Wheels and Zombies (Book 3): Aground

by M. Van

  “Did it?” I asked.

  “Oh yeah, but I didn’t tell the kid that.”

  “You shouldn’t call her kid,” I said when the nervous laughter died down. “She’s been through more than most of us.”

  “That’s why I think I should,” Angie replied. “I think she needs to be reminded sometimes that she actually is a kid, you know.” There seemed to merit what she said. Kids should be able to be kids. I let out a breath and nodded in agreement.

  “Nervous?” I asked.

  Angie plastered on a brave face and shook her head while she answered, “Hell, yeah.” I raised an eyebrow at the confusing signal contradicting her words.

  “Well, if you need to verbally abuse someone, I’ll be right here behind the glass,” I said and pointed at the window. Before she could answer, there was a crackle and a voice came over the intercom. On the other side of the window stood a middle-aged man with a thinning hairline who seemed to speak into the wall.

  “It’s time, Ms. Meadow,” he said. Angie nodded and scooted of the bed. She turned to look up at me.

  “I might take you up on that offer,” she said.

  “I’ll be here.” A faint smile twitched at her lips before her gaze dropped to the floor and the door to the decontamination area slid open.

  I took up a seat in one of the chairs in front of the window. Inside the lab, Dr. Matley had set up a miniature containment area around a bed. Sheets of thick see-through plastic made up the little room. She had told us they needed to use this as a precaution because of the evolved state of the virus. It didn’t surprise me that most of the occupants had left the room and that a few dressed in full biohazard gear remained behind, including Dr. Matley.

  A person in a plastic suit guided Angie to the plastic room and asked her to lie down on the bed. She didn’t argue when one of the men in a suit and mask started to restrain her arms and legs. Her eyes drifted to the glass wall I sat behind, and I held her gaze although I knew she wouldn’t be able to see me.

  The men and women in the biohazard suits all looked the same to me. They reminded me of the people working in Dr. Warren’s lab. They too had worn similar suits. I had hated them while they held me at that lab, but the thought that most of them had perished in the blazing volcano that destroyed the lab wasn’t a comfort. They had been similar to these men and women, working a job trying to save mankind from a zombie-turning virus.

  Dr. Matley’s bulk of a body stood out from the crowd. She seemed cramped in that suit like a whale in basin. It made her easier to bear, and the memories of my experiences in the Florida lab faded as I watched her work.

  Behind me, the door opened, and Mars stepped inside. I had hoped he wouldn’t come, but deep down I knew he’d be here for Angie. He cared about her probably even more than I did. It had been four days since we’d spoken, and I had decided to take it slow. And as I’d left his room that afternoon, I’d wanted to believe we could somehow make this work, to find a way to live with a disease as so many people had done before and not let it become a barrier that cut us off from the people we loved. But I couldn’t do that. I had never been able to do it—not with my cancer, not with this, and certainly not after I’d found his note. That had changed everything, and so I had continued to avoid him.

  I could tell it disappointed him; I could see it in his eyes, but he honored my approach, probably thinking I was taking it at a snail’s pace. As hard as I fought to smother the fire that still burned in both of us, it was also me that kept it alive, and I hated myself for it.

  Wordlessly he sat down by my side and draped an arm around my shoulder. I wanted to lean in, to let him comfort me, to let him reassure me Angie would be okay, but I resisted the temptation. Instead, I stepped closer to the window and pressed my forehead against the cool glass.

  “I thought Ash would be here,” he said after a moment of uncomfortable silence. I shifted my head so I could see him out of the corner of my eye.

  “She was angry with Angie for doing this and with me for supporting it,” I said. “It’s probably better this way.”

  Mars got up to stand at my side as Dr. Matley fumbled with the plastic sheets to create an entrance large enough for her to enter the plastic room and stood by Angie’s bed with a nasty looking needle. She said something I couldn’t make out, but I saw Angie’s head move in a nod. I forced myself to watch as the needle came down and plunged into Angie’s arm.

  Dr. Matley stepped out, shifting the sheets of plastic and addressed the room.

  “Now, we wait.”

  With that, she moved to one of the desks with a series of computers stacked on top and what I presumed was a man sitting behind them. Except for Dr. Matley, the suits made the people inside the room indistinguishable. I couldn’t make out their conversation or what they pointed at on the screens, but they seemed to be in agreement.

  For the better part of the morning Mars and I kept alternating between standing at the window and sitting in one of the chairs as we watched the mostly idle activity inside the lab.

  The procedure took place in two steps. First, they would inoculate Angie with my version of the Divus serum, and once they felt confident it had taken, they would inject her with the latest form of Mortem. This meant the new strain conjured by Dr. David, which gave the zombies awareness. For being the test subject, Angie seemed the most comfortable of us all. After a few hours, my back started to ache from sitting on a plastic stool while she seemed to have dozed off on the bed.

  I got up to stretch my legs and poured myself a glass of water from the pitcher on the table.

  “You want some,” I asked Mars. He shook his head, but then he stood and made his way to me. His butt leaned against the table while he took my hand in his. He leaned in to kiss me, but as I had done in the mess, I turned my head away from him. Instead of pulling back, he pressed his forehead against my temple.

  “This isn’t taking it slow,” he said at a whisper. “This is pushing me away.”

  “I’m not …” I started to say as I took a step back from him, but stopped myself.

  Mars folded his arms across his chest and clenched his jaw. He waited for me to speak as his eyes bored into me. It was as if the world had disappeared from underneath my feet, and I was about to free fall into eternity. I wanted to run, but my feet and this place wouldn’t let me. This wasn’t fair to him, and I needed him to move on.

  My hand shook as I pulled the crumpled pieces of paper from my pocket and started to unfold it.

  “I read it,” I said in a quivering voice. He nodded without changing the expression on his face. “You have a son.”

  Mars lifted his chin and narrowed his eyes as if he expected me to say that. When he didn’t reply I added, “And he lives with his grandparents in California.”

  I still felt the anger that rushed through me after I had read that last word—California. He had lied to me. He had lied when he had left that message on my phone about his family living in Colorado. Had it been all a ploy to get us here, to help Matley with her research? He hadn’t told them about us after we arrived, so the stupid girl with a crush hoped he had done it to get her here, because he wanted to be with her. Feeling stupid for hoping, I forced the thought from my mind. It didn’t matter—the sooner he realized I’d be a risk to him and the rest of his family, the sooner none of this would matter any longer.

  “His name is Rowdy, and he’s three years old,” he said. His eyes lit up for as much as he let them at the mention of his little boy. It made me relax a little.

  “This boy needs you,” I said, “and I can’t be a part of that. I’m not going to risk you or that boy.”

  Mars closed his eyes and shook his head.

  “That’s it,” he said as he opened his eyes. “You’re going to use my son against me, my own son.” For the first time, I could hear anger in his voice. “Your mom said you’d be creative in coming up with reasons to push people away.”

  “What did you say?” I asked in shock. />
  “Yeah, I finally managed to get a call through last night, nice lady,” he said. “She told me some things that made a lot of sense about that person you didn’t want me to get to know.”

  “You talked to my mom,” I said in exasperation, “but … how-” Mars cut me off and I couldn’t get the words over his rant—he was on a roll.

  “She told me how you pushed everyone out of your life, and not in the nicest way, I might add, all in the pretense that you were protecting them,” he said. “Your mom, your dad, brother, and sister, even your friends. I think the last one is still sitting in an infirmary at JFK. Did you even care how it made them feel?”

  Tears stung my eyes at him mentioning my family and Emily, who I had left behind at JFK after she had become infected. It didn’t stop Mars from throwing words at me. I had never seen him like this. All I knew was this calm, collected warrior.

  “Except it is not about protecting others, is it? You’re only protecting yourself,” he said in a venomous tone. The words hit me like a sledgehammer.

  “It’s not about people losing you. It’s about you. You’re so afraid of loss, you won’t even let anyone in in the first place.”

  His gaze honed in on me, and I could see the anger burning inside his eyes. I couldn’t handle the truth he revealed and took another step back.

  “But what about me, huh,” he said. “What about the people that need you? What about the kid?”

  “Leave Ash out of it,” I said in a loud voice.

  “You’re gonna leave her too when it gets too hard.”

  At that, I slapped him in the face. He had hit a nerve.

  “Get the fuck out,” I shouted. Inside the lab, biohazard suits shifted their heads to the mirror, and Angie’s head perked up. Subtlety wasn’t my strong suit, but at this point I couldn’t tell what I was feeling—anger, fear, shame, or all of the above. Mars let out a breath as he watched me. Then he walked to the door. He lingered for a moment before he turned back to me.

  “You’re not getting rid of me that easy,” he said and stepped out.

  It was as if, when that door clicked shut, gravity kicked in pulling me down. I balled my fist in an attempt to stop my hands from shaking and slummed against the wall. I sank to the ground and pulled my knees up to my chest. My mind raced, running through the conversations of my past. It wasn’t long before tears streamed down my face.

  Something rattled inside the lab. It sounded like a tray or something falling to the ground. A glance at the clock told me it had been five hours since they’d put Angie on that bed. I still hadn’t left my corner of the room, and I gathered myself up from the floor. My muscles ached as I pulled them out of my crouched position and wiped the residual tears from my face.

  At the window, I could see Angie was awake. Why wouldn’t she be? She’d been sleeping for most of the day. Behind me, the door cracked open and my heart sank. I wasn’t up for another visit from Mars.

  “Hey,” a tiny voice said. Ash’s head poked through the opening.

  “Ash, you okay?” I asked. She sounded nothing like the loud obnoxious teenager I knew, which had me somewhat worried.

  “What’s taking so long?” she asked. I looked out the window where Matley waddled to Angie’s bed with another big needle.

  “They’re ready to start phase two.”

  Ash pushed the door open further and rolled her chair to the mirror, and I noticed my backpack hanging of the back of the chair. The thin white earplug cables ran out from it and rested on Ash’s shoulder. I made some room and closed the door behind her.

  “Are you sure you want to be here?” I asked.

  She shook her head, but added, “I think I should, you know.”

  I claimed a seat at her side and watched Matley maneuver between the plastic sheets. The sight of that alone would have been enough to get on Comedy Central. Ash glanced at me sideways for a moment before she turned in full to face me.

  “Have you been crying?” she asked with a combination of surprise and concern.

  “No,” I answered in a defiant tone, squinting my eyes and keeping them from Ash’s field of vision.

  “You have,” she said, convinced. “What happened?”

  I didn’t really want to discuss my nonexistent love life while someone was about to infect a friend with a deadly virus, and I sure as hell didn’t want to discuss it with Ash.

  “It’s nothing. I got something in my eye,” I said. “Now shut up. They’re injecting Angie.” Luckily, at this point she cared more about Angie than me bawling, and she shifted her attention.

  | 23

  Angie didn’t even wince when the needle dug deep into her skin. Ash, however, sucked in a sharp breath as if the needle had broken her own skin. Her eyes followed Dr. Matley intently as the woman in the too-tight suit made her way to one of her stations. Matley checked a monitor with what I expected were Angie’s vitals. Another one of the suits joined her, and they seemed content as they examined the data.

  Matley stopped at another table and then made her way over to the airlock to decontaminate her suit. She had been inside the lab for as long as I had been sitting in this tiny room. I wondered if she expected the virus kicking in would take as much time as the Divus serum. If that were so, I could use a break myself. I had allowed myself to stray off to a bathroom, but that hadn’t helped with the hunger that started to stir.

  As if on cue a growl erupted from my midriff, and I placed a hand on my stomach as if I could soothe it.

  Ash looked up with a smile. “You want me to ask one of the airmen if he can get you somethin’ to eat?”

  “I doubt they’ll let themselves be used as our hired hands,” I said.

  “Then you just don’t know how to ask,” Ash said. “It needs a little flair.” I turned to face her.

  “Yeah,” I said, “how would you do it?” From out of nowhere Ash’s eye grew wide and her lower lip puckered. I snorted a laugh. “That’ll never work.” She shrugged and backed up her wheelchair.

  “Watch and learn,” she said as she rolled to the door and opened it.

  Through the opening, I could see one of the airmen kneel in front of her. I couldn’t believe my ears as I heard how she charmed the man. He gave her a kind smile and stood to leave from my sight.

  Ash closed the door and faced the room with the biggest grin. “He couldn’t promise he’d manage a turkey special sandwich, but said he would try.” I just shook my head.

  “You are amazing,” I said with a mock grin. Ash bowed and then rolled her chair by my side.

  My mind wandered as we waited for the food to arrive. I couldn’t get my conversation with Mars out of my head, and I glanced at Ash a couple of times. Did he really believe I’d abandon her? Would I abandon her? I gave myself a mental shake in an attempt to avoid wallowing in self-doubt.

  Inside the lab, Angie seemed to take a turn for the worse. Although she had slept through most of the Divus trial, I could tell this wouldn’t be a cakewalk. Her wrist strained against the restraints, and her face contorted from what I imagined to be pain. Ash picked up on it and nudged my shoulder.

  “Yeah, I see,” I said at a whisper.

  One of the suits sat at a table with his back turned to Angie, and the other suit stood at the far end of the lab. They both couldn’t see Angie’s pained expression or the way she fought her restrains. Minutes ticked away. I tapped a nervous foot on the floor until Ash placed her hand on my knee. Something was wrong—we both knew it. I banged a fist on the glass and shouted to get the attention of one of the suits inside the lab. They either ignored me or couldn’t hear me inside those masks. My eyes darted from the lab to the inside of this stupid room before I saw it.

  An intercom panel sat on the wall next to the window. That doctor’s voice had come through that panel when he asked Angie to enter the lab. I stood to inspect it. The panel had one button and a kind of microphone. I glanced over my shoulder to look at Ash.

  “Do it,” she said anxiously. I
pressed the button and spoke.

  “Eh, doctors in suits, I think you need to check on your patient.” The man at the table jerked up at the sound of my voice. His masked face swung to the window before it went to Angie. He stood abruptly, hopefully noticing something was wrong, and I saw his mouth move. A colleague of his also got to his feet before he sprinted to the exit, probably to get Dr. Matley. Then he just stood there watching Angie.

  “What is that ass doin’?” Ash said.

  “Come on, do something,” I spoke over the intercom. The man glanced at me over his shoulder and shrugged.

  “I can’t believe he just shrugged,” Ash said, rolling her chair closer to the glass as someone knocked on the door. I turned and saw one of the airmen enter with a tray of food. I flipped a switch on the intercom panel so we could hear more clearly to what was happening inside the lab before I turned to the airmen. The smile on his face vanished when a scream tore through the lab. I froze at the sound of my name as it ripped through my core. Pain, fear, anger, it all resonated within that single word. The words that followed made my heart stop.

  “Kill me,” Angie screamed at the top of her lungs. I couldn’t move. It was as if my feet were nailed to the floor. Beside me, Ash and the airman stood frozen as well as my name echoed through the lab again.

  “Goddammit, Mags, where are you?”

  The man in the suit glanced over his shoulder before he bolted for the decontamination room on the other side of the lab. I glanced down at Ash, who looked terrified. Then my eyes fell on the airman holding the tray of food. Somehow, it woke me out of my frozen state.

  I stepped around Ash and went for the man. He still stood frozen, watching Angie struggle in her bed when I reached for his gun and pulled it from the holster. He jerked and released the tray. It clattered to the ground, but it was too late—I had his gun. I clumsily pointed it at him. His hands rose up in a reflex. Without hesitation, I made my way to the door that would lead me into the lab.