One thing that occurred to me recently: the safe zone would be lit up at night and highly visible to many in the city, being practically the only place in town with electrical power. Roxanne and her group could have steered themselves toward Megamind's Lair by observing the light and heading in that direction in the day when travel was safer.
*sigh* I'll have go back to chapter one sometime to mention this.
I sometimes forget that The Princess Bride came out in 1986 and is, technically, an old movie. Now that I'm older myself, certain things about it bother me (such as the fact that Princess Buttercup does almost nothing other than be beautiful and get rescued, and Westley is kind of an asshole to her at times) but it has many other wonderful qualities with humor, swashbuckling adventure, and great one-liners, and I highly recommend it.
The first thing he did, even though it was selfish, was to send two brainbots to get him a new outfit, because he didn't feel like trudging around the entire safe zone in wet clothes and squelching boots. A quick change behind the portable wardrobe curtain and he was ready to go.
The zombies had a nest. Already established an actual nest in the safe zone. In his safe zone.
Eight zombies standing around in an old boat house at the tip of the peninsula. Most of the zombies were dry, or only slightly damp, so they must have tramped out of the lake some time ago, even before the rainstorm.
They were called nests for convenience, merely being places where zombies gathered for no particular reason, at least for no reason that anyone had been able to discover. In a nest they usually just stood around staring at the walls or each other or nothing, though sometimes they carried back pieces of their victims to feed on, until something fired in what was left of their brains and sent them on the hunt again.
Were they communicating in some way? Resting? Or did some faint memory of companionship remain which compelled them to seek out others of their kind? Could zombies get lonely?
The brainbots guarding the waterline found and destroyed three zombies on another beach, who were skeletonizing a dead horse. Where the horse came from was anybody's guess, most likely the racetrack or the riding academy. The zombies were still wet, so they must have come out of the lake very recently, like the one that attacked Roxanne and Billy.
The memory of it sent a dagger of hot ice through his heart. Roxanne screaming, the zombie biting her arm and whipping its head back and forth, Billy hanging limp from its hands, Doris flapping around. A scream had threatened to tear out of him, too, but he didn't, he couldn't, he had to fucking stay calm...
...the world narrowed to a window frame with the zombie's thrashing head at the center, and he had to wait for the right moment so he didn't slice off Roxanne's hand with the shot. Two point four seconds of living hell, -she was in pain, she was hurting, he had to stop it!- before he got the spit second he needed.
Megamind shuddered in the sunlight and remembered to breathe again. Billy had survived. A child under his protection had been viciously attacked and that grated on him, but at least the boy was safe now. Roxanne was safe. The yearning to go to her was a dull ache that went into his bones. What he really wanted to do was take Roxanne to his room, curl up around her, and hold her for the rest of his life. If only he had gotten to the beach faster somehow, but he couldn't have gotten there any quicker, unless he miraculously developed the ability to go back in time and be there five minutes before the attack.
He pulled his thoughts back to the security sweep, and directed the brainbots to keep watch from above while the search party went through another building. When they came out again, two of them, Tony and Hank, were arguing in low, heated voices.
"Find any zombies, gentlemen?" Megamind said, breaking in.
Hank shot another poisonous look at Tony. "No, nothing here, Overlord. I think we should..."
Tony burst out, "Overlord, how come I gotta take orders from this cop?"
Hank shot him a poisonous look. "You think you can handle a search party?"
"We been doing okay so far."
"What do you mean 'we', henchie? You just got here like five seconds ago."
Luke chimed in, "Well, I been here since the first day, man, and we didn't need no pigs tellin' us what to do. Right, Overlord?"
Hank curled his lip. "Jesus, you do anything besides kiss ass, junkie? Yeah, that's right, I know you. Gordon and Perks arrested you last year. And you were crying for mommy."
"Not cool, dude," Luke muttered.
Tony dropped his cane and lunged at Hank.
Megamind watched wearily for a few moments as they rolled around in the dirt, then snapped his fingers for the brainbots.
"I could have you dropped in the lake," he said conversationally when they were spread-eagled in mid-air. "Seeing you try to get past the 'bots guarding the shore would be entertaining." A couple of the other cops were rushing over, clearly determined to help out their fellow police officer. Megamind glared them to a standstill.
The fight seemed to have gone out of Hank and Tony, so Megamind had the brainbots drop them. He ran a steely gaze over the rest of the group. "We're not playing cops and robbers. We're not going to start up any stupid feuds, or get all bent out of shape over what somebody did to somebody else ten years ago. Because when the dust settles we'll still have the same damn problem we had before. How to stay alive."
Hal emerged from a side door, glanced around, and caught sight of Megamind. Ducking his head, he scuttled away.
Megamind felt his nostrils flare. I should have let them beat Hal up after all. It would've been a bonding experience. He shook his head, reluctantly letting go of the idea. The time had passed. Besides, Roxanne would probably find out and Megamind didn't want to go against her wishes. But if that little cockroach ever bothered her again, there would be no more mercy.
He tried to make his quarreling denizens bond another way. "Everybody form up two lines and shake hands."
After some grumbling, they did, officers on one side and ex-cons on the other. It went reasonably well, though Tony and Hank got into a hand-crushing contest and had to be separated again.
Megamind took his new henchman aside. "The cops have the most experience with these kinds of searches, Tony. And the firefighters, and I don't see you getting up in their faces. What the hell are you doing out here, anyway? If you don't rest that leg it'll never get better."
Tony shrugged his big shoulders, his face mournful. "Just trying to help. I shoulda been there, boss. For Miss Ritchi."
"No one expected it," Megamind said. "Not even me. Go back to the Lair and take it easy."
"There," Dr. Plant said, wrapping up Roxanne's arm again. "All done. Keep the stitches dry. We should take them out in about a week. Why don't you go lie down for a while?"
Roxanne went to bed, feeling vaguely resentful about being sent to her room like a little girl. She lay back and hugged a pillow, wishing Megamind was there. She touched her palm, and imagined she could feel the imprint of his lips where he'd kissed her. There had been tears in his eyes, quickly hidden, but she'd seen.
Warmth blossomed in her chest as her heart sped up. She wished... she wished she could have responded more... more strongly. But she was numb from trauma, unable to do more than touch his cheek in acknowledgement. At least she'd done that.
The encounter with her former cameraman had left a bad taste in her mouth. He had the nerve to judge her? Fuck him. She spent a few nasty moments indulging in a little fantasy of having a quiet talk with Megamind about throwing Hal to the alligators after all. At the time it had seemed way too extreme, but she was beginning to warm up to the idea.
She squirmed around on the bed for a little longer but she couldn't get comfortable, and her arm was beginning to sting. The topical anesthetic had barely done the job and had worn off already. The hell with it. She wasn't going to lie around waiting for Megamind to get home, so she got up.
The distant sound of a hovercraft motor revving drew her to the entrance. Gabby and the other mechanics were guiding the big vehicle out the double doors, under Minion's watchful eye.
"We're taking a test run," he said when she asked. "Gonna take some of the newcomers to the fire station, take some food, and a communicator. We're gonna take this car over, too, so they have a working vehicle." He gestured at an electric Chevy.
"They can't plug it in."
"Yeah, but it'll work for a while. We're still figuring out how to get them power."
"You're not using the hovercraft for the search?"
"Nah. Brainbots are taking visuals from above, people on the ground."
Roxanne ran a thoughtful gaze over the idling hovercraft. "I think a fire station would provide some good viewing for my broadcast. Mind if I tag along?"
Megamind and the first search party plodded back to the Lair. Search party two was almost done with the sweep of the other half of the peninsula and hadn't found any more zombies, and it wasn't likely any more would be discovered. The eastern half of the peninsula was much more heavily traveled than the other end. Brainbots or refugees would probably have spotted any zombies before now, unless there was a nest up in the abandoned observatory or something.
He trusted it would be taken care of. He had to trust them, as he couldn't keep doing everything himself.
He ended Hank's probation. After all, the other cops were wandering in and out freely, and as he'd declared himself, this was no time for petty grudges.
As soon as they entered the Lair, Jessica pulled Hank away behind the shelving. They didn't see Hank's wife Noelle, who was watching from the other end of the room. When they disappeared into the shadows she stopped dead in her tracks, her face turning to stone.
I probably should do something about that, Megamind thought. But really, it wasn't any of his business, he wasn't a chaperone. Still, he might have a little word with Hank to be more discrete, since he clearly didn't know how to treat his wife right.
It wasn't very hot out today, but he was sweating more heavily than he should have, and that irritating 'ping' sensation in his head had come back, so he figured he'd better rest for a while.
Pastor Mike accosted him before he could slip away, falling into step as Megamind fled toward his bedroom. He couldn't help noticing the man held a paper that looked suspiciously like a to-do list. Megamind fought the urge to run. He supposed he'd better find out what insidious plans the weird little man had for the Lair.
The pastor cleared his throat. "Firstly, I've been meaning to ask if it's all right with you to hold services for the missing, and could you say a few words? Some...some encouraging speech? As our leader, it could be uplifting."
Megamind gave him a dark look.
"Would be uplifting," the pastor hastily amended.
"So long as you make an effort to include people of Jewish, Muslim, and/or Buddhist faiths, I think I can come up with something."
"One request? Could you maybe, as a favor to me, possibly you... would not invoke...evil... evil gods?"
Megamind raised an eyebrow at the worry on the pastor's face. Then he smiled brightly. "All right, padre, just for you. But you owe me one."
Pastor Mike let out a nervous whinnying sort of laugh and took refuge in his papers. "I was thinking that, to save time, well, it's awful to say, but nonetheless, I'd also perform the service for the poor man along with the others who've passed on. If we find his loved ones later, then we can..."
Megamind stopped short. "What poor man?"
Pastor Mike blinked at him. "Oh, you haven't... Well, he was found an hour ago. Dead, I suppose it goes without saying. In the bathroom. The doctor thought it could have been a heart attack, but she wouldn't be able to tell without an autopsy. Natural causes, anyway, she thought."
Megamind's hand automatically went to the de-gun. "Has the brain been destroyed? Where's the body?"
Pastor Mike's eyes were big. "Surely there's a less drastic way to..."
"Where," Megamind said. "Is he."
Silently the pastor pointed to the morgue. Megamind strode down the corridor, the pastor gabbling about unnecessary desecration.
"Pastor Mike, I'm sure a less drastic way can be found, but I'm not going to experiment just now. A little short on time, resources, and patience. Anyone know his name?" he said to the doctor who had come out of the morgue.
Dr. Plant held up a driver's license. "Martin Finney, age seventy-five."
"Might I say a prayer over the poor man, Overlord?" the pastor said. "Before you..." He made a fluttering motion with his hands at his own head, which apparently was supposed to represent putting a shot through the skull.
Megamind didn't see what difference it made, but maybe the pastor was squeamish. "Better hurry before he wakes up."
The pastor gulped and tiptoed into the morgue.
"It'll be at least four hours before we have to worry about that," Dr. Plant said.
"Oh, a little harmless fun," Megamind said.
"What exactly happens when someone is dehydrated?" she asked suddenly. "They're in suspended animation, aren't they? Unchanging?"
"That's right."
"So if someone had a medical problem, we could dehydrate them and they'd be safe? Until we got them proper treatment?"
"Who'd you have in mind?"
"The diabetics. There's no more insulin. Unless you've found another source?"
"No. If I had the right ingredients, I could synthesize it in the lab." But he didn't, so he couldn't. "Who else?"
"Doris Haggerty. She ran out of medication over a week ago. I don't know what'll kill her first, a heart attack or a stroke. I only found out because I caught her going through Martin Finney's belongings."
"I'm not one to cause trouble, I'm sure," Doris said. She sat on the edge of one of the new beds, with Taffy the cat purring on her lap. Her hands trembled as they stroked her orange fur. "I only... only took a peek, to see if there was any left, he had the same heart pills." She gave them a look made of equal parts shame and defiance. "Well, he won't need them anymore."
"Relax, Doris, I'm not going to banish you," Megamind said. "First of all, you never actually stole anything. Secondly, it was obviously an act of desperation. I'm not such a bastard I'd kick you out for that."
Dr. Plant said. "But you're living on borrowed time. I strongly recommend you be dehydrated until we can get refills. We need to find someone to look after your grandchildren. Do you know of anyone who could..."
"I'll be the one looking after them, because I'm not going."
The doctor gave this some thought. "Technically you wouldn't be going anywhere. You would be... asleep for a little while."
"But I won't know what's going on." Doris pressed her lips together. "Does it..." Her voice trailed away.
Dr. Plant laid a hand on her arm. "It doesn't hurt a bit. Right?" she said, looking up at him with an expression that suggested that even if it did, he'd better lie.
"Not at all," he said. "For you it'll seem as if no time at all has passed." He narrowed his eyes and let his mouth turn up into a grin. "Not getting soft on me, are you, Doris?"
She stiffened and her back became ramrod straight. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that. And I will thank you to stop humoring me."
"Perish the thought. I would never, ever, consider humor as a coping mechanism."
She glowered at him. "Will the cable be on by the time I'm... I'm back?"
"I'll do my best."
She looked down at Taffy again. "Can it be in the morning? I want to make sure you've found someone suitable to look after them. Keshawn and April are so good with their brothers and sisters. But they're so young."
"We'll find someone to your liking."
"Thank you. I shouldn't have been going through that man's things, but I don't like to be a bother." She fixed Megamind with a severe look. "I should have known you wouldn't follow through on your so-called punishments. You even let that Hal person off. Too easily, if you ask me."
Megamind's mouth fell open. For a moment he was speechless, and then a long, slow laugh rolled out of him. "Doris, Doris, Doris." Still chuckling, he picked up her hand and patted it. "Don't ever change."
She was so astonished she didn't pull away.
The doctor went around to explain things to the diabetics and put their fears at ease. Some people didn't want to be stored in the morgue, even if they were glowing cubes without awareness. No one wanted to be dehydrated, naturally, but no one wanted to fall into a diabetic coma, either. Dr. Plant promised to properly label them and store them in the 'clinic,' the southeast corner of the Lair enclosed by curtains.
It was bizarre, almost as if he were lining people up to be executed, except their lives would be preserved instead. Nonetheless, there were a few tears and hugs from loved ones before he and the doctor escorted the patients behind the clinic's curtain. It... seemed more tactful, somehow, to have a bit of ceremony about it.
Most people wanted the doctor to dehydrate them with the little de-gun, which apparently looked less scary. Megamind had the feeling they were worried if he did it, he might accidentally use the wrong setting.
He plodded back across the Lair, sensing the mild gloom that had descended on the place. There were still the ambient noises of approximately three hundred people moving about, coughing and dropping things, shoving mattresses into place and scolding the kids to quit jumping on the beds, but it was muted. The dehydrated ones left holes in the social fabric.
Brainbots flew back to recharge. New brainbots took over guard duty. Brainbot and brutebot crews cleared the immediate streets of abandoned cars and wrecked vehicles, garbage, and collected bodies, clearing the routes to the fire station and the water treatment plant, three miles away. Megamind took note of the garbage. It showed where survivors might be hiding.
Brainbots were set to fishing with nets taken from trawlers, though they hadn't caught much yet.
Minion made his report. "We got five of the sewer pumps restarted, Sir. We'll go out one more time, 'cuz I think we can do two more before nightfall. The guys are about done in."
Megamind finished off a glass of water, feeling that something was missing. Then he realized. "The babies stopped crying. You use the forget-me stick on them?"
"Ha, good one, Sir, but no. Found a grocery warehouse, they had formula. And diapers!"
"Thank the evil gods," Megamind said with great feeling. It was incredible how many diapers these infants went through.
Megamind finally went to his room. He expected Roxanne to be resting, but she wasn't there. He went out again. "Have you seen Miss Ritchi?" he asked Bernard.
"I think she went with Gabby."
Megamind felt unable to come to grips with the simple statement. "Went? With Gabby? Went where?"
"The fire station."
"By themselves?" he snapped. "Are they armed? Who said they could go?"
Bernard took a step back, holding a stack of leaflets to his chest. He'd been on the beach when Megamind attacked Hal, and Bernard's theory that Megamind was a physical coward who hid behind gadgets and weaponry had taken a serious blow. He'd written some very well-received articles on the subject, which he was now hoping Megamind never heard about. "Well, some other people went, too. I think everybody had guns, and I think she took her camerabots."
"You think. You think!?" Megamind snapped. "Did she or didn't she?"
Minion touched his arm. "Sir, it's okay. I sent a squad of brainbots with them. And Tony, and some others."
Megamind unclenched his fist. "How could you let her go?"
Minion gave him a surprised look. "Whaddaya mean 'let'?"
Megamind swept back and forth in front of the monitors, struggling with the concept of forbidding Roxanne to do something. Try as he might, he couldn't quite make it work.
Minion said, "I checked the border and there weren't any zombies visible. The streets are about as safe as they can be right now. It's only a few blocks outside the zone."
"You should have insisted she lie down and recuperate."
"She lay down for a while, but she said she needed to do something. She said she might as well report on other hideouts. A fire station'll make good viewing."
Megamind could understand that feeling. And she hadn't simply taken off without telling anyone, after all, she'd taken as many reasonable precautions as could be expected. Being on a hovercraft, she was safer than people on the ground. "Fine. Guess I'm not the only bad patient around here. Got the leaflets ready to go?"
Bernard handed them over quickly and Megamind delivered them to the brainbots.
He sent them off over the skies of Metrocity and went back inside to flop into his swivel chair, to idly search his data banks for The Princess Bride. There was nothing but a short description in a catalogue of movie reviews he'd downloaded. Some silly farce set in a fantasy world, not really his kind of thing.
Noelle passed by on her way to deliver more photos to Bernard.
"Hey, Princess Bride," she said, glancing at the screen. Her perpetually somber face broke into a grin.
Over at his table, Bernard bolted upright. "Hello! My name is...
"Inigo Montoya," Noelle said, in the most atrocious Spanish accent Megamind had ever heard. "You killed my father..."
"Prepare to die!" both of them chorused, then doubled over laughing.
Megamind looked at them suspiciously. The two sourest people in the Lair, giggling over an old movie as if it had hidden depths. Weird. And he'd inadvertently quoted from it. Roxanne's face had brightened at his words, as if hearing a line from a familiar song.
Noelle and Bernard were having an animated conversation about shrieking eels and cliffs of insanity, of all things. He filed 'cliffs of insanity' away for exploration as a possible evil plot, if he ever got back to the good old days of supervillainy.
Megamind sidled over, feeling as if he was interrupting a secret meeting. Bernard's face closed off at his approach and he hunched back over his laptop. Strange, but the irritating man had been a lot less snarky lately. Megamind briefly wondered what was wrong, then decided not to question his good luck.
Megamind cleared his throat. "You guys know what 'As you wish' means?"
Bernard perked up again and Noelle drew such a sharp gasp that Megamind almost jumped.
"That is one of my all-time favorite lines," she gushed.
"Westley can say that to me anytime," Bernard said, rolling his eyes.
"Me, too."
"He looks damn good in that mask. And the sword fight with Inigo?"
"Oh, don't get me started. But I think I liked the battle of wits even better."
"Yeah, the Sicilian, he..."
"So what does it mean?" Megamind asked sharply. Good grief, he'd say anything at this point to stop the cult-like recitation.
Noelle said, "It means 'I love you.' A code between Westley and Buttercup, his one true love."
Brainbots taped up huge posters describing the nature of the virus. Leaflets with the same information rained gently over the city, all bearing the Overlord's name.
Some of them caught in a high wind, flew over the quarantine line, and drifted down among the soldiers.
Roxanne could see that the fire station was fairly well fortified against attack, but a small squad of brainbots had come along to stay, to bolster security. About seventy people had taken refuge there, and while Roxanne was taking a tour and talking to survivors, a new group of twenty desperate people appeared at the garage doors.
Zombies were on their heels.
The brainbots immediately dove at the zombies to rip them apart, sending the refugees into a screaming huddle. Someone took a swing at a brainbot with a baseball bat, others pulled out guns, and it took a lot of shouting on the denizens' part before the panicking newcomers realized the brainbots weren't attacking them.
Roxanne and the others headed back to the Lair with a bonus load of four police officers who had come with the new group. They were from the north side of town, drawn by the lights of Megamind's safe zone. Crossing over miles of zombie-infested streets had left them exhausted, but when they heard about the new Overlord, they decided it'd be a good idea to report to him.
People looked at the photos hung on the "Have you seen me?" banner, and made copies of their own photos of missing loved ones. Others scrolled through the growing digital catalog of the deceased. Four of his many monitors had been placed off to the side of the Lair for this purpose.
Roxanne's repeated treks outside had sparked off other journeys. If it was safe enough for the Overlord's girlfriend, it was safe enough for them. In any case people were tired of huddling behind walls, and were prepared to head out in search of the missing, to check on their homes, to try to reclaim their cars.
The newly rehydrated were the most eager to take off, maybe because they didn't truly understand what they were getting into. As long as people went in groups and were properly armed, he let them borrow the electric cars, if the distance they planned to travel was more than a mile. It was late afternoon, and the sun gilded the buildings orange. Despite his intention to lead more expeditions, he was too overwhelmed with the many things that needed his attention.
They completed the sweep of the peninsula, including the observatory on its hill, and didn't find any more zombies, though the brainbots guarding the shoreline caught and killed another one.
He would have to put up a wall along the entire perimeter to free up the brainbots, though he didn't like the idea of being cut off from the water. It felt claustrophobic.
Which reminded him to go down to his mini-submarine bay, accessible by a tunnel in the basement. It was secure. No zombies had been sucked into the valve intake or gotten into the loading chamber.
Docks and gates would have to be included in the wall. Building materials would be a problem. He'd already earmarked the last of the cement for a wall around the water treatment plant, so that would need to be done soon, and brainbots were erecting a wall of posts and wire for the fire station. Soon he'd have to start dismantling abandoned buildings for materials.
As a stopgap, He put up a nine-foot high wire fence, with barbed wire at the top, cutting the tip of the peninsula off from the rest of the safe zone and making it a no-man's land. The zone now had an eastern border and a western border.
Until he could get a wall up around the whole peninsula, it would have to do for now. Brainbots and brutebots continued to keep their glowing red eyes on the remainder of the shoreline and he set them to scour the no-man's land on a daily basis, to rout out any zombies that might have wandered ashore.
He set up an emergency comm on the western border that faced the city so if new refugees appeared they could ring for help from the Lair and someone could let them past the 'bots. He should set up a guard station and have a roster of people to keep watch round-the-clock.
Some of the newcomers were leery of the Lair and wanted to check out other buildings in the safe zone, which was fine by him. The Lair was getting more crowded and smellier all the time. With a warning to watch out for Hal, he let them go.
He returned from checking on the construction of the new border wall to find that Roxanne had come back. He felt a hot blush start at his collar and work its way up.
As he absent-mindedly greeted the new, wary police officers his mind was occupied with another matter entirely.
She knew what 'as you wish' meant. And now he knew. If he ever used the phrase again, she would know that he knew, and he didn't know how she'd take it. Would she like it? Be flattered? Worry about hurting his feelings because she wouldn't be able to say it back?
Would things get weird? He couldn't stand it if things got weird again, he would just die, they'd only just gotten over the weirdness of when he held her on his lap and then ruined it all by panicking and slamming the door in her face. Amazing how a zombie attack put things in perspective.
Good God, had he carried her in the swivel chair only that morning? It seemed a very long time ago. Could he somehow make it into a light-hearted, no-pressure joke? He couldn't just blurt it out any old way, it had to be in response to a request, and...
Roxanne frowned, a little furrow appearing between her beautiful brows. "You all right?"
"Yes," he squeaked. Aargh, he'd been standing there staring at her. "Ahem. Yes," he said in a more normal voice.
The cops looked at each other. "What do you want us to do, sir?"
"There should regular patrols again in the city. Might as well start with the route between here and the fire station. Meet with the other officers, come up with a plan, deputize some extra people. And you'll be working with my henchmen, too, so play nice."
He followed Roxanne into her work station. "How's the arm?"
"Eh. It's fine." She plopped into her work chair. "God, I cannot handle editing all this right now. I'd like to go to my apartment, if you don't mind I borrow a hovercraft." She plucked at her t-shirt. "I appreciate the change of clothes, but I'd really like some of my own. I don't think my place is too far."
"Twenty blocks," he said promptly.
She chuckled. "Heh. You would know, Mr. Kidnapper."
He grinned like an idiot and clutched at his cape. He really ought to say something, something casual and not-at-all weird, but fortunately Roxanne had gotten up again before he could say anything foolish.
"I'll bring any food that's still salvageable," she said. "And I want to check to see if anyone is in trouble there," she said. Her eyes searched his, and the little furrow reappeared. "Sooo. What do you think?"
A request!
He trembled over the void, took a deep breath, then deflated. "Of... of course. Certainly. Yeah. Bring gunmen. Or gunwomen. Gunners. Yeah."
Minion pointed. "Down that block, Thao." The pilot shifted the controls and moved the hovercraft where Minion indicated. The next sewer pump was coming up, and Minion knew the crew was more than ready to call it a day. They'd run into zombies in the last tunnel, eating rats. Being in a closed-in space with hungry zombies wasn't an experience for the faint-hearted. Honestly, they got in everywhere.
He saw some people waving from a window of a hotel and recognized them. "Hey, I know those guys." They were some of the men that he and Sir had rescued from the prison. Minion waved back. "Hi, guys! You need some..."
Minion's voice trailed away. It didn't look like they were waving at him for help. They were trying to warn him off.
One of the men in the window made big sweeping motions to the side, shouting, "Go! Get away, get back! Sniper!" He pointed frantically down.
Down? Snipers usually tried to get up high, but the man's gestures indicated the sniper was on a lower level of the four story building. Minion touched Thao's arm. "Swing around this corner, quick."
Minion scanned the bank of windows, silvered by the afternoon sun. Now where would...
A glint of light from ground floor. Gun barrel.
"Everybody down," Minion said sharply, and a bullet punched him in his gorilla chest.
