A first-year student at the Potch University, Dee had met Aiden at a sporting event. The same age as her, nineteen, a psychology student, and as handsome as sin, she thought she’d hit the jackpot. Until he introduced her to Eliza. That had soured her fairy tale picture pretty quickly. Still, she wasn’t about to give up on the love of her life just because of his stupid sibling.
They reached his car, and like the true gentleman he was, Aiden opened the door for her. She smiled her thanks as she slid into the seat, waiting for him to close it, but the smile froze on her lips when terrified screams issued from within the club.
Aiden whipped around and looked back the way they came. “What the hell?”
Dee jumped out of the car and stood next to him, staring at the building that housed the nightclub. The screams never let up, growing in volume as more people joined in, rising above the beat of the bass.
The queue rippled as those waiting in line craned their heads to see what was going on inside. The bouncer abandoned his post and ran to help, the doors swinging shut behind him.
Dee clutched Aiden’s arm. “Aiden? What’s happening?”
“I don’t know,” he answered, worry twisting his features. “A fight, maybe?”
“Maybe,” she answered, though she doubted it. She’d seen fights before, and never had it been accompanied by such frantic cries.
The doors burst open, and a bunch of people stumbled through. It was a group of girls, staggering in their high heels and short dresses. The last in line was covered in blood, the crimson fluid soaking through the fabric of her white top. The stuff was smeared across her mouth and dripped from her long blonde locks.
Unlike the rest, this girl wasn’t in panic mode. Instead, she bared her teeth and screeched like a banshee before tackling the boy still waiting in the front of the queue. He went down beneath her onslaught, and they dropped to the ground with her on top of him.
In front of Dee’s shocked gaze, she bit the boy on the cheek. Her teeth dug deep, and when she reared back, a chunk of flesh came loose. She tossed it down her throat which worked as she swallowed, ignoring everyone’s horrified cries. With a snarl she went back for more, catching her victim’s upper lip between ivory incisors and ripping it loose.
Two guys ran forward and grabbed the crazed girl, pulling her off the boy who cried as he pressed his hands against his spurting wounds. She struggled against their hold, her arms and legs all over the place while she shrieked nonstop. Bits of flesh and blood sprayed from her mouth as they fought.
“Aiden, what’s she doing?” Dee cried, her fingers tightening around his arm as terror flooded her veins. “Why did she do that?”
Aiden shook his head, his mouth agape and apparently at a loss for words.
The screams inside the club never let up, now echoed by those outside. More people spilled from the doors. Some were fleeing while others were like the crazy girl, covered in blood and insane. They attacked everyone in sight, tearing into them with predatory intent.
“Eliza!” Aiden cried. “I have to get her out of there.”
“No, Aiden. It’s too dangerous!” Dee answered, horrified at the thought of him charging into the nightmare that played off in front of her disbelieving eyes.
“I have to.” Aiden pried her fingers loose and pushed her into the car. “Get inside and wait for me. I have to get her.”
“No, Aiden. Please,” Dee begged, trying to hold onto him. “Stay with me.”
He grabbed her face with both hands and shook her. “Dee, look at me.”
She quieted and stared into his eyes. “Aiden.”
“Dee, she’s my sister. Family. I have to try to save her. Do you understand?”
Tears rose to her lids, but she understood. He had to. “I know.”
“Stay here, and wait for me. I’ll come back.”
“O…okay.”
He hesitated for one second. “Love you, babes.”
Then he was gone, leaving her to stare after his departing back. It was the first time he’d told her he loved her, and she pressed a trembling hand to her lips. “Please, come back. Please.”
Chapter 4
Dee waited in the car for exactly two seconds before she made up her mind. “I’m not sitting here like a little princess while some crazy person tries to eat my boyfriend.”
She popped open the boot and ran to the back of the vehicle. Plucking the spare tire from its seat, she looked for the wheel spanner stashed beneath it. A low growl caused her to whirl, and she spotted one of the crazies running straight for her.
“Not today,” she said and swung the spare tire at his head with all her strength.
It caught him flat on the side of his face, and he fell with a thump. When he didn’t stay down, she whacked him again, harder this time. She kept hitting him until he stopped moving, blood matting his hair and marring his face. She paused, heaving for breath. “Damn, I killed him!”
There was no time to ponder her actions, though. People spilled from the doors of the club like maggots from a wound, fleeing in all directions. She saw Aiden push through the crowd and into the building, his red shirt a like a beacon.
This fueled her determination. She grabbed the wheel spanner and shut the boot before running after him. A few more crazies tried to intercept her, but she was too fast and ducked beneath their outstretched arms without pausing.
A lot of them had people pinned down, and they ripped apart their victims with gruesome relish as she sprinted past. A fleeting thought crossed her mind even though she shied from it as being too far-fetched. Zombies. They’re zombies.
The doors of the club loomed ahead, and she vaulted over a dead girl to push through. Inside, it was chaos. Strobing cut through the gloomy interior while neon lights cast a lurid glare over the dead and dying. The floors were drenched in blood, and bodies lay strewn about.
Dee ducked inside and looked for Aiden until she noticed something else. The bouncer was struggling with three crazed people at once, his bulk preventing them from dragging him to the floor. One clung to his back like a monkey, and he bellowed in pain when the boy bit him on the side of the neck.
Without thinking, Dee rushed over to help. She hit the boy as hard as she could until he let go and fell off. A few more blows kept him down. The bouncer grabbed the remaining two by their foreheads and rammed them into the wall with crushing force. Their skulls burst open, their brains splattering the wall.
He turned to her, blood trickling down his shirt from the gaping hole in his neck. “Thank, you saved my life.”
She saluted him with the wheel spanner. “No problem.”
“Let me get you out of here,” he offered and began to herd her outside.
“Uh, no thanks. I’m looking for my boyfriend,” she replied, her eyes scanning the chaotic club for signs of Aiden.
“The boy in red? The one you queued with outside?” the bouncer asked as he pulled her into a sheltered corner.
“That’s the one,” she replied. “Have you seen―”
She broke off when a girl shrieked and charged them. She had only one high heel on which gave her a curious lopsided gait. The bouncer grabbed the girl by the neck and tossed her to the ground before stomping on her chest. He kept her there, wriggling like a worm on a hook until Dee ended her struggles with her makeshift weapon.
“Damn, these things are nuts,” he said. “What’s wrong with them?”
“Zombies. They’re zombies,” Dee replied as she wiped the blood spatter off her face. Her boots stuck to the floor, the blood making it sticky, and she shuddered. “Gross.”
“Your boyfriend ran over there,” the bouncer continued, pointing at the dance floor. “He was after two young ladies.”
“His stupid sister and her friend,” Dee huffed. “Anyway, I’m here to save his ass, not theirs.”
He nodded but winced when the movement caused his wound to weep more blood. “I’ll help you. I owe you one, after all.”
“Thanks.”
>
Dee turned toward the dance floor, and with the help of the bouncer, forced her way through the crowd. They reached their destination within seconds, and she paused to look for Aiden. “Over there.”
She spotted him right at the back, close to the DJ’s box. He was helping Eliza to crawl through a window set high up on the wall. Even as she watched, Eliza tumbled through. There was no sign of Lolly, but if Dee had to guess, she’d say the selfish Lolly probably went through the window first ahead of her so-called best friend.
She started across the dance floor, but another crazed boy in a ripped shirt jumped her from the side. He bowled her over, and she pushed against his chest to keep his teeth out of her face. Spit drooled from his lips as he salivated, and she turned her head away. “Get off me, you damn zombie!”
Her bouncer friend grabbed the boy by the scruff of the neck and slammed his face into the floor while he bellowed, “Get to your boyfriend. Quick!”
Dee nodded and ran to the window, but she reached it seconds too late when Aiden disappeared through the small opening with a flash of his white takkies.
“Aiden!” she screamed, but he was gone already. She stamped her foot. “Damn it.”
A vicious snarl twisted her head to the side, and she froze. Behind the DJ box lay the DJ, or what was left of him, at least. Three zombies were making a meal of his flesh, gobbets of meat and entrails hanging from their lips. Dee gagged as vomit rose to her lips. Even worse, their eyes were now fixed on her; a fresh dinner ready to go.
They launched through the air straight for her. Dee ran but only managed three steps before colliding with something big. She gasped and raised her wheel spanner, but sagged with relief when she saw it was her friend, the bouncer.
“Look out,” he shouted as he shoved her behind him with one meaty hand.
The three zombies chasing her latched onto his form with eager fingers, their mouths going in for the kill. He roared with pain as they tore at him, but managed to get one on the ground where Dee dispatched him with swift blows. He tossed another into the jostling crowd and stomped on the last one’s head when Dee tripped him.
The bouncer didn’t stop moving, grabbing Dee by the arm instead and hauling her out of the club. He swatted at anything that crossed their path until they fell through the doors and into the open air. Even then he didn’t pause, and half carried her away from the killing field in front of the building.
She craned her head toward Aiden’s car and pointed. “Over there.”
The bouncer swung toward the vehicle and forged ahead despite his numerous wounds. They were slowed by a knot of fleeing people who streamed around them, yelling every step of the way.
Dee caught a glimpse of Aiden standing beside his car, his head swiveling as he searched for her. She screamed at the top of her lungs, but he couldn’t hear her, and she watched in horror as the unthinkable happened.
Eliza, Lolly, and a strange boy were with him, all in a palpable panic. Eliza got behind the wheel, and her furious gestures for Aiden to get in had him pacing up and down in frustration. She started the car and revved the motor, but he shook his head, refusing to go.
Dee smiled at the sight. “I knew he wouldn’t leave me!”
But her joy was short lived. Lolly swung her handbag at Aiden’s head, made heavy by the bottle of booze she’d snuck into the club earlier. It connected with a solid blow, and Aiden’s knees gave way. The other boy grabbed him and tossed him into the car with Lolly’s help.
Dee screamed, “No, Aiden! Wait!”
The crowd thinned, and she pushed through, running toward the car with the bouncer following close behind. With horror, she watched as Lolly closed the door and the boy wrestled Aiden down in the seat when he tried to get back up.
“No,” she cried. “Wait for me!”
Eliza turned her head, and their eyes met through the back window. Her eyes widened, and for a second, Dee thought she’d wait for her to reach them. Instead, Eliza flashed her a wicked smile before roaring off in a cloud of exhaust smoke.
“No! Aiden! Eliza! Lolly!” Dee screamed as the car raced up the road and around a corner.
She kept running but stumbled to a halt when the bouncer called out to her. “They’re gone. Stop!”
Dee fell to her knees in the street, and tears streamed down her face as the car’s tail lights swept around the corner. Slamming her hands on the tar, she realized the ugly truth. Eliza had betrayed her, left her for dead, and Aiden was gone.
The bouncer stopped beside her and laid a heavy hand on her shoulder. “Come on, girl. Get up.”
Numb with shock, she shook her head. “He’s gone. She took him and left me here.”
“I know, but you have to get up. It’s not safe here,” he said.
“She left me,” Dee repeated, not listening to her new friend.
“Okay, that’s it.” The bouncer lifted her up and tossed her over his shoulder.
Dee’s breath left her lungs in a rush as her stomach connected with his shoulder, and she hung like a rag doll while he carried her off. Where to she didn’t know nor did she care. All she knew was that Aiden was gone.
Chapter 5
The bouncer carried Dee away from the nightmarish scene at the club. She stared at the receding figures of the fleeing people, their screams of terror fading away into the night. In the distance, sirens wailed, and she guessed the police were on their way. It was too little, too late, though.
Countless of innocent victims lay dead and dying while the perpetrators ran around looking for more. All of these things milled about in her head, but slowly it gave way to a new emotion. Rage.
Eliza had purposely left her behind. Not only that, but she’d known exactly what she was doing when she did it. Worst of all, she took Aiden with her. Dee balled her fists and had to resist the urge to slam them into the bouncer’s back in a fit of anger. I’ll show her. When I get back, I’m going to slap that stupid smirk right off her face, and I’ll tell Aiden what she did. He’ll never forgive her for abandoning me.
Her thoughts of revenge were interrupted when they reached the small parking lot reserved for staff members of the club. The bouncer fished in his pocket and produced a set of keys to a beat up old truck in the corner. Without ceremony, he dumped Dee on the passenger seat, got in, and drove off.
She was silent as the urban scenery streamed past her window. At this hour, the roads were quiet, almost empty. The streetlamps cast pools of yellow light on the sidewalks, and flashing signs announced that numerous takeaways and bars were still open for business.
They passed small groups of people, mostly students like her out for a night on the town. The girls preened in their pretty outfits, and the boys slouched along as if everything was perfectly normal.
Dee shook her head. She found it hard to believe she’d just witnessed countless gruesome murders and committed a few herself. What happened back there? Was it zombies? Or a new drug on the streets, maybe?
She didn’t know. None of it felt real like it was all just a bad dream, but the blood on her hands and clothes was real. So was the blood that still dripped from the numerous wounds that covered the bouncer’s arms.
The hole in his neck was the worst, and she swallowed when she looked at it, the flesh gaping obscenely. This more than anything else shook her out of her shock-induced funk.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “Your neck…it must hurt a lot.”
“It’s pretty bad,” he answered in a hoarse voice.
“Let me have a look,” she said, immediately feeling guilty for not offering before.
“No, leave it. I’m on my way to the hospital now. We’re nearly there,” he answered.
“Okay,” she said. “That’s probably best.”
“The police will want to question us,” he said.
“I know, but…what do we say? We killed people back there.”
“It was self-defense,” he said with a grunt. “I mean, look at me.”
“That’
s true.” She thought for a moment then realized something. “I don’t even know your name.”
“Zac.”
“I’m Dee.”
“Dee?” he said with a snort. “I would never have guessed it.”
“Why?” she asked. “What’s wrong with it?”
“Nothing. Just figured you for a Buffy or something kick-ass like that.”
She laughed despite herself. “Funny.”
A few more minutes passed in silence before she remembered her phone and fished it out, checking for messages. Surely Aiden would be looking for her. Her stomach fell when she saw there were none, but then she noticed the lack of bars. No signal.
Dee frowned and waved it around. “That’s strange. There’s no reception.”
“It’ll probably come back on again later,” Zac said, as he took a sharp turn. “We’re here.”
They drove through a set of boom gates onto the hospital grounds. Strangely, the booth was unattended and the entrance wide open. The reason for this became clear once they entered the parking lot. It was crowded with both cars and people, and she spotted three security guards attempting to keep order and direct vehicles to empty parking spots.
Dee sat upright as Zac weaved through the narrow lanes at a snail’s pace, cursing whenever someone blocked him. Several ambulances stood in front of the double glass doors that served as the entrance to the emergency ward, and more were on their way out, sirens blaring. The area was brightly lit, and she spotted several people with bloody wounds being wheeled, carried, pushed, or helped inside by family members and hospital staff.
“Uh, Zac,” she said, as a sudden thought occurred to her.
“What?”
“Why did those people at the club go nuts? Do you know?”
He shrugged. “No, I don’t. When it all started, I ran inside to help. Things were going to hell, and I grabbed Joe, the bartender, but he couldn’t tell me much either. He’s dead now. Those things got him.”
Dee's Destiny Page 3
