Countdown to Zero (Patient Zero Book 2)

by Adrianne Lemke

  Hopefully. I didn’t want to think about the worse possibilities. He’d betrayed his station and taken his unit with him. His leaders wouldn’t be thrilled by that at all. Those leaders being the same people who were behind the outbreak. They clearly didn’t balk at killing untold numbers of people. Even using children didn’t slow them down. Who knew what people like that would do to a former member of their own team?

  Kate, at least, seemed to think he would still be alive. That they would hold him at their headquarters as some sort of warning to the others. Which had to mean at least some of the guards would leave if given the choice. Why else would they need to use someone as a warning to them? Maybe they had become just as trapped in their position as we had in ours.

  When I shared my opinion with Jake, he nodded thoughtfully. “You could be right, Z. It tracks. Not sure how that will be useful, but having information is never a bad thing. This could end up being something we can use.”

  “If Scout can be made an example of as a prisoner, maybe he could also be made a rallying point for anyone who wants to leave,” I suggested. “If we can get him out, we could at least try to use him to turn more people to our side.”

  Rex turned toward me from his position ahead of us. “You’re talking like we’re going to war here, Z. We’re just a bunch of kids. Who’d take us seriously?”

  I glared at him. “Anyone who knows exactly what we’re capable of. I can control the horde, Rex! With the help of the others, the zombies wouldn’t be as much of a threat. To us, anyway. Or to anyone on our side. If we get enough people together, and use the creatures, we might be able to force the guards and doctors to find a cure. To end this outbreak, and let us all get back to reality.”

  It still wouldn’t be the reality I wanted. But it was a reality I could handle. Life as a makeshift family without having to worry about attacks every time we tried to take a break? Sounded like paradise to me.

  Rex eyed me shrewdly and nodded. “If that’s what you want to do, I’m with you. You know that. But let’s take this one day at a time.”

  He was right. I couldn’t let myself get distracted. Not right now. Today, I had to focus on protecting the people around me while also freeing our captive friends. Maybe there would be some way to figure out how to use the guards. If any of them truly wanted out, they might not fight us as hard when we went in.

  “Kate, come here,” I called. “There’s something I wanna ask you.”

  She jogged over until she walked next to me and Jake. “Yeah? What’s up?”

  “You’ve been to the headquarters, right? You know at least some of the people in there?”

  Kate nodded, a slight frown showing her confusion. “Yeah. I worked with quite a few of them. Why?”

  “You and Scout took your group and left. Why?”

  She looked down, then glanced back up at me. “I…” she shook her head and spoke in a stronger voice, her eyes meeting mine steadily. “They asked us to do a lot of things we didn’t want to do. We were meant to be a force to protect people from the monsters, but they made us use the threat of the zombies to keep people in line.”

  “Okay, and you didn’t like that?”

  “Of course not!” she snapped. “I was a police officer before this. All I ever wanted to do was help people. That’s what a lot of us wanted. Then they started bringing in others. Those with no conscience who would follow their orders without question. Who thrived on hurting innocent people.”

  “So you left? It was that simple? How many of you actually managed to defect?” Jake asked.

  Kate’s gaze dropped to the ground again. “As far as I know, we’re the only ones who got away. Others tried. They didn’t want to be a part of the cruelty anymore. They were caught.”

  “So… if there was a chance for them to do good again, do you think they’d join us?”

  Finally understanding why I was asking, Kate looked at me. A slow smile crossed her face. “Absolutely. Give those people a chance to do something good, and they’ll jump at it.”

  A full grin settled across her face. “My people will help too. As soon as they see us working to get them out, every person in our unit will step up and do whatever they can to assist.”

  “Good,” I said with an answering grin. “My kids too.”

  Kate eyed me thoughtfully.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Are you sure you’re only fourteen?” she asked. “Your kids? The majority of your group are older than you.”

  “I’m the leader. That makes them my kids,” I said. “My responsibility. And I take that very seriously.”

  She shook her head. “I can tell. You’re quite impressive, Zero.”

  Warmth spread over my face, and I glanced away from her. “Uh… thanks?”

  Jake reached over and ruffled my hair. “Take the compliment, kiddo. You’ve definitely earned it.”

  “Not yet. Wait until we have our friends back, and get people together to fight. Then I might have earned it.”

  Both adults now had frowns on their faces. “You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself, Z,” Jake said. “In the last year you have been the leader these kids needed. The leader who has always put their safety ahead of your comfort. You have amazing abilities, kid, but you couldn’t have known what would happen on the farm. That our friends would be surrounded and captured.”

  “I—”

  “Nope, not done yet,” Jake said, waving a finger at me. “You are amazing. But you have to remember: you are still a kid. You can’t take the weight of the world on your shoulders. Use me and Kate. We can handle some of the pressure.”

  There was a slight pause. “Are you done now?” I asked.

  He chuckled, and motioned for me to go ahead.

  “Thanks, Jake. I know I couldn’t have predicted what happened. I’m not delusional. And I definitely plan to use you and Kate. How else do you think we’ll get the guards to switch over? I doubt they’d listen to a kid, even if I can affect the horde.”

  Kate huffed, then chuckled and tapped Jake on the shoulder with the back of her hand. “Your girl’s got brains. You shouldn’t underestimate her, Jake.”

  “Who me?” he affected a hurt look. “Never. I know this kid, Katie. She’ll impress everyone soon enough.”

  Katie? I glanced between the two, wondering when that had changed. She hadn’t reacted to the nickname. Which probably meant it wasn’t the first time Jake had used it.

  “No doubt in my mind,” Kate answered. She had a fond smile on her face, but it wasn’t aimed at me.

  Yup. Something was definitely going on there. I caught Rex’s eye and raised an eyebrow. He gave a slight shake of his head. Okay. He didn’t know either, but had definitely noticed.

  As okay as I was with the development, this was probably not the right time to dwell on it. “Jake, I need you to hang back once we get there,” I said suddenly.

  Probably not my best timing ever, but they had just gotten done telling me how good I was at leading. That meant they should respect my decision. Right?

  He sighed. “I know why you want me to, Z. And I will if I have to. But you understand, those aren’t just your kids in there. They’re mine too. I feel just as responsible for them as you do.”

  “I know. Which is why I want you to hang back. You’re injured. Those kids need you, too. If something else happened…” I let my voice trail off for a moment before I continued. “I can’t let anything happen to you. Please, Jake. Be on the outside to help get them away. Not inside. We have enough people who can go in.”

  I could tell he didn’t want to agree. His lips were pursed, and he took a couple deep breaths before he said. “Let’s see exactly what we’re up against before we finalize any plans. I’ll stay back if I have to. But if we need the manpower, I’m in, Z.”

  It was probably the best I would get from him. Although… I eyed Kate, who was watching Jake with a frown on her face. I knew she saw what I did. The corners of his eyes slightly crinkled, the pale c
oloration of his face, the hitch in his step… she knew what would be the best. If we both agreed, maybe we’d have a better shot at keeping Jake out of that building.

  She turned her head slightly, and caught me watching her. I flicked my eyes toward Jake then met hers with a raised eyebrow.

  She sighed, and nodded. Kate agreed. Jake wouldn’t be safe if he went in with us.

  Now all we had to do was convince him.

  Chapter Forty

  Mike

  Alex, Caleb, and I were able to make good time to the lookout area. With the three of us traveling light, we were able to move faster. We made it just before nightfall. On foot, it would probably be about midafternoon before the others arrived.

  Caleb gave a low whistle. “Guess they have electricity.”

  I looked past the trees to see what he saw. Lights. Lots of lights. Along with guards walking the perimeter of what had to be an electric fence. Several of the guards had dogs walking alongside them on short leads as they made their rounds. Outside the fence, a large horde milled around. As we watched, some of the guards took potshots into the surrounding zombies.

  “Yikes,” I agreed. “This is not going to be easy.” By which I meant, possible. “I wish Kate would have told us a bit more about this place.”

  Alex remained quiet, watching in order to take in as many details as he could. After a few minutes he pointed. “There. That has to be the generator.”

  It was inside the grounds, of course. But it was within a couple feet of the fence. The area was narrow and hard for the guards to walk all the way around during their rounds.

  “If we can get to it, maybe we can really throw a wrench into the works,” I suggested. “Turn off the power, and those zombies will be inside the barrier in seconds.”

  Caleb nodded, but frowned. “Sure. It would be a good distraction, Mike. Unless someone is there to force them to stay out.”

  “Brent,” I said, my voice tinged with annoyance. “Yeah. He could be a bit of a problem, I guess.”

  Alex glared down at the fence line. “Yeah. Maybe more than a bit. Also, we could be trapped in there with both the guards and the zombies. Those things are not acting normal. Not completely, anyway. They could be hard to control. Even for Zero.”

  “How so?” Caleb asked. “They’re just milling around. Kind of normal for a random horde, right?”

  He shook his head. “Not exactly, no. See how they’re staying exactly the same distance from the fence at all times? They come to that spot then don’t continue any further before they turn around.”

  “Someone inside making them think they can’t go any further?” I asked, my head tilted to the side. “You think Brent is in there?”

  He shrugged. “Probably. Can’t tell. I can sense Zero when she’s nearby, but I can’t tell with him.”

  Caleb listened intently. “I wonder why that is? Why can you sense Z, but not Brent? They seem to connect to the zombies in a similar way. At least from what I’ve been able to tell.”

  “Not sure,” Alex answered. “Maybe something to do with how the doctors intended for everything to work? They may have meant for all of us to work together, and Zero would be the leader.”

  I jumped in, “Yeah, there’s no way to know what those whack jobs were thinking. They took innocent kids and messed with them.”

  “Hopefully, Brent can only sense Zero too,” Caleb mused.

  He had a point. Based on what Caleb told us, Brent could definitely tell where Zero was. If he was the same as the others, she would be the only one he could sense. If not? If not, he would be a major threat to our rescue attempt.

  Alex and I agreed, but also realized there was little we could do about it. Our job was to watch and report, so that’s what we needed to do.

  “This place is more heavily guarded than we were at Ground Zero,” Alex said after a few minutes.

  “Not too surprising if this is their main center of operations. They wouldn’t want anyone in there who didn’t belong,” I said.

  Not that there were many people left who would be willing to risk an attempt. The sheer number of guards, and the addition of bright lights, electricity, dogs, and the zombies would surely keep bandits from even considering breaking in.

  Although, even with a lack of obvious threat, the guards seemed well-disciplined. They weren’t acting as tired or bored as I’d expected them to be as the evening dragged on.

  “They’re expecting us,” I suddenly realized. “Most of the time, they probably do get sleepy on guard duty, and stop paying as much attention to the fence.”

  Alex and Caleb grunted an agreement. “Our time is almost up. They wouldn’t know exactly when to expect us,” Caleb added. “Just that we’re coming.”

  If what I thought was true, our rescue effort would be even harder than I thought. We’d hoped for a few tired guards, people we could sneak past if necessary. Not the wide-awake, high alert men and women who were seemingly ready for anything.

  “They’re not paying much attention to the area by the generator,” Alex said. “They barely glance at it when they walk that way. They’re more interested in the activity outside the fence.”

  Caleb and I watched for several minutes. “You’re right. If we’re able to get a little closer, we might be able to find a way to sabotage it,” Caleb said.

  “Keep in mind, we’ve lost most of our weapons,” I reminded them. “Before we try to go in, we may want to find new weapons, or tools that could be used to sabotage them.”

  Caleb winced. “Right. Forgot about that. I suppose a search would have to wait until the others join us, huh?”

  “Probably,” I agreed. “Pretty sure Zero wouldn’t be overly thrilled by us going off plan. We’re just supposed to scout and report, not leave the area and risk exposure.”

  Still, it was tempting to consider sneaking back to the town we’d avoided on our way here. Most likely we’d be able to find whatever we needed there. Any supplies we gathered now would save us time later.

  “No, Mike,” Alex said. Apparently, he was able to tell from the look on my face what I was thinking.

  I put on my best innocent look. “What? I didn’t say anything.”

  “No, we are not going to go to the town tonight. We will wait for the others. You’ve all accepted Zero as leader, right?” Alex continued.

  Caleb and I both nodded. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t agree with us on this,” I argued.

  “No, it doesn’t,” Alex agreed. “But it does mean you should listen to her, and watch this place. Not risk getting caught and needing to be rescued yourselves.”

  Caleb sighed and looked at me. “He’s right, Mike. Sorry. We have good cover, and a good view of the activity down there. As much as I’d like to move this along… I think we need to stay put for now.”

  Outvoted, I finally agreed. “All right. I just thought it might end up saving time to have everything we need by the time they get here.”

  “Shh!” Alex warned suddenly. “Get down!” he whispered.

  Without question, we dropped to the ground and didn’t move. Alex had his head slightly tilted in order to see through the branches in front of him.

  My heart pounded loudly in my ears, and I could feel dampness on my palms. I didn’t dare make a sound, despite having no idea what Alex had seen.

  A couple minutes passed without any sound, then I saw Alex duck his face toward the ground.

  “Thought they saw movement,” a voice carried on the breeze.

  I scarcely dared to breathe. The guards had seen us! Or at least something they thought was worth checking. I thought for sure my heartbeat would lead them right to us.

  Over my own heartbeat, I could hear crinkling as two sets of footsteps crunched through the fallen leaves. My tongue felt like it was glued to the roof of my mouth, but I didn’t want to risk swallowing. Alex and Caleb didn’t make a sound from beside me. I didn’t want to risk moving to see my friends, so the absolute silence from them made
me feel isolated.

  An approaching guard huffed. “Right. There was nothing here yesterday, or the day before that, or the day before that. They always think there’s something up here, and there never is.”

  Despite my fear, I grinned. At least one of our hopes was coming true. The guards had been on high alert for a few days, and were getting tired of it.

  “Look, we gotta follow the rules,” the first voice cajoled. “Just look. If there isn’t anything here, we just tell them. No biggie.”

  Yeah. No biggie. Just like they’d find it ‘no biggie’ that a bunch of kids wanted to break into their facility. Or ‘no biggie’ if they actually found us. They wouldn’t think twice before turning us in to their friends in the compound. Depending on the person, they may not even find it a biggie to simply put a couple bullets in us and leave us out here as a warning.

  Okay, dark thought there. Not the way I should be thinking when in danger of getting caught. Think positive thoughts, right? Mind over matter? If I believe they won’t see me, then they won’t?

  Yeah, right. The best I could do was stay as still as possible. Ignore the aches growing in tense muscles. Stay prepared to spring into action if we were noticed. Be aware of where my friends lay next to me, so I could help protect them if the occasion called for it. Mind over matter? Not so much. Just… mind over emotion, maybe. Keep necessities only, and don’t allow panic to take over.

  Still, with my heart doing it’s best to beat out of my chest, and the necessary breathing, I was convinced they’d hear us. Especially as they drew nearer to our hiding spot, now almost completely silent. Only the slight rustle of cloth and a few crunching leaves indicated their progress.

  My ears strained for any hint that they had noticed us, but I forced myself to keep my eyes closed and head down.

  If I listened closely enough, I could hear the barest whispers from Caleb and Alex. Only the softest breathing sounds escaped them. Like me, they remained still and silent.

  Finally the first man called a halt. “Nothing’s up here. Whatever they think they saw, they didn’t. Trick of the shadows is all. Maybe wildlife passing.”