Wheels and Zombies (Book 2): Brooklyn, Wheels and Zombies

by M. Van

  “Special Agent in Charge Marsden asked me to tell you to be ready.”

  I had to try hard to keep my mouth closed as I searched for words and a way to stop my teeth from chattering.

  “When are you getting us out?” Ash asked.

  Angie smiled, unfazed by Ash’s bold remark.

  “Soon, Not-a-Kid,” she said with a crooked grin. I glared at Ash while her head went bright red and her eyes dropped to the floor.

  “I take it you know one another,” I said.

  “Maybe that’s a story for another time,” Angie said. I shook my head, not amused by the fact Ash had been keeping secrets from me.

  “I’m glad you’re old friends and all that, but who are you exactly and what the hell were you doing with Father Deacon?” I asked, throwing my hands up.

  Angie looked at her watch and then at the camera in the corner of the ceiling in the hall. “We don’t have much time,” she said.

  “Then speak fast,” I replied. Angie smirked and winked at Ash. After I huffed in frustration, she explained that, like Mars, she’d been undercover, investigating Dr. David. Under the doctor, she was assigned to aid Father Deacon. Deacon, apparently an actual, but misguided, priest, ran one of Dr. David’s zombie farms to provide him with research subjects. Except Father Deacon had been led to believe that his flock would be saved.

  “Wait, there is more than one farm,” I interjected.

  “We’ve located two at this point, but there might be more,” Angie said.

  Then she went on to explain that without government backing, the FBI’s hands were tied, and investigating Father Deacon had gone nowhere. So after we were taken, Angie requested a post at the lab.

  A shadow of regret passed Angie’s dark eyes when they met Ash’s. “I wasn’t going to leave you behind twice,” she told Ash.

  When she answered, Ash’s lip quivered, but her voice was strong.

  “That wasn’t your fault, and it worked out,” she said as she looked up at me with a halfhearted smile. I didn’t have the heart to point out we were locked in a cell and in the hands of a crazy doctor.

  “Listen: I need to go. A situation has come up that might help us get you out, but you need to be patient and hang in there.”

  Angie pulled a mischievous smile that faltered within seconds.

  “This thing is getting out of control,” she said as she glanced over her shoulder at the naked form in the cell across from us. “He’s doing something that makes it worse, and we have to stop him.”

  “Worse than walking around as zombies,” Ash said, incredulous.

  “I can’t explain now. I have to get back. Just hang in tight.” With that, she left, leaving me with a strange sensation in my stomach.

  I shot Ash an incredulous glare. “Well,” I said and cocked my head. Ash’s face had gone a shade of crimson again, and her eyes refused to meet mine.

  “She helped me at the hospital,” she said in a tiny voice. “Before you got there, Angie was there as a soldier to pick up the cancer patients for research, and she hid me so I wouldn’t have to go.”

  “God, Ash, and you didn’t think that would be information worth sharing with me!” Despite the clatter of my teeth, the words came out hard and cold.

  “As if you told me everything that Special Agent in Charge Marsden had said,” Ash fumed angrily. “So get off your high horse.”

  Touché, she got me with that one. It was true I hadn’t told her everything about what Mars had said concerning my condition. At the time, I thought it was to protect Ash from false hope. She must have had her own reasons. It explains why it had been so easy to convince her to leave Bergen Beach; she already knew about the lab threat. Ash stared at the ground, jaw tightly closed. Tears sprang up in her eyes.

  I swallowed and took a breath. “What happened in that hospital?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “I don’t wanna talk about it.” Her voice broke, and a painful expression made me decide not to push the issue. Instead, I placed an arm around her shoulder.

  It became hard to track time inside that cell, although two meager meals a day added up to four days. Over the course of those days, the cells around us filled with zombies. It had Ash a little freaked out. It wasn’t a pretty sight, and being surrounded by the moaning undead unnerved me as well.

  Some subconscious survival instinct made me want to sleep as far from the things as possible. I had dragged myself to the far corner, facing the remaining cells. Ash had settled in next to me.

  “What do you think is going on?” Ash asked. I shook my head in a silent reply.

  The metal door clanked as soldiers brought in another naked, chained-up zombie. The ones in the cells looked well for living undead, their skin untouched, and their limbs attached. The naked bodies crammed inside those tiny cells with their shaven heads reminded me of images I had seen of Nazi death camps. I shuddered at the horrifying thought. There were at least twelve of the things in each cell.

  After another visit with Dr. David, my eyes kept falling closed.

  Ash wrapped her scrawny arms around me. Her big blue eyes looked me over. “You’re gonna be okay, right?”

  I tried to smile but felt so tired.

  “I’ll be fine,” I said. “Superhuman, remember?”

  “Zombie butt-kicking badasses,” Ash added.

  “Right.”

  “Maybe they’re trying to weird us out,” Ash said in a loud voice, waving her arm to point out the zombies. “Some new mental warfare.”

  I shoved an elbow in her direction when several of the things started to moan. A couple flung their bodies at the bars.

  “Don’t excite them,” I whispered as my eyes shifted from one bald zombie to the next. Most acted as you would expect from a zombie, but several hovered against the bars, not unlike the first one they had brought in. That eerie feeling from before started up all over again when that first one reached a hand out between the bars. It wasn’t an aggressive I’ll-eat-you type of reach, but more of a help-me gesture.

  Ash must have noticed too because she looked at me with questioning eyes. What had Angie meant when she had said that he’s making it worse? I shook my head, not sure what to make of it, when all of a sudden the lights went out.

  “Ow, shit,” Ash whispered.

  | 30

  Dr. Warren slammed a fist on his desk, indifferent to the lab technicians who filled the room around him. He could feel their stares jabbing him in the back like knives. They despised him for what he’d done, but he knew they would all be grateful one day. He just had to find it.

  His salvation stared him in the face, but he had been unable to decipher the answer. His inclination about the kid turned out to be wrong when he found her DNA within the kid. If it weren’t for his favorite subject, the kid would have turned. It had to be as simple as a blood transfer. How else would she have been able to pull it off? But why couldn’t he? Why couldn’t he reproduce the circumstances needed to keep his subjects from turning? The solution eluded him. That kid should have turned.

  DS had developed in the woman’s bloodstream, but extracting, purifying, and testing on other subjects had only left him with a basement full of the unwholesome. How had she done it? He needed to find the key, or else his efforts would have been for nothing.

  The pressure from his benefactors had risen. It wasn’t just the government that needed a solution for the Mortem pandemic and a way to protect their military, but also the other fish in the sea. Several corporations had bought an interest in the fast-healing capabilities of the solution. They demanded results, and he shared in their eagerness.

  “Dr. Warren,” a voice said. “Sir, you need to come with me now.” Fury grew inside him at the insolence of the man’s tone.

  He closed his eyes and sighed before he drew himself away from the screen that had claimed his attention the past several days. Why did he have to work with such incompetence?

  He took in a breath, ready to chastise his subordinate, as he
removed his glasses and opened his eyes to face the lab technician. He had to blink when, instead of the expected white lab coat, his eyes met a man in uniform hovering over his desk. The soldier’s expression looked grim, edging on accusation. Then the alarm sounded.

  | 31

  “Mags? Mags, you awake?” Ash’s voice pushed through my fitful sleep.

  “Now I am.”

  “Sorry,” she whispered.

  “No, you’re not, so don’t say you are.”

  “Right, sorry. You think they forgot about us?” she said. Some of that indifference had returned to her voice. The room around us remained pitch black. My stomach growled as I sat up, which fitted with Ash’s reasoning. It had been a long time since anyone had set a foot in this room.

  “I don’t think they’ll forget about a bunch of zombies and two zombie repellents locked in their basement,” I replied, my voice thick from sleep or lack of.

  “They’re very quiet, though.”

  “Who, the zombies or our hosts?”

  “The zombies,” she replied, her voice louder. “I don’t think they’re ticked off that much by sound.”

  The words had barely left her lips when an alarm went off. The high-pitched scream filled the room, accompanied by a red flashing light. I pressed my hands over my ears while I threw Ash a sideways glance.

  “You had to say it,” I shouted. Ash had disbelief written across her face. The zombies in the cages went nuts, slamming their frail bodies at the bars. Their moans reached us over the alarm. The noise seemed endless. Ash buried her head in my side. The bars shook as the things kept slamming into them.

  When I felt my head was ready to explode, the screeching stopped. The red light still flashed, and the moans continued, but at least the damn alarm was off.

  Without time to flex a muscle, metal crashed against the concrete wall. A soldier in full body armor topped off with a gas mask stepped inside the room. He glanced around the cells for a second until his focus fell on us. He opened the cell door and lifted his mask for a second to wave at us.

  “Mars,” I said as he dropped a duffel bag on the floor.

  “Like the candy,” Ash added with a smirk. I elbowed her in the side. Mars knelt down and turned the duffel bag over. He threw some army fatigues in my direction.

  “Put these on,” he said, his voice distorted by the mask. Ash looked at me with dubious eyes. I ignored her. With unsteady legs, I got up. I would have gone down if Mars hadn’t caught me.

  “Take it easy,” he said as he sat me down on the cot. “Get dressed.”

  I couldn’t see his brilliant smile, but I knew he flashed it behind that mask. Like a gentleman, he turned around and, meanwhile, kept an eye on the door. Mars’s presence fueled the zombies’ rage, flailing their pale arms between the bars.

  I stripped down my orange jumpsuit and saw Ash gaping at me as if I were going insane.

  “Who the fuck is that, and why are you getting naked?”

  “Shut up and put these on,” I said and threw a shirt in her direction. I got myself dressed before helping Ash.

  “I told you about Lieutenant Marsden, I mean Special Agent Marsden,” I said when I helped put her boots on.

  “The guy from the alley,” Ash said with a confused look.

  “And the guy who helped me get out of the airport.”

  Ash’s face lighted up. “He’s the guy with the kick-ass smile.” She narrowed her eyes at me, and I felt my face go crimson. “He is, isn’t he? It’s the guy with the kick-ass smile.”

  “She said that?” Mars asked as he turned around and lifted his mask to rest it on his head. I swear I felt myself sink into the floor.

  “Ah, ah, this is girl talk,” Ash said to Mars, gesturing for him to turn.

  “Definitely right about the smile, though,” she said near my ear as I tied her last boot. I felt my cheeks go even redder. In denial, I threw Ash’s arm around my neck to lift her off the ground. My legs buckled, and I sank to the floor.

  “Mags,” Ash called out. Within seconds, Mars stood by my side and helped Ash onto the cot. I managed to get up there myself but felt out of breath.

  “What did they do to us?” I wheezed.

  “I don’t know,” he said, “but you have to get that gear on.” He pointed to the rest of the stuff he had brought.

  With his help, we were soon clad in full assault gear, and I seemed to look okay, but Ash resembled a miniature GI Joe action figure. The outfit didn’t fit her at all, but with the gas mask, I figured we would blend in.

  “Okay, kid …,” Mars started to say, but Ash shot him an immediate glare that made him stutter. “I mean, Ash, you’ll be the wounded soldier, and we’re dragging you out of harm’s way, all right?”

  She grinned and nodded. “What’s with the mask?” she asked.

  “A disguise,” Mars said and added, “duh.” I blinked up at his you-did-not-just-ask-me-that expression. He looked even sillier with the mask raised to his forehead. I noticed Ash’s appreciation at the attempt of teenage retort. I wished I had Mars’s talent to stay that calm.

  “What’s going on out there?” I asked.

  “Experiment went wrong, and zombies got loose,” he said. Without hesitation, he handed me an automatic rifle and showed me how to work it.

  “Ash was the proof it could work. It was your blood that prevented her turn, and Warren sped up the testing,” he said as I followed his gaze across the room. I felt sick to my stomach.

  “These things, he did this to people,” I said with a gasp.

  Mars nodded. His dire expression made me feel worse.

  “I think Warren has lost it. We have to get you out of here.” He didn’t try to hide the urgency in his voice.

  “But why does he think my blood has anything to do with it? It’s not as if I ever gave Ash a blood transfusion,” I said.

  “I don’t know, but it must have gotten into her bloodstream somehow,” Mars said.

  I sifted through the memories of the day Ash was bitten. I reached for my neck and looked up at Mars. “I was cut,” I said. “Maybe …” I trailed off and then shook my head. “That would never work.”

  “I don’t know, but it is viral, so …,” Mars said. “But we don’t have time for this now.”

  I shook my head in disgust at Dr. David and reached for Ash. She pulled back and gave me a questioning look.

  “What does that mean?” she asked. My eyes dropped to my boots before I could answer.

  “They wanted to make more like us, and it didn’t work.” Ash glanced over the caged zombies, and I followed her gaze over the naked skulls.

  “I would be with them if you hadn’t somehow …” Her voice trailed off, and she swallowed. The realization of how lucky she had been must have sunk in at that very moment. Her stupid stunt down at Bergen Beach could have ended with her turning into one of the zombies. I drew my arms around her.

  “It didn’t happen to you, so shake it off,” I whispered near her ear.

  I placed the mask on her face and pulled her arm over my shoulders. I took another glance at that first zombie they had brought in. For some reason, it stood out to me. There was a sadness in its eyes that I couldn’t explain. Had it turned halfway? Was there still someone in there? I wanted to say I was sorry, but what was the point? I pulled the mask over my head.

  “Follow my lead,” Mars said from behind his mask. He grabbed Ash’s other arm.

  Between Mars and me, Ash hovered in the air as we went up the stairs with no idea what to expect. Beyond the door, lights flickered around us. The glass rooms seemed empty. The automatic hung off my chest. Carrying Ash, it wouldn’t be easy to fire. I reached for my new holster to retrieve the handgun, inspected it, clicked off the safety, and returned it to its place at my belt.

  “Okay, let’s take it slow. Deadlies might still be in here,” Mars said as we moved past the glass rooms.

  Revisiting this place, I felt a shudder go down my spine. I noticed Ash inspecting the floor.
I squeezed her hand. I knew how she felt.

  | 32

  Ash hung wedged between us as we followed the hallway. Glass crunched underneath our boots where broken windows gave a clear view of the examination rooms. The equipment inside hummed. Indicator lights blinked, although the main lights in the hallways were dead. Must be a different grid. Except for the green exit lights we followed, visibility was foggy because of my heavy breathing inside the mask. Encasing my head, the mask made the drumbeat of my heart sound like a freight train.

  The ten box-like glass rooms lined up along the hallway. My curiosity to inspect them faded when I saw the first dead bodies in blue suits. Mars moved purposefully, checking every corner just as he had at the airport.

  “What happened to everyone?” I asked, my voice low and muffled by the mask. It was a stupid question—I knew that—but I couldn’t contain it.

  “Something you wouldn’t wish on anyone,” Mars said as he held his rifle close to his chest.

  “I could think of someone,” Ash said with the emphasis on the last word. I sucked in a breath to steel myself.

  “This woman, Angie,” I said, “she told us Dr. David had made it worse.” I swallowed. “How?”

  Mars angled his mask to look at me. I could feel his tension even without seeing his expression.

  “He made them aware,” he said. A chill ran down my spine. Unable to comprehend how anyone could be this cruel, I closed my eyes for a moment.

  “He did what?” Ash said. I shook my head in answer. This would have to wait for another time.

  As we cornered the last glass room, we heard a loud crash. I glanced over my shoulder to the other side of the hall and gasped. A side door had swung open. Fresh zombie bodies piled over one another, flooding the hallway. My eyes widened at the sight. A few were a bit mangled, with some blood on their faces and limbs, a nose might have been missing, but most looked pristine with bald heads. I wondered how many experiments there had been.

  I fumbled for my gun, the automatic useless on the short cord that hung off my chest against the rush that followed us. My hand seemed to have a mind of its own. I couldn’t find the holster.