said quietly, giving a small nod.
I was slightly surprised at how suddenly she became obedient. She was quite stubborn but it seemed like when I had right words, she quickly relented.
And just like that, she fell into step beside me as we moved out, keeping our distance from the group ahead, far enough to stay invisible, close enough not to lose them.
It was frustrating, honestly. I wanted to hear what they were saying. With my enhanced senses I could pick up fragments, tone, urgency, the occasional word, but to get anything useful I’d have to close the gap considerably, and that wasn’t a risk I was willing to take. If they spotted us, the first thing Romero would do is put a gun to Theo’s head. That changed everything. So we stayed back and watched.
"What’s your plan then?" Maribel asked, keeping her voice barely above a breath.
Freeze time. Pull Theo and the others out before anyone knows what happened.
I obviously couldn’t tell her that.
"I have something. Don’t worry about it," I said. "But first we need to know what they’re actually doing out here before I move on anything."
It was the smarter play. They were deep in territory that wasn’t theirs, far from Brigantine, far from the State Marina. Whatever had brought them this far from their base wasn’t casual. Acting blind would be worse than waiting another few minutes to understand it. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
We kept following. Another ten minutes of careful movement, matching their pace, ducking behind whatever cover the streets offered. Then they slowed.
The blond man, Romero, I’d caught the name from one of his people shouting it earlier, started giving instructions to the group, gesturing, pointing. A couple of them peeled off to check the surrounding area while the rest held position.
And then I saw what they’d stopped in front of.
"A theatre?" Maribel said, quite puzzled.
"Maybe they’re trying to get the cinema up and running again," I said.
She looked at me flatly. "Very funny."
"Just trying to take the edge off," I replied.
"I’m not tense."
"Shh." I nodded toward the entrance. "Whatever they came for is in there. Look."
Romero’s men were already working on the glass doors, forcing them. One shattered inward and they began filing through one by one, pushing Theo and the others in ahead of them.
I watched until the last of them disappeared inside, then looked at Maribel.
"Let’s go."
She nodded and we moved, closing the distance fast, heads low, using the approach angle to stay out of any sightline from the lobby windows. We pressed ourselves against the outer wall just beside the broken entrance, breathing steady, listening.
It didn’t take long. Gunshots cracked from somewhere inside, followed by shouting, overlapping voices bouncing off hard walls.
"Kill them, idiots!"
Loud, chaotic. They’d walked straight into Infected the moment they got through the door. I was just about to lean out and peek inside when something made me pull back, instinct, or maybe the Symbiote reacting before I consciously clocked the threat.
An Infected came stumbling out of the entrance directly toward me. Moving with that particular locked-in focus, it had sensed Dullahan, drawn to the Symbiote like they sometimes were.
No time to think. I stepped into it and swung the hand axe in a short clean arc, taking its head off before it could make noise. But two more were already pushing through behind it, and I could hear movement to my left as well. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
"Behind you!" Maribel’s voice cut sharp through the noise.
I grabbed the Infected directly in front of me by the collar, twisted, and shoved it hard into the one coming up behind, both of them going down in a crash of limbs. One kick sent them skidding back. Then I turned and crossed to Maribel in three steps, putting down the one closing in on her before it reached her.
I looked around quickly. More were coming, spilling out from the street, from the alley beside the building, drawn by the noise and the blood and whatever else pulled them. Too many, too fast.
It almost felt planned. Like we’d walked into something that had been waiting.
Damn it.
Two options. Fall back and lose Theo and his two friends, or go through that door and into whatever was already tearing Romero’s group apart inside.
Outside, we could run. We’d probably make it.
But Theo wouldn’t. Neither would the other two.
"What are you waiting for!" Maribel was already through the threshold, swallowed by the dark interior, voice shouting at me.
I looked back once at the street. Infected still coming.
"Damn it." I cursed under my breath and stepped through the broken door after her.
