Before I could even get up to celebrate my victory and to catch a breath that wasn’t tainted with muddy water and grass, another attacker assaulted me. Unfortunately, my hands were slippery, and my gun went flying over to the left. Those chomping jaws wanted to devour my face, but I stretched out my hands and bravely held the writhing creature back, then lay on my shoulders and lifted my legs. I knew I had to secure my knees into the upper arms of the zombie and tightly hold its wrists to keep it at bay. It was one of many moves my big brother had taught me, and it worked. I knew it would save my face from the zombie’s gnashing, rotted incisors. I suddenly sprawled my legs and kicked its knee with all the force of a Babe Ruth knock out of the park. Scrambling up, I frantically searched for my gun. A zombie missing a shoulder and half of its face stumbled toward me, followed by two more of his ugly friends.
My gaze shot down into the water. Where was my flippin’ gun? A zombie grabbed me in a choke hold, and I could tell by the way it moved that it was a hybrid. I pushed back with my legs and leaned my weight back against it, then pried its arm from my neck and twisted around. I kicked it square in the chest, and it went flying. I gazed into cloudy, vacant eyes. The other two zombies lumbered closer.
I desperately felt around the dirty puddle. Water dripped down my face and suddenly, my fingers curled around cold metal. The gun! The zombie with the missing shoulder hissed as its outstretched arms reached for me. I kicked the corpse in the gut as hard as I could with my booted foot. It staggered back, and I aimed. As it came back for Round 2, I stared for a split second into its bloodless green face, then fired off a shot straight into its head. It fell straight back with a giant splash. I fired off another shot, killing the third one coming my way.
As I tried to scramble away, I was quickly surrounded by more mutilated corpses. I refused to believe that my life was going to end on a deserted, flooded neighborhood in the middle of nowhere. On the other hand, if I survived the day, it would be nothing short of a miracle. Shots, raspy snarls, screams, and splashing echoed in the air as the group fought to survive. I’d lost track of Nick, aimed, and fired, but there were so many.
As I backed up in the water, which was now up to my waist because of the dip in the road. I noticed they were becoming slower and clumsier, and I was happy to have the advantage. I sloshed through the water. When I glanced over my shoulder, I froze. Like a scene out of some awful horror movie, at least twenty of them were right behind me. I kept shooting until my gun clicked, letting me know it was empty. Crap! I moved even faster and sped to the sidewalk. When someone suddenly grabbed my shoulder, my pulse pounded, and I heaved a lungful of air.
“This way!” my brother said. He motioned me to follow him, and we jumped another fence and hid behind a shed that was camouflaged in a tangle of weeds and vegetation.
My throat tightened as we both stood there, completely silent. “Too…close,” I breathed out.
“I’m sorry we got separated from everyone in all that chaos,” Nick said, finally breaking the silence.
“I’ve learned that’s life, but we’ve gotta get Val, Jackie, and Lucas,” I whispered. “And what about all the others? We can’t leave them.”
“Lucas knows what he’s doing. He’ll keep them safe.”
“If they’re not dead already.” My mind reeled, and I prayed to God that our sister and friends were okay. I shook my head in amazement, pissed my brother wouldn’t go back for any of the others, not even the people closest to us. I could still hear their pained screams, shouts, and moans in my head. It was pure agony that I couldn’t help them, but I was fighting for my own life. I wondered if any others had managed to escape. My stomach was tied in knots.
He shot me a look. “If we go back, we’re as good as dead.”
“What now then?” I asked, reloading my gun.
He held up the gasoline can. “We stick to Plan A.” He motioned for me to follow him, and we walked down a dark alley until we got to a street called Oakwood.
A twig snapped, and footsteps approached. I pointed my gun, ready to shoot. Focusing ahead, I let out a ragged breath.
“Don’t shoot, buddy,” a man said in a shaky voice.
“It’s Sam!” Nick said. “Put your gun down, Dean.” Nick motioned for the others to come out.
Ten guys from our group walked out of the tall, overgrown weeds, and I never thought I’d be so grateful to see them.
“Did you guys see Val, Lucas, or Jackie?” I asked anxiously.
“I think Val got away, but I’m not sure about the others,” one of the men said.
I was thrilled my sister had survived, but my heart sank as I wondered about Lucas and Jackie.
“There’s their home sweet home,” Nick said, pointing the place out to the men. “I say we get snipers on the roof of every house surrounding it. Others can battle in direct combat.”
I stared at the hideout. It was nothing special, just a white, two-story house with overgrown weeds and a white picket fence. Zombies were pacing around it, and the street wasn’t as flooded as the one we’d just muddled through.
Our best shots took their sniping positions on neighboring rooftops and started firing away, taking zombies down one by one. Meanwhile, Nick and I and a few others started ground combat.
“Dean,” Nick said, “get the ones coming from the left!”
I sized up my threat and was sure I could take them. I aimed and held it steady. A zombie with long black hair, a skull face, and long nails came toward me. I stared at empty sockets that used to hold eyes. Tightening my jaw, I fired and dropped the blind thing in front of me. Two more came at me, followed by six shuffling right behind it. I fired over and over again. When Nick’s shouts resounded in my ears, I glanced in his direction and aimed, ready to take down anything that got near him, but he seemed to be doing just fine with his knife and drove it into a zombie’s eye.
Gunshots, sniper fire, and shouts echoed all around me. Bullets flew everywhere, and zombies fell one by one. We were certainly a force to be reckoned with. I breathed heavily as I reloaded, but during those few brief seconds, an opponent took full advantage and moved in. Pain exploded through my body. Something had delivered a crushing blow to my back. I crashed to the ground and tried to recover the air that had been knocked from my lungs. When I looked up, I stared into cold, dead eyes and the glint of a knife blade hovering just over me. “Die!” it hissed.
I shuddered. It was a smart zombie, a hybrid, and it had that voice I had wanted to forget. It lifted it arms high in the air for more momentum to stab me in the chest. In a sudden blur, I reached for my gun. A bullet whizzed past me, and the zombie fell sideways, but I hadn’t yet pulled the trigger. One of the snipers had saved my life.
I could hear nails hammering away. Some of the men had made it to the house and were nailing all the exits shut. Others were boarding up the bottom windows. Nick splashed gasoline on the house and poured a long trail around the perimeter. He whipped out a Zippo lighter and ignited it. We stood across the street and watched. Within minutes, the place was a blazing inferno, burning the house and every living or not-quite-living thing in it to a crisp. The men gave each other high-fives, whistled, and shouted in victory.
Suddenly, a familiar female voice echoed through the air. I recognized it immediately, and so did Nick. We looked at each other, stunned to hear Claire. I didn’t have any rope to tie her up, and I had no idea how we’d get her back, but I ran toward the porch anyway, with Nick following along behind.
Straining with all his might, my brother began pulling one of the boards off the window. I joined in, and before long, we pulled off enough of the boards to squeeze through. Inside, I could barely see in the hazy blue-gray smoke swirling around me in billows. I stepped into knee-deep water. Hungry flames leapt, and heat radiated from all around me. I could feel the intense, blinding heat on my face. “Claire!” I shouted over the crackling flames. My lungs burned, and it was hard to breathe. Pulling my shirt up over my mouth and nose as a mask,
I took quick, shallow gasps.
“Dean! Nick!” Claire shouted over the roar of the fire.
Coughing violently, I spun around and gazed into Claire’s face. She was as beautiful as ever and hadn’t even been zombified. Instead, she was tied up. Nick pulled out his knife and cut her free, and she collapsed into his arms.
A shout pierced the air, and I spun around.
“Dean!” a female zombie roared. “I’m gonna kill you and all your friends!” She stood with a big group around her.
I bit my lip hard, wondering if I could take so many on at once. Nick and I fired away through the smoke. Fire shot across the ceiling. Suddenly, bullets flew back at us, and we ducked for cover behind an overturned table. “What the…? They’re shooting back!” I said.
“We’ve gotta get out of here,” Claire said, coughing as smoke engulfed the room.
“You two go on,” Nick said. “I’ll cover you.”
I didn’t argue and gripped Claire’s hand and led her to the window. After she climbed out, I turned around to help my brother.
The bullets stopped and I wondered if they were out of ammo. Nick started firing and just as I went to reload, zombies shuffled toward me. I channeled my anger and kicked the zombie swiftly but efficiently, then finished it off with a hammer kick as it fell down. Another one came and I grabbed its shoulder and kneed it. Another undead freak reached for my throat, and I delivered a roundhouse kick to its head. I felt for bullets in my pocket and quickly reloaded.
A zombie lurched at me. Air whooshed from my lungs as I fell backward, splashing in the water. Hands wrapped around my throat and began to squeeze as I was held underwater. My lungs burned and screamed for air. Dizziness flooded through me and I couldn’t breathe. I struggled to no avail. My head pounded. I tried to loosen its dead fingers but its grip was too tight. I wasn’t dealing with a normal zombie but a hybrid. I felt around the water and my fingers wrapped around what I assumed to be a candle opera. With my last bit of strength, I swung at the zombie’s head. It released me. I sucked in gulp after gulp of air. I couldn’t stop coughing.
Nick shot another zombie, then held out his hand to help me up.
Four more zombies came at us, but they met their demise when the burning ceiling creaked and came crashing down on them.
“Let’s go!” Nick said.
I tumbled through the opening, crashing in a heap. My eyes were burning from all the smoke as I sucked in gulps of fresh air. When I looked back at the house, it was engulfed in flames. I took several breaths to slow my racing heart.
“Nick!” a sniper yelled down from the roof next to us. “We’ve killed all the hybrids.”
Nick nodded. “Great job. Meet us back at the hideout.”
I watched the snipers from the different roofs leave their positions and head back to the nursing home. Claire was lying in the grass, her beautiful red hair swirled all around her. I felt for a pulse, and it was strong. I breathed out, relieved.
Nick scooped her up and held her close against his chest, and I could have sworn I saw a tear in his eye. “Follow me!” he said.
I nodded. Swallowing hard, I drew my gun and pointed ahead, even though there weren’t any zombies in sight.
Suddenly, a slithering, menacing voice called Nick’s name.
I turned around and gazed into the eyes of a familiar zombie with green skin, torn patches of skin, and the trademark white eyes. “Howard?” I whispered.
He aimed the gun at Nick’s head. “Give Claire back to me!” he hissed.
I knew at that moment that we’d been right: Not only did the hybrids retain their intellect, but also some of their emotional makeup. Howard had wanted Claire from the beginning, and even after turning, he’d wanted her bad enough to kidnap her. Nick had been accused of killing him, and in that moment, I kind of wished he would have done the deed.
Nick had put his gun away to carry Claire, figuring I could cover him.
I pointed my gun, but Howard didn’t pay me much mind, as if I was no threat at all. I was tired of people ignoring me and not taking me seriously. “Put the gun down, Howard!” I demanded.
He laughed. “Or what? You won’t shoot. You’re the baby brother with the heart of gold, remember? You’re going around trying to save everyone. I loved your little pep talk on top of the patrol car back at the school.”
“Howard, I’m not playing,” I shouted. I’d been practicing at a shooting gallery for a straight year when the zombie thing happened, and I was the best shot on the island. I knew I could put him down before he put me down, but I was stopped in my tracks by guilt. I’d made Howard that way by bringing the serum to those people, and it was, in essence, all my fault that he was now an inhuman monster. How can I just shoot him in cold blood?
“Take the shot, Dean!” Nick shouted. “Put him down!”
“Dean,” Howard said, speaking slowly through gritted teeth, “my skin might look like a zombie’s, but I’m as human as you are. I remember everything, even my love for Claire. I’m the same person, just in a different skin.”
I hesitated, my hands wavering. “You forgot to mention that your diet has changed drastically!”
“You did this to me!” he shouted. “I know you and your brother and that sexy little girlfriend of yours have always thought of me as a monster, but do you think I want to live like a cannibal?”
“I-I didn’t know this would happen,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
Howard stepped closer, aiming the gun at Nick’s head. “Give me Claire and tell your brother to throw the gun over here, or I will kill both of you right here.”
“Talk to me, Howard,” I said, “not my brother.”
“Why would I want to talk to you? You’re merely a shadow, nothing like your brother at all,” he mocked.
I took a breath and steadied my grip. “I’m everything like my brother. Maybe one day he’ll see it.”
Howard aimed the gun at me and prepared to shoot, but I was faster. In a split second, I shot Howard straight in the head, and he crashed to the ground with a thud.
“Let’s go!” Nick shouted, helping Claire stay upright.
We didn’t give each other high-fives or congratulate one another. We just hightailed it out of there without another word, cutting through an overgrown yard and hopping a fence. We crept through a patch of vegetation and suddenly stopped as Nick scanned the area. A few seconds later, he gave us the okay to proceed.
“Do you think they’re all dead?” Claire asked as we moved through the darkness.
“I hope,” I said.
Nick blew out a breath. “We got enough to break the connection. Let’s find the others and get the heck out of town.”
We hurried down the lonely streets, killing a few zombies along the way, and made it back to the nursing facility. As I frantically knocked on the wood, my heart swelled with joy when I heard Val’s voice. She took down the boards and let us in.
“We all made it!” she said in victory.
Kate embraced me. “I knew you guys would be back! So…mission accomplished?”
“Mission accomplished,” Nick said with a nod.
“Val and I just got back,” Lucas said, hugging me. “We must’ve just missed you. When we went to the lair, we were shocked to see the whole place up in flames. You did good taking out every single one of those freaks.”
Val wrapped her arms around me. “Of course my brothers would both make it back. They’re almost as tough as me,” she said, looking into my eyes. “You better never do that to me again. You scared me to death.”
Jackie screamed out in joy, and her face lit up. She embraced Claire and spun her around, laughing. “Claire, what happened?” she asked. “We thought you were…well, one of those things.”
Claire shook her head. “Howard kidnapped me. He told me he loved me and would never let me go.”
“Really? Eww,” Jackie said, her voice wavering. “What a sick freak!”
They hugged each other once again, tears f
lowing from both girls.
Jackie then embraced me in a long hug and kissed my lips. “Thank you, Dean! I’ll never forget this—not ever.”
Claire jumped into Nick’s arms and kissed him. “Thanks for not giving up on me.” She nuzzled into his shoulder. “Howard told me you all thought I was dead—or worse.”
He stroked her back softly. “We thought you’d turned into one of the hybrids. Jackie was sick with grief, and I was, uh…lost without you.”
“Well, you don’t have to be lost anymore. I’m all yours now,” she whispered.
“Did he touch you or hurt you?”
She shook her head. “No, but he would’ve eventually. I feared he’d kill me within the week.”
“This little reunion is nice and all, but I think we better take a rain-check on the party,” I said.
Nick chuckled. “Boy, you are like me. Why didn’t I see it before?”
“Ha-ha,” I said.
“You said everyone made it?” Nick asked.
“Yeah,” Val said, “and lucky for us, the scientist was one of them.”
“Bring him with us,” Nick said. “Let’s go find that lab and see if he can figure out what’s going on. Maybe he can turn this thing around so the others won’t go through the change.”
“That’s what we’re hoping,” Val said.
Lucas threw a set of keys to Nick. “Kate and Asia rummaged through a house and found keys for you to a blue SUV.”
“Sweet,” Nick said. “I’ll have to thank them for the wheels.”
He smiled. “Val and I are going to ride with them in the Lexus they found. That way nobody is too cramped in one vehicle. Not to mention, we’ll have back up in case we lose a set of wheels.”
“Sounds great,” I said.
“One catch though,” Lucas added.
“What?”
“They’re on the other side of town, past the flooded streets. There was no way I could bring them here to pick us up.”
The Zombie Chronicles - Book 4 - Poisonous Serum (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) Page 16
