by Dia Cole
Rearing back, I flung it away from me as hard as I could.
It hit the side of the door to the kitchen with a sickening thud and then slid to the ground. It lay motionless with its eyes closed. If not for its abnormally pale skin, it would’ve looked like any other nine-month-old. Its wispy blond curls tumbled over its face making it look like a fallen cherub.
I drew my gun.
It’s not a baby. It’s not a baby.
For the first time I noticed it wore snowman-covered footie pajamas with My First Christmas emblazoned across the chest.
My heart ached. It wasn’t right that this child would never see its first Christmas. The unfairness of it all pounded through me. I couldn’t tell if it was a baby boy or a girl. For some reason that seemed important.
My hands shook as I took aim. In this position, it looked like a sleeping infant.
Then the creature looked up with freaky white irises and growled.
Die, demon baby.
My finger found the trigger. Before I could press it, the door to the garage crashed open with such force it bounced against the wall.
Dominic stalked into the laundry room, “What the fuck is—”
There was no time to warn him.
The creature bared its baby teeth and flew at Dominic.
Dominic’s eyes widened in shock. He raised his arm to ward off the creature.
The baby zombie latched on to his wrist.
Oh no. Oh fuck no.
Dominic tore the zombie free and struggled with the snapping creature. “A little help here,” he roared. His arms were shaking as the creature thrashed and shrieked.
Dominic never asks for help. I have to do something fast.
I couldn’t risk accidentally shooting him. I scanned the room, my gaze landing on the front loaders. There was a child lock on the outside of the washer. It was intended to keep kids out, but in this case maybe it would keep one in.
I yanked open the washer door. The pungent smell of mildewed clothes rushed out.
I reached over and grabbed the creature’s jammie-covered legs. “Let go,” I shouted to Dominic.
He released the baby.
Before the thing could snap its teeth in my direction, I flung it into the washing machine. In quick movements, I slammed the door shut and fastened the child lock. Thankfully, the door stayed shut.
The creature’s face was a mask of rage as it clawed at the door from the inside. Its shrieking was muffled by the heavy glass.
“Nice work, Walker. We’ll make a soldier out of you yet,” Dominic said through gritted teeth.
I turned and froze.
His right hand was covered in blood. Small punctures covered his wrist.
The floor dropped a mile under my feet.
“Oh, God. You’ve been infected.”
2
“Its nothing.” Dominic belied his words by uttering a muffled curse. “I’ll be fine.”
“You’re not fine.” My high-pitched voice reverberated in the small space.
He’s going to die and it’s my fault. If only I’d stayed in the garage.
It became hard to breathe.
“Calm down.” Dominic clamped his hand over the wound on his wrist.
I shook my head. “How can I calm down?”
And how can he be so relaxed right now? Maybe he’s in shock.
He slid to the ground and rested his back against the garage door. “Can you throw me a towel or something?”
I couldn’t move. The horrifying realization that he was infected paralyzed me.
“Look, I’ll be fine. Just give me something to clean up with.”
I shook my head back and forth.
He’s delusional. Doesn’t he realize he’s going to die and turn into a zombie? Just like me…
Wait, he doesn’t have to die. We have the serum. Maybe there’s enough for the two of us.
Ignoring the shrieking zombie. I flattened myself on the ground and fished the vial from underneath the dryer. Miraculously, the vial was unbroken. The glass felt cool in my hand. I looked down at the shimmery amber liquid.
Take it and run, an insidious voice whispered in my head.
Save yourself. Save Reed.
“Any day now, Lee.”
I owed my life to Dominic. I couldn’t reward his sacrifice with betrayal.
Heart in my throat, I picked up a white T-shirt from the pile of clothes on the ground and rushed to his side. “Here use this,” I said handing him the T-shirt.
He grunted and wrapped it around his right hand. He pressed his hand against his chest and looked up at me. “There’s probably no point in yelling at you for not following my orders is there?”
My fingers tightened on the vial. “I’m sorry. I never meant—”
“Never meant to nearly get yourself killed…again. Lee, can’t you see all I want is your safety? I can’t protect you if you fight me every step of the way. I care about you. More than I should.”
His admission had me rubbing my chest.
God. I care about him too.
So much I was willing to give up what might be my only chance at survival.
Biting my lip hard enough to draw blood. I held out the vial. “Dominic, I found this on the ground, is it yours?”
He snatched it out of my hand. “What are you doing with that?”
I tried for my best poker face. “It must’ve come out during your struggle with the bab… um, creature.”
Dominic stuffed the vial back inside his vest.
What’s he doing?
“Don’t you need it right now?”
He gave me a strange look and then his head fell back against the door. “There’s no point.” He blinked fast as if he was trying to stay focused on me.
“Dominic, what’s happening?” The wounds on his arm didn’t look life-threatening.
But what if Howler bites are different from other zombie bites?
Panic rode me hard around the arena of despair. I shook my head in denial. “Stay with me, Dominic.”
He coughed. “I’m not going to make it.”
Fear double-punched me. “Don’t say that. You’ll be fine. Take the serum and—”
He let out a rattling cough and reached for me.
I grabbed his hand.
His grip was uncharacteristically weak.
I blinked back tears. “I’m so sorry. It’s my fault. If I hadn’t disobeyed you and come in here none of this would’ve happened.”
His eyelids fluttered as if he was having a hard time staying conscious. “Promise me that you’ll follow the rules. They’ll keep you alive,” he gasped.
Anguish tightened a noose around my throat, making it hard to speak.
“Promise me, Lee.”
“I promise.” A soundless scream rose up inside me.
He can’t die. Not like this. Not because of me.
He shuddered. It sounded like he was choking.
This is the end.
Goddamn it. I wanted to curse at the unfairness of the world. Everyone I ever cared for died. I swallowed my sob and looked up expecting to see him fighting for his last breath.
He was glaring at me. “You failed the test.”
“What?”
“Where’s your weapon? You should’ve tried to stab me in the skull.”
Blinking furiously, I tried to process what was happening.
He’s only pretending? This is some kind of sick test?
“If I’d really been infected, I would’ve died and turned while you just sat there. Then I would’ve attacked you. You know better, Lee.”
Dominic gently pushed me aside. Then he slowly got to his feet. “You can’t let personal feelings get in the way of your own survival. Remember rule number two, all infected must die.”
“But…but…the baby bit you. Aren’t you infected?”
He threw the bloody T-shirt on the ironing board. “No.” He lifted his right hand showing me that the bleeding stopped. The skin on his wrists and arms looked pin
k and raw, but it’d healed.
I shook my head back and forth like a bobblehead doll. “How is that possible?”
“I heal fast.”
My mouth opened and closed like a fish while I waited for The Twilight Zone music to start. “No one can heal that fast.”
“I can. Come on. Get what you came in here for, and let’s go.”
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on.”
“It’s classified.”
“What do you mean classified?”
He took a deep breath and then let it out. “I’m not authorized to discuss any of this with anyone outside of the program.”
My skin heated. My head felt like it was going to explode. “Goddamn it, Dominic, you better start talking or I will stab you in the skull.” My fingers brushed against the hilt of my knife.
The only sound was my ragged breathing and the baby beating at the washing machine door.
Finally, he let out a deep breath. “I’m…special.”
I couldn’t help letting out a hysterical laugh.
His lips quirked up. “I mean, I heal much quicker than normal hum…people. Remember the military program I told you about earlier?”
All I could do was stare at him.
“I was genetically engineered to be stronger and faster than the average soldier.”
“Like Captain America?”
His expression stayed serious. “Kind of. Except I don’t have the cool shield.”
I shook my head, trying to shake loose his outlandish words. And yet, it explained so much. How he could move lightning fast. His crazy accuracy with the knife. How he could go for days without sleeping. I rubbed the sides of my temples. This was too much to handle on top of an already hellacious day. “So you’re saying the government is creating super soldiers?”
“They’ve been doing it for decades. I’m part of the second generation.”
I need to sit down.
A feeling of numbness spread over me. Maybe it was the virus exploding through my body. I stared at the Howler baby trying to chew its way through the glass door.
Will I become like that when I die?
“Our biological parents were all enlisted soldiers recruited to be part of the program. Unfortunately, they didn’t handle the modifications to their DNA well. The scientists at AMBER refined the process and created us. We had all the strengths of our parents and none of their mental weaknesses. Of course, unlike them, we also had the benefit of starting our training from the time we could walk.”
I got to my feet slowly and made my way over to him. “You said we. There are more of you?”
“Yes.”
My head spun. “Is everyone is your squad in the program too?”
He hesitated a moment and then said, “Yes.”
That went a long way in explaining Darcy and Hunter. I shivered as the giant male soldier’s face flashed in my mind. That guy freaked me out.
“Can I see?” I gestured to his wrist.
He lifted his hand. “I can regenerate from most injuries.”
I stared at the small pink scars in wonder. “So you’re immortal?”
He chuckled. “Not even close. We can sustain a lot of damage, but we can’t recover from severe injuries.”
“What kind of injuries?”
His lip quirked up. “Wanting ideas on how to get rid of me?
“Maybe.” I hadn’t forgiven him for pretending to die.
“A bullet to the head or a fall from a high-rise would probably kill me.”
Eden and the other Howlers could regenerate from injuries too. I reached out and traced the area where he’d been bitten. Our dad had been in the military. The Howler in the garage had been too.
Is there a link?
I rubbed my temple, trying to soothe my pounding head.
Dominic reached for my hand.
Reflexively, I jerked back.
He sighed. “That’s what I was afraid of.”
“What?”
“That once you knew what I was, you’d think I was a freak.”
“I think you’re a freak, but for different reasons.”
He reached his hand out again. His arm was perfectly smooth. Every one of the bites had healed. There were no black veins anywhere.
“What about the virus?”
His hand dropped back to his side. “We’re immune to it and everything else. I’ve never been sick a day in my life.”
That didn’t make any sense. “Then why do you carry around the cure?” I blurted out.
Nice. Way to tip your hand, Lee.
Dominic gave me a blank look. “What are you talking about?”
“The serum in your ves—”
The sound of the doorbell cut me off.
3
The doorbell was one of a thousand sounds I’d never thought to hear again. I shut my eyes, fighting the memories it conjured. Of friends stopping by. Of Eden, waiting patiently at the door after losing her house keys yet again. Of packages left on the doorstep. But that was another time.
In this new world, it meant someone with a heartbeat knew we were here. I rubbed my sweaty palms on my pants and pulled out my knife.
Dominic already had his weapon in his hands. “Stay behind me.”
I followed him to the front door.
He peered through the peephole and then cursed under his breath. “The last damn thing we need.”
“Who is it?”
A mixture of emotions crossed his face. He finally stepped away so I could see for myself.
A girl in a torn blue nightgown trembled on the doorstep. Recognition jolted through me.
The girl from the house down the street.
As if feeling my eyes on her, she looked up through disheveled copper hair. A darkening bruise bloomed across her freckled cheekbone. Her eyes swam with tears as she pushed the doorbell again.
My stomach dropped to the floor. She was clearly distraught.
Can we risk helping her?
Unconsciously, my hand reached for the doorknob.
“It could be a trap.”
I dropped my hand away.
The girl must’ve heard our voices. “Please help me,” she cried, beating her hands against the door.
The desperation in her voice tugged at my heart.
What if this girl’s fate had been mine? Or Eden’s?
I reached for the door again.
Dominic slapped a hand against the broken wood. “What are you doing?”
“We should at least hear her out.” I matched his unblinking stare, all the while trying to ignore the pins and needles feeling spreading throughout my non-injured leg.
He broke our staring match. I half expected him to launch into a lecture about who was in charge. Instead, he slowly released his hold on the door. “At the first hint of trouble, you hightail it to the minivan. Understand?”
I pulled on the knob.
The damn thing wouldn’t budge.
Dominic pushed me out of the way and yanked. The shattered frame protested loudly as he wrenched it open.
A puff of air, carrying the sweet scent of orange blossoms and rain, blew my hair back. I gulped in greedy breaths, thankful to inhale something other than death and decay.
The girl stood on the doorstep with one small fist frozen in midair. She blinked hard at Dominic.
He pointed his knife at her head. “How did you find us?”
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. As Dominic continued to glare at her, she covered her flat chest with surprisingly muscular arms.
This close, it was clear she was significantly older than I’d originally thought. Although the top of her head barely cleared my shoulder, the pinched lines around her hazel eyes had me revising her age to the upper teens. Hell, she might even be my age.
“You’re scaring her.” I elbowed him aside. “Come in. My name is Lee.”
The sight of me seemed to calm her down. Then her gaze slid back to Dominic.
/> He held out his hand. “I’m Dominic.”
She backed up, tripping over the Christmas wreath still lying on the welcome mat.
Far behind her, a middle-aged Biter in a bright orange tracksuit stumbled over a stack of boxes in the street.
At least it’s one of the slow zombies.
The girl followed my gaze and let out a frightened squeak.
“Oh for Christ’s sake.” Dominic stepped around me. He grabbed the girl’s arm and hauled her inside. As soon as he secured the door behind them, he frisked her.
Her eyes took on the panic and desperation of a feral animal. She shrieked and tried to pull away from him.
“Stop it, Dominic.” Obviously she was deeply traumatized, and he was making it worse. It was also glaringly obvious that she was wearing nothing but the tiny scrap of blue satin fabric that barely covered the tops of her muscular thighs. Seeing Dominic’s hands on another woman bothered me in a way I didn’t have time to analyze.
He released her. “I had to check for weapons.”
The girl jerked out of his grasp, tripped over the tricycle, and backed against the wall by the stairs. There her gaze darted around the entryway like rebounding rubber ball.
“Rule number four. Always have a weapon.”
I rolled my eyes. How like Dominic to search someone for weapons, then berate them for not having one. “What’s your name?” I said softly, trying to undo some of Dominic’s rough tactics.
“Grace McGowan,” she said through panting breaths.
“Hi, Grace. We aren’t going to hurt you. Right, Dominic?”
He grunted and finally lowered his weapon.
“Are you running from the men in the house down the street?”
Grace didn’t answer. She continued staring at Dominic, as if any minute he’d pull out a chainsaw and come after her.
I folded my arms over my chest. “Can you give us a minute?”
Dominic swiveled his scowl in my direction. “No.”
“She isn’t going to talk with you growling at her. Just stand over there.” I nodded my head in the direction of the hallway.
He leveled a hard look at the girl. “If you try anything, you die.” Then he marched over to the hallway.
My mouth dropped open.
He actually followed my order.
I almost pinched myself to make sure it wasn’t a hallucination.
