“Yeah, I put her in jail, but I was just following orders!” he said. “And did she forget I helped you get her out? Without me, you wouldn’t have gotten anywhere! She’d be dead right now.”
Reloading my gun, I smiled. “Yeah, we’ll remind her about that later, but right now, she’s kind of grumpy.”
Nick rested his rifle on his shoulder. “Yeah, really grumpy.”
“Zombifying will do that to a girl.” I slipped my weapon into my holster.
I looked up at the towering pines along the road. The jungle-like ground was covered in a blanket of green ferns and colorful wildflowers. “You guys keep watch, and I’ll change the tire,” I said. A gust of cool morning air brushed through my hair. For a quick second, I considered getting a jacket, but I just wanted to get the heck outta here.
Lucas nodded and took off after Nick. I watched them with my weapon aimed, making sure I had their backs. Glass and metal crushed beneath their feet, the sound reverberating in the early morning.
Half the distance in, my brother turned and waited until I had caught up with him, then grabbed my arm. “Just a sec.”
“What?” I asked, following his line of vision as he scanned the area. As I gazed around myself, it made me think I was living in a dead world of chaos and twisted metal. I wondered what had happened to the drivers and their companions. Are they dead? Turned into lost souls who never asked for that kind of sorry existence? Souls who were never given a choice, just handed a monstrous fate? I stared at an empty baby seat still strapped in the car and tried not to think about what had happened. There was no dried blood, so I hoped that meant the people were able to get away in time. It sure was a different world out there; my brother was right about that. Back home, I’d had no idea how bad it was. Now I was getting a taste of it firsthand. I wondered if the people out there even knew about the safe cites around the U.S. Maybe the government should have a rescue mission to help those who are still stuck out here in this disease-ridden place.
“All’s clear.” My brother motioned for me to continue, and we reached the Jeep in no time.
Sure enough, the rear passenger-side tire was flat as a black rubber pancake. I grabbed a jack out of the trunk while Nick fetched the spare. The girls stood at the rear of the car and kept watch. They both offered to help, but I assured them we had it under control. I placed the jack under the side of the Jeep and hooked the crank to it, then started cranking it up.
“It’s so freaky out here,” Nick said. “What a place to break down. I don’t like it. There’s no visibility.”
“Me neither.” Thick fog swirled around everywhere, putting my overactive imagination into play.
“Don’t worry,” Lucas said. “I’m keeping a close eye out. Kind of reminds me of a Stephen King novel though. Remember the one where a thick mist descends from the mountains to cloak the land in fog?”
Nick chuckled. “Yeah. I saw that movie, and now’s not the time for a recap. Creatures lurking in the mist? They’re real, and they’re called zombies. You can’t scare me with that Stephen King crap. I’ve seen worse than that movie in real life.”
“You’re not kidding,” Lucas said, nudging me. “Hey, we aren’t scaring you, are we?”
Their chitchat wasn’t exactly settling my nerves, but I wasn’t going to admit it. I set my jaw and rolled the bad tire out of the way, muttering, “Just keep a lookout, okay?”
“Sure,” he said. Just as I glanced up at him, Lucas suddenly threw his head back and pointed his gun into the trees. “There’s something up there. See it, Nick?”
Nick stepped closer and peered into the overgrown vegetation. “Yeah, I think I see it, but I’m not sure what it is.”
I tilted my head to look at a black patch of shadow in the trees. I had no idea what it was, and frankly, I wasn’t keen on finding out. The mist and eerie silence added to the scary atmosphere and made us feel like we were on pins and needles. “We better hightail it outta here,” I whispered. “If whatever that is gets a good glimpse of us, it might decide it wants to join our little crew—for dinner.”
“It’s probably nothing,” my brother said, “but let’s hurry up, just in case.”
I didn’t like the “just in case” part. Rubbing a hand over my face, I let out a breath to calm my nerves, then focused back on the tire.
“Hey, I got a good look,” Nick said. “It’s only a deer foraging for food so you have nothing to worry about.”
“Good,” I said, relieved.
The Jeep door slammed behind us.
Groaning inwardly, I looked up at Val dashing down the street toward us.
“What are you doing here?” Nick growled.
Ignoring him, she wiped her forehead with her sleeve. “I can smell it.” Her nostrils flared as she sniffed the breeze that washed over us, as though to prove her point.
“Get back in the car, Val,” my brother said. “We got this.”
“The smell’s getting stronger by the minute,” she said.
“Okay, I’ll bite,” Lucas said. “What smell?”
She spun in a slow circle, sniffing the air like a dog. “Death, terror, affliction, torment, horror—”
“Way to use a thesaurus, Val, but you’re tinkering a little in the dark side there,” Lucas said.
She met his gaze as the sunlight reflected in her eyes, giving her an eerie glow. “One of humanity’s greatest fears is the terror of death. You better flee while you can, because the living dead are on their way!”
Lucas nudged me. “She always so dramatic?” His tone was nonchalant, but I could tell her words were getting to him from the way his gaze scanned the area around us.
I shrugged. “How much longer before that shot starts working?”
“Maybe a few hours.”
I nodded. “Good. The faster, the better.”
Val walked a few steps closer to the forest. “There’s more than one.”
“Your sister’s kind of freaking me out,” Claire said, pacing around the Jeep as her gaze scanned the trees around us.
“She’s hallucinating,” Nick said.
“I’m keeping a close eye out,” Jackie said. “Just in case she isn’t.”
Val spun around. Spots of decaying flesh mottled her once perfect skin. Thin flaps of greenish skin peeled from her face. Her bloodshot eyes met mine. “They’re coming,” she hissed.
I swear she looked like she was possessed. I tried to ignore her and tighten another lug nut.
Lucas patted me on the shoulder. “Focus, okay? She’s hallucinating. Nothing’s coming.”
“Lucas is right,” Nick said. “It’s all in her head.”
“I’m going to call this in,” Val said. “We’ll need backup and medics on the scene as soon as possible. How could anyone have survived such a horrible pileup? Have you checked for survivors?”
“Let’s get her back in the Jeep,” Nick said.
She shot him a look. “Bite me.”
“Please, Val. You need rest,” Nick said gently.
“No! And why are you looking at me like that? It’s my face, isn’t it? It is! I can’t help the botched-up chemical peel.”
Nick gently grabbed her arm. “Come on. Let’s get you a bottle of water from the Jeep.”
She yanked her arm away. “Listen, Sergeant, just because you took my badge and gun, that doesn’t mean I can’t fight as a civilian. They’re coming! Don’t you smell them? I do!”
Nick ran a hand through his hair, seemingly frustrated.
“Play by her rules,” I whispered. “It might help.”
He moistened his lips and nodded, then turned back to her. “As your commanding officer, I order you to get back in the patrol car so we can drive back to the station. I’ll expect a full report.”
“You’re a dirty cop, and I’m going to prove it. I saw you taking a bribe from a major drug dealer, and then you had me raid that house, where a million bullets happened to come my way. In case you haven’t learned by now, I’m hard to
kill.” Her voice thundered. “I’ll spend the rest of my life taking you down. You’re going to regret the day you messed with me.”
Jackie and Claire suddenly yelled for us to get back in the Jeep. Out of nowhere, six or so zombies moaned and broke through the thick blanket of fog. Val’s nose told no lies.
“We can handle a few zombies, right?” Nick asked casually as he aimed to make his famous lethal headshot.
“Oh yeah. No problem. Dean, you done?” Lucas asked calmly over his shoulder.
“Almost!”
“Just hurry!” Claire said.
Gunshots echoed as they all fired away.
My hands trembled. Get it together. Concentrate! I tightened another lug nut.
“It’s not just a few. More are coming!” Lucas shouted. “Dean, that looks good enough to me. Let’s roll!”
I scrambled to my feet. A zombie in a torn suit walked toward me, his head leaning to one side. He had a metal rod protruding from his head, and bite marks ran across his green arms and neck. Behind him and out of the fog, more zombies stumbled toward us.
Val jumped straight into their path, with no weapon. “I’m going to arrest every single one of these sorry thugs. You have the right to remain silent…” The girl had guts. She started taking one down with her bare hands, using impressive karate chops and lethal roundhouse kicks like in those old Kung Fu movies. She sent the zombie rolling across the asphalt. If I hadn’t been so utterly terrified, I’d have been cheering her on.
Nick grabbed me by the upper arm. “Let’s go! Who has the keys?”
“Me.” Claire jammed her hands down her pockets and whipped them out. Jumping into the front seat, she tried to start the Jeep, but it just clicked when she turned the key. “It won’t start!”
“What?” Jackie asked in a frantic tone. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No!”
“Let me try then.” Jackie pushed her aside and turned the key.
The engine spluttered but didn’t start. It wasn’t good, because I knew we’d never make it to the other Jeep without being mauled to death.
Nick covered Lucas while he popped open the hood to see what the problem was.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it,” Lucas yelled over the gunfire.
“Have you checked the belt?” I yelled back, firing away, hoping to stall the zombies until Lucas could fix the Jeep.
“Negative.”
I frowned as I tried to focus on doing two things at the same time. I knew a bit about cars—not quite as much as Lucas, but enough to possibly be helpful. I thought if I could take a peek under the hood, maybe we could figure it out together and get the thing up and running again.
Jackie stood close by, with a determined look on her face. She wasn’t the best marksman yet, but she was going to stand next to me and help me fight. I admired that. If there had only been two or three zombies, I would’ve let her have a go at it, but this wasn’t the movies. There was no way she could take down all those zombies after one fighting lesson. “Get back inside the truck!” I yelled.
“I’m not leaving you.” She aimed and fired, letting out a round of shots, but she only managed to hit a zombie in a blue, sparkly party dress.
It threw its head to the side and let out an angry roar but didn’t drop to the ground. The thing kept coming at her, this time with more vengeance than before.
Chapter 18
Stopping near the car pileup had been a bad idea. I’d known it all along, yet we had to help the girls change their tire. If only we’d just picked them up, squeezed them inside our Jeep, and driven away before we managed to raise half the undead population in the area. But Nick and Lucas didn’t want to lose a good vehicle loaded with precious supplies over a simple flat tire.
Swallowing hard, I peered around me. The sun was breaking free from behind the clouds, but the fog made it difficult to see into the trees. Lucas continued to try to fix the Jeep and the rest of us gathered in a circle, pressing our shoulders and arms together so we could watch all angles as the undead neared us, their calls breaking the silence of the morning. From the corner of my eye, I noticed a zombie in a fancy sequined dress, heading straight for the girls. Jackie and Claire began to shoot, but their bullets did nothing to slow down the corpse.
“Headshot!” Nick yelled.
“I’m trying,” Jackie said, frustrated.
But we had no time for trying. I took aim at the party girl zombie, measuring her raised arms and swaying body as she hobbled toward us. My gaze moved to her undead white eyes, and I pulled the trigger, nailing her right between them. Dark blood squirted in a wide arc, landing not far away from us. As I watched the zombie drop to the ground in a crumbling, bloody heap, adrenaline rushed through me.
Jackie grabbed my arm. “Dean! Your sister! Look!”
Val gripped a zombie’s hands behind his back and was telling the thing he had the right to remain silent. She hauled him over to the Jeep and opened the door.
“Val!” Claire yelled. “That’s not a police car. You wanna kill Tahoe?”
It wasn’t that I particularly cared for the guy, but I couldn’t just let her kill him. For one, we needed all the backup we could get. Also, there was the tiny inconvenience of him turning into a zombie if he was bitten; one more zombie might have been just one too many. I rushed over and shot the zombie in the head. He dropped down, crashing at Val’s feet, and I poked him in the ribs just to make sure.
Val yelled in my ear, startling me. “How dare you? Where’s your code of honor? You can’t take justice into your own hands like that.”
I couldn’t believe she was taking her job so seriously, even in the throes of delirium. I wanted to scream; my only sister was turning into a monster right before my eyes.
Claire let off several rounds, but she did not hit any zombies. We needed all the help we could get, but she was really just wasting ammunition, so I motioned her back into the vehicle.
“Try and start it!” I said.
She opened the door, jumped in, and pulled Jackie in with her.
Rolling down the window, Claire asked, “Hey! Can’t you just hotwire this thing?”
“Hot wiring just starts the car without a key,” I said. “You can’t hot wire a vehicle that isn’t working.” I then turned my attention to Lucas. “Well? Anything?” I asked, shooting him a questioning look over my shoulder.
“Claire, turn the key,” Lucas said, ignoring my question.
I assumed he was either too busy and didn’t hear me or that he had bad news and didn’t want to tell me; I would have wagered on the latter. “Nick, cover me,” I said. “I’m gonna have a look under the hood.”
“Lucas’s got it under control,” Nick said. “Besides, I can’t cover you both.” His tone betrayed his tension.
I took a few steps to my right, arguing with myself about whether or not Nick could handle it. Suddenly, I saw a figure passed out on the grass, her long brown hair spread around her in disarray. Sudden recognition hit: It was Val. Zombies were stepping over her, some of them tripping, their feet burying into her flesh and kicking her limbs. They’d obviously accepted her into their clan. If Nick or I had been over there, they certainly wouldn’t have ignored us and kept on walking. Those zombies would have ripped our throats out without hesitation. Even though I’d seen them bonding and recognizing their own before, it still creeped me out.
I had to help her, no matter what, so I aimed and fired until I had a clear path to reach Val. My feet moved quickly, minding the broken glass and dead zombies, until I was a step away. Kneeling down, I gently scooped her up in my arms and slung her over my shoulder, then sprinted back to the Jeep. Val’s eyes turned in their orbits as I laid her in the back seat and slammed the door shut, making sure to lock it to prevent her from venturing out again.
The Jeep sputtered and started, but then it stalled, refusing to turn over.
Lucas frantically let out a few choice words.
More zombies bro
ke out of the woods, as if they were multiplying by the minute. My heart began to race, pounding adrenaline quickly through my veins. We have to get out of here right now! I knew, but I began to lose hope as Claire turned the key again and again, to no avail. Just when I thought the car was beyond saving, though, the engine started.
Lucas let out a loud, “Woo-hoo! Got it!”
“Get your butts in here NOW!” Jackie said, rolling down the window.
Lucas slammed down the hood. “Listen to Jackie. Get in there and lock the door.”
“You too!” I said, not about to leave him or my brother out there to die like some kind of martyrs. Even if the tire wasn’t finished, we could still drive away. Even if we weren’t able to drive as fast, we’d still move faster than the clumsy zombies could on their decaying feet. None of the corpses would be joining the Olympic track team anytime soon, that was for sure.
“I’m coming!” Lucas said.
I shot another zombie right in the forehead, then gave him a hard kick in the gut. He fell straight back, sailing down to the ground, his badly shredded arms flailing. I slipped inside the truck, but I refused to lock the doors until I knew Nick and Lucas were safe inside.
“Hurry!” Jackie shouted.
Claire screamed out the window, “Nick! Lucas! Get in here! I’m leaving, with or without you two.” She laid on the horn to prove her point, but I knew it was just a bluff; she wouldn’t ever leave them behind.
After a few more shots, they jumped into the Jeep, tumbling over sleeping Val, an unconsciousness Tahoe, and me in the back seat. Once they were all inside, I frantically locked the door.
“Drive!” Nick yelled.
Lucas rolled down the window and started firing. “Yeah! Run the bony freaks over!”
Claire shifted gears, and we were about to take off, fixed flat or not. She peeled out, but we didn’t get very far with all the zombies pounding on the glass and rocking the Jeep. Before we knew it, we found ourselves helplessly sandwiched next to a semi.
Suspending Reality Page 21
