Outer Cape Echo
15 minutes ago
BREAKING: Word coming out of the Outer Cape is that there’s a siege in Provincetown. Heavy machine gun fire and loud explosions could be heard coming from the vicinity of the seaside town. Officials are keeping tight-lipped, but the word is the army has mounted some kind of operation. As we reported earlier in the day, large numbers of military vehicles were spotted making their way along Route 6. Just what is going on over there? If you know, tell us in the comments below.
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Mike Finkel: Terrorists. It’s always terrorists.
Jane Birch: My niece who lives over in Provincetown hasn’t been able to get back in. She got a call from her father, who told her to stay out. He says he’s boarded up his house and he’s just waiting it out. He’s got Alzheimer’s, so I don’t know if he’s a reliable witness, but my niece said he was talking about zombies.
Grant Richardson: That’s the biggest load of crap I ever heard. Zombies? Come on.
Dale White: I heard it’s zombies too from my cousin who lives down that way. He said he saw someone chewing on a body like it was a juicy burger. I’m staying up in Hyannis until this blows over.
* * *
When Lane checked the bathrooms, she knew with certainty they were both gone. Lois and Wendy. What the hell was Wendy thinking? Fair enough, she wanted to keep the Viking treasure for herself, but why take Lois too?
“She took Lois because she knows we’ll go after her. Lois is a bargaining chip,” Meg said.
“Surely not. How do you know that?” Lane asked.
“Because there’s no reason she’d take a little kid with her if she wants to get out of Provincetown with the treasure. No reason except she knows we’ll come after her, and Lois is her insurance. She knows we’ll take Lois and not the treasure if it comes down to it.”
“That’s fucking cold,” Lane said. “Maybe she thought she was helping Lois by taking her?”
Meg shook her head. “No, she wants that treasure and she knows we want it too—for different reasons. She thinks we’ll let her keep it in return for Lois.”
“I don’t understand. Wendy didn’t strike me as a bad person. Why would she do this?” Lane asked.
“Who knows? Maybe there’s something about that treasure? If a Viking is willing to rise from the dead to get it back, it must be special,” Meg said.
“But it doesn’t make sense. I thought she was the kindly local historian? When did she turn into such a psycho?” Lane asked.
“I don’t know. I never knew Wendy all that well. I always got the sense she felt like she was better than everyone else. But maybe that was unfounded—I’m clearly not the best judge of character, am I?”
“So why is she doing this? I mean, Teensy was her friend. They were together. It seems odd that she wouldn’t do everything to help us get out of this situation. Why hoard the treasure? Why take Lois?”
“I told you, Lane, I don’t know. Maybe she got so caught up in her work that she lost her way. She’s been here for years plugging away, trying to make something of her career, with all her exhibitions and papers. Perhaps this treasure was just too good to resist. It proves out her years of research, and it’s worth a ton of money.”
“You sound like you know a lot about her, for someone who says she doesn’t know Wendy at all,” Lane said.
“I just know what it’s like to want something so badly that you lose sight of what’s important,” Meg said.
Lane could see Meg thought she’d said too much. A crack in her wall. And Lane got a glimpse of the regret Meg felt. Or maybe that was just Lane’s wishful thinking. Meg had tuned her out as quickly as she’d let her in back in the office. Classic Meg move. It frustrated Lane and made her sad at the same time. Since they’d been in the Pig, Lane had sensed a thawing in Meg. But maybe that was only wishful thinking too.
Either way, they didn’t have time to talk about their relationship right now. With luck, there would be a later. Meg sighed and Lane couldn’t help herself. She reached out and stroked Meg’s cheek.
“Yeah, I guess you do know what it’s like,” Lane said. Then, before Meg could say anything else, she changed the subject. “Okay. Where would she go? The harbour?”
“Maybe. I guess she might try. I know she can sail a boat.”
“But it’s so risky. We didn’t make it, and we had Teensy with us,” Lane said.
“She’s desperate. She’s willing to die to keep hold of the treasure. And let Lois die too,” Meg said. “I feel awful. While we were in there having sex, Wendy was taking Lois.”
“I know. Meg, we have to get her back,” Lane said.
“Yes. We have to go back out there. It’s dark now—maybe that’ll give us some kind of cover,” Meg said.
“Maybe.” Lane picked up her bag. She took out the hammer and handed it to Meg.
“Lane?” Meg said. “Whatever happens out there, Lois is our priority. If it’s a choice between me and her, I want you to pick her.” Meg tested the weight of the hammer in her hand, and it felt good. Solid. Heavy.
Lane nodded. “Same for me. We get Lois out of here. And we get that treasure. I think it’s the key. I think it’s what will put an end to this. Wendy said it herself—these draugr things want their treasure. If we can give it back, maybe it’ll go away.”
“I don’t know if it’s that simple, but it’s certainly worth a shot,” Meg said.
“It’s the only one we have. Doesn’t look as if the military are going to help us. Maybe the zombies already got out of Ptown,” Lane said.
Shit, what was she saying? Where the zombies might have spread to didn’t bear thinking about, and it was the last thing they needed distracting them right now. “Sorry. Killing the mood again.”
Meg laughed and Lane smiled. She liked it when Meg laughed. “Don’t worry about it. Ready to go?”
Lane nodded. She was as ready as she’d ever be. And how ready could you ever be to face a horde of flesh-eating zombies?
Lane watched as Meg pulled more boards loose so they could fit through.
* * *
Outside, a bitter wind had kicked up. It was already full dark even though it wasn’t yet six p.m. A newspaper twisted and flipped and danced its way down the deserted street. Meg was struck by how quiet it was. There should be people crowding the sidewalks and spilling out from the bars and restaurants. Instead, the place was empty. At least there weren’t a bunch of zombies waiting for them.
This time, they didn’t see any point in heading for the beach. Last time had shown them the zombies would eventually head down there, and at least up on Commercial there were more places to run and hide. On the beach they’d be trapped—just like Teensy was. Meg tried not to think about that. She thought that last image of Teensy being buried by a mass of swarming, biting bodies would stay with her for a long time.
“Stop,” Lane whispered, and Meg realized she hadn’t been paying attention.
Good work, she told herself. Great way to get yourself killed.
“What is it?” Meg asked.
“I can hear something. From there.” Lane pointed at an alley to the right of them. “We should duck down here.”
Lane and Meg moved behind a dumpster sitting in the alley next to them. Good thing about Provincetown—lots of alleys.
They crouched down and waited. Soon, they heard the shuffling and the groaning that seemed to signal a zombie was nearby. Meg chanced a look around the side of the dumpster. Sure enough, there it was, shuffling down the street with a weird aimless determination. Like it was heading somewhere but didn’t exactly know where. Who knew, maybe they still retained some of who they had been, and this zombie was heading to a home it dimly remembered.
They waited until it shuffled past, changed its mind, shuffled back, and headed up Freeman Street.
“Let’s go,” Lane whispered.
When they got to the parking lot at MacMillan Pier, Meg couldn’t avoid looking left to where Teensy had died. It was too far away, but Meg swore she could see a dark pool of blood soaking into the sand.
They made slow progress, ducking behind cars and weaving their way towards the pier. Once they were on it, there would be no real options for escape should the zombies turn up. Really, the water would be their only out, and looking at it, Meg wasn’t sure they’d survive that either. But drowning beat being eaten to death and coming back as one of them.
Suddenly, Meg heard a scream. It came from Commercial. “You hear that?” she asked Lane.
“Yeah. Might be Wendy,” Lane said.
“It could be.”
The scream came again, followed by someone calling for help. Definitely Wendy. Which meant she was alive. Which meant there was a good chance Lois was too.
“Let’s go,” Lane said and made a break for it.
Meg followed. Jesus, Lane was fast. Meg couldn’t remember the last time she’d done any exercise. She was certainly paying for it now. She thought about promising the universe to do better if they survived, but…nah. If she got out of this alive, she’d probably still not do any exercise, truth be told.
Meg’s lungs burned and so did her legs. She half expected to turn on to Commercial and see Ivar Sigmarsson blowing blue fire out of his mouth, but it was just the usual horde of twenty or thirty zombies.
Wendy and Lois were up on a car roof. Meg noticed the zombies were having trouble climbing, and that was something to bear in mind.
The zombies hadn’t seen her and Lane yet, and maybe they could make that work.
“Lane, you hide. I’ll make a ton of noise and try and make them follow me. That should give you time to get Wendy and Lois.”
“No—”
“That bar there?” She pointed to the building on the corner by the car. “It’s the Governor Bradford. You can hide in there. I’ll circle back and find you.”
“Meg, no.”
“It’s the only way.”
“Then let me lead them off,” Lane said.
“We don’t have time for this. I know Provincetown. I know where I’m going, and you don’t.”
“But, Meg—”
Meg kissed her. It was all she could think to do. She didn’t have the words to tell Lane how she felt about her, and even if she did, there wasn’t time. She kissed her hard. Bruised her lips, probably. Then Meg stepped back, waited for Lane to take cover, and screamed at the top of her lungs.
* * *
At the sound of Meg’s warlike cry, Lane jumped up from where she’d been hiding and rushed up the street.
As Meg had hoped, the zombies turned and took off after her on a cacophony of groans. Lane didn’t have time to follow her progress down the street. She felt sick and proud and terrified for Meg. She didn’t have time for any of those feelings, though.
Once the last of the zombies had gone, Lane approached the car.
“Quickly,” she said and held her arms out for Lois, who jumped into them. “You okay? Not hurt, not bitten?” she asked.
“No.” Lois shook her head.
Lane put her down and focussed her attention on Wendy. “Here.” She held out her hand. “Wendy, hurry up. We don’t have time for this,” Lane said.
“You’re going to take the treasure.” Wendy still didn’t move.
“We can talk about that later. Meg just risked her life for you. Get down.”
Wendy snorted. “No, she risked her life for her.” She nodded at Lois. “If it had just been me, you’d have left me for dead.”
Lane couldn’t argue. “Which is the reason you took Lois. Either way, you’re not dead thanks to Meg.”
“If I come down, you’re going to take it from me,” Wendy said.
They really didn’t have time for this. “No one’s taking anything.”
“I heard you talking, back at the Squealing Pig,” Wendy said.
“Wendy, what—” Lane stopped dead in her tracks when Wendy pulled out a gun. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Insurance. You won’t mess with me while I’ve got this,” Wendy said. “Now step back. We’re getting out of here on Dawn’s Crack. And you’re going to get us there.”
“No way,” Lane said.
“Yes, you are. It’s where we were headed until we got chased into a store by a bunch of them.”
“Wendy, think about what you’re doing. Is it really worth all this? For some jewellery?”
“It’s not just jewellery. It’s proof. Proof I was right. Proof of everything I’ve been working on for so many years. They won’t laugh at me now. When I go to conferences, they’ll treat me with the respect I deserve. I’m not burying it all over again for your stupid theory. Besides, it’s worth a lot of money. It’ll give me the lifestyle I deserve too,” Wendy said.
“They won’t let you keep it,” Lane said. “They’ll make you give it back.”
“They have to find it all first. And as soon as I get out of here, I’m selling most of it to the highest bidder,” Wendy said.
“Then how will you prove you’re right? If you sell it to a private collector?” Lane was stalling for time. She needed to come up with a plan, fast.
“Oh, I’ll keep some of it. A few pieces that prove my theory. It’s really a win-win,” Wendy said, and the smirk on her face made Lane want to smack it off.
Lane glanced up the street. They were running out of time. And what about Meg? Lane needed to find her. “Wendy, keep the fucking stuff—just get down.”
“I will—” Wendy’s words were cut off by the sound of gunfire.
“What the bloody hell is that?” Lane asked.
“Sounds like the cavalry has arrived,” Wendy said. “Now we need to move.”
Suddenly, the ground shook beneath the sound of a huge explosion. It knocked Wendy off the roof of the car and sent her bag flying, and the contents tumbled out and scattered across the road.
“No!” Wendy cried, barely acknowledging the explosion. So desperate to keep hold of the treasure, she frantically began collecting it back up.
Lane turned and reached out to Lois, who she had pushed behind her and out of the way of Wendy’s gun. Lois immediately came into her arms. She picked the little girl up. “Wendy, leave that. We need to go.”
Lane felt Lois’s arms tighten around her neck and her legs circle her waist in the way all little kids know how to do.
“I can’t. I can’t—it’s mine,” Wendy said, stuffing the items back in the bag as quickly as she could.
“We need to get inside. That explosion, it could be Sigmarsson.” Lane tried reasoning with her again.
“I don’t care. And you’re going to help me,” Wendy said and pointed the gun at Lane.
“How did you manage to keep hold of that?” Lane asked.
“Never you mind. Put her down and start collecting up the rest.”
“Wendy—”
“Now.”
Lane had no choice. With a gun pointed at her, she’d have to do what Wendy wanted. But she’d bide her time, and she’d watch. And when Wendy let down her guard, Lane would have her.
Lane put Lois down and kissed the top of her head. “Keep close to me. This shouldn’t take long.”
“The more you procrastinate, Lane, the longer we risk more zombies turning up,” Wendy said.
Lane nodded and began to pick up Wendy’s treasure.