The office workers all lurched forward suddenly. Too suddenly, Daniel thought. It was like they'd all been queued at the same time by an inaudible whistle blow.
"They're not alive anymore." Daniel said.
Ellis was thinking fast, which he could tell now. The pressure in his head that signaled her presence shrunk and fluttered. She drew the spare gun from the back of his waistband and Daniel heard her raise it and open the safety.
"Stay right there!" she yelled at someone. It took all of Daniel's trust to keep his eyes focused ahead of him, on the office workers. They'd frozen when he drew his gun and were evaluating the situation. He watched their eyes flick between him and Ellis in unison. All fifteen of them would look at the same thing at once.
<
"Tourists don't have guns." The closest office worker him said. She was the one who'd tried to get behind them from the office's kitchen. A young woman wearing a bright red knit sweater. "And neither do children."
"Who are you?" Daniel asked.
She frowned. "Rachael, I'm a product lead here."
"I'm not talking to Rachael now, am I?"
The thing that had been Rachael grinned toothily. "What gave that away?"
"What do you want."
"We told you that. We're trying to get out."
Ellis pulled on his hand. <
Daniel stepped backwards quickly, keeping his gun raised. Rachael raised her hands in mock surrender. When he reached the fire door, he turned and ran.
Ellis led them down the stairs and as they ran, Daniel noticed a third pair of footsteps. <
She sent a confused memory back, the fire stairs opening of their own accord. Liam must have held the door open for them. <
Once they reached the street, Daniel stuck his arm out and grabbed. "Come out where I can see you" he said. He'd grabbed something that protested, and it turned out to be roughly the top half of Liam's face. He let go as the Tracer flickered into visibility.
"How do you two do that?" he demanded, rubbing his nose.
"What?" Daniel said. He realized he was still holding Ellis' hand and pulled it away.
"She told you I was there" he said, "or maybe the other way around."
"Or maybe we both knew, Liam" Ellis said.
<
"We can't let them escape whatever this— distortion is." Daniel said, out loud for the benefit of Liam.
"Did it again!" he said.
"I thought it was the same effect." Ellis said. "But whatever created the 'weird zone' is actively stopping the zombies from escaping."
Daniel nodded.
"It could talk to us; it had all the memories of its hosts."
"That's the third time we've talked to a monster recently."
"Class III?" Daniel asked.
Ellis shrugged. "If it gets out, it'll spread. Like it did to all those office workers."
She was right, it didn't really matter what 'class' it was, Daniel decided. He had to start thinking in more immediate terms.
"The Italian restaurant, the tree one…" The two office workers had said they'd been lured there.
"Do we think they were telling the truth?" Ellis asked.
"I just went by it." Liam cut in suddenly. They both turned and looked at him.
"And?" Ellis said, at the exact same time as Daniel. They looked at each other. Daniel felt a surge of annoyance through the connection in their heads. That'd probably been why they spoke at the same time. The link was leaking. Or maybe he was just getting better at reading it. He wondered if Ellis had ever been connected to the same person for this long.
"There's no way in." Liam said. "The plants have grown since you guys went past it the first time."
"If we get out, Bennet could bomb the whole place." Daniel said.
"That's not going to happen." Liam said confidently.
"How do you know?" Ellis asked.
"I tried to get out as soon as I came in."
<
He hadn't meant to send all of that.
But she was right. Maybe another tracer had put up the field. That would explain some things about San Francisco. The monster there got all the way across a busy street before anyone noticed it. Maybe it hadn't been on the same street.
Maybe this was how Liam had operated for so long without anyone noticing. He had a partner who could lock down the monsters he hunted.
"Are they following us?" Ellis asked out loud.
Daniel shook his head.
"Then what are our options?" she asked.
"It needs the office workers for something." Daniel said. "Or it would have them follow us."
Unspoken, but acknowledged was the presupposition that he would have shot any of the workers who'd followed. Ellis nodded. She still had the spare gun, he noticed. She'd had all the right training, so he decided it wasn't a big deal. She didn't like it when people got shot. She probably wouldn't shoot him.
"And it needs the restaurant for something" Daniel said, finishing the thought. "We can destroy one of the two."
Ellis blinked, then looked away. "I don't want to kill or injure those people if there's a chance they can go back to their lives after this."
"The tether we talked about is probably in the Italian restaurant." Liam interjected. He didn't want to deal with the office workers either, Daniel decided. "If we destroy that, the whole thing will be over."
"So, you say." Ellis said. "We've never stopped an occurrence by destroying a 'tether' before."
"I have, lots of times."
"But?" Ellis asked. Liam winced. Daniel smiled at Liam's obvious discomfort; she'd noticed a discrepancy in his thoughts. He remembered how that felt. It was a very disturbing thing to have happened to you, especially if you didn't know what was going on.
"Sometimes it doesn't work."
"When doesn't it work?"
"If the thing is too established in the world. If it gets too far from the tether. As long as it's still inside this building, we'll be fine."
"So, your plan is to race it." Daniel said. They'd have to find and destroy the tether before the creature broke out of however Liam was holding it. <
She was quiet for a moment. <
They were in a bind. Daniel decided that Liam knew the strength of the barrier better than they did, but he'd also been in here for hours. Which meant that he hadn't been able to get into the Italian restaurant. He thought he could do it now, with their help. The easiest solution would be to walk right back up to the office and shoot the zombies. That would at least slow whatever was waiting for them.
He felt Ellis squirm at the thought. He looked at her.
<
<>
"Okay." Daniel said. "Let's do it."
Liam looked between the two of them. "You're not twins or something, right?"
"His skin is a different color." Ellis pointed out.
"Then—?"
"Don't worry about it. Just lead on, plant whisperer."
Liam led them down the cobblestone walkway again, back towards the fountains and the center of the building. The sun above them was finally beginning to set, which meant the light was fading. Daniel pulled a flashlight out from his pocket and handed it to Ellis.
"You give her your flashlights?" Liam asked teasingly. He was almost skipping backwards to talk to them. He probably didn't get to talk to many people like him. Neither did Daniel, he realized.
"I see better without them." Daniel said.
Liam raised his eyebrows in mock awe, then wiggled them. "He's always so mysterious. How do you resist him?"
Ellis laughed so quickly she almost choked.
"Not dating then." Liam said, sounding disappointed.
"Were you hoping we were?" Ellis said incredulously.
"Of course." He said, turning back around. "Secret spies. Teenage romance. Magic. You have to love all the genre tropes."