Page 58 of Siren in Love
Peter shrugged.“They got stuck between vertebrae and muscle.I’d rather not, considering how close to its teeth they are.”
The only things the hothouse had to offer other than the one trowel were orchids and that deep earth scent that now reminded Mike of decay.The next hothouse connected to this one, and they made their way through an iron-framed glass door to get to it.
This area had lush plants, just like the first hothouse.Wooden bridges led the visitors on a walk that was meant to feel like they were visiting the rainforest.Insects huddled beneath the foliage, and Mike could sense nothing out of the ordinary.
Peter’s right.This is too easy.Mike’s stomach twisted into knots.
“Oh, promising.”Peter took a sharp turn to the right, straight into the flower beds.
They followed, and Mike pulled Corvin close when he stumbled over a root in the dark.
“Where are we going?”Corvin asked, even as the zombies entered the hothouse behind them.
“Personnel only.I hope they keep more equipment there,” Peter said.Mike heard him try a door, which turned out to be locked.With a yank and a screech of metal against metal, Peter circumnavigated the need for a key to get through.
“Shit, this is dark,” Corvin said, and Mike put his arm around his hips, leading him.
The sickly sweet smell of fertilizer gave this away as a work shed of some kind even before Mike got a sense of the place.Instead of being just a storage room, this seemed to be some sort of brick-built hallway.
Alcoves held tools and plants with their branches clipped short and, in some cases, wrapped in burlap to ward off the cold and keep the plants within ready to bloom again.Mike slowed to move some of the larger plant pots into the path so the zombies would have to deal with them.Not much, but better than nothing.
“This’ll do nicely.”One of the tools, a spade, had caught Peter’s attention.He pulled it off its hook, tested its heft, and handed Mike the shovel next to it.“This was probably an older connecting structure between hothouses.There is a blocked door ahead.”
With his siren sense, Mike could tell Peter was tearing into an uneven stretch of wall ahead of them a moment later.He’s right.It’s a door behind the bricks.
“What’s happening?”Corvin leaned close to Mike.
“I think Peter found a door behind the wall.”
“Hope it leads outside,” Corvin mumbled.“It’s so fucking dark in here.”
“Let’s see,” Peter said, and the sound of him yanking a piece of wall away almost drowned out the zombies getting through the door behind them.For all the failings of the average zombie, they were tenacious to a fault.“Oh, this is interesting.”Peter did something to the door that made it groan in protest before it opened with a screech.
Through the uncovered exit, light blossomed.It wasn’t much, barely enough to give outlines back to the world.Peter was a shadow passing through the door, and Mike and Corvin followed after him.The hungry groans of the undead trailed them like the sickly sweet scent of rot.
Beyond the rusted door Peter had nearly torn from its hinges lay another greenhouse.This one was wild, neglected, abandoned.Through dirty glass, moonlight fell in patches like so many tiny raindrops.
Mike hummed to get a better sense of the place, its broken glass windows and rickety wooden tables once used for planting or display.Vines had overtaken much of the place, swallowing walls and floors.It was still a big space, and due to the leaves blanketing the structure, it allowed for few echoes, meaning Mike only got a limited sense of their surroundings.
“It smells in here,” Corvin said.
Fertilizer.But there’s also—
“Oh, welcome, welcome!You took the long way around, I see.”
Dominic.He was there in the darkness.His voice came from the other end of the greenhouse, and he wasn’t alone.
Mike might’ve mistaken them for statues—a good two dozen, if not more—but they were zombies.Moans sounded from decaying throats, the dead ready to do their necromancer’s bidding.
Fuck,Mike thought.Right into his trap.
26
Mike
~Mike
Mike tried to count them with his siren sense, but all he was certain of was that Dominic had raised many.He’d gathered them here for his little ambush.Peter was absolutely right.This was a trap, and Dominic wants to watch Corvin get torn to shreds and eaten.
