Twisted World Series Box Set | Books 1-3 & Novella

by Mary, Kate L.

  He cradled the little girl in his arms and turned his back to the doctor, whispering words as he gently woke her. She was only three and hadn’t seen her father for a year, but she smiled when she saw him like she remembered. Dr. Helton didn’t know if was possible or if she was just responding to the gentle tone of his voice and the soothing way he held her.

  She sat silently while Angus talked to her. He told her stories about his brother—her Uncle Axl—and tickled her. He brushed the hair off her forehead with a gentleness that Dr. Helton had never known could exist and handed out smiles like he was Santa and it was Christmas morning. She watched it all happen with an eagerness she hadn’t known could exist, gobbling up every word Angus uttered and every smile he gave the child and storing them away for later when she knew they would haunt her.

  When he handed the girl back a few hours later, he wouldn’t look her in the eye. “Keep her safe.”

  “I’m trying,” she said, but she knew he didn’t believe her.

  If only she could tell him what lengths she’d gone to in order to protect her. Of course, she had a strong suspicion he wouldn’t want to know what she’d put the people he loved through, so she kept it to herself.

  “This is my job,” she said instead, as if that were a good excuse for what she’d done. She knew that few people other than Star and herself would see it that way, and even she was starting to doubt that the things she’d done were worth the end result they were trying to achieve.

  Angus didn’t reply.

  She continued the tests, but each day it grew harder and harder to forget the girl’s cries. They haunted her at night when she shut her eyes, followed her into her dream world and refused to be silent no matter what she did. After nine months of weekly tests, the lack of sleep was starting to affect her and Dr. Helton knew that she had to pull back.

  She saw the expression in Star’s eyes when she told him. It wasn’t suspicion, but he also wasn’t surprised, and what he said next startled her more than anything.

  “I thought the job might be too much for you.” He didn’t even blink, which almost made Dr. Helton change her mind. “No problem. Dr. Wade can take responsibility for Test Subject 06 from here on out. You have plenty of other things to keep you occupied, anyway.”

  She swallowed as she stood. “Thank you.”

  “Jane,” he called before she’d even taken one step. “Have you given any thought to breeding the test subject again?”

  “I haven’t,” she whispered.

  “Perhaps if we can create a male offspring the results will be different. Both James and his brother seem to be stronger than any of the females we’ve found, so it might be worth a try. Give it some thought.”

  She nodded. “I will.”

  “Very good,” Star said, going back to his paperwork.

  She left thinking about what he’d suggested, but she was afraid to give it too much thought. If she did she might consent, if for no other reason than to have an excuse to go back to Angus at night. It had been three years, but she could still feel his skin on hers. Could still remember the tenderness of his touch. She thought about it every night.

  Helen

  Test Subject 04 was hard to ignore. No, impossible.

  Helen had signed on with Star shortly after the outbreak had wiped nearly everything out. When it all started she’d been working in the ER, at first desperate to help anyone she could, then just going through the motions as she waited to catch the virus herself, knowing that it was hopeless to resist. She hadn’t caught it, though, and as the medical staff dropped off one by one, she soon found herself alone.

  That’s where Star had found her. He’d waltzed into the hospital one day, clean and healthy in a black suit, and found her sitting in the waiting room. Dozens of bodies had been piled up around her, but none of them had come back yet. The earlier dead had been taken to the morgue, then to other parts of the hospital, and the remaining bodies were still too fresh to have turned. Luckily for her, because if Star hadn’t come in when he did, Helen most likely would have been taken by surprise and wouldn’t have made it out of the hospital alive. She’d been in shock, after all, sitting in the middle of the waiting room smoking, right next to the body of a teenage girl.

  Star’s appearance had been an even bigger shock, though. He was a small man, but formidable, and the clean lines of his suit stood out in stunning contrast to the bloated bodies that filled the room. He’d stopped in front of her and looked down, studying her like he was trying to decide if she was healthy or half dead.

  She’d felt half dead at that point. It had been weeks since she’d gotten more than two hours of sleep at a time and at least two days since she’d eaten. The electricity was long gone and the water had turned off the day before, and she knew that she probably smelled as bad, if not worse, than the dead bodies surrounding her.

  “Are you healthy?” Star had asked when she hadn’t spoken.

  She nodded and took a drag off her cigarette—the last one she had—and her hand trembled so much that the ashes dropped onto her lap. She knew she should brush them away, but she couldn’t move to do it.

  Star knelt and did it for her, his eyes taking in every inch of her as he did. “You’re a nurse?”

  “An RN,” she said, and her voice came out even more gravelly than before.

  “Good.” He stood and held out a hand. “We need medical personnel.”

  “We?” she asked, not taking his hand. She couldn’t figure out where this man had come from but she had a very strong suspicion that he was a dream. He didn’t seem real. He was too clean, too put together. He was too fresh to be in this world.

  “My name is Dr. Garret Star and I’m the director of the CDC.” He grabbed her hand when she refused to take his and pulled her to her feet. “We’re working on a vaccine and we need people with medical training. We need you.”

  They needed her.

  For some reason, that stuck out more than anything else he’d said. The fact that other people were alive when she’d been almost certain that she was alone and the knowledge that the CDC was working to fix things should have made her cry with joy, but the concept of someone needing her was what she fixated on, because she couldn’t imagine living in a world where she didn’t have a purpose. She couldn’t imagine drifting through life with no objective.

  “You need me?”

  “We do,” Star said, leading her toward the exit. “We have doctors and nurses, but we need more if we’re going to make this better. There are survivors, but this virus is still a threat.”

  Helen had squinted when she stepped out into the bright sunshine, her eyes no longer used to the light of day. Star, though, hadn’t slowed as he led her down the sidewalk to the parking lot where a car that was as black and sleek as his suit sat waiting for them.

  “What kind of threat?” she had asked, sensing by his tone that she had missed something while nursing the sick.

  Star stopped walking and turned to face her. “Have you been inside this whole time?”

  Helen’s eyes were slowly starting to adjust, as was her brain, and she was able to get a good look at the man next to her for the first time. He was shorter than she had originally thought, probably no more than three inches over five feet, but broad and impressive. His eyes, which were a dark shade of brown, were intense and intelligent, and his features so chiseled that she had the odd feeling she was looking at a cologne ad. Everything about him was authoritative and imposing, despite his size, and he exuded intelligence.

  “Yes,” she said, drawing her gaze away from the man in front of her so she could look around.

  The world she’d known had disappeared in the days that she’d been stuck in the hospital. Before the virus it had been loud and bustling, and then chaotic and desperate as people poured into the emergency room, hoping for a miracle. Now, though, there was nothing but silence and death, the scent of which hung heavy in the air and teased her nostrils.

  Helen’s stomach tur
ned, but it was too empty to do much else, and her knees shook as the reality of what had happened slammed into her. “Everything is gone.”

  “Not gone,” Star replied, “Different.”

  She was about to turn her gaze on him when movement caught her eye and she instead looked the other way. Someone was walking toward them, their gait slow and labored, their feet dragging across the pavement.

  Another person! This morning she had been certain that she was alone, and then she had seen Star, and now this person was heading her way. It was almost too much to believe. The world hadn’t slipped away after all. People were still alive and the CDC was working and they would be okay.

  “Get back,” Star said, grabbing her arm.

  He knocked on the car’s window and a second later the passenger door was thrown open. A woman climbed out, she was short but solid and dressed in camouflage, as well as armed with an automatic weapon. Helen stepped back, certain the woman was going to kill her, but the soldier instead stepped between the newcomer and her, raising the weapon and taking aim.

  “What are you doing?” she called, horrified but unable to stop it from happening.

  The woman opened fire, her shots ringing through the air and pounding into Helen’s temples. She screamed and tried to run, but Star grabbed her. His fingers dug into her arm as he pulled her against him, hugging her in what would have been a comforting embrace had he not been so stiff and had the woman with the gun not been standing next to them.

  The sound of gunfire was replaced by Helen’s sobs. She tried to break away from Star but he was surprisingly strong for such a small man and she was too weak from lack of food and sleep to fight him.

  A few seconds later, sounds that could only be described as moans filled the air, coming from all directions. The car doors were ripped open and Helen was shoved into the back. She wanted to run but there was nowhere to go.

  Then she caught a glimpse of the things coming toward them and the desire melted away. They were people, but they weren’t human. There was something wrong with them. Either they had gone insane from the virus or had been infected with something else.

  “What are they?” she asked as the car began to drive, speeding past the approaching monsters.

  “The dead.” She turned to find Star frowning. “They come back. After the virus kills them, they come back. They will attack you. Kill you if they can.”

  “Zombies,” she whispered.

  The absurdity of the word wasn’t lost on her, but it was all she could think to compare them to. The crazy thing was, Star didn’t correct her.

  They rode the rest of the way in silence, but once they arrived at the CDC, Star started talking again, telling her about the facility and what they were trying to accomplish. He took her deep into the CDC where there were bunkrooms and showers, and plenty of food and clean clothes waiting. They had everything they needed to survive, almost as if they had been prepared for the disaster. She was able to get clean for the first time in weeks, able to eat and then get a good night’s rest. The next day, she was handed cartons of cigarettes and told where she could get more, then shown around by a pretty blonde doctor who smiled as if most of the world hadn’t disappeared.

  Helen wasn’t dumb, though, and she could read between the lines, especially when she saw Star interact with the other doctors. He wasn’t telling her everything. There was more to the story and it hadn’t escaped her notice that every one of the surviving medical professionals just happened to be experts in their fields. How had they all made it? How were they all immune?

  Weeks passed and more survivors were brought in. They set up living quarters in the city, then expanded into apartment buildings as the weeks turned into months. Soon they had plans for a wall and Atlanta was transformed into a safe haven where people flocked by the dozens. Life was moving forward. People were starting over.

  But there were other things going on in the CDC, things that had Helen paying attention. She started working in the clinic, giving medical attention to the survivors who came in, but before long she was moved to a different part of the building. A top secret section that few people had access to, where zombies were locked in rooms and studied for weaknesses and who knew what else. Not Helen, that was for sure.

  She rarely saw Star after that first meeting, but she knew he had a hand in everything that happened. Dr. Helton, the pretty blonde who had been so friendly on her first day at the CDC, was the one in charge of that wing, but she rarely smiled, and it didn’t take Helen long to realize that it had all been an act. A way of making her feel at ease so they could see if she was someone who could be trusted.

  She went through life hesitantly, although she did her job to the best of her ability. Nothing she had seen up until that point had been suspicious, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. That behind closed doors the CDC held secrets so dark they would give her nightmares.

  She’d been working with Dr. Helton for close to six months when the first human was brought to the top-secret part of the CDC. Seeing him behind the glass, strapped to a table and wearing nothing but a hospital gown, shook Helen to her very core. She’d known from the first day that something was off, but she’d stayed and worked because here she had food and clothes and electricity, and out there the world was mad with death and disease. But this, bringing a human being here to experiment on, was unforgiveable. There was no way to defend it. No way that Star or anyone else could convince her that it was okay.

  Dr. Helton entered the hall while Helen was still standing at the window, staring at the man.

  “Who is he?” Helen asked, unable to look away from the terrified eyes that stared back at her.

  “A criminal.” The doctor stopped at her side but said nothing else.

  “Criminal?” Helen turned to face her. “What did he do?”

  “He attacked a child. We don’t have a prison and we need subjects to test our vaccine on. I know it sounds cruel and extreme, but this is the world we’re living in now. We can’t have men like this—” She waved toward the room at her side. “—running free, and we need to do everything we can to develop the vaccine. The continuation of the human race depends on it.”

  She was right. Helen hated to admit it, but the doctor was right. They couldn’t let someone who would attack a child go free, but the only other option was putting him to death. And they would need subjects to test the vaccine on, so why not use this man, this monster? It made sense, as horrifying as it was. Helen was a medical professional after all, and the wellbeing of the people in this settlement had to come first.

  “Can you do it?” Dr. Helton asked after she’d given Helen a reasonable time to think it through. “Can you work back here knowing that you may have to see things like this? That you may have to participate in things like this?”

  “Yes,” Helen had said with certainty.

  And she had. She’d drawn blood and been there when the prisoner was injected with the virus, and then the vaccine. She’d observed him as the virus took hold, killing him in a torturously slow way, then waited to see if he would turn afterward. She’d done it again weeks later with another vaccine, then again with the next, and each time she’d felt less and less guilty about the process. This was for the greater good. Even though she still suspected that Star and his team of scientists were doing things she wasn’t privy to, she was working toward the greater good.

  Helen hadn’t felt a moment of guilt until the day she met Angus James. Everyone knew about the man. He was immune. He’d risked his life to come to the CDC so they could create a vaccine. He was the hope for mankind. The world, including his family, thought he had died, but he hadn’t. Instead he turned up in one of the rooms, weeks after his trumpeted arrival, and Helen was tasked with drawing blood.

  He was unconscious at first, and then groggy as he came off the drugs. By the time he was fully alert he’d become violent, so much so that he gave the first doctor who went in to see him a bloody nose. After that a
rmed guards were present anytime someone entered his room.

  The first time Helen went to draw blood while he was alert, she was shaking. There were guards behind her, armed and ready, so she couldn’t figure out why she was trembling so much. She wasn’t afraid that this man would hurt her, she knew Dr. Helton had taken care of that, but something about him scared her.

  It wasn’t until she met his gaze that she understood. His eyes, a medium shade of gray that reminded her of storm clouds, swam with pain. There was anger and violence there too, but the pain was what stood out. Looking around, seeing his sparse furnishings and cold surroundings, as well as the guards who would always be there to stop him from leaving, Helen felt guilty for the first time since she’d set foot in these halls.

  What they were doing was wrong. They were holding a man, one who had come here voluntarily, against his will. His family thought he was dead and he would never be allowed to leave. He’d spend his life locked away in a cell.

  She knew she couldn’t be a part of it, so that day, after leaving Angus, she found Dr. Helton and told her that she wanted to be reassigned.

  “I thought you could handle it,” the woman had said. “We need people like you.”

  “You have plenty of doctors and nurses and techs. You don’t need me.” Helen didn’t want to tell the woman the truth because she had an odd sense that it would get her killed, so she lied. “I don’t like being around the zombies all day. It’s giving me nightmares. Makes it difficult to sleep.”

  Dr. Helton nodded slowly. Thoughtfully. “Very well. We’ll reassign you soon, but I want to keep you close. We can trust you and I have a feeling we’ll be needing you for something else very soon.”

  That something else turned out to be the hardest thing Helen had ever had to do.

  She’d been told almost nothing about the assignment until the day she was called into Dr. Helton’s office and handed a baby. Test Subject 06. The coldness of it had struck Helen like a blow, but she’d been unable to turn the job down, both because she knew it would be the end of her and because she was terrified of what would happen to the child if she didn’t take care of it.