“How do you explain the zombie Nick and Dean saw?” she asked.
He cocked a brow. “I believe it somehow got in and attacked Howard, but the facts clearly state it didn’t bite you.”
“Get out!” she yelled. “Just get out!”
“Thanks for your time,” Lucas said. He patted my back. “I’ll wait for you outside.”
I nodded.
“Can I leave now if this bite isn’t infected by zombie drool?” she asked me desperately.
“Soon,” I said. “We have to discuss our findings with the others, and I’m sure you’ll be out of here in no time.”
Val walked in with bandages and other supplies. “Hi, Asia. Remember me? I’m Val.”
“Are you plannin’ to patch me up?” she asked.
“Yeah, if you don’t mind. My fiancé used to be a doctor, so I’ve had some experience with this kind of stuff.”
“With zombie bites?”
Val bit her lip. “Unfortunately, yes. I helped my fiancé out when the zombie outbreak first happened. I can’t even tell you the number of dressings I changed at the clinic.”
“So…you’re kind of like a nurse?”
Val snapped on a pair of latex gloves that she’d found at the nurses’ station. “Kind of. I found some bandages in the supply room. Is it okay if I dress the wound for you?”
Asia nodded. “Sure, as long as your bedside manner is better than that Lucas who was just in here,” she said, scowling at me.
“You’re in good hands with Val,” I assured her.
She smiled again.
I walked out, nodding at the people standing guard.
Lucas was leaning against the wall, waiting on me. “Can you believe she kicked me out like that?”
“You were kind of…blunt. Why didn’t you just save your opinions for me?”
“She told me to be honest,” he said.
“You know women never really mean that,” I said, letting out a huff. “If they did, they wouldn’t go around asking us if their clothes make them look fat.”
Lucas laughed.
“Anyway, what’s our next step?”
“We need to get the heck outta Dodge, man. This is all getting a little strange for me. I’m gonna get a group together and see if we can find an alternative route out of here so the flooded roads won’t be a problem.”
I gave him a fist bump. “Great idea. I think we’ve overstayed our welcome here.”
“You’re tellin’ me.”
Chapter 11
I leaned back in the leather chair, with Jackie on my lap. The room filled with people, all pouring in so we could discuss our findings. It was something like a press conference, only without the press.
“We didn’t find a thing,” I said.
“None of us did,” said a guy in a red cap. “I don’t think there was ever a zombie in the first place. It was dark, a little spooky. I’m sure somebody’s imagination got carried away. Asia’s bite was examined by multiple people and deemed not to be a zombie bite.”
“I agree,” said another man, nodding. “We’re all freaking out over a girl’s exaggeration or imagination. Heck, I wouldn’t put it past her to have bitten herself just to get attention.”
“I saw the zombie,” Nick said firmly.
“Nick and I are both in the Army,” Lucas said. “We’re trained to pay attention to detail. I don’t know what Asia’s deal is, but I’m telling you, if Nick says he saw a zombie, it wasn’t a figment of his imagination.”
The man in the red cap sat down. “Then why didn’t we find it?”
“Because it broke out of here,” Jackie said.
“No, honey,” the man said. “Those things don’t know how to grip an axe, let alone swing one.”
The woman who’d initially accused Nick of killing Howard walked up to us. “What if there’s no zombie at all? What if you guys are just making all this up to cover your tracks? What if Nick killed Howard so he could have Claire, and now he’s killing others because he’s some kind of lunatic? I bet he bit Asia and didn’t finish because he got spooked when others came. That’s why the bite is human!”
Murmurs and whispers spread across the room like a cancer, and I worried that people were starting to believe her ridiculous story.
Now that she had everyone’s attention, the woman continued her long-winded speech. “Nick attacked and bit Asia. She thought it was a zombie because it was dark and she’s stressed out. Nick, Val, and Dean are just playing off of her story, claiming that there’s a zombie on the loose to cover for Nick’s crimes. They’re all in on it! And I’m telling you there’s no zombie!”
“That’s ridiculous,” Nick said. “It’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard!”
“Nick was with Val and me during the search,” I said.
The woman glared at me. “How convenient. Why wouldn’t you cover for him? You’re his baby brother, aren’t you? And Val’s his sister!”
“I’m telling you the truth!” I shouted, getting a bit out of control and worrying that the whole thing was going to spin out of control.
She rolled her eyes and continued. “Nick killed Howard because he wanted Claire, but Claire wasn’t enough for him. Nick stalked Judy, and now she’s missing. Nick’s a serial killer, and his friends are covering for him. I say we toss him out of here!”
“Nick needs to be detained to a room, like a jail cell,” a man shouted.
Kate glanced over at me. “They want to take Nick prisoner?”
“This isn’t good. If they gang up, we’ll be outnumbered.”
“It might be best to split from this group,” she whispered. “I’m an outsider like you, and I don’t trust these people. We can’t travel with people who don’t have our backs.”
I nodded knowing she was right.
“If Nick’s a serial killer, he needs to be confined,” a woman shouted.
My frown deepened. “My brother is not on trial.”
“Why don’t we have a trial?” the woman said. “Right here. Right now.”
“Where do you come up with this stuff, lady?” Lucas asked. “It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. You been sneaking the medication from the nurses’ station? Or maybe if you haven’t, you ought to. I saw some Prozac down there.”
“Kate’s right. We need to get away from these people,” Nick said in my ear. “I can’t work with people who are accusing me of being Ted Bundy. Next thing you know, they’ll be tearing up the floorboards to see where I supposedly hid the corpses.”
“Dude,” Lucas said, “let’s cruise on out of here, pronto. These people are nuts, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that woman over there rallies up a lynch-mob to come after you. I say we brave the storm. We can always hoof it past the flooded roads and look for a deserted set of wheels outside of town.”
Larry walked to the front of the room. “Nick is the best thing that ever happened to us. Do you really want to chase him away on a false accusation?”
“We can’t have a serial killer be our leader,” a man shouted.
Val looked at the group, her arms crossed. “That’s enough!”
Ignoring Val, the woman continued her accusatory rant. “What do we really know about you guys anyway? Most of us have known each other our entire lives, but you?” She pointed at us with a crooked finger, as if she were a judge handing down a sentence. “You’re all new in town, aren’t ya? We don’t know you from Adam. For all we know, we coulda hitched up with the devil himself and his minions.”
“We’re not murderers,” I retorted. “If we were, would we have risked our lives to save all those people from the elementary school? We did it because we care.”
“He’s right,” somebody whispered.
“Look at everything they’ve done to help us,” another said.
I smiled inwardly, realizing that the people were coming back on our side.
Nick looked intensely into the crowd. “Is my interrogation over or do you have more questions you nee
d to ask me? Because I have nothing to hide.”
“Nick,” a red-headed woman said. “You gave us the cure. Why would you kill us? If anything, you gave us hope and a future.”
Nick gripped her hand. “Thank you for believing in me.”
“We all believe in you,” another woman said.
“Something else is happening,” a man said. “And we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”
A tall guy with shoulder-length hair suddenly burst into our little meeting. “More people are missing!”
I drew in an unsteady breath. “How many?”
“At least five.”
“Is Judy one of them?” I asked.
“No. I didn’t know Judy was missing.”
I sighed. “Make that six.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” the man said. “What’s going on?”
“So now there’s some kind of kidnapper in this place, some phantom coming in and stealing people?” a woman shrieked. “We should never have come here!”
“Or there’s a serial murderer among us,” somebody else said.
“This is all freaking me out. I’m thinking we might be better off out there, facing the zombies!” said someone in the crowd.
The man let out a sigh. “We found another breached window too.”
The woman’s eyes widened. “Something’s just coming in and picking us off one by one. This is like the plot of every sorry straight-to-DVD horror film I’ve ever seen—only it’s real!”
“We need to make a mass exit, rainstorm or not,” a man shouted.
I wrapped my arm around Jackie and pulled her close, not sure what to think and certainly not sure what to do.
Nick paced the floor as he pondered everything. “Whoever made that hole was human.”
A short man inched forward. “Tahoe was keeping family locked up in a shed or something. Maybe humans in this town are keeping their loved ones locked somewhere…and they’re harvesting us for food, like freaking livestock!”
“That’s a horrible thought,” a woman said. “If that’s the case, we need to leave.”
Many scenarios had crossed my mind, but not that one. The thought of somebody stabling us there to feed their zombie herd nauseated me. Ironically—or maybe not so ironically—the idea of ending up in someone else’s stomach turned mine.
“What if our missing loved ones are still alive?” a man said. “What if it was your brother or sister out there?”
“We have to find them,” another woman chimed in. “I won’t leave without my sister!”
“Lucas and I will walk the neighborhood and see if we see anything odd. I’ll make one more sweep of this building and the neighborhood to see if we can find anyone, and then we’re leaving. It’s your choice to stay or go. For anyone who wants to come with me, be prepared to take off in two hours.” Nick then motioned us over to the corner of the room. “This place isn’t safe. I have no idea what’s going on, but I’m not sticking around here to find out.”
“If the rain and wind doesn’t stop, we can hole up somewhere else until it dies down,” Lucas suggested.
“We’ll find other shelter, but staying here is not worth the risk,” Nick said.
“What if the others don’t want to drive in that typhoon outside?” I asked.
“Then we leave without them,” Nick said. “I’m not here to make everyone happy, Dean. Like all these people, I’m just trying to survive. We shouldn’t even be sticking around to hunt for people who are most likely dead, but I figure it’s the least we can do.”
“Let’s sweep the area like you said. Just one time, and then we’re outta here,” Val said. “We owe these people that. We’d do it if our loved ones were missing.”
I nodded, then glanced around. “Hey, where’s Claire?”
“She went back to the room,” Jackie said.
“I’m gonna go fill her in on the plan,” Nick said, walking off.
“Leaving is probably for the best,” Jackie said. “I thought this would be a great place to hide out for a while, but I guess I was wrong.” She shook her head in confusion. “What do you think is going on?”
I shrugged. “I wish I knew, but I’ve got no idea.”
A few minutes later, Nick rushed back into the room, his eyes wide with worry.
“What’s wrong?” I asked my brother.
“It’s Claire. She’s…I can’t find her anywhere!”
Jackie jumped up, her eyes frantic. “What? What do you mean you can’t find her?”
His voice tightened. “She’s just…gone.”
Jackie took a step back, clutching her heart. “No, Nick. Don’t say that. She can’t be. Not Claire.”
“Let’s all go look for her!” I said, rushing back to the room and frantically calling her name. I walked down the hall with my gun drawn and checked every single room. We all split up and started hunting for her, but just like Nick said, she was nowhere to be found.
As I walked toward Jackie’s room, a crash echoed in the hallway. My heart pounded. I hoped to God that Jackie was okay and that another zombie hadn’t broken in. I rushed into the room like a crazy person and saw Jackie ripping the bed apart and throwing the sheets. A vase with fake flowers was shattered on the ground. A terrible temper was something else that Jackie and I shared in common, but I couldn’t blame her. If Nick had gone missing, I would have been punching holes through the wall.
“Jackie…” I said.
She turned and met my gaze. “I’m trying to hold it together, Dean. I really am, but I’m just… gosh, where is she? I’m freaking out.”
I touched her back. “Don’t give up.”
“I can’t lose Claire,” she said softly. “I just can’t.”
“We’ll find her,” I said.
“Why?” she yelled. “Why did this happen?”
Nick peeked in. “Dean, can I talk to you for a second?”
Before I could answer, Jackie bolted out of the room.
“Jackie!” I shouted after her.
Nick caught her by the arm. “Don’t you dare.”
She spun around. “Give me some credit, Nick.”
They stared at each other before she finally spoke. “I’m not some like one of those ditzy girls in the horror movies, looking to go running off with my chest bouncing only to get myself killed. We need to hunt for my cousin, but I know it’d do no good for me to go out there and let those zombies pounce on me. You think I’m going to hold my gun up and rush them like I wanna go out in a blaze of glory as a last act of vengeance? Is that what you think I’m going to do?” she shouted. “I’m not an idiot!
“Losing a loved one can cause a person to act irrationally,” Nick said.
“Don’t worry. I’m only going to go investigate and ask questions. Maybe somebody in this flippin’ place saw where she went. After that, I’m gonna assemble a search team to canvass the grounds outside. Is that rational enough for you, Nick?”
“Absolutely. Those were the same ideas I had.”
“Good,” she said. “Then let’s get to work.”
I threw my arm around her. “C’mon. Let’s go start questioning the others.”
She shot Nick a glare, and we walked off.
I had no idea what had happened to Claire. She’d simply disappeared without a trace, just like Judy and the five others. Wherever she’d gone, though, I knew Jackie wouldn’t leave that place without her. We had to find her—for her sake as well as our own—so we could get the heck out of there.
Chapter 12
A huge group of volunteers headed out to do a sweep of the neighborhood on the quest for any odd happenings or sightings of the missing persons. We split into four teams. Lucas and Val went with the north team, and Jackie, Nick, and I went with the west team, and Kate went with the east team. The rain was finally letting up, so it was our best opportunity to leave yet, but we couldn’t take off without looking for Claire and the others. I’d refused to leave her behind before, and I wasn’t about to d
esert her now.
Some drizzle still came down on us, and I shivered as the cold drafts of air mussed my hair. We walked the streets in silence, not saying a word. We didn’t want to draw any attention to ourselves. Wind chimes blew eerily in the silence of the night, and the whole ordeal was giving me a whole new case of the creeps.
Jackie looked up at me, her eyes red and puffy. Claire was all the family she had left in the world. If we lost Claire, I knew it’d tear her apart even worse than the zombies could. I threw an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close as we walked.
“What’s that?” Jackie asked. “Is that…a baby crying?”
I listened closely and could hear the faint weeping of a very small infant or child. “Yeah, I hear it too,” I said.
It was spooky…eerie.
Nick motioned for everyone to stop, and we all listened intently. It was definitely a baby, and the pitiful noise was coming from the two-story house on our right. Light flickered from a lantern in the window behind the billowing, sheer curtains. I wondered if it was a survivor, but when I saw that the door wide open, I feared the worst: that the parents had died and left the baby all alone and abandoned. I was sure if we got the baby, one of the women in our group would care for it.
“Let’s check it out,” one of the men in our group said. “That kid is dead without our help.”
“Come on. We have to save that baby!” Jackie said, pulling me toward the house.
Part of me dreaded walking inside because of what we might find…dead parents. Still, I knew I had to go in, even if only as a backup for the others. If something was amiss in there, they would need me. I walked on the porch and gave Jackie’s hand a squeeze. We all walked into the living room, and I had a glance around. The place reeked, so I gagged but continued on. It was dimly lit, and brown splotches of dried blood were smeared all over the couch, floor, and walls. How long were the parents of the baby dead for? How was the baby still alive?
The stench of death hung in the air. I assumed the zombies had dragged the bodies away, if there were even bodies left after their sickening feast. My stomach was in knots. How long has that poor baby been left unattended? How did it even survive this long?
The Zombie Chronicles - Book 4 - Poisonous Serum (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) Page 10
