Adam and Manuel ripped the man and woman to shreds in the nail salon. It took a long time, and it was curious that no one interrupted them, but neither Manuel nor Adam took the time to question it. It was dark when the room was destroyed, chairs broken, nail polish and blood stained the walls and floors, and chunks of two bodies that did not contain blood, but were broken into jagged pieces like very dense styrofoam. They had to break the bodies into as many pieces as possible because they kept moving and tried to kill them as severed limbs.
It is dark as they stumble out of the salon, and neither have the leech dangling from the base of their heads. They wander away from the salon along a road and then into nearby woods to avoid the few cars that pass. They lay in the grass and fall asleep without speaking a word to one another.
Manuel wakes before the sun is up. His head hurts, a steady pain radiates up from the back of his head, but he feels like himself, he remembers himself. He wakes Adam, he wants to be sure that he is thinking straight, that he can remember. He shakes Adam as he grumbles awake.
“You ok?” Manuel asks.
He groans and then asks, “We’re in Knoxville?”
“I think so.”
“We have to call Detective Young, he can help us. I remember his number, I just don’t have the energy to get to a phone.”
Manuel forces himself to stand. He knows they need help as soon as possible, before Worthington finds them. He repeats Detective Young’s phone number out loud as he wanders out of the woods. Distracted by his concentration on the phone number, Manuel wanders into the road where he is hit by a car.
When he comes to, Manuel is in the hospital and he is surprised to see Detective Young in his room.
“How did you find me, Detective?” Manuel asks.
“It’s just Paul now. They said you kept saying my phone number so they called it. They described you and I came down. Where have you been? What happened?”
“You have to get Adam,” Manuel says. “He’s out in the woods next to the road where I got hit. Go get him and then we can catch up.”
“I’ll find out where they picked you up,” Paul says. “This is Falon,” he points and Manuel is surprised that someone else is in the room on the other side of his bed. “She’s with me. I’ll leave her here while I find Adam. Call me if anything,” he says to Falon.
Manuel groans after Paul leaves and he tries to relax on the bed. He can still feel his limbs and he’s happy for that, even though he definitely feels like he was hit by a car.
“Sucks,” Falon says after a minute of quiet and Manuel visibly startles, jerking from his comfortable position.
“Ow!” he yells, “I forgot you were there again.”
“How do you know the old man?” Falon asks.
“I’m a state police officer, we worked on something together a while back.”
“I figured, I can’t believe Yuri set me up with a cop.”
“I take it you’re not in law enforcement,” Manuel says.
“No, no ” she says chuckling. “I stay far away from law enforcement.”
“How you know the old man?”
“He helping me find somebody,” Falon says. “I guess we’re gonna shut down this zombie factory in Durham too while we’re at it.”
Manuel looks at Falon skeptically.
“Detective Young is going after the CZS? He doesn’t have the jurisdiction for that.”
“He’s not a detective anymore. That CZS has his superfriends and he thinks they can take it down if he can free them.”
Ivan and Clay, he remembers seeing them at the CZS, but he couldn’t recall his memories with them while the leech was attached to his brain.
“I’m going with you,” Manuel says earnestly.
Falon is confused and it shows in her face
“You got hit by a car, man. This place makes zombies, it’s probably best you stick around here and get better.”
Manuel smiles at her. He would return to the CZS, and he would see it burn to the ground.
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