To Be A Rebel

Chapter 33: Hit Me With Your Best Shot

"Okay, so Runner Five isn't a zombie, and she isn't about to turn?" Maxine questions.

"Definitely not," Sam answers.

"We're going to get you out of there, Singer," Nicole says.

"You know you can call her by her name now," Maxine says. "We all heard it when Sam was screaming it earlier."

"Um, no. Seeing that I was around when she got that nickname, I can call her whatever I want. Thanks."

"I thought she got that nickname before the apocalypse," Sam says, and Nicole curses under her breath.

"We can talk about this after you've gotten me out of here," I interrupt, panting harshly. The zombies aren't looking at me right now, but my bite wound hasn't completely stopped bleeding. They'll smell me soon enough. "And I'd actually prefer you not use my name. At least, not on missions, alright? If you're going to say my name now, which I know all of you are, call me Five on missions."

"Okay," Maxine says. "We'll try keep that in mind."

"Dr. Meyers," Veronica says, "it's nice to hear your voice. I'd love to discuss some of my research with you, if you've got time."

"I don't think this is the moment, Veronica, but it's good to hear you too."

There's a faint click and whirling of gears, and I tense, waiting for a fence to pop up or spikes to come out of the ground, but I sigh when it's just a row of trees popping up in the distance. A guard must've leaned on the controls. Ian sent them to watch a bit after Nicki had turned back to lead the zombies away.

"Okay. As long as none of Sigrid's soldiers have noticed Five's not a zom, we're okay," Sam breathes out.

"Okay for now," Paula says. "You can't be a human among zombies for long without someone noticing. And by the way, Five, welcome to the Not A Zombie club. I'm so glad you're alright. We've missed you."

"That prisoner's getting well and truly... eaten," Peter says in disgust. "She won't be distracting the horde for much longer."

"We need a plan," Janine says.

"Um, can't we just stick to the original plan?" Sam asks. "You know, Five makes a break for the gap in the fence. Simple. Easy."

"The Minister could review the tapes and see what happened," Veronica says.

"And then the Minister would look into what Veronica did," Nicole says.

"I'm too valuable to risk. Sorry! I am though."

"Right, yeah. You probably have a spreadsheet about it," Nadia remarks, her voice holding a certain bite to it. "So we need another way out of there for her."

"Ideas," Janine demands. "Quickly please."

"Run for the break in the fence. The zombie horde will follow," Peter says. "If you stay just ahead of the horde, Five, it'd look like you're part of it."

"Too dangerous," Paula says. "One false move and Five gets eaten. And the soldiers will notice a whole horde moving, and start shooting, or block the gap in the fence."

"Hide," Sam says. "Yeah, uh, find a screen of trees, duck down, wait it out."

"Can't do that," I pant. "I'm bleeding, so they'll smell me, and even if I wasn't, Ian's gonna be coming for zombie me, and he likes to see me hurting. He'd probably like it even though, to him, I'm a zombie and can't feel pain. He'd probably cut off my hand just for kicks. And I like my hand."

"But that's an advantage we have," Nadia says. "Not the hand thing, but everyone thinking Five's a zombie. At least, those who needs to think it, they think it. Can we use that?"