Divided We Rot (One Nation Under Zombies Book 3)
Page 38
“Honey, she was bitten too, but she’s healed. I saw the scar. She survived it just like you will.”
Sky smiled as she watched Torres sleep. The entire time she’d been with him, he’d never slept at night, always worried someone or something would creep up on them and hurt her. Still, even in the safety of the base she’d had to pretend to fall asleep first before he would lay down and close his own eyes. She’d had to tell him about the bite. He wouldn’t stop pressing, and the excuse she’d given in the note she’d left him had never made sense. He loved her but he wasn’t stupid. She had to tell him the truth. He’d been shocked, but once he saw the bite mark had healed he believed her when she told him she was immune. He wasn’t entirely sold on the idea of Raven’s dog taking care of her, even suggested it was all a hallucination brought on by the fever, and the dog that led her and Richards to Raven was a coincidence, but he believed her when she told him they’d found Raven and agreed maybe everything had happened as it should have.
She didn’t tell him about Eric and Sadie or what had happened while she was with them. She’d asked about him to change the topic and get the focus off of what she had been through while they were separated. He’d told her how he’d searched for her, moving toward the direction of the base in Lincoln as he did, thinking that was where she would go in search of Raven, until he’d been found by a unit sent out to search for survivors. He wasn’t officially part of the military but so many had died due to the outbreak or the harsh winter that the military trained civilians to help maintain security. He was what they were calling a civilian soldier. They trusted him with a gun, but they didn’t trust him with military secrets so he didn’t know for sure what was going on in the world but he’d heard rumors that the virus had backfired on the Russians and they were facing the same outbreak in their country. The infection had been reported in other countries as well. Nowhere was safe, but as she looked down at her pale hand and studied the map of veins running beneath it, she didn’t worry about that.
Her stomach rumbled with hunger but she’d started recognizing when the hunger was her own, or when it belonged to them. She stood and tiptoed over to the back door, opening it carefully so she didn’t disturb Torres. It was dark out but the moon provided light. The quarantine block was on the edge of the base, the fenced yards were the very outer edge. She could see the woods in the distance and the dark shadows that moved between the trees, searching for food.
Sky scanned the area, free to be more obvious without Torres watching her every move. She didn’t see any cameras or any guards patrolling the area. They only seemed to observe the quarantine area from the front, seeing no reason to monitor the yards. The fences were high and strong. Each cell was equipped with an alarm so the people in the cells could notify the guards if something did happen, like if someone turned into a zombie in one of the yards. Or if zombies approached the fences from the woods, but she wouldn’t be doing that.
“Come to me,” she said toward one of the shapes she saw among the trees and smiled when it started walking closer. She moved to the end of the yard and grabbed the fence, not afraid to stick her fingers through the chain link. She could feel the zombie’s hunger but knew she wasn’t on the menu.
“Stop,” she said as the infected woman neared the fence. The woman stopped immediately and cocked her head. The woman had been pretty in life with dark brown skin and hair, full lips and eyes she assumed to be dark as well before they’d changed into the cloudy white so startling against her skin. She wore jeans and a T-shirt advertising a popular soft drink. One of her golden hoop earrings had either been snagged on something or ripped out of her earlobe by someone she’d attacked, leaving the skin to hang. The woman growled as the hunger in her stomach intensified.
“Stop that,” Sky commanded and the woman quit growling. Her fingers twitched and her nostrils flared as she stared beyond Sky. Sky turned and realized the woman smelled Torres, wanted him.
“Turn around and leave. Now.”
The woman turned and walked away, returning to the woods she’d come from. Sky smiled as she watched her walk away, realizing what she could do with her new ability. She’d done it before with Eric’s brother when he’d chased her into the trees and tried to kiss her. The zombies had stopped him from ever trying to kiss her or anyone ever again. They’d done exactly as she’d asked them to do.
She was a kid but she wasn’t stupid. She’d witnessed enough to know that Cruz Thomas had done something to Raven, something horrible. Damian didn’t want to tell her, and the man, Hal, was protecting him, but she could sense what had happened. She could see it in Raven’s eyes and in his, like she could see the cruelty in Eric’s eyes and the sickness in his brother’s.
Cruz Thomas had hurt her sister and somewhere on that very base he was walking around as a free man. He was guilty and wanted to die, but they wouldn’t let him. Sky walked back into the room, closed the door, and crawled under her blanket. Soon enough she would be walking around on that same base and she would find him. Her parents had told her she needed to find Raven but she’d gotten snatched by Eric and Sadie. She’d been too late to help her sister, but she could still take care of her. Cruz Thomas had hurt her sister and needed to die.
She could make that happen.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Raymond Lee is the author of the One Nation Under Zombies zombie apocalypse series, and its spin-off series, Zombiewood. Lee lives in the south and travels as much as possible.
Learn more at: http://facebook.com/RaymondLeeAuthor
OTHER BOOKS AVAILABLE FROM THIS AUTHOR:
Mail Horror Bride (ONUZ #1)
FrostBITTEN (ONUZ #2)
Zombiewood
COMING SOON:
Macabre: The Nightmare Collection
Zombiewood II
Scar Mangled Banner (ONUZ #4)