Waking Up Dead eodl-1

by Emma Shortt

  Priorities.

  “You know what this means, don’t you?” Luke whispered.

  For a moment she thought he was talking about her internal dialogue and gaped a little. “Huh?”

  “Where they are in relation to the roads,” he said waving in the direction of the fire escape, and Jackson realized he was talking about the zombies. The many, many zombies that should have been at the forefront of her mind too!

  “I did mention geography is not my strong point, right?” she asked.

  “That you did. So here’s the deal. We have to go through them,” Luke said and Jackson felt her jaw drop.

  Go through them? “Have you lost your fucking mind?”

  He frowned. “We have to. It’s that or turn back completely and go through Kansas.”

  Her heart gave a nasty thump and Jackson let out an exhale, needing it to steady herself. “Kansas sounds good.”

  “Unless we find the same thing there,” he said. “We have to assume we will. We have to assume this is normal now. Fucking hell. Giant packs.”

  “Let’s not just assume.”

  “We have to,” Luke insisted. “Assume the worst, hope for the best.”

  “But going through them?” The very idea made her skin crawl. “Do we really want to risk that?”

  “It’s the only way across the river that I know of. If we do it right, gun the car, we should sail right through them. I scoped it out when I was up there. It’s one clear road once we get past them. The only danger will be in the beginning.”

  “You realize this plan is crazy?”

  “I know. It’s almost as bad as some of yours.”

  She punched him lightly on the arm with her free hand and he smiled. That smile…her heart thumped again, she couldn’t lose it. She wouldn’t!

  “We have to be fast. You have to put your foot down and do not let it back up. I’ll be on point.”

  “They won’t get in the Batmobile,” he insisted. “I’ll be fast.”

  “I don’t doubt it, but we’re just-in-casing here.” She paused for a moment, their hands still clasped together. “This is def our best option, right?” she asked, though she was fairly sure she knew the answer. Luke was at his best when confronting a problem head-on.

  “Yeah.”

  Jackson shivered and plotted it out in her mind. It could work, assuming they drove fast enough, but the thought of being in the midst of that many waking dead made her feel slightly sick. It wouldn’t, once she was actually in there. She knew she’d be fine when they got going. The anticipation was always the killer and right now it was scaring the fuck out of her.

  “Let it go,” she whispered. Because this was one of those moments where doing that was the only thing that made any sort of sense. Letting go was all about putting yourself in a place where you could think, yeah I might die, let’s hope I don’t, but I’ll roll with it either way. It was like recapturing the exact moment when she’d been poised to jump off the skyscraper. That exact, slightly insane moment.

  “Jack?”

  And she trusted Luke, didn’t she? If he thought they could make it, then surely that was good enough for her?

  “Okay…” she said slowly. “Let’s do this.”

  Luke nodded, squeezed her hand once more before releasing it, then readied himself to restart the car. But at the last moment he paused and shot her a look. “Spit it out, already.”

  “Spit what out?”

  “Whatever’s going through you mind. I know something is. Your brow’s all scrunchy.”

  Jackson shrugged, but Luke must’ve seen it anyway. After a few weeks together now she and Luke were pretty much in sync. He picked up on what she was thinking before she even thought about telling him. It was vice versa, as well. When she looked into his warm eyes she got what was there. It was slightly scary but exciting too. Just one more thing in the constant catalog of things she liked about him. One more thing that made the nights more and more difficult…well, that and the kiss.

  “Going through is what it is,” she said slowly. “I’m ready. But I’m just wondering… why are they here in the first place?”

  Luke gripped the steering wheel and shook his head. “Who gives a shit? The important thing is that we’re not. They’d tear us apart, Jack. Into pieces. We’d be like a doughnut at a Weight Watchers convention.”

  She gave him a smack on the arm. “I went to Weight Watchers a time or two. Don’t be snarky.”

  “Just making the point. And we should go. Now. Get this done.”

  Jackson spread her hands wide. Trying in some way to explain the feeling that had hit her. “Something feels weird,” she finally said. “Why are they all there? Think about it. When have you ever seen that many together apart from in the early days?”

  “Well… I haven’t,” Luke replied. “They formed their packs. Fighting among one another and eating anything with a pulse that crossed their paths.”

  “Exactly. So what the hell is going on? That many in one place? What the fuck are they up to?”

  “I have no idea. I don’t much care, to be honest. We need to leave. Now.”

  “Yes we need to leave, but just think about it for a moment, Luke,” she said, because it felt important to her that he understand. “They all looked pretty healthy, not skinny or feeble. I only got that off a quick look, but the ones I could see you know, they looked fine. They weren’t snapping at each other, eating each other. But then more than that, they looked as if they were waiting.”

  Luke frowned. “For what?”

  Jackson thought of the zombie crowd. Visualizing them in her mind. Yes. She was sure of it now. They had looked as though they were waiting.

  “I don’t know. That’s my point. And I can’t help but wonder…”

  “You wonder too damn much,” Luke said. “They are what they are. This is what it is.”

  Jackson sighed, took a sip of water from her Evian bottle and frowned. Luke was getting impatient. A state he rarely seemed to be in. Wasn’t he always the understanding one? The most easygoing? So really, that right there should have told her how dire the situation was. But still, she couldn’t help thinking…

  “Jackson?” Luke prompted.

  Let it go. Just let it the fuck go and get your mind in the game.

  “Yeah. Okay. Let’s do this.”

  Luke turned the ignition and backed the car up. The noise split the silence and Jackson almost winced. Sure, the zombies were a fair distance away, but they could still hear the faint howls, which mean the dead could probably hear them too. The element of surprise was going to be their best bet now. They needed to plow through before the zombies even realized they were there.

  “You ready for this?” Luke asked.

  “Always am,” she said.

  They shot out a side street, heading straight for the horde. It would take maybe a couple of minutes at the speed Luke was going before they hit the very center of them and already Jackson could feel the panic settling into a steady resolve. Time for some Superwoman-style balls.

  “Come on then,” Luke said making the final turn before they hit the clear road to zombie central. “You might as well tell me what you’re wondering about exactly. If we die before I know, I’ll be super pissed-off.”

  “We’re not gonna die,” she said as the first zombie, one straggling on the edge of the crowd and still some distance away, spotted them. “Not before I get another kiss.”

  It shrieked and before she knew it, the entire horde was turning, their snarling faces all zeroing in on the one little car.

  “Then we’re definitely surviving,” Luke growled.

  “That we are.”

  “Quickly,” he said. “Zombie mash coming right up.”

  “If they’re massing here, it’s for one reason only,” she replied, the suspicion seeming even more obvious now that so many of them were in front of them. “And it isn’t us.”

  “Shit,” Luke said and the zombies began to run. “You mean…”
>
  “Yeah. Doughnuts.”

  Chapter Twenty

  A hundred zombies running at full speed was something to fucking behold and Luke’s grip on the steering wheel became painful. He put his foot down on the accelerator, getting up to top speed, and gritted his teeth.

  “You ready for this?” he asked.

  “Too late now,” Jackson said and laughed. “We’re so past the point of no return.”

  He glanced at her. She was poised on the edge of her seat, Glock in one hand, Mandy in the other. She looked almost serene and he shook his head as the car moved faster, unbelieving that she could be so calm.

  Part of me died a little on the deck.

  The part that any normal person needed, he thought, and shook himself. He wished he could be so calm but if suicidal thoughts were what it took, he’d deal with the nerves instead.

  “Look,” she whispered. “That one looks just like my fifth-grade math teacher. God, I hated him. Run that one over first.”

  He did as she asked, more by accident than design. Math zombie hit the car with a thud, its body thrown into the air, landing direct in the horde. The other zombies didn’t give it so much as a look. They simply kept running, straight at them.

  They were so fucking fast!

  “We need to go faster,” Jackson urged, and Luke pressed his foot down as far as it could go, because he could see her point. The press of flesh was extreme and he did not want to risk them stopping the car.

  A thud sounded on the roof and they both looked up. “Shit.”

  The zombie started banging on the top immediately, and the other zombies on the edges of the horde began to climb up lampposts, fire escapes, hell, the buildings themselves.

  “They’re copying,” Jackson breathed. “The bastards. They’ll overwhelm us.”

  “We’ll be through in a minute,” he said. “They won’t have time to. Just hang the hell on.” But sweat was slithering down his back, almost declaring him a liar, and Luke was starting to wonder how good an idea this had actually been.

  Another thump on the roof and he jumped. They were banging hard now, the metal beginning to show slight dents.

  “Here we go,” Jackson whispered, and a moment later they hit the shrieking horde.

  The zombies, as had always been the case, showed absolutely no sense of self-preservation. None of them tried to jump out of the way, and those directly in the path of the Batmobile were hit—hard. They smacked into the surrounding zombies, wet flesh squelching against wet flesh. Some were just clipped and they hit the ground. Luke ran over them without a second thought and held his breath as the bumps made the car shudder and shake, praying the zombie bodies were not damaging the car. The idea of coming to a stop in the middle of this…

  He looked out of the side window, a huge mistake. Snarling face after snarling face pressed against it, and even speeding he could see the hungry, calculating gleam in their eyes. It made him feel sick and he tore his gaze away, back to the front where a clear road was now visible.

  “Almost there,” Jackson whispered. “You’re doing good, Luke. Oh shit!”

  A zombie attached itself to the passenger side, hanging off the wing mirror, and before Luke could do a goddamn thing it lifted an arm and began to pound at Jackson’s window.

  She moved quickly, pressing the electric button to wind it down, taking aim, and firing. The bullet when straight through the head and the zombie fell away. Luke took a deep breath and pressed harder on the accelerator. They were through the worst of the horde now, though he could see in the rearview mirror that the zombies were running after the car, desperate for their food to not escape.

  “Quick, quick, quick,” Jackson chanted and he swallowed drily.

  “Almost there, Jack. Get that window up.” A few seconds more and they were free. Only a couple of stragglers were still in front of them and Luke ran them over too. They fell onto the road with howls and groans and Luke felt a deep sense of relief and satisfaction thrum through him.

  Jackson was pressing on the button, practically bouncing on her seat as she waited for the window to close, but it, or she, was not fast enough and Luke cursed as a hand entered the car.

  “Shit!” Jackson spat.

  “Jesus…”

  He couldn’t work out what was going on but a moment later realized. The zombies on the roof. And just as he thought that another hand started on his side of the car, pounding the window.

  “This isn’t going to work,” she hissed.

  “Just shut the fucking window,” he said. “I’ll deal with them.”

  The window moved up but the zombie’s hand did not retreat. It grabbed at her, looking for any flesh it could find. On Luke’s side, the other zombie continued to pound the window, only its position was stopping it from having enough force to actually break through. In the distance he could hear shrieks and howls, but they were falling away, becoming less pronounced. Another few minutes and they’d have left the zombies in the dust.

  “It won’t move its hand!” Jackson shouted. “Fucking bastard, let’s see him go for this.” She leaned back in her seat, angled her body, lifted her knee up to almost her face, and kicked out.

  A shriek sounded and the hand that was clawing at the window went limp.

  “Just a couple of minutes,” he shouted back. “Keep it from getting inside.”

  She kicked again, and then again, pus began to splatter the window. Then with something that sounded like a curse, she lifted Mandy and chopped the hand off. It fell between her legs, blood coated the window, and she gagged. “That is fucking disgusting.”

  Luke leaned forward, foot down hard, grabbed the hand, and threw it out of the gap in her window. Just a wrist was poking through now and it couldn’t grasp anything. Jackson pressed the button once more and the window closed tight.

  “The smell…” she said, and Luke nodded.

  “We’ll get it cleaned up.”

  They barreled down the highway, the tires eating the cracked asphalt underneath them, the pounding from their unwanted companions continuing. It didn’t matter. Luke was drenched with sweat, his entire body clammy. All he wanted to do was get far enough away that he could bleach his mind of the press of zombie faces so fucking close!

  “They’re going to get in,” Jackson said.

  “No they’re not. Brace yourself.”

  He slammed down on the brakes. Hard. The zombies were not expecting it, or maybe they weren’t yet smart enough to expect it. They flew off the top of the roof and hit the road in front. Luke did not pause. He slammed his foot back down on the accelerator and did not let up.

  Neither of them said a word as they sped along the road. The interior of the car was heavy with emotion. Relief and a sense of disbelief. Worse it competed with the stench of the zombie pus that was dripping down Jackson’s window.

  After a few more miles Luke brought the car to a stop, the tires screeching from the pressure on the brakes. They both looked up, scanning the surrounding area, but a handful of zombies right now seemed like something they could take care of in their sleep. Nothing could ever seem as bad as what they’d just made their way through.

  “Jesus fucking Christ,” Jackson breathed, echoing his thoughts. “I can’t fucking believe we survived that.”

  “I know.”

  “When that zombie’s hand came out of nowhere…” She shook her head some more and placed Mandy across her thighs.

  “We did it though,” he said. “We fucking did it!”

  “You did it, Luke. You totally had that.”

  She was still pushed against the back of her seat, her eyes wide, and her words made exhilaration run through him. He reached forward, placed a finger under her chin, and turned her gaze to his. “Someone said something about kisses?”

  She laughed, the last of the adrenaline leaving them, making them both feel shaken and stirred. “Never mind a zombie horde. All you’re interested in is the kisses, huh?”

  “Can’t be helped,�
� he replied. “You’re far too pretty for your own good, Jackson.”

  “And you’re far too hot.”

  Their gazes held, and Luke could see the excitement so clear in hers, reflected no doubt in his. He took his hand from her chin, wrapped it around the back of her neck, and pulled her forward. The kiss was not brief this time, and it was not gentle. He put all of his relief and elation into it and Jackson responded in kind. By the time they pulled apart they were both panting.

  “You sure know how to kiss, Luke,” she said and he smiled.

  “Snap, but that’ll have to hold me for now. We’re not free and home yet. I want to get a few good hours driving between us and them.”

  She looked behind her, the smile fading ever so slightly. “I gotta get this pus cleaned off first. Apart from the stench I don’t want it on me. I know we’re not sure if it infects but let’s not take the risk, huh?”

  “Grab a towel from the trunk.”

  “Got it.”

  She opened the door and jumped out and Luke sighed as her very firm ass filled his vision. His lips were still tingling and apart from the lingering horror of it all, he felt better than he had in weeks. It had to be the adrenaline. He was still pumped up on it. Part of him barely able to believe they’d just survived a fucking zombie horde.

  It was scary as hell and they’d done it!

  And then there was Jackson. The kisses. He remembered in the pool room, when he’d hoped for possibilities. Those same thoughts filled him all over again but he knew it wouldn’t be as simple as that now. This was Jackson and he…he paused…his feelings were so far from what they had been. But he wanted her, how he wanted her.

  “Luke do you—”

  Her voice cut off and he frowned, twisting around in his seat, wondering what was wrong. A second later and he heard her scream.

  Luke was out of the car before he even thought about it, pulling his gun free in a mere instant. He ran around to the back and felt his heart leap into his chest as he saw what was happening. Jackson lay on the ground, a huge zombie on top of her, only Mandy against its neck holding it back.