One Nation Under Zombies (Book 2): FrostBITTEN

by Raymond Lee

  “Better.” The anger that had just seconds ago turned the teen’s face a ruddy shade seemed to diffuse as he thought about his father’s state of health. “He’s still sleeping a lot and suffering a major headache, but he’s going to make it.”

  “I can tell you care about him,” Cruz said, “so why are you busting his chops so damn hard?”

  “He’s my dad. I love him, but that doesn’t mean I don’t recognize his faults. He’s weak.”

  “Kurt got him from behind. That could have happened to anyone, especially since no one knew he was loose. He didn’t have any reason to think someone would creep up on him and do that.”

  “Seriously? We’re in a building surrounded by dead people that want to eat us and he had no reason to watch his back? You haven’t quit watching yours. If you had we could have all died that first night your group got here. You killed that zombie because you were careful. My dad wouldn’t have even had a weapon nearby.”

  “That was chance,” Cruz said. “I wasn’t watching out for myself. I was watching out for Raven. I knew she wasn’t doing well. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Hell, if I hadn’t been, Raven would be dead. She set her katana aside. Do you think she’s weak?”

  Elijah frowned. “No. She just …”

  “She just what?”

  “She just had … a moment, I guess, but she’s not weak. One moment doesn’t make you who you are.”

  “Actually, it does. All we are, are the moments we live. Moments are all we have. Moments to fight, moments to flee, moments to cry, and moments to rage. Maybe your dad just hasn’t had his moment to save the day yet, but that doesn’t mean he never will.”

  “He let my mother die.”

  Having killed his already dead mother not that long ago, Cruz wasn’t much on sympathy but he tried to pretend he wasn’t the product of two messed up wastes of flesh. Maybe if his mother baked him cookies sometime instead of just pouring cold medicine down his throat, or took him on vacations instead of locking him in the closet he’d actually mourn her death.

  “What happened?” he asked, coming up empty on empathy statements.

  “Those things got into the house. They surrounded her and he didn’t do anything to save her. He wouldn’t let me help her either. He dragged me out of there and you know what the last thing I saw was? Those things chomping down on my mother as she screamed for us to run. Even as she died, she cared more about us, but my dad? He saved his own ass.”

  “And yours.”

  “What? Well, yeah, he wouldn’t let me save her.”

  “You were going to get to her through all those zombies? Did you have a gun?”

  “No, I had a baseball bat, and I was going to try. That’s better than just running away.”

  Cruz laughed. He just couldn’t help it.

  “What’s funny?” Elijah asked. “I’m talking about the night my mother died.”

  “You’re spoiled rotten.”

  Elijah stopped. “What?”

  Noticing the teen had come to a standstill, Cruz stopped and turned toward him. “I said you’re spoiled. Yeah, your mom was killed and that sucks, but she died wanting you to survive. It didn’t even take zombies for my dad to run off, only he didn’t take me with him. He left me with the monster.”

  Elijah opened his mouth then shut it, frowning.

  “Yeah, some people have had it worse so get over yourself. Now let’s go find this prick and end our most immediate threat.”

  Elijah’s face reddened, his nostrils flared. “Screw you!”

  Cruz grinned. “Screw me?”

  “Yeah, screw you! My mom was killed! You call me spoiled and try to compare our lives just because your daddy left you? Boo fucking hoo. You’re the spoiled one, movie star.”

  “Right. Because I had a shitload of money and fame, two things that mean absolutely nothing now, right?”

  “No, because you’re so spoiled you can rag on someone who saw their mother get killed and act like you somehow had it worse. What could you have possibly went through that was worse than your mother being eaten alive and your coward father just letting it happen?”

  Cruz stepped closer to the boy, closing the distance. He knew he was scary, he could see it in Elijah’s eyes. “My mother killed my brother and got away with it. My daddy left me with the bitch and how do you think she treated the son she had left?”

  Elijah swallowed hard, his eyes having grown wide.

  “My mother would have fed me to the zombies to save her own ass and my father wouldn’t have given two squirts about it. Maybe instead of seeing what happened as your father leaving your mother to die, you should look at it from another angle.”

  Elijah backed up a step. “What angle would that be?” he asked, his bravado gone.

  “Your mother sacrificed herself for you and your father dragged you away to save your life. They worked together to save the person they loved more than themselves. Heroes aren’t always flashy and they don’t always kick ass, not real ones. Real heroes just do whatever the hell it takes to save the people they love, even if whatever it takes is their own lives.”

  Elijah sniffed as he looked away, his eyes suspiciously wet. Cruz didn’t have time to tell him to man up and focus on the task at hand. A red laser dot currently inched its way up to the young man’s forehead.

  Cruz shoved Elijah to the floor just as the gun blast sounded and pulled him behind the protection of the board game aisle.

  “What’s happening?” Elijah asked.

  “I had a real hankering to play Checkers,” Cruz said drily as he peeked around the edge of the aisle. “While we were having our little heart to heart, Kurt formulated a plan of attack. Bastard’s using a laser scope. If I hadn’t seen the red dot dancing over your face you’d be dead right now.”

  “He had a target on my face?” Elijah’s voice quivered.

  “Yeah, how’s that for a sobering thought?” Cruz looked over at the kid, noting how still he’d become as he kneeled on the floor behind him, mouth hanging open. “You still breathing, kid?”

  Elijah nodded, his eyes blank and mouth still wide open.

  “Yeah, well, don’t piss yourself just yet. We have to get back to the group without either of us getting shot. I need you alert. You good?”

  Elijah nodded again, then blinked. “Wait. What?”

  “What didn’t you get?”

  “We’re going back to the group? I thought we were taking him out.”

  “He almost took you out. We confirmed he’s staying in the office and using the cameras to watch our moves. That’s good enough for now. Let’s get back to the group before he gets in another shot. We don’t know where he is.”

  “We know where he isn’t.”

  Cruz shook his head. “No way, kid. He’s between us and that office, and he’s got the upper hand. He’s located us, but we didn’t even see him.”

  “The plan was to go into that office and take him out. Why’d it change?”

  “I’m not arguing with you, kid.”

  “I’m not a kid.”

  “Really? Last time I checked you weren’t even old enough to vote. We’re going back to the group. Damian and I can try to get to the office another time, once we develop a better approach.”

  “The gay guy? You’re saying the gay guy is tougher than me?”

  “I wasn’t saying it, but now that you’ve pointed it out, yes. Damian wouldn’t be arguing with me while a killer crept up on us.”

  Elijah’s face paled. “You think he’s creeping up on us?”

  Another shot rang out and a box of Monopoly between them exploded.

  “Yep,” Cruz said, quickly turning, gun in hand, as pastel play money rained around them. He knocked aside the remaining boxes on the shelf, pointed his gun through and fired off a quick succession of shots in the direction they’d been shot at from. He paused, heard Kurt running away, and stood.

  “Let’s go. Argue with me this time and I’ll knock
your ass out and throw you over my shoulder.”

  “Did you get him?”

  “Get him? I didn’t even see him.”

  “Then why were you shooting?”

  “Saving our asses. I knew the coward would run if I got anywhere near the vicinity of where he was. Now move.”

  Damian and Hal tensed, guns pointed. From their positions atop the make-shift lookouts, they’d clearly picked up on something.

  “It’s Cruz and Elijah,” Hal said. “They don’t appear to be injured.”

  Raven breathed a sigh of relief. They’d all heard the gunshots and when Cruz didn’t check in, they’d assumed the worst but no one wanted to admit it. They’d shared a look though, a look she hoped to never see cross her group’s faces again.

  She waited until Cruz and Elijah made it inside the safety of their walls and she could see with her own eyes that they were alive and well before she rushed forward to slug Cruz in the shoulder. “You were supposed to check in on the walkie! We heard shots!”

  Cruz rubbed the spot where she’d made contact as Elijah walked past him, sour-faced, ducking into the tent sheltering his father. “I didn’t want to give away our location so I kept the walkie off.”

  “Whose shots did we hear?” Damian asked.

  “His. Elijah was right. He knew we were coming and he just laid in wait. If he hadn’t been using a laser scope I’d never have known he had a target on Elijah’s face.”

  Raven’s breath stilled in her lungs, realizing the implications. Elijah had almost died, and it would have been on them because they allowed him to go.

  “Is that why Elijah looks so pissed?” Damian asked, never taking his eyes off the perimeter he guarded.

  “No, he’s pissed at me because I refused to try and overtake Kurt. Pretty sure his days of idol adoration are over, now that he knows his favorite action hero is just a normal guy that doesn’t go running right into danger like a dumbass.”

  Raven squeezed his shoulder, the one she hadn’t pummeled. “We shouldn’t have let him go with you anyway. He might be like six feet tall, but he’s still young.”

  “He’s only two years younger than you,” Damian pointed out.

  “Yeah, well, there’s years of life behind my years,” she murmured, choosing not to elaborate as Damian’s brow furrowed in confusion. She’d practically been Sky’s mother since their parents died, and that aged you quick, but she didn’t feel like dwelling on that. It was best for all if she just not think of Sky. “So he can see us wherever we are? What are we supposed to do, wait for him to show his face and blast it off?”

  “We could take out the cameras,” Cruz suggested.

  “Have you seen any cameras?” Damian asked, eyebrow raised. “No? There’s a reason. Carlos was talking about it with Pimjai. The boss wanted to make sure none of the employees knew where those cameras were. Apparently, shop-lifting wasn’t just something they worried about the customers doing.”

  “But Elijah’s been in the office,” Hal spoke. “So has Carlos. They’ve seen the feeds. They could tell us what areas they saw on the screens and we could find the cameras that way.”

  “He’ll still see us doing it,” Raven advised. “It’ll piss him off worse. He’ll try to stop us.”

  “Then we don’t do them all at once,” Hal suggested. “Take out the ones closest to us. He only sees us if he’s in that office watching the screens and that office is a good distance from here. We can take them out before he reaches us, then go back out another time to get any in other areas we may need to access.”

  Raven and Cruz looked at each other for a moment before shrugging. It sounded like a plan.

  “Elijah?” Raven called, figuring from what Cruz had said, he’d be more receptive to a request from her.

  The lanky teen stepped out of the spacious tent, having to crouch to fit through the doorway. “Yeah?”

  “We need to know where the cameras are at so we can take them out, blind the enemy. You’ve been in that office. Do you remember where the cameras were?”

  Elijah thought for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, I remember about where some were at.”

  “Are we on camera now?”

  “Yes.” He looked toward the ceiling, scanning.

  Everyone else not currently in a tent did the same.

  “I don’t see anything,” Raven said after straining to see a camera attached to the ceiling above them. “Just ceiling tiles and lights. How tiny are these cameras?”

  “It’s not the size,” Elijah said, “it’s the camouflage. See how that light is just a little less bright than the others?”

  Raven followed his gaze, honing in on one of the round dome lights above them, just outside their walls. “It’s just an older light, probably about to go out.”

  “Well, that’s true.” He pointed his gun, took aim, and fired into the light. Glass shattered, shards falling to the floor. “Take another look.”

  Raven and Cruz exchanged a look before they both stepped out from the sanctuary of the walls, stopping just outside to scan the area.

  “We have you covered,” Hal assured them.

  They stepped forward quicker now, being careful not to step on broken glass as they positioned themselves under the busted light and looked up. The ceiling was pretty high, but Raven was still able to tell that what was inside the cavity wasn’t what you’d find in a normal light fixture.

  “I’ll be damned,” Cruz murmured.

  “I’m sure we’re all that.”

  He laughed.

  “Is it a camera?” Damian asked.

  “Yep,” Raven answered, “and if Kurt was watching, he’s madder than hell right now.”

  “Good,” Damian replied. “Maybe the bitch will come running so I can finally put a bullet through his head.”

  “Or he can put a bullet through one of ours,” Raven murmured.

  “How’s Carlos doing?” Hal asked as he approached.

  Janjai looked up from the backpack she’d been stuffing with supplies. “Better. He wants to go out with the others.”

  “He wants to protect his son,” Hal concluded, lowering himself to the floor beside her. He grabbed a backpack and started filling it with items they’d obtained before Kurt had made his escape. “Like I wanted to protect Angela.”

  Janjai lowered her eyes, choosing to focus on her task rather than encourage any further conversation about the girl she considered demon spawn.

  “You tried to warn me about her. My loyalty to her father, my friend, blinded me to what she was becoming.”

  “Becoming?” Janjai asked, the words slipping out before she could even think better of speaking.

  “She wasn’t a bad person,” Hal explained. “She was just a kid, but I think losing her family the way she did and being thrown into this situation had a negative effect on her. It opened her to a darkness she otherwise would have been able to fight. When you do dark deeds, the darkness clings. Killing is a dark deed, no matter how righteous the kill may be. The deed itself can taint even the most Godly of men.”

  Janjai frowned, listening to Hal’s words as she tried to figure him out. This was not the first time he’d spoken in this manner. Everything the man did seemed to revolve around the Lord, which was not a bad thing in theory, but there was something about his manner that unnerved her. He spoke as if he were on a holy mission, and to her knowledge, most men who spoke like that tended to be unstable.

  “I truly believe she thought she had a chance of surviving the bite. I don’t think she would have willingly put our lives at risk, but I also know she was too willing to take human life. You told me that at the store after she killed those two young men and I didn’t want to give your words merit. I’ve had time to think about it, to pray on it, and I just wanted to let you know that I apologize. You were right. She wasn’t the soldier I thought she was. She was just a scared, traumatized girl who shouldn’t have been given so much license with a gun. I’m sorry I allowed her actions.”

&nb
sp; The wetness shining in Hal’s dark cocoa eyes touched Janjai’s heart. She reached out and squeezed his hand. “I understand. You felt you owed a debt to your friend. You would do anything to keep his child safe.”

  “I failed.” He bowed his head. “I failed from the beginning. I wanted to see something that wasn’t there. That’s a mistake I will not make again.”

  “We all make mistakes.”

  “We can’t anymore. There’s too much at stake.” His hands stilled as he turned toward her. “You have dreams that tell you things?”

  Janjai’s face warmed. “It sounds like a crazy tale, I know.”

  “No. It sounds like you get messages. You received a message about your sister, as did I. Did you receive one about Raven?”

  She looked away.

  “Janjai, you can tell me. I get messages too.”

  “I do not know what it means.” She thought back to the last dream she’d had, the strange images. “Pimjai always had the dreams. I do not know why I am having them now. I am not good at understanding them like she is. This was always her skill, not mine.”

  “It’s yours now,” Hal advised as they both looked to where Pimjai stood guard, gun in hand. She and Raven were the lookouts at the wall today while the men, minus Carlos and Hal, went out on a mission to destroy more cameras. “What message did you receive?”

  “I don’t know the message. I did see her.”

  “What did you see?”

  “She was a bird. One of the monsters bit her and she burned to death before stepping out of the fire, whole again.”

  Hal’s eyes widened.

  “In my dream, Carlos died. My dreams do not tell the future exactly.”

  “No, but the message you received was enough like mine to know that part was accurate.”

  “Raven will turn into a bird and burn to death?”

  “Raven is a bird,” Hal said, his mouth turning up gently at the corners as he entertained a distant thought. “and she will rise from the ash.”

  Janjai had no response to such a mad statement so she held her tongue as Hal turned his smiling eyes to her.

  “I failed with Angela. I thought she was a soldier, someone who would help save this world, but it’s Raven. I won’t fail her. We can’t fail her. We have to keep her safe and in return, she will save us all.”