“We have to get him to the hospital wing,” Fred yelled at Gunn as she looked over Wesley’s wounds.
“Well then that’s a problem. Because we’re cut off. From the hospital wing. Form the exit. From everything.”
“That’s unacceptable Charles.”
“Maybe it’s unacceptable, but it’s also reality. Look, Fred, if one of us tried to make a run for it, maybe we’d make it. Maybe. But carrying an injured guy . . . there’s no way.”
“Fred,” Wesley said weakly as he stared up at her. “Fred, he’s right.” He gripped her hand. “You have to do it.”
Fred gritted her teeth and looked across the room at the tools they used for autopsies. They were essentially the same as those a doctor would use. And despite being trained as a physicist, two and a half years with the AI team had taught her how to pull a bullet. Then again, she was usually pulling them from Angel, who didn’t mind when you hit those pesky arteries.
The pounding of the zombies on the doors continued, creating an unnerving atmosphere.
“Knox!” Fred called. “I need the scalpels and . . . all that other scalpel stuff.” She stroked Wesley’s hair. “Don’t worry. You’ll be fine.”
“And if I’m not,” Wesley grinned slightly. “It’s not like I can hold you to that.”
Gunn looked toward the door. “Now all we have to do is figure out how to get Angel and his crew up from Records and Reference.”
“How about having them crawl through the air ducts,” Angel said as he climbed out through one of the vents at the top of the lab. He dropped fifty or so feet to the ground.
“Hang on,” Angel called up to the others as he walked toward Fred. “We’ll get a ladder or something.”
“What?” Connor asked as he climbed through the vent. He was looking behind him at Eve when he came through. He quickly lost his balance and stumbled from the vent. Everyone stared I shock as he fell head first from the vent. Angel ran to catch Connor. Not because he thought Connor would get hurt, but because he didn’t want the others to see Connor do exactly what he wound up doing.
Falling head first, Connor contorted his body and righted himself. He hit the ground on all fours, like a cat.
“My hockey player!” Lorne cried out in fear as he ran to the boy.
“Wait a minute,” Fred said, looking at Lorne. “You called him your hockey player. Does that mean you remember him now?”
“Not really. But I reread his file and wow, those were a lot of zeroes.”
Connor stood and looked up at the vent. “Whoa!” he said as he noticed the distance he’d fallen.
“Fred,” Wesley said in a nervous voice. “Did that boy just fall fifty feet and stand up or am I delirious.”
“Delirious,” Fred answered in an awed voice. “I saw it, too, by the way. But I’m pretty sure I’m delirious, too.” Fred turned and licked her lips. “Knox, shoot Wes up with the morphine. I’m going in.”
*
“If he sings Rule Britannia one more time, I’m going to shove that bullet back into his gut,” Gunn said, glancing at the still doped Wesley.
“At least he’s going to live,” Fred said.
“That’s good then,” Connor said.
“Obviously you don’t know Wes that well,” Gunn smirked.
“So . . .” Connor looked around nervously. “I guess we’re waiting for this Wes guy to heal, and then we all make for the exits.”
“Exits?” Gunn said. “This is the safest place in the building besides Security. Which means-”
“No exits,” Connor said, contorting his mouth uncomfortably. “So we went from being trapped in one place to be trapped in another.” He looked around. “But this one has a kitchenette. Cool.”
“Please don’t eat the leftover barbeque wings from TGI Friday,” Fred said. “They’re mine.”
“Okay,” Connor said. “I’ll- Ouch!”
“Oh! Sorry,” Fred said, quickly pulling something away from Connor. “I left this stupid scalpel out. I’m so clumsy sometimes.”
“It’s cool,” Connor said, looking at the slight prick in his hand. “But since you stabbed me with a scalpel, I’m eating your wings.”
Fred smiled girlishly. “Fair enough.”
“I’ll show you around the kitchenette,” Eve said harshly as she roughly grabbed Connor’s arm and pulled him away from Fred.
“No time,” Angel said.
“No time to eat?” Connor said. “There has to be time to eat.”
“Security has the weapons. The longer we stay in here, the more the zombies reproduce. And if Fred can’t find a counteragent, we’ll need to fight our way out. I need Gunn and Connor to come with me to security.”
“Take Knox, too,” Fred offered.
“Wha- what?” Knox called anxiously.
“You’re an able-bodied man,” Angel said. “You fight.”
“What about Lorne?” Knox said. “He should fight, too.”
“Actually, I was hoping to draw on Lorne’s knowledge of demonology,” Fred said hastily. “But, perhaps Eve could go.”
“Forget it!” Connor shouted defensively and a little louder than discretion would advice.
“Um . . . there’s a problem here?” Angel said, wondering what Connor’s overreaction was about.
“It’s just . . . she’s a chick. Chicks shouldn’t have to fight if they don’t want to. Plus, she’s my lawyer and, and . . . I might want to sue people when this is all over. So Eve stays here where it’s safe.”
Eve smiled despite herself. It was charming to see Connor defend her like that.
“So how do we get to security?” Connor asked.
“Well,” Angel began nervously. “You remember that vent you fell out of?”
*
“It’s okay,” Fred whispered as he sat near Wesley’s gurney. “Eve’s in the office making phone calls.”
“Maybe we should be spying on her,” Lorne whispered.
“No, we need to regroup,” Wesley said. “I hope I convinced everyone I was out of it. The singing wasn’t over the top, was it?”
“Not at all,” Lorne said. “And I picked up some interesting stuff. We’ll talk later.”
“I think I have something,” Fred said. “I got some of Connor’s blood.”
“Is that why you stuck him?!” Lorne whispered in an angry tone. “Stop taking blood from my superstar.”
“The boy fell fifty feet and landed without so much as a bruise,” Wesley protested.
“It’s not just that,” Fred said. “Remember when part of the lab was destroyed when we found that strange blood sample? It may have been Connor’s. I did his blood work.”
“But you said he was normal,” Lorne whispered.
“So was the blood I tested. Until I introduced a stimulus that usually destroys human blood.”
“Still, you probably took a hundred people’s blood that week,” Lorne said.
Wesley rolled his eyes. “But how many of them can drop fifty feet without-”
“More importantly,” Fred interrupted. “How many of them have caused your brain to get drilled when you read them.”
“Lorne, someone didn’t want you to tell us what you read when Connor sang,” Wesley said.
“Maybe,” Lorne said.
“But put it all together, Lorne,” Fred said. “I like the guy, too. But he’s the common denominator. Blood work, brain drills, and fifty foot drops.”
“Well,” Lorne rolled his eyes. “You got the blood. Do your thing and tell me what you see.”
*
“We start at the top and block off the floors as we go down.” Angel wondered if Knox was in the know regarding Connor. Eve said Knox wasn’t, but Angel didn’t trust her.
“Cool,” Gunn said, cocking a pistol and putting extra clips on a belt made for carrying ammo. “Me and Angel will take the vanguard. Knox, you and the kid-”
“I’m not a kid,” Connor interrupted as he helped himself to weapons and ammo.
“My understanding is your hockey contract isn’t official because you’re not eighteen yet,” Gunn said. “That makes you a kid. Anyway, you and Knox stay back and scream if anything comes up behind you.”
“This is stupid,” Connor said. “We should start at the lab. Try to reclaim as much area as possible.”
“Except the area down there is swarming. We should try to pick up survivors on the upper levels and build up our numbers.”
“We’ll keep the south stairwell locked down with keycards,” Angel said. “That’ll be our base. Any problems, retreat there.”
“But first we have to clean it out,” Gunn said.
*
“What are we up to, kids?” Eve asked in a slurred voice as she stumbled from the kitchen.
“Oops,” Lorne said. “Looks like someone found that bottle of vodka I left in the freezer.”
“Hey, stick girl,” Eve said to Fred.
“Do I even have to make a comment about the pot calling the kettle black?” Fred answered without looking up from her microscope.
Eve came over and shoved the microscope out from under Fred. “So what are we looking at?” She grabbed the microscope. “Anything fun?”
“Fred jerked the microscope back and took the blood sample out from the under the lens. “I’m looking at blood samples from zombie victims.” She loaded the sample into a tray and sent it into the airtight room.
Eve stumbled away. “Fine. I guess I’m useless. Maybe I should just wander out into the lobby and let the zombies eat me.”
“Maybe you should,” Fred muttered. She looked through her microscope and used the mechanical arms. “Okay. Looks like the hunch was off. The blood’s normal.”
“So I can take the millions and millions of dollars of commission on his hockey contract, right?” Lorne said.
“No reason you shouldn’t.”
“Um, Fred,” Wesley said as he looked at the printout from the analysis of Connor’s blood. “You may want to rerun your tests. I don’t think an eighteen year old boy’s blood should have this much estrogen content.”
“What?” Fred said, grabbing the printout. She scanned it, her brain working quickly to put it all together. “Eve. She switched the samples. That’s why she grabbed my microscope.”
*
“I’m out of ammo,” Connor shouted. Gunn stuffed another clip in his hand.
“We have to fall back!” Angel called.
“We can take them,” Gunn shouted. But there was no denying that the throng of zombies was getting closer and closer to their position.
“I’m with Mr. Angel,” Knox said.
“Wrong,” Gunn said. “You’re with me. Angel, take the kid and fall back. I’m taking Knox and hitting the next floor.”
“What?” Knox wined.
“Come on!” Angel shouted. He grabbed Connor and pulled him to the stairwell. They got inside just in time to lock it before the pounding on the door began.
“Can I just say that this sucks and I want my mommy and I’m not ashamed to say it,” Connor blurted.
“We need to check the next floor,” Gunn said.
“Those things can use stairs,” Connor said. “They’ll just be on the next floor waiting to eat you.”
“We need to find survivors.”
“We haven’t found any survivors yet. And if there were any, those zombies probably got them. We need to come up with a way to kill them all at once.” Connor looked up and shook his head. “Why are they doing this?” he asked in an annoyed tone. “Why are they zombies?”
Angel did a double take. Connor looked at him oddly as that sweet voice whispered in Connor’s ear again. It’s not a dream. It’s a memory.
“Have I been here before?” Connor asked Angel.
Angel’s mouth dropped open. He almost spoke. He almost told Connor everything. He had no idea what compelled him to want to do that, but in that moment, the urge was overpowering.
“We have to get you out of here,” Gunn said, grabbing Connor’s arm. “This is harrier than I thought it’d be and Lorne’ll kill me if I get his start hockey player hurt. Angel, get him downstairs and back to the others.”
*
“He should have sent Knox back,” Fred said as Angel explained his return. “He could have helped me with creating an antigen to the zombie virus.”
“You’re the one who said to take him!” Angel protested.
“I can help with the virology,” Connor said, stepping up to Fred’s side. “I’ve got a whole week of Stanford Chemical Engineering classes under my belt,” he added self-deprecatingly.
Fred smiled. “Hope Eve doesn’t mind,” she whispered as she nodded toward some pipettes.
“Why would Eve mind?” Connor asked in an extremely convincing ‘confused’ voice. “These?” he added, holding up the pipettes Fred indicated.
“I should get to work on the spell,” Wesley said.
“What spell?” Angel asked. “I thought this was a virus?”
“It’s a viral agent to create zombies, yes. But I realized a moment ago that, initially, there must have been a spell to create the zombie effect. Whatever drugs were introduced were simply done so to modify the hosts.”
“Is there any chance the spell Sirk did was the spell?”
“Oh, bloody hell,” Wesley said, realizing Angel was right.
“Don’t say that,” Angel grunted.
“Hey Fred,” Connor asked while he worked with her. “If I asked for a favor, could you do one for me?”
“Depends. Is it illegal?”
“No.”
“Immoral?”
“A little.”
“Is it smaller than a bread box or bigger than a bread box?”
“What?”
“That’s my way of saying enough with the twenty questions. What do you want?”
“A DNA test,” Connor said. “I . . . I think I may be adopted.”
“So you want me to run your DNA against your parents?”
“No. I want you to run it against Angel.”
Smash. The pipette Fred was holding hit the ground. She wanted to tell Connor he was crazy. There was no way Angel was his father. Then she realized . . . “Sure. I’ll just need to take a blood sample. While I’m at it, I can check for anything that might be causing the hallucinations you asked me about.”
“I didn’t hallucinate. I just heard things.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to be insensitive. Sometimes my brain works faster than my mouth. Or maybe I mean that the other way around.”
Connor smiled at her confused babbling. It was cute. Although he was standing a respectable distance away, he could still smell her hair and her perfume.
“I need to ask Eve about some contract stuff,” Connor said, needing to get away from Fred and to his girlfriend. “Can you handle this on your own for a couple minutes?”
Fred smiled and nodded. Lorne’s warning that Connor had a relationship with someone and the hots for Fred was pretty much confirmed. After staring at her so lustfully, he wanted to go see his girlfriend and remind himself he was taken. No kid in his position would actually need to talk about his contract with a liaison in the middle of a life or death situation.
“How’s it going?” Angel asked as he came up next to Fred.
“Who’s Connor?” she asked.
“What? I thought they drilled Lorne’s brain to suck out Connor memories.”
“When we took over Wolfram & Hart. Lilah said a car would take you to see someone named Connor. Now we have a Connor visiting us and asking me to compare his DNA to yours. He thinks you’re his father.”
“What?”
Fred turned and looked at him with her not as clueless as you think look.
“Yit, I, rah . . . when I was human, I had a sister. Shu, she . . . she grew up. I . . . Connor is her last living descendent. That I know of, anyway.”
“Oh my god. Who else knows about this?”
“Eve. She ran the background check that revealed it. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I don’t want anyone knowing.”
“Does Connor know?”
“He doesn’t even know that I’m a vampire.”
“What should I tell him about the DNA test?”
“Tell him there’s no relation.”
“Angel,” Gunn’s voice squawked over the radio.
“Yeah?”
“Sirk is dead,” Gunn answered.
“What happened?”
“Zombies got him.”
“Angel,” Wesley called. “I think I figured out how to stop the zombies. We’ll need burn Sirk’s spell book with a black flame.”
“Where the hell are we going to find black flame?” Angel asked.
“In the supply cabinet next to the wolfsbane,” Fred said without looking up.
“Oh. Then that’s a good plan.”
*
“You sure like your spinners,” Eve said coldly as Connor stepped into the break room.
“Spinners?”
Eve gave him a condescending look.
“Oh,” he said, getting it. He sat down. “Listen, I left her over there by a microscope so I could come be with you. You’re the one I want to be with. Why do you think I’m in here?” Connor tickled her a little. “But I guess I do kind of like skinny chicks. Probably because I want them to be skinnier than I am, which isn’t easy.”
“Stop it. Don’t be cute when I’m angry with you. It makes it hard to keep the anger up.
Connor smiled. He kissed her gently on the cheek. “As soon as we get out of this zombie thing, I’m going to take you to an office and prove how much I like you. Deal?”
Eve smiled and kissed Connor back. “Deal.”
*
“This is it?” Angel asked.
“This is it,” Gunn answered.
Angel spread the black powder over the book and lit a match. A black flame engulfed the book. “Fred,” he radioed down to the lab. “How’s it look?”
“The banging on the doors stopped. That’s a good sign.”
By the time Angel, Gunn, and Knox got back downstairs, the last of the zombies had died off.
Fred walked up to Angel. “Looks like you got it all taken care of.”
“Yeah. You take care of that other thing?”
“Not yet. I’ll get on it as soon as . . . I can.” Something told Fred that she shouldn’t tell Angel about Connor and Eve. Connor deserved some small measure of privacy. She turned and saw Connor leaving the break room. “I’ll do it now.”
Fred walked over to Connor and told him that she’d run a DNA test based on the blood he provided for his drug test. “Not a match with Angel.”
“Oh,” Connor said, glancing over at Angel. “He seemed awfully protective of me.”
“He’s like that with all our clients. Besides, you’re worth a lot of money to the firm.”
“Right. Money.”
“Well, it’s more than money with Eve, I’m sure.”
“Why do you keep mentioning Eve?”
Fred smiled conspiratorially. “It’s okay, Connor. I won’t tell anyone.”
Connor smiled slightly. “Thanks. That’s really cool of you. Speaking of which, I better stop talking to you before she comes out and sees us.”
“I understand. Oh, and good luck with your hockey game next week.”
“Thanks.”
*
“Well?” the boy in the white room asked.
“It worked,” Knox said. “We took care of Sirk and all the blame is being put on him. I gave Cordelia an overdose of adrenaline. There’s only one hitch.”
“Yes?” the boy asked.
“She didn’t die.”
*
And it was about that moment, when Knox was telling the boy in the white room that Cordelia had been injected with adrenaline, that Miss Chase’s eyes shot open.
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