Jenny Undead (The Thirteen: Book One)

by Murray, J. L.

  V blinked at her. “There's nothing you can do, Jen. He's been bitten.”

  “It was my fault...”

  “Baby, no one blames you.”

  “But I have a way to save him. Maybe. I don't know if it'll work.”

  “How?” said Veronica.

  “He has to take a bite,” said Trix. “Jenny sushi.”

  “Thank you, Trix,” said Jenny.

  “The fuck is she talking about?” said V.

  “If Declan has my blood or eats part of...you know, a piece of muscle, there's a chance he could be...”

  “What?” said V.

  “Like me,” said Jenny. “He could turn into one of us. It happened once before. A rotter woke up.”

  “Woke up?” said V.

  “Yeah,” said Jenny. “But I'm afraid that if we wait until after he turns, it won't work as well. I don't know how I know this, but I think he needs to do it before he...”

  “Okay, Jen,” said V. “Do you think it's worth a shot?”

  “I do,” said Jenny. “It's just that --”

  “What?”

  “When he first wakes up, we're not going to be able to tell. He's going to seem like a rotter.”

  “He's going to try to eat us?” she said.

  “They had to lock me in a cooler,” said Jenny.

  “How long?” said V. “How long until we know?”

  Jenny looked at Trix, who shrugged.

  “A day,” said Trix. “Three at the most.”

  “Is that it?” said V.

  “No,” said Jenny. “He's going to have to eat someone.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “What?”

  “We had all these goats when I changed,” said Jenny. “But Sully killed them all. Maybe we can give him our blood.”

  “No,” said Trix. “Blood's not enough. It has to be bigger. I can find someone. There are these pedo dregs who live in the old hospital. Abel showed me where. You know, for future reference.”

  Jenny frowned, looking at Trix for a long time. “Fine,” Jenny said finally. “But make sure he's really bad, okay? It's going to be really hard for Declan at first. He doesn't need guilt.”

  Trix grabbed the ax and was out the door. Jenny looked at V. “I'm sorry,” she said.

  V smoothed Jenny's hair away from her face, smiling sadly. “I've never seen anyone love as much as he loves you,” she said. “Are you going to tell him?”

  “Yeah,” said Jenny.

  V moved out of the doorway. “We all love you, Jen. You know that, don't you? If this doesn't work, please don't leave us. We need you. We need each other.”

  Jenny smiled at V, nodding. She opened the door. Beacon stood up at the look on her face. She nodded at him and he left the room.

  Declan was asleep. Jenny sat in the chair beside his bed and watched him. She remembered what he had looked like when she met him. So cocky and self-assured. And so handsome it broke her heart. Now he was thin and feverish, his unshaven face haggard, his hair oily and unwashed. A smell of infection came from under the blankets and she peeked underneath. Declan's leg was throbbing and so swollen she thought it would split the skin. She lowered the blanket again. He didn't have more than a day.

  “You here to kill me?” he said quietly. She looked to see him watching her. “Put me out of my misery?” He started to smile, but it faltered. He grimaced at the pain. Jenny remembered that pain.

  “Declan, what if you didn't have to die?” she said. “What if we could be together?”

  “What?” he breathed. “What do you mean?”

  Jenny took his hand. “What if I could save you?”

  FORTY-FOUR

  It was well past midnight when his fever spiked. Jenny held his hand as he writhed on the bed. She recalled the excruciating pain but she couldn't help him. She touched the bandage on her arm, the blood already dry, already scabbed over. She hoped she had given him enough. It was hard enough for him to keep it down. He gagged and they had to help him hold his mouth shut until he got it down. And afterward, whenever he looked at Jenny, he closed his eyes.

  Now he turned to look at her. “If I don't come back,” he said, “it's okay.”

  “It'll be fine, Declan,” said Jenny. “It's going to work.”

  “Please just listen,” he said, panting. He was so weak. She wasn't used to seeing him weak. “I don't regret anything. Its...it's very important you understand that, Jenny. My life was nothing until I met you. You already saved me, Jen.”

  “I love you, Deck,” she said. “I'll always save you. And you'll save me right back.”

  “I love you too,” he said. He winked at her, even through his pain. “See you on the other side.”

  Declan died in his sleep. Jenny was grateful for that. She had time to cry again for exactly three minutes before he woke up. V had already tied him to the bed and stood staring at Jenny, afraid to look at the source of the rotter sounds on the bed. Jenny didn't want to look either, but she forced herself.

  Declan was gone. In his place was a creature that looked like him. He snapped his teeth at V, trying to get free and shrieking in frustration when he couldn't. Beacon stood up from the chair and met her eyes.

  “You sure about this?” he said.

  “No,” said Jenny. “But it's better than the alternative.”

  Trix dragged an unconscious man out of the kitchen by his ankles. He reeked of booze.

  “You got him drunk?” said Jenny.

  “Yeah.”

  “Smart. You're sure he's the worst one?”

  “You want to know what he did?” said Trix.

  “No,” said Jenny.

  “You don't have to do this,” said Trix. “We can stop right now and he'll just fade away.”

  Jenny looked down at the little man. He had a weird, waxy look to his skin. He gave a loud, throaty snore and Jenny looked back up to Trix.

  “Do it,” said Jenny. “It's Declan. Just do it.”

  The man didn't even wake up when he died.

  Beacon and Veronica passed out in their rooms. Jenny sat listening to the noises coming from behind the bedroom door.

  “I want to come with you,” said Trix.

  “What?” said Jenny, startled out of her thoughts.

  “This is going to work,” said Trix, sitting beside her. “And I know you're going to try to find your mom. I want to come with you.”

  “You do?” said Jenny.

  “It's just us bitches now,” she said. “Until we find some more of The Thirteen. Or The Nine, now, I guess. Whatever. But until then, we're the only ones who survived. I think we should stay together.”

  “So do I,” said Jenny.

  Trix looked away from her. “I miss him,” she said.

  Jenny nodded. “I know. Me too.”

  “He really is going to wake up, you know,” she said. “You were exactly the same, you know, right after. He'll be awake by lunchtime.”

  “Covered in blood,” said Jenny.

  Trix shrugged. “Them's the breaks.”

  Jenny nodded. “I have to get some air.”

  “Want me to come?” said Trix.

  “No,” said Jenny. “I'll be back in a while. I have something I want to check out.”

  “Okay,” she said. “Don't get killed.”

  “I'll do my best,” said Jenny.

  She almost tripped over Zeke as she went out the door.

  “Why are you sitting on the steps?” she said.

  “Good a place as any,” he said. Jenny descended the steps and looked up at him. He was looking at his hands. They were covered in blood. He saw her looking. “I killed Daniel,” he said. “I saw what he was going to do to my mother. I didn't even warn him. I found him trying to sneak back into the Righteous complex. I don't even know why he was going there, we burned everything that would burn.” He shook his head, studying his hands, like he was trying to find an answer there. “I tried to stop the bleeding after, but it was too late. I don't know why I tried to save him. I
just did.”

  “You okay?” she said.

  He looked at her. “I know where you're going.”

  “Just getting some air,” said Jenny.

  “Bullshit. I want to come.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I saw it,” he said. “You shouldn't be alone right now.”

  “Is it true?”

  “You won't know until you get there,” he said. “You have a sledgehammer?”

  “I've had one in my car for three days.”

  “Ever since...”

  “Yeah,” said Jenny. “Ever since.”

  They were silent on the drive. Jenny was glad for it. She wasn't in the mood for chatting. Zeke had helped them bury Casey a few days earlier. She liked Zeke, he was easy to be around, though his visions could be off-putting at times. They had buried what was left of the girls on the poles, too, though there had only been a few bones and some skulls.

  And now they were back where it all started. Jenny looked at the plain, brick building.

  “Do I even want to know?”

  “It's always better to know,” said Zeke.

  “Really?” said Jenny. “Has knowing improved your life?”

  “That's different,” said Zeke. “You don't have to know everything.”

  “It doesn't seem that way,” she said.

  They walked into the building together, Zeke carrying the sledgehammer for her. They took the stairs slowly and walked through the basement.

  “This cement looks new,” said Jenny.

  “New-ish,” said Zeke.

  “It looks like it's the same age as the concrete in the lab,” she said, not meeting his eyes.

  “Yep. But you have to start somewhere.”

  Zeke helped Jenny pull all the metal gurneys out of the lab and into the office. They looked at the empty room. The room where Casey died. There was a black stain on the floor over the spot where he had died. Casey's blood.

  “Where should I start?” she said. She realized she was afraid.

  “Right there,” said Zeke, pointing at a spot in the corner where the cement looked different.

  “I'm not going to like this, am I?” said Jenny.

  “Nope. But you need to know it.”

  They took turns bringing the sledgehammer down on the floor. They hauled the chunks out and tossed them into the office. When they were finished, the sun streamed in through the small basement windows. Jenny and Zeke stood silently, looking out at their work.

  “Is it as bad as your vision?” Jenny said.

  “Its worse,” he said. “It's always worse to see it for real.”

  The sun hit the white shapes half covered in dirt and cement dust. They had dug up the entire floor of the lab and found every inch lined with skeletons. Tiny skeletons. Children. Babies. Teenagers.

  “My mother really did this,” she said.

  “Yeah,” said Zeke.

  “All those kids in the experiments who died. I always made excuses for her. But she'd already had practice by that time. How many skeletons are there?”

  “I counted seventeen,” said Zeke.

  “Do you think...” Jenny started. She swallowed hard. “Do you think that she knew these kids would die? Did she do it on purpose?”

  Zeke frowned. “I don't think you want to know.”

  “I do. Please.”

  “She knew it was a distinct possibility. The lives lost paled in comparison to what she thought was an answer to the epidemic. And to answer your next question, your grandfather didn't know anything about this. This was all Anna Hawkins.” He closed his eyes. “It was cruel, Jenny, what she did. I wish I didn't know. I think there might be something wrong with her.”

  “With my mom?” Jenny said.

  Zeke nodded. “Yeah.” He crouched down and touched a rib bone gently, like it was fine china. “Do you want to do the rest of the basement?”

  “No,” said Jenny. “I've seen enough.”

  Zeke looked at her. “It's not the same, is it?”

  “What?”

  “Being alive. It's not like it used to be. You're different.”

  “I'm the same person,” she said.

  “No, you're not,” he said. “You still think about it, don't you? The taste of it, the smell of it. Can you still hear the heartbeats?”

  “How did you know about that?” said Jenny.

  “No more silly questions,” said Zeke.

  “Sometimes,” said Jenny, “I smell blood and I get really hungry. It's like I'm still dead. I still feel the same, I still get angry and I still want to rip people apart. It's just that I've got a pulse now. I'm warm instead of cold. I can hold down regular food. But in my head, I'm still a monster.”

  “Maybe it'll pass,” said Zeke.

  “Will it?” she said.

  “No. They're going to have a nickname for you.”

  “They?”

  “Everyone. The world. They're going to call you Jenny Undead.”

  “Is Declan going to wake up?”

  Zeke was quiet for a long time. “Yes,” he said finally.

  “And that's what you meant by saving him?”

  “Yep.”

  “It was my fault that he got bitten.”

  “Life is full of paradoxes,” said Zeke. “Are you going to find your mother?”

  “Yeah,” said Jenny.

  “Why?”

  “You know why.”

  “I want to hear you say it,” said Zeke.

  Jenny swallowed thickly. She looked down at the bodies. Seventeen souls snuffed out, seventeen pairs of tiny hands, seventeen little faces. All killed by her mother.

  “I'm going to find my mother,” said Jenny. “And I'm going to kill her.”

  by J.L. Murray

  The Other Side of the Desert

  Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

  The Devil Is A Gentleman

  Before The Devil Knows You're Dead

  The Niki Slobodian Omnibus (Books 1-3)

  The Devil Was An Angel

  After The Fire

  For more about J.L. Murray, visit the author page.