Gino lead the zombies in a stiff-legged march. A red laser beam quivered from under his shotgun muzzle and searched for me.
My mind raced for schemes to escape. Jump through the ceiling, break into the basement. I could get away, but what about Phaedra?
Gino faced me and that enormous shotgun barrel trained on my head. The tendons connecting his arm to the shotgun tightened. The gun fired.
I ducked. The pellets chewed the wall. Plaster dust and garlic powder rained on my skin, the garlic burning.
Phaedra winced. She cried out to me.
Hennison pulled her close. “We must be strong. Remember, this is for science.”
I scooted to the left and found myself in front of the big mirror.
Gino’s zombie eyes locked on me, metallic and yet cruel. Tendons flexed down the length of his bionic arm. The shotgun cycled a fresh round. The spent shell spun through the air and clattered to the floor.
The glass surface of the mirror felt cool against my back.
Gino halted, like a circuit breaker had popped in his bionic head. His eyes flickered in turmoil. When I moved, they remained fixed on one spot.
It wasn’t me he looked at but his reflection in the mirror.
His mouth opened and let out a long pained drawl. “Ghaaawww.”
His left hand groped at stitches across his face and at the metal chest plate. He fingered the tubing and wires. His hand moved as if searching for his treasured bling. He lowered the shotgun arm and advanced, left arm outstretched, and touched the mirror.
Hennison yelled, “Gino, what are you doing?”
Zombie Gino shuffled backward, still mesmerized by his reflection.
His expression become puzzled.
Then hurt.
Then angry.
Kill-everyone-in-the-room angry.
He raised the shotgun and blasted the mirror. Shattered glass sprayed the air.
His tendons flexed. A spent shell ejected from the shotgun and a fresh round was chambered. Gino swung around, his shotgun arm level.
I ducked.
Zombies dropped out of the line of fire.
The red laser beam swept through the dusty air and across Phaedra’s chest.
I sprang for Gino’s arm.
The shotgun went off.